Plant VS Cultivation

Chapter 148: Water Lily

After entering the black mist space, Gu Mo checked his stockpile of Sun Essence. It should be enough to unlock a new plant icon in the vending machine.

The only issue was, Gu Mo couldn't be certain whether the new plant would be what he actually needed.

But given the situation, he had no choice but to gamble. If the plant wasn't what he needed, he would simply plant by the lakeside for now.

The lake was tied to a Tier 3 water vein, and its influence extended to the surrounding area, infusing it with spiritual energy—enough to match a Tier 2 spiritual field.

One by one, the Sun Essence fragments shattered, and the surrounding black mist gradually receded. Soon, a fully intact vending machine appeared before Gu Mo.

He blinked in surprise. He had expected new plant icons to appear, but that was it—nothing more.

No new plant options meant Gu Mo's original plan would fall apart. The Tier 3 water vein would go to waste.

As he stared at the vending machine, lost in thought, his gaze fell upon a button that had just appeared on its surface.

Driven by curiosity, Gu Mo pressed it. Instantly, the current display vanished, replaced by a box marked with a question mark.

Below the box was the number "300."

"A blind box?"

Gu Mo was slightly skeptical, but with 300 units of Sun Essence, it was still within his means to try it once.

He inserted 300 Sun Essence. The gray purchase button turned green, and Gu Mo clicked it. The next moment, the blind box opened, and three icons appeared.

Each icon represented a different plant—one Gu Mo was familiar with, one he had been hoping for, and one that amazed him.

The familiar plant was the Peashooter. The one he'd been hoping for was the Water Lily—crucial for planting in aquatic environments.

The one that amazed him looked like a streetlamp. The Lampflower could dispel all stealth and disguise techniques. Planting one in a spiritual field would ensure that no one could approach unnoticed within its illuminated area.

"Three choices, huh? Not bad."

Gu Mo tested it further and confirmed that he could only choose one plant from the three. Since he already had a Peashooter, that was off the table. The Lampflower was great, but not urgently needed.

Only the Water Lily was exactly what he needed at the moment.

He selected the Water Lily icon. The vending machine returned to its regular plant purchase interface—only now, the Water Lily icon had been added.

Name: Water Lily

Grade: Tier 1, Low

Effect: Can be planted on water; allows other plants to be placed atop the lily pad.

Planting Requirement: Water Vein

Reading the description, Gu Mo nodded in satisfaction. Now he could finally put that Tier 3 water vein to use. Of course, the description was always brief, and any hidden effects would need to be discovered through hands-on testing.

Spending 20 units of Sun Essence, he bought a Water Lily seed—currently the cheapest plant available, even cheaper than the 25-unit Potato Mine.

Holding the seed, Gu Mo exited the black mist space and tossed it directly into the water. No digging, no soil—very convenient.

As the seed touched the water, it unfurled like a curled piece of paper absorbing moisture. Within mere moments, a bright green lily pad the size of a washbasin spread across the water.

Below the pad were fine roots, drawing spiritual energy from the water vein, channeling it up into the lily pad.

Seeing this, Gu Mo placed a Tier 1 Sunflower onto the pad. What happened next stunned him—the sunflower's roots slowly embedded themselves into the pad and began absorbing the gathered spiritual energy.

"It worked!"

With that, Gu Mo confirmed that with the Water Lily, other plants could grow successfully on top of the water vein.

He continued experimenting and discovered a limitation: Tier 2 plants couldn't be sustained by a Tier 1 Water Lily. The pad simply couldn't gather spiritual energy fast enough to support them.

Forcing it wouldn't kill the plant outright, but it would be the same as planting a Tier 2 plant in a Tier 1 spiritual field—it couldn't unleash its full power.

To fully utilize the water vein, Gu Mo would need to purchase and upgrade a batch of Water Lilies. The good news: they were cheap and had low upgrade costs. The bad news: to support his existing Tier 2 and Tier 3 plants, upgrading and acquiring enough Water Lilies would be a significant expense.

Still, he could start by upgrading a few, planting Sunflowers on them to produce more Sun Essence and ease the financial pressure.

While upgrading the Water Lilies, Gu Mo made another discovery: as the plant's level increased, so did the size of its pad.

When he upgraded the first Water Lily to Tier 3, its pad was large enough to hold an entire small magical house. Plus, it absorbed spiritual energy from the water vein—essentially becoming a plant-based spiritual array.

Although Gu Mo didn't need spiritual energy to cultivate—Sun Essence was enough—there were no islands in the lake, so he had been living on the shore.

That made it hard to set up a proper plant defense line or formation. The Tier 3 Water Lily solved all of that.

He could now live in the middle of the lake, atop a Water Lily, protected at the center of his plant defenses.

With a safe base established, Gu Mo spent the following days purchasing and upgrading Water Lilies, then transplanting his existing plants onto them.

Half a year passed in the blink of an eye.

Standing on a giant Water Lily, Gu Mo looked out over the verdant "land" before him and nodded in satisfaction. After six months, he had finally transplanted all of his plants.

At present, one-third of the lake's central area was covered in lily pads, forming a green "continent."

As for the rest, Gu Mo planned to slowly fill it with more plants over time. The entire lake was tied to a Tier 3 water vein—he wasn't about to waste such a precious resource.

While he admired the results of his half-year effort, a powerful aura surged from the lake—it was Little Carp.

Compared to land, this environment was far better suited to a water-type spirit beast like Little Carp. At this moment, she was using the Tier 3 water vein to break through.

Splash!

In less than half a quarter hour, Little Carp's aura reached the level of a Tier 2 spirit beast. A moment later, a golden koi leapt from the water, trailing a streak of golden light, followed by several water-formed koi leaping into the air.

