The Spirit Field Expansion Plan

After leaving the Black Market, Lin Mo wandered around the sect for nearly two hours before slipping back into his Small Courtyard.

He was worried that someone might be overcome by greed and follow him along the way.

Clearly, though, he had been overthinking things.

Quite apart from the fact that the black-robed man had deliberately screened their transaction with a formation, even if someone knew Lin Mo carried a precious treasure, ordinary disciples could not make a move under the sect's watchful eye.

The Azure Cloud Sect was, after all, an orthodox immortal sect. Within its grounds, he was relatively safe.

The Formation Disc he had acquired was roughly the size of two palms, engraved with intricate inscriptions that Lin Mo could not understand.

Activating it was simple, too. He only needed to place spirit stones on it.

The Formation Disc could automatically draw spiritual energy from the world and from spirit stones, channeling it into the soil. Though it still could not turn ordinary soil into spirit soil, it was sufficient for Lin Mo's current needs.

Without hesitation, Lin Mo took out ten spirit stones from his meager supply and placed them on the Formation Disc. Then he bit his fingertip and let a drop of blood fall onto it.

In an instant, a wealth of information appeared in his mind.

The Formation Disc was a precious high-grade yellow tier magical artifact, which was why it could fetch the steep price of thirty contribution points.

The formation engraved within it was quite similar to the Formation Discs issued to Spirit Plant Farmers, but its efficiency in converting spiritual energy was much higher.

It also came with a Concealment Formation that could hide the conditions within the spirit field it covered.

That was an unexpected bonus.

Lin Mo buried it deep underground, then went back to fetch three spirit plant seeds and casually scattered them. Wincing at the expense, he watered each one with spirit spring water made from a drop of spirit liquid.

With his own cultivation expenses included, only seven drops remained in the Little Gourd.

For the sake of that cultivation method, this expense was nothing, and it was a cost Lin Mo had to bear.

Only after sensing the concentration of spiritual energy in the soil slowly improving did Lin Mo let out a breath and return to his room.

He was still some distance from the late stage of the first level of qi refining. Lin Mo did not slack off, continuing to meditate and cultivate whenever he had time, just as before.

The high-grade yellow tier formation consumed a considerable number of spirit stones. It required nearly ten a month to maintain a sufficient concentration of spiritual energy.

That was not an expense a mere Outer Sect Disciple could afford.

Spirit stones were hard currency precisely because cultivators could absorb the spiritual energy within them to improve their cultivation.

The paltry spirit stone stipends Outer Sect Disciples received were not even enough for their regular cultivation, let alone powering a formation.

Only because Lin Mo had his precious gourd and could cultivate with spirit spring water were spirit stones of little use to him. Naturally, he could put them toward other purposes.

Two days passed in the blink of an eye.

The newly planted spirit plants ripened again, yielding thirty-six fruits before withering and dying.

Lin Mo felt no stir of emotion. He simply took out another ten spirit plant seeds and planted them in the soil.

Spirit plant seeds were contained within the fruits, and there were plenty of them.

Normally, not every seed could survive. On average, only one in five would take root, but with the heaven-defying effects of the spirit spring water, Lin Mo did not have to worry about that at all.

Today, I could feel that something was off about the atmosphere within the sect.

That was what Lin Mo thought.

After emptying chamber pots for others for three years, reading expressions and gauging moods had long since become instinctive to Lin Mo.

He had wandered around the sect during the day and keenly noticed that the atmosphere seemed far more subdued than usual.

The Outer Sect Disciples promoted from the servants were largely unaffected, still caught up in gossip about the dozens of Inner Sect Disciples who had appeared together a few days earlier.

But the Outer Sect Disciples with powerful backgrounds were scarcely anywhere to be seen.

Even when one occasionally appeared, they looked hurried and grave.

It must be because of the Tai Sui Gate.

Lin Mo already had his suspicions, but he did not panic.

After all, even at its height, the Tai Sui Gate had been no match for the Righteous Alliance. Now that its dead ashes had flared back to life, it probably had only a few big cats and little kittens left.

Meanwhile, after all these years of accumulating strength, the Righteous Alliance had not weakened. On the contrary, it had only grown stronger.

Of course, the main reason was still that his own cultivation realm was too low.

Worrying and fretting would do him no good, so he might as well stop thinking about it.

He was better off making the most of his time to improve his cultivation.

The Small Courtyards where Outer Sect Disciples lived were fairly spacious, but previously, Lin Mo had only been able to keep four plants alive because he lacked resources.

Now that he had at least built up some reserves, he put his plan to expand his planting operation on the agenda.

Every Spirit Plant Farmer had a Spirit Plant Handbook, which detailed the various requirements for growing spirit plants, along with the specific planting methods for the plants in their care.

It explicitly stipulated that no more than ten plants could be grown per mu of land. Planting more would cause a shortage of spiritual energy, potentially leaving an entire patch of spirit plants unable to bear fruit.

But now Lin Mo had a Formation Disc to gather spiritual energy, as well as spirit spring water.

Planting spirit plants in his own Small Courtyard was just like planting wheat with his father when he was young. Every step or two, he dug a hole, dropped in a seed, and covered it back up.

He planted more than a dozen in succession. After giving six of them, along with the mutated Fire Spirit Fruit plant, spirit spring water made from one drop of spirit liquid each, Lin Mo had exhausted all the spirit spring water he had converted.

Only an empty gourd remained.

He fetched clean water and filled the Little Gourd again, then patted the mutated Fire Spirit Fruit plant, which had shot up another stretch that day, his heart full of anticipation.

By now, the mutated spirit plant had grown three crimson flowers, vivid and lovely as fire.

If he got close enough, he could even feel scorching heat. It was truly wondrous.

Lin Mo suspected that this Fire Spirit Fruit plant might already have broken through the yellow tier and become a legendary mystic tier spirit plant.

"I've never seen a spirit plant like this before..."

Lin Mo scratched his head.

Ever since the Fire Spirit Fruit plant had mutated, Lin Mo had visited the Scripture Pavilion, hoping to find the uses of its mutated form within that sea of books as vast as mist-covered waters.

It was a fine thing, but if he did not know how to use it, he might waste it.

He might even suffer a backlash.

Mystic tier spirit plants were rare treasures even in the eyes of mighty Foundation Establishment Realm cultivators. They were exceedingly scarce.

Yet after searching for several days straight, Lin Mo had even found legends about certain earth tier spirit plants, but not a single clue about his own Fire Spirit Fruit plant.

"How strange."

Perhaps no Fire Spirit Fruit plant like this had ever appeared before.

The happiest dream in life might be one in which you became an extraordinary genius, possessed a vast fortune, and held a beauty in each arm.

And the happiest thing was waking up to discover that the dream you had just had was actually real.

Though Lin Mo was still some distance from that point, obtaining dozens of Spirit Plant Fruits overnight was nonetheless an enormous and delightful surprise.

In addition, of the six Fire Spirit Fruit plants that had each received a drop of the evolved spirit spring water yesterday, another had mutated.

As for the flower buds on the Fire Spirit Fruit plant that had mutated earlier, they had already fallen off last night.

In their place were three fruits, each the size of two fists.

They were fiery red all over and looked at first glance like burning flames, radiating waves of scorching heat.

Lin Mo was overjoyed.

He first gathered the other fruits, then took the fruits produced by the mutated plant into his hands.