Testing the New Divine Ability

"Now that the divine ability's ready, let's summon something and try it out."

As soon as the new divine ability had taken shape, Lu Mingyuan used the Talent Qi in his Soul Space to draw Spiritual Qi down from an unknown space by means of a specific method.

The moment the Spiritual Qi descended, it all flowed into the phantom of the divine ability.

Then the divine ability activated.

In the next instant, Lu Mingyuan felt something cool in his hand. He looked down and saw a piece of brown wood.

The piece of wood slowly grew, stretching longer.

As it lengthened, it gradually began to curve.

At the far end, a square crossbar appeared, with a thin blade attached to it.

That's right. It was an old-fashioned sickle.

A very common sickle.

A perfectly ordinary sickle.

Once the sickle had fully formed, Lu Mingyuan felt its weight settle into his hand. He gave it a firm grip.

He lifted it up and examined it carefully, but saw nothing unusual. It really was just an ordinary sickle.

He swung it casually, and it went "swish."

The air split open.

Well, actually, it was more of a "whoosh," the sound of the blade slicing through the air.

After a while, Lu Mingyuan finally stopped swinging it around.

"It feels pretty good in my hand. Nice and easy to use. I should be able to use it as a weapon."

"It should work nicely for cutting wheat or straw, too. One swing, and you'd clear a whole swath."

In the courtyard, Lu Mingyuan gazed at the sickle's gleaming, razor-sharp blade and sighed with emotion.

There had been no problem summoning it. Next, Lu Mingyuan planned to thoroughly test every aspect of this divine ability and figure out all its characteristics.

Just then...

"Wait, did that sickle just grow out slowly?"

Lu Mingyuan recalled the scene. First came the wooden handle, which gradually grew longer. Then a crossbar appeared, with a sharp blade attached to it. Only after that had the sickle fully formed.

Why did that look so familiar?

Hold on, wasn't it a little like that spell Erlang Shen used to summon his weapon?

Lu Mingyuan thought it over carefully. To his surprise, it really was similar.

Too bad I don't have a Three-Pointed Double-Edged Blade. Guess I can't be Erlang Shen.

But I should have a substitute.

With that thought, Lu Mingyuan said, "Dissipate," and the sickle in his hand instantly turned into specks of starlight before melting into the air.

The next moment, a piece of wood appeared in his hand again.

About five seconds later, the piece of wood had grown completely long. At the other end appeared a "Nine-Toothed Rake."

Well, actually, it was just a multi-toothed iron rake.

It was made specifically for breaking up clods of earth and leveling the ground.

As Lu Mingyuan saw it, if he couldn't get a Three-Pointed Double-Edged Blade, surely a Nine-Toothed Rake would do.

Besides, this "Golden-Banded Nine-Toothed Rake" wasn't all that shabby. After all, it had been personally forged by the Grand Supreme Elderly Lord from divine ice iron and tempered with the power of the Six Dings and Six Jias.

It was a divine weapon, at least!

Just then, Lu Mingyuan looked at the "Nine-Toothed Rake" and furrowed his brow slightly.

No, something still seemed to be missing.

Right! If I added some glowing special effects, it'd be exactly the same.

After admiring it for a long while, Lu Mingyuan suddenly got carried away. He raised the "Nine-Toothed Rake" and swung it wildly.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Just look at those crisp, forceful strokes of the rake—and the nine shallow grooves they left in the vegetable patch. This was practically Marshal Tianpeng himself, descended to the mortal world!

With every move, Lu Mingyuan even provided his own sound effects in his head.

Roar! Roar! Ha! Hey!

Suddenly, a gentle voice drifted over, tinged with confusion and surprise.

"Mingyuan, what are you doing? What's all that noise?"

At once, Lu Mingyuan froze in the courtyard as if someone had cast a spell on him. He didn't move a muscle.

This was awkward. He'd gotten carried away and forgotten that Jing Zhi was still here. And all those elementary school kids of his were here, too...

Ugh, what a headache. How was he supposed to explain this?

It took Lu Mingyuan a long while to steel himself. He composed his expression, turned around as if nothing had happened, and smiled. "Jing Zhi, I was... I was just testing my divine ability. Nothing much. By the way, weren't you teaching a class?"

"All that whooshing is distracting the children."

"Uh..."

Jing Zhi furrowed her brows. She had a feeling this guy was hiding something from her. Still, he did seem to be testing his divine ability.

Looking at the rake in his hand, Jing Zhi remembered what Lu Mingyuan had told her about this divine ability.

She thought, That rake must be something Mingyuan summoned. It looks quite real. But why was he swinging it around just now?

