Cultivation begins with harvest.

Signing a contract is indeed a necessary investment in such an important matter.

The contract within the sect is a contract jointly witnessed and signed by Guanglin Hall, Xing Hall, and Xingfeng Hall. These three halls guarantee the normal implementation and completion of the contract's contents. If any errors occur, these three halls will handle the follow-up and provide compensation.

This is very effective for disciples of the sect.

Guanglin Hall connects with various independent cultivator forces and carries out local work. Many resource points that are difficult to mine are under the jurisdiction of Guanglin Hall. These resource points are the destinations for many disciples who have violated the sect's rules. They will be forced to perform a lot of hard labor there as punishment and compensation for the losses incurred in the sect's training. Once there, they have effectively been stripped of their status as Qingheng Sect disciples and will not receive normal treatment.

Nobody wants to go to a place that can exhaust a cultivator to death.

Xingfeng Hall is mainly the internal administrative department of the sect, serving as a lubricant for coordination between various departments. Its presence can be seen almost everywhere.

The punishment hall needs no further explanation; that's what they do.

The sect's contract is extremely binding, not from any other source, but solely from the combined martial power of these three halls.

Of course, you can't sign contracts for everything, and having three witnesses can also cost a considerable amount of money.

"So what benefits can I get now?" Chen Guang asked. "Cultivating the Ice Pine and the Mind-Concentrating Flower isn't too difficult, and will you provide support in my cultivation?"

"Of course, it's part of the contract. We'll support you with about a thousand catties of spirit rice every year. In addition, we've selected three spells for you that can efficiently process ice-type spirit plants. You're required to learn and master them. I'll cover the costs. Once these spirit plants are in your hands, you can use them freely. But I need to check their quality before you sell them," Wei Donglai said.

"I see."

Chen Guang understood somewhat.

The so-called support is actually about assessing Chen Guang's ability to handle spiritual plants with icy attributes. If he can handle them, then naturally, there's no need to say more, and Ice Flower Wutong will be arranged to come over later.

If even Ice Luson and Concentration Flower can't be dealt with, then there's no going back.

Wei Donglai's intention was to train Chen Guang into a professional spirit farmer with strong abilities to handle ice-type spirit plants. As for whether other aspects would be improved, that was another matter.

It's like if there were seven subjects, Wei Donglai would ask Chen Guang to concentrate all the time he would spend studying the other subjects on one subject, which is now called the spiritual plant with the attribute of ice and cold.

"I want you to exchange all the thousand catties of spirit rice that you've given me this year for Qi-Nourishing Pills," Chen Guang said.

"Starting to take the Qi-Nourishing Pill now isn't the best option, but it's up to you," Wei Donglai thought for a moment and then nodded in agreement: "Then I'll come find you this afternoon to sign the contract."

"They're really rich. I wonder if it's Wei Donglai who's wealthy, or that Senior Brother Zhong. That secret technique actually has such immense value?"

A thousand catties of spirit rice, plus enough seedlings of Ice Pine and seeds of Concentration Flower to plant half an acre, and three spells—all these, plus the fact that there is more than one candidate, plus the contract fee, make this investment quite astonishing.

It's possible that Wei Donglai possesses such a secret technique; who can be sure that others haven't had extraordinary encounters?

Even so, this secret technique is still too amazing.

Chen Guang shook his head, returned to the yard, and used tools to push open the drying grains, creating grooves that revealed the dampness of the ground, indicating that the grains were still very moist.

Drying grain is hard work, especially newly harvested grain, which needs to be turned and dried repeatedly with tools. Doing this kind of work helps Chen Guang calm down quickly. When you focus on the task at hand, you become calm. When you calm down and think things through, you make fewer mistakes.

Chen Guang's attention was quickly drawn to the drying grain.

The simplest tool is the "push rake," which has a long handle for holding and is made of a wooden board. One half is square and without any gaps, which can be used to push and flatten piled-up grains, or to turn them over and push the flattened grains back together. The other half is somewhat like a nine-toothed rake, but it is more regular and not sharp at all. It is made of thicker wooden strips. When you push it into the grains, it will form grooves, so that most of the grains can be turned over.

The process of drying grain is repeated in this way.

