In the eyes of outsiders like Elder Chu, Qin Haoxuan wandered here and there, stopping everywhere, even putting on an utterly exhausted appearance.
"Look at Qin Haoxuan. If we didn't all know that Eight Trigrams Numerology and Feng Shui divination weren't done like this, an outsider might really be fooled by him."
"Hmph, exactly. Once Xu Yu finds the Spirit Land, she can quietly leave a mark, then call him over to claim it. Then he can openly declare that he found the Spirit Land himself."
Qin Haoxuan was currently using his divine consciousness to survey the Spirit Land beneath his feet, consuming a tremendous amount of energy. He had no mind to argue with them. He drifted farther and farther from the others until he finally reached a patch of barren ground overgrown with waist-high weeds.
Stepping on the ground did not feel soft at all. Instead, it felt as hard as stone slabs, uneven and rough beneath the feet. This patch lay in a corner of the entire area. Because weeds ran rampant and the soil was so poor, the disciples who had come to look around all left one after another. In the end, only Xu Yu, who had followed Qin Haoxuan here, and Murong Chao, who had also made his way over, remained.
After using some of the methods Elder Chu had taught to inspect the soil, then performing another round of deductions with Eight Trigrams Numerology and Feng Shui knowledge, Xu Yu said with some difficulty, "Brother Haoxuan, this land is probably inferior-grade soil, isn't it?"
Qin Haoxuan was wholly focused on spreading his divine consciousness across the ground beneath him. He had an intuition that this barren, weed-choked land definitely contained a Spirit Land!
Seeing that Qin Haoxuan ignored her, Xu Yu said no more. She once again deduced the likelihood of a Spirit Land appearing here, but the result was still zero.
Seeing Xu Yu still wasting time on this barren patch of ground, Elder Chu could not help growing anxious. According to his deductions, the more than twenty fields here were all inferior land, bad beyond all hope.
After eliminating more than ten inferior fields from the twenty-odd plots, Qin Haoxuan walked into the three fields at the very edge.
If those dozen-plus fields were inferior land, then these three plots did not even deserve that label. At least weeds still grew on those inferior fields. These plots contained nothing but dark, hard clods of earth; not even a single blade of weed grew there. In Elder Chu and the others' eyes, they were barren beyond measure. Planting spirit herbs here was destined to yield not a single grain.
Standing in this patch of fields, Qin Haoxuan, whose divine consciousness was nearly depleted, split off a strand of golden light and spread it over the ground beneath his feet!
He sent his divine consciousness one meter underground. There was nothing.
Two meters underground, there was still no spiritual energy. It was even worse than the most inferior fields.
Could his feeling have been wrong? Just as Qin Haoxuan was about to give up, he suddenly sensed a faint current two meters underground. It seemed to contain an exceptionally pure spiritual power, so subtle that one could not detect it without careful attention.
At once, his spirits lifted!
He probed a few more inches downward with his divine consciousness. His excessive expenditure had already turned his face several shades paler. A distinct sound of flowing water traveled through his divine consciousness into his mind. Dense spiritual energy fluctuations came from within that current, like the pulse of a strong adult. The thumping beat of the spiritual energy made his blood surge! The rushing water echoed through Qin Haoxuan's mind, more melodious than anything he had ever heard!
There were Spirit Springs beneath these three fields!
Qin Haoxuan had secretly used his divine consciousness earlier to inspect the Spirit Lands Zhang Kuang and Li Jing had found. He could clearly sense extremely dense spiritual energy hidden beneath their lands. Yet beneath these three Spirit Lands, whose outward appearance was utterly terrible, there was no spiritual energy at all. Instead, there were Spirit Springs as thick as an infant's arm. From Xu Yu's retelling of Elder Chu's lessons, he had learned that Spirit Springs were exceptionally rare. Every Spirit Land with a Spirit Spring beneath it enjoyed bumper harvests year after year. With a Spirit Spring's irrigation, one planted what one wished and harvested what one planted; the yield depended entirely on no one's favor from Heaven.
