Linyang Market Town.
As dawn broke, the mist had not yet cleared, and the whole market town was shrouded in a thin, veil-like white fog.
In a small courtyard surrounded by gray stone walls, the yard measured about thirty feet long and twenty feet wide. Most of the area was filled with dark gray soil, leaving only a narrow stone path in the middle.
In the gray soil, several low-level spiritual plants were growing. Thanks to the silent moisture from the mist throughout the night, these plants were bursting with life, lazily stretching their tender green leaves.
With a creak, a stone house at the end of the path opened, and a young man stepped out.
The boy looked around sixteen or seventeen years old, dressed in a gray shirt. He was tall and handsome, with bright, clear eyes.
This was Lu Xuan, who had been in this world for quite some time now.
He used to be an ordinary young man on Earth, but unexpectedly, he woke up one day to find himself in the body of this boy, becoming a minor spiritual plant cultivator in the vast cultivation world.
After going through initial confusion and fear, Lu Xuan gradually adapted to his new identity.
He had a typical start—no parents, all alone, with average talent and a cultivation level of the second layer of Qi Refining. With years of hard work, he rented a piece of spiritual field in the market town, growing spiritual herbs and medicines, trying to survive in this harsh and dangerous cultivation world.
The thin mist in the yard refreshed Lu Xuan, who had just woken up. He walked around the spiritual plants, carefully observing them.
There were about twenty to thirty plants, each spaced apart. They stood about a foot tall, with long, slender leaves that glimmered faintly with a soft white light, resembling stars scattered in the white fog.
These were Spirit Firefly Grass, a first-tier spiritual plant that was relatively easy to grow. Once mature, they could be used to make various healing pills, making them quite useful in the cultivation world.
Besides the Spirit Firefly Grass, there were also two trees in the yard, both of which were Corrosive Moon Trees.
The Corrosive Moon Tree was a first-tier spiritual plant that was thriving under Lu Xuan's careful care, growing taller than his head. Among its green leaves, dozens of silver-white fruits resembling hooks were faintly visible.
These fruits were called Moon-Eroding Fruits. When they first formed, they looked like crescent moons, but as they matured, they grew larger until they resembled full moons.
Mature Moon-Eroding Fruits could be eaten directly, slightly increasing the spiritual energy of low-level Qi Refining cultivators. They could also be used to make precious pills like the Nourishing Essence Pill.
The Corrosive Moon Tree was slightly harder to grow and rarer than the Spirit Firefly Grass, so Lu Xuan devoted a lot of effort to it.
Both types of spiritual plants were growing well, but a hint of worry crossed Lu Xuan's face.
He quickly moved to the west side of the yard, crouched down, and gently pinched the leaf of a Spirit Firefly Grass near the stone wall, carefully flipping it over.
As expected, there were thin black threads on the back of the leaf. If Lu Xuan hadn't been attentive, these hair-like threads would have been hard to notice.
"Compared to yesterday, there are definitely more black threads today."
Lu Xuan compared the situation in his mind, looking at the Spirit Firefly Grass affected by the threads, and couldn't help but sigh.
A couple of days ago, while tending to the plants, he noticed that the Spirit Firefly Grass near the stone wall was not looking right. After searching for a long time, he finally found these black threads on the back of the leaf.
The threads seemed to merge with the Spirit Firefly Grass, tightly sticking together, making them hard to separate.
As a low-level spiritual plant cultivator from an ordinary background, Lu Xuan didn't know what these black threads were.
Unable to find a proper solution, he reluctantly used his spiritual energy to carefully separate the threads from the back of the leaf.
After exhausting his energy and focus, he barely managed to clean it up, but the next day, the black threads reappeared, and their numbers increased day by day.
"At this rate, in a day or two, this Spirit Firefly Grass will be completely taken over by the black threads, and it might spread to the nearby plants."
Thinking of this, Lu Xuan felt troubled and stood there in a daze.
