Chapter 207 - 205: The Fisher of Men, Men Always Fish From It_l
The spiritual power inside him surged, subtly manipulating the Spirit Soil through the Earth Pulling Technique.
A small pit emerged and Lu Xuan delicately placed the embryonic spiritual seed in his hand into it. His concentration then completely focused on the seed.
A thought flashed through his mind.
[Holy Baby Fruit, a Fifth-Quality Spirit Plant. Consumption of the mature fruit directly enhances the spiritual sense of cultivators and improves their physical constitution. It can also be used as a main ingredient to refine Five-Quality Holy Baby Pills, enhancing the success rate of breaking through the cultivation barrier. High-quality Holy Baby Fruits can also be used to refine external bodies.]
[During cultivation, it needs to be planted in an environment filled with Yin Qi and Yin Soil. Infusing it with the essence blood of infants, souls, and resentful will during the growth stage can speed up its growth.]
[Long-term contact may result in being influenced by the intense resentful energy inside the plant, infecting you with Yin Qi and resentment.]
[The offspring plant can combine with the mother tree after maturity and merge with it. Within a certain range, the mother tree can specifically sense the scent of the offspring. When the fruit is close to maturing, one can incarnate on the offspring to survey the surroundings.]
“No wonder it is a Fifth-Quality Spirit Plant equivalent to the Nascent Soul Stage, the effects are just too potent.”
Lu Xuan exclaimed almost subconsciously.
“However, what does the information regarding the offspring plant mean? This Holy Baby Fruit seed is just one of the seeds produced by the mother tree, it’s not independent?”
Lu Xuan recalled the information in his mind, his expression gradually darkening.
“The mother tree can locate the offspring and the surroundings can be observed through the offspring? In other words, could my action and the location of my Spirit Field be known by the mother tree when the Holy Baby Fruit is close to maturity?”
The moment Lu Xuan thought of this, a look of terror appeared on his face.
“That means I’ve spent enormous amounts of essence blood to cultivate this Fifth-Quality Holy Baby Fruit plant, and then lured the mother tree and the cultivator behind it here, locating my position, knowing my strength, and while taking back the mature offspring at the same time, planning to take my wealth and my life?”
His mood fluctuated with uncertainty, his heart incredibly grateful that he was able to understand the detailed information of the spirit plant he planted. Otherwise, he might have lost everything because of it.
“No wonder the elderly at Wanbao Building said that Holy Baby Fruits are inherently malevolent, and the cultivators who plant them often end up dead or missing.”
“Initially, I thought it was just rumors, but nowit turns out it’s all man-made.”
As he slowly calmed his emotions, he considered how to deal with the Fifth- Quality Holy Baby Fruit seed.
At this moment, he has two choices.
The first one is to immediately dig up the seed. Given that it has not yet sprouted roots, he could throw it away into the wilderness to be left alone to survive or perish.
Or he could promptly sell it at a low price, exchange it for some spirit stones and resources and cut his losses immediately.
The second choice would be to plant it in the Spirit Field and cultivate it normally.
After all, this was his first ever Fifth-Quality Spiritual Seed. The enormity of the cluster of the light it would produce once mature is considerable. Having paid a hefty price for it, to just discard it would be akin to cutting a chunk of flesh from him, a man known for his thrifty and hardworking nature.
The most important factor is the shift in the power dynamic.
Without noticing the anomaly in the Holy Baby Fruit Seed, the cultivator behind all this can use his resources to nurture the Holy Baby Fruit offspring to maturity, then learn about his strength and location, retrieve the offspring and stealthily attack him, killing him for his wealth.
But now, Lu Xuan was fully aware of the detailed characteristics of the Holy Baby Fruit Plant. He could completely use this knowledge to set a trap, and reverse-kill the cultivator behind the scenes, getting his hands on the Holy Baby Fruit Mother Tree held by the latter.
The more he thought about it, the more feasible he believed this method was, and he started quietly calculating the likelihood of success.
