Conditions for the Purple Soldier Bean
The Scripture Pavilion was just as majestic a sight as ever, even on this second visit. This time, though, she headed not for the main hall but the smaller annex attached to it. A wooden plaque above the entrance clearly read Book Pavilion.
She'd heard it housed miscellaneous texts on plants and spirit beasts. Most disciples looking for cultivation methods or spells stuck to the main pavilion, so the atmosphere here was quiet and serene.
"Wonder if they've got what I'm after."
Stepping inside, she saw bookshelves lined neatly along the walls. Her reason for coming was straightforward. She could harvest and check the Qingxin Beans herself next week. The issue was the Purple Soldier Beans. With only two left in her storage pouch, it felt like a terrible waste to just let them sit after witnessing the power of those purple bean soldiers in the tournament arena.
Blindly planting them in the spirit field and killing both would be a disaster too. Sure, her abilities would let her figure out the cause even after one failure. But she didn't have spirit beans to spare for trial and error.
That's why I'm scouting info first.
Approaching the shelves, she noted wooden tags marking each category: Plants, Spirit Beasts... Geography. The classifications were impressively detailed at a glance. After a quick scan, she moved to the Plants section.
Let's narrow it down step by step.
Her finger trailed slowly along the book spines. There were more volumes than expected. Compendium of Herbs and Plants, Miscellany of Spirit Herbs, Introduction to Spirit Herbs. After groping along for a while, a worn book caught her eye.
Compendium of Herbs and Plants: Appendix
— Bean Varieties —
"This is it."
She pulled it out and headed to the nearest table. Flipping it open, the aged paper rustled crisply, but the contents were undamaged. The Bean Varieties section was thicker than expected. It looked like a slim appendix from the cover, but inside it was packed with names she'd never seen before—some sounding extraordinary just from their titles.
"Way more varieties than I thought."
She needed info on two things: records of mutated Qingxin Beans and how to grow Purple Soldier Beans. Luckily, the Qingxin Bean entry came up quickly.
[Qingxin Bean]
Nourishes vital energy and clears the mind when consumed. Typical growth period is around two years.
"So that's the normal timeline."
The growth speed in her spirit field was anything but normal, no matter how she sliced it. And there was the info she'd been hunting for, right below it.
However, if the soil is rich in wood qi and vital energy never wanes, maturity can be hastened. Rarely, mutations may occur, producing variant strains.
"Nice."
Her finger paused there. Reading on confirmed her suspicions.
Variant Qingxin Beans have pointed leaves and short, plump pods.
If it wasn't an illusion, this matched the book's description—a real mutation. Whatever, I'll know for sure after harvest. Committing it to memory, she turned the page.
After Qingxin Beans came spirit beans for the Bean Soldier Technique in sequence: Black Armored Beans, Iron Skin Beans, True Spear Beans. Tempting, but she only had Qingxin and Purple Soldier Beans on hand right now. Urgent fires first.
[Purple Soldier Bean]
A heteromorphic variant among spirit beans. Mere plant growth cannot fully manifest its nature; it requires wood qi infused with blood qi to achieve true quality.
"Blood qi, huh..."
Her eyes dropped to the next line.
Planted in ordinary spirit soil, it may rot. Even if it survives, it often loses its purple hue and degenerates into an ordinary bean.
Thus, cultivation requires awakening it with pure blood essence from a rank-3 demon beast.
"...Yeah, no way it was that simple."
It needed to consume a demon beast's energy to grow properly. A footnote noted that ordinary demon beast blood wasn't enough— it had to be from a pure wood-attribute one.
She closed the book and stood. This time, she crossed to the Demon Beasts shelf opposite.
Illustrated Guide to Demon Beasts, Classic of Mountains and Seas... Records of the Five Elements Demon Beasts. She skimmed briefly and pulled out the last one first. As the name suggested, it categorized spirit beasts by the five elements.
Opening it on the table, entries divided by element jumped out. She flipped to the wood-attribute section.
Wood Spirit Rat (목령서)
Azure Wood Serpent (청목사)
...
Long Wood Ape (장목원)
She memorized the wood-attribute demon beast names, closed the book, slotted it back, and left the Book Pavilion.
