After settling the two children, Xu Mu’an took out a box containing five fiery red spirit plants—Lieyan grass.
Lieyan grass wasn’t particularly rare. It was essentially a medicinal ingredient used to make aphrodisiacs, containing mild toxicity. For ordinary people, this plant was harmless and even beneficial, but for Xu Mu’an, it was excellent medicine.
In his youth, under extreme hunger, Xu Mu’an had mistakenly eaten a stalk of Lieyan grass. After consuming the herb, Xu Mu’an felt as if his body was being consumed by raging fire. In his agony, he could only continuously circulate his spiritual energy. To Xu Mu’an’s surprise, after the pain subsided, his spiritual power had grown considerably.
In this world, most methods for increasing spiritual power involved consuming spirit plants. Spirit plant masters could enhance the growth of spirit plants, and using spirit plants could strengthen spiritual power. Wood-type spiritual masters gained far greater benefits from consuming spirit plants than fire-type spiritual masters. With this advantage compounding over time, fire-type spiritual masters’ cultivation progress generally couldn’t match that of wood-type spiritual masters.
Xu Mu’an looked at the spirit plants in the box and took a deep breath. His successful advancement to Third Level Qi Cultivation—everyone in the Xiao family thought he had borrowed Xiao Jingting’s fortune, but Xu Mu’an knew that he had become a Third Level Qi Cultivation practitioner entirely thanks to this Lieyan grass.
Xu Mu’an closed his eyes. The effects of Lieyan grass on him were becoming weaker and weaker. When this herb became completely useless, his cultivation would come to a complete standstill. In fact, he was already quite fortunate—many fire-type spiritual masters remained Second Level Qi Cultivation practitioners their entire lives.
Xu Mu’an took a deep breath and chewed down all five stalks of Lieyan grass together. A familiar pain washed over him. Xu Mu’an had long grown accustomed to this pain and quickly adapted, focusing wholeheartedly on absorbing the spiritual power from the Lieyan grass.
Xu Mu’an cultivated for over two hours. When he came to his senses, it was already dark. After cultivating for an entire night, his spiritual power had only grown by an imperceptible amount. Cultivation was difficult—more difficult than ascending to heaven. The slow progress of cultivation caused many people to give up halfway.
Xu Mu’an opened his eyes and heard sounds from next door, knowing that the young master had returned. Thinking about Xiao Jingting, Xu Mu’an couldn’t help feeling resentful. He had worked so hard to cultivate to the third level of Qi Cultivation, while this young master, who only knew how to play around, was also a Third Level Qi Cultivation practitioner.
If only he could be like Xiao Jingting, having precious herbs to soak his body from childhood and abundant spirit plants to consume, then perhaps…
Xu Mu’an shook his head, driving these unrealistic thoughts from his mind.
Xiao Jingting collapsed onto his bed, feeling somewhat deflated.
Knowing that in this life he could use spiritual power to cultivate spirit fields, Xiao Jingting couldn’t wait to try it out.
Unfortunately, when he went out looking for the fields, he couldn’t find them.
His directionally-challenged nature from his previous life had apparently carried over to this world. Xiao Jingting felt rather discouraged—there was no Baidu Maps in this world!
Xiao Jingting closed his eyes. When he had gone out, he had received quite a few cold stares. When he passed several households, those villagers had dramatically snatched their children into their houses and slammed their doors shut. The original owner’s reputation was so terrible that it gave Xiao Jingting a major headache.
Before dawn had fully broken, Xu Mu’an left the house.
Xiao Jingting knew that Xu Mu’an seemed to have taken on some short-term work. However, the three taels of silver that Xu Mu’an had managed to save with great difficulty had been squandered by Xiao Jingting.
After a while, Xiao Jingting heard more sounds from next door—it seemed Xiao Xiaodong had gotten up and started cooking.
Xu Mu’an had fire attributes, but Xiao Xiaodong had wood attributes. However, Xiao Xiaodong’s spiritual power was very weak. Xiao Xiaodong had planted a small vegetable plot in front of their door, and all the vegetable seeds were chosen by Xiao Xiaodong himself.
Xiao Xiaodong was clever and cunning. Afraid that Xiao Jingting would compete with him for vegetables, he had chosen to plant vegetables that Xiao Jingting didn’t like to eat.
The vegetables Xiao Xiaodong had planted before had been mostly eaten, and recently he had planted a new batch.
Xiao Jingting opened his window and watched Xiao Xiaodong’s movements. Xiao Xiaodong closed his eyes and made some hand gestures. Xiao Jingting realized that Xiao Xiaodong was performing the Vegetation Technique—this technique could promote plant growth. Xiao Jingting was somewhat surprised to discover that he could see sparse points of light falling onto the field.
Xiao Xiaodong spent a long time casting the Vegetation Technique on the field, but with meager results.
Watching this scene, Xiao Jingting suddenly recalled memories from when the original owner had followed his parents to inspect spirit fields. At that time, the original owner’s parents had cast several spiritual techniques on the fields, causing the spirit plants in the fields to break through the soil and sprout, growing to about ten centimeters tall. But Xiao Xiaodong was, after all, just a child…
Watching Xiao Xiaodong’s earnest efforts, Xiao Jingting felt an itch in his heart. From a distance, Xiao Jingting cast a spiritual technique on Xiao Xiaodong’s spirit field.
Xiao Jingting saw a large number of green light points descending from the sky, and the vegetables that Xiao Xiaodong had planted rapidly sprouted.
Seeing this scene, Xiao Jingting’s heart surged with excitement. It seemed the body he had inherited had decent abilities—at least compared to the original owner’s son.
Seeing the vegetables in the field rapidly sprouting, Xiao Xiaodong was startled. His eyes darted around, and soon he spotted Xiao Jingting at the window. Xiao Jingting wanted to smile at his convenient son, but Xiao Xiaodong fled into the house like a wisp of smoke and locked the door with a click.
