A Small Profit at Year's End

Time flies, and before we knew it, several months had passed.

In early December, Ling Rufan, the Lineage elder who was in charge of delivering offerings, also came to Azure Stone Mountain as usual.

As soon as he jumped off the Immortal Spirit Crane, he sensed that Ling Pengyun, who had been waiting there, possessed an aura that was not much weaker than his own, a veteran Qi Training Seventh Layer cultivator, though it was somewhat unstable.

"Peng Yun, you've broken through to the Qi Training Seventh Layer?" Ling Rufan asked in surprise.

"Ninth Great-Grandfather," Ling Pengyun greeted him first, never intending to hide anything. Only by showcasing his strengths could he gain the Lineage's attention. He then replied, "A few days ago, thanks to the spiritual energy feedback from my Natal Spirit Plant when I entered the Qi Training Middle Stage, I was fortunate enough to break through!"

This sentence contained a lot of information, and Ling Rufan also heard another piece of good news from it, making his smile even brighter.

"So, does that mean your knowledge of Spirit Plant is also...?"

Although Ling Rufan was not Spirit Planter, as a member of a family of Spirit Plant Aristocratic Clan, he naturally knew the significance of Spirit Planter's Natal Spirit Plant enhancement.

"I had already comprehended the second level of that Spirit Plant Secret Method long ago. After my Natal Spirit Plant broke through, I am now a mid- First Rank Middle Grade Spirit Planter!" Ling Pengyun said.

"Peng Yun, you've given me a double surprise today! At the age of twenty, you possess the Qi Training Seventh Layer Refining cultivation, are proficient in two arts, and have reached the First Rank Middle Grade in the art of Spirit Plant and the First Rank Low Grade in the art of weapon crafting. There are very few people in the clan who have achieved such accomplishments!" Ling Rufan said happily.

"Ninth Great-Grandfather, you flatter me!" Ling Pengyun said modestly.

Ling Rufan was extremely pleased with this humble attitude, but to avoid making Ling Pengyun arrogant, he didn't say anything more about it and changed the subject.

"Now that your cultivation has broken through to the Qi Training Late Stage Refining, your offerings should also be increased to the Qi Training Late Stage. Peng Yun, how many Azure Bamboo Sword and Round Iron Shield have you forged in the past six months?"

A year ago, the Lineage's Great Elder, Ling Ruda, informed Ling Rufan that Ling Pengyun was a promising talent Lineage weapon crafting and that he was a First-Order Low-Grade Weapon Refiner.

Since then, Ling Rufan, an elder of the Lineage, has also been bringing back refining materials and magical Law Artifact that Ling Pengyun Ling Pengyun crafted to the Lineage during the time he delivers offerings to Ling Pengyun.

Over the years, the Lineage has not publicized Ling Pengyun's status as a promising talent in weapon crafting. The Lineage's higher-ups have also kept their mouths shut, so not many people in the family know that Ling Pengyun is a promising talent in weapon crafting.

"Based on the one hundred sets of Azure Bamboo Sword Weapon Refinement Materials you gave me half a year ago, I have refined a total of fifty-three Azure Bamboo Sword. As for the Round Iron Shield, due to the lower success rate of refining, only fourteen were refined!" Ling Pengyun summoned a large number of Law Artifact from his Storage Bag at his waist and replied with a smile.

Upon seeing the large pile of Law Artifact before him, Ling Rufan's face immediately broke into a radiant smile.

"Excellent, excellent. Once these Law Artifact are transported to the Lineage's Lingxiao Treasure Pavilion in Huai River Market Town, they'll generate a considerable profit in Spirit Stone. Peng Yun, you've worked hard." Ling Rufan first praised Ling Pengyun, then proceeded to calculate. "For each of the fifty-three Azure Bamboo Sword, you'll earn five Spirit Stone, totaling two hundred and sixty-five Spirit Stone. The seven Round Iron Shield are your private property, but due to the large quantity, the Lineage will purchase them for forty-five Spirit Stone, making a total of six hundred and thirty spirit Spirit Stone. In total, you'll earn eight hundred and ninety-five Spirit Stone!"

"Because your cultivation has broken through to the Qi Training Late Stage, and because you have received double the offerings for guarding the outside world, your offerings for the next six months will be eighty-four Spirit Stone, one hundred and twenty catties of First-Tier Superior-Grade White Jade Spirit Rice, as well as the six Yellow Sprout Pill and twelve Qi Refining Pill that the Lineage previously subsidized you."