Seeing nothing else out of the ordinary, Jing Zhi could only set aside her suspicions for the time being. She decided she'd question him properly once the children had gone home and she had some free time.

For now, teaching her class came first.

"Go test it somewhere else. Don't disturb the children's lesson. And try to keep the noise down."

"Okay!"

Knowing he was in the wrong, Lu Mingyuan could only answer with an "okay." Then he gathered his things and headed for the kitchen, where it would hopefully be quieter and out of sight.

He hadn't realized he was disturbing the children's lesson.

At the mention of class, Lu Mingyuan glanced toward the living room. What he saw made him stop and stare.

Two rows of adorable little heads were peeking around the doorway, one atop another, stacked up high.

What were these little rascals doing instead of paying attention in class? Were they really that curious?

Hah, someone even dared to make a face at me?

I'll remember that, Xiaoxing. Next time you're in my class, I'll call on you to answer a question.

Xiaoxing had her little head poking out as she peered over. She had no idea she was about to be in big trouble, and was still flapping a hand beside her ear. She looked pretty cute like that.

Suddenly, Lu Mingyuan stomped his left foot hard against the ground. It made a loud "smack."

"The teacher's turned around."

The moment he said it, all the little heads at the doorway froze, then scattered in a flash.

"Huh?"

"Quick, quick, get back! The teacher's coming!"

"Hey, don't push me!"

"Waaah, who knocked over my stool?"

In an instant, the hall descended into chaos.

Hearing the commotion, Jing Zhi turned around and saw the mess. Then she immediately looked back and glared at Lu Mingyuan, fuming. When she saw he was still standing there, she stamped her foot. "Hurry up! Why are you still dawdling?"

Hey, Jing Zhi, you've changed. You're no longer my gentle, adorable, virtuous Jing Zhi...

Although he thought that, Jing Zhi's piercing gaze kept Lu Mingyuan from saying anything more. He scurried off toward the kitchen, carrying his "Nine-Toothed Rake," teacup, and other things.

Seeing him go, Jing Zhi smiled sweetly and turned back to the classroom.

Before long, the courtyard once again rang with the clear, rhythmic sound of the children reading aloud.

"Heaven and earth were dark and yellow, the universe vast and desolate; the sun and moon waxed and waned, the stars lay in their constellations. Cold came, then heat; autumn brought harvest, winter brought storage. The intercalary months completed the year, and the pitch pipes harmonized the yang..."

Outside the kitchen.

"All right, time to get down to business."

"First, can I summon two at once? Or even more?"

Although Lu Mingyuan had set the divine ability to summon only one item at a time, he still wanted to give it a try.

He set the rake down and tried summoning a sickle.

After a while, nothing happened.

What about the rake? Nothing there, either.

Anything else? Still nothing.

"The phantom of the divine ability isn't absorbing Spiritual Qi?"

Lu Mingyuan looked at the Spiritual Qi he had drawn in through Talent Qi and pondered silently.

A moment later—less than a second had passed—the Spiritual Qi vanished without a trace, as if it had never existed.

"Looks like the books were right. If the conditions for use aren't met, the phantom of the divine ability won't absorb Spiritual Qi."

As for the Spiritual Qi disappearing, Lu Mingyuan had already known about that.

According to the records in the texts, and his own understanding, Spiritual Qi was a form of extraordinary energy that existed in another space. It couldn't remain in the real world—or in one's Soul Space—for long unless it was channeled through a divine ability.

So after vanishing, the Spiritual Qi must have returned to where it came from.

Thinking this, Lu Mingyuan made the rake in his hand dissipate, then tried summoning the sickle again.

This time, it worked.

"So it looks like my divine ability really can only summon one tool at a time."

"Still, that's pretty good. It's enough for me."

It wasn't that Lu Mingyuan hadn't wanted to design the divine ability to summon several items at once. He simply hadn't had the money.

The more complicated and numerous the summoned items were, the more Spiritual Qi they required to use. They also demanded more Qi Luck Points to design.

With the divine ability Lu Mingyuan had now, adding just one more summonable item would push the cost above ten thousand Qi Luck Points.

After that, the cost would multiply again and again.

"It's not just a matter of being broke. It wouldn't be worth it, either."

"My farming-tool divine ability probably won't have much need for summoning several things at once."

After consoling himself, Lu Mingyuan began the next test.

"This time, let's see whether these tools can leave the area influenced by my Talent Qi."

As he spoke, Lu Mingyuan set the sickle on the ground and walked toward the kitchen.

One step.

Two steps.

Three steps. Stop!

