Improving Spirit Rice (Please Bookmark and Vote)

Ling Pengyun was quite pleased at the sight.

Freed from his duties, Ling Pengyun was in high spirits. He went straight down the mountain to the farmland cultivated by Azure Stone Village, selected a hundred mu of fields, and bestowed Three Breaths of Spirit Rain upon every mu.

Such grace left the Azure Stone villagers who witnessed the scene deeply grateful.

Rice nourished by Spirit Rain could do far more than hasten its growth. If mortals ate this rain-nourished rice over a long period, it could reduce illness and injury, even prolonging their lives.

This kind of rice was also known as "Pseudo Immortal Rice." It sold for an exorbitant price on the market, and many wealthy masters would purchase it for five or even ten times the price of ordinary rice.

After benefiting Azure Stone Village, Ling Pengyun glanced toward the mountaintop. Seeing that the Yellow-Feathered Sparrow was indeed carrying out its duties diligently, its belly noticeably fuller, he could tell at a glance that it had not eaten few insects during this time.

"This Yellow-Feathered Sparrow is quite good. If it keeps this up, I can give it a push in the future and let it enter Innate Perfection more smoothly!"

Pushing an Innate third-layer sparrow to Innate Perfection was actually a simple matter. It would only take a few pills.

Cultivators also had an Innate Realm, but it was merely a transitional stage and thus was not included among the cultivation realms. Ordinary Cultivators needed no more than a few years to break through from Innate to Qi Refinement.

The distinction between Acquired and Innate was merely the common way mortal martial artists classified their realms.

Ling Pengyun returned to the cave halfway up the mountain and sat cross-legged on his Meditation Mat.

As usual, he began his once-every-three-days experiment to improve spirit rice, taking two spirit rice seeds from his Storage Bag.

One of them looked like ordinary rice, except that it emitted a faint trace of spiritual energy.

The other spirit rice seed was golden and jade-like, exceptionally translucent, and contained more than ten times the spiritual energy of the former.

The former was a First Rank Water Spirit Rice seed, while the latter was a Second Rank Golden Marrow Rice seed.

Both were among the most common spirit rice seeds in the Cultivation World, never having undergone improvement. They were purebred spirit rice.

Many low-ranking Spirit Plant Farmers used purebred spirit rice, combining different varieties to improve them into all manner of special spirit rice.

The Ling Clan's Jade Series spirit rice had been improved from these two kinds of spirit rice seeds.

As for why they did not further improve the Ling Clan's existing three types of improved spirit rice, it was because the three kinds of Jade Series spirit rice had already been altered. The Yi Wood Source contained within them was extremely unstable, and improving them further was as difficult as ascending to the heavens unless one was a high-ranking Spirit Plant Farmer.

These Water Spirit Rice and Golden Marrow Rice seeds were leftovers from when Ling Pengyun had been at Lingxiao Mountain, attempting to improve spirit rice with Grand Elder Ling Ruda. Even now, he still had quite a few in his Storage Bag.

The moment the two spirit rice seeds were taken out, Ling Pengyun tossed them into the air.

Without delay, Ling Pengyun formed hand seals and struck two spell seals condensed from pure Wood Spiritual Energy into the two spirit rice seeds.

Thorn Vine, transfer half a wisp of Yi Wood Source into that Water Spirit Rice seed! Ling Pengyun thought.

Immediately afterward, a barbed vine shot out from Ling Pengyun's sleeve. It lightly touched the floating Water Spirit Rice seed and transferred half a wisp of the life-giving Yi Wood Source, transformed from pure Wood Spiritual Energy, into it.

This barbed vine was Ling Pengyun's Natal Spirit Plant, named Thorn Vine. It was an exceptionally gentle vine, carefully selected for him by Ling Ruda, the master who had guided him onto the path of spirit plants.

Not only had this Thorn Vine helped Ling Pengyun advance in the path of spirit plants, but it could also serve as his helper in battle, transforming into a suit of wooden-vine armor.

Normally, Ling Pengyun's Natal Spirit Plant, the Thorn Vine, clung to his chest, maintaining its vitality and advancing its cultivation by absorbing the spiritual energy within Ling Pengyun, which shared its origin.

Its rank was now the same as Ling Pengyun's rank on the path of spirit plants: First Rank Low Grade.

After transferring a wisp of Yi Wood Source, the Thorn Vine shrank considerably. Like a bean sprout, it drooped at once.

Ling Pengyun could only look on helplessly. Yet if he wished to improve spirit rice, he could only rely on the Yi Wood Source of his Natal Spirit Plant, the Thorn Vine.

The pure Wood Spiritual Energy he and the Thorn Vine transferred into the two spirit rice seeds, along with the Yi Wood Source, served to reconcile and neutralize the clash that arose when the Yi Wood Sources of the Water Spirit Rice and Golden Marrow Rice fused.

