Opening Spirit Fields, Purple-Patterned Goose

A Tier 1 Low-grade Spirit Peach Tree could bear roughly forty to fifty Spirit Peaches each year, bringing in a profit of more than two hundred Spirit Stones annually.

Spirit Peach Trees had lifespans of several centuries at the very least. Two hundred Spirit Stones a year would accumulate into an enormous return over time.

If this were a Spirit Peach Tree, it could greatly improve the Chen Clan's current predicament.

"What a pity."

As he sighed, Chen Nianzhi suddenly froze, struck by a thought.

"Hongmeng Purple Qi."

He remembered that Hongmeng Purple Qi could improve one's foundation and had the wondrous effect of creating aptitude. Perhaps it could cause the Spirit Peach Tree to transform.

But he hesitated again. Hongmeng Purple Qi was exceedingly rare. After more than ten years of painstaking cultivation, he had accumulated only one and a half mouthfuls of Creation Purple Qi.

"I once wanted to improve my cultivation aptitude again, but unfortunately, Hongmeng Purple Qi seems to be usable only once. It is useless to me now."

"Perhaps advancing the peach tree into a spirit tree and using its Spirit Peaches to aid my cultivation is the most worthwhile choice at present."

With that thought, Chen Nianzhi made up his mind. He exhaled a mouthful of Hongmeng Purple Qi and had it merge into the Spirit Peach Tree.

Sure enough, after the Spirit Peach Tree absorbed that mouthful of Hongmeng Purple Qi, it underwent a miraculous change.

It became taller and more luxuriant, increasingly ancient and extraordinary. Its spiritual aura faintly pressed against the senses, while its peach blossoms grew ever more vivid and delicate.

"Spirit Root."

"It really has advanced into a Tier 1 Spirit Peach Tree."

Chen Nianzhi revealed a delighted expression, but his heart also ached. It had taken him ten years of painstaking breathing exercises to accumulate one mouthful of Dawn Glow Purple Qi, yet it was gone in an instant.

Only half a mouthful of Dawn Glow Purple Qi remained. It would likely take another five or six years before he accumulated a full mouthful again.

After the Spirit Peach Tree advanced, he simply built a bamboo hut beside it and began opening Spirit Fields.

Opening Spirit Fields was meticulous work. One not only had to cultivate the land, but also arrange a Spirit-Gathering Formation within it. Finally, one had to nourish the soil with a spirit planter's Spirit-Nurturing Technique. Only then was it possible to open a Spirit Field.

Chen Nianzhi spent two days reclaiming three mu of Spirit Fields, while arranging the Spirit-Gathering Formation took another seven or eight days.

The Spirit-Nurturing Technique was a Tier 1 High-grade spell. Cultivators with water, wood, or earth Spirit Roots could all use it, but it consumed a great deal of energy. Even with Chen Nianzhi's Seventh Layer of Qi Refining cultivation, he could only cast it three times in succession before needing to wait for his true qi to recover.

To nurture the three mu of Spirit Fields, he cast the Spirit-Nurturing Technique more than thirty times in succession before finally opening the three mu of Spirit Fields.

It was not that he could not open more. It was simply that the Tier 1 High-grade Spirit Vein possessed limited spiritual qi. It needed to sustain the Azure Spirit Fish and supply Chen Nianzhi's cultivation as well, leaving only enough spiritual qi to open three mu of Spirit Fields.

Any more than that would require consuming Spirit Stones to open the fields. Yet opening one mu of Spirit Field with Spirit Stones required a thousand Spirit Stones. With the Chen Clan's coffers now empty, they simply could not produce such a vast sum.

By the time he finally finished opening the Spirit Fields, it was already late March. Chen Nianzhi hurried to work for another three days before planting two mu of Spirit Rice and one mu of spirit herbs.

"Done."

Looking at the Spirit Rice and spirit herbs in the fields, Chen Nianzhi smiled.

Spirit Rice ripened once a year. One mu of Spirit Field could bring in a profit of over twenty Spirit Stones annually, while two mu could bring roughly fifty Spirit Stones in yearly income to the Lineage.

Spirit herbs took an extremely long time to mature. He had scattered the seeds of more than thirty spirit herbs across this mu of Spirit Field. The fastest would need ten years to grow, while the slowest would require decades, or even centuries, to mature.

