121: Nurturing the spirit cedar in the verdant rain, the unpolished jade awaits the divine breath.

The mist-condensing spirit fir not only possesses the powerful effect of gathering Spiritual Qi but also produces precious cones.

Zhang Sheng first planted the first spirit fir within the campus of First Cultivation University.

The spiritual mist gathered by the spiritual tree not only significantly increases the Qi Refining speed of teachers and students but also has the auxiliary effect of calming the mind.

Zhang Sheng plucked all the remaining cones from the tree.

Each cone was enormous, with a diameter of half a meter, and its outer shell was covered in hard, deep-blue scales.

However, dealing with this shell, which would be troublesome for ordinary people, was not difficult for Zhang Sheng.

He took out a few and gave them to the university for scientific research, then began processing the remaining ones.

Zhang Sheng peeled open half of the cones and found that each one contained nine mist-condensing spirit fir seeds.

This second-tier mist-condensing spirit fir was currently in the adult stage of its life cycle.

From now on, it would be able to bear mature fruit once every three years.

With the Azure Rain Art at the Perfected State in hand, as long as he provided sufficient spirit rain, Zhang Sheng could accelerate the spirit fir's growth speed to an astonishing six hundred times!

In less than two days, he could make the spirit fir bear fruit again.

At the same time, a new skill quietly emerged on his talent panel:

【Skill: Planting mist-condensing spirit fir (Beginner: 1/1000)】

The Beginner proficiency for second-tier Spells and abilities usually only requires one hundred points.

The talent panel judged this skill to be third-tier, which further confirmed that this spirit plant was indeed a mist-condensing spirit fir.

Ninety cones provided a total of over eight hundred mist-condensing spirit fir seeds.

Relying on Zhang Sheng's power alone, it was clearly impossible to Cultivate such a massive quantity.

The next step was to create Jade Slips for the Azure Rain Art Cultivation Technique.

As a second-tier Spell, the Azure Rain Art could not be recorded or disseminated using ordinary methods; it required the creation of Jade Slips containing Divine Sense information.

Of the large number of supreme-grade blank Jade Slips refined last time, after excluding the portion given to Song Xian, over two thousand remained.

In the quiet room of his villa, Zhang Sheng produced two hundred Azure Rain Art Jade Slips in one go.

These Jade Slips had the same properties as those in the Secret Realm: the Cultivation Technique or Spell information contained within could only be absorbed once by a Cultivator, after which the Jade Slip would turn to powder.

Dean Hou and Principal Wang had also prepared candidates to Cultivate the Azure Rain Art; these individuals would be specifically responsible for cultivating the spirit firs.

In fact, in the Early Stage of cultivation, using the Spring Breeze Turning into Rain Technique and the Thick Earth Art was enough to promote the growth of the spirit firs. This way, the available manpower was much more flexible.

Zhang Sheng decided to take out half of the seeds first and give them to Hou Wu to arrange for other Cultivators to nurture.

The remaining seeds would be kept as reserves or used for refining spirit gathering pills.

However, before delivering the seeds, Zhang Sheng specifically planted a few hundred seeds in spirit soil and then cast the Azure Rain Art.

The seeds sprouted and broke through the soil at a speed visible to the naked eye.

"Perhaps when these spirit firs Breakthrough to the second tier, I can gain some skill progress from them," he thought to himself.

A single second-tier spirit fir could produce ninety-nine cones in one fruiting, enough to refine thirty-three batches of spirit gathering pills.

As for the other three types of Spiritual Plants required to refine spirit gathering pills, they had already been planted on a large scale and were in ample supply.

Zhang Sheng planned to focus on cultivating nine spirit firs; the cones they produced would be sufficient to support the consumption of spirit gathering pill refinement.

He planted these nine seeds around the villa to make them easier to look after.

Including the original first spirit fir in the garden, these ten spirit firs became his primary cultivation targets.

The only thing to worry about was soil fertility.

Hou Wu was responsible for arranging the supply of spirit fertilizer.

The Huaxia high-level authorities had long assigned Hou Wu to coordinate with Zhang Sheng, and the two were already very familiar with this cooperation model.

