Cultivation begins with harvest.

Jiang Zuoyun gave a brief explanation and then began assigning tasks. The newly arrived outer disciple skillfully began melting the ice and recondensing it into ice water.

Although it looks troublesome, this process effectively eliminates the cold energy within the ice layer through repeated attrition.

The two deacons only carried out the first two rounds of cleaning before giving the Crimson Fusion Pills to the outer disciples. They then directed the operation from the sidelines and took the opportunity to educate Chen Guang.

"Many spirit farmers make this mistake. They lack combat experience and are not discerning in their use of various spirit objects. They use them arbitrarily. The rule for each building is that 'it is reasonable to practice a certain level of spells, spirit weapons, formations, and other spirit objects or methods.' But the spiritual energy fluctuations you caused this time are already close to the level of Qi Refining Perfection, and they also involve Earthly Fiends. If you make any bigger commotion, it won't be us who come, but the Punishment Hall that will have to deal with it," Jiang Zuoyun said slowly. "Secondly, there are the consequences. If we don't deal with it, it would be better if this courtyard were destroyed. If it spreads to the outside world, it may harm the spirit fields, spirit plants, and other spirit farmers."

"If you want to practice anything in the future, you'll have to go to the training ground in the Xingfengfang Market Punishment Hall. It's enclosed and spacious enough for you to do whatever you want."

Chen Guang was a little embarrassed.

He was the Lingnong who had no combat experience, as mentioned by Jiang Zuoyun. Only one of the three Ice Fiend Torrent Arrays in the Ice Yuan Bottle was in operation, and even that one was not at its full strength. Furthermore, Chen Guang deliberately only used one-tenth of its power.

The result was obvious: the difference between mid-grade and low-grade spiritual artifacts was so great that Chen Guang had clearly not truly grasped it from the various written descriptions.

Chen Guang truly kept this lesson of recklessness in mind and realized that the gap between ordinary spirit farmers and those who fight in battle is not to be ignored. If he were to underestimate his own accumulation of combat skills, he would truly begin to weaken and become nothing more than a spirit farmer. Even if he became a spirit plant master, it would be difficult to change this situation.

With some insights from his previous life, Chen Guang still had certain requirements for his own combat strength.

"And what about this time?"

"This time, the fine is 10,000 yuan, to be paid within a year," Longma said solemnly. "Everyone makes mistakes, but a normal cultivator will not make the same mistake twice. Furthermore, it means that you do not have the stable mindset suitable for the Earth Hall, and even your reckless attitude makes it questionable whether you are still worth continuing to enjoy the sect's training."

"Once is a mistake, twice is recklessness," Jiang Zuoyun repeatedly warned.

"I understand, I realize my mistake." Chen Guang readily took out a stack of gleaming gold coins.

Longma was speechless. He felt that the sect's punishment for so casually taking out 10,000 grains of rice was too lenient. However, most spirit farmers would not be like Chen Guang, casually taking out 10,000 grains of rice. This amount was enough to cause serious damage to an ordinary spirit farmer in the middle stage of Qi Refining, and could cause their hard-earned economic projects to fail.

But Chen Guang was a bit different.

Based on what Chen Guang has shown in the past year, it is clear that the inheritance he received was not just any random cultivation inheritance, but one with great depth.

The sect only asked about Chen Guang's inheritance fortune level once, and although they updated it afterward, they never asked again. Being open and honest, even if it was only the first time, was a kind of implicit test. As a result, Chen Guang still had a considerable amount of resistance to the Qingheng Sect at that time.

On the other side, Wan Longjing and the others also completed their mission. However, the dampness on the ground and the lingering chill indicated that something had happened here. Even the residual chill had been weakened to the point where it had little impact before they left.

After accepting the fine and confirming that the reason was the Ice Source Cold Fiend, Longma didn't ask for more specific details. Just like when he explained the inheritance last time, as long as the main body was clear, the details were much more flexible, and those who wanted to keep them could keep them.

"Alright, don't do it again." Jiang Zuoyun didn't give Chen Guang any time to say anything, and hurriedly left with a group of branch disciples.

The courtyard was chilly. Chen Guang moved the Fire Blood Tortoise Shell Trees into the courtyard, where spiritual energy was gathered. He slowly began to transform the gathered spiritual energy into fire attribute, accelerating the dissipation of the residual chill in the courtyard.

The other spiritual plants were temporarily placed inside the house, waiting for the cold air to dissipate.

