Zhou Haiwen lay in bed, tossing and turning, unable to fall asleep for a long time.
The thought of soon acquiring the method to grow perfect quality spiritual plants made him feel extremely excited, and he couldn't calm down at all.
After Lu Xuan refused to teach him how to cultivate perfect quality spiritual plants, he returned home, growing angrier the more he thought about it. His greed grew larger, and eventually, he decided to invite a fellow cultivator he knew to directly seize the secret from Lu Xuan.
Although he had improved the quality of his spiritual plants through careful cultivation, seeing Lu Xuan's results left him unsatisfied with his small progress. He wanted to directly cultivate perfect quality spiritual plants.
"It’s been over an hour; he should be back soon."
He lay in bed, estimating when his friend might return.
After waiting a bit longer, there was still no sign of him.
"Could something have happened?"
Zhou Haiwen frowned, worried.
"That’s impossible. That kid is just a loose cultivator at the third level of Qi Refining. He doesn’t have time to practice spiritual power or techniques. Even if I went, I would have a good chance of success, let alone a fifth-level Qi Refining cultivator who's more skilled in battle."
"He probably got delayed after taking care of things. After all, whether it's picking spiritual plants or handling the aftermath, it takes time."
"I hired him with the promise of giving him all the spiritual plants. As long as he’s not a spiritual plant cultivator, he shouldn’t think of swallowing the cultivation method."
The middle-aged cultivator Zhou Haiwen analyzed optimistically, as if he could already see himself acquiring the cultivation method, growing perfect quality spiritual plants, and being valued by Hundred Herbs Hall and the big families in the market town...
The future looked bright.
While he was lost in his thoughts, a brilliant light suddenly appeared in his eyes.
A sharp sword qi rushed in, and just as it was about to pierce the middle-aged cultivator’s body, it swiftly turned and shot right above his head, penetrating into his mind with a fierce twist.
The last image in the middle-aged cultivator's mind was the golden bright light brought by the sword qi.
Lu Xuan, light as a swallow, floated into the room and took the storage bag from the middle-aged cultivator's waist.
Then, he activated two first-grade explosive flame talismans, instantly setting the cultivator's corpse and the furniture in the room ablaze, completely erasing the sword mark left on the top of the head and any trace of Lu Xuan's presence in the room.
Before the fire could attract attention, Lu Xuan had already left.
He successfully returned home, carefully reviewing his actions from that night.
Upon reaching the spiritual plant cultivator's courtyard, he easily entered.
Outside the yard, there was only a low-grade protective formation set up to keep some strange beasts and insects from invading the spiritual field. Lu Xuan broke through it effortlessly.
With his cultivation at the sixth level of Qi Refining, nearly reaching the master level, and using the Gengjin Sword Art and the Silver Splitting Blade unexpectedly, he dealt with the masked cultivator and the spiritual plant cultivator without a hitch, without any disturbances.
He didn’t pick any spiritual plants from the middle-aged cultivator's spiritual field because they were all still growing and couldn’t be directly exchanged for spiritual stones. Plus, harvesting would take time, and he wanted to avoid any complications, so he just took the storage bag and left.
On the wooden table lay two storage bags and a black flying sword.
The flying sword was a first-grade artifact left by the masked cultivator.
He first used his spiritual power to open the storage bag of the masked cultivator, who had a slightly higher cultivation level.
There weren’t many items inside—more than ten first-grade talismans, two bottles of pills, one bottle of Primordial Pills for quickly replenishing spiritual power, and another bottle of Blood Circulation Pills for treating minor injuries.
In addition, there were about eighty spiritual stones, bringing Lu Xuan's total to around three hundred sixty spiritual stones.
He thoroughly searched the masked cultivator's storage bag and then shifted his focus to the middle-aged spiritual plant cultivator's bag.
Inside was a bottle of pills. When he opened it, there were only five Primordial Pills rolling around at the bottom.
There were also six spirit seeds, but he didn’t know their grade or type.
"How pathetic, what a shame for us spiritual plant cultivators."
Lu Xuan complained.
After becoming a spiritual plant cultivator, he hadn’t systematically learned how to cultivate spiritual plants.
He started simply with Spirit Firefly Grass, and after obtaining the strange light orb in the spiritual field, he only had a deep understanding of the plants he grew, while remaining mostly ignorant of others.
He didn’t plan to rush to plant these six spirit seeds, especially since he already had enough spiritual plants in his more than one mu of spiritual field.
With a good number of Spirit Firefly Grass, Blood Jade Ginseng, and twenty-six Spirit Firefly Grass plants about to mature, there were also twenty Blood Jade Ginseng plants.
While not many, he had stable first-grade Red Cloud Pines and second-grade Pure Wondrous Tea. The former had four remaining pine nuts, and the latter had three seedlings growing strong.
There were also rare types like the first-grade Pure Snow Lotus, second-grade Dark Marrow Fungus, second-grade Sword Grass, and third-grade Mirage Smokefruit, most of which he successfully cultivated thanks to his grasp of the immediate state of the spiritual plants.
To maximize the rewards from the light orb, he had to frequently use Spirit Rain Technique, Wood Growth Technique, and others, while some, like Sword Grass and Mirage Smokefruit, had additional requirements.
Due to the limited area of the spiritual field, his time and energy constraints, and frequent consumption of spiritual power, he couldn’t plant large quantities of spiritual plants, and could only keep a rough control over their numbers and types.
After counting his gains, Lu Xuan focused on the formation outside the yard.
The intrusion of the masked cultivator made him more eager to change the formation.
As his cultivation improved rapidly, and the number and quality of spiritual plants in his field increased, the low-grade protective formation left by the previous owner was becoming inadequate.
First and second-grade formations corresponded to Qi Refining cultivators, and the first-grade protective formation had limited defense against mid-level Qi Refining cultivators. If combined with something like a second-grade Spirit Breaking Talisman, it could easily be breached.
With over three hundred spiritual stones in hand, he had enough to exchange for a second-grade protective formation.
Before he knew it, dawn broke, and Lu Xuan didn’t rest any longer. He headed to the spiritual field to check on the plants.
Fortunately, the fight with the masked cultivator last night hadn’t affected the spiritual plants in the field.
After patrolling around, he found that the spiritual plants were in good condition, especially the Dark Marrow Fungus. Perhaps due to the special fertilizer added to the spiritual soil, the dark red mycelium seemed to have spread even more.
On the Red Cloud Pine, among the fine red pine needles, two Red Cloud Pine nuts were fully mature.
Lu Xuan picked the first one. The pine nut was of excellent quality, slightly better than the first one he had picked before.
A white light orb appeared where the Red Cloud Pine nut had been picked.
Lu Xuan absorbed it, and the light orb transformed into countless light spots rushing into his body.
A thought flashed through his mind.
"Harvested one Red Cloud Pine nut, received a copy of 'The Complete Guide to Basic Talismans'."
Countless pieces of knowledge about talismans flooded into Lu Xuan's mind, almost overwhelming him.
It recorded the production methods of dozens of common first-grade talismans, the types of materials needed, processing methods, and how to draw the runes, among other things.
"The rewards from a mature first-grade spiritual plant are indeed different. I remember that perfect quality Spirit Firefly Grass would produce a recipe for a first-grade Primordial Pill, while the Red Cloud Pine nuts directly gave me a book on talisman drawing methods, teaching dozens of first-grade talismans at once."
Lu Xuan compared and looked expectantly at the other mature Red Cloud Pine nut.
(End of Chapter)