Spirit fields

Over the next few days, Xiao Wu came to Su Mu's place every day to produce some calligraphy, then chat with him.

As they spent more time together, they naturally grew considerably closer.

Su Mu could now count himself as having a friend to talk to here.

During those few days, Su Mu also traveled all over Earth, hoping to find somewhere with relatively abundant spiritual power so he could cultivate the Essence-Nurturing Art.

After he had absorbed all the spiritual power in that park from before, several days passed without any sign of it recovering, much to Su Mu's frustration.

Apparently, not only was spiritual power scarce, it also recovered extremely slowly.

Fortunately, after scouring the entire city's surroundings, Su Mu finally crossed the threshold of cultivation and could move about freely without a walking stick.

However, walking for long periods still proved somewhat taxing for him.

This change finally let Su Mu breathe a sigh of relief.

At last, he could just about stop being a cripple. The feeling brought tears to his eyes.

"Come on, let's take a walk outside the palace grounds."

Having finally made a little progress in his cultivation, Su Mu felt inspired to go outside and have a look.

He stayed in this courtyard every day. Without someone to talk to, Su Mu feared he would have felt stifled.

"All right."

Xiao Wu glanced at the calligraphy she had finished, hesitated for a moment, then nodded gently.

Her previous calligraphy had already sold. After successfully earning over a tael of gold on the very first day, Xiao Wu had become thoroughly energized, coming to Su Mu's courtyard very early almost every day to work hard at her calligraphy.

"About the eldest princess..."

Su Mu had only just stepped through the doorway when he turned back to Xiao Wu.

He was asking whether she had mentioned this matter to the eldest princess.

"This servant asked for instructions several days ago. The eldest princess said you really do need someone to attend to you, so Xiao Wu will stay by your side from now on."

At his question, Xiao Wu gave a sweet smile as she spoke.

Su Mu understood. No wonder Xiao Wu had been coming to his place so early these past few days, looking as though she did not need to go to the eldest princess.

Her words also put Su Mu at ease.

With the token in hand, Su Mu left the palace grounds together with Xiao Wu. Unlike last time, he could now stroll around at ease, taking in some of the scenery in Great Liang's imperial capital.

The streets immediately outside the palace grounds were largely deserted. Only after passing through those broad streets did they reach a crowded area.

There were plenty of food vendors on both sides of the street.

Su Mu gazed at the food longingly. "Xiao Wu, does this food smell good?"

At his question, Xiao Wu's eyes darted around before she nodded vigorously. "It does. Of course it does!"

Then, apparently thinking of something, Xiao Wu trotted over to a vendor and pointed here and there with her fair, delicate fingers. The vendor wrapped everything she wanted in oiled paper and handed it to her.

Xiao Wu handed the vendor a few coins in return.

Things here seemed quite cheap-or perhaps money was worth a great deal. Xiao Wu had bought a large oiled-paper parcel of food, yet paid only a few copper coins.

Seeing this, Su Mu could roughly understand just how valuable a tael of gold was.

"Why did you buy all that? I can't eat it."

Watching Xiao Wu return with light steps, her pretty face brimming with excitement and her lovely eyes full of smiles, Su Mu could not help sighing as he spoke.

"It's not for you!"

Xiao Wu immediately answered him, then took out a steaming piece of food that looked somewhat like a pastry and somewhat like a bun, and bit into it.

The tender white skin enclosed juicy meat, making anyone who saw it drool.

Su Mu stared at this scene in astonishment. Seeing Xiao Wu looking at him with laughter in her lovely eyes, he immediately fell silent.

So I was the clown all along.

"Mmm... this is so delicious! The outer skin is made from ground spirit rice husks. Not only is it richly fragrant, it even has a hint of spirit rice flavor. And the meat inside is forest pig meat. Its fragrance goes without saying-there's no gamy smell at all, and it even has a little sweetness!"

Watching Xiao Wu eat with boundless delight while introducing the food to him, Su Mu felt that a speechless expression must have appeared on his face.

Pork could taste sweet too?

Su Mu did not know, but he thought it was probably a local specialty.

He wanted to eat it, but could not.

The corner of Su Mu's mouth twitched. He wanted to hurry away, but Xiao Wu refused to leave his side, so he could only watch her eating beside him.

It felt exactly like watching a live version of A Bite of Huaxia while starving in the dead of night.

Since he could not eat anything, Su Mu had no desire to enter even the shops as he walked along with Xiao Wu. They simply strolled around.

Before they knew it, they actually caught sight of an open stretch of fields in the distance.

Quite a few guards stood watch in front of the fields.

"Why are they farming inside the city?"

Su Mu found it rather strange and could not help taking a few more looks.

"Oh, those are spirit fields. A hundred years ago, a tiny spirit spring was discovered here by chance. It was too small for cultivation, but leaving it unused would have been such a waste, so the land was later reclaimed as spirit fields."

Hearing this, Su Mu immediately perked up.

"Can we go inside and look?"

Su Mu was rather curious about what the crops in spirit fields looked like as they grew.

Xiao Wu, however, found this a little odd. "They're just spirit fields. What's there to see?"

"You don't understand. The place I come from is called the Flower-Planting Household. The people there have a special fondness for farming."

Xiao Wu was somewhat puzzled, but seeing how insistent Su Mu was, she still nodded and led him over.

The guards at the spirit fields were there to prevent theft, but they were not too strict about letting people from the palace enter.

After identifying themselves, Su Mu and Xiao Wu were allowed inside.

The fields were no different from ordinary rice paddies, except that, at a glance, the rice gave off a hazy, slightly crystalline glow.

From time to time, a splash sounded in the fields. Looking closely, he saw that it was a rather dark fish.

"Those are the spirit fish that live alongside the crops in the spirit fields. They eat some of the insects on the spirit grain, but they don't eat the spirit rice growing on it."

Knowing that Su Mu probably had never seen spirit fields before-ordinary mortals truly had no chance to see places like this-Xiao Wu offered an explanation beside him.

Su Mu nodded at her words, curiously taking in everything here. Besides these things, there were also people in the spirit fields who summoned dark clouds from afar with a wave of their hands. Then a fine rain began to patter down, and the rice in the spirit fields grew more vibrant.

"The Minor Spirit Rain Technique. It's used to water the spirit fields. That one spirit spring alone isn't enough, so techniques like this have to be cast to ensure the spirit fields grow."

Xiao Wu continued speaking, her explanations quite professional.