"Ice Essence Bottle, Ice Essence Bottle, just how special are you?" Chen Guang played with the ice-blue porcelain bottle with no patterns in his hand for a while before putting it away, not daring to spray it carelessly again.

The next day at midday, Chen Guang, having finished tending to all the spiritual plants, was preparing to return to the courtyard to practice his spells. Ever since he acquired a pot of magical power, Chen Guang had become more attentive to the use of various spells.

You can be weak in combat, but you can't be unprepared in this regard; you can't wait until you need the knowledge to regret not having enough.

Just as I entered the room, I caught a glimpse of two figures walking towards me from the distance.

One green and one strong.

Chen Guang stopped at the door and took a closer look. Sure enough, it was Wei Donglai and Zhong Qi. He couldn't help but use his Qi Observation Technique and immediately sensed more. Both of them carried a cool aura that lingered and did not dissipate, as well as a kind of unsettling evil aura. This was probably due to their long stay on the snowy peak.

"Junior brother has made remarkable progress!" Zhong Qi, with his square face, exclaimed in amazement as soon as he got a little closer.

"It's just relying on the legacy of our predecessors," Chen Guang said.

"There's a problem, a big problem. Every time I come, you seem to have made a breakthrough?" Wei Donglai looked Chen Guang up and down and laughed. "Let's take a look at our spirit fields first."

"This way, please."

As they walked, Chen Guang inquired about the situation on the snow-capped peak. The two men gave rather vague answers, not worth going into details, but they did point out that the snow-capped peak had many resources with a cold and yin attribute. If Chen Guang needed such resources, he could ask them for help, and they might be willing to lend a hand.

While on the snow-capped peak, Wei Donglai and his companion searched around and roughly located some areas on the relatively sunny side where they could find seedlings of the Ice Flower Sycamore. They would need to spend time exploring and investigating these areas again next year.

If you're unlucky and can't find the sunny side, you'll have to go to the shady side. On a snow-capped peak, conquering the shady side is much more difficult than conquering the sunny side. Just locking onto certain areas can take one or two years.

"The work on the sunny side is relatively easy. Next year, the challenge for my Qi Hall will be establishing some stable building sites besides the sentry posts. We may need to transfer some more manpower. Speaking of which, the work in the Qi Hall is really busy, all over the place..."

Wei Donglai followed Zhong Qi into the ice mist array, but Zhong Qi suddenly stopped, which piqued Wei Donglai's curiosity. He peeked over Zhong Qi's tall figure and asked, "Let me see what's wrong?"

After waiting a few breaths for Wei Donglai, Zhong Qi pointed to the lush green shadows and blue leaves and said, "I can't bear to step on it and destroy it."

"yes."

Wei Donglai was also somewhat fascinated by the scene before him.

Three four-foot-tall ice pines stand proudly among the others; the Concentration Flower, with its scale-like leaves covering its stems and leaves and only one tender white flower in bloom, occupies the second tallest space.

Further down, there is the Frost Grass with its bluish-green leaves and white veins, which releases a chilling aura that affects the surrounding spiritual plants.

Further away, two small ice-armored turtles scurried away, hiding in their little nest in the blink of an eye.

There are three ponds. Two of them have ice-tailed shrimp swimming leisurely; one pond is covered with whitish-green duckweed, which constantly emits white mist that makes the mist in the formation more vibrant; and at the bottom of the pond are large clumps of black algae-like threads.

Even the several mounds of purple spirit soil were utilized and planted with frost grass, making things much more harmonious. The development and utilization of the entire ice mist array far exceeded their expectations.

Not only are the spiritual plants growing well, but they've also started raising spiritual beasts.

Sunlight shone down from above, and the mist swirled.

It was far inferior to the vast, boundless scenery of the snow-capped peaks, but Zhong Qi and Wei Donglai were even more captivated by it. This was because the snow-capped peaks did not belong to any one cultivator, but this ice mist array belonged to Zhong Qi and his companions. Chen Guang was a manager and a collaborator.

The sight before them filled them with confidence that Chen Guang had successfully planted the ice flower parasol tree.

"We should go take a look over there first."

"Yes, after seeing the ice mist formation here, I think we don't need to continue the assessment for two more years. We can just settle on this side."

The way the two chatted and laughed made Chen Guang feel much more relaxed and at ease.

Okay, I've passed both the written test and the interview.