I offered sacrifices to the gods

Lin Mo returned to his wooden house and poured out a whole bag of white spirit fruits.

Each fruit is plump and translucent, radiating a white and lustrous sheen; one look and you know it's incredibly delicious.

Receiving a bag of spiritual fruits on their first meeting made Lin Mo feel quite flattered.

"Although the White Spirit Fruit is just a low-grade fruit, it is still quite rare for cultivators in the Spirit Guidance Realm."

"I had only just met that senior brother, and Jin Yang Temple needed me to bleed to feed that dragon blood tree, so there was no reason for them to poison me."

After thinking for a while, he felt that there should be no problem with these spiritual fruits.

However, since he hadn't figured out what the unknown senior brother's purpose was, he hesitated to eat.

As the hunger grew stronger, Lin Mo decided to stop worrying and started eating heartily.

Since things have come to this, let's eat first.

Huff! Huff!

The white spirit fruit wasn't very big; he ate one in just two or three bites.

It has a slightly sour and astringent taste at first, but after chewing a few times, it has a sweet aftertaste.

The slightly sour and sweet taste was very appetizing, and Lin Mo ate four or five white spirit fruits in no time.

Soon, he clearly sensed a surge of pure spiritual energy spreading out from within his body.

Lin Mo quickly sat up cross-legged, formed hand seals, and focused his mind on the circulation of the cultivation technique.

"Dragon Breathing Technique" is a fourth-grade cultivation method, which can be cultivated to the highest level of Shackles Realm.

As the exercise progressed, his breathing gradually entered a special rhythm.

With each rise and fall of his chest, the spiritual energy of heaven and earth around him was drawn into his body.

It circulates through the meridians, completing one cycle after another, finally sinking into the dantian and transforming into pure spiritual energy.

During this process, his physical body will also be nourished by spiritual energy, and over time, the vitality of his body will become more and more vigorous.

Therefore, the first stage on the path of cultivation is called the Spirit Guidance Realm!

After meditating for a long time, Lin Mo slowly opened his eyes and sighed:

"As expected of Jinyang Temple, it truly is a treasure land for cultivation. The spiritual energy here is much richer than that inside the palace."

In addition, what surprised him the most was that the white spirit fruit he had just eaten actually had a certain effect of replenishing blood and invigorating qi.

The essence lost through yesterday's bloodletting has now been partially recovered.

However, Lin Mo did not continue practicing the "Blood Transporting Scripture," but instead closed his eyes to rest until dawn.

With a loud crowing of a rooster, many disciples hurried to the Hall of General Affairs to take on their duties for the day.

"Chen Xiqing, take care of the sacred fields at the foot of the mountain."

"Li Shan, go to the medicinal herb garden and cut away the weeds."

"Zhao Miao, go to the Cold Iron Mine to supervise the mining."

"..."

Every day, Jin Yang Temple assigns many tasks to ordinary disciples, some of which are quite tiring, while others are relatively easy.

If the task is not completed on the same day, different penalties will be imposed depending on the circumstances.

Lin Mo stood in the crowd for quite a while before finally getting his turn to perform his duties.

"Lin Mo, go to the ginkgo forest to get rid of the insects."

"Your disciple obeys!"

Although Jinyang Temple is not large, it controls a lot of resources.

There are many kinds of spiritual resources, such as spiritual gold mines, spiritual fruit orchards, spiritual fields, and spiritual fish. The daily duties of ordinary disciples are basically to take care of these spiritual resources.

And so, Lin Mo received his administrative token and went down the mountain with another disciple who had also been assigned the task of eliminating pests.

"My name is Guo Sheng, Junior Brother Lin. I heard you're a prince of the royal family?"

Accompanying him was a dark-skinned man who looked very honest and kind.

He doesn't look like a cultivator; he looks more like a cowherd from the countryside.

Upon hearing this, Lin Mo's heart stirred slightly. Meeting the other party's curious gaze, he nodded and said, "That's right. My second brother was cultivating in the temple before."

"Unfortunately, my second brother died young. I heard that he accidentally ate a medicinal herb and died from the poison."

"Senior Brother Guo, are you familiar with my imperial brother?"

After he finished speaking, he stared intently at the other person's face, trying to see if there was anything unusual about the person's expression.

However, Guo Sheng shook his head and said, "I only came up the mountain two years ago, so I'm not very familiar with it."

"However, I heard that Senior Brother Lin is highly regarded by the abbot and has even been accepted as his personal disciple."

Upon hearing this, Lin Mo's pupils contracted slightly, but quickly returned to normal.

"Oh, I see. That's a real shame."

A personally taught disciple!

This means that during his years at the Golden Sun Temple, the Second Prince had ignited the flame of life and entered the realm of illumination.

With such cultivation, it's impossible for someone to die suddenly from bleeding once a month.

As for the claim that he died from accidentally ingesting a medicinal herb... that's even more unbelievable, unless the Second Prince ate some kind of highly poisonous medicinal herb.

After reaching the pinnacle of cultivation, the physical body of a Spiritual Guide Realm cultivator undergoes repeated tempering and nourishment by spiritual energy, resulting in a remarkably robust life essence.

At that time, by combining one's own life essence with the spiritual power accumulated in the dantian, one can attempt to ignite the flame of life.

