You Cultivate, I Farm

Chapter 57

Zhou Haiwen tossed and turned in bed, unable to fall asleep for a long while.

The thought of soon obtaining a method to cultivate perfect-quality spirit plants made him extremely excited, rendering him unable to calm down.

After Lu Xuan refused to impart the technique for cultivating perfect-quality spirit plants, Zhou Haiwen returned home, growing more and more resentful. His greed swelled, eventually leading him to enlist the help of a familiar cultivator, intending to directly seize the secret from Lu Xuan.

Even though his refinement of spirit plants had improved their quality, upon seeing Lu Xuan's achievements, he wasn't content with the slight progress. He desired to directly cultivate perfect-quality spirit plants.

"It's been more than an hour; he should be back soon."

Lying in bed, he estimated the time his friend might return.

But after waiting for a while, there was still no movement.

"What if something unexpected happened?"

Zhou Haiwen furrowed his brow, worrying.

"It couldn't be an accident. That kid is just a third-level Qi cultivator, with no time to cultivate spiritual power or techniques. Even if I went, I'd be extremely confident, let alone a fifth-level Qi cultivator with deeper cultivation and expertise in combat."

"Perhaps the delay occurred after dealing with him. After all, whether harvesting spirit plants or handling matters afterward, it all takes time."

"I hired him with the promise to let him have all the spirit plants as long as he hands over the scrolls or jade slips. He's not a spirit plant cultivator, so he shouldn't have the thought of swallowing the cultivation method."

The middle-aged cultivator Zhou Haiwen optimistically analyzed, envisioning himself obtaining the cultivation method, cultivating perfect-quality spirit plants, and gaining recognition from the Hundred Herbs Hall or even prominent market families...

A bright future lay ahead.

While lost in this reverie, his eyes suddenly lit up.

A brilliant sword aura swiftly arrived, about to pierce the lying middle-aged cultivator. But with a nimble turn, it swiftly redirected towards the cultivator's head at an incredible speed, penetrating it ruthlessly and leaving a bright golden light in his mind as the final scene.

Lu Xuan, light as a feather, floated into the room, taking the storage pouch from the middle-aged cultivator's waist.

Then, two first-grade Explosive Flame Talismans were triggered, instantly setting ablaze the cultivator's corpse and the furniture in the room, eradicating all traces left by Lu Xuan's appearance and the hole caused by the sword technique.

Before the commotion caused by the fire, Lu Xuan had already distanced himself.

He smoothly returned home, meticulously reviewing tonight's operation.

After arriving at the courtyard of the spirit plant cultivator, he easily entered it, as there was only a minor protective array outside the yard, meant to deter some strange beasts and insects from invading the spirit field. Lu Xuan effortlessly broke through the array.

With his actual cultivation at the sixth Qi level, close to the level of a grandmaster, and employing the unexpected Fractured Silver Blade, dealing with the masked cultivator and the spirit plant cultivator went smoothly, without a hitch.

He didn't harvest any spirit plants from the middle-aged cultivator's spirit field. Firstly, they were still growing and couldn't be directly exchanged for spirit stones. Secondly, harvesting would take time, and to avoid complications, he simply took the storage pouch and left.

On the wooden table lay two storage pouches and a jet-black flying sword.

The flying sword was a first-grade magical device left by the masked cultivator.

First, he used his spiritual power to open the storage pouch of the masked cultivator, which contained only a few first-grade talismans, two bottles of elixirs, one bottle of rapid spirit replenishing pill, and one bottle of simple wound-healing pills.

Additionally, there were about eighty spirit stones, increasing Lu Xuan's fortune to approximately three hundred and sixty spirit stones.

He emptied the contents of the masked cultivator's storage pouch and shifted his attention to the middle-aged spirit plant cultivator's pouch.

Opening a bottle of elixir, he found only five pellets of rapid spirit replenishing pills at the bottom.

There were six spirit seeds, of unknown quality and type.

"How mediocre, tarnishing the face of us spirit plant cultivators."

Lu Xuan commented.

After becoming a spirit plant cultivator, he hadn't systematically studied the knowledge of cultivating spirit plants. He had crudely started with cultivating Spirit Fireflies Grass and, after acquiring the peculiar glowing orbs in the spirit field, only deeply understood the plants he grew, remaining ignorant about the rest.

For now, he didn't intend to hastily plant these six spirit seeds, considering that the over one-acre spirit field where he resided already had a sufficient variety of spirit plants.

With quantity ruling over quality, there were twenty-six Spirit Fireflies Grass and twenty Blood Jade Ginsengs, nearly ready for harvesting. Although not numerous, stable-value first-grade Crimson Cloud Pine and second-grade Clear Spirit Tea remained, with four pine seeds and three tea saplings respectively.

There were also rare species such as the first-grade Pure Snow Lotus, second-grade Dark Marrow Fungus, second-grade Sword Grass, third-grade Lunar Erosion Tree, and third-grade Dragonvine. Most of these were successfully cultivated by leveraging his real-time understanding of the spirit plants' conditions, requiring additional efforts like the Sword Grass and Lunar Erosion Tree.

Constrained by the size of the spirit field, limited time and energy, coupled with frequent depletion of spiritual power, he couldn't extensively cultivate spirit plants, merely having a rough grasp of their quantity and variety.

After tallying his gains, Lu Xuan focused on the array outside the courtyard.

The intrusion of the masked cultivator made it more urgent for him to change the array.

With his cultivation advancing rapidly and the increasing number and quality of spirit plants in the spirit field, the first-grade array left behind wasn't quite sufficient. Against mid-level Qi cultivators, the protection of a first-grade protective array was limited. Adding something like a second-grade Expelling Evil Talisman would effortlessly break the array.

Having over three hundred spirit stones in hand, he had enough to acquire a second-grade protective array.

Unknowingly, dawn broke, but Lu Xuan didn't rest. Instead, he went to the spirit field to check the state of the spirit plants.

Luckily, the skirmish with the masked cultivator last night hadn't affected the spirit plants in the field.

Lu Xuan made a round, and the condition of all the spirit plants was good. Especially the Dark Marrow Fungus seemed to have grown more, perhaps due to a special fertilizer added to the spirit soil, as there were more dark red mycelia spreading.

Among the thin red pine needles of the Crimson Cloud Pine, two pine seeds had fully matured.

Lu Xuan harvested the first one; the pine seeds were of superior quality, slightly better than the first pine seed he had harvested previously.

A white light orb appeared at the spot where the Crimson Cloud Pine seed was harvested.

Lu Xuan absorbed it, and the orb transformed into numerous dots of light surging into his body.

A thought flashed in his mind.

"Harvested one Crimson Cloud Pine seed, obtained a volume of 'Comprehensive Collection of Basic Talismans.'"

Countless pieces of knowledge about talism

ans flooded into Lu Xuan's sea of consciousness, nearly bursting his head.

It contained the methods of crafting dozens of common first-grade talismans, the types of materials required, handling procedures, and the drawing of runes.

"The rewards after the maturation of first-grade spirit plants are truly different. I remember that a perfect-quality Spirit Fireflies Grass would yield a formula for a first-grade spirit replenishing pellet, while a Crimson Cloud Pine seed directly provides a volume detailing the creation of dozens of first-grade talismans."

Lu Xuan compared and eagerly looked towards the other matured Crimson Cloud Pine seed.

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