These three Spirit Springs were hidden extremely deep. Without divine consciousness, they could never be found through simple deductions alone.
Even someone as steady-tempered as Qin Haoxuan could not help feeling delighted. A Spirit Spring underground and spiritual energy underground were entirely different concepts.
He immediately said to Xu Yu, who was still inspecting the area, in a tone that brooked no doubt, "Junior Sister, I'll choose this plot."
After a pause, he added, "You should choose one of those two plots as well. I think the one on the right is better!"
Seeing Qin Haoxuan unhesitatingly plant the wooden marker bearing his name, Xu Yu also followed his guidance without hesitation and planted the marker bearing her own name in the field on the right.
Not far from the two of them, Murong Chao had also grown interested in these three fields, so barren that not even grass would grow. He stared at Qin Haoxuan for a while, then shifted his gaze to Xu Yu. In the end, he too planted the wooden marker bearing his name in the field on the left.
This scene nearly worried Elder Chu to death. Qin Haoxuan was merely a weak seed; choosing an inferior field suited his status well enough. But Xu Yu and Murong Chao were special immortal seeds! They were Taichu Sect's hope for the future. If Qin Haoxuan misled them into choosing inferior land, it would have an enormous impact on their futures.
He hurried over without saying a word and took a compass from his robes. His sharp eyes flashed as he looked all around, surveying the mountain terrain and watercourses, determining the course of Dayu Mountain's spiritual veins, and immersing himself in his deductions with great relish.
After calculating for a long while, Elder Chu darkened his face and shot Qin Haoxuan a vicious glare. Then he put on a kindly expression and said to Xu Yu and Murong Chao, "If you choose this land, forget filling your stomachs next year—you won't even be able to hand in your sect contributions! I'll give you one chance to change fields. It isn't too late to regret it!"
The moment Elder Chu finished speaking, Qin Haoxuan said firmly to Xu Yu, "Listen to me. You won't go wrong!"
Xu Yu looked at Qin Haoxuan's face, then shook her head without hesitation and refused, "Elder, I won't change it."
Seeing Xu Yu refuse Elder Chu's goodwill without the slightest hesitation, Murong Chao, who had still been wavering, finally decided to gamble! At worst, he would starve to death alongside a Purple Seed disciple. Nothing shameful about that.
When Qin Haoxuan had been choosing fields, Murong Chao, standing not far away, could sense an indescribable aura emanating from him. He could neither fathom nor understand it. To others, Qin Haoxuan's back looked twitchy and erratic, but in Murong Chao's eyes, it was unfathomably profound.
In Murong Chao's private thoughts, although Qin Haoxuan was only a weak seed, the surprises he had brought everyone during this period were such that even Zhang Kuang and Li Jing, the two Purple Seed disciples, could only watch his dust from afar. Perhaps the land he had chosen this time really was a Spirit Land!
Elder Chu's personal deductions drew the other disciples' attention. They also happened to see Xu Yu and Murong Chao, egged on by Qin Haoxuan, each choose a piece of inferior land so rotten it could not be worse. Immediately, mocking laughter erupted everywhere.
"These plots cannot even grow weeds. They're dry and hard, and even Elder Chu frowned when he saw them. They're plainly bad to the absolute extreme!"
"Heh! I was just envying Elder Chu for giving them special treatment and letting them choose again. Who would have thought they'd be like stones from a latrine—stinking and hard! They really won't shed tears until they see the coffin!"
"This Qin Haoxuan is unbelievable. If he wants to seek death himself, why drag Xu Yu and Murong Chao down with him?"
"Junior Sister Xu might be innocent and naive enough to have been deceived by Qin Haoxuan, but could Murong Chao's head have been fried muddled too?"
"If they can't hand in their sect contributions next year, that'll be quite a show!"
Listening to the whispers all around, Zhang Kuang looked at Li Jing and sneered. "To win over Xu Yu, you actually sent Murong Chao to curry favor with Qin Haoxuan. Be careful not to steal a chicken only to lose the rice used to lure it. Next year, you'll have to help cover his sect contributions and waste a Gray Seed underling for nothing."
