The next day, Li Mu was not in a hurry to leave Gangyang City. Instead, he put on the Linglong Mask to disguise himself and went to Wanbao Pavilion to collect the commission for selling Spiritual Artifacts as ‘Master Li’.
At Wanbao Pavilion, upon hearing of Li Mu’s arrival, Wang Wenbao rushed excitedly to the main hall. Before he even entered, his voice preceded him: “Master Li, you’ve finally arrived! At yesterday’s Auction, all the Spiritual Artifacts you refined shone brilliantly and were very popular. Many customers have placed pre-orders with me, hoping you can help refine more Spiritual Artifacts.”
“However, I know you have important matters to attend to, so I didn’t dare to agree to them,” Wang Wenbao said, walking into the hall and looking at Li Mu for instructions.
“Hmm! We can discuss refining Spiritual Artifacts when Li returns to Gangyang City!” Li Mu smiled and nodded.
Hearing this, Wang Wenbao couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed, but the smile on his face remained unchanged. He presented two Storage Pouches with both hands: “Master Li, this is the commission from last night’s Spiritual Artifact Auction, as well as two Third-Tier Scarlet Gold Swords. After deducting the Materials, the remaining 4000 Medium Grade Spirit Stones are in one pouch. The other Storage Pouch contains a gift from me: a Second-Tier Light Cloud Spirit Boat, and a total of thirty bottles of various Spirit Pills for healing, restoring Qi, and detoxifying, as well as Grain Abstinence Pills. I wish you a smooth journey and an early return.”
“Thank you, Manager Wang, Li will not be polite!” Li Mu felt Wang Wenbao’s sincerity and happily accepted the gifts.
After chatting for a while, Li Mu left Wanbao Pavilion under Wang Wenbao’s enthusiastic farewell.
Li Mu went to Chen's Cultivation Method Building and purchased several Legacy Jade Slips that he had wanted before but couldn't afford due to lack of Spirit Stones, such as the Skinning Technique, Tanning Technique, Five Elements Movement Legacy, etc. Then, he visited the market and purchased a large amount of Cultivation Materials unique to Gangyang City, including several Yao Beast hides, Yao Beast meat, Second-Tier Talisman paper, Second-Tier Spiritual Wood, and other Cultivation resources.
At noon, Li Mu left Gangyang City, flew on his sword, and headed towards Xiao Liang Mountain.
Before departing for Gangyang City, Li Mu had sown Wind Spirit Grass seeds in all eleven mu of his spiritual fields.
By now, the Wind Spirit Grass should have sprouted, and Li Mu was anxious to return to water them with spiritual rain to replenish their moisture.
While Wind Spirit Grass is easy to manage and rarely suffers from insect pests, it has extremely high water requirements, needing spiritual rain daily. A delay of two or three days can cause the Wind Spirit Grass to wilt slightly, and four or five days will lead to it drying out and beginning to wither.
Li Mu activated his Divine Sense to its fullest, rushing on his sword with all his might, his figure like a streak of light, swiftly cutting across the sky.
“Fellow Daoist, help!”
“Fellow Daoist, save us!”
Just then, several disheveled figures in front were being pursued by a group of First-Tier Yao Beasts, flying directly towards him.
Li Mu’s Divine Sense had already detected them in advance: one female and three male Cultivators, all in the Late Stage of Qi Refining, being pursued by a flock of Fiery Flame Birds, hoping to shift the disaster to him.
How could Li Mu let them succeed so easily? He patted his Storage Pouch and released a small Spirit Boat.
Li Mu flew into the Spirit Boat, quickly took out several Mid-Grade Spirit Stones, embedded them into the spiritual array, and activated the aerial formation within the Spirit Boat.
The next second, the small Spirit Boat flashed with spiritual light and then vanished. With a 'whoosh,' the Spirit Boat shot out, moving six or seven times faster than his sword flight just now, turning into a black speck in the blink of an eye and quickly disappearing into the horizon.
Seeing this, the four Late Stage Qi Refining Cultivators who were ‘fleeing’ were all dumbfounded.
“Damn it! He’s a fat sheep! He actually has a Second-Tier Spirit Boat!” a black-robed male Cultivator cursed with a dark expression.
