Chapter 66: Spirit Grass

The Evergreen Sect’s medicinal gardens occupied a surprisingly large portion of the outer mountain region.

Damian had expected something closer to a collection of carefully maintained herb plots hidden behind protective formations.

Instead, Mu Qingyao led the group down a broad stone path overlooking terraced farmland that stretched across several lower slopes.

The first section resembled rice paddies, with rows upon rows of vibrant Spirit Rice swaying beneath the afternoon breeze, their stalks carrying a faint sheen that separated them from any ordinary crop Damian had seen on Earth.

Irrigation channels divided the terraces into neat sections, while formation flags stood at intervals to regulate the Spiritual Energy flowing through the fields.

Beyond the paddies were structures that reminded Damian much more strongly of greenhouses, though they were not actually made of glass.

Some used translucent spiritual membranes, others were enclosed behind wooden frames covered in thin formation barriers, while the more valuable cultivation areas seemed to rely entirely upon glowing arrays that controlled temperature, Spiritual Energy density and environmental conditions.

What truly caught Damian’s attention, however, was not the infrastructure, but the people.

There were hundreds of menial disciples moving through the paddies carrying baskets, tools and sacks.

Others knelt between rows of herbs, removing unwanted plants, checking leaves, recording growth or harvesting mature crops.

The ages of these workers varied enormously.

Damian saw teenagers, young adults, middle-aged men and women, and even several grey-haired workers whose backs had already begun bending with age.

More importantly...

Most of them were indubitably weak, very weak in fact.

His newly strengthened perception made judging their cultivation easier than before, and the vast majority had barely entered Body Tempering.

Some were Body Tempering Level 1 while a handful were at Level 2 or Level 3.

Many possessed no cultivation whatsoever, being essentially mortals.

Damian slowed slightly.

This was his second genuine culture shock since entering Shengyuan.

There were no corpses lying beside the road, no young masters casually murdering peasants because somebody looked at them incorrectly and no demonic cultivator harvesting souls beneath a blood moon.

However, that made it all the more striking because, bluntly speaking, everything looked normal.

Workers lowered their heads when Mu Qingyao passed, supervisors called instructions, baskets were carried, Spirit Rice was harvested, and medicinal plants were inspected.

Life continued.

Yet Damian could see exactly what the arrangement represented.

These people were part of a cultivation sect without meaningfully participating in the glorious cultivation life that stories liked advertising.

They lived beneath the protection of the Evergreen Sect and received food, shelter and perhaps access to limited resources.

In return, they spent their lives performing labor too tedious for the cultivators with better talent and prospects to waste time doing themselves.

A few might slowly climb upward, but most probably would not.

They were not slaves.... technically.

But Damian had worked around contracts long enough to recognize indentured labor when he saw it.

Only a few degrees separated many of these people from actual servitude.

The old Damian might have stopped walking.

The fellow who had first arrived in Shengyuan had nearly blown a mental gasket simply witnessing how casually cruelty and hierarchy operated within Evergreen Immortal City.

This Damian of today merely observed quietly.

He turned toward Lan Ruyue.

"Are all these people Evergreen Sect disciples?"

Lan Ruyue followed his gaze.

"Menial disciples, mostly. Some have entered Body Tempering, while others lack sufficient cultivation talent or resources to do so. Every large sect requires people to handle ordinary work."

Her tone carried no disdain, and that was what interested Damian.

To her, she was simply explaining reality.

He glanced toward Jian Rui.

"Why stay here if they have so little opportunity to cultivate?"

Jian Rui looked mildly surprised by the question before considering it.

"Because staying is usually better than leaving, Lord Damian. Even a menial disciple receives the protection of the Evergreen Sect while working beneath its banner. There is food, housing, access to basic medicine and occasional opportunities to earn cultivation resources. A mortal outside might spend his entire life trying to obtain something available here through years of service."

Damian nodded slowly.

Well, that made sense and aligned with his own speculation.

He turned toward Mu Qingyao.

"And they can’t simply walk away whenever they feel like it?"

Mu Qingyao glanced across the workers.

