I Cultivate Immortality With Scientific Thinking

Chapter 17: Handover of the Medicinal Garden

In the distance, the golden morning sun rose, and the lush vegetation of midsummer appeared even more abundant in the warm breeze of the sun.

Passing through the lingering thin mist of the early morning, along the mottled cobblestone path, Lin Chen continued forward amidst the crisp bird songs.

Soon, with a slight leap on his toes, Lin Chen arrived at the foot of a small hill.

At the bottom of the hill was a lush forest, with dense woods covering the mountain pass, making it impossible to find a way forward.

The Medicinal Garden, designated as Area 6, was located on top of a small hill, but there were corresponding restrictions set up by the sect around the garden to prevent other disciples from trespassing.

"At the end of the main road, the sixth tree... one, two... five, six. What the hell, wasn't there supposed to be a tree person here?!" Following the instructions of the old man on duty, Lin Chen searched for the guardian of the formation. However, no matter how he looked, instead of a towering ancient tree, he saw a large pit that was five meters long and three meters wide!

"What's going on? Could it be that the guardian has been dug out?" Just as Lin Chen was filled with doubt, he suddenly heard a cough.

"Cough, kid..."

"Who?!" Lin Chen's gaze sharpened, and in an instant, he took out a defensive Spirit Weapon from his storage bag. At the same time, True Qi surged in his body, and countless transparent and imperceptible spirit threads quickly spread out from his body, covering the surroundings.

When encountering unknown situations, immediately take measures to protect oneself. This was the caution that Lin Chen had to possess in order to survive in this world.

"Cough, young friend, don't be nervous, it's me."

Lin Chen immediately looked towards the sound and saw a lush tree bathed in sunlight not far away, with a brown face clearly visible on the trunk.

"Tree Elder?!" Lin Chen immediately recognized the creature in front of him.

Ten years for a tree to grow, a hundred years for a tree to become a person. This phrase was a metaphor in his previous life, but in the Azure Cloud Sect of this world, it was a reality.

Under the influence of the Azure Cloud Sect's grand formation and cultivation techniques, every spirit tree that reached a hundred years of age would give birth to unique spiritual wisdom, and even possess Qi Refining Stage cultivation.

A thousand-year-old spirit tree was comparable to a Foundation Building Stage cultivator, and a spirit tree that reached over three thousand years could even fight against a Gold Core cultivator.

Moreover, these spirit trees could not only be used for defending the sect, but also because of their inability to be bought by outsiders, they were also responsible for guarding key positions in the Azure Cloud Sect, such as the medicinal garden that supplied cultivation resources to the entire sect.

"Uh... Tree Elder, how did you end up there?" Lin Chen hesitated for a moment before asking.

"Oh, it's just that the sun doesn't shine much in that place, so I moved here to bask in it. You can understand, us old folks have a need for sunlight," the Tree Elder replied.

Lin Chen twitched his mouth. Of course he understood, but the problem was, how did a tree move by itself?!

"Tree Elder, I want to activate the formation and enter the medicinal garden." Lin Chen didn't dwell too much on this question, but directly stated his purpose.

"Okay." The old voice of the tree echoed, and the aged face on the trunk gradually disappeared.

But the ground beneath Lin Chen's feet soon began to tremble. To his surprise, the talking tree slowly retracted all its branches and twigs onto the main trunk.

Countless roots emerged from the cracked soil on the ground, tightly embracing the main root. Together with the thick main root, they emerged from the soil.

Like an earthquake, Lin Chen, who was standing unsteadily, watched as the main root, thicker than his waist, lifted the entire tree into the air. The tree moved slowly on the ground, as if it had grown many feet.

"Whoosh!"

Accompanied by the shaking of the leaves on the crown, the tree, lifted by the main root, began to move faster and faster.

These thick roots gradually walked into the large pit, carrying the crown of the tree. The bottom of the pit was the spiritual vein node of the entire medicinal garden. Only when the spiritual tree was situated here could it activate or modify the defensive formation of the entire medicinal garden.

