Sharp Metal Art at Perfection

Three months flew by in the blink of an eye, and before long, it was harvest season again.

Inside the bamboo lodge, cloth sacks filled with Spirit Grain were piled everywhere, the faint fragrance of Yellow Bud Rice lingering in the room.

There was no room for tables and chairs, so Ji An had tossed them into a corner of the small courtyard. Other than the bed, only a meditation cushion remained indoors.

From ten mu of Spirit Fields, he had harvested roughly 3,500 jin of spirit rice. After setting aside 1,000 jin for field rent and his own consumption, he sold all the rest.

In the small courtyard, the two Spirit Fruit Trees stood three chi tall. Forty-two Fire Cloud Ginseng plants, grown to calf height, filled the entire courtyard around the fruit trees.

Fire Cloud Ginseng had palmate compound leaves, each with five leaflets. The leaves were dark green, while their veins were dark red.

Under sunlight, the veins turned as bright as furnace flames.

Once Fire Cloud Ginseng reached an age of twenty years, it would bear a cluster of green seeds the size of soybeans. When the seeds turned a deep crimson, the Fire Cloud Ginseng was fully mature and could be used to refine pills.

Ji An was currently reclining in a chair, swaying leisurely.

Strands of golden thread wound around the index finger of his left hand, shifting with his will like golden silk.

This was a method he had devised to better train his divine sense. The Metal Element Spiritual Energy conjured by the Sharp Metal Art had become something soft enough to wind around his fingers, yet its sharpness remained undiminished.

The five elements were metal, wood, water, fire, and earth, but the elemental energies of every attribute likewise had yin and yang aspects.

He was pondering whether the Metal Element Spiritual Energy produced by the Sharp Metal Art was yin or yang—or whether yin and yang were one within it.

Such knowledge was not something Qi Condensation Stage disciples needed to understand at all. They merely needed to absorb spiritual energy and raise their cultivation; it was only after Foundation Establishment that they needed to learn such things.

Ji An felt there was no harm in understanding it early, so he always pondered these matters while practicing spells, then gradually tested his own conjectures.

The sound of footsteps drew closer. They stopped outside the wicker gate, and someone called loudly:

"Fellow Daoist Ji, are you in? I am Li Changqing!"

The buyer for his spirit rice had arrived. Ji An casually gathered the Metal Element Spiritual Energy into a beam, and a streak of golden light sank into the ground.

The instant the golden light shot forth, he felt as though something had stabbed his eyes. Tears involuntarily spilled from their corners, dripping down his cheeks and leaving two clear tracks.

It felt as though something had scraped across his face, leaving it burning with pain.

Ji An thought of something and sent his awareness into his dantian.

Spell: Sharp Metal Art (Mastery 99% → Perfection 1%)

Sure enough, through unremitting effort, the Sharp Metal Art had finally reached perfection.

He chuckled softly and murmured:

"It wasn't for nothing that I spent so much time and spiritual power. Even without that stone turtle, I can still do it!"

Li Changqing stood outside the gate, puzzled. Was he not home?

But they had worked together many times already. On this day, the other man had always been home before Li Changqing arrived.

He circled halfway around the small courtyard, wondering why the other man had enclosed it so tightly.

Even the main entrance had been changed from a low wicker gate to a wooden gate a full eight chi high, making it impossible to see what was happening inside.

Li Changqing looked at the nearby landmarks. After confirming that he had not come to the wrong place, he returned to the gate and called out again:

"Fellow Daoist Ji, are you in?"

"I am. Wait a moment, I'll open the gate."

Ji An had no time to study what changes had occurred in the Sharp Metal Art. He hurried into the kitchen, fetched some water, and washed his face.

He had once tried collecting Spirit Rain from the Minor Cloud and Rain Art in a water vat for cooking. Later, he discovered that the spiritual energy within the Spirit Rain dissipated very quickly, leaving almost nothing by the next day.

Even when he immediately steamed Yellow Bud Rice with freshly collected Spirit Rain, the cooked rice did not contain much more spiritual energy than usual. It was also less tasty than rice steamed with the mountain spring water he fetched. He figured it was because Spirit Rain lacked minerals needed by the human body.

