CHAPTER 88: CHAPTER 86: THE OFFSPRING OF THE GOURD AND THE TURTLE

——The fact is indeed quite similar to what he guessed.

Although Li Ye and Qian Fang have the backing of the Four Seasons Sect, they can certainly find such a place, but business requires everyone to contribute their efforts.

The current situation is that Li Ye has the ability to cultivate Spirit Plants and has a shop, Qian Fang provides the facilities and arrays, while Zhou Qiumai’s contribution is relatively less.

Business is business, friendship is friendship.

Or rather, the more fairly things are distributed, the more everyone’s efforts contribute, which actually helps stabilize them.

Li Ye didn’t want to have any conflicts just because they were making money—this was also a decision made by both after Qian Fang brought it up with him proactively.

"A place where resentment qi gathers." Zhou Qiumai thought carefully for a while, "This is not difficult, and it doesn’t require the two of you to go personally.

At that time, I will bring those things engulfed in resentment qi over, but I’ll have to trouble Taoist Friend Li to handle them."

Li Ye smiled warmly: "Then I’ll count on you, my friend. Sufficient resentment qi is necessary to allow the Earth Emotion Fungus to continue producing feed, making it a continuously profitable business, so the resentment qi must be ample.

I can’t leave the marketplace often, so I’ll have to leave it to you."

Zhou Qiumai nodded: "I am quite familiar with this area, so leave it to me."

The atmosphere became more harmonious for a moment.

However, Zhou Qiumai didn’t stay long. After a few more exchanges, he took his leave.

Li Ye and Qian Fang had no further matters to discuss, and they planned to split the Spirit Stones monthly.

Otherwise, having to split them every seven days is indeed a bit troublesome.

Moreover, considering the time, today seems to be the day for the Bitter Spirit Gourd, and he needs to hurry home to see what the situation is.

So Li Ye quickly bid farewell and left.

...

By the time Li Ye calculated the time and reached home, exactly one month had passed since he planted the Bitter Spirit Gourd.

He sat in front of the stone table, looked up at the Earth Turtle running around the yard, and keenly felt that it had undergone some changes.

It... was shedding its shell!

He saw that the shell, which had originally held the gourd and gourd vine, was slowly detaching from the Earth Turtle’s body.

It wasn’t just individual shell plates falling off, but rather the whole structure, including the bones, was separating.

The Earth Turtle struggled out of its shell and stood dazedly beside it, looking all bloody.

"...What is happening here."

"Earth Turtles aren’t supposed to shed their shells, are they?"

Li Ye moved closer to have a look and noticed that the roots and vines of the gourd were beginning to melt slowly, as if attempting to merge into the turtle’s shell.

Yet, the gourd filled with materials that Su Ya had given him fell to the ground.

He picked up the gourds, which still maintained a warm, jade-like texture.

The surface of the shell had a slight bulge, and a gentle touch would reveal what could be extracted from within.

"Locust Spirit, bring me three bottles of Peach Blossom Wine and three bottles of honey."

Li Ye called out into the yard, and a gray, long-legged locust tree silently approached him, with a Storage Pouch on its body.

The Locust Spirit tapped the Storage Pouch, indicating that the items Li Ye requested were all inside.

"Well done."

"Take these things over to the Four Seasons Tower."

He handed over the gourds.

"Ya-ya!"

The Transporting Locust Spirit nodded toward him, placed the gourds into the Storage Pouch, then burrowed underground, leaving through the arrays in the Huiya Marketplace.

Watching the Locust Spirit depart, Li Ye felt somewhat wistful and sighed:

"I wonder how Senior Brother Su is doing over there."

To be honest, he did miss Senior Brother Su a bit, but helplessly, the mountains were too high and the roads too distant, so he could only send over some things.

"Oh well, nonetheless, in two months I’ll be entering the sect, so there will be opportunities to meet."

He shook his head and looked at the Shell-shedding Turtle, only to find that it had unexpectedly put its shell back on at some point.

Put it back on?

Is that a disguise you’re wearing?

Even more ridiculously, the gourd vine that had merged into the turtle’s shell had regrown.

This time it completely fused with the shell, with vine surfaces displaying patterns akin to turtle shell cracks.

It was slowly contracting, as if it had a life of its own.

Flowing inside were turtle blood and spiritual energy, completely different from the previous state devoid of any spiritual energy.

Even its name had changed—

[Name]: Turtle Spirit Gourd

[Mood]: None

[Status]: Reborn with the help of the Earth Turtle’s spiritual qi, completely bonded in symbiosis with the Earth Turtle.

A brand-new Spirit Plant?

This was the first time since he used the panel so many times that a Spirit Plant underwent such drastic changes, undergoing a comprehensive transformation.

He walked over and gently touched the turtle shell and vines with his fingers.

Using the panel and the connection he had established with the turtle and gourd over this time, he wanted to know what changes had occurred to them.

After sensing for a while, a peculiar expression appeared on his face.

The turtle and the gourd vine had only one strong consciousness—they wanted to reproduce offspring, or rather, both of them wanted to reproduce offspring!

But you are of different species, one is a Spirit Plant and the other a Spirit Beast, how could you reproduce offspring?

Seemingly sensing Li Ye’s consciousness, the Earth Turtle glanced at him.

Then, leisurely, with the gourd vine, it returned to its nest, and finally used earth to seal the entire nest.

"..."

"You guys wouldn’t really be able to reproduce offspring, would you??"

This really left Li Ye a bit at a loss, leaving him somewhat bewildered, muttering to himself: "Can you really succeed like this?"

Because he was genuinely curious about what outcome might result from the gourd and turtle, Li Ye unhesitatingly extended his Divine Sense to probe inside.

After all, how could an earth seal block a cultivator’s Divine Sense?

