The Old and the New

Although the White Marrow Grass was a spirit plant, it was still called "grass" simply because it did not grow very tall.

Under normal circumstances, a mature White Marrow Grass offspring plant stood only about a foot high. Its entire body was as white as jade, with slender and soft stems and leaves. Were it not for its unusual appearance and inherent spiritual nature, it would look much like an ordinary weed.

Yet the two stalks of White Marrow Grass before him stood half a man's height. Their stems and leaves were thick and vigorous, their bodies a deep, vibrant white, standing completely unmoving even in the wind. If his father had not told him they were White Marrow Grass, he would have assumed they were some rare saplings.

"Father, is this really White Marrow Grass?"

Zhou Ping smiled bitterly. "Your father hardly believes it either, but they were indeed planted right here."

Zhou Minghu suddenly thought of something, a look of delight flashing across his face. He hurried forward to inspect them, only for his joy to instantly collapse into disappointment.

He had naively assumed that by some Fated Chance, these two had reverted to their ancestral roots and transformed into mother plants, allowing them to grow to such a size. Instead, he discovered their growth was merely exceptionally rapid; at their core, they remained barren offspring plants with no ability to reproduce.

Zhou Ping looked at his son's crestfallen expression and could not help but laugh aloud.

"Minghu, do not be so quick to despair. Look closely at the surrounding trees."

Zhou Minghu glanced around in confusion, but the astonishment in his eyes only deepened.

"Father, how have all these trees grown so large?"

Every single tree stood tall and straight, their canopies lush and bursting with foliage. A few were even continuously shedding their mortal roots, slowly transforming into spirit plants.

"This is all due to the... Purple Gold Vine." Zhou Minghu shifted his gaze to the ink-black vine several feet high in the center, his eyes shining with sudden, delighted realization.

Zhou Ping nodded. "Exactly. The Purple Gold Vine clearly possesses a miraculous effect that stimulates plant growth. That is why these trees have flourished so fiercely."

He shook his head with a wry smile. "Small wonder the Purple Gold Vine is known as the Mountain God Vine."

"Alas, my experience was simply too shallow. To think I was entirely unaware of such a hidden truth."

If he had known earlier that the Purple Gold Vine could nourish vegetation, he would have long since packed the surrounding earth with spirit grasses and spirit fruits. That alone would have earned the family a tidy sum of extra Spirit Stones every year.

Zhou Minghu was overjoyed. "Father, it is not too late. After all, the Purple Gold Vine is still far from full maturity. It likely could not support too many plants anyway."

Zhou Ping nodded. "I have already tested it. At present, the Purple Gold Vine's influence only reaches the vegetation within a radius of eight Zhang. Any further than eight Zhang, and the effect drops to almost nothing."

"Though, I still cannot fathom the exact mechanism behind its influence."

Zhou Minghu carefully ran the numbers. Within an eight-Zhang radius, they could plant some of the more delicate spirit grasses, particularly things like spirit mushrooms. Although such mushrooms started as mortal flora, once they gathered the essence of ten passing autumns, they became highly sought-after low-grade medicinal ingredients even in the cultivation world.

The greater their age, the steeper their price, and given enough time, they could even metamorphose into true spirit plants.

This set them apart from most flora, which were bound by strict limits on their lifespans. "One cycle of glory, one cycle of withering per year" perfectly captured their fate.

The White Marrow Grass was no exception. While the mother plant possessed a lifespan spanning decades, an offspring plant had but a single year to live once severed from its parent. If not harvested before its time ran out, it would wither into the soil just like any common weed.

Therefore, upon realizing these two stalks were not mother plants, his disappointment had been immense. Yet he also understood it was nothing more than an extravagant hope. How could an offspring possibly reverse its nature and become a mother plant?

Zhou Minghu walked up to one of the giant White Marrow Grass stalks and casually snapped off a branch. Surprised, he held it up. "Father, does this not look like an entire White Marrow Grass plant on its own?"

"A single one of these equals several normal plants, yet it does not drain the soil's vitality any further. If we cultivated more of these, it would be nothing short of a harvest of pure Spirit Stones."

A moment later, his expression darkened. Their clan had sworn a Dao Pact with the Huang family. The White Marrow Grass cultivated from the Huang family's stock could only be sold back to them. If they broke this covenant, the backlash of the Heavenly Law would descend upon them.

They had finally stumbled upon a veritable river of wealth, only to be bound by chains preventing them from selling it. It was incredibly stifling.

"Alas, what a pity we cannot sell it."

Zhou Ping merely chuckled. "Minghu, you have wedged yourself into a dead end."

"It is true that the White Marrow Grass given to us by the Huang family cannot be sold to outsiders. But what is to stop us from buying offspring plants from elsewhere, growing them here, and then selling them on the open market?"