After washing his face, he grabbed the dry towel hanging by the entrance and gave himself a casual wipe. Then Ji An strode to the gate and pulled back the bolt.

"My heavens, Fellow Daoist Ji, you actually cultivated your courtyard into a first-grade Spirit Field?!"

Under the sunlight, the leaf veins of the medicinal herbs filling the courtyard blazed like fire, while the branches and leaves of the two fruit trees stretched in the wind.

The old Spirit Farmer, Li Changqing, pushed open the gate and entered, saying excitedly:

"This is Fire Cloud Ginseng. That one is a peach tree, and that one is an apricot tree."

The Baiyuan Mountain Li Clan's medicinal garden had many Fire Cloud Ginseng plants, and the clan had even cultivated a lower second-grade Spiritual Apricot tree. The things in this small courtyard should not have moved him.

But was this something a Spirit Farmer who had only entered the sect three years ago could fucking accomplish?

He knew several hundred of the most skilled Spirit Farmers around Azure Water Lake. Only three of them had cultivated the soil in their courtyards into first-grade Spirit Fields.

After all, this valley had not been established atop a Spirit Vein. The soil had to be nourished without interruption using the Thick Earth Art at the mastery level or above before it could be cultivated into a first-grade Spirit Field.

"Ah, Fellow Daoist Ji, if you had joined Falling Maple Valley, your treatment would have been far better than it is now."

Li Changqing sighed regretfully, once again feeling that the other man had joined the wrong sect.

"Make sure the sect elders never hear you say that."

Ji An smiled and gestured with his hand.

"Please, Fellow Daoist Li. Let's discuss the transaction."

Although Falling Maple Valley valued Spirit Farmers more, he still did not dare switch over. Within a sect, that was a grave taboo.

He was already a Golden Spirit Sect disciple. Unless he was expelled, if he left the sect and did not return, the sect's Enforcement Hall would thoroughly investigate him.

The two entered the bamboo lodge. Li Changqing did not inspect the goods again and went straight to weighing them.

"Mm, 2,500 jin of Yellow Bud Rice in total. Same old rules: 105 Spirit Crystals per 100 jin of spirit rice, for a total of 2,625 Spirit Crystals."

He packed away the spirit rice. Once money and goods had changed hands, he bade farewell and left.

Ji An saw him to the gate. Li Changqing turned and said:

"Fellow Daoist, now that you've planted so many valuable things in your courtyard, aren't you afraid of thieves?"

"I am, but I don't have enough Spirit Crystals on hand. I can only wait until I sell the spirit rice to buy a set of formation disks."

Ji An nodded. Ever since planting the Spirit Fruit Trees and Fire Cloud Ginseng, he had not dared leave the bamboo lodge for more than half a day.

"Yes, it would be best to use a formation to seal off their aura sooner rather than later."

Li Changqing waved goodbye. The other man understood, so there was no need for further reminders.

He planned to visit Li Changfeng that night and have a good talk with him.

Ji An watched him ride away on a Talisman Bird. Once the man had flown far away, he immediately shut the gate.

Squinting, he unleashed the Sharp Metal Art. A streak of golden light shot forth like a laser, and once more, tears streamed down his face.

Fortunately, he had been prepared this time and closed his eyes in time. It did not hurt as badly as before, and he also saw what was different about the Sharp Metal Art now.

Before, the Metal Element Spiritual Energy he saw came in strands. But now, he discovered that it came in individual particles.

Countless tightly packed golden gleams formed a beam of golden light. Every particle felt to him like a sharp sword, carrying the keen texture of something that could pierce through all things. That was why it could sting a person's eyes.

Now that the Sharp Metal Art was so powerful, would casting it to kill aphids damage the Spirit Grain plants in the future?

With that question in mind, Ji An unleashed the Sharp Metal Art once more at a bamboo leaf by the wall.

This time, he did his utmost to disperse the golden gleams and used only a small amount of spiritual power.

The golden gleams remained sharp and pierced through the bamboo leaf, yet to the naked eye, there was no visible damage.

Metal restrained wood, but there were too few Metal Element Spiritual Energy particles. It seemed they could not damage the bamboo leaf.