CH 12

Chapter 12: Busy Farming

The cultivation level of most of the cultivators farming in the Heaven Jade Pavilion Valley were not very high.

But even though they were not high, they were still above Spirit Condensation Middle Stage. They were mostly friends and relatives of some low aptitude members of Wuliang Sect and got jobs in the medicine fields through the connections. Every month, after completing their tasks, they could get quite a few spirit stones. Even though it can’t compare to being a disciple of the Wuliang Sect, but it wins in the fact that it is safer. Also, there is an abundance of spiritual energy in the medicine fields, so it’s not like there’s no possibility to cultivate to become a high level cultivator.

The most important thing is that all the medicine fields have an alchemist that oversees it. If they could get the alchemist’s recognition and learn the technique to refine pills, their positions would also rise like a boat with the rising tide.

“Every cultivator in Heaven Jade Pavilion must complete their medicine quota, this is the standard the sixth rank Alchemy Master Feng Yang set down. It can absolutely not be broken.” The one speaking was the manager of Heaven Jade Pavilion. He looked at Su Tingyun with a troubled expression: “Old Madam Wei is Spiritual Master Ling Wu’s benefactor so should be received properly. It’s just that this Alchemy Master’s temperament……”

Seeing him hum and haw while speaking, Su Tingyun knew that this matter could not be negotiated at all.

Since that Husband of Convenience* had her come here, he naturally knew the situation here. At the same time, they also knew the relationship between her and her Husband of Convenience so to be still like this meant that she must complete whatever task they had. At this current time, Su Tingyun was a person that couldn’t refuse to bow under the roof. She could only curse in her heart as she smiled: “May I ask what the task is?”

Su Tingyun refers to the Spiritual Master as 便宜相公 which as far as I can tell means they had a marriage of convenience(rather than love). I tried Convenience Husband, googled it, and decided Husband of Convenience sounded better.

“Old Madam Wei is Spiritual Master Ling Wu’s benefactor so it will suffice if you just grow fifty stalks of first rank medicinal herbs each month. I believe the Alchemy Master also wouldn’t feel it right to complain and would just turn a blind eye, after all it doesn’t count as violating his rules.” The manager spoke courteously: “Here is the secret arts of Spring Wind Transform Rain and Meeting of Minds. There’s also a considerably costly Golden Thunder secret art and and archive of low rank spirit plants. Originally, disciples must exchange for them with spirit stones or contribution points, but I shall lump them all together and give them to Madam.”

Su Tingyun didn’t understand the Cultivation World and for the time being didn’t have any particular concepts of what handing in fifty stalks of first rank medicinal herbs a month meant, so she hesitantly asked: “If I can’t complete the task, what will happen?”

“This ah…… the rules of Heaven Jade Pavilion are all set down by the Alchemy Master, so everything depends on the Alchemy Master’s mood.”

What kind of Master is this exactly, to be so tyrannical……

After the manager left, Su Tingyun started studying the secret arts that he had left behind. From the names, they all seemed like really high-end stuff, it completely opened her eyes to the door of a new century. Even though she was afraid of the bloodiness of the Cultivation World, but anyone would be curious and excited about these strength increasing methods that’s all over the internet. Even her, Su Tingyun, as a child she had once fantasised about being a beautiful young female warrior ne!

As her spiritual consciousness poured into the jade, even such a simple task caused Su Tingyun to struggle for a long time. Even in the very end she still didn’t understand how exactly to pour her conscious in. It was just that she wanted to look, really wanted to look, really really wanted to look at what was inside. This desire was way too strong and in the end, she really saw.

The name was super high-end, but the true usage of these secret arts made Su Tingyun speechless.

Spring Wind Transform Rain is for watering the herbs. The secret art of Meeting of Minds is just for communicating with medicinal herbs that have spiritual natures. In the past didn’t she see some medicinal plants that could run around and talk? Those were all classified as spirit grass. But just because it’s a spirit plant doesn’t necessarily mean its rank is high. In the archive of low rank spirit plants it also had records of these types of medicinal grass. Among them there was a type of grass that could speak called Orchid Tongue Grass, it;s everywhere in the Cultivation World. It didn’t have any medicinal value, but it has a spiritual nature and can speak……

As for the secret art of Golden Thunder, it counts as an attacking skill. After learning it would be possible to call down thunder, like the Duke of Thunder and the Duchess of Lightning(Chinese gods).

