The spiritual veins are secured and renown begins to spread; the war between righteousness and evil finds a moment of respite.

The moment Shen Yi’s fingertips branded the bronze formation chart, intricate vine patterns suddenly emerged across the ancestral hall’s blue-brick floor.

The bone blade Night Shadow had thrust toward his brow was ensnared by suddenly surging wisteria. The barbed vines climbed the dark armor, hissing like a serpent flicking its tongue.

"Shennong Mirror..." A flash of panic crossed Night Shadow’s violent pupils for the first time. As he attempted to pull back, he found countless transparent roots sprouting beneath his boots—the Illusion Heart Grass Shen Yi had planted at the threshold three days prior, now greedily drinking in the dawn dew.

Outside the hall, twenty acres of spiritual fields erupted in waves of golden light as eight hundred jade-green peppers, buried just last night, burst through the soil.

A system notification exploded like fireworks across Shen Yi’s retina: [Critical Hit! The jade-green peppers have triggered the "Ten Thousand Arrows" effect through resonance with the Shennong Mirror.]

"Blow them to hell!" Shen Yi coughed up blood and sneered, his right hand clenching into a fist.

Thousands of jade-green peppers were launched as if by an invisible bowstring, whistling through the air as they slammed into the cracks of Night Shadow’s chest plate. The resulting cyan shockwave overturned the flagstones within a thirty-foot radius, and the silver bells tied in Gao Yao’s hair tumbled to the ground with a crisp chime.

Night Shadow stumbled, shattering the offering table. From the cracks in his armor, what seeped out was not blood, but black mist as viscous as asphalt.

He braced one hand against the ground, about to weave a seal, when Lie Feng’s axe came cleaving from the side. The blade was coated in the Ghost-Wail Vine sap Shen Yi had secretly applied that morning, and it erupted with blinding arcs of electricity upon contact with the black mist.

"Retreat!" Night Shadow roared, his voice tinged with exasperation.

As the remaining Black-Armored Guards transformed into a swarm of bats, the village head suddenly hurled his hoe at the bronze bell in the corner of the hall. The chime, infused with spiritual spring water, rippled outward, and two bats caught in the sound wave instantly froze into ice sculptures.

As the last wisp of black mist dissipated in the morning light, gasps of astonishment rose from outside the hall.

Shen Yi collapsed in the center of the Shennong formation, watching the mountains and plains of spiritual flora undergo an astonishing transformation: the vermilion fruit vines bore dragon-shaped fruits, the seven-star grass leaves revealed Big Dipper patterns, and even the most mundane blood-stanching grass shimmered with the luster of jade marrow.

"Lad Shen!" Lie Feng wiped the blood from his face, laughing as he tossed a wine gourd over. "When in the hell did you poison my axe?"

Shen Yi barely managed to catch the gourd, noticing fine golden formation patterns shifting across its surface.

The system screen popped up at the right moment: [Host has successfully protected the spiritual vein. Title 'All Things Grow' acquired. Spiritual plant maturation speed permanently increased by 50%.] He tilted his head back and took a swig of the fiery, blood-tinged liquor, his throat burning: "I just smeared it on while I was at the outhouse last night..."

Before he could finish, the entire mountain range shuddered violently. A nine-colored glow rose from the spiritual spring eye, forming a curtain of rain that shrouded the area for a hundred miles. The exhausted spiritual power in Shen Yi’s dantian suddenly boiled, and his damaged meridians were enveloped and reshaped by a warm current.

When he looked down at his palms, he saw a faint cyan jade luster flowing beneath his skin.

"The marrow-cleansing spiritual light of the Foundation Establishment stage!" Gao Yao exclaimed, her voice trembling. Her snow-white Taoist robes were stained the color of sunset, but she ignored her appearance, stumbling toward him with her sword in hand. Her cloud-patterned skirt swept over the debris, stopping abruptly three feet from Shen Yi.

