After binding with a genius, I became an immortal by exploiting loopholes.

Meanwhile, in a quiet room deep within Mingfa Peak, Chu Yunfeng slowly finished his practice and opened his eyes.

His dantian was brimming with spiritual energy, and his aura was even stronger than yesterday—he had finally broken through to the second level of Qi Refining.

But there wasn't much joy on his face; instead, he frowned slightly.

He looked inward at his dantian, feeling the speed of the spiritual energy flow, and silently recalled the time it took to go from the first level of Qi Refining to the second level.

It seems... to be a bit slower than expected.

It wasn't much slower, just a tiny bit slower.

He couldn't quite put his finger on what was wrong, but he felt that his cultivation efficiency wasn't as good as before.

Even though the cultivation method remained the same, the spiritual energy was not reduced, and the daily cultivation time was even half an hour longer than before, the progress was only barely keeping up with expectations.

"Could it be because I've been too tired lately?" he muttered to himself, shaking his head.

This had a negligible impact, far from affecting his cultivation, but it made him feel slightly uncomfortable.

He stood up, walked to the window, looked at Mingfa Peak in the morning light, took a deep breath, and suppressed that trace of doubt.

In any case, we've reached the second level of Qi Refining; the next step is the third level.

In the sect's new talent assessment six months later, he wanted to get a good ranking so that everyone would know that among this batch of disciples of Qingxuan Sect, he, Chu Yunfeng, was the strongest.

He withdrew his gaze, sat down cross-legged again, closed his eyes, concentrated, and continued his cultivation.

......

Lu Qingchen was naturally unaware of these things.

The next day at Chenshi (7-9 AM), the first thing Lu Qingchen did after waking up was to sink into his sea of ​​consciousness.

Chu Yunfeng's illusory figure still sat cross-legged on one side of the monument, his spiritual light even more intense than yesterday.

The luminous pearl in my dantian, though only one night had passed, was noticeably larger than it had been the day before.

After breaking through to the second level of Qi Refining, Chu Yunfeng gained more cultivation points every day, and naturally, he also gained more transferred cultivation points.

Lu Qingchen stared at the luminous orb for a few moments, secretly making plans in his mind.

At this rate, it won't be long before I accumulate enough for one round of spirit root tempering.

He regained his composure, did not rush to absorb the nutrients, got up, dressed, and went out.

Today marks the second month after the 100-day assessment, and it's also the day for the second monthly salary to be paid.

There was a long queue in front of the warehouse. When it was Lu Qingchen's turn, he received two low-grade spirit stones.

With the remaining spirit beads from last month, my pockets are finally not so poor anymore.

After leaving the warehouse, he did not go directly to Panlong Peak, but instead went to the Spirit Plant Hall.

He has been diligently tending to the sacred rice fields these days, but recently he has noticed that the growth of the sacred rice has slowed down.

He studied it for several days and read through "General Theory of Spiritual Plants" several times, and finally concluded that the spiritual field was not fertile enough.

That land had been abandoned for several years, and the nutrients in the soil had long been depleted by weeds.

Although he turned the soil and applied some basic fertilizer, the growth of the rice consumed too much nutrients, and the fertilizer could not keep up, so its growth naturally slowed down.

Inside the Spirit Plant Hall, Zhou Ping was organizing the seed booklets on the counter.

Seeing Lu Qingchen enter, she looked up and asked, "You're here? How's the spirit rice growing?"

"It's alright, but the fertility isn't quite enough."

Lu Qingchen walked over and asked, "Senior brother, does the Spirit Plant Hall sell fertilizer suitable for Jade Spirit Rice?"

"Of course."

Zhou Ping pulled out a booklet from under the counter, turned to a certain page, and said, "The Spirit Plant Hall provides these themselves. They're not expensive. A few dozen spirit pearls will be enough for your two acres of land."

He pointed to the items in the booklet for Lu Qingchen to see—there were root-promoting, stem-strengthening, leaf-promoting, and general-purpose fertilizers.

