2 - Searching For A Clue

As the morning clouds dissipated and the dark clouds quickly gathered. A muffled sound of thunder could be heard from the distance. The glommy and dark sky was a bit unsettling and terrifying.

Bai Xiaobei and his parents anxiously rushed back home from the fields. And just as they entered the house, rain pouring down heavily flooding everything in it's wake.

Back in his room after washing up, Bai Xiaobei took off the jade ring on his finger, placed it on the table and started to study it carefully.

This jade ring was found in the mountain forest not too long ago when he was wondering carelessly searching for something. He wore it on his hand just because it looked cool with it's soft green lustre.

It looks like two teeth that was pressed together. One was icily green and the other was brownish green. Even though it was made of jade, judging from the carving technique and traces, it didn't look like an antique at all by him.

After thinking and researching for a long time, he still could not find anything that could connect him to the phenomenon that happened to him earlier. The only clue he had was the information that had flowed into his mind, 'Little Spirit Rain Spell'.

It was as if a new set of memories and knowledge had suddenly appeared in his mind, allowing Bai Xiaobei to grasp the usage of the basic technique as well as related information of it.

The Little Spirit Rain Spell was a technique that the ancient cultivators used to obtain inspiration from the ancient Dragon God's Flying Cloud Rain technique. It was a technique they invented to irrigate the Spirit Farmland.

"Xiaobei, time to eat!"

Just as he was thinking, his mother voice calling him from outside the room. Bai Xiaobei stopped worrying about it and keep the jade on his finger again.

"I'm coming!" Bei Xiaobei replied back.

"Hmm?" Just as he was about to step out of the door, he discovered that there was signs of withering of the plotted plants in his room when he casually look at the window.

He walked forward, took a deep breath and silently used his will to activate the spell.

The next moment, a mysterious fluctuations appeared in the air. A cloud the size of a palm formed above the potted plant

"Damn, that's amazing!" Bai Xiaobei was excited as his teeth ached.

What made him excited was that his spell was real... and actually effective!

What made his teeth ache was that even though it was called the 'Little Spirit Rain Spell', the f*cking cloud that was formed was really too small.

It was said from the information that crammed into him that when the Little Spirit Rain Spell was used, it could create spirits cloud the size of a few acres and flooded them with spirits rain like the Spirit Farmland that was hundreds meters long. But, why is it the thing he made were only the size of his palm?

In the midst of his speechlessness, fine droplets of rain dripped down from the spirit cloud in his palm. And in a few seconds, the bonsai trees that was originally withered away, rejuvenate.

The lush green life force spread out, the tree branches became thicker and the green leaves squeeze out.

But just the tree showing the sign of growing up, with a violent shake, a clear cracking sound came out from the flower pot. In Bai Xiaobei's astonishment, the vase that the bonsai's potted in that had more than double fingers wide in thickness was immediately broken and eventually exploded.

"What's wrong? What's that's sound?"

The sound of the flower pot exploded was too loud and his mother's voice was heard asking from outside.

"It's nothing, mom! I just accidentally bumped into the flower pot. I'll clean this up first. You can eat first, I'll be there shortly." His heart nearly jumped out as it thumping hard against his chest.

'The heck, this Little Spirit Rain Spell, even though it's small, was truly impressive!'

"I'm rich!" A thought quickly flashed through his mind as he watched the ring while smiling sillily.

When Bai Yu, who had just finished washing his hands in the sink seeing his son happily bringing the broken vase and the bonsai out from his room to the front yard, frowned. A little surprised painted his face, as he remembered the flower inside his son room was already showed sign of withered as he saw them two three days back.

"Isn't it already dead? How did it became like this?" Bai Yu asked as he can wrapped his mind around it, he became more confused.

The vase was buyed personally by him when Bai Xiaobei was still in high school, and was placed in his son's room by his wife after he potted the bonsai in. However, he was too busy later on, or just didn't have to find a right time to replace the vase as the tree grow bigger. As a result, the tree stopped growing by the limited space and was in the verge of withering.

But when he look at it's current appearance, it looks as beautiful as a tree with it's posture and a much larger trunk. It was almost on the same level as those artistic potted plants he saw in the advertisement on television.

"I don't know either, how about I change the vase for it?" Bai Xiaobei shrugged his shoulders as he answered his father. He placed everything on his hands down.

" Let me do it!" Bai Yu was astonished as he still can't wrapped his head around this matter. He didn't have the mood to eat when he saw the beautiful tree on the ground, hence he gently caressing the leaf.

"Xiaobei, go and find me a porcelain flower pot for this guy here. I think I put them inside the storeroom, and an umbrella too!"

"Hey, are you two going to eat or not?!" Chen Mai called out helplessly as she carried the seaweed soup to the dinning table.

But the two guys seems didn't even heard her as they busied themselves with the tree in the courtyard.

After half an hour busying with the plotting the tree inside the vase, Bai Yu look at the plotted plant in from of him in satisfaction.

"It's the first time I've seen such a beautiful bonsai. It's practically of the highest quality if we can placed it on the more sophisticated vase." He sighed.

The farmers cultivated potted plants, which were originally for sale. Generally, a bonsai's of good quality could be sold for at least a few dozen yuan, while the better quality ones could be sold for up to a hundred yuan. Of course this was because the plotted plants here were cheap just because there were as much as there's a farmers families in this village.

But the price of this bonsai was definitely not something ordinary people goods can compare with.

"I'm going to the market in few days. We'll sell it together." Bai Yu said as he still staring at his handiwork in wonder.

The place that Bai Xiaobei's family house lived in was relatively remote and there weren't many families houses around. They all rely on the mountain to cultivate and eat, because it was a cheap place to farmed plants, they moved here.

Every five days, Bai Yu and Bai Xiaobei would head to towns market and sell some of the potted plants, flowers, agricultural products, even the herbs he had dig up from the mountain, as well as the wild chickens and wild rabbits he had cought

This beautiful bonsai flower tree would probably be fetch much money by some rich and powerful people later when displayed. He get a bit excited as he can't wait to sell it out until his wife called them again to eat for nth times.