5: Chapter 5 A Natural Spiritual Field

Just as day was breaking, Wang Shouren had already put on a straw hat and arrived at the foot of the mountain.

About fifty miles down the mountain, an eye-catching farming village appeared before his eyes.

On both sides of the road were planted highland barley, patch after patch of lush green.

Each ridge of the fields was carefully tended by one or two old farmers, weeding and repelling pests.

These were planted by the Mortals under the protection of the Family. The Family did not collect any commissions, but instead helped them clear out beasts whenever they appeared, with the only requirement being that they treat this piece of land well.

Because of this, the reputation of the Wang Family among the Mortals in this area was extremely good.

"The Immortal Master has arrived."

"The Immortal Master is going to tend to the Immortal sprouts again."

"Immortal Master, this is the sweet water my mother fetched from the mountain spring this morning."

...

Greetings echoed all around. Wang Shouren responded with a smile, took a bowl of water, took a light sip, and calmly said it was not bad, causing the man in his forties to weep with joy.

"The Immortal Master drank the sweet water from our Family! The Immortal Master drank the sweet water from our Family!"

Seeing this, quite a few people wore faces full of envy.

They did not expect the Immortal Master to give them another glance; they only hoped that their meager filial offering would be accepted with a smile by the Immortal on Wogui Mountain.

Wang Shouren did not delay much. After passing this farming village, spiritual power surged beneath his feet, and his speed increased by more than several fold, quickly disappearing from the view of the Mortals.

Lightness Spell, a basic Spell of the Qi Refinement Stage, a commonly used Spell for traveling and escaping.

Wang Shouren traveled another fifty miles, and the terrain ahead gradually rose, with a hill shaped like a crouching tiger coming into view.

The mountain was not high, roughly three hundred zhang, but the trees grew extremely densely, lush and green, blocking out the sky and sun.

The Spiritual Qi here could not compare to even a tenth of Lotus Pier, but compared to the Mortal territories he had passed along the way, it could already be considered much denser. Taking a deep breath, his chest was filled with a sense of freshness.

This was one of the spiritual field properties of the Wang Family, but since this place was too far from Baishan County and beyond the Family's reach, it had never been managed with much care.

However, for Wang Shouren, this was a world he had personally cleared and cultivated.

He walked up the mountain path without stopping his feet, silently calculating the harvest of this season's spiritual rice in his heart.

"This year, my cultivation has improved, and along with it, the effect of the Spirit Rain Spell is also increasing. In about another month, it will be harvest time, and the harvest should be somewhat more than in previous years."

And now was the most crucial juncture for the rice ears to be filling with grain, so he could not afford to be careless.

This morning, he deliberately took leave from his parents, intending to guard this place for the next month and not return to Lotus Pier until the spiritual rice was safely stored in the granary.

As he was thinking, the bushes beside the mountain path suddenly rustled.

A young man wearing the attire of a Wang Family Cultivator hurriedly greeted him, with a round face, thick eyebrows, and a few un-faded brown freckles on his face.

"Brother Shouren, you're back!"

The person who came was none other than Wang Shouxin, ranked sixteenth among the generation of the Shou character. Although his Spiritual Root and Aptitude were not top-tier, he excelled in being steadfast and hardworking.

Back when Wang Shouren discovered the spiritual land of Qinhu Mountain, it was he who volunteered to come and lend a hand, helping out for two whole years.

Wang Shouren smiled and went up to greet him, cupping his hands in a salute: "The matters at home have been dealt with, so I hurried back. Thanks to cousin Shouxin these past few days, otherwise I would really be racking my brains over how to guard this mountain of spiritual fields."

"Brother Shouren, you're being too formal by saying that. I'm also basking in your light here. Although the Spiritual Qi in the mountains cannot compare to that in the Pier, Brother Shouren gives me thirty percent of every harvest." Wang Shouxin's face blossomed with a smile.

Wangwang! Wangwangwang!

Before he could finish half his sentence, an extremely excited dog barking suddenly sounded from behind Wang Shouxin, forcibly drowning out the second half of his words.

A black shadow sprang out from the bushes, dashing straight toward Wang Shouren.

That was a half-person-tall large black hound whose fur was pitch-black and shiny, with thick limbs and sharp claws. On its forehead, there was actually a faint white mark, looking like a third eye half-opened and half-closed.

