Manager Liao

The matter of the spirit rice tax had finally come to an end.

For the time being, Qin Ming no longer had to worry about being sent to the front lines.

"This time, I have to break through to the Qi Refining Stage Third Layer!"

Inside the quiet little room.

Qin Ming sat on the straw-woven cushion atop his bed, his eyes lightly closed as he gathered his essence and guarded his focus. He held a Lower-grade Spirit Stone in his hand, its spiritual glow rapidly fading.

In the blink of an eye.

The spiritual qi within the Spirit Stone was gradually absorbed by him.

Qin Ming opened his eyes, his expression somewhat grim.

With a light squeeze, the Spirit Stone in his hand turned into a pile of powder.

"Ah, cultivating with Spirit Stones is completely wasteful for me."

"What a prodigal way to spend them."

In the Immortal Cultivation World, the ambient spiritual qi between heaven and earth, as well as the spiritual qi within Spirit Stones, were essentially both wild.

Chaotic and impure, they could not be directly controlled by low-level cultivators.

To turn them into one's own mana, one had to absorb them through one's spiritual roots and continuously circulate one's cultivation art to refine them.

Taming external spiritual qi and converting it into one's own mana.

The quality of one's spiritual roots directly affected the efficiency of this absorption and conversion.

Qin Ming shook his head.

"Affixes are still the best."

The 'Faint Mana' in the Affixes did not need to be absorbed and refined through spiritual roots. He could use it directly.

This time, he planned to use two 'Faint Mana' Affix leaves to attempt a breakthrough.

"Two 'Faint Mana' Affixes are equivalent to half a year of bitter cultivation for me."

He calmed his mind and steadied his breath, casting aside all distracting thoughts.

With a thought from Qin Ming, the first 'Faint Mana' Affix was used.

Though Qin Ming had grown accustomed to it, when an unceasing tide of mana came surging in, it still caught him somewhat off guard.

Guided by his Evergreen Skill, the surging mana began circulating through his body in a complete cycle.

It flowed without rest, endlessly circulating before returning to his dantian.

The Evergreen Skill had been passed down through Qin Ming's cultivation family. It was not some profound technique, merely a common, widely available cultivation art.

Its focus was on preserving one's health. Its qi channels were long and enduring, its power ordinary, and its cultivation speed slow as a turtle's crawl.

Yet it had its advantages. Once cultivated to a profound level, it possessed some life-extending effects.

Cultivating it as one's primary technique granted a little more lifespan and mana than cultivators of the same rank.

If one switched to another cultivation art midway through, however, those benefits would no longer apply.

It suited Qin Ming's temperament rather well.

Planting fields, tending grass, calming the mind and nourishing the qi, returning to nature's embrace—wasn't that quite nice?

Why insist on fighting and killing, scrambling and contending with others, only to end up with nothing? Ah...

But despite saying that.

Over the years, Qin Ming had gained another understanding of the matter.

The resources of the entire Immortal Cultivation World were limited.

Cultivation arts, tools, spiritual materials, pills, and all other resources were controlled by those famous sects.

The great sects and powerful cultivators ate meat, while "rogue cultivators" struggled even to drink the broth, forced to survive in the cracks.

Unless one was a heaven-gifted genius.

Otherwise, if one did not climb upward, there would be scarcely any progress on the immortal path.

Even a cultivation sect like the Spirit Feather Sect had spared no effort, mobilizing its entire sect to traverse unimaginable distances and journey thousands of miles to reclaim this land.

Was it not all for cultivation resources?

Qin Ming used one 'Faint Mana' Affix.

Yet his faintly loosening bottleneck still showed no response.

His brows drew tightly together, his expression solemn.

Gritting his teeth, he continued and used the remaining 'Faint Mana' Affix.

After a long while.

Two 'Faint Mana' Affixes had been exhausted in succession.

Yet he still had not broken through.

"Ah, this is the gap in talent and aptitude!"

"Qi Refining Stage Second Layer Peak."

Qin Ming was still just short of the Qi Refining Stage Third Layer.

"If it were someone else, counting the mana provided by the previous 'Faint Mana' Affixes, they probably would have broken through long ago."

However, Qin Ming did not become disheartened.

If this had been in the past, cultivating step by step, who knew when there would have been any sign of progress?

His current situation was already much better than before.

Though his cultivation had not broken through this time, his Qi Sea Dantian had widened considerably.

The mana within his body had also increased by a third.

Moreover, he was now only one step from the threshold. He merely had to endure for a while longer.

I can't keep going like this. I need to adjust my approach.

Once I cultivate the Beast Fang Rice, perhaps I can first try the Body Tempering Art?