Once successful, one will enter the realm of illumination, and their level of life will undergo a leap.

At this level, their vitality is already quite tenacious, and ordinary poisons are difficult to kill them.

The cause of the Second Prince's death is highly suspicious.

While Lin Mo was lost in thought, the two had already crossed the mountain path and arrived at the Ginkgo Forest.

The area where Jinyang Temple is located is a mountain range, with Jinyang Peak as the center, and the surrounding area is a zone radiated by spiritual veins.

This ginkgo forest is located at the edge of this spiritual vein, with about twenty ginkgo trees planted here and there.

"Junior Brother Lin, this is the Ginkgo Forest. Do you have any insect-repelling techniques?" Guo Sheng asked.

This pest control mission is not about eliminating ordinary insects, but rather about eliminating spiritual insects that have been nourished by spiritual energy for many years.

Some species of insects are extremely harmful. If left unattended for a few days, they will reproduce in large numbers, and a white ginseng tree will be completely eaten up in just a few days.

Therefore, the task of pest control in the orchard is issued every few days.

To kill spirit insects, ordinary methods are of little use; only spells like insect-repelling techniques can achieve remarkable results.

"My knowledge is limited, and I have never learned this insect-repelling technique," Lin Mo said, shaking his head.

Guo Sheng laughed and patted his chest, saying, "It's alright, I'll teach you."

"Today you just need to master this spell as soon as possible, and leave the task of pest control in the orchard to me."

He's such a good person.

I thought that coming to Jinyang Temple would be a miserable experience, but I didn't expect that all the fellow disciples I met would be so friendly.

Lin Mo gratefully clasped his hands in thanks and said, "Then thank you very much, Senior Brother Guo."

"Hey, it's no big deal. I was in the same boat as you."

"Moreover, low-level spells like insect repelling can be learned in the temple's scripture library without even spending contribution points."

As he spoke, Guo Sheng began to teach Lin Mo the art of insect repelling.

He had a good memory; he could clearly memorize the contents of a low-level spell like the insect repelling spell after listening to it a few times.

"Alright, you can practice here from now on. Once you've mastered this technique, you can come back to exterminate the insects."

"Thank you for your trouble, Senior Brother Guo!"

And so, the two of them got busy in the ginkgo grove.

Each tree has many small white fruits, but they are not yet ripe. It will take about two more years for them to fully ripen.

Lin Mo sat upright under a white spirit fruit tree, earnestly practicing his insect-repelling technique.

This low-level spell wasn't particularly difficult; after practicing it seven or eight times, Lin Mo was able to cast it easily.

However, the range is still very small, and the spiritual energy that can be released cannot penetrate into the bark, making it impossible to effectively repel insects.

After practicing for about half an hour, much of the spiritual energy in his dantian was depleted.

"Although these white spirit fruit trees are not of high grade, they must still be a type of spirit wood."

"I just don't know if it can be used to cultivate the 'Spirit Wood Meridian Refining Technique'..."

Lin Mo muttered to himself, glancing at Guo Sheng, who had already run to the other side of the orchard to drive away the spirit insects.

With this in mind, he sat down cross-legged and assumed a posture as if he were recovering his spiritual power.

But in reality, he did not use the "Dragon Breathing Technique" but instead tried to activate the "Spirit Wood Meridian Refining Technique".

As time passed, after about fifteen minutes, he finally successfully activated the secret technique.

With his eyes tightly closed, Lin Mo couldn't see anything at all; all he could see was darkness.

However, after successfully activating this secret technique, he clearly sensed pure wood elemental energy and vigorous vitality.

Although he closed his eyes, the white spirit fruit trees in the forest appeared in his field of vision in a special way.

In the darkness, about twenty green beams of light of varying thicknesses stood.

He could extract a sliver of the nearest green beam of light and absorb it into his body whenever he wanted.

And these are the essence of spirit wood!

Give it a try!

Lin Mo carefully activated his secret technique, separating a wisp of green light from the pillar of light, and then patiently guiding it into his body.

hum!

The green light entered his body, and almost instantly, Lin Mo felt as if every inch of his flesh and blood was cheering and jumping for joy.

He successfully refined a wisp of spirit wood essence. The process was not difficult, and he was even able to easily draw most of the spirit wood's vitality into his body.

However, doing so would cause the white spirit fruit tree to wither and die completely.

Lin Mo didn't dare to take any risks. He quietly extracted a wisp of the spirit wood's vitality and then stopped.

"Too much of a good thing is bad. Every fruit tree in this spiritual fruit garden is an asset of Jinyang Temple. If one of them withers and dies for no reason, it will definitely attract investigation."

If such a thing happens, he will face considerable trouble.

"Not to mention the fruit trees, every single fruit on the trees is recorded, and not a single one can be missing."

Having had a wisp of spiritual wood life extracted, the white spirit fruit tree showed no visible change on the surface, except for a few withered leaves.

After confirming that there were no problems, Lin Mo walked to another white spirit fruit tree and practiced the insect-repelling technique again, thereby consuming his own spiritual power.

During this time, he would occasionally glance at Guo Sheng's situation.

It was such a sudden and unexpected glance that an earthquake struck Lin Mo's pupils.

...