The black hound rushed extremely fiercely, its tongue flapping against the corner of its mouth, its two front paws raised high as it climbed onto Wang Shouren's body.

Wang Shouren smiled and dodged to the side, but unexpectedly, the black hound reacted even faster. Twisting its waist mid-air and opening its blood-thirsty maw wide, it narrowly bit the hem of his robe. Afterwards, its four paws landed on the ground, its buttocks stuck high up, its tail wagging like a windmill, and whimpering coquettish sounds issued from its throat.

"You, Xiaotian, haven't seen you in two months, and you've grown stronger again."

Wang Shouren reached out and rubbed the black hound's head heavily a few times. The black hound squinted its eyes, pushed its head into his palm, and wagged its tail even more happily.

Wang Shouxin watched from the side and couldn't help but be amused.

"This dog thing is much closer to you than to me. When Brother Shouren is not here, it lies on the field ridge every day looking down the mountain, ignoring whoever calls it. I feed it dried spirit fish, and it doesn't even sniff it, insisting on waiting for you to come back. You have no idea, a few days ago, a Loose Cultivator was prying around at the foot of the mountain; before he even got close, Xiaotian roared him three miles away, running so fast he lost his shoes."

Wang Shouren laughed heartily, crouched down, and scratched Xiaotian's chin. The black hound hummed in comfort, simply flipping its belly over to lie flat on its back with all four limbs pointing to the sky. Its dark, rolling eyeballs stared straight at Wang Shouren, its expression endearing and silly, retaining not a shred of its fierce appearance from just a moment ago.

Don't look at Xiaotian as just an unknown First-Stage Early Stage Yao Beast; because there were no Spirit Stones to set up a Formation for this mountain, Xiaotian's role in guarding the entire spiritual field was huge.

"Even without me, just with your Xiaotian, it can scare away petty villains." Wang Shouren patted the black hound's belly, straightened up, and only then raised his eyes to look around.

"Let's go, let's go up the mountain and take a look." Wang Shouren patted the saliva stain bitten by Xiaotian on the hem of his clothes and walked toward the mountain first.

The Family's current situation was difficult, and every single Spirit Stone had to be spent on the cutting edge.

He did not want resources within the Family to be tilted toward him, so the existence of this private plot provided him with an extra margin of maneuverability.

He silently calculated in his heart that if this season's spiritual rice could be successfully stored in the granary, after deducting the reserved seeds, the ten percent extracted by the Family, and Wang Shouxin's share, he would have another sum of Spirit Stone income in his hands.

The two did not travel far before reaching the top of the mountain.

The top of the mountain, however, was a rare flat area about three to four mu in size, neatly cleared and cultivated into several pieces of spiritual fields.

Morning light spilled down, the rice ears were heavy, and the greenish-yellow ears swayed gently in the breeze, rustling like countless tiny bells whispering.

Wang Shouren stood still by the field ridge, took a deep breath, and formed hand seals with both hands.

The skill of a spiritual plant master valued rain-making above all.

The rain was not ordinary water; rather, it used one's own spiritual power as a catalyst to stir up the moisture between heaven and earth, with Spiritual Qi blending into it to turn into rain and fall down.

Among this, the timing and intensity were the most exquisite; if the rainfall was too large, it would wash away the rice roots, and if it was too small, it would not moisten the ears thoroughly.

Spiritual rice in the grain-filling period was the most delicate; the rain had to be as even and fine as silk, moistening things silently.

Spiritual light flowed at his fingertips, and a hazy green moisture rose from his palm, transforming into a thin rain cloud suspended three feet above the spiritual field.

After a moment, a fine drizzle like silk pattered down.

The rain threads were fine and even, condensing into crystal-clear water droplets on the rice leaves, rolling slowly along the leaf veins and seeping into the roots.

Having received the rain, the spiritual rice ears trembled slightly, and the sap between green and yellow became a bit more plump.

Wang Shouxin watched attentively from the side, unable to help praising.

"Brother Shouren's rain-making skill is not inferior to several old spiritual plant masters in the Family."

Wang Shouren withdrew the Spell technique, wiped the fine sweat on his forehead, and shook his head saying.

"Far from it. A true spiritual plant master can increase the yield of an mu of spiritual field by twenty percent. With this little skill of mine, I'm already content just to stabilize the harvest."