"This... this is also possible?" Lin Chen stood there dumbfounded. He had already accepted that trees could speak, but seeing a tree run was a first for him.

"The token." The old voice of the tree echoed again.

"Huh? Oh." Lin Chen snapped back to reality and quickly took out the token. He pressed it against the tree trunk, and it immediately adhered firmly to it.

Suddenly, a green spiritual light flickered on it.

"Identity confirmed, no mistakes detected, granting authorization." The old voice of the tree echoed again in the surroundings.

The medicinal garden and other areas were important places for the sect. The permission token for guarding the formation could not be given to disciples casually. It required a second confirmation by the guardian before granting access.

"Formation activated." As soon as the voice fell, the scenery of the surrounding forest rippled like water, creating ripples. Then, the entire forest began to distort. At a certain point, it abruptly stopped and dissipated, forming a path leading to the mountain!

Obviously, this vast and boundless forest was all an illusion caused by the formation. Without the token, an ordinary Qi Refining Stage cultivator could be trapped to death.

"Thank you, old tree." Lin Chen bowed and entered directly.

"Wait..." The face on the trunk appeared again, apparently wanting to say something, but Lin Chen had already walked far away.

"Ah, young people these days, they don't know how to be filial to the elderly. Forget it, forget it, I'll continue sunbathing..." With a sigh, the tree once again retracted, apparently moving back to its original position to continue sunbathing.

Inside the medicinal garden,

Lin Chen hadn't walked far when he looked up and saw the entire scene of the garden before his eyes.

Terraced fields!

Even after seeing it more than once, Lin Chen couldn't help but marvel at it.

Before his eyes were terraced fields spread out in all directions, layer upon layer, each with its own shape. In the sunlight or in the morning glow, they shimmered like silver ribbons in the mountains, as if in a heavenly realm.

Within each piece of land in the terraced fields, there were lush green herbs, some familiar and some unfamiliar to Lin Chen. Alongside them were some strangely shaped plants. In the faint morning mist, there was an indescribable vitality.

Living in such a place would undoubtedly lead to a long and healthy life for ordinary people, and even for cultivators, it would be highly beneficial.

The most eye-catching feature among them was the towering tree at the mountaintop. It reached a height of more than ten zhang, with a wide canopy of lush green leaves and a strong aura of vitality emanating from it.

In Lin Chen's perception, the giant tree in front of him and the array formations and spiritual energy of the medicinal garden were intertwined, as if they had a life of their own. They continuously infused the spiritual energy of heaven and earth and the vitality of the earth's veins into the Spirit Medicine in the garden.

This was the essential array formation of every medicinal garden in the Azure Cloud Sect - the "Wood Element Nurturing Formation". Not only could it accelerate the growth of Spirit Medicine in the garden, but in critical moments, it could also connect with the sect's protective array formation, the "Wood Element Towering Formation", to resist invading enemies.

Even though he had seen it more than once, Lin Chen couldn't help but be amazed by the scale of the medicinal garden before his eyes.

Before entering the garden, he had always thought that a medicinal garden was just a few pieces of land next to a house, at most the size of a field. But he had never imagined that the Azure Cloud Sect would directly designate a whole mountain as a medicinal garden.

The immense scale truly shocked Lin Chen, but upon careful consideration, he could understand it. After all, the Azure Cloud Sect had to supply the tens of thousands of disciples with the medicinal pills they needed for cultivation. The production of each pill required who knows how many medicinal materials. If that was the case, how could the medicinal garden be just a few pieces of land?

"Hmm?" Just as Lin Chen was sighing, the token suddenly emitted a bright light.

"This is a communication with the disciple stationed here?"

Sure enough, not long after, another disciple wearing a white robe hurriedly approached. This person was around thirty years old, tall and fair-skinned, with a somewhat shrewd appearance, like a merchant. His cultivation had even reached the Qi Cyclone stage.