Shen Yi looked up into her glistening eyes and caught a glimpse of the blood-stanching pills hidden in her sleeves. During the fierce battle just moments ago, this foolish girl had given all her healing medicine to the villagers.

He deliberately grimaced and pressed his hand to the wound on his ribs: "If the heroine doesn’t come help, your future Dao companion might just..."

"Nonsense!" Gao Yao’s earlobes turned bright red, though the silver bell on her sword tassel rang honestly in response. As she crouched down, the scent of jade-green peppers from her hair mingled with the smell of blood and drifted into Shen Yi’s nose. When her cool fingertips touched his pulse, both of them shivered.

Twenty yards away, behind a broken wall, the village head was whispering to Lie Feng: "How long do you bet until they break the window paper? I wager three jars of monkey wine..."

As the glow faded, Shen Yi frowned, looking at the lingering black clouds on the horizon. The malevolent gaze Night Shadow left behind seemed branded onto his retina, and that half of the bronze fragment that had resonated with the Shennong Mirror—the "Chaos Spiritual Plant Compendium" fragment that had suddenly appeared in his system inventory was pointing toward a shocking secret.

Gao Yao pressed harder on the bandage she was wrapping: "What are you planning to shoulder alone this time?" The dawn outlined her taut jawline, and something sharper than sword intent flickered in her almond-shaped eyes.

In the distance, the sound of the spiritual spring gurgling back to life reached them. Looking at the fine beads of sweat on the young girl’s nose, Shen Yi suddenly felt that the Golden Core old monsters weren't so terrifying after all.

The morning glow gilded Shen Yi’s hair. He looked down at the trembling girl in his arms. Fragments of jade-green peppers fell from her hair, and her blood-scented breath brushed against the wound on his neck, stirring a faint, itchy sensation.

"Shen Yi..." Gao Yao’s knuckles were white as she gripped his lapels, and her water-colored sword tassel swayed with her sobs. She suddenly looked up, the crimson at the corners of her eyes more vivid than the vermilion fruit. "Do you know that bone blade was only three inches from your energy center just now?"

Shen Yi’s Adam’s apple bobbed. As he pressed his palm to her back, he felt a sticky patch of blood. This foolish girl had used her protective cultivation energy to shield the villagers from seven hidden weapons. He deliberately rubbed his blood-stained thumb against her cheek: "Isn’t that why I’m saving half a life to be your medicinal test subject?"

"Ahem!" The village head’s cough startled a white-bellied blue-tailed sparrow from the eaves. More than twenty women carrying bamboo baskets formed a semicircle, and Cui Niang, at the front, held out a freshly picked dragon-patterned vermilion fruit.

Three-year-old Tiger-cub squeezed through the crowd, holding a leaf of blood-stanching grass that shimmered with jade light and tried to stick it to Shen Yi’s wound.

"Big Brother Shen, eat a fruit!" Little Niu, with her hair in pigtails, stood on tiptoe to stuff a spiritual date into his arms; the natural Taiji pattern on the skin of the date was pulsing with spiritual energy.

Shen Yi scrambled to catch the hot clay pot—it was a spirit-awakening soup brewed from seven-star grass, slipped to him by a hunter whose face was red to the neck. Lie Feng pried the mud seal off a wine jar with his axe handle, and the amber scent of monkey wine instantly diluted the stench of blood.

He winked at Shen Yi and nudged his shoulder: "How about we put up a monument of merit at the village entrance? How does 'The Handsome Rogue Immortal Farmer Outwits the Old Devil' sound?"

"Absolutely not!" Shen Yi’s sudden, elevated voice made Gao Yao take half a step back. He gazed at the darkening western horizon, the *Chaos Spiritual Plant Compendium* in his system inventory growing hot. "The spiritual vein has just stabilized; a victory banquet might attract..."

Before he could finish, a sweet, misty fog suddenly filled the entire ancestral hall. Everyone watched in astonishment as the morning dew dripping from the eaves condensed into emerald spiritual beads in mid-air.

The Shennong Mirror mark on Shen Yi’s wrist suddenly flared. Every plant in the twenty-acre field bowed its branches and leaves toward him, like subjects paying homage to a king.