“Fourth Sister, quickly disperse the bird flock! They’re about to catch up,” the leading Cultivator instructed the red-clothed female Cultivator.
The red-clothed female Cultivator nodded and shook the dozen small bells hanging from her hands. A piercing 'ding-a-ling' sound spread, and the Fiery Flame Bird flock following behind them seemed to have encountered a natural enemy, flying away as if in escape.
...
Li Mu was unaware of what was happening behind him. After using the Spirit Boat, he flew directly to Xiao Liang Mountain, arriving nearly an hour earlier than expected.
Landing on Xiao Liang Mountain, Li Mu looked at the tender green sprouts in the spiritual fields with delight. He then formed a hand seal for the Clear Wind Summoning Rain spell and unleashed a powerful surge of spiritual energy into the sky above the spiritual fields.
A strong wind rose from nowhere, spiritual energy quickly gathered, and “pat, pat, pat…” drops of rain, as large as soybeans, poured down like broken strings of pearls. In less than a quarter of an hour, the water in the dry field furrows filled up.
The eleven mu of Wind Spirit Grass seedlings were not only undamaged by the raindrops but instead became lush and green, their stalks standing tall, rapidly absorbing and replenishing moisture, as if they had collectively grown a whole new batch.
After two hundred and fifty breaths, this sudden spiritual rain gradually dissipated.
Seeing this, Li Mu breathed a sigh of relief. His Divine Sense swept over the fields, finding no Wind Spirit Grass seedlings that had died of thirst.
Li Mu took out a light green Jade Slip from his Storage Pouch and began to study the Spiritual Plant Cultivation Technique.
After returning to Xiao Liang Mountain, Li Mu finally had time to convert the dozens of Cultivation Technique Jade Slips purchased from Chen's Cultivation Method Building into his own skills.
Li Mu gazed at the Jade Slip in his hand and immersed his Divine Sense into it.
The next second, Li Mu’s consciousness entered the Jade Slip space, receiving a surge of Cultivation Technique information and acquiring the casting techniques for the Kurong Technique.
“Ding, you have successfully accepted the Kurong Technique Legacy. You have learned the Kurong Technique.”
Li Mu glanced at the log prompt and began to attempt using the Kurong Technique.
Following the casting route of the Kurong Technique, he gathered wood-attribute spiritual energy between two fingers, and then Li Mu released it onto a weed seedling in the spiritual field.
The weed plant absorbed this wood-attribute spiritual energy and grew rapidly at a visible rate. In a moment, the weed seedling grew to a foot tall, looking like a mature plant in a state of malnutrition. Then, its leaves began to yellow, and the entire plant quickly withered.
The Kurong Technique, as its name suggests, manipulates the growth state of spiritual plants through spells, causing them to grow to maturity in an extremely short period. The rapid growth, however, leads to immense spiritual consumption, causing the entire plant to go from flourishing to withering and finally dying within dozens of breaths.
This technique is primarily used to deal with weeds in spiritual fields, fundamentally solving the problem of weeds encroaching on the growth space of spiritual plants.
The Kurong Technique is very effective for solving weed problems; however, because he had just learned it, the casting of this technique was too slow, and the time it took for the weeds to die was too long.
Li Mu glanced at his character attribute panel and saw that he still had over 900 free proficiency points. He immediately spent 600 free proficiency points to upgrade the Kurong Technique to Level 2.
The Kurong Technique was upgraded to Level 2.
Li Mu immediately gained hundreds of Kurong Technique casting experiences. With a flick of his finger, a surge of wood-attribute spiritual energy landed on another weed. Within ten breaths, he witnessed that weed go from flourishing to declining, ultimately withering and dying in the spiritual field.
Seeing this, Li Mu was overjoyed. He then took out another Jade Slip and began to learn other Cultivation Techniques.
Turning Earth Technique!
This spirit rice farmer technique is quite interesting; it’s an earth-element Cultivation Technique.
Li Mu had studied the Five Elements Technique and possessed Low Grade Five Elements spiritual energy, so learning this technique posed no difficulty.
Li Mu immersed his Divine Sense into the Jade Slip, directly acquiring the Legacy of the Turning Earth Technique.