As the morning light just began to suppress the dew, Wei Changsheng crouched at the original location of the blue plant, using the tip of his small hoe to turn over the surface soil.
The jade box was sealed tightly, but a trace of Spiritual Qi seeping from the seams of the box still twisted in the air, like a snake whose tail had been stepped on.
He said nothing, stuffing the jade box into the deepest part of the System Field, and casually planted an ordinary Spiritual Rice on top of it.
The System prompt sounded: "Pollution source isolated, growth environment restored to purity."
This time, he believed it.
The three mu of land Su Jin gave him were in the northwest corner of the medicine garden, abandoned for nearly two years, so much so that even weeds were reluctant to grow there.
The Disciple guarding the garden saw him shake ing over with a broken clay pot and didn't even lift his eyelids: "How can a Servant be allowed to use a Spiritual Field? Go clear land on the east slope."
Wei Changsheng wasn't annoyed; he opened the lid of the pot and poured out a handful of black soil.
The soil particles shimmered faintly, melting into the ground upon landing, as if they could breathe.
He squatted down, flicked his fingertip, and three System-produced Spiritual Rice seedlings were buried in the soil, then covered with accelerated humus, and gently patted.
In less than half the time it takes to brew a cup of tea, three tender shoots broke through the soil, their leaves unfurled, veins clear, and Spiritual Qi fluctuations as stable as the needle on a spirit-testing stele.
The Disciple guarding the garden nearly dropped his jaw to his chest.
"This... is this 'Instant Growth Art'?"
"An ancestral trick," Wei Changsheng clapped his hands, "Improving soil quality and promoting root and bud growth, that's not against the rules, is it?"
The Disciple stammered a few words, then turned and ran.
He knew that from now on, this place could no longer be casually blocked.
Wei Changsheng ignored him, pulled out the land deed Su Jin had given him, and divided the three mu of land into nine sections, burying different varieties of System-cultivated seedlings in each section.
Spiritual Rice, Ninglu Grass, Fire Heart Vine, Cold Marrow Flower... all were mature seedlings accelerated by the System for over a year, with full root Systems and internal Spiritual Power.
As he buried them, he made notes: the Spiritual Rice section used humus as a base, the Fire Heart Vine was paired with Spiritual Vein root-inducing powder, and a circle of Moonlight Sand was sprinkled beside the Cold Marrow Flower.
Each plot of land was like a recipe, with precisely placed seasonings, just lacking the right heat.
Three days later, the patrolling Deacon of the medicine garden passed by and almost thought he had gone to the wrong place.
The originally barren fields were lush green, with crops growing far better than those in the inner sect's medicinal garden, and the Spiritual Qi concentration was 30% higher.
"This soil of yours... where did it come from?"
"I mixed it myself," Wei Changsheng handed over a sample bag, "40% Three Yin Soil, 30% Yang Sand, supplemented with System... ahem, ancestral Spiritual Fertilizer."
The Deacon took it, and his spiritual sense swept over it, causing his brow to twitch.
There was actually a faint residual Spiritual Formation in this soil, like a byproduct of some high-level cultivation technique.
"You, a Servant, understand these things?"
"No," Wei Changsheng shook his head, "But I understand farming.
The land doesn't lie; what you give it, it returns to you."
The Deacon asked no further questions, silently stamped the field registry, and annotated: "Servant surnamed Wei, permitted to use three mu of land in the northwest for a period of three months; significant results may lead to extension."
Wei Changsheng grinned, thinking: System products are always high-quality; why would I lie to you?
That night, he returned to his shack and opened the System Mall; the interface was as clean as a newly polished bronze mirror.
"The mutation rate is too low," he stared at the harvest record, "Theoretical 5%, actual 0.25%, a twenty-fold difference.
Either it's environmental suppression, or the System is acting up."
He recalled the traces of blood sacrifice from a few nights ago: scorched earth, backlash, Spiritual Vein disorder... none of which were coincidences.
