Half an hour later, Li Yan's face was the picture of misery. He stared at the plot of half-man-high thin bamboo, which now looked withered and listless. Glistening raindrops still dripped feebly from their leaves, plopping onto the ground with a soft thud. With each sound, his heart involuntarily twitched.
"Are you going to continue? Including the wasted Snow Dusk Crystals, you already owe the sect six Low-grade Spirit Stones," a voice said from behind him. Li Yan's already twitching heart gave another violent jump. In the past half-hour, that cold voice had spoken four times, and each time felt like another knife twisting in his bleeding heart.
In half an hour, not only had he not earned a single Spirit Stone, but he had also gone into debt for six Low-grade ones.
After a newcomer accepts a mission, the supervisor here is required to guide them through the steps. His Sixth Senior Sister had been watching with an expression that was hard to bear. After Li Yan failed twice, she had reminded him. It wasn't that she was giving him special treatment; she would guide any newcomer executing a mission and observe their spellcasting effect, offering a reminder if they were unsuccessful. It was just that she had never seen a newcomer like Li Yan before. Those who came here to do missions in the past had more or less some experience with cultivating Spirit Plants. How could someone not succeed at least once or twice in half an hour?
She stood a few dozen paces behind him, by a large field of mature Mowang Bamboo, leaning against one of the ink-black stalks with her arms crossed, a posture that made her chest seem even more magnificent.
When Li Yan failed again, she hesitated for a moment before finally asking, then pointing at the plot of thin bamboo.
"For these damaged ones, will you harvest them yourself, or do you need to post a mission for someone else to do it for you?"
"I… will harvest… them myself," Li Yan gritted out, almost one word at a time.
He now understood the difference between these Mowang Bamboos and the ones outside. The bamboo covering the mountains everywhere was also Mowang Bamboo, but their quality was second or third-grade, generally usable as material for simple spirit artifacts. The ones cultivated in the Spirit Plant Garden, however, were first-grade Mowang Bamboo, used as materials for crafting high-grade spirit artifacts. The courtyard Li Yan lived in was built from this kind of first-grade, mature Mowang Bamboo after it had been refined.
The source of the Mowang Bamboo that covered the mountains outside was the first-grade ones that had failed cultivation here, which were then harvested and transplanted. They would then self-propagate in the wild, growing new, small bamboo shoots. These small shoots would grow into third-grade Mowang Bamboo, but third-grade Mowang Bamboo would not produce new shoots, meaning no lower-grade Mowang Bamboo would appear. The ones Li Yan had damaged on the platform were third-grade Mowang Bamboo. The reason they could regenerate after being damaged on the surface was simply that they grew back from the original root system. They could only be eradicated if they were uprooted completely.
As for the damaged first-grade Mowang Bamboo in the Spirit Plant Garden, the primary issue was damage to the Spirit Stem of their root system, preventing them from growing into first-grade mature Mowang Bamboo. Their grade would drop. Therefore, harvesting was not a simple task; it required removing them, root and all. This required a cultivator with at least Lesser Mastery of the 'Quicksand Art' to first use the art to loosen the soil around the roots of the area, then remove them and transport them to a designated storage location in the Spirit Plant Garden. A Handyman Disciple would then replant them in different areas according to the extent of the damage. The cleared space here would be replanted with first-grade Mowang Bamboo seeds, which would be naturally nurtured by the spiritual energy here. In three days, they would grow to be thumb-sized like these, at which point they must be watered with Snow Dusk Crystals to continue growing. Otherwise, after a month, the first-grade would become second-grade, and then drop to third-grade.
The harvesting of Mowang Bamboo mentioned above naturally required a cultivator who knew the 'Quicksand Art,' and at Lesser Mastery or above. Therefore, it required a specialist to harvest them, who was also responsible for transporting the harvested, damaged Mowang Bamboo to the designated area. This service was not free; it usually cost one Low-grade Spirit Stone for ten mu, and anything less than ten mu was also one Low-grade Spirit Stone. The fee was anything but low.
As for transplanting, bamboo plants are inherently easy to self-propagate and grow. As long as it wasn't for a special purpose, the handymen could complete it without an additional fee for Spirit Stones. And there was no charge for sowing seeds in this area; it only required a simple spell to evenly scatter the seeds and let them grow freely for three days.
