The spirit rice tax ordeal had finally come to an end, freeing Qin Ming from having to worry about being sent to the front lines—at least for now.
“This time, I absolutely must push through to the Third Layer of Qi Condensation!” Inside his quiet room, Qin Ming sat cross-legged on a straw meditation mat.
He closed his eyes, centering his mind and regulating his breath while holding a lower-grade spirit stone whose spiritual aura was rapidly fading.
A moment later, the spiritual energy within the stone was entirely absorbed.
Opening his eyes, Qin Ming wore a slightly disappointed expression.
With just a gentle squeeze in his hand, the exhausted spirit stone crumbled into a pile of fine powder.
“Sigh, using spirit stones for cultivation is an absolute waste for someone like me…
Such a luxury.” In the world of cultivation, ambient spiritual energy in the natural world and the energy locked inside spirit stones are essentially wild and untamed.
They are chaotic and heterogeneous, making them impossible for low-tier cultivators to harness directly.
To convert this energy into personal magic power, cultivators must rely on their spiritual roots to absorb it, paired with relentless circulation and refinement to tame the raw energy into usable power.
The quality and grade of a cultivator’s spiritual roots directly dictate the efficiency of this absorption and refinement process.
Qin Ming shook his head, muttering, “Traits are so much better.” The [Faint Spiritual Energy] traits bypassed the tedious process of spiritual root absorption and refinement entirely, allowing him to tap into the power straight away.
This time, he decided to use two [Faint Spiritual Energy] trait leaves simultaneously to force a breakthrough.
“Two [Faint Spiritual Energy] traits should be equivalent to half a year of bitter cultivation.” He calmed his mind, banishing all stray thoughts.
With a mental nudge from Qin Ming, the first [Faint Spiritual Energy] trait was activated.
Even though he was somewhat accustomed to it, the sudden surge of unending magic power rushing into him like a tidal wave still caught him slightly off guard.
Guided by his Everlasting Spring Art, the turbulent magic power began completing full cycles within his body, flowing ceaselessly before finally settling deep into his Dantian.
Passed down from Qin Ming’s minor cultivation family, the Everlasting Spring Art was by no means an advanced scripture; it was a dime-a-dozen, run-of-the-mill technique.
Its primary focus was longevity and wellness preservation, featuring steady, enduring energy pathways and mediocre combat output.
It made progress feel as slow as a crawling turtle.
Yet, it had one distinct advantage: once cultivated to a high realm, the technique imparted a certain degree of life-prolonging efficacy.
As a main cultivation method, it granted practitioners slightly greater longevity and larger magic power reserves than peers at the same stage.
If a cultivator switched to a different technique midway, however, that longevity benefit would be rendered null and void.
This actually suited Qin Ming’s temperament quite well.
‘Tending fields, raising herbs, nurturing the mind and clearing the spirit, and returning to the embrace of nature—isn’t this wonderful?’ ‘Why bother rushing out to fight, kill, and claw for resources, only to end up with nothing in the end?
Sigh…’ Even so, over the past few years, Qin Ming had developed a more nuanced perspective on the matter.
The total amount of resources across the entire cultivation world was strictly limited.
Techniques, magical instruments, spiritual materials, pills, and every other resource were firmly locked down by prestigious sects.
Major sects and formidable cultivators ate meat, while loose cultivators struggled just to sip the broth, forced to scrape by in the gaps between giants.
Unless one was a peerless prodigy endowed with exceptional talent, failing to push upward meant making virtually no progress along the Dao of Immortality.
Even an established cultivation sect like the Spirit Feather Sect had spared no effort, mobilizing its entire organization across an unimaginable distance to travel thousands of miles just to open up this frontier.
Wasn’t it all for the sake of cultivation resources?
…
Qin Ming had completely expended the first [Faint Spiritual Energy] trait, yet his stubborn bottleneck showed no signs of budging.
A frown etched deep lines across his face, his expression turning grave.
Steeling his heart, he pressed on and consumed the second remaining [Faint Spiritual Energy] trait.
A long while passed.
Both consecutive [Faint Spiritual Energy] traits were completely exhausted.
And still, the breakthrough failed.
“Sigh, this is the insurmountable gap of natural aptitude and talent!” “Peak of the Second Layer of Qi Condensation…” Qin Ming remained agonizingly close, yet perpetually locked out of the Third Layer of Qi Condensation.
“If this were anyone else, factoring in the magic power provided by those trait leaves, they probably would have broken through ages ago.” Even so, Qin Ming didn’t fall into despair.
By past standards of step-by-step, routine cultivation, he wouldn’t even have known when he might next sense a breakthrough approaching.
His current state was already a massive improvement over the past.
While his cultivation level hadn’t successfully broken through this time, his sea of Qi and Dantian had expanded significantly.
The magic power surging within his body had grown by a solid third compared to before.
More importantly, he was standing right on the doorstep of the next stage—he just needed to grind away for a little longer.
‘I can’t keep going like this; I need to adjust my strategy.’ ‘Once I successfully cultivate and harvest the Beast-Tooth Rice, perhaps I should try my hand at body-refining arts?’ ‘At the very least, it would boost my self-preservation capabilities.’ ‘However, given my current level of plant cultivation skill, attempting to grow Beast-Tooth Rice will likely require the assistance of the [Ripening] trait.
