While cultivating, time tend to pass very quickly.
The weather grew increasingly hot day by day, and the rice in the village had come to another bountiful harvest, accumulating a considerable amount of grain.
To be honest, if it weren’t for the chaos outside and the ease with which one could lose their life, this kind of life might be exactly what the villagers desired.
Because the grain they had worked so hard to grow didn’t have to be mostly handed over and could all be kept for themselves.
If they ate sparingly, a family could have enough to eat for a year or two without any problem, and even if a catastrophe occurred, as long as they still had grain, they could survive it. This was much better than their previous living conditions.
Of course, once order was restored, the officials would surely come looking.
Some people did whatever it took to scrounge up benefits, and hiding here wouldn’t save you; even if you hid deeper, they could still find you.
It just wasn’t known whether the village, with its current strength, would still dare to be plundered by the likes of officialdom.
After harvesting the rice, Village Chief Zhou Zhengwen didn’t take a break. He selected several plots of land that looked the best and had people disperse the Spirit Rice seeds given by Wang Sheng.
The quantity of Spirit Rice seeds Wang Sheng provided wasn’t exactly small, but it wasn’t much either. In the end, the seeds were scattered over a little more than an acre of land, and then Bone Powder made from the Evil Flood Dragon Bone was also spread over it.
The current temperature was actually still not low, but with the regulation of the mountains and the forests, it was fairly suitable.
Perhaps due to the Bone Powder, along with the right temperature, the seeds successfully sprouted in just over ten days.
After the successful sprouting, the village’s Martial Artists had one more task, which was to protect these seedlings and prevent them from being ruined by any wild beasts or spirit beasts.
Wang Sheng, of course, wouldn’t be involved in these matters.
If he wanted the plants to grow quickly, the most important factor was that he needed to truly engage in planting.
Put simply, he had to participate himself, weeding and turning the soil. Only activity could speed up the growth of the plants.
If one merely scattered the seeds and then did nothing else, the seeds would just remain as they were, growing at a normal pace.
Therefore, the most common tasks he did with the medicinal plants he planted were turning the soil and weeding, which allowed the progress bar to grow.
This was especially true after he had integrated the “Planting Skill.”
Not only did the medicinal herbs grow quickly, but the weeds also shot up rapidly. However, Wang Sheng did not get rid of the weeds completely, as turning the soil daily was actually quite boring. Weeding was actually a good distraction.
Time flowed on, waiting for no one, and in the blink of an eye, it was autumn.
Wang Sheng had cultivated for a few more months.
A few more Martial Artists had appeared in the village.
These Martial Artists were the ones who had earned their Body Tempering Liquid through their own merits. Some, after using the liquid and with the aid of Cultivation Techniques, successful became Martial Artists, while others only had their physical fitness enhanced a bit.
Talent was sometimes truly a helpless matter.
Aside from the original five, the village’s native Martial Artists had gained three more.
However, these three became Martial Artists after being eliminated in the first selection at Qingshan Village and then succeeding with the help of resources. Their talents were not very good; without any accidents, reaching the third or fourth rank as a Martial Artist would be their end.
They themselves didn’t feel anything about this; being able to become Martial Artists was already something they had once not even dared to dream of.
Then there were the children from the school, who had been training in Martial Artist Skills for several months.
However, because they trained a little every day or even once every few days, they had still not become Martial Artists.
Even so, their physical fitness had already surpassed ordinary people’s.
Liu Jian’an, a nine-year-old child who didn’t look particularly strong but rather well-mannered, could easily carry a stone block weighing over a hundred jin.
Wang Lingwei, about the same age as Liu Jian’an, a delicate and tender-looking girl, could also shoulder a stone block of over a hundred jin.
Of course, this was normal. Martial Artists were not made in a day, and even without becoming Martial Artists, their physical fitness would improve through the process of cultivation.
Martial Artists like Zhang Ze and Xu Qu had already started practicing martial skills with people.
Everything in the village was progressing, and Wang Sheng naturally was not falling behind.
First was archery, which he hadn’t neglected. Since he had made a bow and arrow, he felt that he would need to enhance his archery skills as well.
“You can’t always rely on the explosive force of Qi-Blood Power to cause damage, right?”
“Instead, the bow and arrow itself must deal the damage.”
“But right now, he has many things to do, so there’s not much time dedicated to archery practice, hence he hadn’t made a breakthrough in several months.”
“Of course, this also had to do with the fact that he had never practiced archery before and didn’t know any practice techniques.”
“He could only rely on the ’practice makes perfect’ progress bar to correct and solve issues.”
“He wasn’t in a hurry, though. Slow and steady was the way to go.”
“The skills that truly improved the most were two in particular.”
“First was the Planting Skill.”
“Due to the previous fusion, the “Medicinal Plant Cultivation” skill that had already broken through five times had become “Planting Skill: Breakthrough +4,” and the effects of the cultivated medicinal plants had weakened considerably.”
“Now he had finally returned to having broken through five times.”
“The effectiveness of the medicinal herbs had also been restored, but the progress bar had become increasingly difficult to advance.”
“This was an issue Wang Sheng had discovered.”
“A Planting Skill that had broken through five times was a bit harder to enhance than Medicinal Plant Cultivation at the same level.”
“It was foreseeable that the advancement of Planting Skill would become more and more difficult.”
“Looking at the long term, merging skills was definitely beneficial because leveling up all skills related to planting was certain to be slower and more taxing than advancing a single Planting Skill.”
“However, in the early stages, all planting would be restrained by the slow improvement rate of the Planting Skill, especially the crucial Medicinal Plant Cultivation.”
“In the future, it might even be possible that the entire cultivation progression would depend on the Planting Skill advancing, requiring Wang Sheng to pause and wait for its enhancement to continue providing resources for cultivation.”
“He had originally thought this until he discovered something else.”
“Refining Essence to Qi: Refining” had reached only about ten percent after several months.”
“With such little progress over such a long time, he knew his worries were superfluous.”
“Stop cultivating and wait? That was simply an impossibility. It was more likely that both progress rates would be slow, gradually consuming time.”
“Of course, even though the progress had only reached about ten percent, Wang Sheng’s spiritual power had also become increasingly stronger. He felt that with a little more progress, he should be able to preliminarily use his “Divine Power” to do some things.”
“Next was the progress of the Six Harmonies Spear. From a level perspective, this was the second largest advancement; with the Six Harmonies Spear breaking through for the second time, Wang Sheng used it more skillfully.”
“Then there was the progress of the Five Elements Fist.”
“Five Elements Fist was something Wang Sheng always valued highly, allocating a bit more time to it during every practice session.”
“Therefore, even though he had many skills now, the progress of the Five Elements Fist was nearly at the point of breaking through three times.”
“Five Elements Fist: Breakthrough +2 (97%)”
“He was just three percent away from experiencing a third transformation.”
“From past experience, the third transformation should be associated with some property related to the five organs and six viscera.”
“Iron-cast internal organs?” Wang Sheng guessed.”
“However, he made no snap judgments.”
“As long as he practiced, he would know what it was.”
“About a week passed, and the progress of the Five Elements Fist finally reached its limit.”
“Five Elements Fist: Breakthrough +3 (1%)”
“What new properties the Five Elements Fist possessed after the breakthrough, he would only understand after practicing it once.”