Start-of-Autumn Assessment

Giving someone extra training could still be justified as cherishing talent.

Using a fourth-tier Preaching Painting to help Zhao Xing pass the exam was pure favoritism.

It was Old Sima Nong's first time using public resources for private gain, and he still felt a little awkward about it. He said nothing throughout the meal, then told Zhao Xing to get lost as soon as they finished eating.

Zhao Xing tacitly did not mention it either. He cupped his hands in farewell and went home.

With Old Sima Nong's help this time, the beginner spell Flourishing Growth had reached max level.

After studying the All Things Growth Chart Replica, he had also casually comprehended an intermediate spell, Savage Growth.

Agrarian School spells came in only two varieties: "practical" and "extremely practical."

This intermediate spell belonged to the extremely practical category.

Savage Growth: Intermediate Spell

Progress: 0/9999

Effect: After casting, its destructive force exceeds the environment's capacity to withstand it and affects the survival of other species.

Intermediate spells still advanced one turn for every 1,000 proficiency points, with the same upper limit, but naturally became correspondingly harder to improve.

Why was Savage Growth considered extremely practical? Because it was a spell with powerful confrontational potential!

As it shortened a plant's maturation cycle, it would frantically seize nutrients from its surroundings, growing with such destructive force that it exceeded the environment's own capacity to bear it.

More importantly, it squeezed the living space of other plants and could even drain their vitality to use as nutrients.

After evolving in the Revival Version, this spell's later advancement path had an insanely badass name—Only I Dominate!

Minister of Agriculture players also hailed it as a "god-tier internal conflict skill." If my plants lived, yours could not. It was tyrannical to the extreme!

As for the other beginner spell he had obtained from the All Things Growth Chart Replica, it was equally practical.

Earth Veins Synthesis: Beginner Spell

Progress: 0/9999

Effect: Draw upon the power of earth veins and synthesize their vital essence.

Earth veins were the foundation of the world. Every place was connected to spiritual veins deep underground; only their strength differed.

Earth Veins Synthesis was a support spell that could draw earth-vein essence and make the soil in a certain area fertile.

Based on Earth Veins Synthesis, its ultimate goal was to advance into Five Elements Blessed Land.

This was an Earthly Advantage Faction spell. This series of spells had a nickname: "Origin-Stealing Art."

Unlike Savage Growth, it was difficult to detect and highly covert.

Many schemers liked to raise this spell to an extremely high level, then sneak beside someone else's Cave Heaven Blessed Land and cast it in secret, enriching themselves.

What was stealing vegetables? He would steal the earth-vein essence directly!

Incorrigible by nature... Why are all the spells I comprehend the kind used by schemers? Everyone gained something different from studying the All Things Growth Chart, just as the divine temple's transmission of spells was random. Zhao Xing guessed that he had spent too much of his previous life being a schemer.

It was already dark when he got home, but it was not too late.

Zhao Xing planned to go to his family's vegetable garden and practice the two spells he had just acquired.

Not long after entering the garden, his little brother came running over excitedly with a lantern.

"Big Brother, Big Brother, what are you doing? Are you making a midnight snack?"

Zhao Xing was speechless. "Didn't Mother give you dinner? It has only just gotten dark, and you already want a midnight snack?"

"I ate, hehe, but it wasn't as good as what you make." Zhao Zheng seemed to think of something and slurped.

Although this big brother liked beating him up, he had his good points. His cooking was delicious, and he could always make tasty candied fruits and preserves.

"Big Brother, I'll hold the lantern for you! If you make something to eat later, I'll tend the fire."

"Go, go, get out of here." Zhao Xing looked disgusted. "There's a box of snacks under my bedside table. Go find it and eat it yourself. Stop bothering me."

"Thank you, Big Brother!!!" His little brother hung the lantern on the nearby fence and ran off at full speed.

After fiddling around for roughly two hours, Zhao Xing saw that both spells had reached the First-Turn level, so he stopped grinding.

