After he had completely mastered the Cloud Rain Art, whenever Chen Changming cast it, the cloud it summoned spread over nearly one mu of land.
So, to water five mu of fields, he only needed to cast the spell five times.
The Cloud Rain Art had grown more powerful, and naturally, it consumed more spiritual energy. With his current reserves, he could cast it exactly five times.
Spirit Rice did not need to be watered every day. According to the Spirit Rice Planting Guide, watering it once a month was usually enough, and no more than three times a month at most.
So, afterward, whenever Chen Changming practiced, he did so in the small woods behind his house.
He could now cast the Cloud Rain Art fifty times a day. Though he was exhausted afterward, feeling drained and drenched in sweat, Chen Changming always managed to persevere through sheer willpower.
He knew very well that with talent as trash as his, he had to work harder than other people just to have a chance of catching up to an ordinary person's pace.
So even when he was exhausted, he always made time to go to his spiritual fields to get rid of pests and keep practicing the Five Tigers Soul-Severing Blade.
It was the only attack skill he had for now.
Even if it was merely a martial art from the jianghu, Chen Changming still wanted to master it and improve his strength.
After all, he had no contribution points and no way to exchange them for an offensive cultivation art.
He practiced the Evergreen Art, the Cloud Rain Art, and the Five Tigers Soul-Severing Blade every day without pause. As for the Spirit Armor Art and the Heavenly Furnace Body-Forging Art, he had no time for them for now.
Fortunately, growing Spirit Rice allowed him plenty of freedom, and no one supervised him. Chen Changming lived a carefree, self-sufficient life here, and in the process, his strength slowly improved.
Two days later.
At dusk.
Just as the young man was fully focused on casting the Cloud Rain Art, a warm current suddenly welled up from the soles of his feet. A long-missed voice rang in his mind.
"Cloud Rain Art, one hundred casts!"
He had broken through!
Chen Changming felt as if a heavy burden had lifted from his shoulders. He let out a long breath, delight appearing in his eyes.
His Cloud Rain Art had finally grown stronger.
The young man waved his hand and rapidly formed one spell seal after another. In an instant, gale winds rose and clouds gathered above the woods, forming a vast cloud that covered a full ten mu of land!
The clouds churned, and fine threads of rain began to fall!
"What a huge cloud!"
Chen Changming was stunned.
It was so enormous that it could water ten mu of spiritual fields all at once!
Chen Changming held out his hand to catch the rain and silently sensed it. To his shock, the rain contained more than twice as much energy as before!
Wonderful!
Watering his fields with this rain would surely bring him a bumper harvest!
After a while, the clouds dissipated, and the spiritual energy in Chen Changming's Dantian was completely depleted.
"My cultivation is still too low. I can only cast a spell this powerful once..."
Chen Changming murmured to himself, his eyes gradually brightening.
He could control the size of the clouds formed by the Cloud Rain Art and reduce the amount of spiritual energy it consumed.
After breaking through with the Cloud Rain Art, Chen Changming devoted himself to practicing the Evergreen Art and the Five Tigers Soul-Severing Blade.
Half a month later.
Chen Changming had practiced the Evergreen Art a thousand times and broke through once again.
After the breakthrough, he absorbed spiritual energy from the world at least ten times faster than before. The meridians in his body had widened, and the spiritual energy stored in his Dantian had multiplied.
Even though he was only at the first level of Qi Refining, the spiritual energy in his Dantian was dozens of times greater than that of a fellow outer servant at the same level!
"The Evergreen Art's second breakthrough took a thousand casts. The third will probably take ten thousand..."
Chen Changming thought quietly.
Breaking through from one hundred to one thousand casts was easy; going from one thousand to ten thousand was much harder. The fourth breakthrough might take a hundred thousand casts—that would be even more out of reach.
A month later.
The Five Tigers Soul-Severing Blade reached ten thousand casts and finally broke through.
This breakthrough helped Chen Changming figure out some of the rules. For martial arts, the first breakthrough came after ten thousand repetitions; for cultivation arts, it came after one hundred.
