Plant VS Cultivation

Chapter 160 – Iceflame Crystal

"Miss Yuwei, would it be possible to move me up a few spots in the queue?" A Core Formation cultivator discreetly slipped Shi Yuwei a pearl the size of a chicken egg, hoping it would be enough to nudge his alchemy commission a little higher on the list.

This Core Formation cultivator had heard rumors about a powerful cultivator in the crab Archipelago who had slain the Golden Claw General, prompting many to flock to his side. But he had dismissed the news. As a Core Formation cultivator himself, he figured that so long as he didn't go provoking any major sea monsters, they'd leave him alone too. His life wasn't bad, so he had no interest in becoming someone else's subordinate.

But then new information arrived—this cultivator who had slain the Golden Claw General turned out to be a Tier 3 alchemist, and had just begun openly accepting commissions. That news changed everything.

As a Core Formation cultivator—not some pseudo-core or external-core cultivator—he knew all too well how every step forward in cultivation became exponentially harder at this stage. Aside from talent, the main bottleneck was the lack of external resources.

Those resources meant spiritual grounds and pills.

In the ocean domain, every prime spiritual ground was fought over by sea demons. To avoid conflict, he had settled for a top-grade Tier 2 site rather than contending for a Tier 3 one. Naturally, this had slowed his cultivation.

As for pills, he had gathered plenty of spiritual materials. The ocean was vastly more resource-rich than the mainland. But raw materials were useless if they couldn't be refined into pills suitable for absorption. Chewing on raw spirit herbs wasn't just inefficient—it could even be harmful.

This left him frustrated. He had tons of materials but couldn't convert them into cultivation. The moment he heard a skilled alchemist was taking commissions, he knew he had found his chance. If he could refine all his stockpile into pills, his cultivation would no doubt advance rapidly.

Unfortunately, even though he rushed over as fast as he could, he still arrived too late. A long queue had already formed.

That's why he'd tried to cut ahead.

"Senior, please don't," Shi Yuwei quickly declined, pushing the pearl back. "I'm only in charge of registration. I'm not authorized to adjust the order of commissions."

"Miss Yuwei, please do me this favor. I'll make it worth your while once it's done." The cultivator, surnamed Li, clearly didn't want to wait. Watching others walk away with their pills while he stood idle was intolerable.

"Well, well, if it isn't Senior Li. Late to the party?"

Just then, a voice rang out. Another Core Formation cultivator approached. Being peers, most of them had at least seen each other in passing or heard names.

"Zhong Yuanfang, like you weren't late yourself," Li Yuzhi muttered with a glance.

"Not at all. I'm here to pick up my pills," Zhong Yuanfang replied with a grin, presenting a token to Shi Yuwei.

"I'll trouble you, Miss Yuwei."

"One moment, Senior!"

Shi Yuwei accepted the token and disappeared into the island's mist. She soon returned carrying several jade bottles.

"Here are your pills, Senior. Please confirm the contents."

"Excellent, excellent!"

Zhong Yuanfang's face lit up as he accepted the bottles. Although he had chosen to pay a separate alchemy fee instead of giving up a cut of the pills, the sheer number of pills he received was beyond satisfactory. It clearly demonstrated the high success rate of the alchemist in question.

Alchemy commissions generally followed one of two payment methods:

—Split Compensation, where the alchemist took a portion of the final pills as payment.

—Full Buyout, where the client paid a fee, and all pills produced belonged to them.

Zhong Yuanfang had gone with the latter. He was desperate for pills and was willing to pay more to secure the full output.

Now satisfied with the quantity, he was curious about the quality. While simply getting pills was already a win, who wouldn't hope for a pleasant surprise?

He opened a bottle at random—and a rich medicinal aroma immediately filled the air.

"Qi-Convergence Pills!"

Li Yuzhi, standing beside him, instantly recognized the scent. These were essential pills for Core Formation cultivators to accelerate their cultivation. Judging by the aroma, their quality was anything but ordinary.

Seeing the hunger in Li Yuzhi's eyes, Zhong Yuanfang smirked and opened another bottle—this time releasing a different scent.

"Healing Pills. At least mid-grade."

Li Yuzhi seemed quite knowledgeable about pills. In fact, he had once studied alchemy himself. With few alchemists in the sea regions and materials piling up unused, he had hoped to become a pill master.

Unfortunately, he had no talent for it. But those years of trial and error had taught him a great deal about various pills.

"Spirit Recovery Pills—these are definitely Spirit Recovery Pills!"

Li Yuzhi called out again as another bottle was opened. Clearly, Zhong Yuanfang's commission had included both cultivation-enhancing and restorative pills.

The fact that this mysterious "great cultivator" could refine all of them—and with such quality—spoke volumes about his alchemical mastery.

At that moment, Zhong Yuanfang felt both relief and regret. Relief that he had rushed over early. Regret that he hadn't trusted the alchemist's skill from the start—he'd only submitted part of his materials. Now, with the long queue, placing another order would mean a long wait.

But seeing Li Yuzhi's expression gave him a bit of smug satisfaction. At least he had a stash of high-quality pills now and could afford to wait.

"Miss Yuwei, is there any way I might skip the line?" Li Yuzhi asked politely. Seeing the results of Zhong Yuanfang's order had filled him with longing. He needed that alchemist's help.

But waiting in line was a waste. In cultivation, every second counted.

"One moment, Senior."

This was beyond Shi Yuwei's authority. She had to ask Gu Mo.

"Someone wants to cut in line?"