Dawning realization washed over Zhou Minghu. "You are right! The Huang family brought out over a hundred offspring plants in one breath. If our clan only claims a portion of them, they will be left with a surplus. The immortal clans in the neighboring counties are situated far from their territory, and their lands are nowhere near as expansive as ours. They are highly unlikely to accept the Huang family's terms of cooperation."

"When that happens, the Huang family will inevitably be forced to sell off those surplus offspring plants just to earn a bit more. We simply buy them up, plant them, and we will not have breached our Dao Pact by a single hair!"

Zhou Ping laughed heartily. "Haha! My son is truly brilliant. A single word, and everything falls into place."

From their perspective, it was a near certainty that the Huang family would sell off their surplus stock. After all, who would pass up the chance to earn a little extra?

What they did not realize was that this time, they had inadvertently struck the nail squarely on the head.

Meanwhile, far away on the Huang family's estate, the space surrounding the White Marrow Grass mother plants was highly restricted. In order to squeeze out more yield, they routinely plucked the fresh offspring seedlings, intending to deliver ten stalks to the Zhou clan every month. Over the course of a year, this would tally up to over a hundred stalks.

Since the White Marrow Grass was largely unaffected by the shifting seasons, they would have a steady stream of mature grass every month. Even if the process of refining the Green Jade Pill ended in extravagant waste, they were determined to pile up enough resources to forcibly forge an alchemist of their own.

Deep within Pingyun Mountain, a secluded courtyard housed two low-lying spirit plants. They were incredibly lush, glowing with the pristine hue of white jade. Clustered tightly around these two main stalks were countless tender, jade-like sprouts.

However, the soil across the entire courtyard was horrifyingly barren. It was spiderwebbed with startling fissures and teetered on the verge of collapsing into useless sand. Even the pine trees bordering the courtyard drooped with withered leaves, looking as though every drop of sustenance had been ruthlessly siphoned away.

A man was hunched over near the two mother plants, painstakingly digging out the offspring.

Huang Bailin sat within the courtyard. Directly opposite him sat a young man in his twenties. This was Huang Zhengming, a first-grade alchemist and the Huang clan's second Qi Condensation cultivator.

"Zhengming, how goes your comprehension of the pill formula? Are you confident?"

Huang Zhengming offered a bitter smile and shook his head. "Granduncle, I can barely refine basic healing pills. I have never even attempted to concoct a Green Jade Pill. Where would my confidence come from?"

Huang Bailin chuckled and scratched his head. "There is still half a year until the Zhou family's first batch of White Marrow Grass matures. When it arrives, your Granduncle will toss the entire lot to you for practice."

"So long as we can successfully refine the Green Jade Pill, Yuantong and the others will finally have the chance to break through."

"Granduncle, I cannot bear such a heavy burden," Huang Zhengming sighed. Becoming a Qi Condensation cultivator at his age, and scraping by as a first-grade alchemist, was not solely due to his exceptional talent; it was built upon the clan's grueling, single-minded investment in him.

Yet currently, his success rate for refining simple healing and Qi-replenishing pills was barely three in ten. If he rushed blindly into refining the Green Jade Pill, his early attempts were doomed to end in catastrophic failure. The losses would be astronomical.

"Haha, Zhengming, cast aside those burdens." Huang Bailin clapped a heavy hand onto the young man's shoulder. "No matter how much you lose, your Granduncle will never blame you. Not a single soul in the clan will breathe a word of complaint."

"Even if you fail ten times, a hundred times-as long as you eventually force that pill into existence, it will all have been worth it."

Huang Zhengming's expression softened slightly at those words, but his deep-seated anxiety was impossible to conceal.

Right at that moment, Huang Zhengqi sprinted into the courtyard, frantic and out of breath.

"Granduncle! Granduncle!"

Huang Bailin's brow furrowed. "Were you not out delivering the offspring plants to the Zhou family? Why the panic?" he rumbled.

Huang Zhengqi pulled three withered offspring plants from his robes, his face twisted in anxiety. "Granduncle, the Zhou clan only accepted four stalks this time! They claim they cannot plant any more."

Huang Bailin immediately surged to his feet, fury flashing in his eyes. "Does the Zhou clan not possess four small mountains? What do they mean they cannot plant them?"

"And after I even had Yuancheng pull strings to elevate his nephew to County Deputy Magistrate! How utterly infuriating."

Huang Zhengming hastily stepped in to soothe him. "Granduncle, the Zhou clan has already planted nearly two hundred stalks. If they force any more into the soil, I fear Baixi Mountain will be entirely drained. It is only human nature for them to refuse."

Hearing this, Huang Bailin's expression softened considerably. Thinking it over, besides the initial batch of over a hundred and thirty stalks, the deliveries over the past six months had pushed the total to nearly one hundred and ninety. It was highly likely the Zhou clan's mountains were already beginning to suffer.

