A few quiet days passed since that evening that brought Ling Hua together with his mother and father around the fire—days he needed to regain some of his inner balance after the conflicting emotions that meeting had stirred within him. And though his daily life had returned to its usual calm, and the routine of working the field, watching the bees, and tending the plants had resumed its natural rhythm, one thought kept recurring in his mind every morning as he stood before his emerald field and contemplated the earth that had accompanied him through the past two years: there was an old promise not yet fulfilled.
The Inheritance of the Spirit Farmer.
Ling Hua hadn't forgotten that distant night when the Treasury Elder promised him, after he'd proven his worth tending his first spirit field, that he would grant him the Spirit Farmer's inheritance once he was ready to bear it. Two full years had passed since that promise, years in which much had changed in his life; he'd reached the second level of Qi Refining, succeeded in growing a harvest that exceeded the family's expectations, and gained his own source of income from spirit honey and red crabs he'd never imagined he'd obtain. He was no longer that boy who'd entered the field for the first time knowing only little about spiritual farming, and so he felt the time had finally come to fulfill that promise and move into a new phase of his journey.
One morning, he headed toward the Treasury Hall with steps steadier than they'd ever been before. The hall was bustling with activity from the early hours, with staff moving between rooms carrying ledgers, boxes, and spirit tokens, while family members came to hand in their resources or register their crop shares. The moment Ling Hua gave his name and reason for visiting to one of the young staff at the entrance, he was directed straight to the inner room where the Treasury Elder usually worked.
The Elder sat behind his desk crowded with ledgers, carefully reviewing some accounts, but he raised his head the moment Ling Hua entered, and a calm smile appeared on his face that suggested he'd been expecting this visit for some time.
"You've finally come to claim my promise, haven't you?"
Ling Hua bowed respectfully before answering: "Yes, Elder. I've come for the Spirit Farmer's Inheritance you promised me two years ago."
The Elder nodded, then set aside the pen he was holding and leaned back in his chair.
"I never forgot my promise, little one, but I was waiting for you to reach a certain level of maturity before handing it to you. The inheritance isn't just texts to memorize or talismans to read, but a real responsibility that requires patience and experience before you can benefit from it. Before this year I wasn't certain you were ready for it, but now you've proven more than I expected of you."
Then he looked at him with genuine appreciation, and added: "A thriving field, a successful harvest, a complete spirit-bee hive, and a resource base of your own, and most importantly, you've learned how to balance ambition with caution. I think the time has truly come."
He gestured for him to sit, then took out a small wooden token carved with the Sui family's emblem from one of his desk drawers, and placed it before him carefully before beginning to explain what awaited him.
"The Spirit Farmer's Inheritance isn't just a collection of talismans, Ling Hua, as some might think. It's a complete body of knowledge accumulated over long generations of the family's farmers, encompassing understanding of the nature of spirit seeds, the types of soil and what suits each plant, methods of handling roots without damaging them, techniques for preserving sensitive parts of plants, and how to direct spiritual energy through the different stages of cultivation. You'll also find in it a set of basic talismans you'll need sooner or later."
He pushed the wooden token toward him.
"This token will let you enter the Inheritance Hall and access the complete texts, but listen to me carefully before you go."
Ling Hua raised his eyes to him, finding the Elder's tone had become more serious.
"Obtaining the inheritance doesn't mean mastering it. Many of this family's children have read these texts across generations, but few have managed to turn what's in them into real skill. Knowledge can be transferred in a single day, but experience cannot be shortened this easily. The road ahead of you is long, little one, and I think you know this well by now."
Ling Hua nodded seriously, then took the token with both hands.
"I understand that, Elder, and I won't expect to become an expert just by obtaining it."
The Elder smiled slightly, as though he'd been waiting for this answer.
"Then go, and take the time you need to understand it."
