Cultivation begins with harvest.

The streets were bustling with people, and the vendors' stalls displayed a dazzling array of goods, yet they attracted almost no attention.

The Xingfeng Markethouse accommodates too many cultivators, so items that aren't good enough need time to mature before they can be sold.

Chen Guang was different. Even with just two Linquan pumpkins, he quickly attracted passersby, and they chatted happily with him.

"Alright, Brother Chen, it's settled then. I'll come to you next year for the Linquan pumpkins, because there won't be enough for me then," Yang Qingfeng, dressed in a heavy white robe, with a square bun, a rough face but sharp eyes, said loudly.

"That's for sure," Chen Guang said. "Brother Yang, if you ever see me selling Linquan pumpkins on the street again, then I've asked for a beating. Just go ahead and do it."

Yang Qingfeng was a Qi Hall disciple at the sixth level of Qi Refining. He bought a melon from Chen Guang with 94 catties of spirit rice and couldn't help but chat for a few more minutes, which led to the reservation of Linquan pumpkins for next year.

"Alright, here's a deposit of three hundred. I'll reserve it in advance. I trust you, Brother Chen." Yang Qingfeng put away the Linquan pumpkin in his storage bag. "Don't let me see you selling pumpkins at the Yanmian Market again. But it's okay, as long as I have enough. Hahaha, I'm off now."

I bought a total of 394 yuan. The previous melon sold for 90 yuan, and today I made 484 yuan in one go. Among them, Yang Qingfeng made a deposit for ten Linquan pumpkins for next year.

Recently, Xuefeng is going to conduct intensive training for a group of Qi Hall disciples, which has led to a significant increase in the trading of various supplies. This will happen in the next couple of days, and my own batch of melons may not have time to ripen. I can only watch with some regret as prices rise temporarily.

Chen Guang was somewhat interested in the noodle shop that Yang Qingfeng mentioned, but the other party was an impatient person and left in a hurry, disappearing quickly before he could even call out to him.

With a deposit of 300 yuan, the other party reserved 14 Linquan pumpkins at a price of 90 yuan per stalk. Chen Guang could only agree to this one for now. Although he planned to plant one acre of Linquan pumpkins, the specifics would not be determined until later. Agreeing to too many would only make things difficult for himself.

Chen Guangxian first went to the Sutra Repository, where there were dedicated painters, which was much easier than searching on his own.

The "Blood Refining Manual" is a body-refining exercise with many movements and requires a lot of drawing. In the end, the price was settled at 103 yuan, which was slightly beyond Chen Guang's expectations.

After handing over a written document outlining the techniques, Chen Guang left.

It only involves the movements, so even if someone gets hold of it, it would be difficult for them to copy the technique. There are also more crucial details such as the breathing rhythm and the timing of mana coordination when necessary, but these are not written down. So this can hardly be considered a leak.

Chen Guang himself went into the Sutra Repository and spent one hundred silver dollars to purchase the cultivation method of the [Flame Mist Technique] before heading to find the Cao brothers' stall that Senior Brother He from the Earth Hall had mentioned.

After asking around, we finally found the Cao brothers' stall at noon.

The stall had talismans, spiritual artifacts, pills, spiritual plants, and even two white jade-shelled spirit beasts with quill-like shapes called Jade Hedgehogs. Jade Hedgehogs were famous for their defense and ability to burrow and dig underground. As they were called spirit beasts, they were quite intelligent. At the same time, for most cultivators, the main reason for keeping a gentle Jade Hedgehog was that it was cute and easy to raise, and easy to get rid of when they got tired of it.

Behind the stall stood a spirited young man with short hair and a band of cloth wrapped around his head.

There were still quite a few people around the stall.

Chen Guang glanced at it for a moment before asking, "I heard this is the Cao brothers' stall, selling black thistle soil?"

The short-haired youth, Cao Dangxian, looked at Chen Guang and nodded, saying, "I am Cao Dangxian. My brother Cao Ganwei and I run this stall together. We sell not only black thistle soil, but also red sand soil, rotten poison soil, and blue flower soil. We also have quite a few first-grade top-quality spiritual plant seedlings and seeds."

"I only need the black thistle soil. Do you have any seeds of Linquan pumpkin here?" Chen Guang asked.

