Lei Mulan immediately waved her hands and shook her head.
“Trying to make a demonic beast that just gained intelligence and took human form fall in love with calligraphy is asking too much. No thanks—I’m a demon cultivator. I don’t even know how to hold a brush!”
“It’s fine, Senior Sister can teach you. Besides, you’ll have to learn to read and write sooner or later anyway.”
“You might as well join our Poetry and Calligraphy Club directly. A demon cultivator with literary refinement is quite rare,” the senior sister persisted.
“Thank you for your concern, Senior Sister, but we’d like to look at a few more clubs before deciding,” Mu Yanxi stepped in to help Lei Mulan out.
In truth, she knew a bit of calligraphy—she had learned it in her previous life—but composing poetry was completely beyond her.
Moreover, she didn’t particularly like Confucian cultivators. It wasn’t to the extent of her dislike for demonic cultivators, but she always found Confucian cultivators overly rigid and stubborn, making them difficult to communicate with.
Confucian cultivators followed a strict system of ancient rites. The more faithfully they adhered to these rituals, the stronger they became.
It was said that high-level Confucian cultivators had reached a state where their understanding of ritual returned to simplicity, allowing them to act freely without violating propriety—more open-minded and easygoing than ordinary cultivators.
However, lower-level Confucian cultivators who lacked sufficient mastery could only rigidly imitate the rules, often insisting that others follow them as well.
At the Qi Refining stage, Confucian cultivators obviously couldn’t possess any profound understanding of rituals.
They could only recite things mechanically, so Mu Yanxi had no interest in joining this Poetry and Calligraphy Club.
“Alright then, Junior Sisters, take care. I hope after looking around, you’ll still consider our Poetry and Calligraphy Club.”
“Also, our club sells calligraphy scrolls crafted into divine artifacts with various effects, as well as brushes, ink, paper, and inkstones.
Feel free to visit if you need anything,” the senior sister said politely, though a hint of disappointment showed. She truly adhered to proper etiquette.
Feeling a bit awkward lingering any longer, Mu Yanxi quickly pulled Lei Mulan away.
The next booth they came across was nothing like the quiet Poetry and Calligraphy Club. Even though it was located deeper within Yuehua Palace, it had gathered quite a crowd of new disciples.
A fresh medicinal fragrance lingered in the air. On the display table were rows of rare flowers and exotic plants.
Among those Mu Yanxi recognized were silver leaf iron vine, winter moon flower, reflecting snow begonia, searching red nest, and other spiritual plants—all of them at least several thousand years old.
The small, multicolored tree at the center looked even older, possibly over ten thousand years.
Each of these spiritual herbs was worth a fortune, enough to make golden core stage cultivators fight over them.
As for the ten-thousand-year-old tree, Mu Yanxi’s immortal brain identified it as the nine-colored spiritual treasure tree.
It was said to gather wealth and spiritual energy, and could bear nine different types of spiritual fruit, each with unique effects.
A single tree like this could transform a cave dwelling into a blessed grotto-heaven—it was a spiritual tree worthy of being a clan’s most treasured possession.
“Welcome to the Horticulture Department. Join us in studying and researching the cultivation and care of spiritual herbs.”
“Immortal herbs and spiritual medicine are, aside from spirit stones, the most widely circulated hard currency in the cultivation realm, and also one of the most important resources. Mastering herb cultivation means you’ll never have to worry wherever you go,” said a senior sister standing at the booth.
Her face bore faint green markings, and leaves were tucked into her hair.
Taking a closer look, Mu Yanxi realized—this senior sister was actually a wood spirit clan cultivator. A fresh wood-attribute spiritual energy radiated from her body, faintly resonating with the surrounding plants.
The wood spirit clan had exceptional talent in caring for spiritual herbs, being naturally close to plant life. High-level cultivators often liked to keep one around to manage their herbs.
She hadn’t expected the Spiritual Moon Sect to not only accept wood spirit clan students, but also help them take on human form, just like the Yao Race.
Wood spirit clan members were all female and couldn’t stray too far from their bonded spiritual plant, making them ideal and highly sought-after attendants.
However, compared to the wood spirit clan, the new disciples were clearly more interested in the thousand-year-old herbs on display.
“The Horticulture Department actually has so many thousand-year spiritual herbs. Even if I sold my entire family, I couldn’t afford these,” one new disciple exclaimed.
“Hehe, these herbs don’t entirely belong to the Horticulture Department. Strictly speaking, they’re grown in the sect’s medicinal garden and only borrowed here for recruitment.”
“Be careful—these are extremely valuable. If you damage one, even selling yourself wouldn’t be enough to repay it,” another senior sister said.
This senior sister also emitted a fresh wood-type spiritual aura, brimming with vitality.
As she walked past, the surrounding plants gently stretched toward her, as if welcoming her presence. She wasn’t from the wood spirit clan, but rather a girl from the tree clan.
The biggest difference between the tree clan and the wood spirit clan was that wood spirit clan members were companion spirits born from spiritual plants.
They themselves weren’t plants, but they couldn’t stray far from their bonded plant, and their purpose was to care for and protect it. If the bonded plant died, the wood spirit would perish as well.
The tree clan, on the other hand, was closer to actual plant life—intelligent beings with partial plant characteristics, though not fully plants. They possessed normal reproductive abilities and could cultivate like other beings.
Mu Yanxi also spotted a tree demon on the platform.
As the name suggested, this was a member of the demon cultivators—a being whose original form was a spiritual plant that had gained intelligence and transformed into human shape. In that sense, it was somewhat related to Lei Mulan.
All three of these races received bonus points during the sect entrance exam as minority groups. Depending on their rarity, they could gain anywhere from five to twenty additional points.
Of course, the Horticulture Department also had many disciples from other races.
As expected of one of the most important resources in the cultivation realm, every senior sister handling these herbs was extremely cautious, not daring to make even the slightest mistake.
“So all these spiritual plants belong to the Spiritual Moon Sect… does that mean if they bear fruit, we don’t get any?” one junior sister asked, sounding disappointed.
“Of course not. While ownership of the plants belongs to the sect, the harvest from our labor belongs to us.”
“The Horticulture Department distributes spiritual herbs and fruits based on contribution, so our benefits are the best,” the tree clan senior sister explained.
This condition was indeed tempting. As soon as they heard they could receive spiritual herbs and fruits, many new disciples immediately began asking where to sign up. Only a portion remained calm, unmoved.
Mu Yanxi was among them. She knew very well that thousand-year spiritual plants could take hundreds of years just to flower and bear fruit—and even then, the yield would be extremely small, nowhere near enough to distribute.
As if seeing through the thoughts of those who remained unconvinced, the wood spirit clan girl added, “Our department also provides seeds and high-quality medicinal fields. Any spiritual herbs you cultivate yourself belong entirely to you—the sect won’t take them.”
“And once you learn the techniques here, you can grow as many herbs as you want in the future.”
That sounded even more tempting—having one’s own field to grow herbs, with all the harvest belonging to oneself.
Yet Mu Yanxi remained indifferent.
She understood clearly that even under normal conditions, a thousand-year spiritual herb required an incredibly long time to mature and bear fruit.
Even with growth-accelerating methods, it was nearly impossible to compress a thousand-year growth cycle into just three years.
In other words, even if all the harvest belonged to oneself, during their three years in the Great Sect, it would be very difficult to see any real returns.
In the end, they would still have to honestly tend the sect’s thousand-year herbs just to receive a small share of the profits.