After sending Li Mao away, silence returned to the cave dwelling.

Chen Ping sat cross-legged on the floor, his mind sinking into the Jade Pendant suspended in his Dantian.

It had been some time since he returned to the Sect, yet he hadn’t taken a moment to properly organize his harvest.

The scenery before his eyes shifted. The familiar, rich aura of the dimension rushed over him.

Two acres of Black Earth stretched out under a sky illuminated by gentle, eternal moonlight. The spiritual plants below were bursting with vitality, emitting a kaleidoscope of soft, glowing lights.

Chen Ping stood in the center of the space, his gaze sweeping over this empire he had built with his own hands.

This was his foundation. This was his lifeline.

Without the Jade Pendant and the Black Earth, let alone stepping onto the Immortal Path, he would have long since become a pile of bleached bones in the dirt.

The negotiation for the Foundation Establishment Pill formula was a waiting game. What he needed now was to audit his assets.

He had acquired too many natural treasures recently. They needed to be cataloged. Moreover, the existing plants in the space had evolved, requiring a new layout plan.

He walked toward the innermost zone.

There, a Cold Star Grass Tree stood silently. Its branches shimmered with seeds that twinkled like distant, frozen stars. Its medicinal age had already exceeded one hundred and forty years.

This was the core ingredient for the Marrow Cleansing Pill, one of the first crops he had ever planted.

Originally, it was just grass. But over time, Chen Ping had uprooted the ordinary stalks, leaving only the strongest to mutate. Now, it stood three zhang tall—a true tree towering over ten meters.

There was no trace of its humble origins left.

Its canopy was lush, laden with enough leaves to support thousands of alchemy batches. Even if Chen Ping fired up his furnace every day for a year, he wouldn’t be able to exhaust its production.

A single tree to supply an entire line of Marrow Cleansing Pills.

Growing beside it was the Qi Gathering Grass Tree. Its leaves were broad and thick, shrouded in a dense mist of Qi. Its medicinal age had also hit one hundred and twenty years.

The leaves were massive, hanging down like green banners.

These two trees were the “Elders” of the space, occupying their own exclusive corner. As long as he didn’t waste them, their regeneration rate far outstripped his consumption speed.

Nearby lay a slightly larger plot dedicated to the three main ingredients of the Essence Consolidation Pill: the Essence Fruit Tree, the Moonlight Grass Tree, and the Three-Star Flower Tree.

The Essence Fruit Tree had shattered its natural growth limits, reaching over six meters in height.

It was heavy with fruit—one hundred and thirty-two Essence Fruits densely packed along the branches. Each one was a full size larger than anything found in the outside world.

Chen Ping felt a surge of satisfaction. These mutated trees were his infinite supply glitch. As long as the trees stood, he had endless pills.

Just a short distance away grew a tree with a peculiar, ghostly appearance.

Its branches and leaves were a translucent pale gray, emitting faint, rhythmic fluctuations that seemed to massage the soul just by looking at them.

The Soul Nourishing Tree.

Medicinal age: sixty years.

Chen Ping calculated silently. In another forty years, when it broke the century mark, its leaves would fully mature.

At that point, a single leaf would sell for fifteen to twenty thousand Spirit Stones. It was the core material for the Tier 3 Soul Nourishing Pill.

This tree wasn’t just a plant; it was his future retirement fund.

Next to it was a chaotic, overgrown sector.

Dense vines twisted and coiled like a nest of snakes, covering nearly half an acre of the Black Earth. The vines shimmered with five distinct colors, cycling through the elements.

Five Elements Yin Spirit Vines.

The oldest vine was eighty years old, while the newer batches ranged from forty to sixty. In total, there were eighty-two vines.

They took up the most space, but Chen Ping refused to trim them. This was his inventory for the future “Spirit Root Business.”

In the world of cultivation, which powerful tycoon didn’t want their mortal parents or children to join them on the Immortal Path? These vines could manufacture artificial Spirit Roots. The demand would be infinite.

The more he planted, the richer he would be.

At the edge of the vine jungle, three recently transplanted Origin Thunder Bamboo Shoots had taken root.

The tender green tips practically vibrated with energy. Though only a few years old, they already showed signs of hardening into bamboo.

Once they matured, they would serve as top-tier lightning-attribute crafting materials.

If he could wait until they reached a thousand years of medicinal age, they could be refined into a set of Dharma Treasures for the Violet Palace realm.

‘A Thousand Thunder Sword Formation…’

Chen Ping smiled. Planting them now was planting a dream. By the time he reached the Violet Palace, he might actually wield a sword array that would make the heavens tremble.

Beside the bamboo were four Amethyst Flowers, glowing with a deep purple luminescence, and four Yang Flame Grasses, radiating a warm, solar heat.

These were auxiliary ingredients for the Foundation Establishment Pill.

Both had reached a century of medicinal age. They were fully mature, their branches heavy with seeds. Chen Ping carefully harvested the seeds, setting them aside for the next planting cycle.

Finally, towering above them all like a king overlooking his subjects, stood a colossal spirit tree.

Its trunk was rugged and ancient like dragon scales. Its leaves were carved from green jasper. Hanging from its heavy boughs were nine fruits, pulsating with terrifyingly dense Qi.

The True Essence Fruit Tree.

The core, irreplaceable ingredient for the Foundation Establishment Pill.

Its medicinal age had broken the two-hundred-year barrier. In the hyper-fertile environment of the Black Earth, it had shattered the species’ natural height limit of two meters, surging to over ten meters tall. It stood out from the crowd like a crane among chickens.

Beneath its shade, two small saplings—grown from the previous harvest’s seeds—were already a foot tall.

In a quiet corner of the space, a stump that looked like a piece of dead charcoal was silently working a miracle.

A single tender leaf had sprouted from the burnt wood. The leaf’s surface was etched with mysterious, natural Dao patterns.

The Enlightenment Spirit Tea Tree.

It had recovered to a hundred years of medicinal age. It needed another four hundred years to mature.

According to the records Chen Ping had consulted, this tree was bizarre. In the outside world, it would produce forty-nine leaves and then immediately die.

But here?

‘The rules of the Black Earth are different from the Heavenly Dao outside,’ Chen Ping mused. ‘Perhaps it can break the cycle of death and become a perennial source of enlightenment.’

Every leaf could permanently boost a cultivator’s “Comprehension” stat. If he could mass-produce them… the implications were terrifying.

And then, there was the most mysterious corner of all.

A small, cordoned-off patch of soil containing a single, deep brown seed.

It had been buried for years. It had devoured gallons of spiritual spring water. Yet, it remained as silent and stubborn as a rock.

The World Tree Seed.

The legacy of the ancient cave master.

Chen Ping stared at it for a moment. ‘Is it dead? Or is it just waiting for something specific?’

Aside from the flora, four stone beds sat in a designated storage zone. The cave master and his three wives lay in preserved repose, waiting for Chen Ping to fulfill his promise of turning them into high-level puppets.

The remaining half-acre was his warehouse, piled high with miscellaneous loot and supplies.

Chen Ping did one final sweep, confirming that every inch of land was optimized.

Two acres of Black Earth, managed with the precision of a master architect.

Chen Ping felt a rush of pure dopamine.

In the entire cultivation world, was there a single Qi Condensation cultivator as filthy rich as him?