Parental Love (Seeking Bookmarks and Recommendation Votes)

If, when spiritual roots awaken on the first day of January next year, the family could find a few more people with spiritual roots among the mortal clansmen, that would be wonderful! Ling Pengyun thought to himself.

Ling Ruguo pulled a bulging Storage Bag from his robes and summoned several spiritual items onto the ground. He explained carefully, "Pengyun, the New Year is approaching. Those of you who have been stationed outside the clan mountain to guard spirit veins will find it difficult to return and reunite with your families!"

"By coincidence, the Azure Silk Peach trees planted on Lingyun Mountain, our Ling Clan's original clan mountain in Cloudwater County, have borne quite a few Spirit Peaches recently. The clan feels guilty about this, so it has taken out nearly half of this harvest of Azure Silk Spirit Peaches as compensation for you clansmen stationed away from the clan mountain. Your cultivation has reached the Qi Training Middle Stage, so you may receive three First Rank Middle Grade Azure Silk Spirit Peaches. The rest is your salary for the next half year: sixty spirit stones, six Qi Refining Pills, one hundred and twenty jin of Azure Jade Spirit Rice, and twelve Yellow Sprout Pills!"

"These one hundred spirit stones and six First Rank Middle Grade Azure Silk Spirit Peaches were sent back to the clan mountain by your parents in Cloudwater Market Town, Cloudwater County, for the family to pass on to you!"

"These three small pouches contain the seeds of Qi Training Grass, Yellow Jade Spirit Rice, and Sword Star Grass, respectively!"

"As for these two Exploding Poison Pearls and six Antidote Pills, your Eighth Grandfather and Tenth Grandfather refined them from the two bottles of Ink Cloud Poisonous Snake venom you gave me half a year ago. There is one First Rank Low Grade and one First Rank Middle Grade Exploding Poison Pearl, while the Antidote Pills include three First Rank Low Grade and three First Rank Middle Grade pills!"

Ling Pengyun had long known that every year, the clan compensated those who worked for the family during the New Year season and could not return to the clan mountain to reunite with their families with Azure Silk Spirit Peaches.

It could be said that this was a fine tradition of the Ling Clan, which had built its foundation upon spirit plants!

Yet when it came to the numerous spirit stones his parents had sent, he felt no joy at all. Instead, his heart ached.

Although his father, Ling Xiaoshun, was the shopkeeper of the clan's Lingxiao Sundries Shop in Cloudwater Market Town and received a commission based on the spiritual items he sold, that commission was not much. His cultivation was only at the Qi Training Middle Stage, and his stipend was the same as Ling Pengyun's—or even inferior to it. He received no Qi Refining Pills or Yellow Sprout Pills, only ten spirit stones and twenty jin of Azure Jade Spirit Rice.

His mother, Yang Qiuyun, was only at the Early-Stage Qi Training realm. Her monthly stipend for working outside was even lower, just four spirit stones and twenty jin of Yellow Jade Spirit Rice.

The one hundred spirit stones his parents had given him accounted for more than sixty percent of their combined yearly stipends.

This also meant that Ling Xiaoshun and Yang Qiuyun, despite being cultivators, had very few spirit stones left for themselves. They likely had no pills to aid their daily cultivation, so their progress was bound to be slow.

Without question, Ling Xiaoshun and Yang Qiuyun intended to cut back on their own resources and combine their strength to help Ling Pengyun alone attain the Dao.

Sacrificing themselves to fulfill one person.

"Father, Mother!" Ling Pengyun pictured his parents' faces, and longing surged through his heart.

Though he had been reincarnated and lived through two lifetimes, his parents in this world had treated him exceptionally well. He held them in the deepest respect.

Seeing the change in Ling Pengyun's expression, Ling Ruguo immediately understood why. He said nothing and simply waited at the side. Only after Ling Pengyun's emotions had returned to normal did he call Ling Pengyun over to harvest the mature Yellow Jade Spirit Rice, Qi Training Grass, and Sword Star Grass from the six mu of Spirit Fields atop Azure Stone Mountain.

Although Yellow Jade Spirit Rice was rice, after being tempered by spiritual energy, its stalks had become as hard as steel in the mortal world.

Therefore, Ling Pengyun and Ling Ruguo used graded Spirit Scythes to cut the Yellow Jade Spirit Rice.