He considered pulling out the affected Spirit Firefly Grass to prevent the nearby ones from getting infected.
But after weighing the options, he dismissed the idea.
After all, the origin of the black threads was unknown, and Lu Xuan didn't understand how they were affecting the plants. If he pulled it out and it didn't help, and the other plants still got infected, it would be a real disaster.
"For now, I can only go to the market town to find an experienced spiritual plant cultivator from a reputable background to help solve this."
"All the spiritual stones I’ve saved up… I originally planned to use them to pay the rent for the spiritual field in two months."
Lu Xuan was just a second-layer Qi Refining rogue cultivator and couldn't fully own a spiritual field by himself.
This small spiritual field in his yard was rented from a mid-level Qi Refining cultivator in the market town, and he had to pay a considerable amount of spiritual stones every month.
"For the next while, I’ll have to tighten my belt."
He stood up, his expression determined.
Once the spiritual plants matured, he could sell them to shops and cultivators in the market town. The spiritual stones he earned would cover the rent and his daily cultivation needs, with a little left over.
But if he used it to ask for help from a senior spiritual plant cultivator, it would mean a big expense.
Lu Xuan made up his mind and looked around.
The gray stone walls were surrounded by a circle of black thorns, densely packed with sharp black spikes, providing some level of protection.
However, the defense was minimal; it could only deter honest people, not those with ill intentions, let alone the strange insects and beasts that might covet his plants.
"After dealing with this issue, I need to save up some spiritual stones to set up a protective formation to prevent similar incidents."
"Relying on this straw puppet to guard the spiritual field is completely unrealistic."
Lu Xuan glanced at a straw puppet standing in the corner of the yard.
The puppet was about three feet tall, leaning against the wall, made of unknown dry grass. It had a large head and a small body, with an oddly shaped bulge made of gray grass on its head.
This straw puppet was a second-hand item Lu Xuan bought from a stall in the market town. According to the vendor, it came from the Thousand Mechanisms Sect and had a simple behavior pattern, often used to guard lower-tier spiritual fields.
If it sensed a cultivator or beast entering the field, it would send a warning to the owner. If it detected any intent to harm the plants, it would even attack to trap the intruder.
However, this puppet, possibly due to being second-hand, was unreliable in its warning function, and as for attacking, that was out of the question.
Of course, it also had a lot to do with Lu Xuan himself. Since he crossed over, he had mostly stayed indoors, with little interaction with the outside world, so no cultivators or beasts had entered the yard.
Lu Xuan glared at the straw puppet, feeling frustrated. He gathered his spiritual energy, and thin strands of spiritual rain appeared above the Spirit Firefly Grass and Corrosive Moon Tree, falling onto the leaves and soaking in.
With the nourishing spiritual rain, the plants in the spiritual field looked even greener and cleaner, their pristine leaves swaying gently in the breeze.
This was a basic technique every spiritual plant cultivator had to learn—the Spirit Rain Technique, which infused fine spiritual energy into the moisture to nourish the plants and ensure their healthy growth.
"Hmm? This Spirit Firefly Grass is already in its mature phase."
After watering each plant, Lu Xuan noticed that one of the Spirit Firefly Grass was sparkling, as if its glow was about to fall off.
He hurried back to the house, took out a white jade box, and carefully harvested the Spirit Firefly Grass, placing it inside the box.
The jade box could slow down the loss of spiritual energy from the plant, helping to preserve its medicinal properties.
"What is this?"
As Lu Xuan closed the jade box and was about to leave, he suddenly noticed a fist-sized white light orb left where the Spirit Firefly Grass had been. The orb flickered slightly, and tiny bits of spiritual light spilled out.
Curious, Lu Xuan reached out and gently touched the white orb.
In an instant, countless light points surged into his palm, and a thought flashed through his mind.
"Harvested one Spirit Firefly Grass, gained three months of cultivation."
The seedlings need everyone's care; you follow along, and I'll keep updating.
(End of Chapter)