Plant VS Cultivation

Chapter 40: Water Spirit Rice

The Perfection-level Cleansing Technique possesses the effect of refining the marrow and cleansing the meridians. Among the inner disciples, this is no secret. Several senior disciples have spent a great deal of time painstakingly cultivating the Cleansing Technique in pursuit of perfection, aiming to leverage its refining and cleansing properties to establish a profound foundation.

Some of them succeeded and are now among the strongest inner disciples. However, others failed, wasting precious time without ever achieving perfection in the technique, and they have now fallen to the bottom ranks of the inner sect.

The young girl also longed to master the Cleansing Technique at the Perfection level. After all, this was a hallmark of true prodigies—only those with a foundation far beyond their peers could rightfully be called geniuses.

Achieving Perfection in the Cleansing Technique was the most cost-effective way to reach that goal.

After all, the alternatives to surpassing one's peers in foundational strength involved rare and invaluable spiritual treasures—items so precious that even inner disciples could rarely acquire them.

By contrast, Cleansing Technique was available to anyone; the only difficulty lay in pushing it to Perfection, which was extraordinarily hard.

The girl, possessing a mid-grade Fire Spiritual Root, was naturally gifted, especially in comprehending fire-related techniques and spells. However, this also meant that her talent for understanding other elemental techniques was rather lacking—at times, even dull.

She was acutely aware that, given her aptitude, it was nearly impossible for her to cultivate the Cleansing Technique to Perfection.

Yet, without the Perfection-level Cleansing Technique, how could she stand out in the highly competitive inner sect? Her past experiences had instilled in her a strong desire to become powerful. Only through strength could she avoid being bullied and take control of her own destiny.

But achieving Perfection in the Cleansing Technique was not something that could be accomplished through sheer determination alone.

However, Zhao Qiancheng's words had sparked a new idea in her mind.

"Junior Sister Yuan, what's wrong?" Zhao Qiancheng asked, noticing her momentary distraction.

"I just suddenly figured out a difficulty in my cultivation," the girl replied casually, using an excuse to cover her thoughts.

Soon, under Zhao Qiancheng's guidance, she collected her portion of spiritual rice.

Marketplace

"Brother Gu, you're finally here!"

As Gu Mo stepped into Gou Youyu's tavern, the man's voice reached his ears from afar.

Without wasting words, Gu Mo directly took out 200 jin of spiritual rice. In return, Gou Youyu swiftly handed over 660 spirit stones along with a jug of spirit wine.

The transaction completed, Gou Youyu was about to engage in small talk to build rapport with Gu Mo when the latter's next words made his expression freeze.

"Brother Gou, I won't be selling Lingyu Rice anymore, and you can also stop looking into that secret technique I asked about," Gu Mo said after a moment of contemplation.

He had decided to stop cultivating Lingyu Rice and move on to growing higher-grade spiritual plants. Naturally, this meant he would no longer have spiritual rice to sell to Gou Youyu. As for the concealment technique he had previously asked about, he no longer needed it, having already obtained Breath Restraining Technique.

"Brother Gu, did I do something wrong? Are you upset with me?" Gou Youyu asked anxiously.

His tavern had finally gained a good reputation thanks to the high-quality spiritual rice from Gu Mo. Just when business was picking up, he was about to lose his best supplier—how could he not be distressed?

As a rogue cultivator, his path to advancement depended entirely on his tavern's income.

"You misunderstand, Brother Gou. Lingyu Rice is simply too low in grade, so I've decided to grow higher-quality spiritual plants. If you're interested, I can sell you some of them in the future," Gu Mo explained.

"Really?!" Gou Youyu's face lit up with surprise.

If he could brew wine using high-quality spiritual plants, the results would be far superior to what he achieved with Lingyu Rice. He even had several high-tier spirit wine recipes prepared—so long as Gu Mo's mysterious benefactor wasn't growing anything too unusual, he could turn them into exceptional wines.

"Of course, but high-grade spiritual plants won't come cheap," Gu Mo reminded him.

"Don't worry! As long as you can provide them, price won't be an issue," Gou Youyu assured him confidently. While he could still source Lingyu Rice from other channels, he had no way of obtaining higher-quality spiritual plants. Even if the price was above market rate, he was willing to pay—after all, premium spirit wine would yield enormous profits.

"Brother Gu, this is a bottle of my finest spirit wine. Please deliver it to your esteemed benefactor," Gou Youyu said before Gu Mo left.

He hesitated for a moment before handing over a small bottle—his personal stash, reserved for critical cultivation breakthroughs. But he felt it was necessary to make an impression on Gu Mo's mysterious backer. After all, high-quality spiritual plants weren't something an outer disciple could easily access.

"Alright!"

Gu Mo nodded. Since Gou Youyu was trying to curry favor with a nonexistent benefactor, Gu Mo couldn't refuse. After all, as a mere menial disciple, what right did he have to reject on behalf of a supposed high-ranking figure?

Moreover, by accepting this, Gou Youyu would only become more eager to purchase from him in the future—meaning it was actually Gou Youyu who was getting the better deal.

A Fiery Brew

"Wow, this is strong!"

After leaving the tavern, Gu Mo uncorked the small bottle. A wave of intense heat surged from within, and just from the aroma alone, he could feel a fiery sensation.

Though he wasn't knowledgeable about wine, he could tell this brew was infused with potent spiritual energy.

A drink like this would undoubtedly aid cultivation.

However, Gu Mo already had access to Solar Essence, which was far superior. Drinking this wine himself would be a waste—it would be more valuable as a trading commodity.

Choosing a New Crop

After browsing the marketplace, Gu Mo rode his crane back to the Spirit Plant Hall. This time, he was more cautious—he had refrained from choosing a spiritual seed before leaving to avoid any unforeseen circumstances during his trip.

Upon reaching the Seed Storage Chamber, he selected a Tier-1 High-Grade spiritual plant:

Water Spirit Rice.

After much deliberation, he had settled on this choice. Like spirit jade Rice, Water Spirit Rice was a type of spiritual rice, but while spirit jade Rice was a dryland rice, Water Spirit Rice was a paddy rice.

Cultivating Water Spirit Rice required transforming the spiritual field into a paddy field. More importantly, it needed to be irrigated not with ordinary water, but with spirit-infused water—either from a spirit spring or from rain condensed using the Minor Cloud Rain Technique.

There was a spirit spring outside Spirit Spring Valley, not far from Gu Mo's plot. However, its flow was limited—insufficient for large-scale cultivation.

Thus, he would have to supplement it by using the Minor Cloud Rain Technique to generate additional spiritual rain.

(Show your support and read more chapters on my Patreon: [email protected]/psychopet. Thank you for your support!)