Because the Meat Field had only just been planted, it was in a relatively fragile transitional stage.
Ning Zheng did not dare cut off too much meat either, afraid of damaging its foundation.
After cutting off a small piece of meat to taste, he took the true main ingredients of the meat soup—the bird entrails, namely the crow's five organs and pork intestines he had discarded when planting the field—and rinsed them with water at the well in the courtyard.
He put them into the pot and stewed the soup.
He tossed in several Magic Coins as well, letting the spiritual energy stored inside them unfurl and spread through the boiling water.
The fire had only been burning for a short while when a rich fragrance suddenly wafted out.
After all, it had come from a Great Perfection of Five Bodies Realm demon beast.
Although its internal organs had not been cultivated, organs nourished by spiritual energy year after year still tasted far better than the River Demon Meat from before.
After stewing over low heat for half an hour, Ning Zheng took a sip, and his eyes instantly lit up.
Fresh and fragrant, tender and smooth!
"Jiaojiao, come have a late-night snack. Stop fussing over the Meat Field and come taste this." Ning Zheng called Ning Jiaojiao over.
Ning Jiaojiao had been installing a fence around the Meat Field in the cellar. She ran out into the courtyard, picked up a bowl and chopsticks, and after one bite, could not stop: "Mmm! It's delicious, so delicious!"
She took another sip of the soup while it was still hot. "The soup is delicious too, so delicious."
The two people who had hidden away in the courtyard and muddled through the years were eating a proper meal for the first time.
That wonderful flavor seemed to exist inside a dream.
Soon.
The Meat Field had been planted, and they had eaten their fill of the late-night snack.
It was already past eleven when they checked the time, so it was time for bed.
But Ning Jiaojiao simply could not fall asleep. Hugging her little padded jacket, she ran to the cellar and laid out a bed on the floor, insisting on watching the Meat Field as she slept.
She lay beside it on a daybed, her eyes fixed on the writhing scarlet Meat Field. The longer she watched, the happier she became, and she began singing a lullaby: "Good baby, good baby, grow up quickly, grow meat quickly..."
She looked as though she feared the Meat Field would grow legs and run away, or that someone would steal it.
Ning Zheng ignored her. The poor child.
It was probably the first time in the hundred years since her death that she had been this happy.
Ghosts actually did not need to sleep either. They merely felt that they needed sleep and believed they were still alive. In reality, staying up for several years was not a problem, so there was no need to worry about Ning Jiaojiao.
Ning Zheng could only return to bed and meditate. His abdomen felt warm, nourished by spiritual energy.
Taking advantage of this, he cultivated for a while.
As expected, his cultivation speed increased by a full double.
Clearly, the spiritual energy contained in spiritual meat was easier to digest than the spiritual energy in Magic Coins.
After all, that was only natural.
Magic Coins were repeatedly charged and released. As magical artifacts and the power sources of formations, they served as a medium of exchange. Directly absorbing the spiritual energy within Magic Coins made for very low cultivation efficiency.
Because of this, Ning Zheng looked forward to the effects of Spirit Rice even more!
With meat, how could there be no rice?
Rice and meat together—that was life.
Next, Ning Zheng began practicing the precise control of the mental-damage shadow poison. He started sticking needles into toads while considering his plans for future development.
After finishing off the crows, he would not lack materials for the novice blacksmiths to practice with, and the Mountain Villa could be considered to have entered a peaceful period.
Next, he would need to temper their skills in forging, making ornaments, weaving, and studying medicine.
At the same time, he also had to update the Server.
Over the past few days, Ning Zheng had secretly lurked on the Flower Blooming Rich account and discovered that they had been complaining about one issue all along.
Magic Coins were too heavy and very inconvenient to carry.
Everyone was poor at present. They completed quests and forged iron every day, yet most people only earned one or two Magic Coins.
Having one or two coins saved up was fine, but what about when they had more money in the future?
Although Magic Coins could be strung together and hung from the waist, that was still inconvenient.
Cultivators outside used storage bags to hold them and did not have this worry. But Ning Zheng himself did not even have a storage bag, so how could he possibly give everyone a storage bag for their Magic Coins?
The Demon People on the mountain should have had them before, but they had been destroyed in their internal strife, leaving none behind for Ning Zheng.
Ning Zheng currently had two ideas.
1, A digital currency, directly converted into a string of numbers and placed on each person's personal attribute page.
He mentioned this to the Little Ai assistant.
Little Ai said it could absolutely be done. After all, it only involved adding and subtracting a string of numbers for each person, and it was a highly intelligent AI assistant.
2, Have Sword Forging Manor make storage bags themselves.
That was somewhat high-end!
The storage bag product required materials from demon beasts with spatial talents, as well as a high-level Master Blacksmith.
Ning Zheng decisively chose the first option.
He spent over thirty minutes working with the Little Ai assistant to add a digital Currency System, then personally tested it.
It had two functions: currency transactions and bookkeeping.
After finishing this minor task, Ning Zheng thought about it and decided to settle everything once and for all, adding the forum function they had been yearning for so that the viewers Queuing to Log In could make posts there.
