Chapter 26: Burning Wood

After leaving the Spirit Plant Hall, Lin Donglai headed to the Spirit Field Valley beneath Immortal Sprout Peak.

Currently, he had no spirit stones to buy seeds, but he had to get the fields cleared one way or another.

Huang Yue had given him a second-hand, self-used fine iron hoe for tilling and plowing the land.

In truth, there were farming tools like ox-drawn plows, but those were all magical artifacts. Mortal objects could not plow spirit fields, and renting magical artifacts was not cheap; only manual labor was free.

The Spirit Field Valley was not particularly large, but it contained about two to three hundred acres of land.

This year, a particularly large number of low-aptitude disciples had been recruited. Those with four or five spiritual roots—especially those whose five elements included Earth, Wood, or Water—were all sent here to learn the Way of Spirit Planting.

About thirty to forty people fell into this category.

They knew this was not a permanent place, but merely a place for learning skills. Each person was allotted one plot of land; having more would make it impossible to manage, so no one occupied land recklessly.

The rule of the Spirit Plant Hall was that only those who passed the assessment to become a low-grade First-Order Spirit Planter during the Immortal Sprout period would be eligible to become outer disciples of the Spirit Plant Hall in the future, allowing them to take on sect farming tasks, accumulate merit, and obtain cultivation resources.

The patch of wasteland Lin Donglai had marked yesterday for having the richest spiritual energy was unoccupied. Therefore, Lin Donglai began directly by using lime to draw lines, marking out one acre to commence his great farming enterprise.

With a swing of the hoe, Lin Donglai felt the hardness and compaction of the soil. The sound of the fine iron hoe striking tough grass roots rang out with a metallic clink, accompanied by a slight recoil.

The soil in Spirit Field Valley followed a cycle: every five years, new Immortal Sprouts were recruited. For two of those years, the sprouts were assigned to practice the Way of Spirit Planting, while for the remaining three years, the valley was sealed, allowing wild weeds to grow freely.

Having absorbed spiritual energy and nutrients, those weeds had all transformed into low-grade spirit herbs. However, these weeds possessed no medicinal value; they were simply extremely resilient, with incredibly tough and hard root systems.

Looking closely, Lin Donglai discovered one type that resembled the couch grass found between field ridges.

This type of grass was extremely difficult to tear; its roots grew deep, and even if pulled out, as long as they touched the ground during exposure to the sun, they could potentially take root again and grow into a large patch.

After transforming into low-grade spirit herbs, they even possessed a faint metallic luster, looking much like iron wire.

There were other weeds as well, such as barnyard grass that looked like rice, foxtail grass, knotweed, wood sorrel, dandelion, plantain... all of which were extremely common weeds found in fields and roadsides.

Having grown in this spirit field land for a long time, they had all transformed into semi-spirit herbs, possessing powerful vitality and extremely strong root systems.

Even though this wasteland had the strongest spiritual energy, these weeds grew the best, some reaching nearly as tall as a person.

Lin Donglai wasn't afraid of most things, but while these weeds had powerful vitality, that was exactly the kind of "vitality" the Dao Seed craved. As long as he extracted that vitality, no matter how resilient the weeds were, they would be unable to revive.

He thought to himself, however, that the soil likely contained a massive amount of wild weed seeds; even if he cleared this batch, a second batch would soon grow back.

Lin Donglai sighed inwardly, "If I had known, I would have borrowed a sickle."

Without a sickle, he could only bend his waist and pull them by hand.

Because he had practiced the Tendon-Changing Marrow-Washing Stance and had gained some insight into methods for increasing strength through his previous wood-cutting, Lin Donglai's strength had already reached over a thousand catties, so pulling weeds was no problem.

As he pulled, Lin Donglai simultaneously extracted the vitality of the plants. However, according to his cultivation technique, these grasses belonged to the category of "Yi Wood," which possessed a soft and resilient vitality. Unlike the vitality of "Jia Wood," it could not augment his *Jia-Ying-Cai-Sheng* method.

