Chapter 183: Tombstone Moss
After handing over a substantial amount of sect contribution points, Gu Mo finally received the spiritual plant he had exchanged them for—the SunlightGlazed Flower.
At first glance, one would easily mistake the SunlightGlazed Flower for a decorative glasswork, as it looked nothing like a plant. Its entire form was a translucent, shimmering glaze, more like crystal than flora.
If not for the vitality faintly radiating from within, even Gu Mo would have thought it was an artificial ornament. With the flower in hand, he wasted no time heading straight to his spiritual field to plant it.
He had already researched the cultivation method for the SunlightGlazed Flower in the sect's library when he first learned about it. Fortunately, he'd found the method without much difficulty.
The biggest challenge in growing the SunlightGlazed Flower was its reliance on solar energy. That alone had convinced Gu Mo to proceed with the exchange.
Had it required other demanding conditions in addition to Solar energy, he would've reconsidered.
This was the advantage of having access to cultivation methods—one could understand a plant's requirements in advance. Just like how alchemists treasure their pill formulas, cultivation methods for spiritual plants were closely guarded secrets.
Only in a top-tier sect like Shennong Valley, where spiritual plant cultivation was a major path, could one so easily obtain these methods. Outside the sect, even acquiring the method for cultivating a single spiritual plant would be no easy feat.
Of course, not all cultivation methods in Shennong Valley were readily available. Those for higher-grade spiritual plants still required sect contribution to obtain.
However, the SunlightGlazed Flower's method was free, precisely because the conditions for its growth were so stringent that few cultivators could meet them.
If they'd charged for it as well, even fewer people would bother attempting to cultivate it—possibly leading to its extinction one day.
And the extinction of a spiritual plant was a significant loss for any spiritual plant cultivator. Part of Shennong Valley's mission was to protect and preserve endangered species.
Though the SunlightGlazed Flower wasn't endangered yet, the difficulty of obtaining Solar energy for its cultivation meant it was already on the decline.
Gu Mo cleared a small plot of land in his field and reviewed the planting process in his mind. After confirming the details, he began the task.
Planting the SunlightGlazed Flower was simple: dig a hole, cover it with soil, done.
But planting it and making it thrive were two different matters. The key challenge lay in providing it with solar energy—the critical step in cultivation.
Fortunately, that hardest step was actually the easiest for Gu Mo.
After planting the flower, Gu Mo pulled out a vial of Tier-3 Sun Essence and placed it near the plant.
Bathed in the radiant light of the essence, the glass-like flower began to glow golden—not simply reflecting the light, but actively absorbing it.
As the SunlightGlazed Flower drew in the Sun Essence, Gu Mo could sense the surge of life energy from it. It was clear: Sun Essence far surpassed ordinary solar energy in effectiveness.
The plant immediately entered its growth phase. Gu Mo then activated Plant Perception, revealing the intricate meridian network inside the flower. As a Tier-3 spiritual plant, the SunlightGlazed Flower's meridians were naturally complex, though still far inferior to Elder Xiaohua.
Despite both being Tier-3, Xiaohua and the SunlightGlazed Flower were worlds apart. The latter didn't even have a spirit, let alone the ability to take human form.
After studying the meridian layout, Gu Mo began accelerating its growth, aiding the flower in absorbing the Sun Essence and speeding up its development.
With the combined power of the Sun Essence and Gu Mo's accelerated growth technique, the plant's development skyrocketed. In this state, a single minute equated to nearly a year of natural growth.
Such a dramatic pace was possible thanks to the purity of the Tier-3 top-grade Sun Essence.
An hour later, the SunlightGlazed Flower had completed a full cycle of blooming and fruiting.
Gu Mo harvested over a dozen glass-like beads, each no larger than a soybean—these were the flower's seeds, and each one contained a trace of Sun Essence.
To obtain them, Gu Mo had used up several hundred portions of Sun Essence. Accelerated growth always came at a cost—some cultivators sacrificed a plant's potential; Gu Mo chose to burn through valuable resources.
Thanks to this, the SunlightGlazed Flower retained its full potential and even showed faint signs of evolving to a higher tier, having absorbed so much Sun Essence.
This delighted Gu Mo. With such promise, the plant might one day reach Tier-4 when he eventually acquired a Tier-4 Solar Flower—a potential future disguise for his true treasure.
For now, he returned to his small courtyard with the newly harvested seeds. After all, the SunlightGlazed Flower was meant to be a decoy, drawing attention away from the real solar plant.
Time passed swiftly in Gu Mo's life of farming and cultivation—in the blink of an eye, three years had gone by.
For mortals, three years was no short span, but to a Core Formation cultivator who trained in the Taiyi Evergreen Sutra, it was gone in a flash.
Yet in that time, Gu Mo had made remarkable progress. The dozen or so seeds he planted had grown into radiant, glassy blossoms, shining brilliantly under the sun.
Every three days, he now harvested a modest amount of solar energy from these flowers. He even tested refining that energy into Sun Essence—but the result still didn't match the purity of essence derived from the true Solar Flower.
Nevertheless, it served well enough to mislead others.
Meanwhile, the Solar Flowers in his spiritual field had advanced significantly. Over the past three years, Gu Mo's Tier-3 Solar Flower count had risen to 300, with 100 of them at top-tier.
That was the maximum his five-acre Tier-3 spiritual field could support. To go further, he'd have to either expand the field or upgrade its quality.