In order to research cultivation materials, Huaxia had established a specialized Cultivation Research Institute, and spirit fertilizer was one of its important achievements.

To Cultivate this batch of spirit firs, the institute had prepared a large quantity of the highest quality spirit fertilizer.

Unlike other resources, spirit fertilizer could be produced mechanically.

Although the quality of a single portion wasn't top-tier, the advantage was the massive quantity. Combined with Zhang Sheng's Thick Earth Art at the Perfected State to condense earthly Qi, the soil fertility could be further significantly enhanced—this Spell was exactly what he had mastered back then for planting gold spirit rice.

Once the seeds were planted, the spirit trees didn't need to be watched constantly.

Every time Zhang Sheng cast the Azure Rain Art, he would pour a sufficient amount of spirit rain until these ten spirit firs were saturated and could no longer absorb any more.

He built a low wall around each spirit fir, forming a circular reservoir.

The Azure Rain produced by the Perfected State could maintain its efficacy for at least three days before gradually dissipating.

Each time Zhang Sheng cast the Spell, he filled the reservoirs to the brim.

As the spirit firs grew, they would automatically absorb the spirit rain from the pools, saving him the trouble of repeatedly casting the Spell.

With his hands free, Zhang Sheng continued to refine pills.

Fifteen minutes later, a batch of second-tier Medium Grade spirit gathering pills successfully left the furnace.

【Skill: Refining spirit gathering pill (Proficient: 315/1000)】

The spirit gathering pill is in the same lineage as the qi gathering pill; successfully refining one pill increases proficiency by seven points.

One batch yielding nine pills meant sixty-three points of progress. With his current proficiency level, refining one batch took fifteen minutes. As the skill level increased, the speed would further accelerate.

As long as there were sufficient raw materials, this skill would soon reach the Transcendent stage. At that time, he would be able to refine supreme-grade spirit gathering pills... "Brother Sheng! My Heavenly Circulation Method can already achieve One Refinement Fifty Spirits!"

"The Spring Breeze Turning into Rain Technique can also condense rain clouds a hundred meters in diameter!"

Looking at the message sent by Xie He, Zhang Sheng was somewhat surprised by the speed of his progress.

"I just don't know if his 'Practice Makes Perfect' Talent can support him in training the Heavenly Circulation Method to the Transcendent stage, or even the Perfected State," Zhang Sheng pondered and replied:

"Xie He, are you confident in reaching First Refinement One Hundred Spirits?"

"Brother Sheng, as my understanding of the Heavenly Circulation Method deepens, the enhancement effect brought by my Talent seems to be getting weaker and weaker."

"Give me a few more days, and reaching First Refinement One Hundred Spirits shouldn't be a problem. But after that... I estimate it will be difficult," Xie He admitted frankly. Frequent use of his Talent for Cultivation had made the boundaries of his own abilities increasingly clear.

"First Refinement One Hundred Spirits is the sign of the Heavenly Circulation Method just entering the Transcendent stage." Zhang Sheng remembered that Song Xian had used this to Breakthrough to the Divine Breath Realm.

Nowadays, with the large influx of High Grade essence food pills into the market and the popularization of Heavenly Circulation Method instructional videos, more and more Cultivators were able to reach First Refinement One Hundred Spirits.

"Xie He, after reaching First Refinement One Hundred Spirits, if you feel it's difficult to make further progress, then start working on breaking through to the Divine Breath Realm!" Zhang Sheng suggested, "The Cultivation of the Spring Breeze Turning into Rain Technique can be put on hold."

His tone became solemn: "The Divine Breath Realm is the moment when your Talent truly shines."

"I have already prepared a gift for you. I hope you won't let me down!"

On the other end of the video, Xie He excitedly guaranteed: "Brother Sheng, don't worry! I will definitely not let you down!"

"Just you wait and see, I will definitely reach First Refinement One Hundred Spirits and Breakthrough to the Divine Breath Realm!"

...The essence food pills Xie He consumed were all special supplies of High Grade or even supreme-grade.

But in Zhang Sheng's view, compared to the 'fruit' that could be harvested in the future, these current investments were just a drop in the bucket.

As for the subsequent arrangements for Xie He, he already had a well-thought-out plan.