Chapter 30: Giant Rat

Since the second Hundred-Day Assessment, Lin Donglai had spent another month guarding his spiritual field, and the seedling field was now a lush expanse of verdant sprouts.

After dividing the seedlings into individual clumps, it was time for transplanting. Two catties of grain seeds were just enough for a little over two *fen* of land; the extra bit was reserved for replanting.

Over the past month, through diligent cultivation, Lin Donglai had refined five strands of Earth-element Fetal Breath and had begun transitioning to the Renzi Water-Gathering Formula. He had even mastered a strand of Water-element Fetal Breath, which he had planted within his kidneys.

When transitioning from the Chen Earth-Gathering Formula to the Renzi Water-Gathering Formula, although Earth overcomes Water, he did not experience the burning sensation he had felt when Fire overcame Wood previously.

During the transition itself, he felt as though his body had suddenly gained twenty or thirty catties of weight, as if he were experiencing sleep paralysis; he felt heavy with moisture and prone to fatigue.

However, once the first strand of Water-element Fetal Breath had condensed, this sensation gradually vanished.

His body had grown accustomed to the adaptation.

After all, Lin Donglai possessed the Five-Element Spiritual Roots; theoretically, he could cultivate any of the five elemental arts.

Although he was not following the Five-Element General Outline to wait until the mid-stage of Qi Refinement before cross-cultivating other elements, the existence of the Dao Seed meant he had no need to worry about deviating from his path or cultivating himself to death.

When performing internal observation to check his viscera, he could see that the Earth-element Fetal Breath in his spleen had transformed into a small, palm-sized piece of rocky soil.

The Water-element Fetal Breath planted in his kidneys appeared, through internal observation, as a tiny spring eye.

Once these elemental Fetal Breaths were planted within the five viscera, they provided immense nourishment to them.

For instance, since Earth governs the spleen's postnatal transformation, Lin Donglai's appetite had increased significantly during this period, and his digestive capacity had improved. Externally, this manifested as him no longer needing to defecate; everything ingested into his body could be converted into the two substances: spiritual qi and essence.

Furthermore, since Water governs the kidneys' essence and qi, Lin Donglai's complexion had become much more ruddy. Even though he had not actively practiced the Tendon-Changing Marrow-Washing Stance during this time to avoid excessive consumption, he had still managed to convert another Blood Marrow Bone into a Spiritual Marrow Bone.

Moreover, regardless of which Fetal Breath was refined to strengthen the viscera, it provided some benefit to the Primordial Nourishing Breathing Technique, which in turn harmonized his body, ensuring he wouldn't fall ill from an imbalance of the five viscera and elements.

In contrast, the Spiritual Root Dao Seed, which provided Lin Donglai with various forms of assistance, changed very little. Its roots did not increase, its leaves did not multiply, and its tender stem did not grow taller; it simply remained rooted in the void of his mind, cultivating automatically according to the technique.

Ever since this Dao Seed became capable of automatically operating the Qi-Inducing Technique, even when the supply of spirit stones was halted, it no longer sent "cravings for spiritual qi" to his mind, relieving Lin Donglai of much of his burden.

Only the growth of his spiritual power could be described as slow; over these days, the total amount of spiritual power residing in his dantian was only eight strands.

After all, most of the spiritual qi absorbed through cultivation was consumed by the Spiritual Root Dao Seed; what remained, after collecting the five-element essence, turned into attribute-less spiritual qi.

This attribute-less spiritual qi had to be used to nourish the Spiritual Marrow, nurture blood essence, refine Fetal Breaths, and nourish the various viscera.

During the midnight hour of the Zi period, Lin Donglai faced north to gather the Renzi Qi. Ren Water is Yang Water, represented by the night dew at the moment the first Yang emerges during the Zi hour; this night dew is even more nourishing to plants than heavenly rain.

There were even practitioners of this formula who specifically hired laborers to collect the dew from spiritual herbs and flowers during the Zi hour and store it in gourds. Refining this dew was far more convenient for cultivation than laboriously gathering qi alone.

