Chương 36: Chapter 35

Elara led Alistair behind Courtyard C7 to a spirit field covering roughly four hundred square yards. Combined with the hundred and sixty square yards inside her courtyard, that gave her five hundred and sixty square yards for growing spirit plants. The two plots, however, differed considerably in the spiritual energy within their soil. The open field behind the courtyard couldn't support dense plantings of more demanding varieties. That was why Elara had chosen to grow spirit rice here.

As they approached, she spotted a neighboring outer disciple casting gardening arts over his own rice field. She hadn't met any of her neighbors yet. Since he made no move to greet her, she saw no reason to interrupt his work. Alistair, meanwhile, could barely contain his excitement.

"Boss, this whole field is yours! And look at the location. Fellow disciples all around, Azuremoon Peak's formation keeping out the worst of the heat and cold…" He went on praising the property as though it were the finest patch of land in the sect. He had a point. Elara was apprenticed to a late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator. Her master might leave her to her own devices, but he was still an elder with considerable authority in Azuremoon Peak's Hall of Spirit Gardening.

That had earned her a good courtyard. Even the open field behind it held enough spiritual energy for her to sense it with little effort. Belonging to a sect certainly had its advantages. She smiled and held out her hand.

"The most basic spirit rice seeds will do. I'll give you ten percent of the harvest."

"Glad to be part of it, boss." Alistair had long since stopped feeling embarrassed about calling a girl who looked no older than sixteen or seventeen his boss. He pulled a bag of seeds from his Storage Ring and handed it over. Elara took it, wishing she could scatter the seeds across the field with one grand sweep of her hand and a single casting of Stormcalling. Unfortunately, at Tier 4 Qi Refining, she didn't have the qi reserves for anything so ambitious.

And with Stormcalling still at Level 1, sowing an entire field that way was wishful thinking anyway. She looked at Alistair.

"Boss, you're not thinking…" Too late, he remembered that Elara hadn't recruited any servant disciples to help her. And he happened to be one. For the next two hours, Alistair worked his way across the field, sowing seeds by hand. Prim was determined to help, too. The little scarecrow followed him into the field and crouched beside a row, carefully scooping a few seeds into its straw fingers. Half slipped through the gaps. The rest landed in a single untidy heap. Prim tilted its head, then tried to separate them.

Its clumsy fingers only pushed them farther into the dirt.

"Slowly, Prim. One at a time." Elara crouched beside it and demonstrated. Prim watched her hands closely, then tried again. This time, it managed to plant a seed, though it nearly toppled forward while patting the soil into place. It was still struggling with its next few seeds when Alistair moved on to another row. By the time he finished, sweat was streaming down his face, and his back felt ready to give out.

"I… I'm done. I've got no qi left. You'll have to handle Soften Earth and Raincall yourself." You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

"Come stand beside me." Elara had helped with the sowing, though she hadn't tried very hard to disguise how much of the work she was leaving to him. Prim straightened at her call as well. It brushed at the dirt caught in its straw fingers and shuffled over to stand beside her. Now she caught their neighbor glancing their way, a faint smirk on his lips. This was her first chance to show what she could do in the Moonwatch Sect. She needed to make a decent impression. Alistair hurried over.

He was about to speak when he saw the hand seals she was forming.

"A Rank One Mystic Technique?" The startled question came from their neighbor. Most outer disciples of the Moonwatch Sect didn't learn Rank One mystic techniques until late-stage Qi Refining. Attempting them any earlier risked injuries that could cost them precious cultivation time. The neighbor had asked about the new arrival just yesterday. He knew her cultivation tier. Tier 4 Qi Refining. Only her second day in the sect. And she was already casting a Spirit Gardener's Rank One mystic technique? Surely not.

Yet as Elara continued forming hand seals, spiritual energy stirred throughout the field. A steady wind rose with the flow of her qi. It swept low over the soil, gathering spiritual energy and spreading it among the newly planted seeds.

