After killing the giant rat, Lin Donglai had become something of a celebrity in the Spirit Field Valley, thanks to the wildly exaggerated accounts of the feat given by Ning Feng and Chen Shu—though the Spirit Field Valley only had about twenty farming disciples, nearly all of them at the first layer of Qi Refinement.
Lin Donglai himself felt nothing special about it. He simply collected his monthly salary of two spirit stones on time, then began preparing the arrangements needed for planting several kinds of spirit herbs.
Spirit Tree Bark, Moonlight Moss, Water-Absorbing Azure Stone.
Autumn was approaching its cold depths; the Kidney Essence Grass could now be planted, and any later would be too late.
Thus Lin Donglai had already placed the Kidney Essence Grass seeds into the Sweet Dew Gourd to soak in advance, and by now they had mostly sprouted.
The water spirit power cultivated through the Renzi Water-Gathering Art was especially suited to the Sweet Dew Gourd, and the Kidney Essence Grass, being a spirit herb that loved water and shade, favored water spirit power above all.
On the spirit field he had planned out beforehand, Lin Donglai first spread a layer of tree bark over it, then placed the Water-Absorbing Azure Stones according to their designated positions, laid moss over the stones, and once everything was arranged, planted the sprouted Kidney Essence Grass into the moss.
The moss, the Water-Absorbing Azure Stones, and the bark were all meant to retain water and moisture, yet without letting water accumulate excessively and rot the roots. Only in such an environment could the Kidney Essence Grass grow.
After planting two hundred Kidney Essence Grass seeds, Lin Donglai let out a sigh—these arrangements alone had cost him two spirit stones.
He could only hope that Xiao Yi, that apprentice alchemist, would soon refine the Myriad Wonders Pills, earn some spirit stones, and make up for his losses.
Then he skillfully took out the Sweet Dew Gourd and cast the Sweet Dew Rain-Spreading Charm.
After another twenty days of cultivation, Lin Donglai had refined the four water-element fetal breaths he needed. This was mainly because the Dao Seed had absorbed life essence when he killed the giant rat, allowing him to condense several drops of essence blood that very day—which was why he had progressed so quickly.
Now, Lin Donglai had resumed cultivating the Jiayin Life-Gathering Art.
With water and earth elements already in place, and Lin Donglai himself possessing flourishing wood among the five elements—a lower-grade Jiawood spirit body—shifting from water back to wood caused him no discomfort at all. On the contrary, the water and earth elements actually enhanced his wood-element spirit power, and his cultivation speed was even thirty percent faster than when he had first cultivated the Jiayin Life-Gathering Art.
This was mainly because the vitality of Jiawood was something his spirit root and Dao Seed already possessed, and cultivating this technique in the small grove yielded twice the results with half the effort. The only thing restraining Lin Donglai was the speed at which he could generate essence blood. As soon as his essence blood was complete, he would immediately refine it into fetal breath; once fused with wood-element essence, it could be planted into his inner-scene liver organ.
After resuming the Jiayin Life-Gathering Art, Lin Donglai's cultivation began to grow once more. In just a few short days, he already had twenty-two strands of spirit power.
Looking at the Blood Marrow Rice that had been growing for over two months, Lin Donglai estimated that in another month, before winter arrived, he would be able to harvest a season of Blood Marrow Rice.
Lin Donglai's farming talent was indeed quite good. Under his careful tending during this period, not only had few of the Blood Marrow Rice seedlings died, the crop even showed signs of an abundant harvest.
The only problem was that he hadn't planted much—just two fen of land, which would yield roughly seventy to eighty jin of Blood Marrow Rice.
Lin Donglai reckoned that if he could fertilize once more before it matured, he might harvest even more.
After supplementing the two fen of Blood Marrow Rice with another Sweet Dew rain, Lin Donglai turned his gaze toward the fields of the others.
One glance was enough, and he silently shook his head.