Chen Changming went to the spiritual fields.
After observing them in silence, he compared them with the Spirit Rice Planting Guide and was surprised to find that the Spirit Rice seemed close to ripening.
It had already flowered. In no more than two months, the grain heads would form.
"Could the enhanced Cloud Rain Art help Spirit Rice grow faster?"
Chen Changming guessed excitedly.
At this rate, his five mu of fields could yield two harvests a year. And the Spirit Rice he had planted was growing exceptionally well. Once each crop ripened, he was sure to reap a bumper harvest!
"Junior Brother Chen, your Spirit Rice is growing beautifully!"
Just as Chen Changming was enjoying the sight on his own, an ominous laugh drifted over from the distance.
Chen Changming frowned and turned. He saw Pi Dong strolling toward him from afar with his hands behind his back.
"It's all right," Chen Changming replied coolly.
Now he could tend his fields by himself, so he no longer had to watch Pi Dong's every expression.
Pi Dong came closer and examined the fields. He cried out in surprise, "Junior Brother Chen, what kind of luck have you had? Your Spirit Rice is almost ripe already!"
Chen Changming's heart skipped a beat.
Someone had seen through the secret of his spiritual fields. That was not good.
He thought for a moment, then deliberately answered in a casual, carefree manner. "Sorry to disappoint you, Senior Brother Pi. Maybe I've just taken good care of it."
"Bah! You're dreaming!"
Pi Dong rolled up his sleeves and grunted, "I never expected your fields to be connected to an underground spiritual vein, too. That's why the rice ripens twice a year!"
Chen Changming heard the implication and asked without letting it show, "Senior Brother Pi, I don't understand what you mean."
Pi Dong pointed toward the mountainside and said irritably, "The newcomers aren't very skilled, so they give you the poorest fields at the foot of the mountain. You grow crops there that ripen once a year. Those of us who've been in the Lingxiao Sect for years grow our crops on the mountainside or the mountaintop instead. The fields there are connected to the underground spiritual veins to varying degrees. They can produce at least two harvests a year, and the best ones can produce four!"
"I see."
Chen Changming looked enlightened.
He had not realized the spiritual fields in this valley held so many secrets. Fortunately, Pi Dong had come by today and revealed them on his own, inadvertently helping Chen Changming cover up what was really going on.
It seemed he could not spend all his time cultivating from now on. He should also get out more and make friends with the valley's other outer servants, learning more about the place and building up goodwill.
Otherwise, burying himself in cultivation alone would not do. Knowing nothing about the outside world could lead to unforeseen risks.
Pi Dong could do nothing about Chen Changming. After all, this junior brother could water his fields and remove pests by himself, and he had also happened upon a fine plot of land. Pi Dong could no longer hope to earn contribution points from him.
After rambling on for a while, he left, crestfallen.
Chen Changming turned and went back inside to continue practicing the Evergreen Art. After a month, his cultivation had advanced once again, and his spiritual energy had grown even more abundant.
That month, in addition to cultivating, Chen Changming also went out to pay visits to the more senior outer servants on the mountainside and mountaintop. He gradually learned more about the situation in the valley.
Most fields on the mountainside yielded two harvests a year.
Most fields on the mountaintop yielded three harvests a year, while a few yielded four.
Though the fields were of higher quality and yielded more often, Spirit Rice grew faster there and needed to be watered more frequently.
Without a certain level of cultivation, it was hard to manage.
The outer servants on the mountaintop had cultivation as high as the third level of Qi Refining. Because they had contributed greatly to the Lingxiao Sect, they received three Spirit Gathering Pills each month as a reward.
These Spirit Gathering Pills could aid their practice of the Evergreen Art and speed up breakthroughs.
"So my cultivation has been so slow because I've been missing pills!"
Chen Changming stood in the courtyard, gazing at the mist-shrouded mountain peaks, his eyes gleaming.
He had to find a way to get his hands on those Spirit Gathering Pills!