After binding with a genius, I became an immortal by exploiting loopholes.

Chapter 128 Maturation of Spiritual Plants

Old Sun took a drag of his cigarette, and smoke slowly escaped from the corner of his mouth.

"Don't be reckless when things happen; if there are any problems, send a message back to the sect immediately."

He glanced at Lu Qingchen and said, "Palace Master Su and Elder Zheng have both remembered your name. This attention is both a sign of their regard and a pressure. You need to know how to handle it."

Lu Qingchen responded.

Before leaving, Old Sun asked one more question: "Of the two potted plants you left with me last time, the purple-leaf one has sprouted new buds, while the other one remains the same. How are the ones in your own field doing?"

Lu Qingchen replied, "They're all doing well. The Vermilion Fruit has grown taller, and the Jade Marrow Fungus will be ready to be harvested soon."

Old Sun's brow twitched slightly, seemingly somewhat surprised, but he didn't ask any further questions, simply nodding: "That's good. Remember to let me know when it's fully healed."

After saying that, he shouldered his pipe and turned to leave.

Lu Qingchen saw Old Master Sun off before turning back to the end of the manor.

On the evening of the day Lu Qingchen returned, Zhao Demao set up a feast in the main room to welcome him back.

Zhao Demao picked up his wine bowl and stood up first.

Zhao Demao sat in the main seat and pulled Lu Qingchen to his side.

Zhou Ming, Liu Wenhua, and Wang Youde sat down in turn, and the table was full of food.

"Manager Lu, this first bowl of wine is for you."

Zhao Demao looked at Lu Qingchen, his tone more solemn than ever before.

"If you hadn't noticed something was wrong that night and woke me up from the incense, I, the manor lord, would probably be in the Hall of Law Enforcement now, guilty of dereliction of duty."

He paused, then chuckled self-deprecatingly, "After being the head of the manor for over a decade, this is the first time I've owed a junior such a huge favor. Come on, bottoms up."

Lu Qingchen quickly stood up: "You flatter me, Master. I was just doing my duty."

"It's my job?"

Zhao Demao shook his head. "My duty doesn't include staying awake while under the incense. Sit down, sit down. Today you're not some spirit plant master, you're my benefactor, the benefactor of the entire Qingmu Manor!"

He personally poured Lu Qingchen a full bowl of wine, then poured one for himself, tilted his head back, and drank it all in one gulp.

Lu Qingchen also picked up his glass and drank it down. The spirit rice wine was slightly sweet at first, but had a strong aftertaste, and a warm feeling went straight from his throat to his dantian.

Zhou Ming stood up, holding a wine bowl, his face slightly flushed with alcohol, but he spoke with unusual seriousness: "Manager Lu, what the master said is true."

If those people had succeeded that night, not only would your protective spirit field be doomed, but the entire population of Qingmu Manor, numbering in the dozens, would likely have been in danger.

.

Liu Wenhua, unusually, raised his bowl and said two words: "Thank you."

He was usually a man of few words, but he spoke those two words with great emphasis.

Wang Youde was the most direct. He stood up and patted his chest: "Senior Brother Lu, if there's anything you need in the village, just let me know. I, Wang Youde, will be the first to arrive! If it weren't for you that night, I probably wouldn't even know if I'm still alive!"

Lu Qingchen returned the toasts one by one, holding a wine bowl in his hand.

He wanted to say a few polite words, but looking at the faces flushed red from the smell of alcohol, he swallowed his words and simply nodded: "We are all fellow cultivators from the same village, so let's not talk about these things. From now on, let's help each other out and cultivate the fields of Qingmu Village well. That's more important than anything else."

"Haha, Qingchen is right!"

After several rounds of drinks, the atmosphere became increasingly lively.

As for Sun Zhiyuan, no one mentioned him.

Over the next two days, Lu Qingchen began repairing the protective array.

The overall framework of the formation is still intact.

Senior Brother He laid a solid foundation when he set up the formation, so although the scarred man's attack was fierce, it did not damage the core formation plate.

The runes on the four flags were severely worn down by the impact of spiritual energy, and one flagpole even had a crack.

The array plate is intact and the base is stable; only the damaged materials need to be replaced.

Lu Qingchen is not a formation master, but the protective formation has already been formed.

Following the diagrams left by Senior Brother He, he repositioned the new array flags according to their positions, repaired several cracks in the runes on the array plate with talisman ink, and replaced them with new spirit stones.

When the array was activated, the pale blue light shield lit up again, as stable as before.

He stood outside the light shield and watched for a while.

The light cover was faintly visible in the sunlight, almost exactly the same as when it was first built, which reassured me a lot.

About half a month later, the sect sent a new spiritual plant grower to fill the vacancy left by Sun Zhiyuan.

The newcomer is called Meng Qiuran. She has three spiritual roots and is at the fifth level of Qi Refining.

This man was in his early thirties, with a round, slightly chubby face. He greeted people with a smile and spoke shrewdly, clearly a seasoned veteran who had been working in the sect for many years.

Zhao Demao convened a short meeting to introduce his new colleagues.

Meng Qiuran cupped her hands in a respectful gesture, treating everyone with utmost courtesy.

They were especially enthusiastic towards Lu Qingchen, saying, "I have long admired Manager Lu's name" and "I hope you will take good care of me in the future."

Lu Qingchen sized up the man for a moment.

This person speaks tactfully and always wears a smile, unlike Sun Zhiyuan who openly displays hostility.

After the formation was repaired, life returned to its usual rhythm.

Lu Qingchen still gets up at Chenshi (7-9 AM) as usual. He first goes to take a walk around the protective spirit field, and then goes back to the ordinary spirit field to work for two hours, watering, weeding, loosening the soil, and checking the seedlings.