The Start-of-Autumn Examination would begin tomorrow. He still needed to conserve his energy.

Early the next morning, Zhao Xing got up, washed, and prepared to leave. His adoptive father, Zhao Ruide, was already practicing boxing in the yard. His movements were very slow; it was more of a health-preserving routine.

"Adoptive Father, I'm heading to work," Zhao Xing greeted him.

Seeing that Zhao Xing was empty-handed, Zhao Ruide asked, "Why aren't you carrying a lantern? It's not as if the family can't afford that little expense."

"I can already see in the dark." With a thought from Zhao Xing, his pupils immediately turned yellow-green in the darkness.

"Oh?" Zhao Ruide gave him a glance and nodded slightly. "Then before you leave, go wake Zheng'er for me."

"Alright." Zhao Xing ran to the other room. Without any courtesy, he kicked the door open.

Ever since last year, Zhao Zheng had slept separately from Madam Cai. Zhao Xing had forced that arrangement; otherwise, Madam Cai, who doted on her son, would probably have kept sleeping with her baby for several more years.

"Who the hell dares disturb this young master's..." Before he had even opened his eyes, he was already cursing. But once he saw who it was, he immediately swallowed the rest of his words.

"Get up! Get dressed." Zhao Xing flipped away the thin blanket and hauled Zhao Zheng up. The brat was actually sleeping while hugging a jar of candied fruit.

"Big Brother, Big Brother, what's wrong?" Zhao Zheng looked utterly confused, but he obediently got dressed.

"Go outside and practice martial arts."

"Huh?" Zhao Zheng frowned. "The rooster hasn't even crowed yet..."

"Hm?"

"Yes, Big Brother! I'm dressed!" Zhao Zheng caved instantly. Anyway, Big Brother would be leaving soon. Resisting would only earn him a beating, while if he went outside to practice martial arts, he could act cute with Father and Mother later and go back to sleep.

After waking Zhao Zheng, Zhao Xing headed out for the Ministry of Agriculture.

Madam Cai woke up shortly afterward when she heard her child shouting that he was hungry.

She hurriedly got up and ran to the vegetable garden, only to find it flourishing. She could not help crying out, "Ah! How are the vegetable seedlings I planted just days ago already..."

"...The Start-of-Autumn preliminary examination will be held in the Hundred Herbs Garden."

"It will begin at the Si Hour on the sixth day of the eighth month and end at the hour of the Dog on the ninth day of the eighth month."

Before he had even come within a thousand meters of the Ministry of Agriculture, Zhao Xing heard a voice circling around his ears. It was Chen Shijie's voice.

Carrying one's voice on the wind, sending it several li away while remaining crystal clear... A ninth-rank Minister of Agriculture truly possesses extraordinary strength. Zhao Xing thought.

This was an advanced wonderful use of the rising wind spell. His control over vital essence was far beyond that of a minor official.

But there were even more exaggerated examples. Li Wenzheng, the county magistrate of Grain City, had once demonstrated Golden Sound Jade Vibration while issuing a Recruitment Edict, sending his voice a hundred li away. Of course, he had borrowed some external assistance then.

Zhao Xing listened carefully for a while. By the time he reached the Ministry of Agriculture, he had more or less figured out the rules.

It would begin at the Si Hour on the sixth day of the eighth month and end at the hour of the Dog on the ninth day of the eighth month, lasting roughly four days and three nights.

Every clerk could freely select any number of seeds or seedlings from the Hundred Herbs Garden's Seedling Area, then cultivate them in the Planting Area.

The clerks could enter at any time during those three days, but once they entered, they were not allowed to leave.

The assessment would end precisely at the hour of the Dog on the ninth day of the eighth month. People sent by the County Office would witness the process, tally the results, and record them for the archives.

There were three judging criteria. At the precise hour of the Dog on the ninth day: first, the quality of the seeds or seedlings selected by the clerks; second, the number of selected plants that survived; third, the condition of those surviving plants.