Earthly vitality was a delicate thing. One year of heavy cultivation often demanded two or three years of rest to recover the soil's strength. Unless the Zhou clan was incredibly short-sighted, greedy only for immediate gains, they had to draw the line somewhere.

Otherwise, once the crop rotation stabilized, the Zhou clan would probably cap their limit at around one hundred and twenty stalks a year.

Yet, understanding their plight did little to cool his bitter annoyance. The two mother plants could now yield twenty offspring stalks a month. If the Zhou clan could not swallow the surplus, it would be a colossal waste.

Though he was ignorant of the finer arts of alchemy, he knew that any true alchemist was built upon a mountain of burned resources. If the harvest of White Marrow Grass fell short, how in the heavens was Huang Zhengming supposed to perfect the Green Jade Pill?

"Alas," Huang Bailin exhaled a heavy sigh.

"A hundred-odd stalks it is, then. At worst, we will simply be delayed by two years in achieving success."

Huang Zhengming fell silent in thought for a moment before speaking up. "Granduncle, we should simply sell the surplus offspring to the immortal clans in the neighboring counties."

"Hmm?" Huang Bailin balked, utterly taken aback. "Would that not instantly leak the wind of our operations?"

Huang Zhengqi piped up in agreement. "I believe Cousin Zhengming is right."

"Granduncle, even if the Zhou clan's yield is limited, they will still harvest a solid hundred-plus stalks. If such a scarce amount begins trickling into the market, it will likely draw the suspicions of those with hidden motives."

"Someone might even use the opportunity to ruthlessly gouge the prices of other raw materials, inflicting devastating losses upon us."

Huang Bailin suddenly perked up. "Oh? Let me hear your thoughts then, Zhengqi."

"The counties bordering us are isolated far from the prefectural city. They are barren and backwards. The immortal clans there cannot hold a candle to the mighty families near the city, and they remain fractured and isolated. If our clan goes about hoarding medicinal ingredients and those local powers notice, our days will grow exceedingly difficult."

"I was thinking... could we perhaps establish a market at the foot of Pingyun Mountain? We could invite the immortal clans and Rogue Cultivators from the neighboring counties to trade freely and supply each other's needs."

As Huang Zhengqi laid out his vision, a brilliant light began to shine in Huang Bailin's eyes.

"Once a market takes root, medicinal herbs, Magical Artifacts, and countless treasures will naturally flow. Our clan could gather whatever materials we need without ever drawing a second glance," Huang Zhengming smoothly interjected. "We sell the surplus offspring to these other clans to forge the illusion that the White Marrow Grass is widely circulating in the open market, all while our clan secretly buys the mature harvest back from the shadows."

"Once I successfully refine the Green Jade Pill, our clan can use it to ascend as the undisputed hegemon of every immortal clan in these surrounding counties."

Thrilled, Huang Bailin slapped his thighs hard. "Yes! Why did I never think of this!"

"Building a market is an excellent move! We will anchor it right at the foot of our mountain. In time, it will even stimulate the growth of the mortal villages and towns below. I will fetch the Small Five Elements Array right now-we can lay it down as the market's protective formation, and naturally, exact a toll from anyone stepping under its sanctuary!"

"Hahaha!"

Huang Bailin swept out of the courtyard with a booming laugh, his brazen voice echoing in his wake.

Huang Zhengming and Huang Zhengqi exchanged a look, each seeing the wry helplessness mirrored in the other's eyes.

As the new generation of the Huang clan, they had been born right as the family touched the zenith of its power. Therefore, their ambition lay in guiding the surrounding immortal clans toward mutual benefit and shared prosperity, using their combined weight to resist the predatory harvesting and suppression by the Immortals' Directorate and the truly dominant clans.

Huang Bailin, on the other hand, was rooted in the older generation. He had weathered the bitter years when the clan possessed but a single Qi Condensation cultivator and swayed precariously in every storm. Naturally, his mind bent solely toward tearing maximum profit from the world for the clan's sake.

Both philosophies sought to secure the Huang family's future. The former aimed for mutual benefit, ensuring the clan seized the lion's share of the wealth as the undisputed local sovereign while forging a shield against outside predators. The latter sought only blind, unilateral expansion.

In the past, the Zheng generation had commanded virtually no voice in the clan, lacking even a single Qi Condensation cultivator in their ranks.

But with Huang Zhengming successfully stepping into Qi Condensation, the rest of his generation had slowly begun taking the reins of the family's properties. Inevitably, a subtle shift was rippling through the Huang clan.

Seizing the momentum of the White Marrow Grass dilemma, they had naturally stepped forward to make their voices heard.

Ultimately, Huang Bailin had agreed primarily because the suggestion came from Huang Zhengming. The grand prospects of a market had merely been a secondary lure.

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