The Confucian and Taoist Sages of Mortal Cultivation

"Hoeing the fields at noon, sweat drips onto the soil beneath the crops."

"Who knows that every grain of rice on the plate is the result of hard work?"

Yang Qingyuan picked up his pen and wrote "Sympathy for the Peasants," a famous poem by the Tang Dynasty poet Li Shen.

In just twenty characters, the poem instantly paints a vivid picture of a farmer hoeing the ground under the blazing sun at midday in the height of summer, his sweat soaking into the soil. It is so realistic and lifelike that it is widely circulated and easy to recite.

Sure enough, as soon as the poem was finished, the mantra in his dantian responded and began to buzz.

Below the character "正" (zhèng), a dazzling silver light slowly emerged, then coalesced into the character "农" (nóng).

The "Agriculture" mantra has a unique effect; each activation can accelerate the ripening of a spiritual herb for fifty years. Activating this mantra requires consuming one's vital energy.

Upon seeing this, Yang Qingyuan was overjoyed, knowing that he had chosen the right general direction.

Immediately afterward, without first testing the effectiveness of the "farm" mantra, he continued to write poems on the same theme.

"Sow a single grain in spring, reap ten thousand in autumn. There is no idle land under heaven, yet farmers still starve..."

"Farmers have few idle months; May is especially busy. Last night, a south wind rose, and the wheat fields turned golden. Women and mothers-in-law carried baskets of food, and children carried jugs of water, following each other to the fields, where the strong men were working on the southern hill. Their feet were steamed by the hot earth, and their backs were scorched by the blazing sun. Exhausted, they felt no heat, only regretting that the summer days were too short..."

Yang Qingyuan wrote seven or eight popular pastoral poems in one go.

The effectiveness of the "farm" mantra has also been continuously enhanced.

Half an incense stick later, Yang Qingyuan put down his brush and examined the changes in the mantra calligraphy.

The "Agriculture" mantra has a unique effect; each activation can accelerate the ripening of a spiritual herb for one hundred years. Activating this mantra requires consuming one's vital energy.

Yang Qingyuan was overjoyed to see the enhanced effect of the mantra. He then got up, walked to the cluster of purple monkey flowers, and mobilized the righteous energy within his body.

A stream of silvery light shot out from his mouth, condensing into a gleaming silver character for "farm".

Immediately afterwards, the character "农" (farm) rushed towards one of the pale purple flower seedlings and disappeared into the flower stem.

At the same time, Yang Qingyuan also sensed that the righteous energy in his dantian had been completely drained by the True Word Scroll.

Over the past three years, he has read all kinds of books, and the upper limit of his righteous energy has reached 41 feet.

However, his righteous energy was exhausted after just one use of the "farming" mantra.

The purple monkey flower swayed slightly, showing little change, clearly indicating that it needs some time to grow.

Yang Qingyuan didn't just wait around; instead, he went to the ring-shaped mountain range and hunted down several top-tier level one demonic beasts.

The bodies of these demonic beasts are excellent materials for refining weapons and can be used as auxiliary materials for reforging flying swords.

Then, a day quietly passed.

With the blessing of the "Agriculture" mantra, this purple monkey flower grew from one or two feet tall to five feet tall, gaining an extra hundred years of medicinal life.

After some calculation, Yang Qingyuan thought to himself, "Considering the recovery speed of the Righteous Qi, it can accelerate the ripening of a spiritual herb approximately every seven days."

This efficiency is roughly the same as the rate at which the Palm Heaven Bottle condenses one drop of Heavenly Creation Dew every seven days.

Now that there is a way to accelerate the growth of spiritual medicine, Yang Qingyuan has even more confidence in his future cultivation.

However, to refine elixirs, one also needs elixir recipes and an alchemy furnace.

The pill formulas have been secured. Lei Wanhe had previously promised to provide two Foundation Establishment stage pill formulas so that Yang Qingyuan and Nie Ying could make a trip to Jiangguo Market.

"As for the alchemy furnace..." Yang Qingyuan was planning to reforge the seven flying swords anyway, so he might as well buy one from the weapon-refining shop.

Thinking of this, he took out the Divine Wind Token and infused it with magic power. The next moment, he was teleported to the Crimson Forbidden Land and then headed straight for the north of Yue Kingdom.

To the north of Jianzhou lies the border between the Yue Kingdom and the Yuanwu Kingdom.

