Night fell.
Lu Xuan returned home, feeling a bit tired.
Although there weren't many spiritual plants in his spiritual field yet, he had eleven Spirit Firefly Grass that were about to mature, ten newly planted seedlings, two Corrosive Moon Trees, and one Red Cloud Pine.
However, due to the meticulous cultivation methods he used, along with the repeated application of the Spirit Rain Technique and Earth Summoning Technique, he felt quite exhausted by the end of the day, even with his strong body as a Qi Refining practitioner.
Still, he found joy in it. Watching the spiritual plants thrive made the fatigue seem insignificant.
After a simple dinner and a short rest, he sat on his wooden bed, practicing his techniques to recover his spiritual energy.
The sudden surge in his cultivation level caused his internal spiritual energy to become a bit stagnant, and he needed to adjust to it.
Suddenly, he noticed that the formation plate beside him was glowing brightly.
A small spiritual energy shield appeared over the formation plate, and somewhere on the shield, faint spiritual light flickered like ripples.
Lu Xuan's expression turned serious. He remembered the location of the flickering light, and with a Sword Qi Talisman in his left hand, he quickly got up and jumped towards the gray stone wall.
Leaping over the wall, Lu Xuan's sharp eyes spotted a small black shadow wriggling away quickly.
Seeing this tiny black figure trying to invade his spiritual field, Lu Xuan felt a surge of anger. He couldn't let it escape so easily.
His internal spiritual energy surged rapidly, and soon, a faint golden Sword Qi formed in an instant, like a flash of light, and it shot towards the small black shadow.
The shadow seemed to be frozen by the sword intent, its speed slowed significantly, and it was sliced into two by the golden Sword Qi.
As the light faded, the surroundings fell into darkness.
Holding onto the Sword Qi Talisman tightly, Lu Xuan looked around. After confirming there was nothing unusual, he let out a slow breath.
He approached the severed black shadow and picked up the two pieces of its body, returning to the courtyard.
As soon as he entered the house, a gray-black grass rope slithered to Lu Xuan's feet, tapping his knee to indicate that something had invaded the spiritual field.
"I've already dealt with it, and your warning just came now. Your reaction speed is impressive," Lu Xuan said, looking at the grass puppet that shrank back after reminding him, feeling both amused and helpless.
Under the dim candlelight, he could see the appearance of the black shadow's remains in his hand.
It was completely black, about the thickness of a finger, and its body had deep and shallow wrinkles. This was the Black Bud Worm he had read about in "Common Harmful Insects and Their Solutions."
"One time isn't enough, and it comes back again, treating my spiritual field like its backyard, huh?"
Lu Xuan used the Gengjin Sword Art to slice the Black Bud Worm's body into pieces, then used the Fireball Technique to burn it to ashes, finally calming his anger.
"Fortunately, the protective formation worked, blocking the Black Bud Worm's invasion in time. Otherwise, the consequences would be unimaginable..."
Just thinking about the possibility of the spiritual plants in his field being infested by the Black Bud Worm's eggs made him feel uneasy.
He increasingly felt that spending a lot of money to buy this second-hand formation was a very wise decision.
The appearance of the Black Bud Worm was just a small disturbance in his otherwise peaceful farming life. In the following days, nothing else happened.
Lu Xuan lived a simple yet fulfilling life, carefully nurturing the spiritual plants every day with the Spirit Rain Technique and Earth Summoning Technique, occasionally using the Fireball Technique to stimulate the Red Cloud Pine.
He hardly went out for several days, with only Zhang Hong visiting once.
Zhang Hong was about to join the Wang family cultivators and several hundred scattered practitioners to explore a newly discovered secret realm in the wilderness. Before leaving, he came to say goodbye to Lu Xuan and asked him to take care of his wife and children.
Aside from that, Lu Xuan had little contact with others.
Five days passed, and he harvested two batches of mature Spirit Firefly Grass, totaling eight plants. Only three plants were left to mature in the spiritual field.
Among the eight plants, three were of ordinary quality, and five were of good quality.
From the eight white light orbs that appeared, three contained rewards of cultivation, adding a year to Lu Xuan's cultivation and significantly increasing his internal spiritual energy.
The other five included two experience packs for the Earth Summoning Technique and Gengjin Sword Art. With these, Lu Xuan's understanding of these techniques deepened, allowing him to use them faster and with greater power.
The last three yielded three talismans, all of first rank: a Sword Qi Talisman, a Speed Talisman for increased speed, and an Earth Armor Talisman for defense. Lu Xuan kept them all for future use.
After harvesting the eight mature Spirit Firefly Grass, a large area in the spiritual field became vacant. Lu Xuan carefully planted the remaining ten Spirit Firefly Grass seeds, and soon, tender green shoots sprouted, gently swaying in the breeze.
The ten plants he had previously planted had grown quite a bit, each about three inches tall, with deep green leaves that glowed brightly.
The last three Spirit Firefly Grass plants didn't make Lu Xuan wait long. One day, after using the Spirit Rain Technique on them, the faint progress bars below the three plants filled up completely.
Focusing his mind, Lu Xuan discovered an unexpected surprise.
"Good quality mature Spirit Firefly Grass."
"Superior quality mature Spirit Firefly Grass."
"Finally, I've cultivated a superior quality Spirit Firefly Grass."
Lu Xuan held the glowing Spirit Firefly Grass in his hand, feeling a sense of satisfaction.
In total, there were twenty-four plants. Under the careful cultivation of the Spirit Rain Technique and Earth Summoning Technique, a superior quality plant finally appeared.
Although the probability was very low, Lu Xuan understood.
After all, his spiritual field had thin spiritual energy, and by the time he learned about the Spirit Firefly Grass's status, it was already in its later stages, making it difficult to improve its quality significantly.
"If I want to produce a large number of superior quality spiritual plants, or even higher-level perfect quality ones, I need to meet at least two conditions."
"The concentration of spiritual energy and the meticulous cultivation from planting the spirit seeds to the mature stage."
Lu Xuan summarized.
In the spiritual field, three white light orbs flickered slightly, catching Lu Xuan's attention.
"Harvested a Spirit Firefly Grass plant, gained six months of cultivation."
More cultivation rewards; he felt a bit demotivated even though he wanted to work hard.
Lu Xuan felt the surging spiritual energy appearing in his body and sighed.
"Harvested a Spirit Firefly Grass plant, gained a first-rank talisman, Evil Dispelling Talisman."
A dark yellow talisman appeared in Lu Xuan's hand, with a ghostly figure in the center, suppressed by chains made of strange patterns.
"Evil Dispelling Talisman, first-rank talisman, can purify and drive away malevolent spirits within a certain range. That's quite rare."
A thought flashed through Lu Xuan's mind as he carefully stored the Evil Dispelling Talisman with the ghostly design.
The last white light orb was from the superior quality plant. The quality of spiritual plants influenced the richness of the rewards, and Lu Xuan had high hopes for it.
The light orb transformed into countless light spots, flooding into Lu Xuan's mind. A thought crossed his mind, and a technique appeared in his consciousness.
"Concealment Technique, after practicing, can help conceal one's aura and cultivation, providing excellent stealth capabilities."
(End of Chapter)