Chapter 7

[What did the envoy speak of?]

[The consequence of ascending, and or staying in the Mortal realm. Once I ascended, I would not be able to descend, unless it's on official orders, that means I cannot see any of you.] Ming Yongnian watched as the blood from Lan Jianhong's face drained. [I'd rather stay if it meant not seeing any of you.]

"Eldest Brother—" Tears streamed down Lan Jianhong's face. "Mmph!"

Jiang Xiaotong caught Lan Jianhong's mouth. "You idiot! Keep your voice down." He whispered.

The two men's neck elongated as they peered at the sleeping little ancestor. Fortunately the baby was not disturbed and remained asleep.

Ming Yongnian stood slowly handling the baby in his hands with great care. "We're going."

"Go where, eldest brother?" Wu Jinjing stood up from her seat.

Ming Yongnian met Lan Jianhong's eyes, he immediately understood Ming Yongnian's intentions, he smirked. "We're headed for the Barren realm."

Luo Huifang opened her eyes. "According to one of my ghosts we first need to find a way to create a spring."

She had been interrogating one of her ghosts regarding plants and how to effectively grow them. Her ghost gave her a list of important things for plants to thrive. At the top of the list was water and a good soil quality.

"Spring?" Jin Liwei frowned. "As in a water spring, a source of clean water?"

"Yes."

"That made sense. For life to thrive water is essential." Li Jiayi's eyes landed outside of the window at the corps the villagers were growing. It was in a sad state, he couldn't even call it edible. "Now we know what we must do, create a spring!"

"And I'm hoping you know how to do that?" Lan Jianhong avoided the stack of books. Li Jiayi gave him a serene smile, and he knew what it meant. "Allow me to guess, we need to scour the information in these books."

"Be grateful we've narrowed it down this much. Look through the book regarding water." Li Jiayi vanished the books pertaining plants back to his storage space.

Perhaps it was because Lan Jianhong was desperate to avoid reading a single paragraph that he recalled something. "We can ask Xiaotong!"

Luo Huifang agreed, "Let's do that, it'll save us time by asking him. With Xiaotong's otherworldly knowledge he should know something."

Li Jiayi sent them a dirty look, all of you are just being lazy!

Lan Jianhong quickly fetched his communication token from his space storage. The token was made out of clear glass like jade, it shone with golden light as a familiar voice came filtering through, "You missed me already Jianhong?" Jiang Xiaotong taunted.

"No, you can get yourself piked with one of those filthy traps in the Da dynasty secret realm." Lan Jianhong shot back.

"Awww, too bad, I thought I saw a fine wood—"

"Bring it back! I'll need it to build my next work of art!"

Jiang Xiaotong knew exactly what made Lan Jianhong go crazy, building materials!

Luo Huifang shook her head. "We wanted to ask you something."

Not wanting to waste time Li Jiayi asked, "We wanted to know if your previous world had taught you anything about water spring, or the source of freshwater."

"They did." Hearing Jiang Xiaotong's words, they were relieved (except for Li Jiayi), they wouldn't be scouring through piles of dusty books. "It's an old science from my world. To put it simply, rain comes down, enters the soil, then eventually the water will meet a layer of rock they could not penetrate, and runs off to a lower ground level. Or they'll gather inside of an underground cave and accumulate there. The water has to come out eventually and voila, you have a spring!"

A very logical explanation and a simple one at that. Perhaps far too simple that no one wished to believe Jiang Xiaotong's words.

"Thank you for not being of help." Lan Jianhong cut off the communication line.

"Hey—"

Lan Jianhong refused to even touch a single book, the gears in his head were working at full power, his eyes lit up. "How about we dig a hole and put water in it!"

"It's far too costly, time costly. One of us will have to frequently replenish the water sources with our spells, it's not desirable in the long run. We must somehow push nature to create a natural spring." Jin Liwei had done an extensive calculation while everyone else was busy with the books, and interrogating Jiang Xiaotong.

Ming Yongnian felt Lan Jianhong's hopeful eyes landing on him. "I know what you are thinking Jianhong. We could recreate this realm's land to our wishes, forests, mountains, land covered in snow. But you are forgetting the key point, this land has little to no spiritual energy. Something created with spiritual energy alone, needs spiritual energy to live." Hearing this Lan Jianhong wilted to the ground like wet paper.

Luo Huifang patted Lan Jianhong's back like a good elder sister.

"Actually, Xiaotong is correct." Came Li Jiayi's voice.

Everyone stared at Li Jiayi intently.

Then the cultivator in brown robes said something that left their heads turning, "But we'll need grass."

All of them felt dumb, what did grass had anything to do with a water spring?

***

System?

System?

There was no answer.

System!

Silence remained, they were certain that there should be a mechanical voice going by the name "system" that would answer their call. Yet no one answered them. Their brain paused, who was this "system" again? Why was they calling it?

Who was they?

They really could not remember, all they knew was that this was what they called a transmigration. They had done this many times, it was very normal, but there was always the "system's" annoying voice around.

Why was they trying to find something they find annoying?

It mattered little for now. They tried moving their limbs, hoping it was hands and legs this time around. They giggled at their own thoughts, they always have hands and legs, right?