Even though the records of spirit plants is only on one little jade scroll, but the archive described very clearly about low level medicinal herbs, medicinal natures, and all sorts of ways to plant and grow them. She discovered that handing over fifty low level medicinal herbs didn’t look very hard so also felt more relieved. She’ll just treat it as growing some plants and flowers out of boredom. She analyzed the secret art of Spring Wind Transforms Rain for a long time, circulating the spiritual energy within her body through her meridians in the way the jade scroll described. It was lucky that her grandpa was an old traditional Chinese doctor so she was quite familiar with the meridians of a human body. At this point, putting that knowledge to use was not too difficult.

Jade scroll(玉简) something like this, I think

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It was just after putting it to full use for a long time, Su Tingyun discovered a problem. No matter what she did she couldn’t feel that kind of wandering special power anymore. She has killed spirit beasts with Xiao Mei and the others for this long so she also knew this is the effects of exhausting all spiritual energy. It’s just, how do you replenish it after exhausting it all?

When Xiao Mei and the others had sat in meditation to cultivate, they were using the most basic cultivation methods. At that time Su Tingyun’s strength was great, and she also didn’t know any spiritual energy techniques so she doesn’t have any cultivation methods. Now, naturally she had no way to cultivate, so what was she supposed to do?

The next day, after Su Tingyun woke up she discovered that there was already a little bit of spiritual energy in her body. Even though it wasn’t much, at least it replenished a little. She went to find that Manager Song and got another so-called Ascending the Clear Sky mental cultivation method. This finally counted as really talking a step into the large entrance of the Cultivation World.

After she properly studied the mental cultivation method, Su Tingyun went to get some medicinal grass seeds. The ones she got were the easiest to grow of the first rank medicinal herbs, called Purple Costus Root. This type of medicinal herb is one of the drug ingredients to refine a low level spiritual energy pill. It was extremely ordinary so naturally it also wasn’t worth much. If she handed up fifty stalks of Purple Costus Root, she wouldn’t be able to get a single spirit stone for her first month in the Sect. It can only be counted as completing the minimum required task and she wouldn’t get any reward.

The spirit medicine archive said that the Purple Costus Root’s maturing period is short. In three days it would spout, six days it’ll bloom, ten days it’ll bear fruit. After it bears fruit wait three more days and it would be time to pick the medicine. 

The Purple Costus Root didn’t require a lot of water, just using one Spring Wind Transform Rain a day is enough. Afterwards, just check if there’s any insect pests or plant diseases and that was all that needed to be worried about. This type of medicinal herb had tenacious life so it was very easy to keep alive. Su Tingyun watered the seedlings properly the way the archive instructed, putting to use once Spring Wind Transform Rain as if she was hoisting water out with a ladle. Afterwards, she just sat next to the field and dazed out.

The spirit farm allocated to her was at a corner of the valley, it was only one fifteenth of a hectare. The soil was red, so it should be a high quality soil with abundant nutrients and spiritual energy. Using it to grow first rank medicinal herbs was a bit of a waste. But no matter what things must be done slowly, she’ll plant better ones after she gets used to it. There were arrays set up around the medicine fields in this valley. She could see other people’s fields and other cultivators, but she had no way of communicating with them and she also couldn’t enter their fields. It’s as if there was countless invisible barriers stretching from the ground to the sky, cutting each portion of medicine fields apart, making it so that while the other fields were visible, they could not be touched.

The field next to her didn’t have anything planted on it, and she also didn’t see any cultivator go over. Then, the one even more to the right had fourth rank Congealed Fragrance Flowers planted. They were the most valuable medicinal plants in the low level spirit plants archive, because growing them were rather difficult. The owner of that field was a forty or so middle aged man that usually wore a bamboo hat and a large cyan robe in the fields. His pants were always rolled up to his knees and he walked on a pair of straw sandals, looking completely like a typical farmer. He had built a little shack next to the field and from morning to night he always stayed next to the farm to look after the medicinal herbs. Su Tingyun has never seen him leave before.

Uncle Farmer’s farm is about two-thirds of a hectare, next to his was the spirit field of a female cultivator that looked about thirty or so. She planted a wide expanse of third rank Nix Orchid Grass, but lately it seemed they weren’t doing so well. That female cultivator had a worried frown all day, seeming as if her mood was also not good. What was beyond that, Su Tingyun’s eyes could no longer see, it’s as if the space here was folded up. When she was at the entrance she could see huge rows after rows fields and cultivators, but now she couldn’t see it anymore.

