In the Field, There is Light Like Jade

In the Field, There is Light Like Jade

Vast Forest Market.

The sky had only just begun to brighten, and the mist had yet to disperse. The entire Marketplace was shrouded in a layer of hazy white vapor as thin as a veil.

A Small Courtyard enclosed by blue-gray stone walls stretched about thirty feet long and twenty feet wide. Most of the area was covered in gray-black soil, with only a narrow Blue Stone Path left through the center.

Several low-grade Spirit Plants grew in the gray-black soil. After being silently nourished by the mist all night, they brimmed with vitality, lazily unfurling their tender green branches and leaves.

With a creak, the stone house at the end of the Blue Stone Path opened, and a Youth walked out.

The Youth was sixteen or seventeen years old. He wore a Gray Shirt, with a tall, slender build and handsome features. His eyes were lively yet clear.

He was Lu Xuan, who had already been in this world for quite some time.

Originally, he had been an utterly ordinary Young Man on Earth. He had never expected that after falling asleep, he would inexplicably occupy this Youth's body and become an insignificant Spirit Plant Master among the teeming masses of the Cultivation World.

After weathering the initial confusion and fear, Lu Xuan gradually adapted to his new identity.

It was the standard beginning: no father, no mother, utterly alone, ordinary aptitude, and a cultivation level of Qi Training Stage 2. Relying on years of savings, he had rented a Spirit Field in the Marketplace, planted spirit herbs and spirit medicines, and struggled to survive in this world of the strong preying on the weak, where danger lurked everywhere.

The thin mist rushing toward him in the courtyard swiftly cleared Lu Xuan's head, since he had only recently awakened. He walked around the Spirit Plants, observing them carefully.

There were twenty or thirty Spirit Plants. Each was spaced a certain distance apart, standing about a foot tall, with slender leaves dotted by faint white fluorescence. In the white mist, they looked like stars scattered across the sky.

These were Spirit Firefly Grass, first-grade Spirit Plants. They were relatively easy to grow, and once mature, they could be used as ingredients for refining several kinds of Healing Elixir, making them widely useful in the Cultivation World.

Besides the Spirit Firefly Grass, there were also two trees in the courtyard. One was an Eclipse Moon Tree, and the other was also an Eclipse Moon Tree.

The Eclipse Moon Tree was a first-grade Spirit Plant. Under Lu Xuan's meticulous care, it had grown well, standing a head taller than him. Between its emerald-green leaves, dozens of silvery-white fruits shaped like hooks appeared and disappeared from view.

These fruits were called Eclipse Moon Fruit. When they first formed, they looked like crescent moons. Slowly, the crescents grew larger, until they became full moons upon maturity.

Mature Eclipse Moon Fruit could be eaten directly, slightly increasing the spiritual energy within low-stage Qi Refining cultivators. It could also be used to refine precious pills such as the Essence Nurturing Pill.

The Eclipse Moon Tree was slightly more difficult to grow and rarer than the Spirit Firefly Grass, and Lu Xuan had devoted the most effort to it.

Both kinds of Spirit Plants were growing quite well, yet a trace of worry appeared on Lu Xuan's face.

He hurried to the western side of the courtyard and crouched down. Pinching the leaves of a Spirit Firefly Grass near the stone wall between two fingers, he carefully turned them over to inspect the undersides.

As expected, faint black threads ran across the backs of the leaves. If Lu Xuan had not been meticulous, those hair-thin black lines would have been almost impossible to spot.

"The number of black threads has clearly increased compared with yesterday."

Lu Xuan silently compared the two days. Looking at the Spirit Firefly Grass corroded by the threads, he could not help letting out a soft sigh.

When caring for his Spirit Plants two days ago, he had accidentally discovered that one of the Spirit Firefly Grass near the stone wall was in an abnormal condition. After searching for a long while, he had finally found those black threads on the backs of its leaves.

The threads seemed to have melded with the Spirit Firefly Grass, clinging tightly to it and proving extremely difficult to separate.

Lu Xuan was only a low-stage Spirit Plant Master, with an ordinary background and scant relevant knowledge. He had no idea what these black threads were.

Unable to prescribe the right remedy, he had no choice but to cautiously use the spiritual energy in his body to separate the black threads from the backs of the leaves.

He had exhausted both his spiritual energy and his concentration just to barely clean them away. Yet when he checked again the next day, the black threads had appeared out of nowhere once more, and their numbers increased day by day.

"At this rate, in another day or two, this Spirit Firefly Grass will be completely overrun by the black threads. They may even spread and affect the nearby Spirit Firefly Grass."

At this thought, Lu Xuan's heart filled with worry, and he stood there in a daze.

