On the third day, Zhang Wan got up early.
He was somewhat reluctant to leave the small courtyard. The cultivation environment here was far better than the academy's.
Unfortunately, he still had not finished his studies at the academy.
Moreover, after graduating, he still had to complete a sect mission every year.
By comparison, it was more comfortable to lie low at the academy for a few more years.
After removing the wooden plaque hanging on the small courtyard, Zhang Wan headed toward the platform where the rune carriage had dropped them off when they arrived.
The layout of the entire Jade Bone Sect's mountain gate was quite interesting.
It had been established with the mid-grade spirit vein beneath Nine Qi Mountain as its core.
The whole of Nine Qi Mountain was enveloped by the Jade Bone Sect's mountain-protecting formation.
Outside the Jade Bone Sect's mountain-protecting formation, the northern area was where outer sect disciples lived, filled with densely scattered independent houses.
Dozens of broad avenues had been formed by the spaces between the houses, and the rune carriages traveled along these roads.
Of course, because the gaps between the independent houses were also quite wide, rune carriages could pass through them as well. Occasionally, one would travel between the houses.
But most of the time, rune carriages only traveled back and forth along those dozens of main roads.
To the south of the Jade Bone Sect were stretches of spirit plant fields, managed by the Spirit Planter Hall.
The other halls, such as the Artifact Refining Hall and Pill Refining Hall, had also claimed some territory around the Jade Bone Sect. Judging from their distribution, however, they were actually enclosed by the outer disciples' residential area and the spirit plant fields, and their territories could not compare with those two areas at all.
This was basically the entire Jade Bone Sect: centered on the mid-grade spirit vein at its core and spreading in all directions. Not a single patch of land to the east, west, south, or north had been wasted.
The closer one got to the mountain gate, the denser the spiritual energy became, and the more densely packed the various buildings were.
Zhang Wan waited for a while beside a road wide enough for eight rune carriages to travel abreast, and several fellow disciples soon arrived.
When the rune carriage passing by the Beginner Martial Arts Academy came, the group boarded it and returned to the academy.
The rune carriage was extremely fast. When they returned to the academy, there was still some time before the midday meal.
Zhang Wan first went to the labor office. After spending some silver, he obtained several rows of wooden racks, pottery jars of various sizes, and some farming tools.
The academy's laborers helped move everything into Zhang Wan's small courtyard.
He placed the rows of wooden racks against the walls of the house and set the pottery jars of various sizes on them. Zhang Wan intended to use the racks and jars to grow the spirit plant seeds he had purchased.
As for those pseudo-spirit plant seeds, this method would not work for them.
He needed to ask the academy for a plot of land before he could plant them.
His small courtyard could not accommodate that many pseudo-spirit plants.
After tidying up the small courtyard, Zhang Wan first took his second sister and third brother to the private dining hall for a meal. Afterward, he went to find Vice Dean Xin, one of the three vice deans.
Anyone who wanted to conduct business at the academy, or rent the use of land or buildings under the academy's name, needed Vice Dean Xin's permission.
Vice Dean Xin would not concern himself with ordinary small businesses run by mortals, but renting farmland to grow pseudo-spirit plants was something that required his approval.
"Although the requirements for growing pseudo-spirit plants aren't as high as those for spirit plants, they still need spiritual energy."
"The denser the spiritual energy, the better."
There was a low-grade spirit vein beneath the Beginner Martial Arts Academy. The place with the densest spiritual energy along that vein was certainly impossible to rent, but growing pseudo-spirit plants did not require such an excellent environment. Using the peripheral areas within the range radiated by the low-grade spirit vein would be enough.
Vice Dean Xin did not make things difficult for Zhang Wan. After confirming that Zhang Wan truly intended to grow pseudo-spirit plants and had gone to the mountain gate to obtain the Spirit Planter inheritance, he rented Zhang Wan an acre of land.
They agreed that forty percent of the pseudo-spirit plant yield Zhang Wan produced would serve as rent.
