Rise of the Wang Clan: Starting with a Portable Farm

Chapter 283: Fire Spirit Island

Ji Linfeng leaned forward, his eyes burning with calculation. “As long as Fellow Daoist Wang and I draw the attention of the two Rank Three Demon Beasts, Young Friend Wang, Xiaotang, and the others can infiltrate the peak undetected. Even if the Rank Two Fire Lizards spot you, they will be no match for your combined strength!”

He turned his gaze to Wang Hao, offering a magnanimous smile. “If Young Friend Wang were to consume a Profound Spirit Fruit, you would instantly break through to the late Foundation Establishment stage, no? The Profound Spirit Vine currently bears exactly five mature fruits. I am willing to cede one to you. Furthermore, upon the successful completion of this raid, this old man swears he will never again obstruct your marriage to Xiaotang!”

This was Ji Linfeng’s true endgame. He needed the Profound Spirit Fruits to forcefully elevate the Ji clan’s other late-stage Foundation Establishment elders, maximizing their chances of producing a Golden Core successor before he died.

Currently, Ji Xiaotang was the only clan member at the ninth layer of Foundation Establishment. However, they had three other elders hovering at the seventh and eighth layers. The fruits would push them to the absolute peak!

Hiss. Wang Hao didn’t even need to think; he was instantly sold. A single fruit that bypassed a decade of bitter cultivation? If he secured a seed and planted it in his spatial farm, he could harvest an endless supply in a few short years. He could shave decades off his cultivation time and reach Foundation Establishment Perfection in the blink of an eye!

If he pushed hard enough, he might even form his Golden Core before the Zixu Secret Realm opened. Entering the realm as a Golden Core Patriarch alongside Wang Guang’an would exponentially increase their survival and plunder rates!

Wang Guang’an, however, remained a picture of stoic caution. “Fellow Daoist Ji, what are the exact cultivation bases of these two Rank Three Fire Lizards? I formed my Golden Core only a few years ago. If they are mid-stage or higher, I cannot hold them.”

“Hehe, Fellow Daoist Wang need not worry,” Ji Linfeng reassured him. “One Fire Lizard is Rank Three Middle Grade; I shall handle it personally. The other is merely Rank Three Low Grade. You only need to stall it!”

Wang Guang’an shot a subtle glance at Wang Hao. Seeing the blazing desire in his junior’s eyes, the Patriarch finally nodded. “Very well. When do we depart?”

A predatory glint flashed across Ji Linfeng’s eyes. “Naturally, the sooner the better! Secrecy is paramount. Our strike team will consist of exactly six people: you, me, Young Friend Wang, Xiaotang, Xiaomo, and a single master spirit planter.”

Ji Linfeng had zero intention of alerting the rest of his clan. If the other elders learned of the Profound Spirit Fruits, the ensuing political bloodbath over their distribution would tear the Ji clan apart. He didn’t have the lifespan left to deal with such migraine-inducing infighting.

Led by a mid-stage Golden Core Patriarch, the journey to Fire Spirit Island took a mere seven days.

Upon arrival, Ji Linfeng and Wang Guang’an immediately launched a deafening, highly visible assault on the island’s perimeter, successfully drawing the fury of the two Rank Three Fire Lizards and the bulk of the swarm.

Using the distraction, Wang Hao’s four-person infiltration team silently made landfall on the opposite coast. Navigating via Ji Linfeng’s detailed map, they rapidly ascended the central volcanic peak.

The ambient fire-attribute spiritual energy here was staggeringly dense; the subterranean spiritual vein was undoubtedly a pure fire vein.

“Sister Xiaotang, look!” Ji Xiaomo pointed excitedly. “That’s the Profound Spirit Vine!”

Clinging to the superheated rock face was a fiery-red vine, roughly three zhang in length.

The spirit planter accompanying them was Ji Hongfei. He was a rare neutral party within the Ji clan’s political landscape, which was why Ji Linfeng trusted him on this covert op.

Ji Hongfei examined the plant with a critical eye. “The Profound Spirit Vine is a notoriously slow grower, expanding only one chi every century. Based on its length, this specimen is roughly three thousand years old. It still possesses nearly seven millennia of natural lifespan.”

He frowned, tracing a glowing tendril. “However… this vine has been deeply contaminated by the violent subterranean fire vein. The fruits it bears are super-saturated with violent fire spiritual energy. Only a cultivator with a fire-attribute spirit root can safely consume them!”

The Profound Spirit Vine possessed a hard cap of ten thousand years before it naturally withered and died. Furthermore, even with a master spirit planter executing a perfect extraction, transplanting it would permanently sheer off centuries of its remaining lifespan.

Wang Hao didn’t care in the slightest about the elemental restriction. He possessed a perfect five-element spirit root; his body could seamlessly digest and assimilate extreme-attribute resources without suffering meridian backlash.