"Oh? A new talent awakened?"

Gu Mo's eyes lit up. Each breakthrough came with a chance for spirit beasts to awaken racial talents. The deeper their foundation, the higher the chance.

Roar!

As Gu Mo celebrated the awakening, the water-formed koi fused together into a water dragon, letting out a deep roar.

"A water manipulation talent!"

Spirit beast talents varied in strength, and this one clearly ranked among the top. With it, Little Carp had essentially gained mastery over all water-type spells. The summoned koi and water dragon just now were already two such spells.

Rumble!

The water dragon roared as storm clouds gathered overhead. It shot into the sky, churning the clouds, and moments later, a heavy spiritual rain began to fall.

"A perfected-level Little Cloud Rain Technique!"

Gu Mo's eyes gleamed. He himself was only one step away from perfecting the same technique, but that last step had always eluded him. Watching Little Carp's version gave him a major breakthrough—he was confident he'd complete it soon.

"Excellent!"

He called Little Carp over and rewarded her generously with Tier 2 Sun Essence. The golden koi he had raised with Sun Essence was becoming more and more extraordinary.

After playing with her for a while, Gu Mo returned to his magical house atop the Water Lily. Though the plants had been transplanted, his work was far from over.

Next came formation setup. Though he had formation disks, the area was too vast, and he needed to make adjustments.

Each Tier 3 Water Lily covered a massive area and could only support a single Tier 3 plant. Compared to spiritual fields, this wasn't efficient. Planting the same number of plants took up more space with Water Lilies.

However, using high-tier Water Lilies for low-tier plants could improve efficiency. A single Tier 3 Water Lily could hold several Tier 1 or Tier 2 plants.

Not only could vending machine plants grow on them—even other spiritual plants could be cultivated there. On one nearby Tier 2 premium Water Lily, Gu Mo had planted three small trees: Tier 2 Jade Dew Fruit Trees he had taken from the Qinglu Sect's former resource site.

This new hidden feature of the Water Lily kept Gu Mo in high spirits for a long time.

Back in his house, he adjusted the illusion and concealment formation disks to cover a wider area. However, due to his limited knowledge of formations, the effectiveness of both decreased slightly.

There was nothing he could do about that—he would have to ask a formation master to reforge them later. The Wall-nut Formation, on the other hand, posed no issues.

As long as Wall-nuts were planted, the formation could be deployed. To expand the formation's coverage, he just had to plant more—no need to worry about formation stone arrangements. The Wall-nut Formation worked by channeling attacks through the Wall-nuts themselves.

Thus, the formation could be expanded or contracted at will. Illusion and concealment arrays didn't have that luxury; they required proper recalibration by an expert.

With that done, Gu Mo had only taken the first step. There was still much work ahead.

He needed to continue upgrading his plants, building up his foundation, and improving his cultivation. He also had to comprehend the Wind Movement Secret Art in preparation for one day leaving this place and heading to Shennong Valley.

Without a special ocean-crossing treasure vessel, traversing the perilous seas would require at least Golden Core-level cultivation.

Though Gu Mo's physical body and soul had reached the pseudo-Core level, his actual cultivation was still at the Foundation Establishment stage. But with Tier 3 Sunflowers, breaking through to Golden Core was only a matter of time.

Another half-year passed.

Gu Mo's Tier 3 Sunflowers had grown from five to ten. During that time, he also added one Tier 3 Cherry Bomb and one Tier 3 Potato Mine.

With the combination of a Tier-3 Peashooter and a Tier-3 Torchwood, dealing with either Tier-3 spirit beasts or Foundation Establishment cultivators was more than sufficient.

As for creating an avatar, Gu Mo had no intention of doing so just yet. He planned to first raise the cultivation of his main body. The island was remote, and over the past year, neither people nor spirit beasts had passed through. For now, there was no need for an avatar to make an appearance.

However, just as this thought crossed Gu Mo's mind, his divine sense picked up the presence of several individuals landing on the island. Among them was one Qi Refining cultivator; the rest were all mortals.

These people left a box on the island and quickly departed, as if staying any longer would result in some terrible consequence.

"What's going on?"

Gu Mo frowned in confusion. Judging by the size, the box seemed to contain a person. A quick sweep with his pseudo-Core Formation–level divine sense confirmed that the box indeed held a person.

"Could it be a sacrificial offering?"

Thinking of the island's original owner, as well as the human remains scattered across it, Gu Mo began to piece things together. The people had fled toward those scattered islets in the distance—so there really were inhabitants there, and cultivators as well.

Getting up, Gu Mo walked to the edge of the island and opened the box. If he didn't intervene, the person inside wouldn't survive much longer.

"Mmmph~~"

As the box opened, a muffled, terrified whimper reached his ears. Looking down, he saw a young girl curled up inside. She was exceptional in both figure and appearance—undoubtedly a "qualified" offering by sacrificial standards.

"Stop crying. Go home."

Gu Mo tapped the edge of the box, intending for the girl to leave and return to her home.

"Ah!"

The girl, startled by his voice, abruptly looked up. But instead of the terrifying giant lizard spirit beast the elders had described, she saw a handsome young man with gentle eyes. Her face showed a look of disbelief.

"No—I can't go back. If I do, my father and mother will die." The girl shook her head repeatedly. She was the sacrificial offering this time. If she escaped, the giant lizard would be enraged, and many villages would suffer. Her parents would be executed as well. So, she couldn't return.

"Can you contact your family, then?" Gu Mo rubbed his forehead, feeling a bit reluctant to leave the island. After all, only within his Plant Defense Line was his combat strength at its peak. Until he understood more about the surrounding area, staying put was the safest choice.

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