He was eager to see the love story of the turtle and the gourd.

But once they entered the nest, they just lay there motionless, only the gourd vines were slowly growing, with small gourds emerging.

"..."

"Is this how you guys reproduce?"

Li Ye was quite disappointed, though he didn’t know why exactly, just felt a bit let down.

Not accepting this outcome, he would use his Divine Sense to scan every day, but no matter when he scanned, he never saw what he wanted.

This went on for seven days.

When he scanned as usual, he found that the gourds were dropping off the vines one by one and trembling on the ground.

"Have they been born?" Li Ye rushed over immediately.

When he arrived,

small Earth Turtles had already poked their heads out from inside, breaking out of their shells, numbering more than thirty.

They struggled out of the broken gourd pieces, with a fingernail-sized translucent gourd embedded on their backs.

They looked rather cute.

[Name]: Gourd Spirit Turtle

[Mood]: Curious, eager to explore

[Status]: Life nurtured from the vitality of an Earth Turtle within the gourd of the Turtle Spirit Gourd.

[Can be bound]: To any kind of gourd seed, the Gourd Spirit Turtle will change according to the properties of the gourd seed.

"..."

Li Ye was so shocked that he nearly dropped the jade cup he was holding.

They actually hatched!

The gourd and the turtle could indeed reproduce, and a brand-new kind of Spirit Turtle at that.

After these hatchlings, which were at most the size of a baby’s palm, emerged from their shells, both the Turtle Spirit Gourd and the Earth Turtle ignored them.

As usual, they roamed around the courtyard, like carefree parents not bothering with their offspring.

There was no choice but for Li Ye to handle them.

He brought these hatchlings to the inner courtyard and was pondering what to feed them when they started moving on their own.

They crawled slowly toward the surge of the Spiritual Spring.

During this time, curious Beavers surrounded them, holding lotus roots and watching.

Finally, the hatchlings plunged into the spring water one by one, and the little gourds on their backs were visibly bubbling.

Before long, the translucent little gourds were filled with water.

The hatchlings, carrying their filled gourds, gathered on the spiritual energy-rich land and fell asleep— the status bar on the panel now had the words [Sound Asleep].

By coincidence, they lay exactly where Li Ye had used the Earth Emotions Technique to cultivate the Spirit Field, the most spiritually abundant place in the entire courtyard.

"Do they only need to drink water?

The original Earth Turtles didn’t need to eat meat, but they did require fruits and roots of Spirit Plants, yet you only need to drink water."

After observing and confirming they were indeed full, Li Ye thoughtfully began to plan.

’So they can be bound to any kind of gourd seed.’

’I don’t have Bitter Spirit Gourd seeds, otherwise I could try binding them symbiotically again and see.’

’Might as well go buy some seeds.’

For such special Spirit Beasts, not utilizing them properly would be quite a waste; he decided to immediately go to the Four Seasons Tower to purchase some seeds.

...

"Gourd seeds?" The Spiritual Mechanism Vine looked at Li Ye, just questioned in confusion, then handed over a jade tablet: "Here, all of them are here, take a look yourself."

"Thank you, Senior Brother."

Li Ye took the jade tablet, and it actually contained the entire inventory list of gourd Spirit Plants in the Four Seasons Tower, from the First Tier to the Fourth Tier, all-inclusive.

For example, the Ganlin Gourd that can absorb Water Spiritual Qi to produce Ganlin, the Earth Qi Gourd that transforms Spiritual Materials into soil, and the Dust-Collecting Gourd that collects Spirit Plant and Spirit Beast waste to convert into fertilizer...

Besides, there were also the Five Elements Spirit Gourd and the Sun, Moon, and Star Three-Light Spirit Gourd.

The varieties were numerous.

Li Ye was almost overwhelmed with choices.

He looked for a while and lastly focused his attention on the Five Elements Spirit Gourd.

The names of the Five Elements Spirit Gourds here were simple, just named after Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, and Earth.

But according to the introduction that followed, if meticulously cultivated, they could transform into Yin Yang’s Five Elements Gourd, such as Geng Metal and Xin Metal, Jia Wood and Yi Wood, C Fire and D Fire...

Each type of gourd had different mystical effects.

"Senior Brother, it must be difficult to cultivate the Yin Yang attribute Five Elements Spirit Gourd, right?" He was tempted.

"Naturally, it’s not easy," the Spiritual Mechanism Vine replied:

"For instance, Jia Wood and Yi Wood, one Yin and one Yang, with Jia Wood Qi mainly coming from towering trees, and Yi Wood from vines and flowering grass.

To cultivate these gourds, you need to obtain the Yin Yang Qi of the Five Elements, and the quantity must not be low, so it’s no easy task.

If you can truly cultivate them, the Spiritual Materials produced by such Yin Yang Five Elements Spirit Gourds are treasured assets for both Alchemists and Artifact Refiners.

They would undoubtedly be hot sellers as well."

"I see."

Li Ye considered for a moment, then noticed the basic Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, Earth gourds were 100 Spirit Stones per seed, deciding to buy some to try.

First, the price wasn’t too expensive, secondly, his Lifebound Magical Artifact was already on the path of Yin Yang, so getting acquainted with the Five Elements in advance would certainly be beneficial.

Lastly, having the panel in hand, surely he could come up with some intriguing things.

Seeing Li Ye’s intent to buy, the Spiritual Mechanism Vine directly sold him ten seeds of each gourd.

Then he said, "Your honey was quite good last time; do you have any intention of signing a contract with the sect for supply?"

"Supplying to the sect?"

"Yes, this is a contract from the sect’s Pill-Refining Hall for you. Take a look and then decide."

The Spiritual Mechanism Vine handed a contract to Li Ye, who took it and looked over it, and as he read, his expression became increasingly odd.