Ling Hua left the room and headed toward the stone stairway leading to the Inheritance Hall, his heart pounding with clear excitement as he approached the place he'd long heard of without knowing its true contents. When he reached the great gate, he took out the wooden token and placed it in its designated slot, and a faint green light emanated from the Sui family emblem, spreading through the ancient carvings engraved on the gate's surface, before the heavy doors began slowly opening before him.
Ling Hua spent long hours inside the hall, moving between the ancient texts that held the experience of generations of spirit farmers. He didn't try to memorize everything in one sitting, but focused on understanding the inheritance's general structure and grasping the principles underlying each technique, knowing from the start that the details he was reading today he'd need to return to repeatedly once he began actual practice.
The first technique that caught his attention was the Germination Talisman, a basic technique aimed at waking dormant spirit seeds and helping them break through their shells and begin their growth cycle. The talisman didn't make the plant grow directly, but relied on injecting the seed with a precise pulse of qi matching its nature, helping it respond to the surrounding spiritual energy and increasing the odds of successful germination.
Then he moved to the Root-Gathering Talisman, far more precise than the previous one, allowing the farmer to extract part of a spirit plant's roots while preserving the main root and the rest of the plant alive. The technique required directing an extremely fine thread of qi around the targeted root, then separating it from the rest of the root network without causing damage that might affect the plant's ability to continue growing.
The Root-Preservation Talisman was the natural complement to the previous technique, used to preserve harvested roots and prevent the spiritual energy stored within them from dissipating quickly, allowing them to be kept longer before being used in elixir-making or treating other plants.
But the technique that made him pause longest over the text was the Life Vein Vine.
Ling Hua had seen this technique with his own eyes before, that day Tianmo used it in the forest, and so he felt some surprise when he read its complete description. Its name had made him think at first that it possessed a healing aspect, and perhaps that seemed logical given what he'd witnessed of Tianmo's control over energy of a wood-like nature, but the text before him was entirely clear; the Life Vein Vine was a purely offensive and defensive technique.
The technique allows its user to form spiritual vines from wood-attribute energy, which can be directed at an opponent to attack, or used to restrain and slow their movement, and several intertwined vines can also be formed before the body to block strikes and protect the user. As mastery increases, it becomes possible to form a denser barrier, where the intertwined vines transform into a plant shield capable of withstanding a certain degree of spiritual attacks.
Ling Hua continued reading the technique's details with interest, then suddenly remembered the liquid Tianmo had used on his field after the pest incident years ago, and understood that liquid hadn't been part of the Life Vein Vine at all, but a separate substance Tianmo possessed and used for different purposes.
Still, the Life Vein Vine wasn't what stirred his curiosity most within the inheritance, for he found in the final pages a technique he'd never heard the name of before, with requirements more complex than all the previous techniques combined.
The Spirit Vein Mirror.
Ling Hua read the description with growing curiosity, discovering that the technique, once mastered, allows the user to see the internal structure of a spirit plant for a brief period, as though the layers of soil and the plant's external parts had become transparent before his eyes. Through it, the user could observe internal energy pathways, identify root locations, and know the areas where spiritual energy gathers, even discovering certain imbalances difficult to notice with the naked eye.
But when he moved to the requirements section, much of his initial excitement dissipated.
The technique required extremely precise control over qi flow, in addition to the ability to maintain more than one energy pathway simultaneously, a level of control Ling Hua hadn't even come close to possessing yet. In the margin of one old page he found a note written in different handwriting from the rest of the texts, indicating that Elder Tianmo herself had tried mastering this technique many times without being able to use it in the full required form.
Ling Hua stared at that note for a long while, and it stirred a strange feeling within him he couldn't explain. It wasn't merely curiosity toward a difficult technique, but he felt something in it drew him in a particular way, perhaps connected to his three spiritual roots or to the way he'd come to view plants since beginning his journey in this world. Still, he didn't let himself get carried away by this feeling, for he understood from the technique's requirements alone that the path to mastering it would be extremely long.
