Nine Astra Skies

By the time Ye Chen and Ye Moyuan returned to the valley, there was already a huge pile of Spirit Moon Trees outside the forest where they had discovered those Lingzhi mushrooms earlier. Ye Moyuan was inexplicably excited as he described vividly to those strong and young clansmen how terrifyingly powerful the Zephyr White Ape was. The clansmen became dumbstruck and stunned when they heard his recount of what had happened.

“Alright, get to work!” Ye Chen interrupted their idle chatter. “Divide yourselves into three groups. Each group should have seventeen people. The first group will get rid of the weeds in the forest. The second group will sort out these Spirit Moon Trees by cutting off the tree roots and removing the leaves before turning these into wood shavings and logs. As for the third group, you’ll be in charge of transporting the wood shavings and logs into the forest but you should also help the second group whenever you can.”

Although they did not know what Ye Chen was planning to do by giving them all these instructions, the clansmen soon got to work and could be seen moving around busily beside the forest.

Ye Changxuan and the other clan members were cultivating diligently so they did not notice what Ye Chen had been doing. Due to the thousand-year-old Flaming Serpent Berry he had eaten previously as well as the rich Celestial Chi in the valley, Ye Zhantian had already achieved a breakthrough into the Tenth Level after having cultivated for more than ten days. The others also showed great improvement in their Celestial Chi cultivation base but for them, such degree of improvement was far from enough. Hence, they carried on cultivating feverishly to attain a higher level.

After three days of hard work, the forest was scattered with plenty of wood shavings and logs from the Spirit Moon Trees. The entire forest was fenced up to prevent any clan members from entering. Once they had completed these tasks, Ye Moyuan and the clansmen went back to their duties.

“Uncle Moyuan, what’s Chief trying to do?” A few clan members looked very puzzled as they glanced at the forest some distance away.

“I’m not sure too. Could it be that Chief is trying to get more Lingzhi? In that case, Chief is mistaken. It’s not that easy to find Lingzhi. Previously, whenever I went hunting with our clansmen, we would always see an abundance of Spirit Moon Tree logs scattered all over the other forests yet we never find a lot of Lingzhi mushrooms growing on these logs,” Ye Moyuan muttered while shaking his head. ‘Putting tree logs in the forest to let Lingzhi grow them? This idea isn’t very unrealistic!’

“Well then, we’ve been working so hard for nothing?”

“Things like Lingzhi don’t have spores and will only grow by gathering World Celestial Chi.”

“Uncle Moyuan, you’ve said this many times.”

“Oh? Is that so?” Ye Moyuan asked with a chuckle. “I’ve become a foolish old person now. Lingzhi isn’t like medicinal herbs and can’t be planted. Rather than waiting for those Spirit Moon Trees to rot away so that Lingzhi would grow on them, we might as well plant some medicinal herbs. Perhaps we’d be able to reap some harvest.”

Despite his doubts, Ye Moyuan still took care of the forest according to Ye Chen’s instructions, which were to water those Spirit Moon Tree logs regularly during the first few days and thereafter, not entering the forest and guarding outside the forest.

A few days later, Ye Chen entered the forest. He could not be bothered to plant White-Fungi since it was too worthless. After all, a White-Fungus that was a few months old could only be used to exchange for one Chi-amassing Pill. There was not any higher tier Lingzhi stored in their clan’s treasury, so Ye Chen proceeded to look around in the space inside his armguard and found a huge box containing more than twenty types of Lingzhi mushrooms. Within this space inside the armguard, low-tier Lingzhi mushrooms like the White-Fungus could not be found. The lowest tier Lingzhi here was the Blood-Fungus. Besides the Blood-Fungus, he had also found the Black-Fungus, the Cloud Fragrance Fungus, the Flaming Cloud Fungus, and the Corpse Poison Fungus, the Snake Spit Fungus, and many other types of Lingzhi, all of which were much higher in tier than the Blood-Fungus.

These Lingzhi mushrooms were mostly hundreds of years old and were limited in quantity, so they had to be used sparingly. Before he learned alchemy, Ye Chen would never use any of these. After all, many Lingzhi mushrooms were poisonous and could not be eaten directly, so they could only be used for alchemy.

Ye Chen had been spending the past few days going through some of the notes and materials left behind by the original armguard owner. Thus, he had managed to gain a general understanding of each Lingzhi’s characteristics and optimal growing environment. These notes and materials were extremely valuable but only one piece of information was wrong. Like everyone else, the original armguard owner thought that Lingzhi was nurtured into being by Heaven and Earth and could not be planted as a crop!