Gu Mo chose the latter. As long as he had enough contribution points, the sect could upgrade his field's grade—something only possible in areas nourished by ancient Tier-5 trees that transmitted spiritual energy through their roots.
But Gu Mo wasn't in a rush. Upgrading from Tier-3 Low-Grade to Mid-Grade or High-Grade wouldn't bring transformative benefits. He intended to save up and go straight for a Tier-4 upgrade—a true leap forward.
For now, the daily Sun Essence from his Tier-3 flowers was enough to slowly upgrade his other plants.
Although Shennong Valley didn't currently require combat plants, Gu Mo wasn't about to halt his upgrades. He merely slowed the pace.
In the past three years, he'd continued testing his luck with the vending machine's mystery boxes. While most pulls were duplicates, he did get something new—
Name: Tombstone Moss
Grade: Tier-1 Low-Grade
Effect: Dismantles formations and restrictions
Cultivation Requirements: None
After obtaining this moss, Gu Mo rigorously tested it and confirmed that its brief description was accurate.
Tombstone Moss could erode formations and restrictive enchantments. Planting it on a formation's light screen would eventually corrode a hole through it.
It could even disrupt certain advanced restrictions.
The only downside was its slow working speed, as it needed time to grow on the target. But because the process was completely silent, it was perfect for stealth operations—just not for active combat.
With Tombstone Moss, it was no longer feasible to trap Gu Mo using ordinary formations.
Unless the enemy used mid-to-high Tier-4 formations, even most low-Tier-4 great arrays—like those protecting many large Nascent Soul sects—could be infiltrated.
With enough top-grade Tier-3 Tombstone Moss, Gu Mo could breach such defenses silently.
Of course, unless provoked, he had no intention of invading other sects. But if an enemy—like Fenghua Sect, his old foe in the Qinghe Realm—crossed the line, it'd be a different story.
Once he reached Nascent Soul, Gu Mo fully intended to use the moss to sneak into their mountain and deliver a ruthless blow.
Beyond battles, Tombstone Moss was ideal for exploring ruins and secret realms, which were often riddled with traps and enchantments. With this moss, obtaining the treasures within would be far safer.
That's why Gu Mo spent a significant portion of his Sun Essence stockpiling and upgrading his Tombstone Moss.
Not just that—Potato Mines, Cherry Bombs—he was amassing them all. His goal was to upgrade these plants to Tier-3 top-grade first. Once he had a Tier-4 spiritual field and Tier-4 Solar Flowers, these could be rapidly pushed to Tier-4 combat plants.
That would instantly grant Gu Mo Tier-4 combat strength.
Even if he hadn't obtained a Tier-4 spiritual field, in an emergency, he could force an upgrade using large amounts of Tier-3 Sun Essence—giving himself a powerful life-saving card.
But for now, that wasn't necessary. Gu Mo already had a reliable lifesaving jade talisman, a gift from his grandmaster Hou Chunyu for successfully cultivating the SunlightGlazed Flower.
The talisman could protect him from even a Nascent Soul cultivator's pursuit.
With such a safety net, Gu Mo didn't need to rush.
"Xiao Mo! Xiao Mo!"
As Gu Mo reflected on his three years of progress, a girl and a fish burst excitedly into his courtyard—it was Elder Xiaohua and Little Carp. Xiaohua was holding a jade vial filled with harvested solar energy from the SunlightGlazed Flowers.
Ever since seeing the flowers, Xiaohua had been obsessed and volunteered to tend them herself, with Gu Mo paying her for her efforts.
Originally, she wanted the solar energy itself as compensation. But after Gu Mo let her try a portion of refined Sun Essence, she immediately changed her mind.
Now she exchanged collected solar energy for purified Sun Essence instead. As for why she always seemed to get more Essence than she'd collected in energy, her innocent mind never questioned it.
"Elder Xiaohua, this batch is pretty good," Gu Mo praised as he accepted the vial.
"Then…"
Xiaohua looked up at him with hopeful eyes.
"This time, you get two portions of Sun Essence," Gu Mo said with a smile, handing them over.
"Master! Master! I want some too!"
Little Carp quickly chimed in—after all, she'd helped as well.
"You're not forgotten." Gu Mo stuffed two portions of Sun Essence into her mouth too.
This tiny bit of solar energy had been exchanged for four full portions of refined Essence—any sane person would see something was off.
But these two clearly didn't think about such things, and Gu Mo didn't care. A few extra portions meant nothing to him now.
He had already noticed changes in Xiaohua's cultivation after absorbing Sun Essence—Gu Mo was now genuinely hopeful that she'd soon ascend to become a Tier-4 Demon King.
The same went for Little Carp, who had awakened true dragon blood. Gu Mo looked forward to the day she reached the Demon King realm and took human form.
With their rewards in hand, the two dashed off happily to the next room to enjoy their spoils. Gu Mo stood, walked out to his courtyard, and opened the gate.
Standing there was his grandmaster, Hou Chunyu.
"Disciple-grandson, are you going to participate in the sect's spiritual plant exhibition?" Hou Chunyu asked bluntly.
"Of course," Gu Mo replied with a nod.
Shennong Valley held a grand spiritual plant competition every ten years, but every three years they hosted an exhibition where disciples could showcase their cultivated plants.
The elders would evaluate the displays, and those with the best results would receive sect rewards.
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