"In addition, there's the 400 Spirit Stone from this year's Profound Water Mineral Vein dividend, bringing your Spirit Stone to 1,379 Spirit Stone..."

After considering all this, Ling Rufan took out a Storage Bag from his pocket and summoned a large pile of Spirit Stone, Weapon Refinement Materials, and spiritual items.

Seeing the appearance of these Spirit Stone, Ling Pengyun was also delighted.

A few days ago, he used up all the Spirit Stone in his Storage Bag because of his breakthrough in cultivation.

Now that he had these thousands of Spirit Stone, his Storage Bag was full again.

Afterwards, Ling Rufan and Ling Pengyun chatted for a few words before heading to the six acres of Spirit Field on the mountaintop to get busy. They used the "Spirit Scythe" to harvest the two acres of ripe Yellow Jade Spirit Rice on the Azure Stone Mountain, carefully pulled the Qi Training Grass and Sword Star Grass out of the soil, and so on.

All the farm work was finished, and the sun was about to set.

"Peng Yun, your Yellow Jade Spirit Rice is yielding more and more. The two acres of Yellow Jade Spirit Rice have yielded 1,211 catties of spirit rice and 1,208 catties of spirit rice respectively. You can get 10%, which is 240 catties. Do you plan to keep this spirit rice for yourself or sell it to the Lineage?" Ling Rufan looked at the two large piles of Yellow Jade Spirit Rice on the ground, which had shed their husks and looked like Yellow Jade jade, and smiled. Then he used the Measurement Technique to separate out a small pile of spirit rice and asked Ling Pengyun.

"As usual, sell it to the Lineage!" Ling Pengyun said.

"Two hundred and forty catties of Yellow Jade Spirit Rice, five catties for one Spirit Stone, that's a total of forty-eight Spirit Stone!" Ling Rufan smiled as he put the two large piles and one small pile of spirit rice on the ground into a special Storage Bag, and then took out forty-eight Spirit Stone and handed them to Ling Pengyun.

After chatting with Ling Pengyun for a few minutes, Ling Pengyun handed a letter to Ling Rufan, entrusting him to deliver it to Great Elder Ling Ruda.

As usual, before nightfall, Ling Rufan collected the Spirit Plant he had harvested from Azure Stone Mountain this year, then rode his Immortal Spirit Crane and hurriedly flew dozens of miles away to the spiritual mountain where his great-grandson, Ling Pengcheng, was stationed.

After watching Ling Rufan leave, Ling Pengyun touched the bulging Storage Bag at his waist, his thoughts drifting far away.

"With these 1,400 Spirit Stone, I will have enough to buy any spiritual Spirit Stone that can heal the injuries of Spirit Plant that appear in the Lineage or at the Huai River Little Meet."

"However, in the art of weapon crafting, I still need to invest some Spirit Stone myself to purchase some Weapon Refinement Materials and increase the success rate. Only in this way can I earn more Spirit Stone to buy resources, which will then be used to improve my own cultivation and to gather the four thousand Spirit Stone needed to jointly purchase a second-grade Foundation Establishment Spiritual Object with my Lineage!"

Of the thousands of Spirit Stone he obtained this time, the biggest gain came from the Spirit Stone he acquired using the Round Iron Shield. Having tasted the sweetness of success, Ling Pengyun naturally wanted to get a piece of the big cake of weapon refining.

Currently, his success rate in forging Round Iron Shield is only about 30%, which is barely enough to break even. It's still a long way off before he can truly make a profit by forging Round Iron Shield.

Although crafting weapons can earn a lot of Spirit Stone, that's only if the success rate is high. For example, once you increase the success rate of crafting the Azure Bamboo Sword to 50%, you can earn spirit Spirit Stone without worry. You can earn a lot of Spirit Stone for every weapon you successfully craft.

Coming to his senses, Ling Pengyun calmed himself down, took out Spirit Hoe from his Storage Bag, and walked into the six acres of Spirit Field. He used the Spirit Hoe to till Spirit Field Spirit Field, digging small pits and burying the three kinds of Spirit Plant seeds that Ling Rufan had given him in the pits.

When using Spirit Hoe to till the Spirit Soil, Spirit Hoe must be very careful to avoid using too much force to shake away the Spiritual Qi within the Spirit Soil, which would cause the quality of the Spirit Soil to decline.

This initially took quite a bit of time to plant the seeds.

It wasn't until nightfall that the job was finally finished.