“My current cultivation base is at the early stages of the Foundation Establishment. Due to the rewards from the light clusters, I have a large number of treasures. Moreover, the Spirit Firefly Grass is in the phase of improvement, and I should be able to rapidly increase my cultivation base after its success.”
“Most importantly, I have the powerful Sky Sword Sect behind me. When the Holy Baby Fruit is about to mature, I can invite the two guardian beasts from my sect to help maintain order.”
“In addition, there’s Yang Qing Feng, who raised the Ink-Scaled Jiao, Hall Master Shen Ye of the Agricultural Department Hall, and a true disciple Ge Pu who breeds the Yin Yang Koi Fish. The three of them, being at least mid-term Foundation Establishment cultivators, either highly appreciate me or owe me a favor. I can also invite them to help.”
“Hmm… this backup team should be strong enough.”
“If all else fails, when the Holy Baby Fruit Plant is about to mature, I can transplant it within my sect, and see if the cultivator behind the scenes has the audacity to come in search of the Spirit Fruit.”
Lu Xuan thought privately.
“The person who spread the bait of the Holy Baby Fruit Spirit Seed is very likely to be that thin, emaciated old man in the mid-term of Foundation Establishment. The possibility of having a Nascent Soul Stage cultivator behind him is extremely slim.”
“After all, if a Nascent Soul-stage cultivator wants to harm a Foundation Establishment-stage cultivator, they can easily crush them directly. They wouldn’t need to go to such lengths unless they aren’t strong enough themselves and would have to resort to such tricks.”
“If it goes this way, I would out in the open and they would work from the shadows. My personal strength is already decent enough and I can even invite the Guardian Beasts and powerful cultivators from my sect.”
“Given this condition, compared to getting a Fifth-order Spirit Plant, the risk of enticing and killing the puppet cultivator is really negligible.”
Only after a thorough consideration, Lu Xuan decided to continue planting the Holy Baby Fruit Spirit Seed.
A Fifth-Quality Spirit Plant would take a long way before maturing completely. There is plenty of time to prepare carefully and plot quietly.
“You wanted to use the Spirit Seed as bait? Did you ever think that you would be the one who falls into the trap?”
“Those who fish for others are often fished for themselves.”
Lu Xuan began to have a strong desire to kill the mysterious cultivator who not only took him for granted but also wanted to take his life.
It has always been him who exploited others, took advantage of them. But today, to his surprise, he was the one being exploited.
Having made up his mind, he turned his attention back to the Spirit Seed.
“The cultivation environment here is quite appropriate. This courtyard is filled with numerous Yin Souls and Resentful Wills, as well as Unblinking Ghost Eyes and many Underworld Spiritual Plants. The strong Yin Qi in the Spirit Field of the courtyard can ensure the normal growth of the Holy Baby Fruit.”
“However, if I want to accelerate its maturing process, then it’s a bit difficult. The nurturing methods like feeding it with an infant’s Essence Blood, soul, and Resentful Will sound like a violation of morality and are incompatible with my identity as a decent cultivator from a reputable sect.”
“I only can find another way around. In the early stage, I can set up tasks in the Miscellaneous Affairs Hall and let those outer-sect disciples fond of life-and- death fights to hunt down Evil Cultivators and collect the Yin Evil things.”
He had a preliminary plan in mind on how to cultivate the Holy Baby Fruit. His spiritual power surged, manipulating the Yin Qi in the yard to condense into a gas cluster. The gas transformed into thin rain and seeped into the Holy Baby Fruit Spirit Seeds.
Inside the embryo-like Spirit Seed, the slowly stretching gray-black baby looks to be resuscitating. On a closer look, all one could see was a mass of gray-black substance, its aura fluctuating as if it was gestating something.
After carefully nourishing the Holy Baby Fruit Spirit Seeds, Lu Xuan took the dead body of the huge scorpion out from his storage bag. His Red Flame Sword glowed with spiritual lines, and he carefully dissected the Six-eyed Red Iron Scorpion’s corpse into separate parts.