The village head’s calloused hand pressed heavily on Shen Yi’s shoulder: "Young man, some burdens must be carried, but a victory drink must still be had." A piece of tortoiseshell slid from the old man’s sleeve, the cinnabar-drawn star map upon it rotating counter-clockwise in an eerie fashion. "Watching the stars last night, the Greedy Wolf star has shifted..."

"Old man!" Shen Yi grabbed the village head’s wrist; his pupils shrank as he felt the cold bronze ring—it was clearly an ornamental pattern from Night Shadow’s armor.

The system screen suddenly flashed a red warning: [Trace amounts of chaotic demonic energy detected. Immediate purification recommended.]

Gao Yao’s Frost Moon sword let out a clear, sharp chime. As she instinctively stepped in front of Shen Yi, golden light seeped from the blood-stanching grass bandage on her wrist. Shen Yi looked at the girl’s rigid back and suddenly recalled the sword-grave talismans she had secretly buried on the back mountain—this girl had likely anticipated this moment long ago.

"How about we turn the victory banquet into a farewell toast?" Shen Yi suddenly laughed aloud, flicking a jade-green pepper seed from his fingertip. The moment the seed hit the ground, seven lotus flowers bloomed, their hearts cradling the spiritual seeds he had saved up over these past days. "I’ll have to trouble you all to look after the medicine fields until I find..."

"I’m going with you." Gao Yao turned suddenly, the silver bell in her hair colliding with his chin. She formed an ice-blue sword seal with her fingertips, and twenty-eight star positions lit up beneath their feet. "I divined it last night—there is a meteor disturbance in the southeast of the Heavenly Market Enclosure." She lowered her voice, "The bronze fragment you hid under your pillow has the same pattern as the Demon-Suppressing Stele in my sect’s forbidden grounds."

Shen Yi touched the tip of his nose and smiled sheepishly, quietly minimizing the system notification task: [Discovery: Clues to the Ancient Shennong Tomb]. He had, of course, seen the half-map peeking from Gao Yao’s sleeve; the location marked in cinnabar was clearly the entrance to the Demon Abyss recorded in the *Chaos Spiritual Plant Compendium*.

At midnight, Shen Yi stood alone at the spiritual spring eye. The system screen hovered before him, and the progress bar, glowing with a faint blue light, displayed [Marrow Cleansing Completion: 97%].

He reached out to catch the falling nine-colored glow, and the phantom image of half a bronze key suddenly appeared in his palm—an embodiment of the energy the system had intercepted from the black mist when Night Shadow fled.

"So you really were looking for this?" Gao Yao’s voice came from behind him. Ice flames danced in her palms, reflecting off the bronze compass newly hung at her waist. The compass needle was frantically pointing toward the Shennong Mirror in Shen Yi’s possession. "My master once said that inside the Shennong Tomb lies the secret to purifying demonic energy..."

Her voice stopped abruptly.

Shen Yi suddenly grabbed her waist and rolled to the right; a pitch-black crack split the ground where they had been standing. Night Shadow’s chilling voice permeated the black mist: "Little Shennong, did you think planting restrictions could stop me?" Half of a rotting face appeared in the void, the corners of its mouth still stained with the crimson juice of the dragon-patterned vermilion fruit.

As Gao Yao’s Frost Moon sword cleaved through the black mist, Shen Yi saw a lotus-shaped demonic mark flicker on the back of her neck before vanishing.

The *Chaos Spiritual Plant Compendium* in the system inventory suddenly flipped its pages automatically. On the yellowed parchment, blood-red characters emerged:

[Symbiotic Demonic Seed detected. Host, please be aware...]

Shen Yi crushed the Illusion Heart Grass seeds hidden between his fingers, the swirling mist masking his suddenly contracted pupils.

As Gao Yao turned, with blades of grass caught in her hair, the moonlight swept over the back of her neck—the lotus mark was gone, as if it had only been a hallucination.