Chapter 364: The Purple Bamboo Forest of Mount Putuo

Jiang He stopped teasing Cheng Dongfeng when he saw the grief in his eyes.

Taking out a thousand inferior-grade spirit stones and dozens of initiation pellets then, Jiang He said, “Take these initiation pellets and spirit stones, and share them with Chief Duan and Commander Chen Jingzhou. It won’t do for you three to be this weak when you have to stand guard over Lingzhou City.”

Cheng Dongfeng was left dumbstruck.

There were a thousand inferior-grade spirit stones that piled over the tea table in his farm. However, he did not care much for the dozens of initiation pellets, since not many people know about that stuff.

“Jiang He… I mean, grand-master!”

Cheng Dongfeng’s eyes were going red even as he stared at the pile of spirit stones. Even so, he held back despite usually acting as if money was more important than his life, and he gritted his teeth for a firm refusal. “Grand-master, one should not receive rewards one did not work for. Spirit stones are too valuable and I wouldn’t dare to accept them.”

“Why not?”

Jiang He laughed beside himself, saying, “That’s not like you, Old Cheng.”

At the same time, Cheng Dongfeng’s face had flushed, though there was no telling whether he was embarrassed, or not accepting the spirit stones was too difficult for him. He started caressing the spirit stones just then, and though he could feel the texture with his palm, he abruptly turned away and closed his eyes to stop looking, even seething through his teeth, “I’m just not accepting it. Do I need that many reasons?”

“I have plenty of inferior-grade spirit stones.”

Jiang He said. “Even superior-grade spirit stones would not work for me now, so these are no different from rocks to me.”

Cheng Dongfeng turn back to sneak a look at the pile of spirit stones at that, even saying seriously, “Well, I’ll accept these on behalf of Chief Duan and Commander Chen then… grand-master, what are these initiation pellets supposed to be?”

“It’s a soul pellet that the Superpower Research Department has developed. It aids in the unlocking of a person’s orifices after consumption. That said, I have eaten a dozen of these but it did not even unlock a single orifice for me.”

Cheng Dongfeng appeared half-convinced, but picked up an initiation pellet and put it in his mouth regardless. He chewed it slowly, and was about to mention its texture when his face dropped.

He could even feel a curious energy spreading away from inside his body, and in the next instant…

Poof.

A crisp sound, and an orifice at Cheng Dongfeng’s arm opened.

He promptly sat down in meditation, directing his energy flow for around three minutes as another orifice was reopened.

After a long while, he slowly opened his eyes and cried out in surprise, “Was… was this medicinal pellet called the initiation pellet? It’s really divine… one pellet alone has unlocked two orifices for me, and from now on, the rate of Yuan Qi I could absorb and my strength output would strengthen a little.”

Jiang He frowned, and asked, “That’s it?”

“Don’t underestimate these two orifices, grand-master,” Cheng Dongfeng replied. “Little drops make the ocean—if I needed three months to cultivate to full-fledged rank-eight, I could do that in two and a half months now. It’s half a month saved!”

“Moreover, opening an orifice means that one would recover True Qi quicker in a fight. If two were equally matched in a battle to the death, the one who can recover True Qi quicker would definitely be the last one standing!”

Saving half a month?

That did not mean much, did it?

Jiang He thought then, though his eyes widened and he gasped after he compared that to his experience. “Woah… I definitely could do a lot in half a month!”

After all…

It took him just half a month to improve from Yuan Spirit to full-fledged Mahayana.

Cheng Dongfeng could not help taking another initiation pellet then to unlock another orifice, saying, “The effect of the medicinal pellet is weaker now. I think I would only unlock on orifice after taking two, or even five pellets… still, my cultivation speed would shorten considerably if I could unlock ten orifices.”

Envy showed all over Jiang He’s face and he said, “Being weak is so nice. Unlocking three orifices after just eating two initiation pellets… I could not feel a thing even after I had dozens.”

Damn it!

Cheng Dongfeng scowled even harder then, while Jiang He laughed out loud. “Just remember to share these spirit stones and initiation pellets with Duan Tianhe and Chen Jingzhou… oh, I have three Spatial Rings here with me too. Take them.”

Jiang He had too many Spatial Rings and he had no use for them, not to mention throwing them away was a huge waste—therefore, it would be a good idea to gift the rings to people he was close.

After leaving Cheng Dongfeng’s room, Jiang He was about to find Three Blades Lin to talk about the old days. He was not home, however, and it was said that he was cultivating behind closed doors to reach divine-union, the third tier in divine-tier for martial arts.

Hence, Jiang He whipped out his phone and asked Wang Siyu out.

She had improved seriously lately. Thanks to Jiang He’s resources, both her martial cultivation and spirit strengthened incredibly and she had already reached rank-eight advanced, while her spirit was not inferior to rank-nine elites who grasped the Boundary of Wills.

Her spirit’s improvement had strengthened her superpower to some extent as well, and if she be willing, not even a rank-seven grandmaster could hide from her mind-reading.

Naturally, her fire-type powers had improved even quicker.