In the Spirit Protection Field, the premium spirit rice in the staple food field grows at a significantly faster rate under the continuous nourishment of deep spiritual infusion.

Although this batch of premium spirit rice has not been planted for very long, its growth rate far exceeds that of normal spirit rice due to the triple blessing of deep spirit infusion technique, earth energy guiding spirit array, and earth vein spirit embryo.

Less than two months after sowing, the rice ears began to turn yellow, and the grains became fuller day by day.

Finally, late one night, Lu Qingchen confirmed that they were fully ripe.

He harvested under cover of night.

The threshed spirit grains were piled together, their husks gleaming with a pale golden sheen, shimmering slightly in the dim light of the protective spirit field. Compared to the batch grown on Panlong Peak last season, the quality was a step up.

At that time, the light was faint and indistinct; it was impossible to see it unless you looked closely.

Even from several steps away, you can see the faint golden light emanating from this batch.

The high-quality spiritual rice provided tangible benefits to his cultivation.

After consuming premium spiritual rice for several days, the amount of pure energy in his dantian had increased to nearly 270 strands.

With two meals of premium spirit rice every day, plus the spiritual energy overflowing from the earth vein spirit embryo during cultivation in the spirit protection field, and the cultivation power transferred from the Dao stele every day, the three forces combined make cultivation efficiency at least several times faster than when he was in the sect.

At this rate, it won't be long before I accumulate the 324 strands of pure energy needed to reach the peak of the third level of Qi Refining, and I can prepare to break through to the fourth level of Qi Refining and unlock the second stage of the Dao Stele!

With the aid of high-quality spiritual rice, Lu Qingchen was able to save a lot of time each day, and he devoted all of that saved time to cultivating his magical techniques.

The Spirit Eye Technique was the first technique he learned from the jade slip of Qingyun Sanren, and he practiced it diligently every day shortly after obtaining the jade slip.

This technique is marked as "essential for spiritual plant practitioners" in the jade slip, not only because it allows spiritual plant practitioners to truly "see" the flow of spiritual energy within the spiritual plant.

The cultivation method is not complicated: continuously nourish the eyes with spiritual energy for at least one hour each day.

The barrier to entry is not high, but it takes a lot of time and effort.

Qingyun Sanren made a special annotation in the jade slip: "There is no shortcut to this method. It can only be achieved through daily accumulation over several months before initial results can be seen."

Lu Qingchen practiced for half an hour every morning and evening without fail, without fail.

Now, it has been almost four months.

In the beginning, my eyes didn't change at all except for a slight burning sensation.

By the first month, he began to feel something was amiss. When he stared at the leaves of the spirit rice, he could see a very faint halo on the surface of the leaves, which was barely visible and would disappear in the blink of an eye.

By the second month, the halo no longer disappeared, and he could vaguely discern that the spiritual energy within the plant flowed slowly along the veins, stems, and roots like extremely fine threads.

In recent days, my vision has suddenly become much clearer.

The Spirit Eye Technique is finally showing initial results.

He stood in the center of the protective field, looking around.

The scene before us is completely different from what it was half a month ago.

The Vermilion Fruit plant was no longer simply crimson in his eyes—he could clearly see a ball of extremely pure fire and wood spiritual energy condensed inside the fruit, slowly rotating in a vortex.

Within the cap of the chalcedony mushroom, a milky-white aura is evenly distributed, like a thin film of light covering each gill.

The edges of the leaves of the golden orchid are most adorned with a pale golden radiance, shimmering and dancing along the serrated edges.

This intuitive "seeing" made him more adept at using Spirit Cultivation and Dew Condensation techniques.

In the past, when he used the Spirit Cultivation Technique, he relied on experience to judge where the spirit plant needed nourishment. If the leaves were yellow, he would give it more spiritual energy; if the roots were weak, he would water it more.

But the Spirit Eye Technique allowed him to directly see the distribution of spiritual energy.

It's immediately clear where the spiritual energy is scarce and where it's stagnant.

In places lacking spiritual energy, he would perform the Spirit Nourishing Technique once more.

He used the Dew Condensation Technique to dilute and guide the stagnant spiritual energy in areas where it was stagnant.

The accuracy is now several levels higher than before, resulting in even more impressive growth of the spiritual plants.

"No wonder Qingyun Sanren commented that this method is a must-learn for spiritual practitioners."

Lu Qingchen sighed.

If he used to have a good hoe to help him farm, then the Spirit Eye Technique was like giving him a good pair of eyes.

With these eyes, he knew where to dig with the hoe.

As for the fertility incantation, he set it aside after studying the incantation.

The principle of this technique is clearly written on the jade slip: it forcibly stimulates the growth of spiritual plants by burning their essence.

The effects are immediate, but the plants that have been forced to grow often suffer from damaged roots, weak subsequent growth, and even deterioration in quality.

Each use shortens the lifespan of the spiritual plant.

In the jade slip, Qingyun Sanren did not hide his disdain for this technique: "Those who induce birth are like draining a pond to catch all the fish; they should not be used lightly unless absolutely necessary."

Lu Qingchen wholeheartedly agreed.

He has a Dao stele, some spiritual arts, a spiritual embryo from the earth's veins, and a spirit-guiding array for earth energy—which of these can't accelerate the growth of spiritual plants? Why use such a short-sighted method?

He would never touch this thing unless there was a truly dire emergency.

At the same time, several rare spiritual plants in the protective spirit field, nourished by the Spirit Pointing Technique, Dew Condensation Technique, and Earth Qi Spirit Guiding Array, grew far beyond Lu Qingchen's expectations and entered the mature stage one after another.