Zhang Wan had no objection.
Once again, he felt the difference between Postnatal cultivators and ordinary mortals.
When mortals grew pseudo-spirit plants, they had to hand over the entire harvest to the sect. All they received was the qualification to send a child from their family to study at the sect's academy.
As a Postnatal sect disciple, he could keep sixty percent of the yield!
The difference in treatment between Postnatal cultivators and ordinary mortals was truly enormous.
Of course, this was also because Zhang Wan was an outer sect disciple of the Jade Bone Sect, which allowed him to keep sixty percent.
When Postnatal Rogue Cultivators rented spirit land from the Jade Bone Sect, they had to hand over at least fifty percent, and sometimes as much as sixty or seventy percent!
Sect disciples enjoyed far more benefits within the sect than Rogue Cultivators did.
After renting the spirit land, Zhang Wan did not immediately plow it.
Although he had helped his parents plow the fields at home, he had spent most of every year at the academy since he was four, so his knowledge was limited.
Moreover, he did not know how deeply the three types of pseudo-spirit plants he had bought needed to be planted, or how loose the soil needed to be.
He had to figure these things out before starting. That way, he could achieve twice the result with half the effort.
That evening, his second sister, Zhang Lingshu, and third brother, Zhang Yan, continued tempering themselves to better digest the spirit cuisine made from the pseudo-spirit plants Zhang Wan had given them at noon.
Zhang Wan, meanwhile, sat there flipping through the Extreme Spirit Planter inheritance.
"Besides introducing the habits and cultivation requirements of various spirit plants, the most important parts of this inheritance are the 'Vitality Catalysis Technique' and the 'Extreme Growth Technique.'"
These two techniques were the crux of the Extreme Spirit Planter inheritance.
Without mastering them, extreme cultivation was out of the question.
The first things Zhang Wan studied were these two techniques.
"As expected, this is only a partial inheritance. Neither technique is complete, and they can only be used on pseudo-spirit plants and Postnatal low-grade spirit plants." Zhang Wan muttered, though he could only accept it.
By now, more than a year had passed since he had broken through to the Postnatal realm.
His understanding of Postnatal techniques was no longer that of a complete novice.
As he carefully read the incantations for these two techniques, he was able to understand some of them.
But fully comprehending them would be somewhat difficult.
Moreover, these two techniques were unlike the Stacked Force Palm and Nine Step Movement Technique. After comprehending those, he could master them through repeated practice.
After comprehending these, he still needed to practice for a while before he could master them.
Of course, they were not as absurdly difficult as the Bone Piercing Finger.
The true difficulty of these two techniques lay in whether one could comprehend them.
But none of this counted for much to Zhang Wan. It was difficult for him to comprehend them, but he could cheat!
Host: Zhang Wan (eleven years old) Realm: First Level Postnatal (81/120) Realm Bottleneck: None Cultivation Techniques and Martial Skills: Bronze Iron Art, Sixth Level Postnatal technique (14/114, First Level Postnatal technique comprehended), Stacked Force Palm (21/155), Bone Piercing Finger (103/103, 6/46), Nine Step Movement Technique (24/127), Incomplete Vitality Catalysis Technique (0/89, 0/11), Incomplete Extreme Growth Technique (0/83, 0/10) Available Experience Points: 8803
"The incomplete versions already require more than eighty experience points. Tsk, tsk. No wonder I thought they were difficult." Zhang Wan clicked his tongue in amazement.
"If the incomplete versions are already like this, the complete versions probably require far more experience points than martial skills like the Stacked Force Palm, which can be used up to the Ninth Level Postnatal."
Zhang Wan sighed, but he was not surprised.
These kinds of skills allowed their practitioners to obtain an inexhaustible source of wealth once mastered. It was only natural for them to be difficult.
Besides, the Spirit Planter profession was famous for being easy to learn but difficult to master.
Without hesitation, Zhang Wan directly invested eighty-nine experience points into the Vitality Catalysis Technique, filling its comprehension progress to the maximum.
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