Cao Dangxian shrugged: "Six or seven out of ten people who buy black thistle soil ask this question. It depends on luck. It's very rare for Linquan pumpkins to naturally produce seeds, and we don't have any. If you want to buy black thistle soil, you have to buy at least 100 catties. It costs 8 yuan per catty, and you have to leave a deposit of 20% of the total price. It will take at least ten days to pick it up."

"Then let's start with 100 jin." Chen Guang readily handed over a deposit of 160 jin.

"Look, this is the account book of Xingfeng Hall. If it's recorded here, it means that Xingfeng Hall is guaranteeing it." Cao Dangxian took out a thick booklet.

Chen Guang was familiar with this. All transactions requiring a deposit needed to be recorded in this special ledger, one copy for each person. If the transaction failed, they could seek compensation from Xingfengtang. Chen Guang had just received such a ledger today and used it to make an agreement with Yang Qingfeng for the sale of Linquan pumpkins. Therefore, he signed two pages with ease. Cao Dang first tore off a page and gave it to Chen Guang before accepting the 160 yuan.

Chen Guang finally had the leisure to carefully examine the items on the stall. He discovered that many of the spiritual plants were the specialty of this stall, which he had not seen in other shops and stalls. However, he only looked at them. He had several hundred coins in his pocket, which was a lot but not a little. He would need to pay another six hundred and four coins just for the Black Thistle Soil, leaving him with only two hundred coins. Naturally, he had no intention of buying anything.

After taking a stroll around, Chen Guang returned to the branch building.

The painter needed three more days to finish the painting, so Chen Guang was naturally anxious to go home and deal with the Dingzhen tea tree.

A potted Dingzhen tea tree was brought to the open ground. A pit was dug in the spirit soil, and some wooden boards were used to make a simple isolation. Normally, when a small amount of other types of spirit soil is placed in a large amount of purple spirit soil, more proper treatment is required. Otherwise, the consumption of a small amount of spirit soil will be very large, and it will be easy to assimilate with the purple spirit soil. Therefore, isolation is necessary.

But Chen Guang didn't have much else, but he had plenty of oily dust in his room. If that wasn't enough, he could just plant a batch of swallowtail grass to make up for it. So he wasn't worried at all and simply isolated the area.

"Let's first clarify the root system of the Dingzhen tea trees."

After carefully loosening the soil in the pot, Chen Guang pulled out the Dingzhen tea tree. He then used a brush and a knife to clean the purple spirit soil from the roots little by little. The purple spirit soil was prone to hardening and drying, and some roots had already been covered with hard clumps of soil. Chen Guang used tools, and for the troublesome ones, he could only use the magic of the Emerald Bee Mantra to solve the problem.

Chen Guang had used this spell quite a few times. The greatest advantage of the Emerald Peak spell was that it was not afraid of injuring spiritual plants. As long as it was not deliberately used to cause large-scale damage, the properties of this spell were enough to heal the wounds of the spiritual plants.

"Actually, Yun Tu is the more troublesome one; he's a clean freak!"

Chen Guang felt helpless.

The land of Xitu is a type of spiritual land that can accommodate all kinds of spiritual plants, so there's nothing wrong with it.

Cloud soil is different. This type of spiritual soil is less resistant to pollution. If a large amount of purple spiritual soil remains, it will seriously affect the quality of the cloud soil.

Spiritual lands are of the same kind, and are more likely to influence and pollute each other.

Chen Guang finally cleaned the roots of the Dingzhen tea tree thoroughly. He took out a sufficient amount of oily cloud soil, which looked like cotton with various seeds covered in a layer of oil, from the Black Void Serpent's belt and filled it into the pit before placing the Dingzhen tea tree seedling in.

Without any effort, the Dingzhen tea tree naturally began to sway in the oily cloud soil. With each sway, it sank a little deeper. After more than ten breaths, the roots of the Dingzhen tea tree were completely submerged in the cloud soil, in a suitable position, and no longer moved.

For no apparent reason, Chen Guang found this scene to be very harmonious.

"But feelings don't count for words; we still need to empathize." Chen Guang stretched out his palm and touched the Dingzhen tea tree. The earth and wood resonated, and the connection was immediately activated.