When he left the Inheritance Hall after hours of study, he didn't feel he'd become stronger, but on the contrary, left with a clearer awareness of how much knowledge he still lacked. Those texts had given him a map of the road, but hadn't granted him the ability to walk it, and this difference was clearer in his mind now than ever before.
He returned to the Treasury Hall to tell the Elder he'd finished reviewing the inheritance, but the moment he entered the room, the Elder stopped him before he could leave.
"I have another matter I want to assign you, and the timing is right now that you've officially become part of the family's spirit farmer system."
Ling Hua looked at him with interest. "What's the task?"
The Elder took out another token and placed it on the table.
"You need to go down to the human villages surrounding the family mountain, villages that fall under Sui family's influence and protection. There are children who've reached around ten years of age this year, and it's the family's old tradition to subject children at this exact age to a spiritual root test, searching for any talent that might be worth training."
Ling Hua immediately realized that the mission, despite the simplicity of its description, carried greater importance than it appeared.
"So this is one of the ways the family searches for its next generation of farmers."
The Elder nodded. "Exactly. It might seem a simple task to you, but it's an important part of the family's future. You'll take the token specifying the villages assigned to you, along with the standard root-testing talisman, and you'll handle the matter yourself. Don't rush, and don't underestimate the children you'll meet, for one of them might turn out to be someone who changes Sui family's future one day."
Ling Hua took the new token, then nodded. "I'll do what I can."
He didn't ask about the villages' names or the children, having decided to leave the mission's details for their proper time, not knowing that journey would open doors he hadn't expected.
Before leaving the mountain to carry out the mission, he remembered another promise not yet fulfilled; Elder Tianmo's promise to take him as a proper disciple when the right time came.
He headed toward the Farming Hall, and found her there as usual, standing among new seedlings, examining some of their leaves and checking the surrounding soil of others. The moment he approached, she said without raising her head: "You've finally come. I heard you received the inheritance today."
Ling Hua smiled. "Yes, Elder, and I've come to remind you of your old promise too."
Tianmo raised her head this time, and looked at him for a few seconds before a calm smile appeared on her face.
"I haven't forgotten my promise, but before I begin teaching you anything new, I want to know exactly where your current understanding stands."
She sat before him, gestured for him to sit as well, then began asking him questions about the basics of spiritual farming. Ling Hua was able to answer some of them thanks to his long experience in the field, but he quickly discovered his knowledge remained tied to spirit rice more than it was tied to the world of spirit plants in general.
Finally, Tianmo asked: "What's the fundamental difference between an ordinary spirit plant and a plant used in elixir-making?"
Ling Hua thought for a moment before answering: "A spirit plant absorbs the surrounding spiritual energy and grows with it, while an elixir plant..."
He paused briefly, then continued after trying to organize what he'd read in the Inheritance Hall: "...stores the spiritual energy in certain parts of it to a greater degree?"
Tianmo shook her head slowly. "Your answer isn't wrong, but it's very superficial. What about the way qi distributes within an elixir plant's roots compared to the rice you grow? And what about the difference in their soil and water needs?"
Ling Hua tried answering again, but recognized clear gaps in his knowledge himself. He'd spent years learning how to make spirit rice grow, but hadn't yet learned to view other plants as different systems with their own needs.
Tianmo watched him in silence, then said: "As I expected. Your practical experience is very good for your age, perhaps better than many trainees I've seen, but your theoretical knowledge of other types of cultivation remains limited. That's natural, since you've only dealt with rice until now, but that will change starting today."
She took out several small white seeds from a small bag, gleaming with a faint shimmer under the sunlight, and placed them in Ling Hua's palm.
"This is the first real elixir plant you'll grow yourself. It's called the Spirit Dew Flower."
