Wei Yuan immediately formed a link with Qingming and swept his perception across the realm. He quickly confirmed the source of the spirit qi—the newly cultivated, 500-mu field of Liang rice.

He leaped into the air and landed at the edge of the field moments later.

To Wei Yuan’s eyes, flecks of spiritual light were appearing among the rice plants, slowly rising into the air before vanishing into the night sky. Though faint, the lights were numerous. At a glance, they resembled a starry sky descending to the mortal realm.

Wei Yuan slowly crouched down. Tiny green sprouts were already visible in the soil, their tips just beginning to peek through.

The Liang rice seeds he had planted had sprouted. In another month or so, they would mature and yield their first harvest of spirit rice. Although Liang rice was merely the most basic kind of spirit plant, it was far from an ordinary tree or weed.

Wei Yuan’s spirits lifted. He did not know that the growth of spirit plants could enhance the nurturing of the realm stone and accelerate his cultivation.

Previously, Wei Yuan held a large amount of Heaven Merits, but did not know how to spend it. Now, he knew exactly what to exchange for—spirit plants.

Wei Yuan opened his merit booklet and took a look. At the moment, his Heaven Merit stood at 1,880, ranking him 101st.

The total Heaven Merit for slaying Blood Eye was 800, and he had received just over 700. The remaining 90 were claimed by the young masters and ladies. Of course, they hadn’t obtained the Heaven Merit for nothing. Wei Yuan had obtained eight wisps of blue qi in return, though they were unaware of it.

With so many Heaven Merits in hand, Wei Yuan felt confident that he could get something of worth. He headed straight for the merit hall to see what he could exchange them for.

Arriving at the entrance to the merit hall, Wei Yuan pushed the door open. His surroundings immediately shifted, and he found himself standing in an empty space. A door stood before him.

Wei Yuan let out an amused chuckle. In his haste, he had momentarily forgotten about the defensive array.

The array had successfully trapped and killed the Xu Clan’s Fourth Elder. Its power could not be understated. However, Wei Yuan knew the riddle to open the door and the location of the entrance, so he didn’t need to worry about straying off course. He could simply fly straight there. Thus, he didn’t intend to disturb his Big Senior Sister. He simply reached out and pushed the door open. 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

The array activated, sealing off the outside world. At the same time, a passage of text appeared on the door.

When Wei Yuan scanned it with his perception, he froze in place.

“There is an iron ball of a certain weight. If a person throws it upward with all their strength, the ball rises a hundred zhang into the air before falling back down. If this person throws it forward with the same force, how many zhang will the iron ball travel at its farthest[1]?”

A flood of rather unpleasant words instantly surged through Wei Yuan’s mind.

Fortunately, his studies of the Heaven and Earth Theory had not been in vain; he still remembered everything he had learned back then. Moments later, he finally arrived at the answer and opened a portal to the Void.

In the void, a direction had already been marked out for Wei Yuan. He could reach Qingming simply by flying along the trajectory traced by the iron ball. This time, though, he had to strictly follow the path and deviate by no more than one degree.

Cursing inside his head, Wei Yuan flew with the utmost caution. It wasn’t until his head was bathed in sweat that he finally entered the stone chamber housing Qingming. When he ascended a level, he arrived at the merit hall.

Wei Yuan could not help but complain inwardly: Big Senior Sister was a little too cautious, wasn’t she? He couldn’t believe that she had actually changed the array’s question!

Wei Yuan carefully recalled the details of his entry into the array. The more he thought about it, the more he felt something was amiss.

There were several new elements in the array that weren’t there before; Big Senior Sister must have added them recently. The first was probably a question bank, and the second was a timer that activated the third element at regular intervals. When the third element was activated, it would randomly select a question from the bank and then reset the array.

Wei Yuan was at a complete loss of words at this point. Only now did he recall that Ji Liuli had once been one of his centralized learning instructors. He never imagined that after all these years, he would find himself in her clutches again. Did this mean that from now on, he would have to brush up on his old lessons every time he wanted to redeem his merits?

At least there was one silver lining: he no longer had to worry about the security of the realm’s core. Even if another old-school array master like the Fourth Elder of the Xu Clan—one who only understood the old methods—were to show up, they wouldn’t stand a chance of breaching the array even if they spent decades trying. These questions were simply beyond their grasp, and trying to figure them out on their own was completely futile.

Inside the merit hall, a new fruit had formed on the bay laurel tree.

Wei Yuan picked up the jade tablet and connected it to the merit hall. Moments later, a directory appeared on the tablet. Wei Yuan flipped to the section on spirit plants—skipping over all the Dao Foundation stage ones—and focused solely on those of the Avatar stage.

The merit booklet listed dozens of Avatar stage spirit plants. Wei Yuan found his horizons broadening as he scanned through them one by one.

For instance, the Dragon Tear Tree was an entity that gathered the spirit qi of the world within itself. Once fully grown, the core wood could be extracted to create a ready-made mystic treasure-grade immortal sword. Sword cultivators such as Zhang Sheng and Xiao Yu could use them immediately upon reaching the Avatar stage.