At the very least, it can strengthen my ability to protect myself.

But with my current level in Spirit Plants, planting Beast Fang Rice will probably require the 'Accelerated Growth' Affix. Otherwise, whether it can succeed at all will be hard to say.

If I fail and waste the Beast Fang Rice mother seeds for nothing, the loss will outweigh the gain.

Qin Ming pondered it again and again.

He had already made up his mind.

He ended his cultivation and rose to cook.

After finishing breakfast.

Qin Ming left home and returned to Qingyang Market.

Juxuan Pavilion.

It was still that shop at the center of the market. Besides the restaurant operating on the first and second floors, it also conducted many other kinds of business on the upper levels.

A business capable of operating in such a location presumably had no poor connections behind it.

The manager's surname was Liao. Upon seeing Qin Ming, he revealed a standard professional smile.

Qin Ming was equally straightforward. With a pat of his Storage Bag, two large sacks of spirit rice appeared on the ground before him.

Manager Liao was quite surprised that Qin Ming could produce so much spirit rice at once.

There was a whole large sack more than last time.

As far as he knew, the Spirit Feather Sect collected seventy percent of these Spirit Farmers' harvest as tax. By that calculation, the young Spirit Farmer before him had harvested at least eight dan of spirit rice this season.

It was enough to prove his skill with Spirit Plants.

Only relatively experienced Spirit Farmers could achieve such a yield.

Otherwise, he possessed considerable talent and attainments in the path of Spirit Plants.

If it was the latter, perhaps he might have the potential to advance into a First-rank Spirit Planter in the future.

After the shop assistant inspected, accepted, and weighed the goods.

Manager Liao wore a genial smile, while inwardly raising his assessment of Qin Ming, this low-level Spirit Farmer, by a notch.

"A total of two hundred and twenty jin of Golden Spirit Rice."

"Fellow Daoist Qin, the usual terms. Here are forty-four Spirit Stones."

"Would you like to see whether there is anything you need to purchase in our shop?"

"Our shop has everything one could need. Whatever you seek, we can satisfy at least some of it."

Qin Ming had come prepared.

He took a drawing from his robes, depicting a small bell, then handed it to Manager Liao. "I would like to commission a small bell like this. Is that possible?"

"Of course, Fellow Daoist Qin. This is a specialized spirit bell for casting the Beast Control Art, isn't it?"

"Our pavilion has its own artifact-refining shop, and we happen to have one in stock."

"A Low-grade Magic Tool, the Beast-Call Bell. Ten Spirit Stones."

A palm-sized spirit bell appeared in Manager Liao's hand. Smiling, he handed it to Qin Ming and introduced it, "When used together with the Beast Control Art, it will automatically shrink and expand."

"It's so cheap?"

The price took him somewhat by surprise. He had originally been prepared for a Heavy Bleeding.

"Hehe, Fellow Daoist Qin, you may not know this, but the crucial part of the Beast Control Art lies in mastery of the spell itself. This bell is merely an auxiliary tool."

"I should remind you, Fellow Daoist Qin, that the Beast Control Art is extremely difficult to cultivate."

"Quite a few cultivators from the Spirit Feather Sect's War Camp have commissioned this item before, yet only a scant few have mastered it completely."

Qin Ming understood what he meant.

Put plainly, no one bought it.

If one failed to master the art, the specialized spirit bell would become a useless ornament, wasting Spirit Stones for nothing—a blood-curdling loss.

But for Qin Ming, there was no such thing as being unable to learn it.

He paid ten Spirit Stones, accepted the spirit bell, and then asked another question.

"Do you have any pills that can improve cultivation in the Qi Refining Stage?"

Qin Ming was still somewhat unwilling to give up on failing to break through to the Qi Refining Stage Third Layer.

"We do. Please proceed to the third floor."

A short while later.

Qin Ming left the shop looking perfectly calm.

He had forty Spirit Stones on him, yet could not spend them.

Because the pills for improving cultivation on the third floor started at sixty Spirit Stones.

Manager Liao warmly saw Qin Ming out of the shop.

On the way back.

Qin Ming made a detour to see the overseer, Du Haifu, intending to rent another mu of Spirit Field.

With his current cultivation, his energy was limited. Five or six mu of land was already his limit.

"Oh, Little Qin is here?"

"You're one step too late."

"Just a short while ago, every last plot of Spirit Field on the mountain was rented out!" Du Haifu took a sip of tea and leisurely informed him of the news.

!!!

Qin Ming thought to himself.

This isn't good! It really is just as I expected.

Next year, everyone will probably have to fight desperately over spirit rice yields.