Li Yan had begun his great watering endeavor half an hour ago. His Sixth Senior Sister had given him four hundred Snow Dusk Crystals and then watched him cast his spell. That was when Li Yan's nightmare began. Either he cast the Cloud and Rain Art too early, before he had a chance to deploy the Snow Dusk Crystals with his other hand, or he deployed the Snow Dusk Crystals too early, and they dissolved before hitting the ground, their medicinal properties evaporating into the air.
And so, gazing at the plots of damaged thin bamboo and the dozen or so Snow Dusk Crystals that had vanished without a trace of effect, Li Yan's face was ashen. The few Spirit Stones he had managed to save were now rapidly disappearing. Then, he heard that "harvesting" this patch of thin bamboo also required posting a mission and paying Spirit Stones—stones that would come from his own pocket. He felt dizzy and light-headed. There was no way he would post a mission; he insisted on "harvesting" it himself.
But then he thought about the state of his depleted magical power after casting 'Cloud and Rain Art' and 'Quicksand Art' one after another. He wouldn't be willing to use Spirit Stones to recover, meaning he could only rely on long periods of meditation to restore his magical power. This made time even tighter. He might have to spend a considerable amount of time here, let alone cultivate. The thought filled him with frustration.
An hour later, "Little... Junior Brother, perhaps you should reconsider. Even without the harvesting fee, you'll have to pay eleven Low-grade Spirit Stones now." This time, even the usually cold voice held a hint of fluctuation. Her posture, arms previously crossed, had changed to a normal stance.
"Heh... heh, heh heh, Sixth Senior Sister, I'll try again. I still have some Spirit Stones. I just didn't expect to lose them so quickly." Li Yan's face was somewhat pale, and he forced a dry laugh, his voice raspy. But his eyes were already tinged with a bloodshot red.
He couldn't bear the thought that the dozen or so Spirit Stones he had painstakingly saved over the years would mostly disappear from his Storage Pouch in just an hour.
But at this moment, Li Yan's stubborn streak was also ignited. Or more accurately, he was like a gambler who had lost too much. He swore to himself, 'I still have six Low-grade Spirit Stones. I must succeed.'
He hadn't been acting recklessly just now. He had been constantly adjusting his spellcasting time, hand techniques, and so on, and now he felt he had improved significantly.
The short-haired, cold beauty watched Li Yan's stubbornness and said no more. She summoned her magical artifact and soared into the air, leaving.
Li Yan didn't notice his senior sister's departure. His mind was completely consumed with the coordination of the immortal art and the Snow Dusk Crystals. He constantly made imaginary strokes and pointed in the air, meticulously thinking through the key points of each mistake and the timing of his actions.
After the time it took to drink a cup of tea, he had ruined another half-mu of bamboo forest. This was the result of his last three attempts. He was now able to control his spellcasting within a smaller area, but a single Snow Dusk Crystal was enough for a large patch of bamboo forest. Otherwise, he could have experimented within an even smaller range.
Gazing at the small half-mu of damaged bamboo before him, Li Yan's bloodshot eyes began to shine brightly. The color of the bamboo leaves in this patch, starting from where he stood, clearly transitioned from light to dark. This showed that the absorption of the Snow Dusk Crystals was getting better and better.
But at this moment, Li Yan couldn't help but sigh. He needed to meditate. The spiritual energy in his body had been depleted to its limit. He felt utterly exhausted. Looking up at the darkening sky, he figured that without the aid of Spirit Stones, it would likely take until dawn to fully replenish his spiritual energy. Without further thought, he found an empty spot at the edge of the field, sat down cross-legged, and began to meditate.
…
Twenty days later, looking at the field of dark green bamboo before him, a smile appeared on Li Yan's face. After twenty days of watering, he had finally achieved the current result. Excluding the two days he spent using the 'Quicksand Art' to harvest the previously damaged thin bamboo, he now only needed to water them sixty-three more times—that is, for sixty-three more days—and this fifty-mu mission would be complete. However, by his calculations, he would receive eight Low-grade Spirit Stones, but he had lost twenty-one. He was taking a loss of thirteen Spirit Stones on this mission.
