After learning about the three Qi Refining Stage Four cultivators from the Huang clan, Lu Xuan hurriedly visited each one. In the end, he chose Qin Ming, who specialized in ice techniques.
Why? Simply because he was the cheapest.
Among the three, the one called Fairy Lingyun asked for the highest price, starting at ten Spirit Stones, which immediately scared Lu Xuan away. Next was Li Xu, who specialized in Sword Qi Threads and asked for nine Spirit Stones. Qin Ming, on the other hand, only required seven Spirit Stones.
Without hesitation, Lu Xuan picked Qin Ming right away and managed to negotiate his fee down by fifty Spirit Fragments, saving half a Spirit Stone.
But even this bargain was still a lot compared to the other two cultivators. Lu Xuan was renting a small yard with a Spiritual Field, which cost him five Spirit Stones a month.
So, in just a short while, he had spent over a month's worth of expenses, making Lu Xuan feel quite pained!
Fortunately, he successfully dealt with the Black Bud Worm larvae issue. He hoped that the restored white light orbs of the Spirit Firefly Grass would bring him a good reward.
He focused his mind on the Spirit Firefly Grass that had been eroded by the black threads, and a thought flashed through his mind.
“Suddenly feeling a shiver, I feel so empty, as if something has disappeared from within me, and I urgently need to replenish my energy.”
What a strange feeling!
Lu Xuan complained, and as his spiritual energy surged, strands of spiritual rain fell on the green leaves of the Spirit Firefly Grass, soaking in.
After using the Spirit Rain Technique three times, the struggling Spirit Firefly Grass had mostly recovered.
Lu Xuan then checked the small yard, confirming the status of the remaining Spirit Firefly Grass and the two Corrosive Moon Trees. Once he verified everything was fine, he felt relieved to enter the house.
The next day.
Early in the morning, Lu Xuan rushed to the Spirit Firefly Grass without even washing up, pinching the leaves and flipping them over.
The black threads that had been haunting him for the past few days finally disappeared.
He let out a long sigh, and a smile involuntarily appeared on his face.
After using the Spirit Rain Technique once, Lu Xuan carefully examined the spiritual plants in the field and found that the progress bars of three Spirit Firefly Grass plants were completely filled.
He focused on them.
“Two ordinary quality Spirit Firefly Grass.”
“One good quality Spirit Firefly Grass.”
“Huh? A good quality Spirit Firefly Grass?”
Lu Xuan noticed subtle differences among the three Spirit Firefly Grass plants.
After harvesting the first Spirit Firefly Grass, this farming system had appeared, so he didn’t know the quality of the first plant when it matured.
He carefully picked the Spirit Firefly Grass glowing faintly and three white light orbs appeared quietly around him, flickering slightly, as if inviting Lu Xuan to collect them.
“Harvested one Spirit Firefly Grass, gained three months of cultivation.”
“Harvested one Spirit Firefly Grass, gained three months of cultivation.”
“Harvested one Spirit Firefly Grass, gained the Earth Summoning Technique.”
At the moment he collected the light orbs, Lu Xuan felt his spiritual energy surge dramatically.
The influx of spiritual power rampaged through his meridians, and when it settled down, Lu Xuan realized he had successfully broken through to Qi Refining Stage Three.
After days of hard work, along with a little help from the three white light orbs, he finally achieved this breakthrough.
Lu Xuan felt a sense of relief.
As his spiritual power surged, a technique called Earth Attraction appeared in his mind. He understood many details about the Earth Summoning Technique.
Similar to the Spirit Rain Technique, the Earth Summoning Technique is one of the essential low-level techniques for Spiritual Plant Cultivators. Once mastered, it can manipulate and control changes in soil structure and alter the concentration of spiritual energy in the soil, allowing the spiritual plants to grow better.
For Lu Xuan at this moment, it was quite useful.
He activated the technique, and the gray-black soil in the spiritual field slightly rose under his control, making small adjustments to the positions of the remaining Spirit Firefly Grass roots, ensuring they were better distributed instead of being too sparse or too crowded.
“I initially thought that all Spirit Firefly Grass would yield white light orbs corresponding to three months of cultivation. Now it seems that even the same type of spiritual plant can produce different rewards.”
“That good quality mature Spirit Firefly Grass brought me the Earth Summoning Technique.”
“It looks like I need to take better care of the remaining twenty or so Spirit Firefly Grass plants and the two Corrosive Moon Trees to improve their quality at maturity, which will enhance the rewards from the light orbs.”
Lu Xuan thought to himself.
The yard wasn’t large, with the two Corrosive Moon Trees taking up a small portion of the area, while the remaining space had a total of twenty-four Spirit Firefly Grass plants. He had harvested four from two rounds, leaving twenty more ready to mature.
Even though the Spirit Firefly Grass took up very little space, their roots spread widely in the soil. Even with just over twenty plants, he was maximizing the use of the spiritual field’s soil.
From the rewards brought by the good quality Spirit Firefly Grass, it was clear that when cultivating spiritual plants, it was best to improve their quality at maturity as much as possible.
This way, he could sell for more Spirit Stones and also gain better light orb rewards, achieving two goals at once.
Now that he could understand the immediate status of the spiritual plants and had the help of the Earth Attraction and Spirit Rain Techniques, Lu Xuan felt very confident.
He decided to change his usual planting methods.
Previously, he used to apply the Spirit Rain Technique at intervals each day to nourish the spiritual plants and would occasionally check for any pest invasions during his practice breaks.
This was already a relatively reasonable cultivation method for a low-level Spiritual Plant Cultivator.
Now that he could see the status of the spiritual plants in real-time, he planned to shift from a broad application of the Spirit Rain Technique to more precise local applications, satisfying the needs of each Spirit Firefly Grass as he noticed them, striving to cultivate the best quality spiritual plants.
Thinking of this, he immediately began to use the Spirit Rain Technique and Earth Summoning Technique repeatedly, based on the subtle differences in each Spirit Firefly Grass’s needs, until his spiritual energy was depleted.
Looking at each shiny green Spirit Firefly Grass in the field, a tired but satisfied smile appeared on Lu Xuan’s face.
As for not having time to practice today? He felt that was no longer important; he just wanted to quietly tend to his plants.
After two hard days, five mature Spirit Firefly Grass plants stood before Lu Xuan.
However, perhaps due to the long planting time, the careful nurturing over just a few days couldn’t bring about a qualitative change.
Among the five Spirit Firefly Grass plants, three were of ordinary quality, and two were of good quality.
The three ordinary quality Spirit Firefly Grass yielded spiritual energy equivalent to what he would normally accumulate in nine months of practice.
As for the other two good quality Spirit Firefly Grass, one also yielded the Earth Summoning Technique.
After absorbing it, Lu Xuan felt he had a deeper understanding of this technique, reducing the time needed to activate it and allowing him to control soil changes more precisely and easily.
“It seems that if the light orb rewards yield the same technique, absorbing them will enhance my comprehension of it, almost like gaining experience points.”
Lu Xuan pondered, and soon another light orb reward appeared in his mind from the good quality Spirit Firefly Grass.
“Gengjin Sword Art!”
(End of Chapter)