"Squeak! Squeak!"

"Squeak! Squeak!"

Hearing the sound of a rat, Lin Donglai instantly snapped his eyes open.

Lately, he had become acquainted with several other "Immortal Sprouts" in the Spirit Field Valley who had also chosen the path of spiritual plants.

None of them had been directly selected by the Spirit Plant Hall, so they were very envious upon hearing that Lin Donglai would be able to enter the Spirit Plant Hall as soon as his Immortal Sprout stage ended.

Because of this, two other Immortal Sprouts even sought to curry favor with him, giving off the impression that they might become the leaders of this batch of Immortal Sprouts in the Spirit Field Valley.

However, Lin Donglai did not relax because of this; instead, he became even more cautious, fearing that someone might act out of jealousy and secretly sabotage the spiritual field he had worked so hard to tend.

Moreover, during these recent days, there had indeed been instances where people's spiritual seedlings were being gnawed upon.

He suspected that some small creature was causing mischief.

Using a "Fire-Lighting Technique," Lin Donglai crept out of his shed to investigate.

This Fire-Lighting Technique, like the previous Cleaning Technique, was one of the simplest spells—it wasn't even truly a spell, but rather a method of applying spiritual qi.

Relying on the faint light and the keen perception brought about by frequent internal observation, it took only a moment before Lin Donglai locked eyes with a pair of bean-sized black eyes.

Sure enough, it was a rat!

This rat was quite large, roughly the size of a cat or a dog, appearing to be a field rat that had mutated after absorbing spiritual qi.

Though it was merely a rat, after consuming many spirit-rich grain seedlings, its blood and qi were already equivalent to that of a Xiantian martial artist in the mortal realm.

It even displayed a somewhat human-like expression at that moment, showing a hint of surprise at being discovered.

Grabbing his fine iron hoe, Lin Donglai rushed forward in a few strides.

The large rat was unexpectedly unafraid of humans; it charged toward him with strange, incredible speed.

In an instant, it darted between Lin Donglai's legs, slipped behind him, and let out another squeak, as if mocking him: "Too slow! You think you can catch me?"

Lin Donglai's gaze sharpened, inwardly marveling at how fast the rat was. Was it naturally fast, or had it awakened a talent-based spell?

Lin Donglai proceeded to chase and drive it away; although he couldn't catch the rat, he successfully guarded the spiritual field.

Lin Donglai had put a lot of effort into planting this Blood Marrow Rice, and combined with the fact that this plot was well-chosen with abundant earth energy—and had previously been sprinkled with spirit stone powder by past Immortal Sprouts—the spiritual qi content was not low. Consequently, the seedlings grew exceptionally well, making them highly attractive to this large rat.

Seeing no opportunity to gnaw on the seedlings and wary of the fine iron hoe in Lin Donglai's hand—knowing it would surely be split in two if struck—the rat gave up and went to gnaw on someone else's seedlings instead.

A moment later, another Immortal Sprout guarding his own field saw the rat eating his seedlings and cried out, "Everyone, come help! There's a huge rat! It's become a spirit!"

Lin Donglai did not hesitate and rushed over immediately. With more people, they might be able to deal with the rat; otherwise, he feared there would be no peace for them from then on!

In an instant, three Immortal Sprout disciples mobilized. Because they had chosen the path of spiritual plants, their spiritual root aptitudes were quite low—mostly low-grade Four-Element or Five-Element roots. Their cultivation levels were similar, barely reaching the first layer of Qi Refinement, not even reaching the second.

Since they hadn't reached the second layer, they naturally hadn't learned any spells. However, one of them, named Ning Feng, had studied some mortal martial arts before beginning his cultivation. He was agile, and although he was far slower than the giant rat, if he joined forces with Lin Donglai and the others to block its path, they might be able to kill it.

"Brother Lin, Brother Chen, I will use my family's martial arts to deal with this beast. You two must be careful; if it gets desperate while fleeing toward you, it might bite!"