Qi Refinement Level Eight, Jingzhe's Invitation

In the blink of an eye, several more days passed.

Only after confirming that the Beaver had recovered the panel prompt for sharing and binding did Li Ye gradually receive several more chunks of Hungry Bone from the Spirit Vine.

Though the little fellow could only bind one flower, it cleverly pushed its fellow clansmen and companions forward as well.

Whenever it had nothing to do, it gathered with its kind, nibbling and carrying lotus petals, lotus root chunks, Wheat Ears... while chittering away.

Although its companions' expressions were far less animated than its, and they looked rather blank, they truly seemed to be listening attentively.

It was practically like preaching the Dao and expounding the law.

It was so clever that Li Ye found it unbelievable. Was he really inferior even to a Beaver?

To avoid being surpassed by the spirit pet he himself had raised, he began cultivating diligently as well. Every day, he inspected his crops once and received his daily share of spiritual qi from them.

In this way, he quickly rose from the sixth level of Qi Refinement to the eighth.

Only one month had passed since he absorbed the peach blossom spiritual qi at the Peach Blossom Gathering and advanced to the sixth level.

Moreover, the pure spiritual qi from the spirit plants and spirit beasts made his foundation incomparably solid, without the slightest sign of disorder. It was truly miraculous.

The only thing that still troubled him was his meridian injury.

"This injury really clings like maggots to the bone."

He let out a long breath of turbid air.

At that moment, he could clearly sense that among the injuries caused by Qi Deviation and his shattered, chaotic meridians, there still lurked a tiny scar.

No matter how he used spiritual power to cultivate and mend it, that scar stubbornly remained there.

It would occasionally send a stabbing pain through him, and even the spiritual pills Senior Su Ya had given him could not cure it at the root.

It seemed that only by entering the Four Seasons Sect and purchasing a Pulse-Restoring Pill could he recover completely.

Li Ye rose to his feet and gazed at the stretches of blue-violet lotus flowers in the courtyard, the verdant Spirit Water Phoenix-Eye Lotus beside them, the lush wheat farther away, and the Beavers chittering atop the embankment in the distance.

The small courtyard was bursting with life and brimming with spiritual qi.

"Senior Spirit Vine said that when reaching Foundation Establishment at the tenth level of Qi Refinement, it would be best to have the spiritual power of spirit beasts or spirit plants of the five elements—metal, wood, water, fire, and earth. Right now, I have..."

He lowered his head and looked at his palm.

A wisp of golden-red flame first rose from his fingertips.

Then a hazy cluster of water vapor gathered there.

Finally, a peach blossom halo flickered faintly within it.

With a casual motion, he dispersed the spiritual qi.

The three different types of spiritual power—wood, water, and fire—had already entered his body. He only lacked metal and earth now.

"Looks like it's time to keep the appointment."

A few days ago, when the Spirit Vine sent someone to deliver another batch of Hungry Bone, it had also brought an invitation from Su Ya.

It said that Jingzhe was approaching and invited him to witness a wondrous sight at the Spring Thunder Wheat Fields cultivated by the Zhou Family.

Naturally, he gladly accepted.

Yet the very next day, Fellow Daoist Zhou personally came to invite him again.

Only then did he finally learn Fellow Daoist Zhou's true name.

"Zhou Qiumai."

"This name..."

Li Ye could not help wanting to laugh.

No wonder Fellow Daoist Zhou had hemmed and hawed at first, unwilling to reveal his name. It really was a little rustic, though it was indeed down-to-earth.

He shook his head and suppressed the strange thought, calculating that tomorrow would be Jingzhe.

He could go to the appointment then and, while he was at it, see whether he could purchase spirit beasts or spirit plants with metal and earth attributes.

The next day.

When Li Ye stepped outside, he unexpectedly saw a delicate-looking young girl already waiting at the door. She wore plain cloth clothes, and though her features were not particularly outstanding, she had a pleasing appearance.

A carriage stood beside her, drawn by a first-rank spirit beast, a Power Spirit Horse.

Yet the girl had no cultivation at all. She was a mortal.

Upon seeing Li Ye emerge, the girl hurried forward and took out a token.

"Immortal Li.

"This little sister is a member of the Zhou Family. By the order of my cousin Zhou Qiumai, I have come to bring you, Immortal Senior, to our Zhou Family."

Li Ye glanced at the token and confirmed that it belonged to Zhou Qiumai before casually nodding. "Then let us go."

He climbed directly into the carriage. The girl then expertly fed the spirit horse a pile of tender leaves before driving the carriage onward.

The carriage cabin had been tidied spotlessly. There were no strange scented sachets inside, merely simple cleanliness, which made Li Ye feel very comfortable.

He still remembered that in his previous life, vehicles had always contained all sorts of strange smells that made him extremely uncomfortable. Now that his sense of smell was even sharper, any unpleasant fragrance would likely have made him feel worse.

"Not bad at all."

Li Ye leaned against the window and examined the scenery rapidly rushing backward along the road. With his current eyesight, he could see it all clearly. Though the carriage was fast, it did not jolt in the slightest.

"We're leaving Returning Shore Market."

The original "him" had come from outside.

But this was still his first time leaving the market. Returning Shore Market lay within the territory controlled by the Four Seasons Sect. There were no sects around it, only Lineages.

These Lineages supplied the Four Seasons Sect with all kinds of resources, as well as immortal cultivators with good talent, while the Four Seasons Sect bestowed different cultivation methods and all sorts of spiritual pills and wondrous medicines upon them.

Thinking of this, he lifted the curtain and asked the girl driving the carriage outside, "About how long will it take?"

"Oh! We'll arrive in only half a shichen."

Half a shichen was one hour. At this horse's speed... it could probably cover more than a hundred li in an hour. The Zhou Family truly was far from Returning Shore Market.

After receiving her answer, he gave an "Mm," closed his eyes inside the carriage to rest, and incidentally reviewed the various spells he had learned during this time.

Half a shichen passed in the blink of an eye.

"Hm?"

Li Ye felt the carriage stop. When he opened his eyes and looked out the window, he saw that dark clouds had already blanketed the sky outside.

The sun, which should have hung high in the heavens, was obscured. Silver serpents swam through the pitch-black clouds, and fierce winds howled.

Yet strangely, the sky farther away was completely clear. It seemed that only this area had such weather.

Could this be the "wondrous sight" Senior Su Ya had mentioned?

He stepped down from the carriage and, unsurprisingly, saw Zhou Qiumai, Fellow Daoist Zhou, smiling broadly. The latter nodded to the girl driving the carriage, and the carriage was driven away.

Then Zhou Qiumai grabbed Li Ye's arm.

"Fellow Daoist, this is the Spring Thunder Wheat Fields that our Zhou Family relies on for our livelihood each year.

He pointed into the distance.

There lay a vast, unbroken expanse of wheat fields.

Each tall stalk of wheat, as large as a small tree, had skin tinged with a faint blue glow. Beneath the somewhat dark daylight, they shone brilliantly, standing tall with heads raised as though awaiting the inspection of Heavenly Thunder.

At a rough glance, the wheat fields covered at least several hundred mu.

If Spring Thunder Wheat could only be harvested after spring thunder boomed, then several hundred mu of fields receiving Heavenly Thunder at once would likely make for a spectacle no less imposing than a Heavenly Tribulation.

More importantly, just how did the Zhou Family ensure that Heavenly Thunder would come to aid the harvest?