Late Qi Nourishment Realm, Testing Formations

"The path of formations tests one's comprehension. That's true, but there are also those whose perseverance never wavers, who ultimately become formation masters. At the beginning of formation cultivation, one must first learn to calm the mind..."

The Purple-Crowned Elder's voice spread across the cloud platforms, ensuring every disciple could hear him.

"So that's how it is. Because one's control is insufficient in the early stages, Spirit Stones are needed to assist a formation's operation. But as long as one can perfectly command their own Spiritual Power, seize a thread of spiritual energy from heaven and earth, and merge with nature itself, the formation will become seamless and naturally formed."

"The Spirit-Gathering Formation is the starting point, but one may also begin with the Mind-Gathering Formation, which focuses and condenses the mind..."

"Unfortunately, the beginning requires formation plates and matching materials. They're necessary transitional tools for beginners—unless one possesses outstanding talent, in which case it's another matter."

Lu Qing thought it over and realized he couldn't abandon his great Spirit Plant enterprise during its initial stages.

The Spirit Fields at the back mountain ought to be put to use.

He had to admit that when the Purple-Crowned Elder spoke of formations, he made profound principles simple to understand. He wasn't merely speaking grandly; he demonstrated on the spot how formations were arranged. One formation after another appeared in his hands, as naturally as moving his own arms.

Lu Qing was still an outsider to the craft and couldn't discern the finer details, but he could still feel the effects of the Spirit-Gathering Formation.

Within a large Spirit-Gathering Formation, he had originally planned to further temper the foundation of his Qi Nourishment Sixth Layer. Unexpectedly, as spiritual energy poured into him, he broke through with perfect calm and advanced to the Qi Nourishment Seventh Layer.

This realm was already the Late Qi Nourishment Realm.

Lu Qing felt neither surprise nor delight. Everything simply seemed natural. With his aptitude, he had never worried about his cultivation speed.

He attended lessons for three straight days.

Among the many Outer Academy disciples, he remained utterly unremarkable.

After leaving, Lu Qing heard that quite a few people from the same batch as himself had begun earning titles such as Outer Academy rising stars.

Among them were favored geniuses such as Gu Xuantian, Cheng Du, Su Xinyue, and Wan Feiyu.

But none of that had anything to do with him.

At present, he was in his own courtyard, eager to try forging his first formation.

Formation knowledge had sunk deep into his mind, and Lu Qing's hands itched to get started. A simple formation plate didn't cost much.

He quickly obtained one.

He tried to arrange a beginner's Spirit-Gathering Formation. Clearly, Spiritual Power set out from the formation eye, but before it could begin circulating, it seemed to snap halfway through. The activation went awry, and naturally, the formation couldn't be started.

Failure on the first attempt was normal.

The moment Lu Qing heard about it, he had wanted to put it into practice.

A full day and night passed in succession, yet Lu Qing remained spirited. At the eight directions around him, faint glimmers of light lit up one by one like a spiritual vein, swiftly brightening. They were like heavenly lanterns being kindled. In Lu Qing's eyes, those points of light had originally been pearls, but now that Spiritual Power linked them together—

The pearls were strung into a genuine pearl necklace. The finished product was successfully born.

"It worked! Haha, looks like I really do have some talent for formations."

Lu Qing was rather pleased. They said cultivating immortality consumed resources, yet after comparing and pondering while experimenting with the Spirit-Gathering Formation, he had figured it out. He didn't even need to consume his own Spirit Stones. What Spirit Stones? Drawing directly upon the spiritual energy of heaven and earth as the foundation for operation was the proper way.

"Good, good, good. This formation can be set up in my courtyard and Spirit Fields. Once I'm more proficient, I can even upgrade it from the simplest Spirit-Gathering Formation."

Since Lu Qing was preparing to farm, he had naturally made proper preparations rather than merely talking about it.

"Spirit Plants are generally supplied to the dining hall. The Dao Academy won't keep everything in its own hands; every month, it comes to purchase the usual and special Spirit Plants."

When trading with other people, you might know their face but not their heart.

But when trading with this colossal entity itself, there was no need for so many concerns.

Now that Lu Qing understood his own capabilities, he nodded. "Then I should choose the seeds first."

As a major force that could nearly provide for its daily cultivation needs through self-sufficiency, Lu Qing understood that this place had every kind of seed imaginable.

He didn't challenge anything too difficult.

The Spirit Fields had previously been left abandoned. Now, Lu Qing arrived at the back courtyard, where more than a dozen Spirit Fields lay arranged in neat grids beneath the open sky. The soil was fertile, and beside the fields sat a small pond, with only a few ordinary fish swimming back and forth within it.

When Lu Qing had entered this place before, he had merely glanced in this direction.

Now that he saw it, he first spent some effort setting up the Spirit-Gathering Formation. Since there was a pond here, it was perfect for placing the formation eye in this direction.

Once Lu Qing was ready and felt the spiritual energy gathering, he quickly took the seeds from the Jade Token Space.

It was far too convenient. With this Jade Token, it was practically instant delivery. Aside from excessively precious items that required one to personally verify and collect them offline, mere Spirit Plant seeds naturally didn't require such trouble.

The more he used it, the more Lu Qing felt that the mysteries contained within this jade token were beyond counting.

Not to mention anything else, the Jade Token Space alone was enough to let many people glimpse the Dao Academy's formidable strength.

That was also why Lu Qing had always felt that this place wasn't a purely immortal cultivation sect.

"Moonblade Spirit Rice perfectly meets the requirements."

With a sweep of Lu Qing's hand, countless Moonblade Spirit Rice seeds sank into the soil.

Then Lu Qing formed hand seals and silently recited within his heart. A huge mass of dark clouds immediately gathered above the Spirit Fields, and rain fell from the sky. The low water level in the pond slowly began to rise as well.

Soon, the soil became moist. Lu Qing didn't leave, instead watching this patch of earth closely.

In less than the time it took to drink half a cup of tea, the seeds Lu Qing had planted began breaking through the soil, sprouting tender green shoots.

"One day to grow, three days to bear rice. But full maturity will take more than half a month before it can be harvested."

"After maturity, the leaves of the Moonblade Spirit Rice can also be harvested and made into talisman paper. Cultivating it isn't particularly difficult, but for it to mature well, it needs to be fed certain special things."

As Lu Qing thought of this, his expression became somewhat strange. Looking at the tender shoots before him, if he had only skimmed through the information, he likely wouldn't have discovered a Spirit Plant so suited to his current circumstances.

That's right. Those special things required the cultivator planting it to feed it attack spells.

Sword arts were best.

That was why Lu Qing had chosen it. And the sword art couldn't use a real sword to inflict harm—wasn't that basically asking someone to carve out sword techniques with Spiritual Power?

Lu Qing finally understood completely. The Library Tower and the Dao Academy's treasure vault truly had everything one could possibly need.

Perhaps there were many seniors cultivating the Profound Heaven Origin Scripture as well, and someone had discovered this use for it. Otherwise, that plainly displayed Spirit Sword Art was precisely this kind of Spirit Plant's "growth fertilizer."

"The great thousand worlds truly contain every strange thing imaginable."

Lu Qing shook his head and returned to continue cultivating.

He was exceptionally settled now. Calamity Avoidance hadn't acted up, so the circumstances should have differed from when he had first entered the sect.

But sometimes, the more one didn't want something to happen, the more it arrived and caught them utterly off guard.