"It depends upon their circumstances. Some may leave after fulfilling their obligations, while others owe service because of resources already received or agreements made when entering the sect. There are also families whose livelihoods depend upon the sect. Leaving without settling those obligations would naturally be unacceptable."

Again...

There was no discomfort, no attempt to justify it, nor any secret shame.

Even Mu Qingyao, who Damian considered genuinely kind by Shengyuan standards, saw nothing inherently wrong with the arrangement.

That answered the important question.

This was not the Evergreen Sect being unusually cruel.

It was simply a normal, ingrained social institution within Shengyuan.

Damian looked ahead again.

One older man was carrying two baskets of harvested herbs across his shoulders while a young supervisor checked a wooden tally slip beside him.

Damian felt no sudden heroic urge to run over and declare everyone free.

What would happen afterward?

Would he feed, house and protect them while providing medicine?

Would he replace the sect structure that currently supported their lives?

Would he wage war against every organization using similar labor throughout the Azure Water Sector?

What about the next region? The continent? The entire world?

Damian almost snorted.

If someone wanted to be a soft-hearted savior badly enough, then they needed the strength required to actually change the structure they disliked.

Anything less was just yapping.

Moral superiority did not fill stomachs.

A righteous speech could not stop a Qi Condensation Elder from crushing one’s head.

Damian therefore recorded what he had learned and continued walking.

If one day he became some overlord-level existence capable of rewriting the rules of Shengyuan without immediately getting himself and everyone around him killed, he could decide what kind of society he wanted beneath him.

Until then?

He had crops to test.

............

Their destination stood near the edge of the medicinal garden district.

It was one of the greenhouse-like cultivation houses Damian had noticed earlier, although this structure was relatively plain compared to the heavily protected areas deeper within the mountain.

A wooden sign beside the entrance identified its sole crop.

Spirit Grass.

Inside, hundreds of plants grew within carefully separated beds and cultivation pots.

Some were little more than sprouts, while others had grown into slender green stalks with faint silver lines running along their leaves.

Several sections contained taller and noticeably more vibrant specimens whose presence felt strangely dense despite their mundane appearance.

A young woman hurried toward them the moment Mu Qingyao entered.

She looked to be somewhere in her early twenties, with her black hair tied into a practical bun using what appeared to be two writing brushes.

Her robes were neat but stained faintly with soil around the knees, and several wooden tablets hung from her belt alongside measuring tools, small knives and bundles of string.

She was at Body Tempering Level 4.

The moment she saw so many important people standing together, her face almost collapsed.

"E-Elder Mu! Elder Lan!"

Her gaze moved to Damian, then to the four youngsters, then back to Damian.

Mu Qingyao rescued her before she could panic.

"This is Spirit Planter Tao Wenli. She is responsible for this Spirit Grass cultivation house."

Damian nodded. "Good. She’s exactly who I need."

Tao Wenli looked even more nervous.

Mu Qingyao gave her a reassuring glance. "Lord Damian wishes to conduct an experiment involving Spirit Grass. Answer his questions accurately."

Tao Wenli immediately straightened. "Yes, Elder Mu!"

Damian walked toward the nearest mature plant. "Start from the beginning. What’s special about Spirit Grass?"

That question seemed to transform Tao Wenli as the nervous young woman vanished and a Spirit Planting nerd awakened.

"Spirit Grass is sometimes called the Star of the Cultivation World because of its extraordinary compatibility with medicinal refinement. It possesses relatively mild characteristics and can assume nearly every major role within an alchemical formula depending upon the other ingredients surrounding it," Tao Wenli explained enthusiastically.

Damian looked interested. "Every major role?"

Tao Wenli nodded rapidly. "In alchemy, many formulas can be understood through the principle of Jun, Chen, Zuo and Shi. The Jun, or Emperor, is the principal medicinal ingredient responsible for producing the formula’s primary effect. The Chen, or Minister, strengthens the Emperor or addresses important secondary requirements."

She lifted one finger after another.

"The Zuo, or Adjutant, assists the main ingredients, balances harsh properties, reduces unwanted effects or supports secondary transformations. Finally, the Shi, or Messenger, harmonizes the formula and helps guide the medicinal effects so the different ingredients work together rather than conflict."

