The sect master of the green fog swamp was caught off guard by the sudden call to his name, as he was busy scheming and wildly panicking about the supposed poisonous fungi that could very well be decimating his sect as he was here filing a complaint against his cow.
He quickly cleared his throat, collected his thoughts, and puffed up his gait to try and make himself look regal and authoritative. But it went wrong as he almost slipped on his right foot as he tried to pull off that look. Irony in trying to put his best foot forward he almost lost it.
He swiftly regained his balance and deftly pretended nothing had happened. Yang Qing and the rest all went along with it as no ripple of emotion could be seen on their faces.
"My name is Cheng Yuang, I'm the current sect master of the green fog swamp sect and the 3rd person to inherit this seat. Our sect is a class 4 sect and we mostly deal in the cultivation of spirit herbs and alchemy. The herbs that we mostly deal in are of the Earth rank in the upper tier.
However, we've also had a bit of success albeit very small in cultivating a few herbs at the Sky rank low-tier level. This has been beneficial to the sect and its growth. It was also due to this success that we were able to help Wen Chang activate her radiant emerald cow bloodline." Cheng Yuan paused for a minute to calm himself. Every time he thought of the ungrateful emerald leaf cow, his throat turns into a blood pump.
Though what drove him even madder was that some of the sect elders had even turned to support the cow and worse the cow that just years ago he would have been debating which 1,000-year-old wine and herbs to pair her with almost beat him black and blue that he had to use sect treasures just to fight her to a draw. A couple of earth-rank treasures ended up being destroyed by her hooves.
In the blue origin planet, spiritual metals and herbs were classified in the same order.
Their rank in ascending order was; mortal rank, earth rank, sky rank, monarch rank, ascendant rank, saint rank, and lastly the origin rank.
Origin-rank treasures are virtually none existent around the planet. The only proof of their existence is old scrolls, old ruins of a bygone era, and some mystical realms that speak of their existence briefly. Origin-rank treasures are nigh indestructible, they are thought to have been formed together with the planet, thus the capabilities they can perform are immeasurable.
A single origin treasure could support a rank 5 sect to rapidly rise into a holy land that lives to be insurmountable for ages as long as they have the overwhelming luck to keep it a secret.
The Millions fold treasure ocean that flows between the borders of the southern continent and the eastern continent is rumored to have an Origin treasure in its depths. And that all treasures coming from that ocean have all been produced by that origin treasure.
The Millions fold treasure ocean got that name due to the sheer amount of treasures that are borne from it. They are assumed to be endless. However, with such opulence trouble is usually not far behind. These troubles come from the competition and fights for the treasures while others come directly from the treasures themselves. A treasure with the long passage of time may end up awakening its spirit. An awakened treasure is one of the most dangerous things one can encounter due to the destructive might it possesses upon awakening.
For example, a monarch-rank treasure is usually used to make equipment, potions, talismans, or arrays that are at the palace stage in terms of exertion of power. If the treasure awakens a spirit, at its infancy stage it will be able to fully exact the powers of a palace stage expert which will only grow in power as the spirit continues to mature.
Treasures rarely awaken their spirit. The rate is usually maybe one in a hundred thousand. And this ratio only applies to treasures that have reached the ascendant rank, those at the monarch rank have much slimmer odds.
However, the ones that do end up awakening end up with huge lethality and potential. The world always has a balance. Natural treasures rarely awaken their spirit, it is an obstacle for them whereas humans are born with awareness and able to easily manipulate qi of their free will from a young age. However, as humans age, this advantage gradually disappears and the higher up the ranks they move the harder it becomes for them to breakthrough. The same cannot be said for treasures. For treasures that awaken their spirit the older they get the more powerful, they are with no bottlenecks in their cultivation. They only grow stronger and stronger with time.
The rank of treasure dictates the rank of weapon, equipment or potion formed. Monarch rank treasures are used for things at the palace level, sky rank at the core formation stage, earth rank at the foundation stage with mortal rank treasures only effective for those at the body refining and qi formation stage.
The sect master of the green fog swamp sect had lost earth-rank weapons in his fight against the emerald leaf cow. For a sect of their rank that is a substantial loss that would take a while to recover. This resulted in Sect Master Cheng Yuan having a swollen throat full of blood due to the already difficult situation he was in adding to the fact that the emerald leaf cow reneged on her deal.
