156: Chapter 156 The Dragon Beard Vine in Trouble

A peak-level third-rank Artifact Refining Great Master—even the Danding Sect might not have one.

Although the Danding Sect ostensibly practiced both alchemy and Artifact Refining, in reality, it focused primarily on the Dao of Alchemy, with the Dao of Artifacts as a secondary pursuit.

If this person could truly be persuaded to help, the step of advancing the wanbao mirror from a Magical Artifact to a Treasure Artifact would be settled.

Of course, it was hard to say what conditions the other party would set.

The price for asking such a person to do something would certainly not be small.

But then again, no matter how high the price, it was better than having no hope at all.

At least a path had been found.

Su Cheng was in no hurry to leave the Prefecture City.

Since Zhou Changgeng said seven days, he would wait for seven days.

Regardless, he had already taken a leave of absence from his Revered Master back at the Danding Sect; staying a few extra days should be fine.

During these seven days, Su Cheng spent his days in closed-door cultivation at the inn and occasionally strolled through the Prefecture City's market at night to see if there were any overlooked treasures.

The days passed at a steady, unhurried pace.

On the morning of the seventh day, Su Cheng appeared punctually at the entrance of the small Artifact Refining shop.

The shop's door panels were half-open as usual, and the burnt smell inside was even stronger than last time.

Before Su Cheng could speak, Zhou Changgeng poked his head out from the workshop in the back, his face half-covered in oil and grease, clutching a handful of engraving pens that were still steaming.

"You're here? Come in."

Su Cheng followed him into the workshop.

The wanbao mirror was wrapped in a piece of spiritual cloth, resting in the center of an iron platform.

Zhou Changgeng pulled back the spiritual cloth, took a step back, and crossed his arms over his chest.

"See for yourself."

Su Cheng reached out and picked up the wanbao mirror, his mind stirring slightly.

The moment the spiritual light flowed, he felt the difference from before.

The sense of obstruction when the Five Elements spiritual power circulated through the formation patterns had significantly decreased, and the transitions when switching forms were much smoother than before.

The few instances of stuttering that had previously made him feel vaguely uneasy had all been smoothly erased.

He shifted through three forms—shield, sword, and bow—in succession; the speed was nearly twenty percent faster than before.

"All seventeen hard connections on the periphery have been modified, reducing spiritual power loss by about fifteen percent," Zhou Changgeng reported from the side. "I didn't touch the core structure. That thing is too complex; one move affects the whole, and it's not something a second-rank can mess with."

Su Cheng put away the wanbao mirror, now having a good idea of Zhou Changgeng's craftsmanship.

"Is the letter written?"

"It was sent out a few days ago." Zhou Changgeng wiped his hands with a dirty cloth. "If the reply is fast, it'll be a month. If it's slow, it depends on my Revered Master's mood. Leave a contact method, and I'll have someone send word to you when there's news."

Su Cheng gave him the contact information for the Four Seas Chamber of Commerce and added a few more reminders about confidentiality before leaving the small shop.

After returning to the inn, Su Cheng took out a blank Jade Slip and clearly listed the several things he had handled during this trip to the Prefecture City: Fang Zhenhai's Medicinal Pills and Core Condensation Secret Technique, Lin Feng's foundation establishment pills, and the arrangements for investigating exotic fires and precious artifact pill furnaces.

At the end, he attached a few instructions regarding family matters. After sealing it, he sent it to the Four Seas Chamber of Commerce, asking Fang Zhenhai to have someone deliver it to his father in Qinghe County.

Only after finishing all this did Su Cheng check out of his room and depart the city on his flying sword.

Four days later, at Qingmu Peak.

When Su Cheng landed on the mountainside, he happened to catch Chen Yuan squatting by the spiritual fields in a daze.

"Junior Brother, you're back?" Chen Yuan sprang up, the expression on his face somewhat strange.

"What's wrong?"

"Revered Master wants you to go to the mountain peak once you return. It seems like something happened with a Spiritual Plant." Chen Yuan scratched his head, his eyes full of confusion. "Speaking of which, if there's a problem with the Spiritual Plants Revered Master grows, what does he want you for?"

Su Cheng's brow furrowed slightly. He told Chen Yuan they would talk later and flew straight toward the mountain peak.

