After distancing himself from all the chaos and turmoil of the outside world, Qi Ping gradually returned to a peaceful farming life.
Though the days were quiet, with the goal of pursuing the Great Dao and eternal life, they were still fulfilling.
Especially after going through so much disorder and witnessing the cruelty of the cultivation world firsthand, Qi Ping came to appreciate just how rare and precious this seemingly calm life truly was.
The ever-strengthening spirit veins, the increasingly dense spiritual energy within his natural sanctuary, the medicinal bees capable of brewing all kinds of honey, the accelerated growth of spiritual herbs, the vast array of spell knowledge available for research, and the safe, stable cultivation environment—almost every single one of these was something countless cultivators in the outside world desperately craved.
In fact, any one of them alone would be worth risking one’s life over. Many cultivators wouldn’t even dare to dream of possessing a place with all these conditions combined.
Fully aware of this, Qi Ping naturally cherished his current circumstances all the more.
What’s more, this place had been built bit by bit with his own hands!
From the very beginning—the most rudimentary first-tier low-grade illusion array, hauling dirt all over the Misty Cloud Mountains; to planting Starlight Wood (Spirit-Gathering Trees) and upgrading the formations; to taking risks on black market missions to purchase spirit veins, and painstakingly nurturing his contracted spirit trees to produce tree essences for constantly feeding those veins—all of this effort finally culminated in this flourishing territory!
Vast in area, rich in spiritual energy, and protected by powerful formations!
Every bit of it had been built by Qi Ping and his animal companions, piece by piece, drop by drop!
However, Qi Ping had now run into a problem:
“[Plant Growth] just can’t quite keep up anymore.”
It’s not that Qi Ping wasn’t putting in enough effort.
On the contrary, he’d invested more time in this skill than any other. It had become something he did daily, unless he was in the middle of a breakthrough or comprehending something critical. Whenever his mind and spiritual energy allowed, he would cast Plant Growth as often as possible.
But the further he went, the harder it became to deepen his understanding of this skill.
He’d also gradually come to realize another thing: as his cultivation advanced, his number of animal companions grew, and he had to keep nurturing his contracted spirit trees, it was becoming impossible to rely solely on Plant Growth to handle everything.
So he had to make some tough choices about where to apply this skill.
The skill itself remained incredibly powerful. It could help him rapidly nurture targets and even push spiritual herbs beyond their natural limits. But now, he could only use it on the most important and irreplaceable tasks.
“From now on, aside from first-tier spiritual herbs, I’ll need to scale up planting for some second-tier herbs.”
“The main focus of Plant Growth going forward will be on boosting my own cultivation, helping key animal companions break through, and nurturing special contracted spirit trees. For everything else, I’ll have to rely on large-scale farming!”
Nurturing the contracted spirit trees was non-negotiable, because the continued upgrading of the spirit veins depended entirely on the essences produced by those unique trees.
“As long as the spirit vein upgrades keep pace, scaling up the planting of other spiritual herbs will ease the pressure on Plant Growth. The animal companions can just use the naturally grown herbs for their usual needs…”
After thinking it through, Qi Ping quickly came up with a plan and called over his chief steward, who handled both internal and external affairs.
“Bzzz… (Boss, you called for me?)”
A majestic Golden Marrow Bee Queen, about the size of two fists and gleaming with a metallic gold sheen, gently landed on Qi Ping’s shoulder.
“Yeah. I’m planning a major overhaul of the spiritual field layout. A lot of areas have already been upgraded to second-tier spiritual land, so I want to scale up second-tier herb cultivation. All the first-tier herbs will need to be relocated elsewhere.”
“But most of these herbs aren’t easy to grow. Without my nurturing talent backing them up, I’ll have to rely on you all to tend to them carefully according to each herb’s specific habits…”
Qi Ping briefly explained his ideas.
After a moment of thought, the Golden Marrow Bee Queen quickly came up with a response.
“Bzzz… (I’ll have the other bees move the first-tier herbs out of the second-tier plots right away!)”
“Bzzz… (Don’t worry about the herb care, boss. I’ll divide the spiritual land into small sections, assign specific herb types to each, and have specialized Balance Bees take charge of tending them.)”
“Bzzz… (But we don’t have enough second-tier herbs and seeds to fill up all that second-tier land.)”
“I’ll handle that! I’ll bring back more spiritual seeds later on.”
Not long after, Qi Ping recondensed his Tree-Person avatar and sent it out to retrieve the batch of spiritual herbs he’d stashed away earlier.
Before bringing them back, Qi Ping had Little Immortal Tiger run a quick divination to check if the herbs carried any hidden dangers. Only after confirming there were no issues did he bring them in.
On top of that, he also brought back a batch of seeds purchased from the black market.
After handing everything over to the Golden Marrow Bee Queen, she immediately bustled off to arrange the planting work.
Under the diligent labor of the bees, the Natural Sanctuary took on a whole new look. It carried a certain charm—like a farmer’s fields being cultivated on a large scale.
Watching the busy bees, Qi Ping couldn’t help but feel grateful for having them as animal companions. Without them, tending to all these spiritual herbs would have consumed an enormous chunk of his energy and time.
After all, some spiritual herbs could be a real hassle to grow once removed from their special environments.
Satisfied with the sight of his now-scaled-up farming operation, Qi Ping turned his full attention back to nurturing the herbs needed for his cultivation, as well as researching formations and spells.
Time flowed on. In the blink of an eye, seven years had passed.
“Seven years! Time really flies!”
Immersed in cultivation and research, Qi Ping was so caught up in the thrill of steady progress and unraveling the mysteries of the Dao that he hardly noticed the passage of time.
That was the beauty of having great talent—whether in cultivation, spell research, or formations, positive feedback always came quickly.
During this period, Qi Ping reaped substantial rewards. Not only did his cultivation steadily advance, gradually closing in on the late Foundation Establishment stage, but he also successfully comprehended the True Meaning of Water!
He also developed a second-tier high-grade formation called the Water Element Binding Spirit Array, a formation specialized in suppression and restraint. Its effectiveness was in no way inferior to the Six Ding Fire Serpent Array. What was more, by drawing on certain water-fire cultivation methods and spells, he achieved a breakthrough in understanding the harmony of water and fire.
When the two formations were combined into a composite array, their power didn’t diminish—on the contrary, they achieved a synergy where one plus one was far greater than two!
The “Harmony of Water and Fire” was one of the fundamental essences of spellcraft that Qi Ping had uncovered.
He’d also developed a second-tier high-grade enhanced version of the Mystic Gold Killing Array for metal-element formations. By combining this with the two water and fire arrays into a three-in-one composite formation, the overall power was incomparable to what he’d had before.
“Too bad I haven’t grasped the True Meaning of Wood or Earth yet.”
“Though the hardest part isn’t comprehending these two laws—it’s understanding the Harmony of the Five Elements. That’s astronomically more difficult than the Harmony of Water and Fire.”
Even with his current level of comprehension, Qi Ping didn’t have enough confidence that he could grasp the harmony of all five elements. So he decided to put that off until he’d gathered the full set of Five Element physiques.
For now, though, Qi Ping was considering switching to a water-fire cultivation method. With his [Golden Blaze Body] and [Water Marsh True Lord] talents, plus his comprehension of water-fire harmony, such a switch would significantly boost his combat strength and fortify his foundation.
At the same time, building on the harmony of water and fire would help him adapt and prepare for eventually transitioning to the path of the Five Elements.
