Split Silver Blade

The monthly rent for the courtyard's Spirit Field was five Spirit Stones, paid once every half year, and less than a month remained before the next payment.

He was about to spend more than half the Spirit Stones in his hand, while the several kinds of Spirit Plants in the Spirit Field were still some time away from maturity, so Lu Xuan decided to keep saving for now, in case of sudden need.

The Spirit Field had already been used to its fullest. Even if he had enough Spirit Stones on hand, there would be nowhere to plant any new Spirit Seeds he bought, so he could only return home with his fifty-odd Spirit Stones.

After returning home, he shut the courtyard gate tight and almost cut himself off from the outside world, devoting himself entirely to cultivating his Spirit Plants.

Several days passed. The silvery-white fruits on the two Eclipse Moon Trees grew rounder and fuller, like wheel after wheel of full moons hanging from the branches.

They were about to enter the mature stage.

Lu Xuan took some time to count them. There were roughly forty-two Eclipse Moon Fruits on the trees.

According to the purchase price he knew, each Eclipse Moon Fruit was worth around one Spirit Stone, with little fluctuation either way.

Only, because he had carefully cultivated them during this period, the dozens of Eclipse Moon Fruits were all of decent quality. Lu Xuan estimated that most were Good Grade, while a few were Superior Grade.

"Little Uncle Lu, Little Uncle Lu, are you home?"

One day, a familiar childish voice came from outside the courtyard gate.

Lu Xuan opened the gate, and a tiger-headed, tiger-brained child of about seven slipped in through the crack. Judging from his features, he bore a seventy to eighty percent resemblance to Zhang Hong, who had gone off to explore the Wilderness.

It was Zhang Hong's child, named Zhang Xiuyuan. Because the age gap between him and Lu Xuan was not large, he would drop by Lu Xuan's place from time to time.

"I thought you weren't home! You keep the door shut every day. I haven't seen you in ages!"

Zhang Xiuyuan muttered, then hopped and skipped over to the Grass Puppet and hugged it in one swoop.

"Little Grass, long time no see! I missed you so much!"

The Grass Puppet was squeezed tight by him. Sensing that an outsider had entered the courtyard, it still stretched a gray grass rope toward Lu Xuan, fulfilling its duty to Guard Spirit Field.

"All right, all right. If you keep hugging it, your little friend's head is going to fall off."

Lu Xuan looked at the Gray Grass Tumor on the Grass Puppet's head, which seemed about to come loose, and said with a smile to the especially enthusiastic Zhang Xiuyuan.

The two returned inside the house.

Zhang Xiuyuan slumped in a wooden chair and stared blankly at the Spirit Plants in the courtyard.

"It's still more comfortable here with you, Little Uncle Lu. No need to cultivate techniques or learn all kinds of knowledge about spirit medicines and spirit ores."

Lu Xuan laughed despite himself, as if he had seen the children from his previous life who fretted over studying.

"Right, your father has been gone for so long. Is there any news of him?"

He asked Zhang Xiuyuan.

"How could it be that fast? Just the journey alone takes half a month!"

"But my dad is so amazing. He'll definitely kill lots and lots of Demonic Beasts and bring me back lots and lots of Treasures."

Zhang Xiuyuan said with yearning in his eyes. In a Youth's heart, his father's figure was always especially tall and mighty, as if he could block all wind and waves.

Lu Xuan nodded, chatted a few more words with the child, then went to the Spirit Field to check the Spirit Plants' growth condition.

In the Spirit Field, whether it was the Progress Bar, the real-time status, or the White Light Orbs that appeared after maturity, only Lu Xuan alone could see them, so he was not worried that Zhang Xiuyuan would discover anything unusual about the Spirit Field.

"Little Uncle Lu, I see you're so busy in the Spirit Field. Want me to help?"

After resting for a while, Zhang Xiuyuan saw that Lu Xuan had been busy the whole time, rolled up his sleeves, and walked to Lu Xuan's side.

"Hey, hey, hey, don't move. I can do it alone."

Lu Xuan hurriedly stopped him. What a joke. One of the factors affecting the reward from the Light Orb was his own degree of participation in the planting process.

