After the apprenticeship ceremony, the others rested, while Zhao Yi went back to keeping watch over the spirit fields.
The next day, Zhao Yi went up the mountain on time. It was Li Hai's first day as a disciple, and Zhao Yi would lead Liu Yu, Wang Qing, and Li Hai through their Morning Cultivation.
Morning Cultivation on Linghua Island did not involve chanting scriptures or sitting in meditation. They practiced fist techniques first, then sword techniques, and finally whichever craft they liked.
Zhao Yi led them through the Spirit Transformation Fist three times, followed by three rounds of the Thirty-Six Forms of the Wind-Chasing Spirit-Slaying Sword.
After sword practice, the four dispersed. Zhao Yi went back into the woods to temper his body, Liu Yu and Li Hai continued practicing the sword, and Wang Qing went out to practice archery.
Once Morning Cultivation and breakfast were over, Zhao Yi took Liu Yu to prepare the drying ground. Li Hai sharpened the sickles, while Wang Qing went to guard the spirit fields.
Cultivators below the Spirit Attraction stage had no divine sense and could not use magical artifacts. Forming hand seals to cast spells was also very slow, and they could not use complex spells at all. Thus, cultivators at the Meridian Opening stage lived and worked just like mortals.
There was some reason why the cultivation world only acknowledged those who had entered the Spirit Attraction stage.
Besides, there were not just these two mu of spirit fields. There were also fifty mu of rice paddies that Zhao Yi and the others had to harvest.
Their master required them to plant and harvest both the spirit fields and the rice paddies below the mountain themselves. They were strictly forbidden from ordering the islanders to do it.
He hoped this would temper their hearts for the Dao, so they would not put themselves high above others and disregard the mortal world merely because they knew a few spells.
After all, the defining feature of the Overseas Cultivation World was that mortals and cultivators coexisted and prospered together.
Zhao Yi and the others had to harvest fifty-two mu of land within three days, so time was naturally tight.
On the morning of the eighth day of the tenth month, the sky was just beginning to pale.
Zhao Yi and the other two went down the mountain to the spirit fields. In the faint daylight, the paddies brimmed with life, and the rich fragrance of spirit rice filled the air around the fields, drifting into the distance.
Heavy heads of spirit rice weighed down the stalks, swaying gently in the sea breeze-a scene of abundant harvest.
Not far away, Wang Qing stood with bow and sword in hand, his gaze razor-sharp. A pile of dead birds and beasts already lay on the ground.
"Burn them all in a bit," Zhao Yi said after walking over to take a look.
"For this year's harvest, Liu Yu, the two of us will cut the rice again. Wang Qing and Li Hai, you'll gather the spirit rice behind us and carry it to the drying ground."
"There's no need to prepare meals. For the next three days, none of us will need to return to the Daoist temple."
"I brought the Grain-Avoidance Pills left over from last year. Eat one when you're hungry, and drink Origin-Nourishing Soup when you're thirsty."
"The weather at sea is unpredictable. The sooner we finish harvesting, the sooner we can dry it and put it in storage."
After assigning their tasks, Zhao Yi waved his hand.
"Get to work!"
Zhao Yi swung his sickle vigorously at the spirit rice, cutting several handfuls, tying them into a bundle, and setting it behind him. Between his previous life and this one, he had done this work for thirty years and was thoroughly practiced at it.
Spirit rice stalks were several times tougher than ordinary rice stalks. An ordinary person could harvest one mu of ordinary rice a day, but only one-tenth of a mu of spirit rice.
Of course, stalks this tough had value too.
They were a raw material for making low-grade talisman paper. Someone on Azure Cloud Island specifically bought them, paying two spirit stones for the stalks from one mu.
In Zhao Yi's view, that price was far too ruthlessly suppressed.
A dozen sheets of low-grade talisman paper sold for four spirit stones. How much pulp could the stalks from one mu produce?
Thus, every time Zhao Yi finished harvesting the spirit rice, he burned the stalks right in the fields. That could replenish some of the Spirit Field's spiritual energy as well.
By the fifteenth day of the tenth month, seven days had passed in a flash, and all fifty-two mu of rice paddies had been harvested.
Zhao Yi and Liu Yu then dried and husked the rice. Finally, they packed up the spirit rice and weighed it: the harvest totaled 232 jin.
That was two jin more than Liu Yu's estimate of 230 jin. It had to be said that his estimate was remarkably accurate.