Of course, Chen Guang didn't have to work so hard. The weather in the fields near Ziling Peak was always good, with the sun rising every day. It was a bit hot to stand in the sun, but normally, for efficiency, he had to turn the grains over frequently to dry them faster and more evenly so they could be stored away.

Chen Guang also remembered that in June two years ago, it rained for more than half a month, and that month kept Chen Guang very busy.

Despite the continuous rain, the lodging of the spirit rice was not too serious. The spirit rice, which can support a stalk of more than three ounces of grains, is still trustworthy in this respect. However, it caused some mold and sprouting of grains, resulting in a reduced harvest.

Fortunately, it wasn't a heavy autumn rain, otherwise the chances of lodging would be even greater, and it would have seriously affected the harvesting and drying of Lingmi rice.

The rainy season is arguably the easiest test the Lingnong (spirit farmers) face.

The most troublesome thing is the spiritual plants assigned by the sect. If you fail to submit the required quality and quantity of Jade Heart Grass for three consecutive years, you will be expelled from the Earth Hall. If you fail to complete any task that year, the spiritual rice levied will be increased by 30%. If you cannot pay the levy, you will also be expelled.

Fortunately, there haven't been any particularly heavy rains this year. Most of the time, it's just been very gloomy, with lots of thunder but little rain.

In the first year, Chen Guang suffered a loss due to the Jade Heart Grass, having to pay an extra 30% of spirit rice.

With clear skies this year, it seems we can avoid this.

After finishing his work in the courtyard, Chen Guang went to the spirit field and found that more than ten Jade Heart Grasses had matured, each displaying a bright white reward orb.

Bright and eye-catching.

"This Jade Heart Grass has damaged leaves, which does not meet the requirements for collection. The thirty Jade Heart Grasses to be collected must be without a single damaged leaf. I might as well collect one Jade Heart Grass first and see what the reward is?"

Chen Guang couldn't help but be tempted.

Only high-quality Jade Heart Grass is the main ingredient used by sects to refine Qi Nourishing Pills. Jade Heart Grass with damaged leaves, no matter how many leaves it has, is of inferior quality. Jade Heart Grass is extremely delicate. If even one leaf is rotten, there will be more traces of rot inside the stem. It can still be used, but it will affect the quality of the Qi Nourishing Pills refined from it. Qi Nourishing Pills are used to increase cultivation. If the Jade Heart Grass from the source is of poor quality, unlike Qi Nourishing Pills whose quality is reduced due to the alchemist's poor technique, this will greatly affect the buyer's confidence and willingness to buy. This kind of low-quality Qi Nourishing Pill is not easy to sell. Therefore, only casual shops will buy these Jade Heart Grass with damaged leaves. The market response for this kind of inferior Qi Nourishing Pill within the sect is lukewarm, but casual cultivators will not refuse it. Even if it can be sold outside the sect, the purchase price of casual shops is also very average.

Theoretically, Jade Heart Grass produces one leaf per month, but Chen Guang has only managed to cultivate five leaves so far. Preliminary findings, based on soil-wood interaction, suggest that this is due to the entangled root system of the Jade Heart Grass. Further research is needed to determine the specifics.

Therefore, Chen Guang immediately put away a three-leaf jade heart grass, because he didn't know what went wrong, and one leaf had rotted. The black substance remaining in the petiole and leaf axil was proof of this.

This is even just two broken leaves of Jade Heart Grass.

After loosening the soil around the Jade Heart Grass with a spirit hoe, Chen Guang went home and took out a special spirit tool, silk gloves. Harvesting the Jade Heart Grass directly with his hands would leave marks on the stems and leaves, which is also a consequence of improper handling and would affect the subsequent use and price of the Jade Heart Grass.

Gently pull the Jade Heart Grass up and down from the root near the soil without using too much force, and it will be pulled out of the Purple Spirit Soil in four or five pulls.

The reward orb can also be picked up.

"I'll have to go register at the building later," Chen Guang thought to himself. The sect gave them 120 Jade Heart Grass seeds in one go so that they could grow as many Jade Heart Grass as possible, not to use the extra seeds to fill their own pockets.

Back home, I went into my bedroom.

"Harvested one Jade Heart Grass (two leaves, inferior quality), gained five days of cultivation."

A message passed through Chen Guang's mind, and at the same time, a strange coolness passed through his meridians; the harvest of the Jade Heart Grass had been digested.