If, because Xiao Yuan helped, it affected how generous the Light Orb's reward was, then that would truly be losing more than he gained.

"Hmph, when my mother usually asks me to help, I don't even want to!"

Rejected by Lu Xuan, Xiao Yuan felt somewhat unable to keep face. He crossed both fists before his chest and snorted coldly.

"How many circulations did you complete in your technique cultivation today? Can you recite all the common spirit medicines and spirit ores yet?"

Seeing the child dawdling in the Spirit Field with no intention of leaving, Lu Xuan asked aloud.

With every question, the expression on Zhang Xiuyuan's face grew a little heavier. By the time Lu Xuan finished speaking, he waved his hands fiercely and ran out.

"I'm never coming here to play again!"

"Hahahaha!"

Lu Xuan laughed mercilessly.

He did not go to coax him. He understood the child's temper very well—it came quickly and went quickly too. In a few days at most, he would come over to play with him again.

For the next three days, Zhang Xiuyuan indeed did not come to the courtyard. Lu Xuan was quite at ease, cultivating Spirit Firefly Grass and Red Cloud Pine every day, watching the Eclipse Moon Fruits ripen step by step.

Finally, under Mind Focused, Lu Xuan learned that four Eclipse Moon Fruits had fully matured.

All four Eclipse Moon Fruits were Good Grade, not wasting his careful tending during this period.

He carefully picked them and placed them into a specially made container.

Immediately after, his gaze was drawn to the four White Light Orbs floating on the Eclipse Moon Trees.

Specks of white light flickered over the light orbs.

Lu Xuan absorbed the first one, and a thought flashed through his mind.

"Harvested one Eclipse Moon Fruit. Obtained First-grade Magic Tool: Split Silver Blade (fragment)."

A long, slender object appeared in Lu Xuan's hand.

"A First-grade Magic Tool!"

Lu Xuan was abruptly startled and carefully examined the object in his hand.

It was a long, thin shard, about as thick as a finger, irregular in shape. A chill came from the parts he touched, and its edges looked extremely sharp.

Lu Xuan controlled the slender shard with his Spiritual Sense, and with a shift of his mind—

The shard turned into a barely visible streak of silver light and buried itself deep in the stone wall.

"Its power is astonishing. As expected of a First-grade Magic Tool. But what does this 'fragment' mean?"

"Is this magic tool incomplete? But it feels pretty powerful to use..."

Doubt filled Lu Xuan's heart as he looked toward the remaining three White Light Orbs.

"Harvested one Eclipse Moon Fruit. Obtained First-grade Magic Tool: Split Silver Blade (fragment)."

"Harvested one Eclipse Moon Fruit. Obtained First Grade Talisman: Purification Talisman."

"Harvested one Eclipse Moon Fruit. Obtained First-grade Magic Tool: Split Silver Blade (fragment)."

The Purification Talisman could keep a cultivator's mind clear for a long time, preventing them from being beguiled by Evil Spirits. It was an excellent auxiliary talisman.

As for the other two White Light Orbs...

Lu Xuan looked at the three silver-white shards in his hand and was stunned for a moment.

The three shards were all different in shape, but what they had in common was that they were all extremely sharp, in no way sullying the reputation of a so-called First-grade Magic Tool.

Moreover, Lu Xuan also unexpectedly discovered that he could actually control these three Split Silver Blade fragments at the same time.

Logically speaking, with the Spiritual Sense of his current Qi Training Stage 3 cultivation, it would be extremely difficult to control three First-grade Magic Tools at once.

"Could it be that these three irregular shards come from the same magic tool, and only when all the shards are combined will they become the complete Split Silver Blade?"

Lu Xuan compared the edges of the shards and felt more and more that this guess was close to the truth.

"I just don't know how many shards are needed to piece together a complete Split Silver Blade."

"Right now, I can only hope that the remaining thirty-eight Eclipse Moon Fruits can yield as many Split Silver Blade fragments as possible."

"Though the fragments are pretty good to use, if there's a complete one, who would want an incomplete one?"

Lu Xuan gazed at the Eclipse Moon Fruits hanging from the Eclipse Moon Tree like jade discs and thought in a daze.