Cultivation begins with harvest.

"Junior brother, is there anything important that you need my help with?" Cao Fang asked, seeing Chen Guang's interest.

"Oh, no need," Chen Guang said with a smile, startled awake. "I do need some of these fire bricks, though."

The Ice Armored Turtle needs a warm nest. The initial idea was to use a spiritual energy array, but spiritual energy arrays also have their drawbacks. Placing it within the ice mist array might disrupt some of the energy flow; it might also increase the consumption of the ice mist array, thus accelerating the loss of spiritual energy from the spirit stones. This would definitely be a heartbreaking outcome for Zhong Qi.

Now that he has the fire bricks, Chen Guang feels that his previous use of the spiritual energy array was a bit hasty, and he is preparing to implement the second plan he just conceived.

"Fire bricks? Do you want the recipe to make them? The recipe isn't difficult; you can deduce it with fire bricks. However, it's currently my exclusive recipe. If you trade directly with me, I'll give it to you at a lower price, which will save you a lot of trouble," Cao Fang said.

"No," Chen Guang shook his head, "I just need some ready-made fire bricks."

"Ah, well, that works too. But let's make it clear first, it can't be used for refining weapons or pills. The fire brick is like a giant, gentle piece of charcoal, which can release heat steadily and continuously, but it doesn't burn completely and the temperature it provides isn't very high. It's not even hot to the touch. If you're sure, I'll sell it to you." Cao Fang was slightly surprised, but she immediately agreed.

Generally speaking, among cultivators, the choice between "fish" and "fishing" leans towards the latter. Unfortunately, fire bricks have very few uses, and having your own recipe adds an extra processing step, so it's better to just buy the finished product.

In the end, Chen Guang bought forty fire bricks from Cao Fang with 500 catties of spirit rice. The bricks were two or three times larger than the ones Chen Guang had seen in his previous life. Only two or three bricks were needed to build a nest for the two ice-armored turtles at once. The temperature was cold for humans, but it was enough for the ice-armored turtles.

The heat release time of the firebricks is quite long, about fifteen days. These forty bricks, two or three at a time, should last for half a year. Maybe by then there will be a more economical way.

Cao Fang gave a final instruction on the timing and extent of managing the fire peach tree, then hurriedly left with her packed belongings.

As the sun began to set, Chen Guang hurriedly went to his neighbors' houses to find some straw.

These straws, cut into pieces less than an inch long, are mixed with highly adhesive purple spirit soil to build a stable ground nest. Once the fire bricks are placed inside and lit with magic, it becomes a warm little house.

While straw mud isn't very aesthetically pleasing, it does have some advantages in absorbing moisture, making it more comfortable to live inside than outside.

Without hesitation, he went home and plunged into the ice mist array. He first gathered some monster meat pellets and some wild grass, crushed them, and threw them into the Ice Tail Shrimp's pool. He then used the purple spirit soil that had accumulated from digging the pond. Soon, two "mounds" rose from the ground. He used the Flame Mist spell to dry the surface before placing the fire bricks into the inlay positions inside and lighting them.

After taking a look, it was warmer than other parts of the Ice Mist Array. Under Chen Guang's guidance, the Ice Armor Turtle quickly adapted to the place. However, precisely because of the low temperature of the Ice Mist Array, the fire bricks burned more slowly, resulting in a temperature lower than expected. Chen Guang added two more fire bricks to reach an ideal temperature.

"It's too cold inside the ice fog array, unsuitable for weeds to grow, but it's also clean. You can't find suitable materials to feed the ice-tailed shrimp here."

After inspecting the situation inside the ice mist array and confirming that everything was in order, they left.

The next day, Chen Guang went to the branch building to submit the application for modifying the spirit field within the ice mist array, and the application for using black thistle soil to modify one acre of spirit field.

The quantity was within the range of Chen Guang's own spiritual fields. After the people from each building checked it once, they all agreed. They only instructed that the amount of black thistle soil in the one mu of spiritual field that was transformed into black thistle soil should not exceed 600 jin per year and should not exceed 900 jin every two years.

Transforming the Heiji Tulingtian field is imperative, as it is crucial for increasing the yield of Linquan pumpkins.

Transforming the Black Thistle Soil Spirit Field doesn't involve digging up Purple Spirit Soil and replacing it with Black Thistle Soil. Instead, it involves directly and evenly mixing Black Thistle Soil into the spirit field. Purple Spirit Soil is a rare soil with two main characteristics: one is that it can be used to grow anything; the other is that when the proportion of the second type of spirit soil in the mixture is below a certain level, the combination will take effect.

The second characteristic also has drawbacks. First, at most three years later, the second type of spiritual soil will be assimilated by the rare soil, becoming the resources of the rare soil and increasing its quantity. Second, the effect is not as good as using the second type of spiritual soil alone.

