Time passed swiftly in the mountains.
In the blink of an eye, three months had gone by.
Xu Taiping had spent those three months quite leisurely.
Aside from practicing the Setting Sun Glow Art and several martial arts and spells at fixed times each day, he spent his remaining time either watering, removing pests, and fertilizing the herbs in the Medicine Garden or teaching Little Monkey Ping'an to speak and read.
Because of his spirit bone aptitude, his progress with the Setting Sun Glow Art had slowed considerably, just as he had expected. The qi sea within his dantian had yet to take shape and remained a hazy expanse of mist.
Xu Taiping was in no hurry, though. After all, his current circumstances were beyond his control. He could only wait for the Earth Treasury Fruit to ripen before seeing whether there was a way to resolve the problem.
As for the medicinal herbs in the Spirit Medicine Garden, his main crop this year was snow-root he shouwu. Its roots were snowy white, and it was an excellent remedy for injuries caused by blade qi and sword qi. In the mortal world, calling it a priceless medicinal treasure would be no exaggeration.
Snow-root he shouwu ripened once a year, and one jin could be exchanged for ten Merit Coins. However, only a third of the plants would ultimately develop snowy roots. A three-mu Medicine Garden could yield fifty jin at most, worth just five hundred Merit Coins. After deducting the two hundred Merit Coins spent on seeds, the profit would be only three hundred.
However, thanks to the Spirit-Gathering Formation Fairy Lingyue had laid out, and judging by his experience with last year's nine-leaf perilla, Xu Taiping felt that an annual yield of around a hundred and sixty jin would