Cultivation begins with harvest.

Spiritual Plant: Red Peony

Grade: Tier 1 Common

Attributes: Fire/Flowering herb/Annual/Herb

Description: A spiritual plant containing a trace of gentle fire-attribute spiritual power, with vigorous vitality and easy cultivation. It is one of the three main ingredients of the [Crimson Fusion Pill]. It requires a warm and slightly dry environment, but has a high water requirement. Appropriately baking it with [Spiritual Fire] before planting can improve the quality of seedlings. Using [Spiritual Charcoal] and [Red Scale Stone] during cultivation can advance the flowering period and improve the quality of flowering.

Unlock the next level of cultivation content: 0/50 (number of mature red peonies)

After a brief moment of joy, Chen Guang revealed a thoughtful expression.

Don't be fooled by the beautiful descriptions, which make it seem like you can easily harvest a batch of high-quality red peonies by following the proper steps. The real difficulty lies in the fact that none of the materials—spiritual fire, spiritual charcoal, or even red scale stone—are easy to obtain.

The easiest thing to obtain is spirit charcoal.

Before he officially began cultivating immortality, Chen Guang longed to see what a spirit stone looked like, but in reality...

Even now, Chen Guang has never touched a spirit stone.

Spirit stones are a high-end material that serves both monetary and practical purposes. It is said that the spirit stone veins on Purple Spirit Peak are mined only from the naturally abundant portion without depleting the veins. The yield is measured in years. Although Purple Spirit Peak has more than one spirit stone vein, the annual output of a single vein is said to be only a few dozen stones.

The purchasing power of spirit stones was even more exaggerated than Chen Guang had imagined, but the quantity of spirit stones was also much scarcer than he had imagined.

As for the exact number of spirit stone veins in Ziling Peak, that remains unknown. In any case, according to the rules of Ziling Peak, only disciples who achieve a ranking in the small competition held once every five years can receive spirit stones as a reward.

The three-year mini-exam tests cultivation level; one must have a cultivation level one level higher than the previous mini-exam to pass.

The five-year mini-competition tests one's skills. Those who are not skilled enough will not be able to keep their position as steward disciples, and to win the reward of spirit stones, they must be among the top performers.

The operation of Ziling Peak is actually quite complex, consisting of nine departments, including the Earth Hall for farming and nurturing spirits, the Qi Hall for going out to explore and fight enemies, and the Flame Hall for refining weapons and pills.

Of course, all outer disciples are under the jurisdiction of Xingfeng Hall, and Chen Guang and the others would go to the stewards of Xingfeng Hall if they had any problems.

Ziling Peak also has other rules. If a disciple is expelled for failing in the small competition, he can only go to Suling Academy among the Seven Peaks and Three Academies. Chen Guang doesn't know exactly what he will do there, but he knows that none of the deacons, such as Jiang Zuoyun, are willing to go to that place.

My thoughts drifted back to the present. Outer disciples were not qualified to use spirit stones for transactions, and the same was true for steward disciples. Therefore, the hard currency for transactions here was [spirit rice]. Spirit rice, which could nourish the body and remove worldly impurities, was the hard currency. Transactions were all conducted using spirit rice as currency. It could be handed over to the Xingfeng Hall, and the Golden Ear Iron Coins issued by the Xingfeng Hall could be exchanged at a 1:1 ratio.

It is also referred to as "Suiyuan" by many cultivators.

Taking Chen Guang as an example, of his three mu of spiritual fields, two mu were planted with spiritual rice, and one mu was planted with specific types of spiritual herbs required by the sect. Among them, the yield of spiritual rice was not high, less than 300 jin per mu. If it were an ordinary person, they could only use spiritual tools to weed and prevent insects, which was not efficient. So the actual yield was only about 150 jin per mu.

After deducting the portion that had to be paid to the sect, the remaining amount was only thirty to fifty catties of spirit rice per person per year, if it weren't for the fact that spirit rice was plentiful. In reality, there wasn't much left over.

Chen Guang's accumulation over the past two years amounted to only 103 jin of spirit rice. Spirit rice is only harvested once a year. Having just broken through to the first level of Qi Refining, Chen Guang was still thinking of accumulating more spirit rice by increasing production and quantity before making further plans.

After all, even a cultivator at the first level of Qi Refining, even without putting in much effort, can still produce over two hundred catties of spirit rice from one mu of spirit field. In addition, the sect also bestows two mu of spirit fields upon them. It has to be said that cultivators actually have more disposable assets.