A bit deeper past the Scripture Pavilion, a street bustled with shops dealing in cultivation supplies. Spirit herbs, talismans, pills, magic tools for purchase and repair—disciples could find pretty much anything they needed for practice here.
The most eye-catching was the large emporium smack in the middle. A grand sign above the entrance proclaimed in bold characters:
Thousand Treasures Pavilion
The interior was even more spacious than it looked. Walls displayed cauldrons, pill-forging materials, and finished magic tools in neat arrays. A few cultivators haggled prices with clerks; elsewhere, someone bulk-bought materials.
She approached the quietest counter, where a young man greeted her from within.
"What are you looking for?"
"Got any rank-3 or higher wood-attribute demon beast blood essence?"
He flipped through his ledger with practiced ease.
"One vial of Wood Spirit Rat essence. Half a vial of Long Wood Ape left."
"Prices?"
"Wood Spirit Rat: two mid-grade spirit stones. Long Wood Ape: two mid-grade plus ten low-grade."
Her fingers stiffened slightly.
"...Two mid-grade spirit stones?"
"Yes. Wood-attribute essences are in high demand—prices stay firm. Herb cultivators and wood path practitioners snap them up."
She'd won mid-grade stones from the tournament prize, but burning two at once still stung. Fingertip pressing her storage pouch, she faintly sensed the two Purple Soldier Beans inside.
It hurts, but... solving it with money this once makes sense.
"One vial of Wood Spirit Rat essence, please."
"Right away."
The clerk closed his ledger, fetched a small jade vial from the back—about two finger-widths tall, etched with thin sealing runes—and presented it carefully.
She inspected it, then pulled two mid-grade spirit stones from her pouch. The moment they touched the counter, her heart ached.
If only my body were fully recovered...
As she started to pull away, a thought struck her.
"Hey."
"Yes?"
"I'm a direct disciple of Qingling Peak."
"Yes, I figured."
"As a direct disciple... any perks or anything?"
"Like what, exactly?"
She cleared her throat and lowered her voice.
"You know, discounts. Or first-time buyer special."
For a split second, his eyes flashed with What the hell? before he fell silent, then replied in crisp, deliberate tones.
"Thousand Treasures Pavilion operates on fixed pricing."
"...Not even a copper?"
His unmoving gaze said it all. She sighed, placed the two stones on the counter. One last desperate try:
"Really, not even a little?"
He beamed and nodded.
"Nope. Not even a little."
"Got it..."
He verified the stones and handed over the vial.
"Thank you for shopping at Thousand Treasures Pavilion."
"Yeah..."
She trudged out, deflated. Wood Spirit Rat essence in a tiny jade vial.
"Two mid-grade stones for this."
Considering the purple bean soldiers' prowess in the arena, the investment was justified. Her head got it, but her heart still twinged with regret. Water under the bridge now—she'd head back and plant it.
Going there, her mind had been solely on how to cultivate Purple Soldier Beans. Coming back, she already held one answer: pure wood-attribute demon beast blood essence. The problem? It had lightened her wallet considerably.
Next time, I'll hunt them myself. Can't keep shelling out like this...
By the time she reached Spirit Field 79, the sun was dipping low. The familiar sight was comforting, especially after getting fleeced at Thousand Treasures Pavilion.
She strolled slowly between the furrows, heading deeper in. She briefly considered planting the Purple Soldier Bean right next to the Qingxin Beans but decided against it—better not risk cross-contamination of traits. She settled on a spot near where she'd planted Crimson Shadow Plums. It was a bit away from the Qingxin patch but had gotten extra Spirit Rain Technique lately, so the soil was in good shape.
Opening her storage pouch, she took out one Purple Soldier Bean and the jade vial. The memory of those spirit stones made her extra cautious.
Right. Fail, and I lose both a stone's worth and a bean.
Undoing the vial's seal released a faint wood qi. Tilting it carefully, a drop of bluish-green essence fell onto the bean, followed by a second.
A thin purple light trail flickered briefly across it. Short, but a clear reaction.
"...It worked."
Finally, she infused it with spirit energy. Digging a hole in the prepared spot, she buried the bean.
Please grow well.
For now, all she could do was pray.