Walking and walking, they arrived at the Spiritual Mountain.
The cave mansion was located halfway up the mountain, with the number five written above it.
Pushing open the cave mansion, inside there was a pill furnace, earth fire, a hot spring, and a bed made of warm jade. Overall, it looked quite simple, with an area of only seventy square meters.
Stepping forward to open the spiritual cavity, suddenly streams of Spiritual Qi leaked out.
Sensing the concentration of Spiritual Qi, Lu Xuanji frowned slightly and said, "The Spiritual Qi here is only one-third of that on Purple Sun Mountain; it's too sparse."
"Brother, there's nothing we can do about it. The Wu Family Marketplace only has a second-level middle-grade spirit vein; but Purple Sun Mountain has a third-level upper-grade spirit vein," Ye Feixue said. "Brother, I want to learn alchemy."
"This..." Hesitant, Lu Xuanji still said, "Xiaoxue, alchemy requires both the wood and fire spirit roots, with fire as the main element and wood as support. But you have a Celestial Spirit Root with a pure fire attribute, which is not suitable for alchemy at all."
"The Lu Family is no more. We can't just sit and eat away the heritage; as long as I work hard, I can still become a top alchemist."
Ye Feixue said determinedly.
"Alright."
Lu Xuanji still agreed, "But remember, whether it's alchemy or artifact refining, it's just an external affair, a side occupation. Cultivation is the main pursuit, and longevity is the fundamental. Some alchemists become obsessed with alchemy and earning Spirit Stones, neglecting their cultivation advancement."
"It doesn't matter how many Spirit Stones you have; what matters is having strong cultivation."
"The Lu Family has fallen, and we've become loose cultivators. We can't remain as loose cultivators; we must continually improve our cultivation, and when we reach Foundation Establishment, we can rebuild the Lu Family."
"I understand."
Ye Feixue said determinedly.
Lu Xuanji reminded for a while longer, and so the two resided at the Wu Family Marketplace.
Mainly focusing on cultivation, with the improvement of cultivation level, they could continue cultivation for three hours a day. After three hours, their meridians would just start to ache slightly, forcing them to stop.
When taking a break, the main task was to cultivate two hundred acres of spirit fields.
In the spirit fields, they planted White Sun Rice. To ensure the normal growth of Spirit Rice, not only did they need to control the amount of spiritual rain, the fertility of the land, and sunlight, but also needed to fertilize regularly to increase soil fertility.
The yield of White Sun Rice varied in different people's hands.
However, when the Wu Family Marketplace collected land rent, it was based on an output of two hundred jin per mu, collecting at the rate of three layers, which meant sixty jin per mu.
No matter if the grain yield increased or decreased, land rent was collected at sixty jin per mu.
Most cultivators' yield of White Sun Rice was only one hundred fifty jin per mu; yet excellent Spirit Plant Cultivators could yield two hundred jin per mu; relying on the three spirit roots of earth, wood, and fire, Lu Xuanji had a keen sense of water and soil, achieving a yield of two hundred thirty jin per mu;
But with the phone, relying on [Destiny Calculation], they could collect data on soil, air, sunlight, Spiritual Qi concentration, seed conditions, etc., deducing reasonable data to scientifically farm.
The yield reached two hundred fifty jin per mu.
Looking at the yield of Spirit Rice, Lu Xuanji immediately abandoned the idea of becoming an alchemist and chose to be a Spirit Plant Cultivator instead.
Being an alchemist seemed glamorous, but initially faced the problem of burning money, and later faced the situation of a scarcity of spirit medicine.
In many cultivation worlds, there wasn't actually a shortage of alchemists but a scarcity of high-level Spirit Plant Cultivators.
High-level Spirit Plant Cultivators are even harder to find than alchemists and array masters.
Just like the Lu Family, because they had a second-level high-grade Spirit Plant Cultivator, adept at taking care of Spirit Marrow Ganoderma, the clan could mature two Spirit Marrow Ganoderma every twenty years, providing enough raw material for the alchemists to refine Foundation Establishment Pills.
