Qin Haoxuan had already been irritable because of Gu Yunzi, while the Golden Lotus medicinal power within him kept acting up. He was like a powder keg ready to explode. Normally, he would have merely laughed at such words, but today, they instinctively kindled his anger. He strode over to the weak-seed disciple, his Killing Intent-laced gaze locking onto the disciple, who was already trembling like a leaf. "Are you looking to die?"
That weak-seed disciple knew he was far inferior to Zhang Kuang. Even Zhang Kuang had never gotten the better of Qin Haoxuan, so how could he possibly provoke him now? Yet under the eyes of everyone present, he could not directly show weakness. He could only force himself to say something for appearance's sake: "Just wait. When my cultivation reaches completion, I'll settle the score with you!"
Qin Haoxuan looked at the disciple with a smile. Since he had already frightened him into backing down, he no longer bothered over those face-saving words. Elder Chu was present, after all, and going too far would not be good. Besides, everyone else was seriously selecting good fields and good soil. If he delayed any longer, all the better plots would be taken.
Without troubling him further, Qin Haoxuan followed the crowd into the five hundred mu of farmland.
Elder Chu shook his head repeatedly at the sight. It seemed Qin Haoxuan's Dao heart had begun to waver. A single taunt was enough to ignite his temper. Even the one commendable thing about him, his Dao heart, was unstable now. This child was beyond saving. A youth was still a youth. He might usually seem more mature than his years, but when something truly happened, he still revealed a youth's temperament.
Others selected their plots with great seriousness. Some crouched on the ground, picking up clods of soil and carefully rubbing and examining them. Others injected spiritual power into the fields to investigate them. Those who had learned Eight Trigrams Numerology well yesterday combined it with the arrangement of the terrain and waters, taking out compasses to analyze and deduce. Of course, there were also disciples of poor comprehension. Though they had listened attentively in class, they became dizzy staring at the five hundred plots, utterly unsure where to begin. They simply picked a plot that looked decent and planted a wooden plaque bearing their name.
Elder Chu watched the two hundred new disciples bring all eighteen martial arts to bear, listening to their excited cries whenever they found a satisfactory plot, and nodded repeatedly in approval.
For ordinary disciples, finding a Spirit Land was an exceedingly difficult matter. It was better to settle for a middling plot. If one fixated on searching for Spirit Land and ultimately failed to find any, even the already scarce middling plots might be chosen by others. That would truly be throwing away the bait to catch no fish.
Whether examining soil clods in the field or injecting spiritual power into the earth to investigate, both were slow and rather foolish methods. Special immortal-seed disciples like Zhang Kuang, Zhang Yang, and Li Jing all combined yesterday's Eight Trigrams Numerology with today's Feng Shui knowledge to make their calculations.
Before long, Zhang Kuang and Li Jing each found a relatively fertile Spirit Land. They not only won countless envious looks, but also received Elder Chu's praise and recognition. As expected of purple-seed disciples, they surpassed the others in every aspect!
Not long after the two purple-seed disciples found Spirit Land, Zhang Yang found one as well. Compared with disciples who had Rooted, his five senses were far sharper than those of ordinary disciples. It was only natural that he discovered Spirit Land ahead of them.
Zhang Yang's performance also made Elder Chu view him in a new light. Though Zhang Yang was a Gray Seed disciple, whether in the progress of his Rooting, his comprehension and aptitude, or the advancement of his strength, he was not much inferior to purple-seed disciples. If he continued developing like this, his future achievements would be boundless.
Among the five special immortal-seed disciples, only Xu Yu, the purple seed, and Murong Chao, the Gray Seed, had yet to find suitable plots.
Xu Yu had not failed to find Spirit Land because she had learned yesterday's Eight Trigrams Numerology or today's Feng Shui knowledge poorly. Rather, Qin Haoxuan had not listened well in class that morning. To preserve his dignity and keep others from gossiping about him, and also to help him find Spirit Land, Xu Yu came up with a method. While pretending to search for Spirit Land, she muttered to herself, reciting Elder Chu's lecture and analyzing on the spot whether each plot was good or bad.
Xu Yu's actions could fool others, but they could not fool Qin Haoxuan. His heart was filled with gratitude toward this kind girl. Because of his pride, he had refused her offer to help him find Spirit Land. Yet not only had she not become angry, she had pretended to search for it while quietly repeating the lesson and analyzing the quality of the land before them. On the surface, she appeared to be diligently searching for Spirit Land herself, but in truth, she was helping him.
She did this because the person who had mocked Qin Haoxuan earlier had deeply affected her—Brother Haoxuan was being called a freeloader beneath the halo of her purple seed. That was an enormous humiliation for any man! And Brother Haoxuan definitely was not as weak as he looked. She believed that as long as she told him what Elder Chu had taught that morning, he would certainly be able to find Spirit Land through his own ability.
"Brother Haoxuan, this is a middling plot. Though it cannot compare to a Spirit Land with abundant underground spiritual energy, if spiritual herbs are planted here, then after paying the sect contribution... one can still keep fed and clothed." Xu Yu suddenly moved close to Qin Haoxuan and pointed at a fairly presentable plot, speaking softly.
Seeing Xu Yu's hesitant expression, Qin Haoxuan could not help smiling. This silly girl was still worrying about his appetite, afraid that if he found an inferior plot, he would not even be able to fill his stomach after paying the sect contribution. But a middling plot was not Qin Haoxuan's ideal goal. Why could Zhang Kuang and Li Jing find Spirit Land, while he could not?
