Taking Stock

After leaving the Guest Courtyard, Li Shiming returned to his own courtyard and saw Si Qin sitting on the little bed by the outer door with her arms crossed, her eyes narrowed, her head nodding bit by bit.

At the sound, Si Qin immediately snapped alert.

"Young Master, you're finally back. Ah, you stink!" When Si Qin saw Li Shiming, she hurried off the bed, but as she spoke, she caught the smell coming from him.

"Hurry and prepare hot water!" Li Shiming said with a wave of his hand.

"I really don't know what Young Master went to do!" she grumbled, though her hands and feet were quick; she had already hurried out.

Before long, a large tub of hot water was ready. Li Shiming soaked in it, and the greasy filth on his body came away with the hot water, revealing even finer skin.

He thought of the two cultivators' appearances. His skin now looked somewhat similar to theirs.

The trouble in Nanling City had nothing to do with him. After three days of cultivating the Five Elements Qi Absorption Art, the Spiritual Qi Vortex in his chest had completely stabilized.

During those three days of cultivation, he discovered that the four glowing stones on the Spirit Gathering Disk had dimmed slightly.

He was able to notice this only because of the Server Room Space. When the Spirit Gathering Disk was stored inside the Server Room Space, that slight change in brightness was detected through his conscious perception.

He came to a conclusion: the four glowing stones on the Spirit Gathering Disk were being consumed.

As long as the Spirit Gathering Disk remained activated, the four glowing stones would continue to be consumed.

He did not know how to turn off the Spirit Gathering Disk, and he was even less willing to forcefully remove the four glowing stones.

At the very least, he could still rely on the Spirit Gathering Disk for cultivation right now. If he accidentally broke the Spirit Gathering Disk, his cultivation would become troublesome.

He had tried cultivating away from the Spirit Gathering Disk. When he sensed the single-digit Spiritual Qi motes around him, he understood that without the Spirit Gathering Disk's help, it would probably take a hundred times longer to reach Qi Refining Second Level.

Through calculations performed by the IBMz15 Mainframe, Li Shiming determined that the Spirit Gathering Disk could still last twenty-five days.

He needed to make good use of these twenty-five days and maximize the Spirit Gathering Disk's effectiveness as much as possible.

Of course, those three days had also led him to another discovery. The Spiritual Qi gathered by the Spirit Gathering Disk inside the Server Room Space caused the Spiritual Qi concentration in the Server Room Space to keep rising.

He could even guide Spiritual Qi out from the Server Room Space and use it for his own cultivation.

Because of this discovery, apart from cultivating the Five Elements Qi Absorption Art, he placed the Spirit Gathering Disk inside the Server Room Space the rest of the time. This way, not the slightest bit of the Spirit Gathering Disk's effect was wasted.

He also found a time to leave through the city gate, dispose of Escort Chief Wang's corpse, and clean out the Server Room Space.

In addition, ever since he reached Qi Refining First Level, the amount of time he could use his consciousness to drive the Generator had increased by a full twofold. He could now use his consciousness to drive the Generator for as long as two hours, and that time was still steadily increasing.

That evening, Li Shiming took out Shi Ximing's Storage Bag from the Server Room Space. On the day the Spiritual Qi Vortex formed, he had already been considering opening the Storage Bag.

The Storage Bag's function of storing items was something that, even in his previous life, had only existed in fantasy. Not even a basic scientific hypothesis had been established, let alone research into spatial item storage.

Although he had the Server Room Space, which was similar in function to a Storage Bag, this was a cultivator's Storage Bag, and it contained an immortal's possessions. That was extremely important to him.

Besides, if someone discovered his ability to store items, he couldn't possibly expose the Server Room Space. Though Storage Bags were rare in the mundane world, judging by how almost every cultivator seemed to carry one, their value in the Cultivation World was probably limited. It would be better to reveal the existence of the Storage Bag instead.

Li Shiming tried mobilizing Spiritual Qi from his chest to his right hand. A wisp of Spiritual Qi flowed out from the Spiritual Qi Vortex in his chest and obediently moved to his right hand.

He pressed his right hand onto the Storage Bag, and something miraculous happened. He sensed that where the Spiritual Qi made contact, a space appeared, and he could perceive every item inside it.

A hoe, a rake, a shovel, and two coarse cloth sacks.

If he had not also sensed about a thousand taels of gold, a pile of silver like a Small Mountain, a White Robe, a longsword, and five booklets, he would have thought he had opened some old farmer's belongings.

However, he did not look down on the things inside. Whether it was the hoe, rake, or shovel, they were all items imbued with Spiritual Qi.

Although their Spiritual Qi was far inferior to that of the longsword, the presence of Spiritual Qi alone was enough to judge that the hoe, rake, and shovel were all cultivation items.

Inside the two coarse cloth sacks was unhusked rice. This rice was likewise imbued with Spiritual Qi. Holding a grain of rice in his hand, he could feel the gentleness of the Spiritual Qi within.

The Spiritual Qi of the longsword and White Robe were similar, so they should have been items of the same grade.

Li Shiming compared them with the wooden Small Sword he had obtained from Escort Chief Wang. Although the wooden Small Sword was very small, too small to use even when held in his hand, the Spiritual Qi it contained was far denser than that of the longsword and White Robe. Presumably, the wooden Small Sword was of extremely high quality.

He had no detailed standards for judging cultivation items, so he could only make a rough judgment based on Spiritual Qi concentration.

He took out the five booklets. These were what he wanted most. Cultivation books would allow him to understand cultivation knowledge better.

Spring Breeze Transforming Rain Art, Geng Metal Art, Earth Spirit Art, Spirit Planter Basics, and a cultivation notebook.

Spirit Planter Basics recorded how to plant Spirit Rice, Spirit Tea, spirit grasses, Spirit Flowers, and over twenty types of Spiritual Herbs he had never heard of. It covered everything from soil ratios to matters requiring attention each season, possible problems that might arise, and so on.

Its level of detail was practically hand-holding instruction.

In addition, Spirit Planter Basics mentioned the Spring Breeze Transforming Rain Art, Geng Metal Art, and Earth Spirit Art. These three spells were basic spells that a spirit planter had to master.

Each of these three spells had its own separate booklet, explaining every step of casting the spell in extreme detail.

Only after reading the cultivation notebook did Li Shiming understand why Shi Ximing's Storage Bag contained these things.

It was because Shi Ximing was a spirit planter, and those two sacks of Spirit Rice had been grown by him personally.

There were also twenty-three talismans tucked into the cultivation notebook. Among them, eleven were Low-Grade Body Lightening Talismans he had seen before. The remaining were two Low-Grade Earth Armor Talismans, five Low-Grade Fireball Talismans, and five Low-Grade Ice Arrow Talismans.

He took out a Low-Grade Body Lightening Talisman and, after thinking it over, could not bear to try using it.

At least before he officially came into contact with the Cultivation World, these talismans were his trump cards.

Although he had Rune Inception in hand, unfortunately, he had no materials and simply could not learn to make talismans.

Shi Ximing's cultivation notebook was a set of study notes that taught one how to become a spirit planter. Li Shiming's Spiritual Power was not even enough to learn spells, and as for choosing what kind of cultivation profession to pursue, that was far too early.

The cultivation notebook in his hand could only broaden his horizons; its practical significance was not great.