Chapter 78 Chaotic Green Lotus
Qingyun City, Wanbao Pavilion.
As the largest branch of the Eastern Wasteland's greatest chamber of commerce, this place had always been a gold-consuming pit where Cultivators squandered fortunes. Inside the pavilion, the beams were carved and the rafters painted, with shelves lined with glowing Flying Swords, Medicinal Pills, and Formation Plates.
Today, business at Wanbao Pavilion was exceptionally booming.
The Head Manager, Qian Duoduo, was currently flicking an abacus behind the counter, his rounded belly protruding. On the surface, he was a mercenary fat merchant, but in reality, he was a Void Returning Stage powerhouse sent by the Central Continent's main pavilion to guard the Eastern Wasteland.
"Ding-dong."
The wind chimes at the door let out a crisp ring.
Lin Yuan, leading Xiao Yuer with her hair in twin pigtails, slowly stepped over the high threshold of Wanbao Pavilion.
Hearing the sound, Head Manager Qian looked up. His eyes, squeezed into slits by fat, habitually emitted a subtle trace of Divine Sense, intending to probe the background of the visitors.
However, as soon as his Divine Sense touched the corner of Lin Yuan's clothes, it was like a clay ox entering the sea, vanishing without a trace.
"A Mortal?" Manager Qian's brow furrowed slightly.
But when his gaze fell upon the rusty iron shard tucked into Xiao Yuer's waist, a chill suddenly shot from his tailbone straight to the crown of his head!
In the vision of a Void Returning Stage powerhouse, how was that a piece of scrap metal? It was clearly a peerless, ominous sword sealed by the supreme Law of Slaughter! Even the leak of a microscopic trace of its aura made his eyes ache.
"Hiss—to let a seven or eight-year-old girl hang a lethal weapon of this caliber at her waist like a wood-chopping knife? Just what is the background of this youth in white!"
Having navigated the sea of commerce for centuries, Manager Qian immediately put on a smile as warm as a spring breeze and hurried out from behind the counter to greet them.
"This Young Master, please come in! I am the manager of Wanbao Pavilion. I did not know of your grand arrival; what would you like to see? Magic Treasures, Medicinal Pills, or perhaps superior Cultivation Techniques and Secret Manuals?"
Lin Yuan looked around. Seeing those gaudy, gold-glimmering treasures, he felt somewhat uninterested.
"I have no use for those. I'm here to buy some flower seeds."
Lin Yuan rubbed Xiao Yuer's head and said casually, "The courtyard was just expanded, and it looks a bit bare. I want to buy some hardy vines and plants to just plant randomly and decorate the corners of the walls."
Buying flower seeds?
Manager Qian was stunned. Coming to Wanbao Pavilion not for Heaven And Earth Treasures, but for landscaping plants?
But he was a shrewd man and immediately began to fill in the blanks: "This unfathomable expert says he wants 'hardy' vines. This must be a test of Wanbao Pavilion's heritage! How could ordinary Spiritual Plants be worthy of such a person's courtyard?"
Manager Qian slapped his thigh and turned to shout at the attendants, "Quick! Go and bring out our pavilion's 'Nine Heavens Cloud-Thunder Vine' and 'Lunar Snow Lotus Seeds'!"
A moment later, two attendants emerged carrying two extremely exquisite jade boxes.
When the boxes were opened, lightning flickered and a biting cold air surged out.
Manager Qian introduced them with a face full of pride: "Young Master, look. Once this Cloud-Thunder Vine is planted, it can draw down Nine Heavens Profound Thunder, serving both as protection and decoration. This Snow Lotus can even..."
"Stop, stop, stop."
Lin Yuan covered his eyes and waved his hands repeatedly.
"With all this thundering and cold air, how is anyone supposed to sleep at night? And this light is too blinding; it'll easily attract mosquitoes."
Lin Yuan sighed, "I just want something ordinary, something that doesn't glow, doesn't thunder, and climbs walls quickly. Don't you have any down-to-earth seeds here?"
Manager Qian was dumbfounded.
He's rejecting Sixth-Grade Spiritual Plants for being too noisy, too bright, and attracting mosquitoes?!