The Spirit Scythes were incomparably sharp, and their blades were extremely long, making them very convenient for cutting rice stalks.

After cutting all the Yellow Jade Spirit Rice from the two mu of Spirit Fields, the two used the minor spell Spirit Power Oscillation to shake the spirit rice from the ears onto the ground, then shook off the husks.

Grains of spirit rice, each like yellow jade, were revealed.

As for Qi Training Grass and Sword Star Grass, the two spirit plants were pulled up directly by their roots.

However, before uprooting them, Ling Pengyun and Ling Ruguo first used Spirit Hoes to dig up the soil around the two spirit plants, loosening the earth.

They then carefully used their hands to part the loosened Spirit Soil, avoiding damage to the roots while pulling up the plants.

For spirit plants such as Qi Training Grass and Sword Star Grass, even their roots contained spiritual energy. If the roots were damaged, their medicinal potency would be harmed.

This work took an extremely long time. It took the two of them half a day to finish.

Ling Ruguo wiped the sweat from his forehead, took out a Storage Bag, and summoned four hundred jade boxes. Together with Ling Pengyun, he placed the four hundred Sword Star Grass and Qi Training Grass plants harvested from the four mu of Spirit Fields into the jade boxes separately.

These jade boxes were no ordinary items. They were called Spirit-Locking Jade Boxes and were made from Spirit-Locking Jade Stone, a material capable of preventing spiritual energy from leaking away. Placing spirit plants inside these jade boxes could reduce the loss of their spiritual energy.

The pill bottles used to store medicinal pills were also mostly made from Spirit-Locking Jade Stone.

Spirit-Locking Jade was very cheap. One spirit stone could buy more than ten jin of it, making it widely used throughout the Cultivation World.

Once all four hundred Sword Star Grass and Qi Training Grass plants had been placed in jade boxes, Ling Ruguo stored the boxes back in his Storage Bag. Then, with a wave of his hand, he cast the minor spell Weight Measurement Technique over the two large piles of Yellow Jade Spirit Rice that looked like yellow jade. The smile on his face deepened.

"Pengyun, the six mu of spirit plants you managed this time were all quite good. The medicinal potency of the Qi Training Grass and Sword Star Grass is at least ten percent stronger than usual. Especially the Yellow Jade Spirit Rice from those two mu—one yielded nine hundred and thirty-two jin, while the other yielded nine hundred and fifty-three jin. According to the clan's benefits for Spirit Plant Farmers, you may take ten percent of the spirit rice you managed: ninety-three jin and ninety-five jin, one hundred and eighty-eight jin in total!"

"These one hundred and eighty-eight jin of Yellow Jade Spirit Rice belong to you. Do you plan to sell them to the clan, or keep them for yourself? If you sell them to the clan, it can purchase them at the market price of one spirit stone for five jin. You will not be shortchanged!" Ling Ruguo asked with a kindly smile.

The clan's purchase price for spirit rice was fair, so naturally Ling Pengyun had no reason to refuse.

"Third Grandfather, I'll sell this spirit rice to the clan!"

"One hundred and eighty-eight jin of spirit rice will be counted as one hundred and ninety jin, for a total of thirty-eight spirit stones! As for the rice stalks from these two mu, do you need them? The herd of Mountain-Opening Oxen raised by the clan loves eating these stalks!" After calculating it carefully, Ling Ruguo took thirty-eight spirit stones from the Storage Bag at his waist and handed them to Ling Pengyun, then asked.

Ling Pengyun accepted the spirit stones and cupped his hands. "Thank you, Third Grandfather. These rice stalks would be useless if I kept them. Please take them back to the clan and use them to feed those Mountain-Opening Oxen!"

Mountain-Opening Oxen were a type of spirit beast raised by the Ling Clan. They possessed tremendous strength and thick hides.

Every year, when the Ling Clan transported spirit rice of various grades from the clan mountain to Huai River Market Town for sale, it relied on these oxen to pull the rice across thousands of li.

"No need, Pengyun. It is getting late. I'll stay at Ling Dong's place tonight and leave tomorrow morning!" Ling Ruguo naturally knew that Ling Pengyun was thanking him for counting a few extra jin of spirit rice for him, but he did not take it to heart and merely waved his hand.

After saying this, Ling Ruguo put the two piles of Yellow Jade Spirit Rice stalks on the ground into a specially prepared Storage Bag.

"Alright!" Ling Pengyun nodded.