The longer the sword was nurtured, the more it harmonized with its wielder, the greater its power became. It could be used all the way up to the World Ruler stage without needing to be replaced. However, the three stood thirty zhang tall and required eight hundred years to grow. It could neither be transported here, nor could Wei Yuan afford to wait that long.

Moments later, Wei Yuan had gone through all of the Avatar stage plants. After eliminating those that were too large or had too long a growth cycle, he was able to narrow his selection down to three.

The first was the Thunder Crystal Tree. Once planted, it would attract thunderbolts from the heavens. The longer it grew, the more powerful the thunderbolts it attracted. If the ground around the tree was covered with a special type of ore, it would gradually transform into a rare spirit ore thanks to the thunderbolts. It was said that the tree could live up to ten thousand years, and had a slim chance of breaking through its limits and advancing to a higher tier.

However, lightning could stroke at any moment within a ten-li radius once it was planted, making the area uninhabitable and incapable of supporting any other vegetation.

The merit hall had a single Thunder Crystal Tree sapling. It could be exchanged for 1,200 Heaven Merits.

The second was the Spirit Immortal Grass. The grass typically matured in fifty years and served as a secondary ingredient in many Avatar-stage medicines, making its value quite stable. Additionally, the grass could gradually improve the surrounding environment. Each seed was worth fifty Heaven Merits.

The third was the Immortal Apricot of Ambrosia. A rare immortal tree, it usually bore fruit once per fifty years and produced immortal apricots that could enhance the cultivation of Avatar stage cultivators. It was also a common primary ingredient in Avatar stage medicines. It was reliable and practical, though lacking any surprises.

The merit hall currently had one ten-year-old sapling available. It required five hundred Heaven Merits to redeem.

Wei Yuan agonized over the three spirit plants for a long time, but he ultimately selected the Thunder Crystal Tree. After he made his selection, the bay laurel fruit slowly swelled until it split open, dropping a small sapling into his hand. At the same time, his available Heaven Merits were reduced to 670.

The sapling was about the size of a human palm. Its trunk was crystal clear and translucent, resembling deep-blue crystal. No matter how he looked at it, it did not resemble a tree.

A piece of jade paper had been delivered alongside the sapling. It detailed the method for cultivating the thunder tree, the accompanying array, and several types of ore capable of undergoing metamorphosis via thunder.

Wei Yuan scanned the information with his perception and discovered that the ores were all quite rare. He had never even heard of most of them. These ores were indispensable if he wished to fully utilize the Thunder Crystal Tree, but they could only be obtained through exchange with the Palace. Once refined by thunder, they would all transform into exceptionally rare immortal materials.

Immortal materials of this caliber were beyond the reach of the average small sects and schools, let alone independent artificers. Only a colossus like the Mastercraft Hall could make use of them—and they would like to acquire as many as they possibly could.

It was precisely because not many people could use them that the purchase price for these minerals weren’t particularly high. Wei Yuan estimated that the annual profit would average to roughly ten percent only.

In fact, upon closer inspection, it became clear that the raw stones were already priced two or three times higher at the time of the exchange, yet the purchase price was driven down by at least fifty percent. With this back-and-forth, the Palace of Absolute Beginning was making a profit of at least six or seven times the original cost. Moreover, once the Thunder Crystal Tree was exchanged, one would have to continuously buy raw stones from the Palace, and sell the processed ores to them, providing the Palace with a steady stream of immortal silver.

But this was the main reason why Wei Yuan had exchanged the Thunder Crystal Tree.

The northeastern side of the realm consisted mostly of rolling hills and lowlands, and Wei Yuan planned on planting the Thunder Crystal Tree there. Once established, he would enjoy a stable supply of raw materials, and the Palace would handle the purchase of the processed ores. He would have virtually nothing to worry about. All he needed to do was to collect the stones and exchange them for silver every year.

With this Thunder Crystal Tree—a middle-grade spirit plant among all Avatar spirit plants—Wei Yuan’s cultivation progress would also improve significantly. All in all, it was a good deal.

After the bay laurel fruit fell off, a new bud sprouted from the branch and began to bear a new fruit. If he wished to perform another exchange, he could use Jia Wood Nurtures Life to accelerate its growth. The fruit would mature much faster and become usable in just half a day.

In truth, what truly caught Wei Yuan’s interest was an immortal plant called the Frost Gold Laurel. Considered the mortal-world variant of the Bay Laurel Immortal Tree and said to possess a trace of its bloodline, it was priced at a whopping 10,000 Heaven Merits.

After obtaining the Thunder Crystal Tree, Wei Yuan took the sapling and sought out his Big Senior Sister. The sapling could not be planted willy-nilly; it had to be cultivated within a specific array. And when it came to setting up arrays, no one could compare to his Big Senior Sister as a matter of course.

1. Kekeke, start doing the math, people. ☜