After crossing the border for more than a hundred miles, you will reach the market town of Tianxing Sect, one of the three major sects of Yuanwu Kingdom.

Yang Qingyuan rode the black dragon and arrived at the Tianxing Sect market in just half a day.

The market of Tianxing Sect is very unique, with a radial circular layout. In the center is a huge pavilion that is twenty or thirty feet high, and around it are some low houses.

The pavilion in the middle is the Tianxing Sect's own shop, with a constant flow of people and vehicles in front of it, indicating a thriving business.

Yang Qingyuan put away the black dragon and strolled slowly around the streets of the market, looking at the shops on both sides of the street. Finally, he stopped in front of a weapon-refining shop called "Tianbing Pavilion".

In front of the weapon-refining shop stood a sign with several lines of large characters, saying that it could refine all kinds of magical artifacts according to the requirements of cultivators, from low-grade magical artifacts to top-grade magical artifacts.

Especially at the end of the sign, it claims that the craftsmanship of the shop's weapon refiner is inherited from the Divine Weapon Pavilion.

The Divine Weapon Pavilion is also one of the three major sects of the Yuanwu Kingdom, and is famous for its superb weapon-forging techniques.

After considering it for a moment, Yang Qingyuan went into the shop.

The shop is small, with only three rooms and a small courtyard.

In the front shop, there are more than a dozen wooden shelves.

The wooden shelves were filled with a dazzling array of ritual implements, but the quality of the implements was not high; 70% of them were low-grade or mid-grade.

There are only two top-grade magical artifacts: a gray throwing knife and a blue three-pronged fork, both of average quality.

Yang Qingyuan glanced at it briefly, then lost interest and walked towards the counter.

Behind the counter, an elderly man with white hair and a ruddy complexion was chatting with a burly man with dark skin.

Seeing a customer approach, the burly man greeted him with a smile and asked, "Sir, are you looking to buy a ritual implement or have one custom-made?"

Yang Qingyuan responded, "We need to buy ritual implements, and we also need to have them custom-made."

Do you have any top-grade alchemy furnaces here?

Upon hearing this, the burly man was taken aback for a moment, his face showing surprise.

The red-faced old man behind the counter looked on in surprise upon hearing this.

"Top-grade magical artifacts are rare to begin with, let alone such a unique alchemy furnace." The burly man, regaining his composure and fearing he had misheard, quickly asked again, "Sir, are you truly interested in purchasing a top-grade alchemy furnace?"

Yang Qingyuan smiled without saying a word, but silently circulated the "Divine Sword Thunder Control Scripture," and his aura suddenly changed.

"Foundation Establishment cultivator!"

The red-faced old man behind the counter changed his expression and hurriedly stepped forward, saying to the burly man, "Xiao Hei, don't be rude. I will receive this distinguished guest. You may leave."

The burly man was only at the third level of Qi Refining. When he heard that Yang Qingyuan was a Foundation Establishment cultivator, he was terrified and respectfully retreated behind the old man.

This red-faced old man was only at the thirteenth level of Qi Refining. Facing Yang Qingyuan, he was extremely respectful, cupping his hands in greeting and introducing himself, "Senior, I am the manager of this weapon-refining shop. Just tell me what you need."

Yang Qingyuan nodded slightly and asked, "Do you have a top-grade alchemy furnace here?"

The red-faced shopkeeper looked ashamed and explained, "Senior, this top-grade alchemy furnace is extremely rare. Once it is made, it will be immediately bought by cultivators from immortal cultivation families. It is impossible for it to be left idle."

"The shop doesn't have any in stock either."

"But if you have the materials, you can order one from our shop."

"This old man once successfully crafted a top-grade alchemy furnace, which sold for a sky-high price of nine hundred spirit stones."

Upon hearing this, Yang Qingyuan took out a separate storage bag from his pocket and poured it on the ground.

In an instant, a huge pile of monster materials appeared on the ground, like a small mountain.

"Ah, the shell of a top-tier level one demonic beast, the Xuanjia Turtle."

"The hide of the Azure Water Crocodile, a top-tier level one demonic beast."

"The fang of the top-tier level one demonic beast, the Mountain-Pushing Beast."

"A top-tier level one demonic beast..."

"Good heavens, they're all top-tier level one demonic beasts."

The red-faced shopkeeper was greatly shocked when he saw the materials made from more than ten kinds of demonic beasts, and he gasped in surprise.