"One step is at least seventy centimeters. That means I'm now more than two meters from the sickle. My Talent Qi is a little over 1.6 cun, but less than 1.7 cun, so the range in which I can directly influence extraordinary power is less than 1.7 meters."

"The sickle is still lying there, just fine."

"So the books were right. Summoned objects can indeed leave their owner's side."

"Mm, I'll skip testing how long it lasts for now. It seems to be at least a day. I can test that later."

Thinking this, Lu Mingyuan focused his mind and tried to make the sickle dissipate.

To his surprise, the sickle remained motionless, lying exactly where it was.

"That didn't work? So outside my range of influence, I can't just make the divine ability disappear."

"In that case..."

Lu Mingyuan tried summoning another sickle.

Nothing.

A rake? Nothing, either.

"Looks like it's not always a good thing for a summoned divine ability to last so long."

"If I get into a fight and someone takes my weapon, or I lose it, then without another divine ability like this, I'd be in a pretty awkward spot."

"But that probably won't happen very often."

As he thought this, Lu Mingyuan slowly approached the sickle on the ground, repeatedly thinking, "Dissipate," as he walked.

Suddenly, he felt the sickle enter the range of his influence. He casually said, "Dissipate."

The sickle, which had been lying steadily on the ground, suddenly broke apart into specks of starlight and vanished into the air.

"So even if just part of it enters my range, I can make it dissipate. And it's not just the part that entered—the whole thing falls apart."

"I thought half of it would stay outside."

"Still, I can't think of much use for this feature."

"Mm, I'll think about it another time. On to the next test."

This time, Lu Mingyuan planned to summon something longer than his range of influence and see what happened.

What exactly would it do?

Once the divine ability activated, a silver-white metal tube appeared first. It was about thirty centimeters long, with a diameter of roughly three centimeters.

Slowly, a bulge began to form in the middle of the tube.

As time passed, the bulge gradually grew. It was clear that it, too, was a silver-white metal tube.

This metal tube was very, very long. It kept extending until it reached the edge of the area Lu Mingyuan's Talent Qi could influence—about 1.6 meters from his brow.

"It stopped? Does it quit growing once it's out of range?"

"Then I'll try pulling it closer."

Lu Mingyuan tried, and found that the metal tube, which had just stopped growing, really could continue to extend.

As it grew longer, the connecting mechanism appeared, followed by the plowshare and, most importantly, the plow blade.

Finally, a completely silver-white hand-pulled plow appeared in front of Lu Mingyuan.

That's right. Lu Mingyuan had made this hand-pulled plow entirely out of "steel," without using any wood.

A hand-pulled plow didn't have many parts. Even made entirely of steel, it wouldn't be heavy. It was also sturdy enough to withstand a lot of wear and tear, and using steel instead of wood even saved on materials and design work.

So that was how he had designed it.

Now, as he looked at the hand-pulled plow in his hand, the confusion in Lu Mingyuan's eyes still hadn't cleared.

"Could it be that once it reaches the boundary, I just have to pull it over, and that's it? There's no loss at all?"

Lu Mingyuan wondered aloud. But the plow in his hands couldn't lie to him. This really did work.

"Forget it. I'd better test how this plow works first. I used to make them out of wood, and I never dared put too much force into testing them because I was afraid of breaking them. Now I can summon one, and it's made entirely of steel. I can really put it through its paces."

With that, Lu Mingyuan stepped forward and walked to the middle of the plow. He lifted it, ready to head over to the vegetable patch.

Just then, he suddenly noticed that part of the plowshare was missing.

The pointed end seemed to have been snapped off, erased.

"Th-this should've been designed right, shouldn't it?"

"Then what happened?"

"Could it be..."

Lu Mingyuan suddenly remembered that when the plow beam had extended to the boundary just now, it seemed to have paused there for a while.

"Could that be the reason?"

"Only one way to find out. I'll summon another one and see."

He let it dissipate, then summoned it again.

This time, as soon as a little of the steel pipe had grown out, Lu Mingyuan pulled it back a little, not letting it stop at the boundary.

The result soon became clear: this time, the plowshare was complete, its pointed end forming a perfect cone.

"Looks like that really was the reason."

"But what caused it?"

"Was it a time limit? A limit on Spiritual Qi? Or something else?"

Lu Mingyuan pondered for a long while, but he still couldn't come up with a concrete way to test the problem.

"Hmm... I'll make a note of this and test it later. I'd better see how well this hand-pulled plow works first. That's the main thing, after all."

With that, Lu Mingyuan lifted the plow and headed for the vegetable patch.