He followed Lin Yuan's gaze and found that Lin Yuan was staring at a broken wooden box in the furthest corner of the counter, used to prop up a table leg.
Inside that box was a shriveled, blackened dead seed, about the size of a walnut.
Cold sweat instantly broke out on Manager Qian's forehead.
That seed had been dug up by the Wanbao Pavilion headquarters from an archaic ruin decades ago. After being inspected by countless Great Masters of appraisal, they all unanimously agreed that this Chaos Azure Lotus seed had long since lost its vitality and was completely dead. It was as hard as a stone in a latrine; even fire and lightning couldn't leave a single mark on it.
Because it was useless, the branch pavilion used it as scrap to prop up the table.
"This one looks like a morning glory. It looks quite sturdy and resilient."
Lin Yuan walked over, leaned down, and casually pried that shriveled, archaic dead seed from under the table leg.
"Young Master, you mustn't!" Manager Qian cried out in alarm. "That is a dead thing; it can't be grown at all! It's as hard as divine iron, don't hurt your hand..."
Before he could finish his sentence.
Lin Yuan placed the seed in his palm. Disliking the amount of dust on it, he casually rubbed it with his thumb.
"Crack."
A crisp cracking sound echoed within the quiet Wanbao Pavilion.
Under Manager Qian's horrified gaze, that archaic Chaos seed—reputed to be impervious to water and fire, a shell that even Immortals could not break—was actually rubbed by Lin Yuan and cracked like a brittle peanut!
Immediately following that.
A layer of Chaos Mother Qi, so thick it wouldn't dissipate, gushed out from the crack!
A tender, emerald-green sprout, emitting a vast vitality like the creation of heaven and earth, tremulously poked out from the black dead shell. It affectionately rubbed against Lin Yuan's finger and even let out a joyful "buzzing" sword-like hum.
"It's alive..."
Manager Qian's legs went weak, and he collapsed to the ground with a thud, the fat on his body trembling violently.
An archaic divine seed that had been dead for a million years! With just a touch of an expert's fingertip warmth, it actually returned to life and sprouted on the spot?!
What kind of creation technique was this?! This was clearly a Creator who controlled life and death, whose words were Law!
"Hmm, it really is a good sprout; it sprouted as soon as the shell was peeled."
Lin Yuan nodded with satisfaction. Looking at the sprout with two green leaves in his palm, he asked casually, "Manager, how much for this morning glory seed? I'll buy it."
"No... no money! It's free! To be chosen by the Young Master is the blessing of eight lifetimes for this seed!"
Manager Qian knelt on the ground, shaking his head like a rattle. Was he joking? If he dared to take this man's money, the Wanbao Pavilion headquarters would probably be leveled by heavenly punishment tomorrow!
Lin Yuan frowned.
"There's no rule in business for giving things away for free. Xiao Yuer, give him the money."
Xiao Yuer obediently took out a yellowed copper coin from her pocket and placed it gently on the counter.
"One copper coin to buy your morning glory; no need for change." Lin Yuan turned around, leading Xiao Yuer toward the door. "We'll go back and plant it in the corner, just in time for it to climb up the newly built courtyard wall."
Manager Qian lay prostrate on the ground, holding that copper coin in both hands, tears streaming down his face.
Taking the Archaic Chaos Azure Lotus... and planting it as a morning glory to climb a wall?!
What kind of luxury, what kind of Realm of returning to simplicity was this!
He carefully tucked away the copper coin tainted with Lin Yuan's aura close to his body, as if holding a supreme life-saving medallion. He knew that this time, Wanbao Pavilion had truly clung to the thickest leg in all the heavens and myriad worlds.
Outside Wanbao Pavilion.
Xiao Yuer looked up at the sprout in Lin Yuan's palm: "Revered Master, is this flower pretty?"
"Who cares if it's pretty or not, as long as it can cover the wall and provide shade." Lin Yuan yawned and looked at the sky. "Come on, let's buy some ribs. I'll make you sweet and sour ribs tonight. Old Wan and the others have probably finished digging the well in the courtyard by now."
On the long street of Qingyun City, the silhouettes of the adult and the child appeared incredibly leisurely.
Meanwhile, in the small courtyard, the progress of digging the well seemed to have encountered an unprecedented 'big problem'.