Yi Wood Source was wood of pure yin, also known as the source of flowering plants and grasses. In truth, the Yi Wood Source of every plant differed. Even plants of the same kind were no exception—just like people, whose appearances were never exactly alike. Even twins and dragon-phoenix twins had their slight differences.

Improving spirit plants was, in essence, allowing the sources within different spirit plants to fuse together, letting the superior compensate for the inferior's shortcomings and thereby improve the spirit plant.

During this process of source fusion, someone was needed at the side to reconcile them. Without such mediation, failure was inevitable.

The incomparably gentle source within the Natal Spirit Plant refined by a Spirit Plant Farmer was the finest possible harmonizing agent.

Ling Pengyun did not dare delay. He recalled the Thorn Vine, changed the finger techniques in his hand, and used the strand of Wood Spiritual Energy he had just sent into the Golden Marrow Rice seed to draw out its scant Yi Wood Source and guide it into the Water Spirit Rice seed.

The instant that Yi Wood Source entered the Water Spirit Rice seed, nothing unusual happened.

But when Ling Pengyun forcibly fused that wisp of Golden Marrow Rice source with the Water Spirit Rice seed's unique wisp of Yi Wood Source, a mutation occurred.

The very instant they came into contact, the source within the Water Spirit Rice seed clashed with the foreign Golden Marrow Rice source that had intruded without invitation.

The spiritual energy within the Water Spirit Rice seed began to grow chaotic. Fine cracks even appeared across its surface, as though the seed would collapse and shatter into fragments the next moment.

Not good! Ling Pengyun immediately closed his eyes and controlled the wisp of Yi Wood Source that his Natal Spirit Plant, which shared his origin, had just sent into the seed, using it as a mediator between the clashing sources of the two spirit rice seeds.

At the same time, he used the pure Wood Spiritual Energy he had sent into the Water Spirit Rice seed to heal it and mend the cracks on its surface.

Unfortunately, Ling Pengyun's efforts were ultimately futile. After holding on for only Three Breaths, the Water Spirit Rice seed floating in the air burst apart due to the conflict between the two spirit rice sources within it, turning into fragments.

"Failed again!"

"Counting from my first experiment to improve spirit rice, there have already been nearly ten attempts. The Yi Wood Source within the Thorn Vine has also consumed more than ten wisps. If I continue these spirit rice improvement experiments, I fear it will damage the Thorn Vine's foundation and delay its cultivation advancement!"

"I can only stop for a while," Ling Pengyun muttered helplessly.

He had actually long expected this attempt to fail. There were nine prior failures as warning, and when he had been at Lingxiao Mountain, he had failed more than a hundred times.

"Improving spirit rice is truly too difficult!"

"But that makes sense. If it were not difficult, improved spirit rice would have long become something sold everywhere, available in any market!"

"How could the family still tightly control every single improved Jade Series spirit rice seed and never let them leak outside?"

Ling Pengyun could only console himself this way, using it to bolster his confidence.

Still, Ling Pengyun was not wrong. Improving spirit rice truly was difficult.

Among the five Foundation Establishment Families and more than ten Qi Refinement families in all of Huai River County, only the Ling Clan possessed improved spirit rice. The other families planted ordinary spirit rice such as Water Spirit Rice.

"Now that I think about it, I heard rumors in the clan that the Clan Head raised his attainments on the path of spirit plants to the Second Rank several years ago. With the abilities of a Second Rank Spirit Plant Farmer, the Clan Head should be able to improve spirit plants like the ancestor did. At least one kind should not be a problem!"

"If the Clan Head can truly improve a spirit plant, the family will become stronger and stronger in the cultivation of spirit plants!"

"Once my attainments on the path of spirit plants reach First Rank High Grade, I can also ask the family for another method of improving spirit plants. Perhaps I will gain some inspiration then, and I too may improve a spirit plant to benefit the family!"

Ling Pengyun imagined eagerly.

At that moment, the frustration in Ling Pengyun's heart vanished at once, and he regained his confidence.

With a wave of his hand, he summoned a ball of flame and burned the remains of the Water Spirit Rice seed and the Golden Marrow Rice seed into flying ash, cleaning everything away.

Afterward, he took out a medicine bottle from his Storage Bag, poured out a Yellow Sprout Pill, swallowed it, and circulated the Azure Water Sutra to refine its medicinal power.

The six Qi Refining Pills from the next half-year's stipend that he had collected in advance had long since been used up.

Even the twelve Yellow Sprout Pills from his half-year stipend had been reduced to the second pill.

The medicinal power of a single Yellow Sprout Pill was only enough for Ling Pengyun to cultivate for ten days.