"Greetings, Senior Hu!"
Lu Lingi curtsied sweetly, her voice laced with a faint, barely noticeable allure. She truly lived up to her natural charm—still not fully grown, yet already so captivating. Once she matured, she would surely be a devastating beauty. In the mortal world, she would be a surefire Daji-level enchantress.
However, Gu Mo rely gave a slight nod. With his pseudo-Core stage spiritual sense, a young girl like her—still in the early stages of cultivation—had no hope of swaying him.
In the mortal realm, a natural enchantress physique could wreak havoc, but in the cultivation world, it wasn't particularly rare. Compared to Chu Feifei's Exotic Fragrance Constitution, it was worlds apart.
Still, a natural enchantress physique combined with a lower-grade water spiritual root made her quite a promising seedling.
With his pseudo-Core spiritual sense, Gu Mo only needed a cursory scan to see through most of a Qi Refining cultivator's secrets.
"Master Hu, I'll be occupied with family affairs for a while. If you ever need soone to run errands, you may summon my daughter," Fang Jiaoyan said, without directly asking Gu Mo to take her daughter as a disciple. A sudden request like that had a high chance of rejection.
Such things, once declined, rarely had a second chance.
So instead, Fang Jiaoyan planned to have her daughter serve as an attendant by the master's side for a while. Once the master saw the girl's talent, perhaps he might consider taking her as a disciple. Even if not, a few pointers on cultivating sword bamboo would greatly benefit the Lu family.
"Alright."
Gu Mo nodded without objection. He did indeed have small tasks that needed handling. As for Fang Jiaoyan's real intentions, Gu Mo could easily guess them. Still, he had no plans to take on a disciple—he wasn't even an official disciple of the Shennong Valley yet, so he wasn't qualified to take students.
Only after formally completing his initiation ceremony at Shennong Valley would Gu Mo be recognized as a proper disciple. As a direct student of Qi Chunde, he would be granted at least inner-sect disciple status.
Inner-sect disciples were required to undergo formal initiation. Only outer-sect and servant disciples were exempt from such rituals.
"Lingi, just go about your usual tasks. If I need you, I'll let you know." Gu Mo handed Lu Lingi a communication jade slip before returning to the spiritual field's formation.
He had no intention of letting her enter the field itself—there were too many secrets within, including certain plants that could reveal their identities if spotted. It was imperative to keep them hidden.
"Yes, Master!"
Lu Lingi accepted the jade slip, her gaze briefly showing a trace of surprise. For the first ti, she questioned the power of her own charm. But recalling what her mother had said about the man being a highly skilled spiritual plant master, she let it go.
A true master wouldn't be swayed so easily. If she had managed to charm him outright, she would have suspected the man was a fraud.
In the days that followed, Lu Lingi built a small hut just outside the formation, ready to appear at Gu Mo's call whenever needed.
"Finally done!"
Inside the cultivation space, Gu Mo stared at the now fully green upgrade arrow with barely restrained excitent. At last, he had filled the upgrade bar for his Tier-2 high-grade sunflower.
Now, all he had to do was tap the green arrow, and the plant would evolve into a Tier-3 sunflower.
"Phew!"
Taking a deep breath, Gu Mo pressed the arrow. Instantly, the sunflower in the cultivation pot was engulfed in radiant light. Its aura quickly grew in strength and, before long, surpassed a critical threshold, officially reaching Tier-3.
Externally, the Tier-3 sunflower didn't look too different, but Gu Mo keenly sensed a faint emotional fluctuation from it.
"This is…"
He was stunned. The sunflower had developed sentience. While not unheard of in the cultivation world—so high-tier spiritual plants could even take human form—Gu Mo hadn't expected this sunflower to evolve consciousness.
The awareness was still rudintary, only capable of conveying basic emotions, but it was a good start. As the plant advanced, its intelligence would likely grow as well.
If the sunflower could develop sentience, what about his other plants—like the Peashooters? Should they evolve sentience too, their attacks could beco significantly more intelligent.
In the future, as Gu Mo's plant army expanded, micromanaging each one would be impractical. But if they all developed awareness, a single command would be enough to orchestrate them efficiently.
Of course, for now, the sunflower's intelligence had little practical value. The most important aspect was the solar essence it could now produce.
Gu Mo transplanted the upgraded Tier-3 sunflower into the spiritual field and waited for a day to see what kind of essence it could generate in a Tier-2 top-grade field.
Night fell.
Gu Mo eagerly harvested the sunflower's essence. As before, it appeared as a tiny, illusory sun—but this ti, faint silvery light flickered within it.
"That's… Danforce!"
Gu Mo imdiately recognized the silver shimr. It was the pseudo-Core Danforce his clone wielded.
Refining the essence and feeling the silver-tinged spiritual power flow into his body, Gu Mo confird his guess: this incomplete Tier-3 essence could indeed provide pseudo-Core-level Danforce.
Fortunately, Gu Mo's own physique and spiritual sense were already at the pseudo-Core stage, so he had no trouble controlling this power.
In fact, if he needed more pseudo-Core Danforce, he could just siphon so from his clone. So while the Tier-3 essence wasn't a massive leap for Gu Mo personally—unlike the Tier-2 essence that had allowed him to reach Foundation Establishnt-level power while still in the Qi Refining stage—it held enormous value for upgrading his other plants.
Using Tier-3 essence on other plants would drastically increase their evolution speed, allowing him to bring more of them to Tier-3 quickly.
Moreover, this incomplete Tier-3 essence offered the pseudo-Core clone a chance to break past its limitations.