"By the way, I can read information from red peony seeds, I wonder if I can do the same for spirit rice seeds." Chen Guang suddenly had an idea.

Each year, about one-tenth more of the spirit rice seeds are given out, so Chen Guang had quite a few left over. He immediately took out a spirit rice seed.

With a slight circulation of his magic power, the light screen he had seen before reappeared, only its contents had changed.

Spiritual Plant: [Spiritual Rice & Water]

Grade: Tier 1 Common

Attributes: Water/Spike/Annual/Herb

Description: It is a water-attribute spiritual plant, but the fruit spikes it produces contain only pure spiritual energy. It is easy to cultivate and is the most commonly used spiritual item to remove [mortal aura]. It requires a high amount of water, and soaking it in [spiritual liquid] before planting can improve the quality of the seedlings.

Unlock the next level of cultivation content: 0/50 (Number of mature Spirit Rice)

"It actually works! Spirit liquid, that's not hard to get." Chen Guang rubbed his hands together, getting excited about the upcoming task.

The sect has strict requirements for the cultivation of spiritual fields.

Any outer disciple starts with three acres of spiritual fields for planting spiritual plants. One acre must be planted according to the types of spiritual plants specified by the sect. Seeds will be provided, and specific cultivation tips can be read for free at Xingfeng Hall.

After that, for each level of cultivation that is achieved, the disciple will receive two acres of spiritual fields. One of these fields is used to cultivate specific spiritual plants according to the sect's requirements, with the benefits and requirements as described above. The other acre is the disciple's "private spiritual field," which can be decided by the disciple himself.

Furthermore, taxes and fees are payable for each mu of spiritual land. For example, if more disciples plant spiritual land this year, the taxes and fees payable per mu of spiritual land will be less, only seventy jin.

This requirement is not fixed. Regardless of how many people cultivate the land each year, Ziling Peak only requires a fixed amount of spirit rice to be harvested. If there are many people cultivating the land, the demand per mu will be less, and if there are few people cultivating the land, the demand per mu will be more.

Chen Guang was full of ambition, and with even lower taxes this year, he was overjoyed. He took his only eighty taels of silver, looked at the twenty-three jin of spirit rice in the rice jar, which was enough for at least half a year, and went out.

Following the bluestone path, Chen Guang quickly arrived at a tall building not far away.

The main base of Xingfeng Hall is naturally located at the foot of Ziling Peak. Ziling Peak is surrounded by spiritual fields for thousands of miles around, and the distance between them is extremely far. Therefore, Xingfeng Hall has a branch building every ten miles, with two steward disciples and some outer disciples who are responsible for recording and logistics, for protecting and preventing pests, distributing welfare, and so on.

When Chen Guang arrived at the three-story wooden building, an outer disciple immediately came to greet him. Upon getting closer, the disciple realized that Chen Guang had already reached the first level of Qi Refining and offered his congratulations, saying, "Congratulations, Junior Brother, on your successful cultivation and longevity on the path to immortality."

"Senior brother, you flatter me. I am but a junior student," Chen Guang returned the greeting and took out the white jade token that represented his identity. "I would be grateful if you could register me."

"Of course, but I still need to check again to see if you are really a Qi Refining cultivator." The outer disciple was also polite. They did not cultivate spirit fields, but only served cultivators like Chen Guang who cultivated spirit fields, so they had no arrogance.

After a polite check, Chen Guang was registered, while another outer disciple hurried off to unblock Chen Guang's spirit field.

Some uncultivated spiritual fields were sealed off by formations.

Zi Lingfeng had already planned ahead. They knew exactly how many acres of spirit fields each disciple could cultivate. Blindly letting their disciples cultivate the fields would only backfire. After all, the quality of spirit plants was also a crucial factor. If the quality was substandard, it was practically no different from waste.

"I just broke through to the next level, and I need to apply to go to the Scripture Pavilion," Chen Guang said.

The outer disciples had anticipated this, and each newly advanced cultivator had to go to the Xingfeng Hall headquarters to receive spell training materials and sect benefits. This required the use of the spirit cranes kept in the branch buildings, and the cooperation of the branch building cultivators was necessary.

"I'll go tell Steward Long. Junior Brother, please wait a moment."

"Please do as you wish, senior brother. I will wait here."

There was a branch building with two stewards. Steward Jiang had gone out, so Steward Long was left behind. However, Steward Long was so focused on his cultivation that he didn't care much about external things. Chen Guang had only seen him once in the past two years.