The Black-Fungus could only grow in a harsh and dark environment, so Ye Chen eliminated this as an option right away. The Flaming Cloud Fungus could only survive near lava streams or lakes, so it had to be eliminated as well. It turned out that the Corpse Poison Fungus and the Snake Spit Fungus were also not suitable to be planted here, so Ye Chen finally narrowed his options down to three types of Lingzhi which were the Blood-Fungus, the Cloud Fragrance Fungus, and the Silver Moon Fungus. This forest provided a suitable growing environment for these three types of Lingzhi.

The Cloud Fragrance Fungus could be eaten directly and had similar effects as the Blood-Fungus, but its medicinal efficacy was ten times stronger than that of the Blood-Fungus, so it could most likely be sold at a good price. On the other hand, the Silver Moon Fungus was an extraordinarily rare item. Based on what Ye Chen knew, the Silver Moon Fungus was a rather uncommon plant species but was a great ingredient for alchemy. Even if a Silver Moon Fungus was just a few months old, it would still be considered an extremely precious item and even the Master Apothecary would value it as a rare item.

After having narrowed his options down to these three types, Ye Chen gently and cautiously opened a Blood-Fungus. A few moments later, he had plenty of black grain-like seeds in his palm. These were Lingzhi spores. Lingzhi mushrooms depended on these things to reproduce. Then, Ye Chen carefully scattered these spores all over the forest.

This world had rich and concentrated Celestial Chi, so it was very suitable for growing Lingzhi mushrooms. Logically speaking, there should be way more Lingzhi mushrooms in this world but in reality, Lingzhi was a rarity. The first reason for this was because it was not easy for Lingzhi to reproduce. Although each Lingzhi mushroom was capable of producing a large number of spores, not many of these spores would end up in places that were suitable for Lingzhi to grow. The second reason was that the demand for Lingzhi was simply too high in this world. Even if Lingzhi mushrooms were growing in the most dangerous forests and mountains, many combatants would not hesitate to go and harvest those Lingzhi mushrooms. Some mystical beasts and Celestial Beasts also knew how to utilize these natural treasures. Thus, Lingzhi had been overharvested all these years.

Ye Chen had scattered three types of Lingzhi spores in all areas with optimal growing conditions for Lingzhi in the forest. At midnight, as having finished scattering the spores, he finally sighed in relief and went back full of joy while wondering what would come out of this. At this point, he could only wait patiently for the results.

This was as much as Ye Chen could do since he was no expert in tending to crops like these. He hoped that these Lingzhi mushrooms had enough vitality to grow.

Ye Chen went to bed filled with feelings of anticipation. In his dream, Ye Chen was in a daze and felt as though he had gone back to the forest and saw Lingzhi mushrooms growing everywhere. Each Lingzhi was small and flat like Little Tanuki’s ears and was emanating a pleasant and refreshing medicinal fragrance.

Although he had been through so many hardships and frustrations, Ye Chen was still open to experiencing this world with a childlike heart.

When Ye Chen woke up in the morning, he could not help laughing as he realized that it had all been just a dream.

“Little Tanuki, do you think I’ll be able to plant Lingzhi?” Ye Chen asked while turning to Little Tanuki with a smile.

Little Tanuki stared at him with an odd gaze. ‘Planting Lingzhi? Has Ye Chen gone crazy?’

“Forget I ever asked.” Ye Chen chuckled awkwardly.

Peace settled over the valley as nothing major happened recently. All construction work for Ye Chen’s cabin had also been completed, so he returned to his room and focused on studying alchemy.

If Ye Chen wished to learn how to refine and produce, of course, he would have to start with the most basic Chi-amassing Pill. Ye Chen had asked his third uncle, Ye Zhanxiong, to purchase a large amount of Chi-amassing Pill ingredients from outside, so it should be enough for him to use for quite some time after this.

Ye Chen flipped to the first page of the book called “The Grand Supreme Way of Alchemy” and copied down the instructions on how to refine and produce the Chi-amassing Pill before putting it aside.

The only thing left to prepare was the refining furnace. Ye Chen extended his consciousness into the space inside his armguard to bring out the refining furnace. However, after a long period of struggle, he came to realize that this refining furnace could not be moved at all as though it was attached to the space inside the armguard.

Ye Chen was dumbfounded. How was he supposed to use this refining furnace? Could it be that he was supposed to refine and produce the pills within this space inside the armguard?

However, he could not enter this space in the armguard!

This space in the armguard was the same as the space inside a Heaven-Earth Pouch. All living things would die the moment they entered this space!