It came without the slightest effort!

Was Senior Brother Lin heading out already?

At those words, Qin Sang Sang hurriedly wiped away her tears and raised her little hand in a solemn pledge. "Don't worry, Senior Brother. I won't make another mistake. While you're away, I won't let anyone through the door!"

Let's hope so...

Lin Mo said no more and took Qin Sang Sang to the dining hall for breakfast.

The Spirit Plant Courtyard had its own dining hall. Back when he was a Servant Disciple, Lin Mo had certainly not been qualified to eat here. He had even had to clean up the slops and rubbish regularly, so the nickname "Chamber Pot Boy" had naturally spread here as well.

Now, things were entirely different.

Spotting Lin Mo from afar, a kitchen servant hurried over, his face wreathed in smiles. "This humble servant is Chen Shu. Greetings, Senior Brother Lin. Your meal is ready here. Please follow me."

Lin Mo was slightly surprised, but he did not dwell on it. He and Qin Sang Sang followed the young servant straight to a clean, tidy private room behind the dining hall.

The meal was already laid out: two meat dishes, two vegetable dishes, and a plate of white-flour steamed buns. The portions were generous, and everything looked, smelled, and tasted delicious.

What truly surprised Lin Mo was the small bowl of spirit rice beside the steamed buns. There appeared to be roughly two ounces of it, each plump grain like a pearl of white jade, giving off a mouthwatering fragrance.

"Steward Wang instructed us to prepare this especially for you, Senior Brother Lin."

The young servant bowed beside the table, his expression ingratiating. "Please enjoy your meal, Senior Brother Lin. I'll wait on you nearby. If you need anything else, just say the word."

Is this the treatment a 'special constitution' gets? Steward Wang really has put some thought into this...

With that inward reflection, Lin Mo had Qin Sang Sang sit opposite him and dug straight in.

He ate two white-flour steamed buns with the dishes, then finished every last grain of the two ounces of spirit rice in the little bowl before wiping his mouth in satisfaction.

Only after Lin Mo finished did Qin Sang Sang cautiously pick up her bowl and chopsticks and eat all the remaining food.

The young servant was perceptive. Seeing that Qin Sang Sang still seemed hungry, he hurriedly brought another plate of white-flour steamed buns and set it before her.

"You're tiny, but your appetite certainly isn't..."

While Qin Sang Sang lowered her head to eat, an idea stirred in Lin Mo's mind. He beckoned to the young servant. "Is there any spirit rice left? Bring me a few grains. Uncooked ones."

Such a small request was nothing at all. The young servant promptly nodded and left, soon returning with a dozen or so grains of spirit rice, which he respectfully handed to Lin Mo.

This is good stuff, and it came without the slightest effort!

Joy welled up in Lin Mo's heart, but his expression remained unchanged as he casually put the spirit rice into his Storage Bag.

Like Fire Spirit Fruit and Golden Coin Grass, spirit rice plants were ninth-grade spirit plants. They ripened twice a year, with five ears per plant and two hundred grains of spirit rice on each ear.

One mu of spirit field could hold a hundred spirit rice plants, producing around two hundred thousand grains of spirit rice a year. Since the grains were so light, that amounted to only about ten pounds-a pitifully small yield.

Moreover, almost all the spirit rice produced by these spirit fields went to the sect's senior figures and the elites of the Inner Sect. Outer Sect Disciples ordinarily never got a share.

That had been Lin Mo's first taste of this treasure. The spirit rice melted in his mouth, and the spiritual energy it contained was quickly absorbed by his dantian, becoming part of his own spiritual energy!

"Uncooked spirit rice is rice seed in its own right. Now I can grow spirit rice plants myself."

He now had another kind of spirit plant he could cultivate. Amid his delight, Lin Mo soon thought of something else.

Where did this spirit rice come from?

Unless I'm mistaken, it must have come from Steward Wang's own allotment. He even brought out his spirit rice to win my favor!

"Now, besides Senior Brother Zhou Ge, I owe Steward Wang a favor too..."

Lin Mo could not help feeling wistful, and his resolve grew firmer. Whatever happened, he could not let the truth slip. He had to raise his cultivation quickly.

As long as he was strong enough, everything would split open as smoothly as bamboo beneath a blade. He could easily repay his debts of gratitude, and even if the misunderstanding was cleared up one day, he would have nothing to worry about.

After breakfast, Lin Mo returned to his own little courtyard, packed a few things, and told Qin Sang Sang to go to the dining hall for all three meals each day.

The dining hall servants already recognized Qin Sang Sang and knew she was under Lin Mo's care. While they would not give her spirit rice, they certainly would not let her go hungry.

"Stay safe, Senior Brother. Come back soon."

At the courtyard gate, Qin Sang Sang reluctantly saw Lin Mo off. Tears brimmed in her large eyes, but she stubbornly held them back.

Lin Mo grinned and waved, then turned and set off.

Less than three months had passed since his last visit home.

As he left the sect gates once more, his frame of mind was entirely different.

Before, he had been uneasy, constantly looking ahead and over his shoulder. Now, he brimmed with ambition and hope for the future!

One thing worth mentioning was that he had not planted the newly acquired spirit rice seeds yet, because Lin Mo reckoned this errand would take at least two days.

If he planted them now, only for the spirit rice plants to wither while he was away because they lacked irrigation with Spirit Spring Water from the Treasure Gourd, wouldn't he cry himself to death?

Back when he was still a Servant Disciple, he had heard several Outer Sect Disciples say that the survival rate of spirit rice seeds was no higher than twenty percent.

He naturally had no such concern, but he had too few seeds to be careless. Of course he would wait until he returned from his assignment.

Along the way, Lin Mo did not deliberately hurry, yet his pace was much faster than on his last journey.

After entering Qi Refining, spiritual energy circulated throughout his body, making his traveling speed far greater than that of ordinary mortals.

On top of that, he had been drinking the gourd's Spirit Spring Water mixed with Fire Spirit Fruit and Golden Coin Grass during this time. Although his body improved slowly, the steady, lasting gains had accumulated into something quite substantial.

As a result, even without specifically tempering his body, Lin Mo's physical condition was already worlds apart from what it had been.

His cultivation was only at the middle stage of the first layer of Qi Refining, but his physical strength rivaled that of an ordinary cultivator at the second layer of Qi Refining. He walked more than a hundred li in one stretch without feeling tired.

Before he knew it, the sky was beginning to darken, and Lin Mo had entered the area of White Jade Ravine.

Layer upon layer of mountains rose ahead, covered in lush woodland. A winding, rugged stone path stretched through the dense forest toward a secluded valley not far away.

The errand he had accepted at the Sect Affairs Hall had left a map of the surrounding area in his Identity Token.

According to the map, this was where Cloud Crane High Person lived in seclusion.

"Hm?"

Just as he was about to enter the valley, Lin Mo sensed something, and his brisk footsteps abruptly stopped.

At some point, a faint, almost imperceptible trace of blood had begun to creep into the fresh air that filled the mountain forest.

The trees, flowers, and grasses on either side of the mountain path also looked unusually disordered. Numerous broken trees and fragments of mountain rock blocked most of the path ahead.

"Did someone fight here with spells not long ago?"

His face full of wariness, Lin Mo swiftly surveyed his surroundings, the hairs on his body rising involuntarily.

Just then.

A weak, barely audible voice reached Lin Mo's ears from beneath a pile of scattered rocks nearby.

"A-are you a fellow cultivator from the Azure Cloud Sect?"

"I am Cloud Crane. Please lend me your aid. I... am injured!"