"I am surnamed Li, named Yuan. It's not yet time for the handover of the miscellaneous tasks in the medicinal garden. Junior Brother seems a bit too eager, coming here so early, right?"

Hmm? Lin Chen's eyebrows furrowed slightly. He could hear the obvious wariness in the tone.

After a moment of thought, Lin Chen quickly understood. This position was quite lucrative, and the other party probably didn't want to give it up easily.

"Senior Brother, Junior Brother just came early to understand the duties and won't disturb Senior Brother's work." Lin Chen thought for a moment and replied.

"I know Senior Brother is responsible, but according to the sect's regulations, no position can be held continuously. I hope Senior Brother can understand." Lin Chen first made it clear that he wouldn't interfere with his Senior Brother's benefits, and then emphasized that it was the sect's rule and couldn't be violated.

Li Yuan's face turned unpleasant. He knew that Lin Chen's words made sense.

In order to prevent disciples below from turning lucrative positions into their own, the sect had specially formulated regulations that prohibited consecutive terms. Every half year, there had to be a handover. Otherwise, he would have already made this position his own.

"Fine then!"

Li Yuan's face fluctuated, and in the end, he sighed.

"Follow me!" He flicked his sleeve, gesturing for Lin Chen to follow, and turned to walk away.

Lin Chen's gaze flickered and he followed him inside.

Li Yuan led Lin Chen forward. At this moment, there were already many cultivators on the small mountain working in the medicinal garden, either watering the spiritual plants or picking Spirit Medicine.

Arriving at the corresponding work site, Li Yuan turned around.

"You should be clear about the tasks of this position, so I don't need to say much, right?" Li Yuan glanced at Lin Chen.

Lin Chen nodded.

The position he currently held was the liaison between the medicinal garden and the Pill Hall. He was responsible for transporting medicinal materials to the Pill Hall and keeping track of the amount of medicinal materials consumed by the Pill Hall.

Originally, it was the disciples serving in the Pill Hall who were responsible for tracking the consumption of medicinal materials.

But thirty years ago, the only son of a Foundation Building Stage cultivator, taking advantage of his status, embezzled nearly half of the medicinal materials from the Pill Hall during his tenure and sold them for spirit stones for his own expenses.

After the matter was exposed, the Gold Core ancestor of the sect was furious and, disregarding the desperate pleas of the Foundation Building Stage cultivator, had him and his group, led by his son, slaughtered to uphold the authentic sect atmosphere.

Afterwards, an order was issued that the consumption of medicinal materials in the Pill Hall would be tracked by disciples from the medicinal garden, in an attempt to prevent corruption and embezzlement from the lower ranks.

But ideals are ideals, and reality, well, one can only say that there are policies at the top and countermeasures at the bottom. Such things still happen, but they have been restrained a lot and dare not go too far.

"Within the medicinal garden, you can come and go as you please, but every time you go out, you must leave your token with the guardian to avoid losing it while you're out."

"Every time medicinal materials are transported, the sect will specially dispatch specific Pugongcao grass... Also, keep an eye on those miscellaneous disciples, don't let them do anything suspicious. You should know that there are requirements for the quantity of medicinal materials."

"Lastly, and most importantly, just take what is enough each time, don't be too greedy." At the end of his instructions, Li Yuan said something meaningful.

"I will follow Senior Brother's instructions." Lin Chen responded.

After the handover was completed, Li Yuan exchanged a few polite words absentmindedly with Lin Chen and then bid farewell with a cupped hand gesture.

Watching his distant figure, Lin Chen's gaze flickered.

As long as he acted cautiously and restrained his greed, taking only a dozen or so or even dozens of medicinal materials, it would be inconspicuous among the thousands of consumptions in the Pill Hall.

And with these medicinal materials, along with tens of thousands of spirit stones, it would be enough to continue his research on the 3.0 version of the Soul Nurturing Incense...

(End of this chapter)