The wind whistled past his ears, but Su Cheng's mind was racing.

It couldn't be, right?

He had only been gone for half a month, and something already went wrong?

Su Cheng felt uncertain, and his speed increased a bit more.

When he landed at the peak, the first thing Su Cheng saw wasn't the dragon beard vine, but Elder Qingmu's face.

The old man was squatting by the spiritual field, clutching a handful of black mud, with an indescribably strange expression on his face.

He didn't look miserable or anxious; instead, he seemed... happy?

Su Cheng felt a wave of relief, and most of his tension dissipated.

"Revered Master, your Disciple has returned. Senior Brother said there was an issue with the Spiritual Plants on the mountain, so I came straight here."

Elder Qingmu stood up, wiped his dirty hands on his clothes a couple of times, and gave a dry chuckle. "What issue? I just asked Chen Yuan to give you a message; it's not as serious as he made it sound."

Su Cheng was stunned for a moment. So, Senior Brother had added his own filter to the message?

Elder Qingmu waved his hand for Su Cheng to follow. The two of them bypassed several spiritual fields and walked to the stone platform where that dragon beard vine was located.

Su Cheng's gaze fell upon it, and his footsteps faltered slightly. The changes in the dragon beard vine were visible to the naked eye.

When he left half a month ago, although this old vine had barely managed to stop the loss of its spirituality under the nourishment of the Qi of Creation, its overall form was still not very good.

But now, the green color at the roots had climbed nearly half an inch up the main trunk, and the edges of the bottom-most leaves actually showed a faint, vibrant hint of new growth.

More importantly, when Su Cheng's Divine Sense swept over it, he could clearly sense extremely weak spiritual power circulating within the dragon beard vine on its own.

It was absorbing Spiritual Qi by itself.

"You see it?" Elder Qingmu squatted back down by the stone platform, unable to hide the pride in his voice. "On the third day after you left, I came to check on it as usual and found that the spiritual power fluctuations at its roots were a tiny bit stronger than before. At the time, I thought it was an illusion. But when I came back on the fifth day, it was stronger again. By the tenth day..."

The old man reached out and stroked the main trunk of the dragon beard vine, his movements as gentle as if he were touching his own child.

"It started gathering Qi on its own."

Su Cheng stood there, his mind calculating rapidly.

The effect of the Qi of Creation was even more ridiculous than he had estimated.

His original judgment was that inputting Qi of Creation daily was equivalent to giving the dragon beard vine "artificial respiration," maintaining that last bit of vitality and then letting it slowly recover its self-healing ability.

According to this logic, he would have to infuse it for at least a year or two before the dragon beard vine could possibly regain the ability to gather Qi independently.

But the actual situation was that only four or five months of infusion had already activated the dragon beard vine's self-healing mechanism.

The essence of the Qi of Creation was the Origin of all things' vitality. For a Spiritual Plant, this stuff was probably equivalent to pouring a tank of living water into a fish tank that was about to dry up; of course it would survive.

But then again, it was recovering way too fast.

Su Cheng quickly recalculated in his head: at the current rate, with the dragon beard vine's own Qi-gathering ability plus the abundant Spiritual Qi environment of Qingmu Peak, it would fully recover in about six to eight months.

And if he continued to infuse it every day, it would take three months at most.

"Revered Master, this recovery speed is much faster than I expected." Su Cheng weighed his words carefully, not daring to appear too calm.

Elder Qingmu didn't care about any of that and slapped Su Cheng on the shoulder.

"Good lad! Back then, I was worried your Cultivation Technique was just a drop in the bucket, but I didn't expect the effect to be so remarkable! If this dragon beard vine can fully recover and then be carefully nurtured by me for another ten years, it might actually break through the thousand-year limit and become a thousand-year treasure medicine!"

When he spoke the words "thousand-year treasure medicine," Elder Qingmu's voice sounded somewhat excited.

Su Cheng could understand this excitement.

A thousand-year treasure medicine was something even a Nascent Soul True Lord would covet.

Elder Qingmu had studied Spiritual Plants for hundreds of years. If he could personally nurture one, it would be the pinnacle of his life's work.

However, amidst his happiness, an ominous premonition inexplicably surfaced in the depths of Su Cheng's heart.