Although everyone had exchanged pointers on the art of spirit cultivation over these days, some people simply had no talent, plain and simple. Even though they invested more in their spirit fields than Lin Donglai did, their plots still looked a sorry mess.
In fact, several people had already given up on the path of spirit cultivation early and run off to learn other skills—such as the disciples Sang Zhi and Ma Teng, who had once gossiped about Lin Donglai behind his back.
When Lin Donglai saw them run off, he transplanted the untended spirit rice left in their fields into his own to care for—every extra jin counted.
"I wonder how effective the Blood Marrow Rice will be."
The food in the Immortal Sprout Peak mess hall had become completely ineffective. His inner spirit marrow, his stomach and spleen—everything was protesting, wanting Lin Donglai to eat spirit grains and spirit meals of higher quality.
Although the mess hall's free food could be eaten without limit, there was still a reasonable bound. Lin Donglai generally ate eight portions in a sitting and stopped there.
"If only I could kill another one or two giant rats and absorb their life essence."
"I wonder if going to the Outer Sect Immortal Kitchen to help slaughter spirit chickens and spirit pigs would work... Never mind. If the flavor or quality of the spirit chickens and pigs changed after having their life essence absorbed, I'd probably have a hard time explaining myself."
According to the Compendium of Cultivation Records, demonic path techniques did not rely much on spirit roots for cultivation; instead, they refined vast amounts of absorbed life essence into demonic magical power, which was why their practitioners often massacred mortals en masse to harvest life essence.
Lin Donglai had no desire to be mistaken for a demonic cultivator.
With an Earth Immortal Dao Seed within him, once he established his Inner-Scene Blessed Field, a broad and open road would lie before him.
If he was to farm, then farm he would!
He simply had to endure the loneliness!
With that thought, Lin Donglai stopped agonizing over it and instead devoted even more attention to reading and absorbing knowledge.
Some of these books were farming notes and journals from the Spirit Cultivation Hall; others came from the library attached to the Dharma Lecture Hall—explications and annotations on the Five Elements Qi-Gathering Method.
Reading more indeed increased wisdom, allowing him to examine himself and fill in his shortcomings.
"Yang five elements are not the complete five elements. After I finish consolidating my Inner-Scene Blessed Field, there is no need to rush into cultivating the second cycle of yang element arts."
"I could instead try the Yin Five Elements Qi-Gathering Method, cultivating the corresponding five-element fetal breaths and planting them into the five organs. Only when yin and yang five elements are complete will the Inner-Scene Blessed Field have the possibility of evolving and expanding on its own."
"The General Outline of the Five Elements is only a reference for me."
"Besides, the sect has no inheritance of the Foundation Establishment realm Hunyuan Pill Books... With the Earth Immortal lineage as an exemplar before me, it's worth experimenting boldly."
"This Five Elements Qi-Gathering Method is almost perfectly suited to the Earth Immortal lineage. If I can master it thoroughly, it will surely benefit my future path. If the chance arises, I should still inquire about the lineage of the ancient Primordial Chaos Five Elements Sect and obtain the complete technique of the Hunyuan Pill Book."
In Lin Donglai's conception, if the main root tendrils of his spirit root Dao Seed could reach a state of mutual generation among the five elements and yin-yang intercourse while automatically cultivating the five-element arts, then it could continuously gather five-element essence on its own and convert it into resources for expanding the Inner-Scene Blessed Field.
That way, future expansion of the blessed field would no longer require the tedious process of condensing essence blood, refining it into fetal breath, and fusing fetal breath with five-element essence.
The surplus of Lin Donglai's own energy could then be devoted entirely to advancing his cultivation realm, learning spells, or tending his spirit fields...
Most importantly, the Inner-Scene Blessed Field is the foundation of a cave-heaven blessed land. With the seed of the Heaven-Reaching Giant Tree, it could even be called a "world-heaven seed."
Judging by the Earth Immortal inheritance, though this space started from humble beginnings, its potential was boundless.
Perhaps in the future, Lin Donglai could use it to open up a world and attain the Dao of the Earth Immortal.