He stepped forward, casually brushing his hand against the fiery bark.

Seed acquired.

Internally, Wang Hao winced as he ruthlessly uprooted an Ice Soul Flower from one of his nine golden soil plots, immediately planting the Profound Spirit Vine seed in its place. The system-generated vine in his farm would grow perfectly neutral, devoid of any elemental contamination—meaning any cultivator in the Wang clan could consume its fruits!

In the outside world, a Profound Spirit Vine required eight hundred years to bloom, and another two hundred years for the fruits to ripen. Even utilizing the golden soil’s eighty-fold temporal acceleration and purchasing premium system fertilizer, Wang Hao would still have to wait over six years for a harvest.

But for a guaranteed shortcut to Golden Core? He could absolutely afford the wait.

“Xiaotang, Xiaomo, Fellow Daoist Wang,” Ji Hongfei instructed, having located the primary taproot deep within the volcanic rock. “Harvest the five fruits immediately. I will commence the extraction. It is a true pity… this is a genuine Rank Three spirit plant. While surviving the transplant is virtually guaranteed, it will enter a dormant state, requiring centuries of intensive nourishment to recover its vitality before it ever bears fruit again.”

“Ninth Granduncle,” Ji Xiaomo asked nervously, “if the vine is addicted to fire spiritual energy, doesn’t that mean we can only replant it on a fire-attribute spiritual vein? Giant Crab Island’s vein is water-aligned!”

Ji Hongfei shook his head. “Negative. We can simply transplant it into the Earth Fire Hall. Tapping the subterranean magma flows to artificially simulate a fire vein will provide sufficient nourishment.”

Hearing this, the Ji siblings breathed a sigh of relief.

“We need to move!” Wang Hao urged, his eyes scanning the horizon. “The Patriarchs drew the alphas away, but this is still the heart of a monster den. Extract the vine and let’s go. Do not invite unexpected variables!”

Ji Hongfei nodded sharply. With the trio providing suppressive covering fire against wandering Rank One lizards, Ji Hongfei executed a rapid sequence of esoteric spirit-planter hand seals, locking the vine’s core essence in stasis. With a final, precise sweep of his sword, he severed the taproot.

The fiery-red vine instantly dulled, visibly withering as it entered trauma shock.

The sheer mass of the vine was a logistical nightmare. Including the sprawling root system, the plant was nearly five zhang long—far too massive to stuff into a standard Storage Bag. While Wang Hao possessed a high-capacity Storage Ring, it was currently packed with a mountain of illicit loot and system resources. Reorganizing his inventory in the middle of a monster den was out of the question.

Forgoing subtlety, the team used telekinesis to physically levitate the massive vine, strapping it directly to the deck of their flying boat.

Wang Hao cast a longing glance at the volcanic crater. A Rank Three fire vein practically guaranteed the existence of ultra-rare, high-tier fire-attribute ores and mutant herbs. Unfortunately, lingering to strip-mine the peak was suicide. The Rank Three alphas could return at any second.

Their caution proved justified, but ultimately insufficient.

A flying boat carrying a five-zhang glowing red vine was anything but stealthy. The moment they broke the canopy and ascended into the sky, the remaining Rank Two Fire Lizards on the island spotted them.

A barrage of searing fireballs rocketed upward, swarming the flying boat. Ji Xiaotang’s eyes flashed cold. She slapped a high-tier Cold Ice Talisman onto the hull, erecting a freezing barrier that effortlessly neutralized the volley.

Because the Fire Lizards lacked wings, the ground-based assault was little more than a nuisance.

The four cultivators madly pumped their spiritual energy into the flying boat’s drive core. The vessel tore through the sky, rapidly putting distance between them and Fire Spirit Island.

Just as they crossed the hundred-mile mark and began to relax, the ambient temperature spiked catastrophically.

Without warning, an apocalyptic sea of golden-red flames erupted from the ocean below, instantly swallowing the flying boat whole. It was as if they had flown straight into the maw of a dying sun.

The inferno stretched for ten miles in every direction. Despite Ji Xiaotang frantically redlining the flight array, the flying boat remained frozen in mid-air, anchored in place by an invisible, crushing gravitational force.

Wang Hao’s Divine Sense shrieked a warning. This wasn’t normal fire—the flames were laced with a highly concentrated, corrosive fire poison. Had Ji Xiaotang’s ice barrier not been active, the toxic fumes would have already melted their lungs.

The sheer ambient heat was terrifying, amplified by the residual fire spiritual energy drifting off Fire Spirit Island.

Wang Hao’s throat instantly felt like it was stuffed with hot sand. Beside him, Ji Xiaomo—whose cultivation base was the weakest—was already collapsing to his knees, his robes drenched in sweat that instantly vaporized into steam. He was boiling alive in his own skin. They couldn’t hold out much longer!