"Fellow Daoist Yang, our Guangyou Island cultivates four staple grains: rice, wheat, soybeans, and corn, along with three main vegetables: radishes, eggplants, and cabbage.
Moreover, we not only have common mortal-grade produce but also spiritual plants of the first and second grades.
Do you think this would suffice?"
Ni Zhennan stared at the seventh-tier demon core in Yang Hong's hand, his mouth watering.
With this demon core, the defensive array of Guangyou Island could be upgraded by one level,
allowing it to withstand or even counter-attack even if a seventh-tier demon lord attacked.
Therefore, Ni Zhennan was determined to acquire this demon core, even at some cost.
"Oh, then bring the seeds here for me to see."
Yang Hong curved his lips, looking calmly at Ni Zhennan. He now held the initiative and could negotiate at his leisure.
"Yes~ yes, please wait a moment, Fellow Daoist Yang."
"Pei Desheng, quickly, go fetch our stored grain seeds so Fellow Daoist Yang can pick them."
"Yes~ yes. Please wait, Fellow Daoist Yang."
Ni Zhennan called out urgently to a thin, old man. The man did not dare to delay and immediately flew off on his sword to retrieve the grain seeds.
He returned in the time it takes to drink a cup of tea.
"Fellow Daoist, please examine our seeds. They are all high-quality varieties."
"These are the only few types of seeds for ordinary mortals to eat that we managed to preserve with our lives."
The thin old man, Pei Desheng, directly highlighted the issue of "mortals" and emphasized the pronunciation of these two words as he spoke.
All of them were cunning old foxes. After their initial eagerness for the seventh-tier demon core, they had understood that Yang Hong must be sheltering a large number of mortals.
The great demon powers of the Myriad Islands region had been eradicating human food sources for tens of thousands of years; how could these old foxes not be aware of this?
"Is that so? I'll know after I've seen them."
Yang Hong accepted the seventeen storage bags with a noncommittal nod and began to inspect them one by one.
He not only used his divine sense but also took out seeds, tossing them into his mouth to taste them personally.
Out of the seventeen storage bags, seven contained ordinary plant seeds. Rice, wheat, and soybeans all had first and second-grade spiritual plant seeds. For vegetables, only radish seeds had first and second-grade spiritual plant quality.
However, the more Yang Hong tasted, the tighter his brows furrowed.
After tasting all the seeds, he looked at Pei Desheng with a somewhat grim expression for a while before turning his gaze to the nervous Ni Zhennan.
"Fellow Daoist, if you lack sincerity, then there's no need for a transaction.
At worst, I can spend more time searching outside. I believe finding one or two more human islands should not be a problem."
"Fellow Daoist~ Fellow Daoist, don't! If you have any issues, please state them.
These seeds of ours are definitely not a problem. They are all very high-quality seeds."
Ni Zhennan looked at the storage bags containing the seeds and stated with absolute certainty.
To preserve the high-quality seeds, the storage bags were specially refined from the stomach sacs of a peculiar demon beast, the [Voracious Fish], which could maximally and for the longest duration protect the vitality of the seeds from being lost.
Therefore, Ni Zhennan dared to answer with such confidence.
"The seeds are indeed of high quality."
Yang Hong first nodded in affirmation, then his tone shifted.
"However, there's an issue with the spiritual energy and aura within these seeds.
These seeds have been tampered with by the demon race; there's a faint demonic aura within them."
"Demonic aura?"
Ni Zhennan seemed surprised, then he personally tried eating a few seeds.
The other Nascent Soul cultivators also came over to try them.
Immediately, everyone's faces changed drastically!
"There really is a faint demonic aura!
We actually didn't notice it!"
"Alas~ how many years has it been since we've eaten such ordinary food and low-grade spiritual plant food?"
"Indeed. Since I advanced to the Nascent Soul realm, I've almost stopped eating food. Normally, I only consume high-grade spiritual fruits or the meat of high-grade demon beasts."
"We were all negligent."
"No wonder I've found it so difficult for our clansmen to break through to the Foundation Establishment realm.
It turns out the demon race has been secretly targeting us."
"But this method is too subtle; even old fellows like us in the Nascent Soul realm overlooked it."
The twelve Nascent Soul cultivators wore expressions of utter despair.
With demonic aura-infused food, cultivators could refine the trace of demonic aura through their cultivation techniques to enhance their strength.
However, ordinary mortals would likely suffer greatly, possibly even face extinction.
That damned demonic aura would slowly alter human genes, eventually transforming them into demon race beings.
Humanoid demons!
"Island Master, Fellow Daoist Yang, please wait a moment."
Just as everyone's mood grew heavy, Pei Desheng seemed to recall something and shouted before rushing out.
"Could this old fellow still be hoarding some?"
Including Yang Hong, everyone had this thought in their hearts upon seeing his urgent demeanor.
Soon, Pei Desheng flew back.
"Clatter~"
As soon as he arrived, he poured a mountain-like pile of gourds from his storage ring.
These gourds varied in shape and size; some were as large as human heads, while others were as small as thumbs. They were all rather irregular, and some even had visible holes.
Clearly, they were all defective products.
"Island Master, Fellow Daoist Yang, and everyone else, please help me empty the seeds from these gourds. Perhaps these seeds will be fine."
After speaking, Pei Desheng began to break open the gourds.
"Crack~"
In his haste, Pei Desheng broke a fist-sized gourd.
"Clatter~"
A small pile of seeds spilled out.
"Huh~"
Yang Hong exclaimed in surprise!
He looked at the seeds on the ground and then at the broken gourd that had been split in two.
The seeds on the ground occupied more than a cubic meter of space, far exceeding the volume of the gourd.
"Clatter~"
As more and more gourds were opened, Yang Hong's eyes grew brighter.
He quickly stepped forward and opened a few gourds himself, pouring out the seeds within.
"Are these gourds storage artifacts? Did Fellow Daoist Pei refine them?"
After all the seeds were poured out, forming a mountain of seeds hundreds of feet high, Yang Hong asked a question first.
"No, this is a specialty of Guangyou Island. They naturally contain a storage space.
These are all defective items I collected over time."
"Originally, it was just something I did idly. Perhaps it will become our lifeline."
"Fellow Daoist Yang, let's search and see if there are any truly undamaged seeds."
Pei Desheng said with a heavy tone, then began to analyze and screen the seeds with his divine sense.
"Alright, let's all pitch in."
Yang Hong also set aside his curiosity and began to carefully and meticulously screen the seeds.
As he did, he discovered another pleasant surprise.
"Huh~ there really are."
"I have some here too.
Really, there are still safe seeds."
"Haha~ I found a third-grade spiritual plant rice seed here."
"I also found a third-grade wheat seed here."
"There are ordinary plant seeds here, hundreds of them..."
The divine senses of the twelve Nascent Soul realm cultivators were not poor. Coupled with Yang Hong's powerful divine sense, which spanned nearly 3300 li, even with meticulous screening, the task was completed by noon the next day.
A hint of a smile appeared on everyone's faces.
"Here, there are 36,382 ordinary plant seeds, 80,182 first-grade seeds, 8,729 second-grade seeds, and 132 third-grade seeds."
Pei Desheng was smiling the widest. The seeds of Guangyou Island were under his management, and finding so many seeds now meant at least his work had not been a complete failure.
Yang Hong looked at Pei Desheng's smile and shook his head helplessly.
How many people could these seeds feed?
It would take at least four or five seasons of cultivation to achieve mass production.
During this period, those ordinary mortals would have to continue eating food with demonic aura.
He, Pei Desheng, still had the nerve to smile?