After three days of growth, the rice seeds had begun to sprout.
At this initial stage, as long as the soil fertility posed no problems, there was basically little need for Dong Lin to worry.
The growth cycle of spirit rice was roughly six months. Aside from regular fertilizing and pest removal,
there was not much else Dong Lin needed to concern himself with.
As the ancients said, "You get what you pay for."
These ready-made spirit fields provided by the sect were far more worry-free and labor-saving.
At this moment, a fellow disciple passed by Dong Lin's spirit field and saw him nodding in satisfaction at his own field.
Unable to resist, he asked, "Junior Brother, is this your first time farming? Why haven't you accelerated the rice seeds?
"If you simply scatter the seeds in and wait for the seedlings to emerge slowly, you'll have an extra two or three months of seedling growth."
"Huh? The Spirit Rice Cultivation Manual I bought didn't mention this at all."
Hearing his senior brother's well-meaning reminder, Dong Lin secretly felt that disaster was at hand.
"Isn't accelerating spirit seeds an introductory compulsory course for spirit plant cultivators? Junior Brother, didn't you look into it?
"Would a cultivation manual really not mention acceleration? Ordinary instructional manuals usually include a universal acceleration technique."
"No." Dong Lin took out the manual with a bewildered expression and handed it to the senior brother before him.
"What era's antique is this? The art of accelerating spirit materials was developed hundreds of years ago by Senior Zhang Zaixian, the master of ten thousand farmers.
"Junior Brother, being able to buy such an antique is a kind of skill in itself."
"Thank you for the reminder, Senior Brother. I'll head to the market and look again."
Dong Lin hurried to the marketplace, but the stall where he had bought the manual was long gone.
At the time, Dong Lin had merely happened to pass by. He had spotted a basic spirit rice cultivation manual for sale at a roadside stall and bought it straight away.
Afterward, he had not thought to buy another copy at the Shouyang Storehouse.
Who would have thought that he had bought such an ancient edition, missing such a crucial step?
Had that experienced senior brother not reminded him in time, Dong Lin would have suffered a devastating loss this time.
One harvest every six months and one harvest every nine months—the difference was like heaven and earth.
It could truly have cost Dong Lin even the shirt off his back.
From afar, Zhang Tao saw Dong Lin arrive at the market. "Brother Dong, it has been a while. What are you looking for?"
Zhang Tao was exceptionally sharp at spotting customers. He had noticed Dong Lin from a great distance away.
He directly called Dong Lin into the shop.
After Dong Lin explained the situation, Zhang Tao fetched the latest Shouyang edition of the cultivation encyclopedia from the store.
"These days, being able to buy an instructional manual without an acceleration technique is quite a marvel.
"Brother Dong, our Shouyang edition of the cultivation encyclopedia has everything one could possibly need.
"It contains over twenty acceleration techniques just for different varieties of crops alone. You're guaranteed to be satisfied.
"No loss from buying it, no deception from buying it."
Dong Lin accepted the book, flipped through a couple of pages, and nodded.
"Alright. How much?"
"Ah, we're old acquaintances. I'll give you a discount—one hundred Low-Grade Spirit Stones. I normally sell this for over one hundred and twenty.
"I'm only rounding it down for Brother Dong's sake."
"That expensive?" Dong Lin could not help frowning.
It was only their second meeting, yet Zhang Tao acted as though they were incredibly familiar, making Dong Lin feel somewhat embarrassed to refuse outright.
"I could tell with one glance that Brother Dong is absolutely a genius in the planting world.
"This book contains acceleration and cultivation methods for more than a hundred kinds of spirit crops and spirit herbs. It is absolutely worth every stone.
"This is called solving it once and for all. Buy one book, and you can use it for a lifetime. A tremendous bargain."
"Then alright."
With the air of a wealthy man, Dong Lin bought the Shouyang Encyclopedia of Spirit Crop Cultivation.
Its contents were indeed complete. Compared to the one he had bought before for a dozen or so Low-Grade Spirit Stones, it was as different as heaven and earth.
Dong Lin searched through it for quite some time before finding a universal Verdant Growth Acceleration Technique for spirit rice.
He first tested it on several seeds.
The difficulty of getting started with this technique felt far greater to Dong Lin than even the Thunder Summoning Art, a lightning-element spell universally acknowledged to be difficult to learn.
After five consecutive days of effort and the consumption of more than a hundred seeds, Dong Lin finally succeeded in accelerating them and barely managed to get started.
This kind of spell, which guided and accelerated spiritual energy within the seeds with precision, demanded extremely exact spiritual-sense control over spiritual energy.
Only cultivators with exceptionally profound control over their own spiritual power could properly master the art of acceleration.
Dong Lin truly had neither the time nor the energy to spend more time practicing this acceleration technique.
After gaining a preliminary grasp of it, Dong Lin rushed to the spirit field and learned through practice.
With tens of thousands of rice seeds, given Dong Lin's current spiritual sense and technique proficiency, he could successfully accelerate only around two hundred in an hour.
He spent an entire day there before barely managing to "pull seedlings to help them grow" for fifteen hundred sprouted seedlings.
As Dong Lin's mastery of the acceleration technique improved, he could now steadily accelerate nearly five hundred per hour.
He estimated that within three days, he should be able to finish accelerating all the spirit rice seeds in the field.
"My cultivation is still a bit too low. Once my cultivation rises and my spiritual sense strengthens, I should be able to accelerate them much faster."
Under Dong Lin's diligent labor, he finally completed the acceleration of all the rice seeds at noon on the fourth day.
By then, the spirit rice seedlings in the spirit field had already grown to Dong Lin's waist.
The spirit rice had begun tillering, and the next stretch would be its period of rapid growth.
During this period, spirit rice had an extremely high demand for spirit fertilizer and water.
In the spare time between his daily cultivation, Dong Lin had to visit the fields to fertilize and weed, ensuring that the growth of the spirit rice would not be affected.
After making intensive use of the Verdant Growth Acceleration Technique, Dong Lin's control over his own spiritual power became increasingly refined.
Just ten days later, Dong Lin had complete confidence.
He began breaking through to the Mid Qi Refining Stage.
At this point, more than seventy days had passed since Dong Lin reached Perfected Early Qi Refining.
Dong Lin had nurtured his dantian thoroughly.
To be safe, Dong Lin also went through Senior Sister Yun Shu
and spent ten contribution points to exchange for a Meridian-Protecting Pill.
The Meridian-Protecting Pill was designed specifically for Qi Refining Stage cultivators, whose Dantians and meridians were relatively fragile.
It was a medicinal pill developed especially to protect the dantian and meridians.
Its original purpose was for combat, preventing Qi Refining Stage cultivators from suffering meridian damage—or even dantian damage—when casting spells,
because the spells were too powerful and placed excessive spiritual-energy demands on their meridians and Dantians.
Ordinary cultivators only needed to take a Meridian-Protecting Pill before a duel to cast spells without worry, no longer having to be overly concerned about the chain of consequences caused by fragile meridians.
Later, as this pill became more widespread, its second use—also its more widely used purpose today—was developed.
That was to assist Qi Refining Stage cultivators when breaking through minor realms.
This was because Qi Refining Stage breakthroughs relied on spiritual energy wrapping around the dantian while compressing it through the meridians, thereby expanding one's dantian.
There were countless intricacies to applying pressure through the meridians, and every cultivation technique had its own method.
As for the Breath-and-Spirit Absorption Art, the most upright and gentle technique in the cultivation world, its secret method for expanding the dantian employed the most upright and gentle approach.
Before you continue