Both pseudo-Core and external Core cultivators were normally unable to advance further due to their flawed cores. But this essence, infused with pseudo-Core Danforce, might allow his clone to keep progressing.
And if this incomplete essence already held such power, then a complete Tier-3 solar essence would likely contain true Core Formation Danforce.
If the clone could refine that, perhaps it could repair its flawed core and evolve into a true Core Formation cultivator.
Currently, the clone served as Gu Mo's personal protector. But as Gu Mo's strength grew, a stagnating clone would eventually be left behind.
This new essence gave Gu Mo hope of pushing the clone even further. Still, it was just a theory—he needed to test it personally.
"I'll wait a few more days."
Gu Mo decided not to summon the clone imdiately. He would first gather several more doses of the Tier-3 essence.
A few days later...
A figure silently entered the spiritual formation. With the clone's current power and its jade token granting it access, not even the Lu family noticed its presence—not even Lu Lingi, who was stationed just outside.
Her cultivation was far too low to perceive the clone as it passed by her.
Once it arrived, Gu Mo handed over several incomplete Tier-3 solar essences, which the clone imdiately absorbed.
"It worked."
Monts later, Gu Mo sensed the result—the pseudo-Core Danforce had indeed strengthened the clone's power. The improvent was slight, but for a cultivator whose realm was supposedly capped, it was earth-shattering.
This breakthrough shattered conventional wisdom. If Gu Mo's clone could continue growing stronger, perhaps one day it could rival a true Core Formation cultivator.
Unfortunately, Gu Mo currently had only one Tier-3 sunflower, and its essence was also needed to upgrade other plants. He couldn't devote all of it to the clone just yet.
Once he had more Tier-3 sunflowers, he could allocate so solely for the clone's advancent.
Better still would be acquiring a Tier-3 spiritual field, which would produce complete Tier-3 essences. That would be the mont when the sunflower truly revolutionized his cultivation.
Gu Mo didn't particularly care for pseudo-Core Danforce—but true Core Formation Danforce would be a major boost for both him and his clone.
If he could replace all of his inner liquid spiritual power with Core Formation Danforce, then use the Spiritual Tempering Technique to reinforce his body to that level, he could use his body to nourish his soul, allowing him to attain Core Formation power while still at the Foundation Establishnt stage.
As for whether holding Core Formation Danforce while still in Foundation Establishnt would cause a bottleneck like what happened between Qi Refining and Foundation Establishnt—Gu Mo doubted it.
Previously, he had only been blocked from reaching Foundation Establishnt because he'd already fulfilled all its conditions while still in the Qi Refining realm.
But reaching Core Formation required forming a Core. Simply holding Core-level Danforce wasn't enough to make soone a Core Formation cultivator.
When the ti ca, Gu Mo could use that Danforce to form a real Core—it would be far easier than using regular liquid spiritual power.
Perhaps this would be the sunflower's true contribution to helping him break into the Core Formation realm. Its help this ti wasn't as direct as when it gifted him liquid spiritual power at Tier-2, which had allowed him to et all Foundation Establishnt requirents while still in Qi Refining.
That had let him possess Foundation Establishnt power early, but also made his actual breakthrough into that realm more troubleso.
Now, the sunflower rely provided Danforce—forming the Core was still up to him. This ti, he wouldn't get stuck.
If he had to create a pseudo-Core clone just to break into Foundation Establishnt, he couldn't exactly make a Nascent Soul-level clone to break into the next realm...
After confirming the effect of the Tier-3 solar essence, Gu Mo had the clone leave. With only one sunflower available, the essence had to be used to upgrade other plants for now.
While Gu Mo was busy with his plant upgrades, the Lu family was embroiled in a debate—was it really appropriate to lease a Tier-2 top-grade spiritual field to an outsider?
Previously, most clan mbers had opposed the idea. But after Fang Jiaoyan revealed that the revenue had multiplied several tis compared to previous years, many changed their minds.
At the end of the day, cold hard profits were the most tangible benefit. With more money, the clan could offer its mbers better resources and opportunities.
Compared to that, leasing the land to an outsider didn't seem like such a big deal anymore. In fact, they should probably be grateful to the master who had rented it—otherwise, where would all this inco have co from?
Certainly, there were still many within the Lu family who voiced their opposition. To be precise, they weren't against the increase in revenue—they were against Fang Jiaoyan.
Fang Jiaoyan's actions had earned her greater influence within the clan, sothing Lu Rong absolutely did not want to see happen.
But Lu Rong also knew that under the current circumstances, toppling Fang Jiaoyan would be extrely difficult. She had brought tangible benefits to the family—who would stand against her now?
Only those aligned with Lu Rong's faction continued their opposition, because if Fang Jiaoyan were ousted and Lu Rong took over as clan leader, it would be their faction who reaped the greatest benefits.
"Elder, what should we do?" In Lu Rong's residence, several of the core faction mbers looked at him with deep concern.
With the fall of the previous clan leader, they had believed it was their chance to rise. But no one had expected Fang Jiaoyan to be so fortunate as to lease the spirit fields to a Spirit Plant Master. Now that the clan's inco had skyrocketed, who would still oppose her?
"What are you panicking for? I have my own thods," Lu Rong said, tapping the table. He did indeed have another plan—but one that ca with a steep price.
Yet when he thought about his dwindling lifespan, Lu Rong ultimately decided to take the gamble. He didn't want to die of old age just yet. He still had one more fight left in him.
The Xu Family.
"Can't even wait a single year?" Xu Guangquan chuckled as he looked at the invitation Lu Rong had secretly sent. A smile crept across his lips.
Without hesitation, Xu Guangquan rose and set out for Immortal City, ready to et Lu Rong.
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