After completing everything, Ning Zheng felt an overwhelming sense of accomplishment.
Then, looking at the more than seven thousand Luck Value in his hand, he began pondering how to spend it!
After all, what use was it to save so much Luck Value?
Save up money for a great opportunity?
His cultivation was currently too low. Most opportunities would not be opportunities once obtained; if he could not hold on to them, they would simply become a calamity!
Spend early and enjoy early—raise his cultivation speed sooner.
He was a decisive man of action.
"How about I try planting Spirit Rice and gather the three basic necessities of cultivation!"
After thinking it over, he went to the balcony and picked up the potted plant.
The plant inside now had only a lonely main stalk with a few yellow leaves growing from it.
Spiritual Root: Wine Rice.
A type of Spirit Rice unique to the local area.
Wild Wood Spirit Roots of this kind also existed outside.
Because the threshold was low, it was widely welcomed by cultivators. Becoming a spirit farmer had always been the path chosen by the most people.
Ning Zheng had occasionally found this plant along the mountain road and transplanted it here as a potted decoration.
"I can try starting to make Spirit Rice."
Ning Zheng looked thoughtful. "I could even do it in one step. I don't need ordinary universal Spirit Rice. I can directly create Shadow attribute spirit rice exclusive to my Spiritual Root!"
Ning Zheng had great ambitions. If he was going to do it, he would do it best!
Just like the Meat Field, this world was wondrous. Spirit Rice was also divided into two types.
One was universal Spirit Rice, which anyone could eat.
The other was attribute Spirit Rice, tailor-made according to a person's Spiritual Root—a high-end, privately customized Spirit Rice!
For example.
A certain sect had a lineage of Ice Dragon lineage spiritual roots passed down through the generations. The sect monopolized it, planting and cultivating it only within the sect. They would water the spirit rice with the essence blood of their own ice attribute.
After batch upon batch of spirit rice could not withstand it and withered to death, one stalk might survive the ordeal, becoming an ice-attribute spirit rice tainted with the aura of that bloodline.
This was Ice Dragon spirit rice that only someone with an Ice Dragon lineage spiritual root could eat. Others would find it extremely difficult to absorb!
This tested a sect's supporting foundation.
The mark of a powerful sect was:
High-grade spirit fields and attribute Spirit Rice!
These were the roots of a legacy, earned through the struggles of generation after generation!
Why could the true disciples of great sects reach the Four Organs Realm in their twenties, advancing four or five times faster than others?
Because they had a legacy and a foundation!
They ate attribute Spirit Rice tailor-made for their Spiritual Roots!
You, a Rogue Cultivator without any foundation, might obtain an extraordinary Spiritual Root, but without the supporting foundation, how could you surpass the accumulation and effort that countless generations had devoted to their own Spiritual Roots?
Therefore.
That was why Ning Zheng said he had fallen into a pit by obtaining this seemingly wonderful Heavenly Spiritual Root. It came with no supporting legacy at all!
If Ning Zheng wanted to catch up to the pace of the top talents his age, he could only cultivate the first supporting resource for his Spiritual Root:
Shadow attribute spirit rice.
Ning Zheng now planned to use his own essence blood to water the spirit rice.
As long as the spirit rice was not violently overwhelmed and killed by the ancient bloodline essence blood, and successfully survived its mutation, it would become imbued with his own shadow attribute!
The probability of success was extremely low.
And how important was a person's source essence blood?
It was called undying blood—the condensed root of the undying nature of a person's flesh and blood. After a few failures, the entire person would be completely ruined.
Only a great sect with hundreds or thousands of cultivators cultivating the same Spiritual Root would have the ability to gather the source essence blood of the entire sect and use it to cultivate their lineage's exclusive mutated spirit rice!
Whoosh!
"Then I can only stake everything on one throw, break the monopoly, and fight for a miracle with an infinitesimal chance. One drop of essence blood from me will be enough to mutate the spirit rice."
Under the moonlight, Ning Zheng took a deep breath. Recalling everything from the past, he thought: What was cultivation? Go with the flow and remain mortal; go against it and become an immortal! Opportunities had to be fought for with one's life, fought for with one's all. This time, he would also be Born from Death, gambling on a possibility of less than one in a thousand.
"I, Ning Zheng, made it step by step from a slave of the Mountain Villa to where I am today, becoming the master of Sword Forging Manor, all through one desperate gamble after another, risking my life nine times over and fighting with everything I had!"
"Max out the Luck Value."
-7193
Going all in was an art.
He sliced open his fingertip. His face suddenly turned deathly pale, his vitality severely wounded, as though he were on the verge of death. A drop of source essence blood fell.
Drip.
The Wine Rice withered rapidly.
The frail plant was scoured by the aura of the powerful ancient bloodline, its vitality rapidly declining as it completely sank toward withering.
Amidst desolation and death, a thread of vitality gradually gestated, reviving within annihilation.
The withered Wine Rice sent out fresh green shoots.
New shackles had been unlocked. A completely new Spiritual Root unveiled a mysterious corner of itself. The mutated Wine Rice, tainted with a faint bloodline aura, welcomed new life.
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