Her spirit was equal to a top rank-nine elite who grasped the Boundary of Wills and her superpowers naturally reach the level to match a top rank-nine elite.

They had lunch, tea, and then had a break at a hotel for several hours. It was night by the time they stepped out, and after strolling about for a bit, Jiang He took out a secret immortal arts manual, saying, “This manual is for a fire-type technique. You are a fire-type user, so it would be very suitable for you to cultivate with. Try it… oh, and I have another thing to give you as well.”

Jiang He held Wang Siyu’s hand, took out one of the better looking Spatial Rings, and slipped it on her finger.

Bliss showed all over her face and she exclaimed, “Thank you… Kyah!”

She cried out in pain before she finished—for some reason, Jiang He had taken out the Mosquito Cutter and pierced her finger.

Wang Siyu was stunned. “What are you doing?!”

“Drawing blood, of course!”

Jiang He took a drop of her blood and dripped it on the Spatial Ring, explaining, “This is a Spatial Ring and could be considered a mystic treasure. It needs blood invocation before it could be used.”

Wang Siyu was dumbstruck.

Grief showed on her little face.

Blood invocation?

You could have just said it—can’t I prick myself with a needle myself?

Drawing a sword directly… how frightening that was.

Jiang He only reached home at eight in the evening.

Both Dumbo and Trumbo had already gathered the new batch of a thousand initiation pellets that the Superpower Research Department had cooked.

Jiang He hence harvested all the ripe spirit stones before planting the initiation pellets, and after a round count, he realized that it would take him around three days to farm all the initiation pellets and spirit stones he had.

On the other hand, he was not in a rush to plant mystic items or the Spirit Condensation Pellets.

After all, he could earn Farm EXP as well if he planted those after leveling up his farm.

“I can’t loaf around in these three days either, though I could renovate the farm.”

Jiang He had already decided on how he would renovate his farm.

He would make some an artificial hill, an artificial lake, a shed, and a purple bamboo forest around the Chinese-style mansion. He did not have to worry about the artificial hill and the shed, however, since there were a lot of those in the park within the country.

Calling Dumbo, Trumbo, and the Seven Bottle Gourd Brothers to him, he told them, “Go out for a bit tomorrow morning and find abandoned parks to get some artificial hills and sheds… Just find a unique boulder if there’s no good-looking artificial hill and we’ll plant it.”

“As for bamboo forests, I just looked online and it turns out that there are three purple bamboo forests in the country: one is the Nanwutai purple bamboo forest at Mount Zhongnan, while the other is at Mount Putuo of the Wu Region. Just get me enough bamboos to make a forest.”

Dumbo, Trumbo, and the Seven Bottle Gourd Brothers were delighted.

Being able to go out on a stroll was definitely good for them.

Soon, they were huddling together and whispering to each as they held a conference. Still, Jiang He could vaguely hear stuff like ‘grill rack’, ‘condiments’, ‘no spicy food’, ‘bear’ or ‘wok’.

The two eaglets were listening on them while tilting their heads, thought they soon went to Jiang He, flapping their wings as they communicated psychically with a childish tone, “We want to go out to play too, master… We want to share the work as well.”

Jiang He could not help laughing and said, “Alright, alright, you two can go with them too.”

He then checked the time to find that it was almost dawn.

Considering that he did not carry out his ‘early to bed, early to rise’ plan, he quickly went to sleep.

However, once Jiang He left, Dumbo stood up on its rear legs, clapping its paws as it said, “Everybody, come over here… Do you remember what I said? Being outside is a rare chance for us, so we have to really enjoy ourselves… so let’s split up to buy the stuff we need…”

“What, you don’t have any money?”

“You trash. It’s just some grill ingredients and you don’t even have the money for that?”

Dumbo hence generously shared the cash worth several dozen thousands of dollars to everyone…

“You fifty, you fifty… give me that remaining fifty too.”

“…”

***

Jiang He had slept all the way until noon the next day when he finally woke up.

That naturally left him sighing emotionally…

The ‘early to bed and early to rise’ plan was too difficult!

After heading downstairs to wash up, he arrived at the dining table when Sora approached him and said coquettishly, “Master, Trumbo left a letter for you.”

“What the heck?”

Jiang He was surprised.

Trumbo wrote him a letter?

To tell the truth, it was more of a note than a letter.

Jiang he took the note that was folded into the shape of a small plan, and found that ‘master’ was written on the right wing and ‘for your eyes only’ was written on the left.

“For the master’s eyes only?”

“Is Trumbo sick or something? Why would he act all mysterious instead of saying something directly?”

Jiang He swore under his breath as he unfolded the paper plane, only to find calligraphed fonts written neatly on it that read, “Your truly is aware of my masters’ many bothers, agitation even, and thus unable to sleepeth at dusk. Thence, it is a hope of yours truly for the master’s understanding over parting without one word of farewell bade.”

Jiang He was left speechless.

What does this letter even mean???

It was neither archaic nor modern, and absolutely awkward to read.

Most importantly…’parting without one word of farewell bade’?

You two were just trying to slip out for a walk… couldn’t you have waited until I woke up?

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