The fifty mu of ordinary rice yielded 157 shi. One shi equaled one hundred jin, so the average yield was three shi per mu-a very good harvest.
Both the spirit rice and ordinary rice were now in storage. Zhao Yi was thinking about the spirit fish on Jade Pearl Island, but he still had to prepare items for the Trade Fair and could not get away, so he sent Wang Qing to stay on Jade Pearl Island with ten jin of spirit rice.
The ordinary rice had to be made into Jade Essence Rice, or it would be of no use to Zhao Yi and the others. Making Jade Essence Rice required five-year-old red ginseng, ten-year-old yellow essence, five-year-old lingzhi, and azure mulberry fruit.
Azure mulberry fruit was poisonous, but processing could draw out its toxins, leaving juice that could be used to smoke the refined rice.
Red ginseng, yellow essence, lingzhi, and azure mulberry trees were all grown in the medicinal fields.
Next came gathering herbs and preparing the medicinal liquid. They used spirit spring water in the liquid-another little trick.
Only once everything was ready did they finally begin smoking the refined rice.
The steamer used for this was no ordinary utensil either. It was a magical artifact crafted by an Azure Cloud Island artifact refiner, capable of refining and steaming.
This set of magical artifacts had cost Linghua Island one hundred spirit stones.
For the sake of this set, their master and Zhao Yi's group had endured three years of hardship.
If the user's cultivation was insufficient, three spirit stones had to be fitted into the artifact each time it was used. They could then activate it with true qi to refine and steam the rice.
Zhao Yi and Liu Yu stayed by the stove after that, working for five straight days before finally refining all 157 shi of rice into Jade Essence Rice.
They produced fifty-one shi in total, roughly thirty percent of the original amount. The artifact consumed eight spirit stones.
Of those fifty-one shi, Zhao Yi and the others planned to keep only thirty and sell the remaining twenty-one, which would bring them an income of about seventy spirit stones.
As for the spirit rice, Zhao Yi and the others would keep only thirty-two jin and sell the remaining two hundred for about one hundred spirit stones. The price of spirit rice was very stable, remaining the same every year.
Ninety percent of the spirit rice earned through a year of hard work had to be sold.
After all, they needed to buy pills to aid their cultivation. Essence Origin Pills were suitable for those at Great Completion of Meridian Opening. Each cost six spirit stones, making a bottle of ten cost sixty.
Essence Qi Pills, suitable for cultivators below Great Completion of Meridian Opening, cost twenty-five spirit stones for a bottle of ten.
In addition, the Five-Element Spirit-Nurturing Formation laid over Linghua Island's spirit spring needed its Five Elements Spirit Stones replaced.
Zhao Yi had checked a few days earlier. This year, they needed to replace the earth-attribute and wood-attribute spirit stones.
Spirit stones generally had no attribute, but special environments could produce certain unusual Spiritual Power Crystals.
Once these crystals were mined and polished to the size of spirit stones, they became attribute spirit stones.
A water-attribute spirit stone was worth five ordinary spirit stones. Water-attribute spirit stones were plentiful overseas; metal-attribute and Fire Attribute spirit stones were scarce.
A metal-attribute spirit stone was worth ten ordinary spirit stones, an earth-attribute one eight, and a Wood-Attribute Spirit Stone eight. Fire Attribute Spirit Stones had the highest value, exchanging for fifteen ordinary spirit stones.
There was no helping it. Fire Attribute Spirit Stones had many uses and were needed for both pill refining and artifact refining.
The Five-Element Spirit-Nurturing Formation came from Linghua Island's Spirit-Seeking Master Legacy.
This legacy contained over a hundred accounts of experiences and observations. From them, Zhao Yi's grandmaster and master had compiled three formations and two secret arts.
These were the "Yin-Yang Harmony Spirit-Awakening Formation," suitable for awakening birds and beasts; the "Three Talents Spirit-Nourishing Formation," suitable for nurturing spirit plants; and the "Five-Element Spirit-Nurturing Formation," suitable for nurturing spirit acupoints and spirit veins.
The "Spirit-Piercing Dharma Eye" observed the flow and transformations of spiritual energy, while "Grafting Flowers and Joining Trees" was the Earth Vein Migration Technique.
Beyond these necessary spirit stone expenses, they also had to set some aside for unforeseen needs.
In short, Linghua Island had many uses for spirit stones, leaving few available for buying pills.
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