The human trafficker sold her to David Brooks for a price dozens of times higher than what he paid!

"Yes, thank you, young master." Linda Carter nodded and withdrew, secretly letting out a sigh of relief as she left the room, feeling a bit grateful: the young master didn’t seem as bad as the rumors outside said.

With this matter settled, it was already late. James Brooks wasn’t home, so David Brooks ate dinner alone, pulled out "The Three Explanations of the Daoist Canon" and read a page before his eyelids started drooping. He casually tossed the precious classic back into the Mustard Seed Sumeru Ring and went to bed.

When the book fell into the ring’s space, it accidentally knocked over a small jade bottle, and three seemingly ordinary seeds rolled onto the ground...

Chapter 003: Divine Demon Body (Part 1)

David Brooks’s sleeping skills ranked among the best in Qidong County; he would never get up before mid-morning. But today, his father yanked off his covers at the crack of dawn, forcing him to get up and cultivate.

Then his father went out on business, and without supervision, David Brooks dawdled for a whole hour before sluggishly opening the Mustard Seed Sumeru Ring, intending to take out a classic to study. He had already given up on the two from yesterday.

But when he opened the Mustard Seed Sumeru Ring today, he suddenly froze with a "Huh?"

Inside the ring’s space, the piles of spiritual herbs, classics, and spirit jades had all vanished, replaced by three inexplicable plants growing there.

The first plant was a bamboo stalk, about as tall as a person and two fingers thick, its surface a verdant green with a faint golden sheen.

The second was a peach tree, also not very big, about the same height as the bamboo but thinner, though its branches and leaves were lush and thriving.

The third was somewhat unfamiliar. David Brooks stared at it for a while before realizing—it was a gourd! The gourd vine was climbing up the peach tree, seemingly preparing to reach toward the bamboo, though it hadn’t grown that far yet.

There were also some fragments of wooden boxes scattered on the ground. David Brooks had no idea why his ring’s space had turned out like this, and he was a bit frantic: even for the Chen family, those cultivation resources were precious—how could they just disappear like this?!

At least he knew the basics: the Mustard Seed Sumeru Ring wasn’t a minor cave-heaven; living things shouldn’t be able to survive here. Yet the gourd, bamboo, and peach tree were all "thriving"!

After staring blankly for a while, David Brooks suddenly slapped his forehead. "Could it be those three seeds?"

He rummaged through the wooden fragments and indeed found the small jade bottle, now empty!

David Brooks wasn’t alarmed; instead, he was a bit delighted: being able to grow plants in the ring’s space—this was definitely an extraordinary treasure! As for why all the other resources in the ring had vanished? Looking at the wooden box fragments, most likely they’d become nourishment for these three plants.

The more you give, the greater the reward.

But as for what use these three plants actually had, he still had no idea. He carefully observed them and suddenly noticed that at the very top of the bamboo, some characters seemed to be appearing.

He hurried closer to look, but the characters were still blurry, as if they hadn’t fully manifested yet.

Suddenly, David Brooks felt an unbearable itch of curiosity—what could those characters be? Why were they so faint? Instinctively, he reached out to touch that section of bamboo, and instantly a powerful thought surged into his mind!

Hunger—yes, the bamboo was sending him a message: hunger. The feeling was as intense as a beast that had starved for hundreds of thousands of years.

Startled, David Brooks quickly let go. After a moment, he calmed down, his eyes darting as he quietly slipped out and snuck into his father’s study.

His father kept a few spirit jades in the study as spares. But not the lowest-grade first-tier spirit jades he gave David Brooks; his father’s cultivation was higher, so he used second-tier spirit jades.

Sure enough, after searching for a while, he found two second-tier spirit jades.

A single second-tier spirit jade was worth as much as a whole box of David Brooks’s first-tier ones. David Brooks buried the two second-tier spirit jades at the base of the bamboo and watched eagerly, but the bamboo didn’t change right away.

Just as David Brooks was growing anxious and about to lose hope, suddenly that section of bamboo burst into golden light, countless characters flowing rapidly through the glow before vanishing back into the bamboo with a swish.

Then, before David Brooks could react, snap—the section of bamboo broke off on its own and fell at his feet.

David Brooks didn’t rush to pick up the bamboo; instead, he dug up the spot where he’d buried the spirit jades and, sure enough, both second-tier jades were gone.

Only then did he pick up the section of bamboo, and almost at the same time, another thought from the bamboo merged into David Brooks’s mind, instantly letting him understand how to use it.

Holding the bamboo, shimmering with hidden golden light, he exited the ring’s space, unable to suppress his excitement. If the treasures in his ring’s space were really as he suspected, then his poor aptitude would no longer be an obstacle to cultivation!

In the future, he would be able to grow strong and protect his own chastity with his own strength!