Spirit Awakening

Arriving at the Merit Affairs Hall, Dong Lin looked over the tasks related to pest removal in Spirit Fields.

Besides the tasks issued directly by the sect, there were also many private pest-removal tasks, and their offers were not low.

For one mu of ordinary Spirit Rice fields, the price for a single pest-removal session was generally around five Low-Grade Spirit Stones.

Though the price looked rather low, pest removal usually only required driving the strange insects beyond the boundaries of the Spirit Field.

Naturally, they could not be driven into someone else's Spirit Field, or it would easily breed resentment.

One had to know that Spirit Rice, which ripened once every half year, could only earn a little over two hundred Low-Grade Spirit Stones even with a good harvest.

With so many upfront costs, the profits from Spirit Fields were squeezed until they were hardly worth looking at.

Not to mention those who wanted to offset sect tasks through cultivating Spirit Fields.

They had to hand over nearly half their harvest, meaning that after a year of planting, they could earn roughly two hundred Spirit Stones.

Yet the costs alone were almost a hundred Low-Grade Spirit Stones. If they invested too much in pest removal,

then the field would become a losing business.

No wonder no one in the sect thought highly of Spirit Field cultivation. There was simply too little oil and water in it.

The price of spirit rice was relatively transparent. It was unlike pill refining or artifact forging, where a slight markup could sometimes bring in a fortune.

As the most basic staple for cultivators, spirit rice had a fixed price. With little room for changes in income,

everyone could only open new sources and cut old expenses, putting more effort into reducing costs.

Driving away spirit insects was one relatively effective way to save on costs.

Dong Lin had only just begun farming, so he was still diligent in protecting his Spirit Rice. He could not bear to watch strange insects ruin his food.

Experienced old spirit farmers, however, generally only came once every half month.

That was because the few strange insects that usually appeared in a field would not wreak widespread damage upon the Spirit Rice in only a few days.

Their effect on the final yield of the Spirit Rice was almost negligible.

Generally, Spirit Fields required pest removal for ten months of every year.

That meant twenty pest-removal sessions annually. Some professional pest-removal specialists would take on such work,

charging ninety or ninety-five Spirit Stones a year to cover all pest-removal tasks for one mu of field.

The spirit farmer only needed to apply fertilizer on time and maintain the soil's fertility to harvest a full yield of Spirit Rice.

Though the profit from each mu was not much this way, as long as one could contract enough Spirit Fields, the annual earnings would become quite considerable.

Higher-ranked crops, such as Blood Jade Spirit Rice, Dragon Fang Spirit Rice, and Black Jade Spirit Wheat,

would also attract strange insects of correspondingly higher ranks.

If one was unlucky enough to encounter a Second Rank vicious insect, one's life could be in danger.

Pest removal for such higher-ranked crops cost far more, generally around thirty Low-Grade Spirit Stones per session.

From this, one could see that the profits from these higher-ranked spirit crops must be considerable, and their prices were naturally quite high.

As for medicinal herb fields, there was even less need to say anything. Some medicinal herb fields were hidden away, and reaching them alone required no small amount of effort.

However, medicinal herb fields were generally watched over by dedicated personnel and would not hire pest-removal specialists from outside, for wealth moved people's hearts.

Few medicinal herb growers were willing to show their planted herb fields to outsiders.

The value of medicinal herb fields was truly extraordinary. Even major cultivators in the Foundation Establishment Realm often lacked the qualifications to touch this area.

Aside from the sect's unified cultivation, if private individuals wanted to cultivate a medicinal herb field, the effort and cost they had to pay would both be astronomical figures.

Ordinary people could hardly afford the expense of cultivating medicinal herb fields.

Therefore, pest-removal tasks for medicinal herb fields were pitifully scarce.

There were only three. Two were pest-removal tasks for sect herb fields, while the other was for a private herb field belonging to a sect elder.

As for why the elder did not personally deal with such a precious herb field, that was impossible to know.

The price for pest removal in herb fields was generally frighteningly high, usually around fifty Mid-Grade Spirit Stones.