The advantage is that, even with a limited supply of the second type of spiritual soil, the use of the rare soil can transform a large area of ​​spiritual soil into an environment that favors a certain type of spiritual plant, thus fulfilling the desire for large-scale cultivation.

Another point is that spiritual farmers are not allowed to damage the ecology of the Purple Spirit Soil within Purple Spirit Peak; only moderate modifications are permitted.

The current 100 jin of black thistle soil is not enough. Chen Guang estimates that another 400 jin will be enough, making a total of 500 jin. With the interaction between soil and wood, Chen Guang sensed that the effect of 500 jin of black thistle soil mixed with one mu of purple spirit soil would be close to perfect.

"However, this is a huge undertaking. All the spirit soil needs to be mixed evenly, requiring shovelful by shovelful. It's not like you're only at the first level of Body Refinement, digging ponds here and turning over spirit soil there; it might not be finished even in a whole winter. This damned purple spirit soil is incredibly hard, especially the one inside the ice mist array."

Although Chen Guang complained inwardly, he still did everything he was supposed to do.

The next day, we started digging a pond. Along the way, we regularly went to take care of Cao Fang's fire peach tree. We also spent our extra energy cultivating the habits of the ice-armored turtle. It was still small, which was the period when the spirit beasts had the most profound influence. Even if it delayed the progress of digging the pond, we could not save this part of the time.

If Chen Guang hadn't studied properly since childhood and would steal two Ice Tail Shrimp whenever he had free time, he would have had a lot to cry about. After all, the Ice Tail Shrimp's neighbor in the Ice Mist Array was the Ice Armored Turtle.

One pot of Moonlit Robe and three pots of Fiery Blood Tortoise Shell Trees don't need much care. A major characteristic of spiritual plants that can be used as potted plants is that they are easy to grow. Of course, it takes time to improve their quality. However, the former was used by Chen Guang to experiment with some characteristics of the reward light orb; the latter was used to find test subjects that could unlock the other four spiritual fires of the Five Hidden Flames Secret Technique. As long as the quality is up to standard, they can be carefully cared for if there is extra energy.

Evenings are spent practicing the "Blood Pan Classic," cultivating magical arts, and comprehending the Purple Flower Azure Instruction.

I'll have to leave the books on battle formations gathering dust for a while before I start reading them again.

The planting time for Concentrated Flower and Frosty Grass will have to be postponed.

Chen Guang has only learned one of the two spells related to planting the Concentration Flower: Heavy Water Spell. This spell allows the spiritual energy in the water to settle and form the cold water essence necessary for the Concentration Flower at the bottom of a sufficiently deep and cold body of water. When mastered, it can amplify other water-based spells.

Another one is the [Ice Heart Technique], which can calm a person down. When mastered, it can stabilize one's Dao heart and can be used before and after a qi deviation. Chen Guang has some clues about it now.

The third spell Wei Donglai gave was [Freeze], which was the only one of the three spells used on Bing Lusong.

Once the Ice Pine reaches three feet in height, it will develop a rough, thick bark, within which a spirit insect called the "Blue Blood Mosquito" will be born!

The pests in the spirit fields in the past were only stronger than ordinary insects, but not as strong as spirit insects.

Blue-blooded mosquitoes are indeed spiritual insects, capable of adapting to low-temperature environments. They live by sucking the liquid inside spiritual plants, and are particularly fond of spiritual plants with yin and cold attributes. Ice pine is alright, able to withstand the loss from one bite by a blue-blooded mosquito, but flowers and plants like Concentration Flower cannot. After a couple more bites, they become sickly and severely damaged, let alone of high quality.

The Freeze spell can kill the Blue Blood Mosquito eggs without damaging the thick bark of the Ice Ruxen—although cutting off the bark will keep you from worrying about Blue Blood Mosquitoes for a while, the Ice Ruxen may get frostbite.

When the freezing technique is mastered to a high level and temperature control is exquisite, it can freeze only the blue-blooded mosquitoes with cold-resistant properties, rather than kill them. After all, these are high-grade spirit insects, and as long as they can be caught alive, it is still a form of income.

Since breaking through to the second level of Qi Refining and almost exhausting his mortal energy, Chen Guang noticed that he was no longer so clueless when practicing some spells, and his progress was obvious. He was confident that he could master these three spells by winter, after all, he had the insights of Zhong Qi and Wei Donglai. It would be unreasonable for him not to get started.

More than ten days passed in a flash. Chen Guang filled the two prepared bags with the old actor's spirit rice to cover up the Thousand Water Gourd. The Linquan and Yuehua Liquid inside had been transferred to the spirit tool container. Then he headed to the road to the masked market again.