Otherwise, it’s hard to say whether it would even succeed.’ ‘And if it fails, wasting the precious Beast-Tooth Rice mother seed would be an unacceptable loss.’ After pondering it deeply from multiple angles, Qin Ming had formed a solid game plan.
He concluded his meditation session and stood up to prepare breakfast.
After finishing his meal, Qin Ming stepped out and made his way once again to the Qingyang Marketplace.
The Gathering Pavilion.
It was still the same establishment located at the heart of the marketplace.
Aside from the tavern operating on the first and second floors, a wide variety of other businesses were conducted on the upper levels.
Anyone capable of running a business in such a prime location clearly had formidable backing behind the scenes.
The manager, a man surnamed Liao, flashed his standard professional smile the moment he spotted Qin Ming.
Qin Ming was straightforward.
With a flick of his storage pouch, two massive sacks of spirit rice materialized on the floor before him.
Manager Liao felt a genuine surge of surprise at Qin Ming’s ability to produce such a large quantity of spirit rice in a single trip.
It was a full sack heavier than his previous visit.
Based on what he knew, the Spirit Feather Sect levied a harsh seventy percent tax on these spirit farmers.
Calculating using that proportion meant that this young spirit farmer had harvested at least over eight shi of spirit rice this season.
It was a clear testament to the young man’s proficiency in spirit planting.
Only seasoned spirit farmers could pull off such yields.
Alternatively, it pointed to an exceptionally high level of innate talent in the craft of spirit planting.
If it was the latter…
there was a very real possibility that the young man might eventually qualify to advance into a Tier-One Spirit Planter.
After the shop clerk finished verifying and weighing the goods, Manager Liao wore a warm smile, subtly elevating his internal assessment of this low-tier spirit farmer.
“A total of two hundred and twenty catties of Golden Spirit Rice.” “Daoist Qin, following our usual custom, here are forty-four spirit stones.” “Would you care to look around and see if there’s anything else you need to purchase in our shop?” “We carry a comprehensive stock of goods here; whatever you might be looking for, we can accommodate your needs.” Qin Ming had come prepared.
Pulling a small blueprint from his robes, he revealed a sketch shaped like a miniature bell and handed it over to Manager Liao.
“I’d like to commission a small bell crafted like this.
Could you check if it’s feasible?” “Of course you can, Daoist Qin.
If I’m not mistaken, this is a specialized spirit bell used for casting the Beast-Repelling Art, isn’t it?” “Our pavilion operates an exclusive smithing workshop, and we actually happen to have this exact item in stock.” “A lower-grade magical instrument, the Beast-Wail Bell.
Yours for ten spirit stones.” Manager Liao produced a palm-sized spiritual bell from his sleeve, handing it over with an amiable grin as he explained, “When used in conjunction with the Beast-Repelling Art, it automatically expands and contracts as needed.” “It’s actually this affordable?” The price caught him slightly off guard; he had mentally prepared himself to take a heavy financial hit.
“Hehe, Daoist Qin might not realize this, but the key to the Beast-Repelling Art lies entirely in mastering the spell itself.
This bell is merely an auxiliary tool.” “A word of friendly advice for Daoist Qin: that Beast-Repelling Art is notoriously difficult to cultivate.” “Quite a few cultivators from the Spirit Feather Sect’s battle camps used to commission these from us, but those who actually managed to master the spell completely can be counted on one hand.” Qin Ming caught his underlying meaning immediately.
To put it bluntly, nobody bought them.
If a cultivator failed to master the spell, the specialized spirit bell would instantly become an expensive paperweight, wasting spirit stones and resulting in a total loss.
For Qin Ming, however, failing to master a spell simply wasn’t a possibility.
He paid the ten spirit stones, accepted the bell, and followed up with another question.
“Do you carry any pills that can boost progress in the Qi Condensation stage?” Qin Ming still hadn’t completely given up on his ambition to cross the threshold into the Third Layer of Qi Condensation.
“We do.
Please step this way to the third floor.” A short while later.
Qin Ming walked out of the shop with his expression remaining neutral as ever.
He was walking away carrying forty spirit stones in his pouch, yet unable to spend a single one of them.
The base price for cultivation-boosting pills on the third floor started at a minimum of sixty spirit stones…
Manager Liao escorted Qin Ming all the way out of the shop with enthusiastic hospitality.
…
On his way back, Qin Ming stopped by Supervisor Du Haifu’s residence to inquire about renting an additional mu of spirit fields.
Given his current cultivation level and limited energy, managing five to six mu was already pushing his absolute limit.
“Oh, Xiao Qin has arrived?” “You’re a step too late.” “Just a short while ago, not a single plot of spirit field was left on the mountain slope—they’ve all been rented out!” Du Haifu took a measured sip of tea, breaking the news in an unhurried tone.
!!!
Qin Ming mused inwardly.
“This isn’t looking good!
Just as I anticipated.” “Next year, everyone is going to be fighting tooth and nail over their spirit rice yields.”