But Li Yan had also gained something. First, he would have no problem taking on this kind of mission in the future. Second, his practical application of immortal arts had improved dramatically. He had previously only focused on increasing the speed of his cultivation of immortal arts, spiritual power, and the Fragmented Poison, without any real application. But through this mission, he had gained a holistic understanding of the application of immortal arts, spiritual power, and the Fragmented Poison. Although it wasn't combat, his control over his spiritual power—when to be fast, when to be slow, when to use more, when to use less—had greatly improved.
He even risked being fined by using a type of Fragmented Poison with an adhesive and paralyzing effect in his Cloud and Rain Art. He believed that even after the Snow Dusk Crystals were completely dissolved, a portion of their medicinal effect would still be lost upon hitting the soil. So, a sudden idea struck him: could he increase the adhesiveness of the rainwater? As long as the rainwater wasn't highly toxic, could it enhance the effectiveness of the Snow Dusk Crystals? Once this idea appeared, he couldn't suppress the thought. He felt an urge to try it. After careful consideration, and being certain that he could now control the rainwater within a very small area without it spreading, he gritted his teeth and made the attempt.
He first cautiously controlled a very small dark cloud to cover a dozen or so thin bamboo stalks. Then, he manipulated one of the twelve types of Fragmented Poison in his body—the Adhesive Paralysis Toxin. This toxin was not a deadly poison. It could adhere to water or mist. Once contacted, it would immediately seep into the body through pores or the surface of plants, instantly causing the target to become numb, starting from a localized area and spreading to the entire body, rendering them immobile. He had experimented with a few live creatures from the Handyman Department. The larger the target, the shorter the paralysis time. His largest test subject had been a Savage-Tusk Boar, and that seven- or eight-hundred-jin beast had been knocked to the ground for a full two hours. When he brought the revived demonic beast back to the Handyman Department for slaughter, it had leaped directly into the slaughterhouse and refused to come out. When it saw Li Yan poking his head in to look at it, it howled at the sky, bared its tusks, and its hackles rose, looking as if it were ready to fight for its life. This left the handymen completely baffled as to why the demonic beast, which had been led away by this Little Martial Uncle in the morning, had run into the slaughterhouse on its own in the afternoon.
When the rain from this dark cloud, mixed with the Snow Dusk Crystals, fell, Li Yan's heart was in his throat again. First, he might lose another Spirit Stone—no, possibly more, because he couldn't predict if this Fragmented Poison would spread through the underground root system. Although he had tried his best to control the area and had only released a tiny trace of the toxin, the outcome was unknown.
After he finished casting the spell, he was stunned. The dozen or so originally upright thin bamboo stalks suddenly looked like eggplants hit by frost. Their branches and leaves convulsed wildly for about a dozen breaths before limply drooping. They were clearly dead. This phenomenon left Li Yan speechless. He then carefully observed the state of the Mowang Bamboo next to this patch. After a look around, he felt a little relieved; the surrounding Mowang Bamboo had not been affected.
Utterly helpless, he quickly used the Quicksand Art to harvest this small patch of damaged Mowang Bamboo, lest it mutate overnight. Then, he sat down at the edge of the field to meditate and recover his magical power.
More than ten hours later, his magical power was fully restored. The thought of that pile of Mowang Bamboo gave him a headache. He was going to lose more Spirit Stones. Fortunately, he had grown somewhat accustomed to it recently. After a pang of heartache, he stood up and walked toward the edge of the field, preparing to take away those Mowang Bamboos. Although these were spirit items and could last for ten days to half a month in a place with spiritual energy even without being in soil, it was better to get rid of them sooner.
But when he reached the edge of the field, the scene before him was a great shock. The Mowang Bamboo had truly mutated. The dozen or so thin stalks he had harvested last night had clearly been devoid of spiritual energy. But now, the fallen stalks were lush and luxuriant. The strong bamboo branches, showing no sign of their previous wilted state, were now robust enough to prop the main trunks several inches off the ground. The leaves were even more vibrant, a dark ink color with a flowing green light, clearly showing exuberant vitality.
This made Li Yan narrow his eyes and stand there, lost in thought. He hadn't expected that besides his Spirit Stones disappearing quickly, these bamboos could now grow just as fast. An unexpected gain, indeed.