If he himself believed he was a rank below purple-seed disciples, that purple-seed disciples deserved Spirit Land while he deserved middling or even inferior fields, then if he lacked even this much ambition, how could he contend with Zhang Kuang and Li Jing in the future?
After Qin Haoxuan shook his head and refused before leaving, a weak-seed disciple who had been following them all along ecstatically planted his name plaque in that middling plot. He wore the expression of someone who had picked up an enormous bargain, but in Qin Haoxuan's eyes, this man would never amount to much in his life.
Cultivating immortality meant cultivating the heart. If one did not even possess an unyielding heart, how could one battle Heaven in the future? How could one wrest one's fate from Heaven? Those who willingly sank low and drifted with the current could never climb the highest peaks!
Murong Chao took all this in. In his view, it was no good thing for a weak-seed disciple to have such lofty aspirations.
However, Murong Chao had no mind to mock Qin Haoxuan now, because he could see the contempt others held for him in their strange looks. After all, among the five special immortal-seed disciples, he was the only one who had not Rooted yet. Thinking of this, Murong Chao could not help feeling dejected. Several times, he had even heard people speaking behind his back: "So what if he's a Gray Seed? He's still trash. Zhang Yang has already Rooted, but he hasn't."
When the proud and arrogant Murong Chao heard this gossip, he unusually did not get angry. As a Gray Seed disciple, failing to Root was humiliating enough. If he made a fuss merely because others spoke a few idle words about him, it would only make him lose more face.
Therefore, in this selection of fields, whether for the coming year's harvest or for his pride, he had to grit his teeth and choose a Spirit Land.
Over the course of ten-odd minutes, Xu Yu explained some of the methods Elder Chu had taught for selecting Spirit Land. Qin Haoxuan watched and memorized them all. Yet no matter which method it was, finding a Spirit Land was hardly possible. If Eight Trigrams Numerology had to be incorporated as well, then with his current level of comprehension, it truly was difficult for him.
At that thought, Qin Haoxuan grew somewhat anxious. Of the two hundred new disciples, nearly a hundred had already selected their fields, while nearly another hundred were striving to find Spirit Land, Murong Chao included. The competitive pressure was truly immense.
"Junior Sister, go find Spirit Land for yourself. I understand everything you said!"
There was little Spirit Land left, and he could not keep delaying Xu Yu. Qin Haoxuan decided to send her away and search for Spirit Land himself.
Looking at the stubborn Qin Haoxuan, Xu Yu sighed inwardly. She stopped instructing him and began searching for Spirit Land for herself.
Gazing at the remaining four hundred plots of wasteland, Qin Haoxuan began considering what method he could use to find Spirit Land. If he slowly kneaded soil clods one by one, analyzed their quality, and thereby deduced whether a plot was Spirit Land, the method would take far too much time and be terribly inaccurate. Luck played too large a role. But injecting spiritual power into the ground would be even more like fishing for a needle in the sea. A single plot covered one mu. Carefully inspecting whether there was a Spirit Spring underground would take an entire day for just one mu, let alone four hundred!
Aside from those foolish methods, the only option was to combine yesterday's Eight Trigrams Numerology with today's basic Feng Shui knowledge for deduction. But he was not a disciple of exceptional comprehension. He still only half understood yesterday's Eight Trigrams Numerology. Any conclusion drawn through deduction would probably be even less reliable.
As Qin Haoxuan was worrying, an idea suddenly flashed through his mind!
He had once read in a book that divine sense had an extremely broad range of applications and was of great use in formations, alchemy, and other fields. Could it be used in this matter as well? Thinking this, Qin Haoxuan did not hesitate. He calmed his heart and focused his mind, treating the ground beneath his feet as an enemy as he began stimulating that beam of golden light within his mind.
He split off a small strand of golden light and spread it over the one-mu field beneath his feet. Then something strange happened!
Qin Haoxuan sensed only a faint wisp of spiritual energy flickering in the earth beneath his feet, so weak it was like a guttering candle in the wind, liable to go out at any moment.
He then split off another strand of divine sense and spread it over the middling plot Xu Yu had mentioned earlier. Through the weed-choked surface, he could clearly sense spiritual energy pulsing beneath the seemingly barren soil like a heartbeat. It was not particularly strong, but its quality was still far superior to that of an inferior plot.
When the disciple who had thought he had picked up a huge bargain saw Qin Haoxuan's gaze turn toward him, he instantly became alert. With one hand, he shielded the name plaque planted in the ground, while preparing to cry for help with the other. He thought Qin Haoxuan regretted his decision and had come to seize his plot. Qin Haoxuan smiled faintly at this comical expression and silently walked away.
To everyone else, Qin Haoxuan's subsequent behavior was like that of a madman. Each time he stepped into a field, he stood there silently for ten breaths before quietly leaving again. He did not seem to use any method to inspect the land, and he did not even bend at the waist.
These actions fell into the eyes of Elder Chu, who glanced at him from time to time, and he sneered inwardly. Could it be that Qin Haoxuan had failed to find Spirit Land and gone mad? Even when using deductions based on Eight Trigrams Numerology and common Feng Shui knowledge, one had to bend down to inspect the terrain, listen to the wind direction and air currents, visually assess the mountains and waters, and employ many other methods. What kind of inspection method involved standing somewhere for a moment and then leaving? It was simply unheard of and unseen before.
Qin Haoxuan had no time to care how others viewed him. He was nervously searching for Spirit Land. Since every field was a full mu in size, covering the entire plot each time consumed a considerable amount of divine sense. As he examined more and more plots, his pace slowed further and further. Having overused his divine sense, his face had become somewhat pale, and he looked listless and drained.
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