“Master, they’ve sprouted, they’ve sprouted!” Little Strong excitedly waved his large pincers and exclaimed in delight.
Currently, Little Strong couldn’t speak outside this space, but within it, he could easily communicate mentally with Alaric Ye.
Alaric’s heart was also filled with immense excitement.
He had bought spirit herb seeds, which would take two to three months to sprout in the spirit farms of the Top Xuan Sect, where Spiritual Qi was abundant. In less Qi-rich areas, it could take ten to twenty years for them to sprout.
Yet, in the space of the Ancient Ring of the Insect Emperor, it had only taken a few breaths for all five hundred spirit herb seeds to sprout and start growing. It was nothing short of a miracle!
Alaric once again felt the immense power and mystery of the Ancient Ring of the Insect Emperor.
However, the excitement didn’t last long. When all the spirit herbs grew to about two inches above the ground, they all stopped growing, or at least their growth was no longer visible to the naked eye.
“What’s going on? Why did they stop growing? I thought Master could harvest five hundred hundred-year-old spirit herbs in a day and get rich!” Little Strong said, frustrated.
Little White said, “I sensed the concentration of Spiritual Qi around us dropping rapidly. Master needs more Spirit Stones to make them grow.”
Alaric was also a bit frustrated. He had thought he was about to get rich, but now he realized it wasn’t that easy. If he could cultivate all five hundred spirit herbs to a hundred-year-old level, they would be worth at least a few hundred Spirit Stones, while his cost was only thirty Spirit Stones for the seeds and ten Spirit Stones for growth aids.
The so-called hundred-year-old level referred to spirit herbs growing for a hundred years in areas with thin Spiritual Qi, while in Qi-rich areas, it often took just over a decade to reach that level.
Now, Alaric’s hope of getting rich was almost shattered.
“Little White, how many Spirit Stones do you estimate it would take to grow all five hundred spirit herbs to a hundred-year-old level, suitable for medicine?”
Little White, somewhat dejected, said, “They’ve just sprouted. It would take at least several thousand Spirit Stones to cultivate them all to that level…”
Alaric’s mindset collapsed.
Even if he cultivated them, selling them all wouldn’t fetch a thousand Spirit Stones, but it would cost him several thousand Spirit Stones. Wasn’t that just pure loss?
The only advantage was that they grew quickly. As long as he had Spirit Stones, he could get a batch of fresh spirit herbs in minutes. But if he had that many Spirit Stones, wouldn’t it be better to buy them from shops outside? Why choose to suffer losses in this space…
His mood plummeted. If the space in the Ancient Ring of the Insect Emperor couldn’t cultivate enough five-element spirit plants at low cost, his “Five Elements Primordial Art” and “Five Elements Vajra Technique” couldn’t be practiced quickly.
It was as if his trip to the Skill Transference Pavilion was in vain.
Just as he showed a bitter smile, Little White’s gentle voice entered Alaric’s mind again.
“Master, don’t be too disheartened. The Ancient Ring of the Insect Emperor is a sacred relic passed down by your family. Its functions shouldn’t be this simple. This space is very mysterious and needs to be explored slowly.”
Hearing Little White’s gentle and considerate voice, Alaric felt a bit better.
“Indeed, maybe this space is meant for you spirit insects to live and comprehend secret techniques. It’s not necessarily suitable for cultivating spirit plants. After all, our Ye Family is an ancient clan of insect controllers, not alchemists.”
However, he still faced a huge loss of forty Spirit Stones.
All his possessions amounted to only seventy Spirit Stones.
These spirit herb seedlings were worth quite a bit, but cautious Alaric couldn’t sell them in large quantities.
Anyone with a keen eye would quickly notice that he had bought seeds a few days ago and was selling large quantities of seedlings every two days. They might suspect he had a treasure, thus exposing the secret of the Ancient Ring of the Insect Emperor.
No matter how he made money, he had to minimize the risk of exposing the Ancient Ring. His initial idea was only to cultivate a large number of spirit plants to speed up his cultivation, not to sell them in large quantities.
Just as Alaric was at a loss, bleeding in his heart over the huge loss from this attempt, Little White’s voice came again.
“Master, Master, you just reminded me. Since Master is from an ancient clan of insect controllers, everything in the Ancient Ring of the Insect Emperor must be related to insect control. Could these sprouted spirit herbs also be related to insect control?”
“When Little White got close to the spirit herb sprouts, I felt a very enticing aura. But maybe because the herbs haven’t fully grown, this feeling is very faint. Can Little White try eating a leaf?”
Alaric’s eyes suddenly lit up.
“Of course!”
The spirit herb seeds Alaric bought were non-toxic.
Little White’s huge head lowered, gently biting off a tender green leaf from a metal-attributed spirit herb, then slowly chewed and swallowed it.
After a short while, Little White exclaimed in surprise, “I… I think I understand.”
“The spirit plants and herbs cultivated by the Ancient Ring of the Insect Emperor become more suitable for us to devour. The five-element Qi in the herbs becomes more intense. After eating the metal-attributed herb, Little White feels my scales, teeth, and bones becoming tougher, though the effect is still very weak.”
“So, this mysterious space only cultivates spirit herbs and medicines more suitable for spirit insects to devour.”
Alaric’s eyes brightened.
“So that’s it, that’s it! Little White, you’re so smart!”
“Thank you for the compliment, Master!” Little White said, a bit proud.
Finally, Alaric understood another major function of the Ancient Ring of the Insect Emperor. Cultivating these spirit plants was indeed very costly, but their effects were significant.
They were no longer ordinary spirit plants but mutated, specially modified by the Ancient Ring of the Insect Emperor.
Although this meant he couldn’t use these spirit plants to make money, Alaric wasn’t too disappointed. If he couldn’t sell them, he could use them himself.
After all, spirit herbs could nurture spirit insects, enhancing the power of Little White and Little Strong. Since they contained richer five-element Qi, they could also be used to practice the “Five Elements Primordial Art” and “Five Elements Vajra Technique” with twice the result for half the effort.
At the same time, he had a bold idea.
That was to nurture powerful spirit insects with spirit herbs and medicines instead of using his blood for long-term feeding.
After all, his blood was very precious and could only feed a small number of spirit plants, not on a large scale. But these spirit herbs could be produced in large quantities!
Of course, the prerequisite was that he needed a vast amount of Spirit Stones.
Once again, he faced the ultimate problem that everyone, whether mortal or cultivator, faced.
How to get rich quickly? How to make big money?
Now, he had only thirty Spirit Stones left and a slightly worn Blue Rainbow Sword worth about twenty Spirit Stones, totaling fifty Spirit Stones. He had to spend them sparingly.
When Alaric was in the mortal world, he thought immortals lived in palaces made of gold and jade. He never imagined that even after becoming a true Upper Immortal, he still couldn’t escape the plight of being “poor.”
At least he wasn’t left with nothing, right?
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