He had considered pulling out this Spirit Firefly Grass to keep the ones nearby from becoming infected by the black threads.

But after weighing it briefly, he abandoned the idea.

After all, the black threads' origins were unknown, and Lu Xuan did not understand how they corroded the Spirit Firefly Grass. If pulling it out worked, that would be fine. But if he pulled it out and the other Spirit Firefly Grass still could not escape being corroded, he would have nowhere to cry.

"For now, my only option is to find an orthodox, experienced Spirit Plant Master in the Marketplace and ask him to solve this."

"Those few Spirit Stones I managed to save with such difficulty... I was originally planning to pay the Spirit Field rent in two months."

Lu Xuan was only a rogue cultivator at Qi Training Stage 2, so he had no way to fully own a Spirit Field of his own.

The small Spirit Field in the courtyard had been rented from a middle-stage Qi Refining cultivator in the Marketplace. Every month, it cost him a hefty number of Spirit Stones.

"For the next while, I'll have to tighten my belt and make do."

He rose to his feet, his expression resolute.

Once the Spirit Plants matured, he could sell them to shops or cultivators in the Marketplace in exchange for Spirit Stones. After paying the rent and covering his daily cultivation needs, he would still have a little left over.

But if he used those stones to ask an experienced Spirit Plant Master for help, he would have to suffer a major loss.

Lu Xuan made up his mind and looked around.

A ring of Black Thorns grew atop the blue-gray stone walls, covered in densely packed, sharp black spikes that offered a certain degree of protection.

However, their defensive ability was better than nothing. They could guard against gentlemen, but not villains, let alone stop those mysterious insects and beasts that coveted the Spirit Plants.

"Once this matter is dealt with, I should save some Spirit Stones and obtain a Protective Array, so something like this doesn't happen again."

"Relying on this Grass Puppet to guard the Spirit Field is completely unrealistic."

Lu Xuan looked toward a straw puppet sitting in the corner of the courtyard.

The puppet stood about three feet tall, leaning crookedly against the courtyard wall. Its entire body was made of unknown dried grass. It had a large head and a small body, and atop its somewhat deformed, oversized head grew a lump wrapped in gray dried grass.

The Grass Puppet was a secondhand item Lu Xuan had bought from a stall in the Marketplace. According to the Stall Owner, the puppet came from the Thousand Machines Sect of the Cultivation World. It possessed a simple behavioral pattern and was commonly used to guard lower-grade Spirit Fields.

If it sensed a cultivator or Demonic Beast entering the Spirit Field's area, the Grass Puppet would issue a warning to the owner. If it discovered that the other party intended to harm the Spirit Plants in the Spirit Field, it would even attack on its own and restrain the intruder.

However, perhaps because this one was secondhand, its warning function worked only intermittently. As for attacking on its own, that was out of the question.

Of course, this also had a great deal to do with Lu Xuan himself. Since coming to this world, he had basically stayed behind closed doors and had little contact with the outside world. Naturally, there had been few cultivators or Demonic Beasts entering the courtyard.

Lu Xuan glared at the Grass Puppet with its lump, exasperated that it had failed to live up to his expectations. Spiritual energy surged within him, and wisps of spiritual rain appeared above the Spirit Firefly Grass and Eclipse Moon Trees, falling onto their branches and leaves and seeping inside.

Nourished by the spiritual rain, the Spirit Plants in the Spirit Field looked even greener and cleaner. Their spotless leaves swayed lightly, displaying every bit of their charm.

This was the Spirit Rain Technique every Spirit Plant Master had to learn. It infused minute traces of spiritual energy into water vapor to nourish Spirit Plants and ensure that they could grow smoothly.

"Hmm? This Spirit Firefly Grass has already entered its mature stage."

After watering each Spirit Plant, Lu Xuan noticed that specks of fluorescence kept flickering on one stalk of Spirit Firefly Grass, as if they were about to fall from its leaves.

He hurried back into the house and brought out a White Jade Box. Carefully, he harvested the Spirit Firefly Grass and placed it inside the Jade Box.

The Jade Box could slow the rate at which spiritual energy escaped from a Spirit Plant, preserving its medicinal power to a certain extent.

"What is this?"

Lu Xuan closed the Jade Box and was about to leave when he suddenly noticed a fist-sized White Light Orb remaining where the Spirit Firefly Grass had originally been planted. The Light Orb flickered faintly, with specks of spiritual light drifting away from it.

Curious, Lu Xuan reached out and gently touched the White Light Orb.

In an instant, countless points of light surged into his palm from the Light Orb, and a thought flashed through his mind of its own accord.

"Harvested one stalk of Spirit Firefly Grass. Obtained Three Months Cultivation."