Damian’s eyes brightened, feeling that this sounded remarkably familiar.

Traditional Chinese Medicine back on Earth used almost exactly the same conceptual structure when discussing herbal formulas.

Different universe, different supernatural laws, yet the same human instinct to organize complex mixtures into understandable roles.

Tao Wenli was already continuing. "Spirit Grass is unusual because it can perform any of those four positions. Within the Qi Nourishing Pill, Spirit Grass serves as the Emperor and provides the principal foundation of the medicinal effect."

She gestured toward another bed. "In the Condensing Essence Pill, Spirit Grass serves as a Minister, reinforcing the ingredients responsible for assisting Qi Condensation cultivation."

Then her expression became reverent. "It is also said to serve as an Adjutant within the True Essence Pill, one of the principal cultivation medicines used by Foundation Establishment cultivators."

Damian immediately understood the progression.

Qi Nourishing Pill for Body Tempering, Condensing Essence Pill for Qi Condensation, and True Essence Pill for Foundation Establishment, all following the same basic concept.

Higher stage, higher requirements.

"How long does Spirit Grass take to mature?"

"That depends upon what grade you require."

Tao Wenli carefully lifted one of the younger plants.

"Fresh Spirit Grass is effectively ungraded. After approximately one year of normal growth, it accumulates enough Spiritual Energy and medicinal potency to qualify as Grade One. Ten years produces Grade Two Spirit Grass, while reaching Grade Three ordinarily requires more than one hundred years."

Damian’s expression changed. "Ten years?"

"Approximately."

"One hundred?"

"At minimum, under ordinary conditions."

Tao Wenli then led him between several cultivation beds.

She showed him how Grade One Spirit Grass possessed only faint silver threads along its leaves.

Grade Two specimens displayed much denser patterns, with the silver lines extending toward the central stalk and producing a stronger spiritual presence.

Grade Three specimens were not grown in this particular house, but Tao Wenli explained that their internal patterns became significantly more complex and their accumulated medicinal essence changed accordingly.

"What environmental conditions does it need?" Damian asked.

"Very few, actually. Spirit Grass is extremely hardy. It does not require fertile soil and can survive without ordinary watering once established. Cold, heat and poor terrain rarely matter unless conditions become truly extreme."

Tao Wenli smiled with the pride of someone discussing a beloved pet.

"The only thing Spirit Grass truly requires is Spiritual Energy."

Damian pondered the matter and asked several more questions.

The answers gradually formed a complete picture.

Spirit Grass was essentially a biological Spiritual Energy processor.

It absorbed ambient Spiritual Energy, converted that energy through its own internal structure and then condensed the result into medicinal essence that was unusually compatible with countless alchemical applications.

It was, for all intents and purposes, a miracle plant, except it possessed one major limitation, its own biology.

"The absorption rate doesn’t continue increasing just because the surrounding Spiritual Energy becomes denser, does it?" Damian questioned.

Tao Wenli blinked.

"Not significantly, no."

She seemed surprised that he had reached the problem so quickly.

"Spirit Grass possesses a natural limit upon how much Spiritual Energy it can process at one time. Increasing the local concentration helps until the plant’s normal absorption capacity is satisfied, but beyond that point, additional density produces very little improvement."

Damian folded his arms.

So even if someone planted Spirit Grass inside a cultivation chamber where Spiritual Energy condensed into visible fog, the plant itself still had the same tiny biological intake pipe.

It did not matter whether someone connected that pipe to a bucket or an ocean, because only so much could pass through.

That was why cultivators measured Spirit Grass by age.

One day of fixed absorption, then another, month after month, year after year.

Ten years created Grade Two not because ten years possessed some mystical significance, but because the plant required roughly that long to process the necessary quantity of Spiritual Energy.

Damian activated <Appraise I> upon one of the mature stalks.

The resulting information was almost disappointingly ordinary.

In Shengyuan, Spirit Grass was exactly what Tao Wenli described: a highly adaptable medicinal herb capable of storing processed Spiritual Energy for alchemical use.

Its Valorian adaptation was barely more dramatic.

It could function as a broadly compatible reagent in many Potionmaking recipes, carrying and harmonizing magical properties depending upon the surrounding ingredients.