It depended on the value of the spirit herbs in the field, as well as the rank and number of strange insects that commonly appeared there.

Dong Lin did not need to think about herb fields, and higher-ranked Spirit Fields carried some danger as well.

Dong Lin still decided to proceed steadily and chose a pest-removal task for a Spirit Field cultivated collectively by the sect.

It was a long-term task, with every ten mu treated as one unit.

The pest-removal specialist who accepted it had to clear the Spirit Fields of pests once every ten days for one year.

The reward offered was one hundred sect contribution points, equivalent to one thousand Low-Grade Spirit Stones.

It was a fine task, classified as a top-grade Yellow Tier task.

Dong Lin was greatly tempted by it. Ten mu was indeed just right; any more would affect the progress of his cultivation too much.

After all, the Dao Xuan Heart Sutra had yet to reach the introductory stage. He could not spend too much time on such trivial matters.

Tasks like this were generally reserved for cultivators in the Foundation Establishment Realm,

because for ordinary Qi Refining Stage cultivators, clearing all the strange insects from ten mu of Spirit Fields in a single day

was truly asking the impossible.

One had to know that sect tasks like these offered generous rewards.

But if one breached the contract, the penalty was equally frightening.

If one could not repay it, the Law Enforcement Hall would seize them and make them perform compulsory labor tasks to settle the debt.

Time flew like running water.

In the blink of an eye, winter had arrived.

This was Dong Lin's ninth month in this world.

After two full months of concentrated bitter cultivation, the Dao Xuan Heart Sutra had finally, barely, reached the introductory stage.

Such talent truly left Dong Lin helpless.

Even a foundational cultivation method was so difficult to cultivate.

If he obtained the top immortal arts of this world in the future, would the time needed merely to enter the door have to be counted in years?

Only after entering the Dao Xuan Heart Sutra did Dong Lin experience the wondrous aspects of this cultivation method.

Upon the foundation of Dong Lin's original divine sense, the strength of his divine sense had nearly doubled.

Moreover, the cultivation method circulated automatically, tempering his divine sense and strengthening his spiritual awareness at every moment.

Dong Lin's divine sense had undoubtedly entered the Mid-Stage Spirit Awakening Realm.

If described by specific strength levels, cultivators who had just awakened their spiritual awareness generally possessed divine sense strength of one.

At the Mid-Stage Spirit Awakening Realm, divine sense strength was two.

At the High-Stage Spirit Awakening Realm, it was four.

Dong Lin's divine sense strength was clearly no longer merely two. It had nearly reached three.

At such strength, it could almost stand shoulder to shoulder with cultivators who had just entered the Foundation Establishment Realm.

This was the foundation of a top Immortal Sect like the Heaven Sect.

The cultivation world divided the cultivation realm of divine sense into three stages.

They were the Spirit Awakening Realm, the Sea-Opening Realm, and the Primordial Spirit Realm.

The Spirit Awakening Realm awakened spiritual awareness. From then on, one stepped through the immortal gate, continuously strengthening one's spiritual awareness to improve one's power.

The Sea-Opening Realm, as its name implied, opened the Sea of Consciousness. This was the mark of major cultivators in the Golden Core Realm; when the Sea of Consciousness first opened, one saw one's true self.

Once the Sea of Consciousness was opened, spiritual awareness would no longer be easily exhausted. One could sense and control heaven and earth across vast ranges, and vast-scale spells could reshape heaven and earth.

Yet for some unknown reason, Dong Lin's divine sense seemed to possess a Sea of Consciousness already, replenishing itself in an endless stream whenever it was consumed.

As long as he did not use it explosively, even if he used it for days and nights, the strength of his divine sense would not be affected.

As for the realm of the Primordial Spirit, that was a unique realm only Nascent Soul ancestors could possess.

When the Nascent Soul formed, the Primordial Spirit appeared. From then on, one could roam freely across heaven and earth, unrestrained and unfettered, without flaw or blemish.

There were even those who abandoned their fleshly bodies and focused solely on cultivating the Nascent Soul, thereby attaining new life.