When it came to Foundation Establishment Pills, the Lu Family essentially achieved self-sufficiency, and in some years even sold surplus Foundation Establishment Pills.
Familiar with the various conditions of nearby soil, moisture, sunlight, Spiritual Qi, etc., Lu Xuanji began to transform the spirit fields, planting White Sun Rice; meanwhile, Ye Feixue began to attempt alchemy, resulting in dozens of consecutive failures, none successful, which was extremely dismal.
The only slightly fortunate aspect was that these herbs were relatively cheap, with a loss of only five or six Spirit Stones.
This made Ye Feixue very disappointed.
Lu Xuanji helplessly could only step forward to comfort her.
Celestial Spirit Roots are a genius for cultivation, the favored child of heaven regarding cultivation; but in the Hundred Skills of Cultivation, it's completely useless.
For the Hundred Skills of Cultivation, many professions require dual attribute spirit roots or three attribute spirit roots.
For example, an alchemist needs the fire and wood dual attributes, with fire as the main and wood as supplementary; an artifact refiner needs fire and gold dual spirit roots, with gold as the main and fire as supplementary; for an array master, they need gold and earth dual attributes, with earth as the main and gold as supplementary; as a Spirit Plant Cultivator, they need earth and wood dual attributes, with wood as the main and earth as supplementary.
To be a talisman maker, they need water and wood dual spirit roots, with water as the main and wood as supplementary.
Celestial Spirit Roots are not suitable for these side professions.
...
Time passed, and a year went by.
During this year, Lu Xuanji continuously honed his True Qi, improving the quality of his True Qi.
Finally, he broke through the bottleneck and stepped into the Eighth Layer of Qi Cultivation.
At the same time, the spirit field reached the harvest season.
Whoosh whoosh.
With the left hand maneuvering the flying sword, constantly cutting across and slicing the rice; and the right hand maneuvering the Spiritual Qi, transforming it into a hand to gather the straw.
The harvest speed was very fast; in just three days, he harvested all the three hundred mu of rice.
After that, magic was used to remove the husks of the rice.
Finally, the yield of White Sun Rice was counted, totaling seventy-three thousand jin of Spirit Rice, with the highest yield per mu being two hundred sixty jin, and the lowest being two hundred thirty jin.
About eighteen thousand jin of Spirit Rice was required to be handed over to the Wu Family as land rent.
The remaining Spirit Rice was theirs and could be sold to the Wu Family.
The purchase price was one block of Spirit Stone for one thousand jin of White Sun Rice.
After deducting the cost of seeds and fertilizer, Lu Xuanji's annual income was forty-five Spirit Stones.
This was already a high income.
"Big Brother, let's go out and hunt demon beasts." At this moment, Ye Feixue said, "I calculated that after your annual income of forty-five Spirit Stones, and various expenses, you can save at most thirty Spirit Stones, which would take five hundred years to accumulate fifteen thousand Spirit Stones."
"Five hundred years, we can't wait that long."
"You're right, we can only go out and hunt demon beasts."
Lu Xuanji calculated.
Only with a Celestial Spirit Root, without a Foundation Establishment Pill, is it a certainty to achieve Foundation Establishment.
As for other Anomalous Spirit Roots, Dual Spirit Roots, Three Spirit Roots, without a Foundation Establishment Pill, there is always a possibility of failure.
After taking a Foundation Establishment Pill, even if Foundation Establishment fails, life can be preserved; but without a Foundation Establishment Pill, a failure would mean immediate death.
Without a Foundation Establishment Pill as a safety net, there's a lack of a sense of security.
In the later stages of the Qi Cultivation Realm, loose cultivators often venture out to hunt demon beasts, accumulating Spirit Stones to exchange for Foundation Establishment Pills. Hunting demon beasts is very risky, not only facing demon beasts but also dealing with human cultivators' betrayal, with thirty percent of cultivators meeting their end outside.
But when the risk is high, the profit is equally high, making it much faster to earn than farming, alchemy, or talisman making.
Working hard for ten years can't compare to one successful robbery.