There was no explosive transformation nor immediate world-breaking synergy.

Damian narrowed his eyes, feeling that this in and of itself might be the clue.

If Shengyuan possessed a weed that practically ate supernatural energy from the air, survived almost anywhere and converted that energy into a universal alchemical reagent...

Why wouldn’t Valoria possess something similar?

Perhaps he had been approaching the problem backward.

Instead of asking how Shengyuan plants behaved under Valorian mana, perhaps he should investigate plants that had already evolved under Valoria’s cooperative mana.

If Valorian mana entered living systems more easily...

Would Valoria’s equivalent of Spirit Grass grow faster?

Store more energy?

Possess a higher natural absorption ceiling?

Could some completely mundane magical herb there become an agricultural treasure here?

"Hmm..."

Damian smiled faintly.

Another research project for later.

For now, he had brought something much simpler.

He turned toward Tao Wenli. "I need one freshly planted Spirit Grass. As young as possible."

Tao Wenli pointed toward a nearby row. "These were planted this morning, Lord Damian. The seedlings are less than several hours old."

Perfect!

Damian walked over, followed by the others.

Mu Qingyao watched closely, Lan Ruyue’s eyes had already sharpened with interest, while Shen Xueyi remained outwardly emotionless, her gaze never leaving Damian’s hands.

Jian Rui and the other three youngsters knew better than to assume anything was mundane when Lord Damian began smiling like that.

Damian stopped before one tiny seedling that barely protruded above the soil.

He reached into his System Storage and removed a bottle containing vibrant green liquid.

Tao Wenli stared curiously. "What medicine is that, Lord Damian?"

"Something that supposedly accelerates plant growth."

He did not elaborate, instead opening the Potion of Growth and pouring it over the seedling.

For several seconds, nothing happened.

Tao Wenli leaned closer with a look of suspicious interest.

Then the soil moved as a green shoot pushed upward.

Its stem thickened visibly as leaves unfurled one after another, causing the plant to grow at a speed no natural plant had any business possessing.

Tao Wenli’s mouth fell open while the others stared in shock, even as the Spirit Grass continued growing!

Seconds became a minute.

The tiny seedling reached the size of a young plant, then passed it.

Silver markings appeared along its leaves, reaching Grade One, but it did not stop!

The surrounding Spiritual Energy suddenly trembled.

Damian’s expression sharpened.

The Spirit Grass began absorbing ambient Spiritual Energy crazily, the energy rushing toward the cultivation pot and forming a visible current that stirred nearby leaves as well as tugging loose strands of clothing.

Then the current intensified as a small vortex appeared directly above the Spirit Grass!

Tao Wenli stumbled backward.

"What is going on...?"

Nobody answered.

The vortex continued drawing Spiritual Energy from the greenhouse while the Spirit Grass greedily processed everything entering it.

After one minute, then three, then five, the silver patterns spread, its stalk thickened, and medicinal essence accumulated so rapidly that even Damian could perceive the difference.

Around ten minutes later, the vortex finally weakened, Spiritual Energy settled, the leaves stopped trembling, and silence descended upon the greenhouse.

Where a seedling less than several hours old had previously sat, a lush Spirit Grass now rested within the cultivation pot with almost ridiculous serenity.

Dense silver patterns covered its leaves and reached deep along the central stalk.

Tao Wenli stepped forward in a daze.

She crouched, touched one leaf, checked the markings, then checked again as her fingers began trembling.

"Grade... Grade Two."

Not merely Grade Two too.

The Spirit Grass looked healthier than several ten-year specimens growing elsewhere in the cultivation house, more vibrant, more lush, and more alive.

Damian did not turn around.

He did not need to.

His <Divine Sense> already told him everything.

Mu Qingyao’s breathing had changed, Lan Ruyue had forgotten her practiced composure, and Tao Wenli looked seconds away from either worshipping the plant or dissecting it.

Even Shen Xueyi’s famously frozen heartbeat had noticeably accelerated.

Behind Damian came the unmistakable sound of several people breathing far too heavily.

A grin slowly spread across his face.

Oh, this was going to be fun.