Ling Hua examined the seeds with interest, while Tianmo continued her explanation: "It's a relatively low-grade flower, but of good economic value to the family. When it matures, a deep floral horn forms at its center, holding a small amount of spirit liquid the flower gradually produces during its growth, and this liquid is one of the main components in making energy-restoration pills."
Ling Hua raised his eyes to her. "Is its effect strong?"
Tianmo shook her head. "No. Don't expect anything exceptional from it, for it's just a low-grade plant, and the liquid it produces alone isn't enough to make high-grade pills. But it's a practical, in-demand component, and the family can grow it in large quantities, so its true value lies in continuous production, not in the flower's own power."
Ling Hua looked at the seeds again, finding the idea more appealing precisely because of its simplicity; before him wasn't a rare flower or a heavenly treasure, but a crop that could be grown and turned into a continuous resource for the family, exactly the kind he'd begun learning to handle as a spirit farmer.
He waited for Tianmo to explain how to plant it, but she only gave him some basic information about the suitable soil, the approximate amount of spirit water it needed, and the limit its roots' qi density shouldn't exceed to avoid damage.
She noticed the look of expectation in his eyes, and smiled faintly.
"Don't expect me to give you every answer, little one. A true farmer can't rely on instructions for every step, because plants don't always grow the way books describe them."
Then she pointed to one of the seeds. "You've received the inheritance, so you now have the theoretical foundation. Use the Germination Talisman and try to wake it."
Ling Hua sat on the ground, placed one seed before him, then began slowly summoning the qi within his body. He tried recalling the movement he'd read about in the inheritance, focusing on sending a precise pulse of energy matching the seed's nature instead of forcing it to receive a large amount of qi at once.
Several breaths passed without anything happening.
He tried a second time, changing the energy distribution slightly, but got no response.
On the third attempt, he lightened the qi density further, then maintained the flow for several moments instead of releasing it all at once. This time the seed trembled slightly, and a faint green halo, barely visible, appeared around its shell, but it soon vanished before the seed began germinating.
Ling Hua opened his eyes and looked at it in confusion. "What am I doing wrong?"
Tianmo didn't seem surprised by the result, answering calmly: "There isn't a single mistake I can point to and ask you to fix. You're now learning the difference between knowing the method and having the ability to execute it. What you read in the inheritance gave you the correct form of the talisman, but it didn't give your body and mind the experience needed to control every small change that occurs while using it."
Ling Hua looked at the seed again. "So mastering it will take a long time."
"Of course, and you'll have to fail many times before becoming able to use it naturally. Don't try to shortcut the path, because spiritual farming doesn't reward those who rush."
Ling Hua kept her words in mind, then gathered his seeds carefully.
He didn't feel discouraged by his failure, but on the contrary, felt he'd begun understanding the inheritance's true meaning. What he'd obtained wasn't a shortcut to power, but a set of doors he'd have to open one after another.
When he left the Farming Hall that evening, he carried with him the Spirit Farmer's Inheritance, the Spirit Dew Flower seeds, the token holding the details of his coming mission, and Tianmo's promise to begin training him gradually from now on.
When he returned to his cave, he sat at the entrance and took out one of the Spirit Dew Flower seeds from its pouch, then raised his gaze toward the field he'd spent two years tending. The rice had disappeared from the ground after the harvest, leaving behind a wide space awaiting a new season, but Ling Hua no longer looked at it as he used to; he'd come to know now that the land itself could hide potential far greater than a single crop.
Two years ago, his greatest concern had been learning how to keep a few spirit rice seedlings alive. Now, a wider path lay before him, one that included elixir plants, talismans he hadn't yet mastered, and a mysterious technique called the Spirit Vein Mirror that had drawn his interest despite the difficulty of mastering it, alongside a mission that would soon lead him to the human villages under his family's influence.
He kept contemplating the seed between his fingers until the last threads of sunlight began disappearing behind the mountains, then set it carefully beside him, having decided to begin planting the Spirit Dew Flower the next morning, before leaving the mountain to carry out his new mission.