Daily Work

Taking care of White Corn was simple in theory: weeding, pest removal, and watering.

Easy to say, but not easy to put into practice.

Take pest removal, for example. Cultivators had to learn the Geng Metal Art, then spot the insects and kill them without harming the White Corn.

The insects would not foolishly wait in the most conspicuous places to be killed. They could run away, too.

Ordinary insects could not eat White Corn, a spiritual plant. These insects could already be called Spirit Insects, and evolved Spirit Insects were even harder to kill.

For cultivators who had only just begun tending spiritual plants, pest removal was their greatest headache.

But for Li Qianqing, pest removal was especially easy.

He had already developed Divine Sense.

Using Divine Sense to find such low-grade Spirit Insects was like using a butcher's cleaver to kill a chicken.

Let's finish today's work first.

Li Qianqing began with pest removal. His Divine Sense spread out, and unlike what his eyes could see, everything on the White Corn stalks became crystal clear beneath its sweep.

Before the time it took to burn a stick of incense, he had inspected one mu of Spiritual Field.

The first Spiritual Field was normal. Not a single insect was in sight.

When he had inspected one-third of the second field, he found something.

One Horn Stem Insect! Horn Stem Insects were among the most common pests found on White Corn. Their coloring was identical to that of the White Corn plants, and their bodies were even smaller than an ordinary person's fingernail. They liked hiding among the stems and leaves.

The instant Li Qianqing discovered the Horn Stem Insect, he stopped moving and found the right angle before casting the Geng Metal Art.

Choosing the angle was crucial. He had to eliminate the Horn Stem Insect without damaging the White Corn plant.

A slender golden point of light formed in an instant and pierced straight through the Horn Stem Insect's head.

The Horn Stem Insect fell from the White Corn plant and lay motionless.

Clearly, this Horn Stem Insect was dead as a doornail.

"Not bad."

Li Qianqing was very satisfied with his first attempt at eliminating a Horn Stem Insect.

The Geng Metal Art at the Lesser Mastery Realm was enough to help him remove pests effectively.

Li Qianqing walked over to the Horn Stem Insect's corpse and picked it up.

The mark he had left on its head was tiny, preserving the corpse intact. This could be eaten, and it tasted quite good too.

This Horn Stem Insect had not evolved, but its body still contained energy cultivators could digest and absorb.

Few Spirit Planters in the Qi Refining stage could preserve an insect corpse as completely as Li Qianqing. When many cultivators used the Geng Metal Art, they destroyed the insect corpses beyond recognition, leaving behind pitifully little energy.

Very soon, the pest removal work for all three Spiritual Fields was complete.

Li Qianqing had harvested three Horn Stem Insects in total.

Thirty or forty intact corpses of unevolved Horn Stem Insects could be sold for one Low-Grade Spirit Stone.

These three Horn Stem Insects had certainly not appeared today. They had been in the Spiritual Fields for some time, but Li Qianbao had not eliminated them before.

With pest removal finished, it was time for weeding.

These weeds grew wildly and competed with the White Corn plants for spiritual energy. If they were not cleared away for a long time, White Corn yields would drop drastically.

Like other Qi Refining stage cultivators, Li Qianqing had no advantage when it came to weeding. He could only do it honestly, one patch at a time.

Others spent more time removing pests, while Li Qianqing spent more time weeding.

Only after roughly Half an Hour was the weeding work complete.

Last came replenishing the White Corn plants' water.

White Corn plants required a great deal of water as they grew. It had not rained yesterday, and today was bright and sunny as well, so they had to be watered.

This was when he needed to use the Rain Transformation Art.

Specks of spiritual energy gathered in midair, forming a small cloud. Rain began to fall, and the spiritual power in Li Qianqing's sea of qi began to decrease.

For the three Spiritual Fields, Li Qianqing had to cast the Rain Transformation Art three times before he finished watering them.

"Done."

Li Qianqing had completed all of today's tasks. Next came his free time for cultivation.

Li Qianbao needed half a morning to finish tending three Rank 1 Low-Grade Spiritual Fields. Li Qianqing had spent only half as much time as he did.

This left him with more time each day.

Tending the White Corn plants once a day was the best balance between cultivation and harvest.

If he tended them several times a day, he could even raise the yield of each mu of White Corn beyond twelve hundred jin. However, that would greatly reduce his cultivation time and put the cart before the horse.

But if he tended them only once every few days, White Corn yields would fall sharply. The harvest over the entire year would be poor, wasting the spiritual energy produced by the Spiritual Vein for nothing.

Li Qianqing returned to the Small Wooden House and began preparing the Horn Stem Insect corpses.

These things tasted best roasted!

A pale green flame rose in his hand. It came from the Verdant Wood Engulfing Flame Art and was called Verdant Wood Flame.

Generally, only top-tier Fire Attribute Qi Refining stage cultivation arts came with their own flames.

The fuel for such flames was the unique spiritual power produced in a cultivator's sea of qi through cultivating their technique.

Li Qianqing threaded the three Horn Stem Insects onto a skewer, held it in his left hand, and roasted them back and forth over the pale green flame in his right. Soon, a fragrant aroma spread through the air.

"My own flame is still a bit lacking. They would smell even better roasted over flames from burning spiritwood."

The conditions were what they were. There was nothing he could do about it.

After roughly fifty breaths, Li Qianqing had finished a delicacy made with his own hands.

He took a bite.

Crunch! The flavor of the Horn Stem Insect meat exploded in his mouth. After he swallowed it, a warm current of energy drifted through his entire body, waiting for Li Qianqing to sit cross-legged and digest it.

Li Qianqing quickly finished the delicacy in his hand, but it felt far too little.

The energy provided by three Horn Stem Insects was limited, but it was enough to make up for the time he had just spent tending three mu of White Corn.

After sitting cross-legged and absorbing the gradually dissipating energy drifting through his body, Li Qianqing began his cultivation for the day.

Today, he planned to use all of his remaining time to improve his cultivation.

At his current cultivation speed, it would take roughly three years for him to reach the Qi Refining Fifth Layer. He would be sixteen by then.

December.

The door was pushed open, and light snow fell from the sky.

Two months had passed since Li Qianqing officially began tending the Spiritual Fields.

Aside from the beginning, he would only encounter Horn Stem Insects once every four or five days or so. After the snow began falling, they became even harder to find. For most Spirit Planters, this was a good thing, but Li Qianqing did not think so. It meant one less delicacy to eat. Most importantly, he could easily kill Horn Stem Insects every time and preserve their corpses intact.

Unlike usual, before he had even finished weeding today, he heard a familiar voice calling from afar.

"Qianqing-ge."

Li Qianyin had arrived.