Li Jing smiled faintly and ignored Zhang Kuang's mockery, but a storm raged in his heart. Zhang Kuang thought he had sent Murong Chao over, but how could he himself not know the truth? He had merely told Murong Chao to temporarily set aside his hatred for Qin Haoxuan, lest it affect his grand plan to win over Xu Yu. He had never told him to take the initiative to get close to Qin Haoxuan!
Xu Yu and Murong Chao's determination left Elder Chu helpless. He secretly pondered that he had to find a way to separate Qin Haoxuan and Xu Yu, lest Qin Haoxuan lead a Supreme Purple Seed astray. If the sect leader blamed him, he could not bear the responsibility.
With displeasure written all over his face, Elder Chu saw that he could not persuade Xu Yu and Murong Chao. After shooting Qin Haoxuan another fierce glare, he gathered all the new disciples and began a practical lesson on planting.
At Elder Chu's signal, several senior servant disciples brought over bags of seeds: millet, corn, wheat, sweet potatoes, and other common crops. Planting spirit herbs placed high demands on the growing environment and was also far more difficult. These new disciples could not even use the Spirit Infusion Technique. Apart from those few Spirit Lands, the other fields would struggle to produce a harvest even if they were planted.
"The farmland here is relatively barren, so I suggest that you first plant corn and sweet potatoes, two crops that are easier to keep alive. Once they mature, aside from keeping some for your own rations, you can trade the rest with senior brothers who raise spirit beasts for spirit beast dung to fertilize the fields." Seeing the astonished looks on the disciples' faces, Elder Chu continued, "Even barren fields can be cultivated into Spirit Lands, so long as you are willing to put in the effort to carry water from Spirit Springs for irrigation, then trade your mature crops with senior brothers who raise spirit beasts for spirit beast dung to fertilize them."
When Elder Chu mentioned spirit beast dung, traces of disgust appeared on Li Jing and the others' faces. These pampered young masters did not even want to wash their own clothes. They had never imagined they would have to handle something as revolting as dung.
Among these two hundred new disciples, quite a few came from poor families and had done plenty of farmwork. Upon hearing that irrigation with Spirit Spring water and fertilization could turn barren fields into Spirit Lands, they immediately rolled up their sleeves, eager to give it a try. Their earlier dejection transformed into burning enthusiasm.
Xu Yu looked worriedly at the hard ground beneath her feet. She had chosen this field without hesitation because she trusted Qin Haoxuan, but that did not mean she completely agreed with him or believed it was truly a Spirit Land.
Land could not be judged by appearances. Fields with loose, soft soil that looked fertile were not necessarily good land. Yet this soil was black and hard, and even Elder Chu had shaken his head after making his calculations. It was difficult to call it good land.
Her reason for choosing this field was more to preserve Qin Haoxuan's dignity! Murong Chao's reason was simpler. First, Xu Yu had chosen it. Second, although he and Qin Haoxuan had had grievances before, Qin Haoxuan's many surprises over the past few days had made him deeply trust Qin Haoxuan in his subconscious.
With a sweep of Elder Chu's hand, the disciples began bustling about. Some went to the Spirit Springs to carry water, while others loosened the soil and sowed seeds, all of them busy as bees.
Watching the other senior and junior disciples work, Xu Yu also said to Qin Haoxuan with a serious expression, "Brother Haoxuan, we have to work hard at irrigation and grow more crops to exchange for spirit beast dung. Then we'll plant a huge patch of spirit herbs in this field and let them see that the land you chose is no worse than theirs!"
Qin Haoxuan, somewhat weary from the enormous drain on his divine consciousness, smiled without offering much explanation. Picking up a hoe from the ground, he said, "Let's loosen the soil first."
When the hoe struck the dry, hard earth, Qin Haoxuan found the work as sweet as honey. Since childhood, he had borne the burden of supporting his family. Every day, he had gone into the mountains to battle fierce wild beasts. Back then, his greatest wish had been to have a field like this, one he could dig for food.
One mu of land was neither particularly large nor particularly small. Half an hour was enough time to till it once.
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