Mountain God Vine

Although the White Marrow Grass had all been revived, Zhou Ping and the others were deeply worried as they looked upon the desolate, barren scene of Qing Peak.

After all, the complete depletion of the soil's fertility had a severe impact on Qing Peak. If left unchecked, the mountain rocks might loosen, which could eventually destabilize the other peaks.

Even Wang Dashi, though not a member of the Zhou family by blood, had grown exceptionally close to them over the years. Most importantly, as he aged, he understood the reality of his situation-he knew that with his meager aptitude, breaking through to Qi Condensation was an absolute impossibility.

Rather than risking offending the Zhou family to live as a mortal landlord in the secular world, relying on the clan offered a far better future.

After all, by staying with the Zhou family, he could still receive a regular stipend: one hundred jin of spirit rice and several spirit fruits containing traces of Spiritual Qi. Whether he consumed them himself to advance his cultivation or gave them to his family to nourish their bodies, the benefits were immense.

Zhou Ping let out a soft sigh and turned to Wang Dashi. "Dashi, you will be in charge of watching over this patch of White Marrow Grass."

Wang Dashi patted his plump belly, his eyes narrowing into joyful slits. "Uncle Ping, rest assured. I will definitely look after it well."

Beside them, Zhou Xuanya shed his usual gloominess, stepping forward with a smile to swat Wang Dashi on the head. Wang Dashi didn't mind at all; he tilted his head and nudged back against Zhou Xuanya, and the two began to bantered playfully.

On the mountain, Chen Fusheng had been brought in by Zhou Minghu, so those two shared a closer bond, whereas Zhou Xuanya and Wang Dashi had naturally become companions.

Watching Zhou Xuanya look so relaxed, Zhou Ping felt a sense of relief.

He began walking down the mountain, though hidden within his wide sleeve was a single stalk of White Marrow Grass. He intended to plant it by the Golden Vine Pool to see if the Purple Gold Vine could counter the White Marrow Grass's habit of ruthlessly draining the soil's fertility.

After all, for a first-grade spiritual plant to be revered as the Mountain God Vine, it had to possess some extraordinary, world-defying capability.

If the tales of the Mountain God Vine were merely mortal legends, Zhou Ping would have dismissed them as wild exaggerations. However, this description came from the Spirit Treasure Illustrated Manual-surely those high-level cultivators would not exaggerate the traits of a mere first-grade plant.

Yet, because he had never encountered a Purple Gold Vine before, he had no true understanding of its exact practical effects. Now was the perfect opportunity to test it using the White Marrow Grass.

He had not walked very far when Zhou Minghu caught up to him.

"Father, allowing the White Marrow Grass to drain the soil's fertility like this is not a sustainable solution. If we leave it unchecked, Qing Peak will eventually be ruined."

Zhou Ping asked, "Then what do you propose, Minghu? Should we reduce the cultivation of the White Marrow Grass?"

Zhou Minghu shook his head, then extended his hand to show what he was holding. "While we were planting just now, I intentionally kept one stalk of White Marrow Grass. I want to plant it next to the Purple Gold Vine to see if there are any changes."

"I acted on my own initiative, Father. Please do not blame me."

Zhou Ping was taken aback, then laughed. "I am too proud of you to ever blame you for that."

Filled with satisfaction, he patted Zhou Minghu's shoulder, took the White Marrow Grass, and said, "I originally had the exact same intention. It seems you and I have thought along the same lines."

"I will go plant it. You and Fusheng must hurry and establish the talisman workshop. The storehouse is still stacked with all that straw, and we cannot let it go to waste."

"Understood, Father," Zhou Minghu replied, turning back to seek out Chen Fusheng.

Zhou Ping smiled faintly and made his way toward the summit of Ming Peak.

To conceal the existence of the Purple Gold Vine, the small grove at the peak of Ming Peak had always served as Zhou Ping's private cultivation ground. Others were strictly forbidden from approaching, and the entire area was shrouded by a formation.

Naturally, Chen Fusheng and the others had never set foot here. To avoid drawing any suspicion, even Zhou Minghu and his brother had only been permitted up during their breakthroughs and had never returned since.

As Zhou Ping approached the grove, a thin layer of mist drifted before him, completely obscuring the interior from outside view. Though it appeared to be ordinary fog, it was actually a deceptive maze formation.

With a casual wave of his hand, he parted a path through the mist, revealing the scene within.

A clear pool of water rippled gently. The surrounding trees had grown significantly taller and thicker compared to three years ago, their dense canopy casting a cool, refreshing shade over the glade.

