I Practice Farming While the Rest Cultivates

Lu Xuan stood up and saluted respectfully.

Although he could acquire many magic artifacts, including sword implements such as the wind-thunder sword, purple lightning sword, and sword of wind and thunder pellet from the light groups’ rewards, who would complain about having too many treasures when given the chance to enter the sword pool?

The rewards from the light groups are precious, but the best things in life are always free.

“There’s no need for formalities, Junior Brother Lu. You have earned all this through your own effort,”

“If it weren’t for your success rate in cultivating sword grass reaching a hundred percent and the potential method of condensing a seed from third-grade sword grass, I wouldn’t have been able to acquire this chance for you.”

Shen Ye spoke in a solemn tone.

“As this is your first time entering the sword pool, I’ll brief you on how to obtain sword-related treasures from it.”

“There are rampant Sword Qis within the sword pool. If anyone dares to enter without our sect’s talisman, even a cultivator nearing nascent soul stage won’t obtain any benefits.”

“Once inside, you can select from sword implements and sword pills. Lower-rank treasures can be forcibly taken, but higher-grade sword implements, nourished in the sword pool for years, may develop a spiritual nature. This relationship is akin to the spiritual sword choosing its owner.”

“There are variety of factors which affect how higher grade sword implements and sword pills choose their owners: the cultivator’s sword skill, sword intent, and the state of their heart. However, if one is incredibly fortunate, then these factors matter less.”

“Junior Brother, do you know Senior Sister Sword Flawless of our Sect’s authentic teachings?”

“I’ve met her a few times when our Sect was opening up a new blessed land.”

Lu Xuan nodded gently.

“Senior Sister Sword Flawless has an innate sword body; all sorts of sword implements and sword pills are greatly attracted to her. Every time she entered the sword pool, she gained many sword implements’ approval.”

A hint of barely traceable envy could be heard in Shen Ye’s voice.

“This sword dao talent… For others, it would be an adventure to enter the sword pool. For her, it’s like going shopping.”

Lu Xuan secretly lamented in his heart.

“By the way, Brother Shen, has there ever been an instance where a Sect member enters the sword pool but comes out empty-handed?”

“Yes, there are those with high standards who look down on ordinary sword implements, focusing solely on obtaining high-grade implements and sword pills. In the end, they walk away empty-handed.”

Hearing this, Lu Xuan quickly nodded his head and committed the experiences taught by Shen Ye to memory.

After Shen Ye passed on some cautionary advice, he did not linger. He bid Lu Xuan farewell and left.

Watching Shen Ye depart, Lu Xuan checked the spirit field and observed the status of all the spirit plants.

While patrolling his spirit field, he happened across the grass puppet, tirelessly patrolling on its long thin legs.

All of a sudden, Lu Xuan summoned the grass puppet, who had been diligently guarding the spirit field, and extricated a green spirit bead from his storage bag.

The Spirit bead, the nascent soul grass orb, was derived from the Primordial Essence Herb light group, containing pure and dense nature’s spiritual energy, making it suitable feed for the grass puppet.

He stuffed the green spirit bead into the large gray grass tumor of the grass puppet.

Traces of emerald green spiritual energy slowly spread from the center of the tumour. After about ten breaths, the puppet’s grayish-black body turned emerald green and was full of vitality.

In Lu Xuan’s spiritual sense, the green spirit bead congealed and slowly rotated within the grey-grass tumor, allowing the grass puppet to draw on the pure natural spiritual energy.

After absorbing a lot of plant-based spiritual energy treasures and even a trace of fifth rank Qingmu origin energy, the grass puppet had developed a certain level of spiritual intelligence. Similar to a naive infant, it expressed its gratitude to Lu Xuan. Then, moving on its long legs, it continued its patrol of the spirit field.

“The rest of the hundred or so water-glow grasses have gradually matured. Fifty or so need to be left for seed condensation.”

“Moreover, if I advance to the Nascent Soul Stage, the cultivation level contained within the second-grade Glowworm Grass Light Cluster might decrease significantly just like before,”

“I need to plan ahead, and I must prepare to cultivate a third-grade variant of the Water Glow Grass.”

“However, a third-grade spiritual plant is already in the Foundation Establishment category. Unlike first and second grades, the gap between grades isn’t so small and the difficulty of modifying the spiritual plant could be quite high.”

Lu Xuan thought to himself.

With the lesson learned from applying the Glowworm Grass at the beginning of the Foundation Establishment stage, he decided to begin modifying the second-grade Water Firefly Grass when he reaches the late stages of Foundation Establishment.

As his thoughts trailed off, he stumbled upon a secluded spot on the mountain, and suddenly heard a luring sound in his ears.

The sound was constantly inciting desires in his heart.

He looked up and saw pink miasma covering a handful of peaches hiding within the leaves. Partially covered, occasionally they revealed a small portion as if to tempt Lu XUan to take a bite.

With the Ringtone Bamboo seductive sounds aside, the degree of sensuality has elevated several levels.

“The Enchanted Immortal Peaches and Ringtone Bamboo play on visual and auditory temptation—no wonder the Demonic Vine comes by every day and stays for hours on end.”

After picking the third-grade Enchanted Immortal Peaches once, they started to bear Spirit Peaches again. After a while, they will bring him a generous harvest of white light clusters.

Before leaving, Lu Xuan cast a Cleansing Spell on himself, clearing all desires from his mind and calmly leaving the two inappropriate Spirit Plants behind.

“The last Spirit Gathering Pine has finally matured.”

He stood in front of the solitary Spirit Gathering Pine.

Throughout the years, he cultivated the pine with his Spiritual Sense. The pine is now closely connected with his mind. From a distance, waves of pine trees were undulating, and at the top, an azure pine cone stood proudly, awaiting for Lu Xuan to pick it up.

Lu Xuan confirmed the transparent progress bar below was full and gently picked the Azure Pine Cone.

The pine cone, shaped like a tower, was covered in layers of clear azure scales. It felt clear and transparent when held, and emitted Spiritual Light every so often.

“Another Spirit Gathering Pine Smiling Fruit, and it’s still of Good Quality. I wonder what reward I will get.”

He was quite satisfied. For a fourth-grade spiritual plant, being able to harvest a good quality Spirit Fruit was far beyond his expectations.

From the four Spirit Pines, he harvested four Azure Pine Cones, which he hadn’t consumed yet. He carefully stored them in his Gluttonous Insect Pouch.

After he stored the pine cones, Lu Xuan looked at the top of the pine tree. A white light cluster appeared quietly at the top, flickering slightly.

He couldn’t restrain his anticipation, and gently touched the light cluster’s surface.

With a soft thud, the light cluster burst into countless tiny light spots, which poured into Lu Xuan’s body.

In an instant, he felt numerous sharp intentions in his sense sea, thoughts flashing.

[Harvest a fourth-grade Spirit Gathering Pine Smiling Fruit, receive a fifth-grade magical artifact, Soul Piercing Needle.]

A needle quietly appeared in his hand.

The needle was silver-white, over half a foot long, and engraved with many intricate and obscure hollowed-out runes. It was exquisitely beautiful, and inside was vast and deep, as if drawing Lu Xuan’s soul within.

When inspecting with his Spiritual Sense, he felt a sharp intention rushing forward and a slight prickling sensation.

Lu Xuan focused his mind on the silver-white stinger, and detailed information about it promptly flashed through his sense sea.

[Soul Piercing Needle is a Fifth Rank Magical Artifact. When activated, it can deal great damage to cultivators, demon beasts, and others’ divine souls. In serious cases, it could even shatter one’s soul, leading to instant death.]