The Dao Seed, however, was not picky; its newly sprouted buds required this Yi Wood vitality to nourish themselves.

The only trouble was that, besides the weeds, there were many other insects, toads, and even some unknown creatures that relied on the weed ecosystem; these were all obstacles on the path of farming.

Toads, frogs, and earthworms were fine, as they ate insects and could be spared, but the other insects were of unknown toxicity. Having been mutated by spiritual energy, they were not easily crushed by ordinary means. Lin Donglai practiced his vision, using the hoe to hack or smash these insects to death.

After killing these insects, a small amount of vitality was actually absorbed by the Dao Seed, though it differed from the vitality of plants... this vitality seemed to carry the most primal essence of life. After being filtered by the Dao Seed, it directly nourished Lin Donglai himself. Although the amount was infinitesimal, he could clearly feel the benefits.

Whether it was weeding or pest control, these actions provided Lin Donglai with slight positive feedback.

The physical toll of labor—the aches and pains of the body—was neutralized by the Dao Seed's continuous, automatic cultivation of the *Primordial Nourishing Breathing Technique* and the *Qi Induction Technique*. It felt as though his physical strength was inexhaustible, and he felt no fatigue at all.

"It seems Senior Sister Jiang Biling was right; I really am cut out for farming."

He continued working like this until the end of the Chen hour. The weather was hot and the sun was high in the sky. While others had gone to rest in the shade, Lin Donglai alone worked shirtless, actually enjoying the sunlight, because the Spirit Root Dao Seed was emitting the thought: "Thirst for sunlight."

Ji Yan, sitting in the shade, watched the increasingly energetic Lin Donglai and couldn't help but remark, "Isn't that guy tired? I saw him arrive at the Mao hour."

Sang Zhi said, "His working posture is the most exhausting kind, yielding half the result for twice the effort. One look tells me he's never worked in a field before, yet he's been at it for over two hours without a break. Could he be a body cultivator?"

Ma Teng, with sharp eyes, noticed the Dew Gourd hanging from Lin Donglai's waist and said, "The Spirit Plant Hall recruits outer disciples with spirit-planting talent from among the Immortal Sprouts."

"Disciples admitted to the Hall receive a spirit-planting magical artifact. Look at the gourd on his waist; those patterns look quite extraordinary. It must be the Dew Gourd spirit-planting artifact."

Ji Yan said in disbelief, "We are farming here too! To join the Spirit Plant Hall, one must participate in an assessment before the end of the Immortal Sprout period. How did he join directly without an assessment? Does he have connections?"

"If you have connections, you go straight to being an apprentice in the medicinal gardens; you wouldn't come to the Spirit Field Valley to learn how to farm," Sang Zhi said. "But that strength of his and his tireless appearance... perhaps that is considered a form of talent."

"Even though we also practice the Tendon-Changing Marrow-Washing Stance to increase our strength, we aren't as tireless as him."

While they were using Lin Donglai as a topic of conversation, Lin Donglai sat cross-legged. Observing the shifting shadows of the plants, he realized it was noon. Following the principle of Wood generating Fire, he began to practice the *Bing-Wu Sun-Gathering Technique*.

At high noon during the Chen hour, facing south, he visualized the sun to collect its Yang and Fire energy. The spiritual power cultivated this way would be Blazing Yang Spiritual Power.

During his internal inspection, the roots of the Spirit Root Dao Seed related to the Qi Induction Technique began to turn from green to crimson, subsequently synchronizing with the practice of the *Bing-Wu Sun-Gathering Technique*.

The *Jia-Yin True Qi* he had already cultivated encountered the Blazing Yang True Qi and immediately ignited and transformed. Lin Donglai felt a sensation of his meridians burning.

"Oh no!" Lin Donglai sensed an anomaly in his cultivation, but it was already too late to stop it. All of his *Jia-Yin True Qi* was scorched and transformed into a more explosive *Bing-Wu True Qi*. Only after the transformation was complete did the burning pain subside.