Zhou Ping swept his gaze around, stopping abruptly when he noticed a locust tree deep within the grove. When it was first transplanted here, its trunk was only as thick as a man's forearm, but now it had grown a full size larger.

While he could understand the rapid growth of the other trees, locust trees were notoriously slow-growing. Even with the ambient Spiritual Qi, such a dramatic acceleration was highly unusual.

He carefully inspected the other trees and realized they all exhibited abnormal growth, as if they had suddenly shot up by a year or two.

Yet, he distinctly remembered that while these trees had been growing quickly six months ago, it had never been this exaggerated.

He shifted his gaze toward the edge of the pool and froze.

There stood a dark, ink-black vine roughly two to three feet in length. Several of its tendrils had put forth pale red leaves that swayed gently in the breeze. Spiritual Qi coalesced around the vine and its foliage, condensing into a thin, wispy white mist, though the amount was still minuscule.

Zhou Ping chuckled softly. He had not expected the Purple Gold Vine to grow so much during the brief period since his last visit.

Over the past three years, the Purple Gold Vine had remained a stagnant, ink-black sprout. Had he not monitored its minute growth day by day, Zhou Ping would have assumed it had withered and died.

Now, it had suddenly shot up by several feet. Could it truly be a matter of accumulating strength over a long period before a sudden burst of growth?

Looking at it now, the strange changes in the surrounding trees were almost certainly caused by the development of the Purple Gold Vine.

Could the Purple Gold Vine actually possess the miraculous trait of accelerating the growth of surrounding vegetation?

With this thought, Zhou Ping stepped forward and planted the White Marrow Grass three feet away from the Purple Gold Vine, watching closely for any reaction. If the White Marrow Grass negatively affected the Purple Gold Vine, he would uproot it immediately.

Before his eyes, the White Marrow Grass-which had been visibly wilting and lifeless-began to overflow with vitality at a speed visible to the naked eye. Its dull, faded leaves and stems gradually transformed, turning as pristine and white as flawless jade.

Zhou Ping grew incredibly tense, keeping his focus entirely on the condition of the Purple Gold Vine.

Yet, he discovered that not only did the Purple Gold Vine show no signs of wilting, it actually seemed to have grown even more vibrant!

"Hmm?" Zhou Ping was astonished.

Was the White Marrow Grass not supposed to aggressively drain soil fertility and suppress all neighboring plant life? Why did the Purple Gold Vine seem completely unaffected, even growing more vigorous?

What Zhou Ping did not know was that in the cultivation world, the Purple Gold Vine was called the Mountain God Vine not just because of its miraculous ability to anchor mountains and gather Spiritual Qi, but because it was fundamentally a symbiotic, mutually beneficial organism.

Through its vast root network, the Purple Gold Vine could entangle itself with the roots of surrounding flora, drawing upon their collective vitality to strengthen itself. In return, it attracted and concentrated vast amounts of Spiritual Qi, back-feeding the connected plants and allowing them to thrive.

The more robust the connected vegetation, the more terrifying the Purple Gold Vine's capacity to stabilize the mountain and gather Spiritual Qi became, creating a loop that continuously stimulated the plants' evolution.

Those Purple Gold Vines that reached their absolute limits could entangle an entire hill, transforming a whole mountain into a veritable blessed land.

Were it not for the fact that its massive physical scale made it virtually impossible to break through to the second grade, it would never have been categorized as a mere first-grade plant. In truth, it could be considered an anomalous second-grade treasure.

Although powerful, high-level cultivators could expend massive amounts of resources to force it into the second grade or higher, the cost-benefit ratio was highly impractical compared to simply cultivating actual high-grade spiritual plants.

Even so, the Purple Gold Vine remained one of the most sought-after first-grade spiritual plants-a clan-guarding treasure that Qi Condensation and Foundation Establishment clans fought bitterly to acquire.

Zhou Ping had only read of its basic entry in the Spirit Treasure Illustrated Manual, knowing it could anchor mountains and gather Spiritual Qi despite its slow growth, but he lacked any deeper knowledge of its specifics.

Seeing that the Purple Gold Vine suffered no ill effects, he felt reassured enough to plant the second stalk of White Marrow Grass on its opposite side.

Still somewhat uneasy, he swept the ground with his spiritual sense, but finding nothing out of the ordinary, he walked back toward his stone chamber. He planned to spend some time refining his spellcasting techniques and return later to check on the White Marrow Grass's condition.

What he failed to notice, however, was that countless microscopic, undetectable root hairs were silently creeping outward from the main root system of the Purple Gold Vine. They tunneled through every inch of the subterranean earth, entangling seamlessly with the roots of every tree within a radius of over ten zhang, establishing an immense, intricately woven underground network.

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