"The purity isn't enough," he tapped the table, "I need to give the System Field a thorough clean-up."
50 cultivation points were thrown out, and the Mall popped up a palm-sized bronze Formation Plate named "Spiritual Vein Purification."
The description read: "One-time use, lasts three days, purifies Spiritual Power Impurities within the purification range, increasing mutation probability to theoretical value."
Without a word, Wei Changsheng inserted the Formation Plate into the center of the System Field.
The plate slowly lit up, and circles of green light spread out, like ripples in water.
Three days later, upon harvest, he stared at the data panel, a smile playing on his lips.
Mutation rate: 4.8%.
Three mutated Spiritual Rice plants and one mutated Ninglu Grass were all in the System record.
"That's more like it," he packed the mutated crops into a jade box, "Perfect-grade products, something the outside world couldn't cultivate even with their lives."
He casually spent another 120 cultivation points in the Mall, exchanging them for an "Automatic Irrigation Spiritual Net" and a "Spiritual Insect Repulsion Talisman Formation."
The Spiritual Net was a translucent silk net that, when spread out, could cover three mu of land; the Talisman Formation consisted of twelve small talismans, buried at the corners of the field, activating automatically.
"From now on, I can just lie down and collect crops," he muttered, "Modern agricultural civilization, the cultivation world's localized project officially launched."
At noon the next day, the Spiritual Net activated for the first time.
Water mist seeped from the net threads, sprinkling evenly, and the Talisman Formation simultaneously lit up with a faint golden glow, driving away lurking low-level Spiritual Insects.
Just as the Spiritual Net's energy fluctuations were most stable, the little fox suddenly leaped from the rafters, flicked its tail, and swept across a Spiritual Net node on the field ridge.
Wei Changsheng's sharp eyes noticed that the ripple frequency of the Spiritual Net synchronized with the blue light on the little fox's ear tip for an instant.
The next second, the Spiritual Net self-calibrated, the blue light flashed and disappeared, and a System prompt popped up:
"Detected unknown symbiotic spirit body, Elementary energy resonance protocol established."
Wei Changsheng was stunned for two seconds, then looked down at the little fox.
It was crouching by the field, gnawing on an ordinary Spiritual Plant, its ears twitching, pretending to be an innocent fox.
"You little rascal..." He narrowed his eyes, "You hide quite deeply, don't you?"
He didn't press the matter; instead, he sprinkled a pinch of mutated Ninglu Grass powder along the edge of the field ridge.
The powder disappeared as soon as it landed, but as long as someone used Spiritual Power to probe, it would glow faintly, triggering the "Spiritual Dust Sensing Formation" he had laid out earlier.
"Come on," he leaned against the wooden stake at the head of the field, "Let me see who loves to peek so much."
A few days later, during his inspection, he found that the grass powder by the field had been disturbed.
The traces were very light, as if someone had sampled it from a distance with Spiritual Power.
Even more incredible, that person had left behind a small pinch of cinnabar and half a jade bottle fragment—precisely the Materials mentioned in the "Yin and Yang Replacement Method" he had written last time.
"Tried it?" Wei Changsheng picked up the fragment, shaking his head, "The sand isn't pure, the bottle is ordinary, and they didn't even collect the moon dew at the right time."
He took the cinnabar, left the jade bottle fragment in place, and added a new annotation nearby: "Cinnabar requires three days of purification by Earth Core Fire, and moon dew must be collected on the fifteenth night; neither can be omitted."
After writing, he turned to leave, then suddenly paused.
On the freshly turned black soil in the center of the field, a wild plant was slowly sprouting, its leaves tinged blue, with intricate runes appearing in its veins, precisely matching the patterns on his small hoe.
He stared at the plant, his fingers slowly tightening around the small hoe.
At the tip of the plant's leaf, a drop of dew shimmered, and reflected within the drop was not the sky, but a pair of golden vertical pupils.