Spirit herbs were immensely valuable. Though they did not bring money as quickly as Spirit Rice, they concerned the cultivation of Foundation Establishment cultivators and above. They were indispensable treasures, things that could only be encountered by chance and never sought.

A few years ago, a stalk of Azure Origin Ganoderma had matured in Qingyuan Mountain's spirit herb garden. Clan Chief Chen Changxuan had asked someone to refine it into a furnace of Tier 2 High-grade pills, and only then had he broken through the bottleneck of the Seventh Layer of Foundation Establishment.

After planting the Spirit Rice and spirit herbs, Chen Nianzhi finally breathed a sigh of relief. From then on, he only needed to nourish the Spirit Fields with the Spirit-Nurturing Technique every half month and water them once with the Spirit Rain Technique. The rest of his time could be devoted to cultivation without worry.

Time slipped away in cultivation, and in the blink of an eye, two months had passed.

On this day, after completing his cultivation routine, Chen Nianzhi piloted a lone boat across Spirit Isle Lake, counting the Azure Spirit Fish.

"Why are there two fewer?"

After counting them several times, Chen Nianzhi frowned.

Azure Spirit Fish usually followed behind the Fish King, moving in groups to feed on aquatic plants. With the Late Stage of Qi Refining Azure Fish King guarding them, the young fish were very safe, and disappearances basically never happened.

Yet after checking repeatedly, he still found two missing. With his current eyesight, it was virtually impossible for him to make a mistake when counting over a hundred Spirit Fish.

Thus, Chen Nianzhi felt there was something strange within the spirit lake. Some kind of demonic beast must have hunted two Spirit Fish.

"The demonic beasts in the spirit lake have been purged three times. Logically, there should not be any ferocious demonic beasts left."

"Could another demonic beast have migrated here?"

Chen Nianzhi calculated inwardly and wanted to seek aid from Qingyuan Mountain, but in the end, he suppressed the thought.

Only two young Azure Spirit Fish had been lost, so the creature should not be especially powerful. Otherwise, the Azure Fish King could not possibly have protected the school.

The Azure Fish King had a gentle temperament. Though it possessed Late Stage of Qi Refining mana, its strength could only be considered the bottom rung among Late Stage of Qi Refining creatures.

If the demonic beast could not even deal with the Fish King, then its strength was likely limited. Chen Nianzhi believed he could easily take it down.

The urgent matter was to find the demonic beast that had been secretly eating the Spirit Fish, then capture it.

That day, Chen Nianzhi searched nearly half the spirit lake. By the time the sun set, he had found nothing and could only return to Lakeheart Island, intending to search again the next day.

Early the next morning, after Chen Nianzhi absorbed the dawn glow and completed his Hongmeng Purple Qi cultivation routine, he set out for the spirit lake.

The moment he saw the school of fish, his brows furrowed. He noticed that the number of Spirit Fish was wrong.

Sure enough, after counting them, he found that two more Spirit Fish were missing. With cultivation at the Late Stage of Qi Refining, his memory far surpassed that of ordinary people. At a glance, he recognized that the two missing fish were the smallest ones.

This made Chen Nianzhi's heart ache terribly, and his teeth itched with hatred. Once fully grown, one Spirit Fish was worth five Spirit Stones. Losing four young fish in succession meant the Lineage had nearly lost twenty Spirit Stones.

A Late Stage of Qi Refining cultivator in the Chen Clan received an annual stipend of only ten Spirit Stones. Now that four Spirit Fish had been lost at once, even though he was already a senior figure with a voice in the Lineage and might not be held accountable for such a minor loss, he still felt utterly ashamed and furious.

"Damned thing, don't let me catch you."

Chen Nianzhi ground his teeth, cast the Water-Repelling Technique, and dove beneath the lake, following behind the school of Spirit Fish as he prepared to wait by a tree stump for a hare.

The school suffered no attacks that day, but Chen Nianzhi had already resolved to catch that demonic beast. Rather than returning to Lakeheart Island, he remained behind the school and stood guard for the entire night.

It was not until dawn the next day that he finally gained something and discovered the culprit behind the stolen Spirit Fish.

He saw a furtive creature swim out from the reed beds and quietly make its way toward the Spirit Fish.

"A Purple-Patterned Goose?"