Chapter 34: The Inheritance of the Spiritual Botanist

Chapter 34: The Inheritance of the Spiritual Botanist

Through Zhao Qiancheng's explanation, Gu Mo gained a general understanding of the profession of a Spiritual Botanist. If Spiritual Farmers were akin to ordinary agricultural workers, then Spiritual Botanists were the equivalent of agricultural research professors. The former focused on cultivation and production, while the latter specialized in developing higher-yield crops.

Beyond that, Spiritual Botanists also cultivated and researched rare and unusual spiritual plants—something particularly important to Gu Mo. If he could become a Spiritual Botanist, he wouldn't have to worry about the Peashooter attracting too much attention. After all, it would be completely normal for a Spiritual Botanist to develop novel plants.

Even the Sunflower wouldn't be a problem, as long as he concealed its Sun Essence properties. With the identity of a Spiritual Botanist, he could easily cover up its existence.

With this realization, Gu Mo looked at Zhao Qiancheng with anticipation. Since Zhao had suddenly brought up the Spiritual Botanist profession, there was clearly more to the conversation.

"I have an opportunity for you to become a Spiritual Botanist, as a reward for winning the yield championship," Zhao Qiancheng said with a smile. This kind of reward, which cost no real money, was the easiest to give out.

"Thank you, Deacon Zhao!"

Hearing this confirmation, Gu Mo was overjoyed.

"I'm just giving you the opportunity. Whether you can actually become a Spiritual Botanist depends on your own efforts," Zhao Qiancheng waved his hand. While the Spiritual Botanist profession wasn't as prestigious as Alchemy, Forging, Formation, or Talisman Arts, it was just as difficult—if not more so. Without sufficient talent, entry into the field was extremely challenging.

At present, Qinglu Sect had only two official Tier 1 Spiritual Botanists. The primary reason for this scarcity was that Qinglu Sect had no established Spiritual Botanist inheritance.

For Alchemy, Forging, Formation, and Talisman Arts, Qinglu Sect had inheritances reaching Tier 4. Even Beast Taming and Puppet Arts had Tier 3 inheritances. But when it came to Spiritual Botanists, there was nothing.

To address this gap, the sect master leveraged his connections and managed to invite a wandering Tier 3 Spiritual Botanist to join Qinglu Sect as an honorary elder. This ended the sect's lack of Spiritual Botanists and allowed them to achieve self-sufficiency in spiritual plant cultivation.

However, since the honorary elder was an outsider, he would eventually leave. To ensure continuity, Qinglu Sect paid a hefty price to persuade this Tier 3 Spiritual Botanist to pass down some of his knowledge.

The reward Zhao Qiancheng was offering Gu Mo was the opportunity to attend this elder's lectures. However, this wasn't an exclusive privilege.

The Tier 3 Spiritual Botanist only taught classes—he didn't limit attendance, nor did he concern himself with how many students grasped the material. As a result, this opportunity wasn't considered particularly rare. Inner sect disciples and outer sect disciples from the Spiritual Plant Hall all had access to these lectures.

Since Spiritual Botanists were a higher-tier profession than Spiritual Farmers, the Spiritual Plant Hall received more spots than other peaks. And statistics proved that Spiritual Farmers had a higher success rate of transitioning into Spiritual Botanists.

Over the years, two disciples had successfully become official Spiritual Botanists, both from the Spiritual Plant Hall. Though the number was small, Qinglu Sect was still satisfied—it meant the seeds of the profession had been planted. And in the future, more Spiritual Botanists might emerge.

Although Gu Mo had secured the right to attend lectures from the Tier 3 Spiritual Botanist, there was no set date for when classes would begin.

After all, this instructor wasn't just a Tier 3 Spiritual Botanist—he was also a Golden Core cultivator. For someone at this level, a casual closed-door meditation session could last several years.

For cultivators, cultivation was always the top priority—lecturing was secondary. However, based on what Gu Mo had heard from Mai Yunfa, the Tier 3 Spiritual Botanist elder was expected to emerge from seclusion within the next few years, at which point lectures would begin.

"Gu Mo, your luck is really something," Mai Yunfa remarked while flying on his sword. "You only have to wait a few years to attend the lectures. I've been waiting for so long!"

Mai Yunfa had received the lecture qualification long ago, but after the last session, the Tier 3 elder had gone into seclusion, leaving him waiting ever since.

"Senior Brother Mai, perhaps this extra time has helped refine your skills, making it easier for you to become a Spiritual Botanist," Gu Mo said with a smile.

"That's true!"

Mai Yunfa nodded in agreement. The deeper one's mastery of Spiritual Farming, the higher the chances of becoming a Spiritual Botanist—this was something the Tier 3 elder had said himself.

Thus, during these years of waiting, Mai Yunfa had focused on perfecting his Spiritual Farming techniques, confident that he could pass the threshold into becoming a full-fledged Spiritual Botanist.

"We're here!"

As they spoke, Mai Yunfa descended from his flying sword. However, they didn't land at Gu Mo's spiritual fields outside the valley. Instead, they arrived at the servant disciples' quarters—the same place where Gu Mo had stayed before joining the Spiritual Plant Hall.

The reason for coming here was related to Zhao Qiancheng's task. A new batch of servant disciples was about to choose their sect affiliations, and Gu Mo, as a success story of the Spiritual Plant Hall, was here to recruit new members.

His goal was to bring in more servant disciples to help develop the spiritual farmlands outside the valley.

"Junior Brother Gu Mo, I'll leave the recruiting to you," Mai Yunfa said once they arrived at the personnel office.

During their journey, Gu Mo had suggested that actively recruiting disciples would be more effective. Other professions like Alchemy, Forging, Formation, and Talisman Arts could afford to wait for disciples to come to them—but the Spiritual Plant Hall didn't have that luxury. They had to actively attract new members.

Mai Yunfa had agreed with Gu Mo's suggestion—but had also decided to let Gu Mo handle the actual recruiting. As an outer sect disciple, Mai Yunfa found it too undignified to approach servant disciples directly.

"Got it!"

Gu Mo nodded and left the personnel office. As a servant disciple himself, he had no reservations about actively recruiting. He understood that Zhao Qiancheng had given him so many benefits precisely to help attract more servant disciples to the Spiritual Plant Hall.

If recruitment numbers remained low, then the benefits he received in the future might also decrease.

"Hey there, junior brother, have you considered joining the Spiritual Plant Hall?" Gu Mo said, stopping a newly advanced Qi Refining disciple who was heading toward the personnel office.

"S-Sorry! I plan to join alchemy!" The startled disciple stammered.

"If you join Spiritual Plant Hall now, you'll immediately receive outer sect disciple benefits. Are you sure you don't want to reconsider?" Gu Mo said with a friendly smile.

"Wait… Are you Senior Brother Gu Mo?" The disciple suddenly looked at him in shock.

Gu Mo was momentarily confused, but he quickly realized why—the Spiritual Plant Hall had spread stories about his achievements among the servant disciples. Many new recruits already knew about him and the fact that he had received outer sect disciple treatment.

"That's right!" Gu Mo confirmed.

"It really is Senior Brother Gu Mo!"

Immediately, other servant disciples nearby gathered around, eager to confirm if the rumors were true.