"What's going on here?" Chen Jinshu froze in shock for a moment, then immediately activated the formation around her spiritual field.
After all, the spiritual field of her neighboring senior brother Lin Yi had already been tainted. If he were to find out that the three mu of spiritual farmland next to his had not only remained unaffected but were thriving, he might just go mad with jealousy.
Chen Jinshu carefully inspected the field several times but still found no trace of demonic energy. The spiritual field was spotless, utterly untouched by corruption.
Before long, her gaze fell on the ever-thriving spirit vine.
"Could it be that this vine has the power to dispel demonic energy?" A surge of suspicion rose in her heart.
After all, the only thing in the entire three mu of farmland that could possibly have acted was this vine. What's more, Lin Yi's field was only two zhang (about 6–7 meters) away—an extremely close distance.
Judging by the density of demonic energy surrounding the outer formation just earlier, her field should have already been contaminated. After watering the land with Frost Pond Water, she walked straight over to the spirit vine, her eyes fixed on it, determined to uncover what made it special.
The vine shimmered faintly with a soft green glow. Upon sensing her presence, it immediately lifted its trailing tendrils off the ground. As the vines rose, the rotten sections near the roots were exposed—clearly in a state of decay, clinging to life.
"Was it you who drove away the demonic energy invading the field?" Chen Jinshu got straight to the point.
The spirit vine gave a nod and curled a tendril.
"So it was you. Do you possess the power to disperse demonic qi, or do you absorb it?"
The vine hesitated, unsure how to express itself, then gave a shake.
"If you absorbed it, nod."
Chen Jinshu waited. The vine shook its head.
"Then it seems you really do have the ability to drive it away." Joy bloomed in her heart. She had always suspected this spirit vine was more than it appeared. To think it had such a power!
With this vine guarding her farmland, she'd never again have to worry about demonic corruption. And this demonic energy wasn't simple either. Officially, the sect claimed it was due to the spiritual vein being contaminated and that the suppression array placed over it had worn down after several hundred years, allowing the taint to leak.
But when she had looked into the sect's history in the archive pavilion, she'd uncovered something astonishing: the current spiritual vein beneath Xuanming Sect wasn't originally theirs. It had belonged to a demonic sect annihilated a thousand years ago. That's why the vein was tainted to begin with.
However, the spiritual vein was of an unusually high grade. Back then, Xuanming Sect's founder and several Nascent Soul cultivators had joined forces to suppress the demonic taint and move the entire sect here.
Thanks to that powerful spiritual vein, Xuanming Sect had flourished into its present scale. Even so, the demonic energy had always remained a hidden threat, and to this day, no effective method of purification had been found. That's because the demonic taint had already fused with the vein itself—it was no longer separable.
"I thought there was no reason to try saving you," she murmured to the spirit vine. "But it looks like you've given me quite the surprise."
She wasn't going to remain limited to just three mu of farmland forever. As her cultivation grew, if she didn't want to rely on taking missions outside, she'd have to manage more land. That meant defending more against demonic incursion—but with the vine, this would no longer be an issue.
And this vine seemed capable of more than just cleansing demonic qi. There might be other abilities waiting to be discovered.
"I'll get you watered right away."
She hastily opened her water jar and began pouring Frost Pond Water over the vine's body. Moments later, the vine, revived by the cold water, twitched its tendrils with excitement. Next, Chen Jinshu pulled a healing salve for root repair from her storage bag.
Though it wasn't particularly potent, consistent use should still yield results. And she had yet to develop the proper medicine for regenerating rotted roots—she couldn't just do nothing and let it worsen.
Half an hour later, she gave the vine another dose of Frost Pond Water, then reactivated the formation and left. On the way out, she pasted a talisman onto the surface of the array.
"Junior Sister! That talisman won't do anything. Look—I pasted those all around my field, and it still got completely corrupted. Months of hard work gone in an instant." Lin Yi saw her and couldn't help but complain.
"Yours too, right? All the fields around here are probably done for."
"My field's a little better," Chen Jinshu fibbed. "Since it didn't have much spiritual energy to begin with, a small patch was spared."
"Lucky you! But still—your three mu plot is that infamous cursed field from Frost Pool's medicine garden. The one where spiritual energy just vanishes for no reason. Now it's been hit with demonic qi too. Sounds like we're in the same boat."
Lin Yi found a bit of comfort in the idea that her field had strange issues too. Misery loved company.
Chen Jinshu only smiled faintly, offering no reply. She thought to herself that once this crop was harvested, she'd better move to a better location. If people discovered that this supposedly "special" plot wasn't problematic after all, who knows what rumors would fly?
With that, she headed toward the Cold Pool, planning to collect more water.
"I wonder if the Frost Pond has been contaminated yet."
The Ice Spirit Pearl had some resistance against demonic energy. Even if shattered, it should still have some effect.
As she neared the Frost Pond, she saw faint traces of demonic qi clinging to the road.
She quickly activated a talisman to dispel it.
"I didn't think the corruption had spread this far… I wonder how the sect plans to handle it."
Her eyes soon fell on the Frost Pond itself. It looked just as it always had. Plenty of disciples were still drawing water from it. She stepped up for a closer look and confirmed—it hadn't been tainted.
"So the legend was true… this pond did come from the shattered Ice Spirit Pearl. But if demonic energy keeps spreading unchecked, even the Frost Pond won't be spared." Not wasting any time, she drew her water bottle and began collecting.
…
Half an hour later, Chen Jinshu returned to Ink Plum Courtyard with some supplies she'd purchased from the affairs hall.
Yesterday, she had seized a spirit seed from Gu Zhēnrén bag—and it was no ordinary seed. It was from the extremely rare second-rank ice-attribute spirit flower: the Ice Spirit Blossom.
The Ice Spirit Blossom was known to counter demonic energy—one of the very few spirit flowers that the sect had researched for this exact purpose.
The goal was to refine Demon Dispelling Pills, and while the pill had been successfully developed, the cultivation of the flower remained a major obstacle.
So far, they'd only managed to shorten the growth cycle to one flower per year. If Chen Jinshu wanted to meet Gu Zhēnrén standards, she'd have to halve that—make it bloom within six months.
Not only would she have to fully refine Gu Zhēnrén spiritual growth fluid, but also use specialized cultivation techniques tailored to this spirit seed. A truly daunting task.
"Just cracking the seed might take months…"
The seed was flat, with a tiny bump at the center—the life core, extremely fragile. The slightest misstep and it could perish.