Mountain Sitting Immortal

Thor chose to neglect the silver pine tree in favor of other things that could improve his strength directly, such as his golems, which he calls his sons.

But the higher-ups and the patriarchs continued to value the silver pine tree and were paying attention to anything related to it. So Arthur's mission drew the attention of the patriarchs of the Blood Skull sect.

The patriarchs considered shutting down the mission briefly to maintain secrecy and control of the item. But they didn't do that because they didn't need to shut down the mission to keep the secret of the silver pine tree from leaking from the sect.

Everyone in the sect had already sworn an oath not to share sect secrets. All the sect needed to do was deem the information about the silver pine tree a sect secret, so anyone who wanted to speak to outsiders about them would be unable to.

Instead of shutting down the mission, they decided to do the opposite and encourage it. They decided to do this because the type of people who are to benefit the most from the advancement of the silver pine tree are lacking in the expertise needed to make it advance, and the people with the expertise needed to make the silver pine tree advance won't gain any benefit from doing so.

The forgers in the sect are the ones who will benefit the most if the silver pine tree advances to rank 3, rank 4, and beyond. But they are expert smiths and array masters, not farmers. They lack the biological knowledge and skill needed to help the silver pine tree advance.

The farmers, on the other hand, care little for a plant with the properties of a metal. So the forgers decided to expand the mission so that the farmers will have something to gain and be motivated to help the silver pine tree advance.

Arthur was already being greedy when he asked for a rank 4 version of the silver pine tree. Buy the patriarch involved raised the bar to rank 5 and beyond.

The requirements for the hybrid also became broader and looser. Any type of metal can be used for the hybridization, and a reward will be given to the people who create the first version of any hybrid at each rank.

Arthur's mission requirements had only been for electricity conductivity. But now there were requirements for affordability, durability, tensile strength, elasticity, etc.

And there would be rewards for any hybrid that excels in a certain aspect for each rank. This made the prize pool quickly reach tens of millions of low-grade energy stones. This surprised everyone, including Arthur.

If he had any doubts before, he was now sure that the hybrid of wood and metal was special. This made him solemn and also somewhat glad.

His mission hasn't been taken down. It has just been added as part of the larger mission. So he will still need to pay the 10,000 low-grade energy stones for the rank 3 silver pine tree or 100,000 low-grade energy stones for the rank 4 that he promised.

But he is happy about this because the more attention the mission draws and the more people are involved in it, the higher the chance that his mission will be fulfilled.

The whole thing made him chuckle to himself and say, "If I had known that the sect would have joined the bandwagon, I wouldn't have offered a reward for the rank 4 version."

Technically, all he needs is the rank 3 version of a silver pine tree to advance. As long as he can set his foundation with it and reach the seventh transformation of the third mortal coil, he won't have any problem advancing in the future.

The main benefit that a rank 4 version of the silver pine tree would provide would be faster cultivation and an easier time advancing to rank 4 himself in the future.

Maybe the rank 4 version will have even better electricity conductivity than the rank 3 version. But if this is all the improved version will offer, he is not so sure that it will be worth an extra 90,000 low-grade energy stones.

He had only offered the reward for a rank 4 version in order to spur a lot of interest in his mission. His true goal had always been the rank 3 version. But it is too late to go back now.

He told himself, "Besides, no one can force me to pay for the rank 4 version. I only have to pay for what I want and find satisfactory."

So he stopped thinking about the mission and got to work. He is busy, and so is everyone.

Thor was dragged into the matter because of his mission. Many people wanted him to work with them. But even though he was interested in the money and the research, he had made up his mind to advance to the peak of the second mortal coil and break through to the third mortal coil as soon as possible.

So he rejected everyone and had secluded himself. He told Arthur that he wouldn't come out until he reached the third mortal coil.

Another group of people that were busy because of Arthur were the Red Alliance and some of his fans. This was because Arthur had casually mentioned to them that the Roe family had threatened him.

He didn't think the Roe family would have the guts to make a move on him after the Milton family met such an unfortunate end doing the same thing that they threatened him about. But he wasn't willing to wait to see if they would make their move.

He thought that being passive would be a bad idea because it is logical that the Roe family wouldn't make a move on him unless they had a way to get away with it. It is unlikely, but it might be possible for them to get away with making a move on him.