Once Cheng Yuan had his emotions in check he continued, "You see judge, 70 years ago when the monstrosity you see before you was just a young calf we had started feeding it ahem I mean her leaves from a young radiant twig Earthwood. The leaves had an astronomical effect as it managed to awaken faint THIN traces of her radiant emerald cow bloodline." Cheng Yuan emphasized the thin part with venom in his tongue it even seemed fork-tongued like a snake's, as he threw a mocking side glance at Wen Chang who at the moment was glowing like a kid with a new toy as she played with the transmission ball.
"The leaves and other mortal and earth-rank herbs we added to her daily diet helped her awaken more of her bloodline and we also assisted her in parts of her cultivation and meditation techniques. We even went as far as seeking guidance from other local rank 4 beast tamer sects to help us refine a plan for her growth. The stronger she grew the more we knew it was out of our depths to be able to care for her growth efficiently. If she was an awakened plant we would have managed. With all we have gone through there's never a day that has gone by without me wishing she was just an herb."
Sect master Cheng Yuan got lost in his thoughts and went off tangent and started raving endlessly about the pros of having an awakened plant as opposed to an animal. The cost, dignity, and ambiance. He even went down to his ancestry and speculation that one of his ancestors may have been a spiritual plant due to his deep sense of affinity to plants.
Yi Jie had to interrupt him to tear him away from his impassioned speech. It seemed he had been giving the whole plant thing a whole lot of thought. Even Wen Chang the emerald leaf cow was surprised at the sect master's speech.
"I didn't know he loved plants this much. Explains the veiled hatred I always detect in his eyes every time they bring those second-rate herbs to me. Turns out I was eating his kin. I'll make sure to apologize later." The emerald lead cow made a silent mental note to herself as she looked at sect master Cheng Yuan with an unconcealed pity in her eyes. This resulted in a confused look from Cheng Yuan.
"Huh, is that pity I see in her eyes? Hmmph, she must think she is so powerful just because she got a few hooves in our fight that she can even afford to look down on me with pity. If it wasn't for those silly elders holding me back do you think the fight would have ended in a draw?" Cheng Yuan silently thought to himself as he gritted his teeth in anger. But he quickly cleared his head and focused on the matter at hand.
"Once she broke through to the foundation stage. We formed an agreement with her. She'd supply us with emerald milk and we'd continue giving her the resources she needed for her cultivation. It was mutually beneficial and even more favorable on her part because her upkeep was expensive.
Judge normal cows eat a lot now imagine a spiritual cow that is cultivating. The costs were huge. We had to sell a few high-grade earth rank herbs, spend countless days and nights cultivating potions, and even take a few loans from some merchant organizations so the sect could continue functioning. We even stopped activating a few formation arrays in the sect to reduce cost. Part of her milk supply was used in offsetting this debt.
The cost of her upkeep only grew more and more the higher up the ranks she moved. But we endured through it because we knew once she broke through to the core formation realm things would get better for the sect.
With her milk we'd be able to harvest all the effort we put and more. The milk from a core emerald leaf cow is the dream ingredient for many alchemists out there. Other than the combining effect it has with potions especially those with opposing properties, it can help alchemists who are usually affected by pill poison due to the nature of their work and end up having shaky foundations to purify their channels and solidify their foundations.
With this, we could form a few connections in the alchemy circle and even get a variety of herbs for the emerald leaf cow. She was the dream cash cow to help the sect and her catapult forward. Up until she broke through to the core formation stage I thought that was what she wanted as well. But all that changed the moment she broke through.
She got temperamental, the quantity of milk we had agreed on, she shorted the quantity by two-thirds claiming she has blocked qi channels which is impossible for a core formation expert and I don't even see how qi channels affect milk production. Then she started stealing other herbs from the sect and even bribed a few elders and started draining the reserves. The last straw was when she asked to eat the leaves from the Tupelo tree. This is our sect's ancestry and saving grace.
The reason the sect exists is because the tree created a safe sanctuary for us in an environment where anything could poison you and even a biome suitable for cultivation and growth of spiritual herbs. I vehemently refused her utterly outrageous and disrespectful request.
Words and bellows were exchanged and that's when our fight broke out. A part of the sect ended up in shambles because of the fight. The sect is almost in ruins because of her. Some of our possessions may even get repossessed by those merchants because of the millions we owe in medium-grade spirit stones. All BECAUSE THIS COW COULDN'T KEEP HER WORD AND GOT GREEDY!!!!" Cheng Yuan towards the end got a little livid. One could tell from the bloodshot eyes and labored breaths he had as he pointed toward the emerald leaf cow with shaky hands.