When Su Tingyun had nothing to do she would spend time observing how the middle-aged man next door would take care of his medicinal plants and also polished her cultivation a little bit. When she finally got to the third day, the day the Purple Costus Roots were supposed to sprout, Su Tingyun discovered to her astonishment that the seeds she had sprinkled down weren’t even showing the slightest sign of beginning to sprout……

She anxiously waited another day, but the Purple Costus Roots were still not showing any signs of sprouting. At that time, Su Tingyun had planted quite a few seeds. She dug out a scoop of soil to examine the seeds inside. In the end, she found that the seeds didn’t go bad and she could feel a faint spiritual energy coming from it. It was just that for some reason it didn’t sprout like it normally would.

Su Tingyun decided to go ask Manager Song, but she couldn’t find him after she went. The only person she knew in Heaven Jade Pavilion was Manager Song, now that she couldn’t find him and also couldn’t ask anyone else, she was pretty much at her wits’ end. She thought, let’s go ask that Uncle Farmer. But he was in that space, Su Tingyun simply couldn’t cross over and he couldn’t hear her voice so the two had no way to communicate.

Then what should she do?

Su Tingyun wasn’t someone that gave up easily, so then she remembered the secret art of Meeting of Minds. The art of Meeting of Minds can allow a person to communicate with plants that had spiritual natures. She couldn’t ask other people, so she’ll just as the Purple Costus Root seeds. They should probably know what the problem is……

The secret art of Meeting of Minds wasn’t hard to learn, all that she needed was to learn was a basic chant. But the secret art had very high spiritual requirements. First, your frame of mind must be strong, second, you must be affable. A person’s consciousness is the thing that reveals a person’s true character the most. The things in the world with spiritual natures are particularly sensitive to this, so it was very difficult to truly communicate with plants.

People did practice the secret art of Meeting of Minds, but it was just so that they could strive to sense where the plants were hurting when they were attacked by strange insect pests. This way, it would be easier to get rid of bugs.

Su Tingyun deliberated over the contents of the secret art twice before starting to link with those Purple Costus Roots. She still didn’t know how to use her spiritual consciousness to communicate, so she just sat next to the field and talked to the Purple Costus Root seeds: “Little seed, little seed. Are you not feeling well? Tell grandma where? Why aren’t you sprouting ah……”

The name of the middle-aged man next door was Niu Hanshan. His natural aptitudes were average, but he was quite an expert in farming. His son was an inner disciple of Wuliang Sect and extremely hardworking. As of now, he hadn’t even reached a hundred years old yet he was already in Foundation Establishment Late Stage. Even though he couldn’t compare to those genius captivating monsters*, but he was still quite good-looking. Niu Hanshan gives all the spirit stones he gets from planting medicinal herbs to his son to help with his cultivation. Though it was exhausting, he felt it was worth it.

“captivating monsters”=”yao nie”(妖孽) in the past signified people with unusual looks that was thought to be a bad omen. Nowadays, it’s more used as way to exclaim with connotations of envy and admiration that someone’s beautiful as a yao. Now a yao is a supernatural creature in Chinese culture, what you become once you fall prey to your inner demon while cultivating, and some are also born

After this long crappy explanation, I think some pictures will help you visualize it more(adding eyecandy~):

The spirit fields in Heaven Jade Pavilion valley are separated into high, mid, and low grade. High grade spirit fields are in a separate array in the valley, for the Alchemist and his disciples to use. Right now what he was using was a mid grade spirit field. Because it’s very close to that array, this area was also the best mid grade spirit field other than those right next to the high grade fields. Of course, the best fifteenth of a hectare is naturally the one at the very corner.

Over there, both fifteenth hectore fields were empty so Niu Hanshan had always thought he would be able to win them over. But he never expected that half way there an old woman would pop out and take up the most inner field. If she could probably plant medicinal plants he would’ve just let it go, but that close neighbor to the Master’s brown soiled array was actually used by her to plant first rank Purple Costus Root. The most irritating thing was, it had already been so many days, yet those Purple Costus Root that she had planted haven’t even sprouted yet. Looks like it was a failure.

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Credits: Translated by Chiyomira, Edited by Sonia