In the middle of refining pills, Gu Mo raised an eyebrow when he heard Yuwei's message. Still, he didn't outright refuse.

Cutting in line was fine—but it came at a price.

In simple terms: You want to cut? Pay extra.

Sea cultivators were wealthy—at least in terms of materials and spirit ores. The ocean was vast and dangerous, but also full of treasures. Anyone with some strength could accumulate a solid reserve over the years.

Of course, they were often poor in other areas—like pills, talismans, and magic tools.

"No problem. I'll pay extra!"

Li Yuzhi didn't hesitate. He pulled out all his spiritual materials, determined to have them turned into pills in one go.

He also chose to pay an additional fee rather than offering a share of the pills—after all, cutting the line already cost extra. If he had to split the pill yield too, he'd lose a significant portion.

But that many pills—and paying extra? Unless he had something truly valuable, it wouldn't be enough.

Fortunately, Li Yuzhi had confidence. Years of roaming the seas had left him with his fair share of rare treasures.

And different treasures held different values depending on the person. He just needed to pick the one most useful to this alchemist.

At last, he brought out a crystalline stone radiating a piercing chill. Inside it was a faint, pale-blue flame—the source of the cold.

This was no ordinary flame, but a Heavenly Iceflame, a type of Heaven and Earth Spirit Fire.

Ordinary materials couldn't contain such flames, but in the deep sea where he'd found it, Li Yuzhi had discovered this crystal—resistant to the iceflame—and managed to seal the fire within.

He'd once considered using it for alchemy. Spirit fires were said to dramatically enhance pill and artifact crafting. But after the flame cracked several furnaces, he gave up.

Spirit fires couldn't be contained by just any vessel. Worse still, once removed from their place of origin, they began to wane. After a few failed attempts, the flame in the crystal had already shrunk noticeably. A few more tries, and it might extinguish entirely.

Keeping the flame burning required rare, precious fuel—true money-burning in every sense of the word.

Yet despite its drawbacks, spirit fire possessed unmatched potency. In the hands of a top-tier alchemist or artifact smith, it could vastly boost the success rate of high-grade pill and artifact crafting.

Li Yuzhi couldn't afford to nurture the exotic flame, but he believed that the Grandmaster would be able to. As an alchemist, the man would undoubtedly be interested in such a treasure. Using it as payment for a pill-making commission was a solid deal.

Sure enough, the moment Gu Mo laid eyes on the exotic flame Li Yuzhi presented, he accepted it without hesitation. No one could resist a heavenly treasure like that.

Of course, Gu Mo already knew a bit about the nature of exotic flames. To use one for alchemy, he would need a vessel capable of containing it.

And such vessels were, without exception, exceedingly rare and precious—none of which he currently possessed.

But as his gaze swept over to the Torch Stump, an idea suddenly surfaced in Gu Mo's mind: Could the Torch Stump possibly contain the exotic flame?

At this point, the Tier-3 High-Grade Torch Stump was already producing flames with a potency not inferior to that of a Golden Core cultivator's pillfire. Gu Mo's rapid progress in alchemy was largely thanks to this Torch Stump. Since it could handle fire of a Tier-3 level, perhaps it could handle an exotic flame as well.

"Should I give it a try?"

Gu Mo was seriously tempted. If it worked, it would mean he'd essentially tamed an exotic flame—an enormous advantage in both alchemy and combat.

Of course, failure meant he could lose both the rare exotic flame and the precious Tier-3 High-Grade Torch Stump—an expensive price to pay.

"Let's do it!"

In the end, Gu Mo decided to take the risk. If he lost the Torch Stump, he could just upgrade another one—he already had several prepared. As long as he had enough Solar Essence, he could level them up again in no time.

The loss of the exotic flame would be unfortunate, but if he never tried, he'd never be able to make use of it. And if it succeeded, the payoff would be massive.

With that thought, Gu Mo stopped everything he was doing and pulled out the crystal containing the sealed exotic flame. He extracted the icy-blue flame within, which radiated a chilling aura, and tossed it directly into the Torch Stump.

Even though Gu Mo had already suppressed the Torch Stump's internal flames to their lowest level, he still had no idea what would happen when the two fires met.

Under Gu Mo's watchful eye, the pale blue flame fell into the Torch Stump and collided with the existing fire. Immediately, the exotic flame devoured the original fire and seized the core of the Torch Stump.

Staring at the exotic flame now quietly burning within the Torch Stump, Gu Mo was visibly stunned. Things had gone far too smoothly—none of the emergency contingency plans he'd made were even necessary.

What's more, Gu Mo discovered that after the exotic flame took over the Torch Stump, it actually began absorbing the spiritual energy the stump was drawing in, thereby strengthening itself. It didn't require any precious materials to keep burning—just spiritual energy—and it could even grow stronger through it.

If other cultivators who possessed exotic flames learned of this, they would lose their minds. To sustain their exotic flames, they had to burn costly treasures, but Gu Mo's Torch Stump needed only to absorb spiritual energy.

"No wonder this thing sells for 200 units of Solar Essence." Even Gu Mo couldn't help but sigh in amazement. This one Torch Stump had solved all the pain points of using an exotic flame.

At this point, it didn't feel right to call it a Torch Stump anymore. It deserved a new name: Iceflame Stump. Though now, Gu Mo couldn't help but wonder—could this mutated Torch Stump still work with the Peashooter?

If it could, then wouldn't the Peashooter's bullets carry exotic flame damage?

Right now, the Iceflame Stump was essentially a brand-new plant. To understand its capabilities, Gu Mo would clearly need to experiment and explore further.

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