"Stormcalling!" Alistair exclaimed. This particular Rank One mystic technique for spirit gardening had an impressive range of uses. Its first stage, raising the wind, distributed qi across a large area of spirit plants. It could also harvest and gather crops such as spirit rice. The second stage, calling the rain, was an advanced form of Raincall. It condensed spiritual energy into rain and mist to accelerate plant growth. Several uses in a single technique. No wonder every Spirit Gardener needed to learn it.

While Alistair was still marveling at her achievement, Elara moved into the second stage. A thin layer of cloud gathered just above the field, rich with the spiritual energy she had drawn in. Mist seeped into the earth, moistening the soil and delivering the qi the seeds needed to grow. [You have successfully cast Stormcalling. Proficiency +1.] Elara watched the proficiency reading change. [25/100] Maturity readings appeared across the field. [0/100] [1/100] … A few seeds had already sprouted.

Elara eagerly began counting. Roughly five or six hundred maturity readings dotted the plot. That meant she could grow five or six hundred spirit rice plants here. Compared with rice farming back on Earth, that was a pitiful number for so much land. Using the technique had helped her understand why, though. Spirit rice needed spiritual energy to grow. Each plant required roughly five or six square feet of soil to draw enough nourishment. More than five hundred plants.

Doesn't that mean more than five hundred reward orbs when they mature? She began doing the math. At Tier 4 Qi Refining, seven and a half days of cultivation earned her one experience point. Five hundred orbs, each worth a day of cultivation, would give her sixty-six experience points. She gazed across the field. Forget the rice. Just think what all those orbs could do for her cultivation.

"Boss, you really are a genius! You've already learned a Rank One mystic technique!" Alistair's praise interrupted her calculations. She tried to look composed, but she couldn't hold back a broad smile. How could she? This field could yield roughly two hundred and twenty pounds of spirit rice. At about forty-five Spirit Coins a pound, the harvest would be worth a hundred Spirit Stones.

Spirit rice grown for seed required special cultivation, but even then, the seeds cost only about four and a half Spirit Stones a pound. The little over two pounds needed for this plot had cost ten Spirit Stones. A harvest worth ten times the cost of the seeds! In the outlying fields around a market city like Valehaven, spirit rice could be harvested every two or three months. Here on Azuremoon Peak, within the Moonwatch Sect, conditions were far better.

With careful tending, she should be able to bring in a harvest every month. Even this plot, with its relatively thin spiritual energy, could earn her ninety Spirit Stones a month after seed costs. Delighted, she turned to Alistair and repeated her promise.

"Ten percent is yours."

"Oh, you don't have to do that. I have enough Spirit Stones." For once, Alistair was turning down a chance to profit. He had expected Elara to need a few failed attempts before she managed to grow a proper crop. With that in mind, collecting his ten percent hadn't seemed particularly important. He hadn't expected her to be so close to qualifying as a Rank One Spirit Gardener. This field was clearly going to earn a tidy sum. But he still hoped to learn a few arts from her.

He wasn't about to jeopardize that for a little money now.

"Alistair, I insist." Elara raised a hand, her tone firm.

"I need someone to sell my spirit plants for me. A commission is fair payment for the work. If you won't accept it, I'll have to find someone else."

"Then I'll do it," he said quickly. Footsteps approached, and Elara turned. Their neighbor was coming over. Dirt and bits of grass clung to his blue-green cultivation robe. His hair was tied back, his feet were bare, and he greeted her with a warm smile.

"Elara, I'm Edwin Han. I live just to your left, in Courtyard C6. I joined the sect six years ago, and I serve in the Hall of Spirit Gardening." Edwin was an outer disciple, but no one had ever taken him on as a personal apprentice. He had simply been assigned to work in the Hall of Spirit Gardening. He was thirty-one now, having entered the sect at twenty-five. There was nothing remarkable about his aptitude. That had always rankled. Like Elara, he had started as an independent cultivator.

He wanted to prove that, given the same cultivation conditions as those raised within a sect, he could be every bit their equal. Then he had watched another former independent cultivator cast Stormcalling as though it were nothing. For the first time, Edwin understood just how wide the gap between an ordinary cultivator and a genius could be. It was time to introduce himself.