Lu Qingchen thought for a moment, then bought a bag of general-purpose fertilizer, which cost him forty spirit pearls.

"Thanks, senior brother."

He put away the fertilizer and was about to leave when he caught a glimpse of someone walking in through the door.

Dressed in white like snow, with a cool and aloof demeanor—it was Su Qingxue.

Lu Qingchen was stunned for a moment.

These past few days, Li Si and the others have been discussing whether Su Qingxue should choose to study spiritual plants, and they never expected to run into her at the Spiritual Plant Hall today.

"Senior Sister Su."

He nodded slightly and greeted them.

Su Qingxue glanced at him, seemingly not recognizing him, but still politely returned a smile before walking past him and heading deeper into the Spirit Plant Hall.

Lu Qingchen watched her figure disappear behind the bookshelf, intending to leave immediately.

He hesitated for a moment, then turned to Zhou Ping and asked in a low voice, "Senior brother, is Su Qingxue... choosing to cultivate spiritual plants?"

Zhou Ping chuckled and shook his head: "How could that be? How could such a prodigy become a spirit plant grower? Working under the sun all day, could she really stand it?"

"Then what is she doing at the Spirit Plant Hall?"

Zhou Ping glanced around and, seeing that no one was around, lowered his voice and explained, "This Su Qingxue will be a Spirit Patrol Envoy in the future."

"The Spirit Patrol Envoy is responsible for inspecting the spirit fields and spirit planting sites under the sect's jurisdiction, supervising the work of the spirit planters, and handling disputes and issues related to spirit planting."

"It requires solid knowledge of spiritual plants, but you don't need to farm them yourself. It's considered an 'official' position within the Spiritual Plant Peak system, which is much higher in status than us ordinary spiritual plant farmers."

He paused, then said, "She's only here at the Spirit Plant Hall to learn about spirit plants in advance so she can do the work of a spirit patrol envoy in the future. It's not the same as you people who have to go to the fields to farm."

Lu Qingchen suddenly realized, and couldn't help but feel a sense of感慨 (gǎnkǎi, a complex emotion encompassing both emotion and reflection).

The prodigy truly lives up to his reputation!

While they were still worrying about passing the Spirit Plant Hall's assessment, others were already heading straight for the position of Spirit Patrol Envoy.

Different starting points lead to different paths.

"Alright, stop thinking about it so much."

Zhou Ping patted him on the shoulder, "With Elder Sun's guidance, work hard. You might have a chance in the future. Spirit Patrol Envoys aren't born that way; they have to be selected from among the Spirit Plant Farmers, don't they?"

Lu Qingchen smiled and said, "Senior brother is right."

He carried the fertilizer out of the Spirit Plant Hall and headed towards Panlong Peak.

......

Lu Qingchen carried the fertilizer he had just bought from the Spirit Plant Hall and walked slowly toward Panlong Peak.

I bought the fertilizer today; the price wasn't too expensive, and it should last me a while.

As for meeting Su Qingxue at the Spirit Plant Hall earlier, he didn't take it to heart—she was a high-ranking prodigy, while he was just a mixed-root cultivator worrying about the Spirit Plant Hall's assessment. They were completely unrelated, so there was no need to overthink it.

Upon arriving at Lingtian, he placed the fertilizer on the ridge and rolled up his sleeves, ready to get to work.

Just as he squatted down, his gaze swept over the leaves of a spirit rice plant, and he suddenly froze.

Several small, grayish-brown insects, about the size of a grain of rice, were crawling on the underside of the leaves. They were so small that they were almost invisible unless you looked closely.

He took a closer look and his heart skipped a beat—this was no ordinary insect!

He quickly opened the book "Basic Introduction to Spiritual Plants" that he carried with him and identified the plants by comparing them with the diagrams.

After flipping through several pages, I finally found it: "Spirit-eating aphids suck the sap of spirit plants and reproduce extremely quickly. If not dealt with in time, they can lead to a reduction in the production of spirit plants."

"Production cuts?"

Lu Qingchen frowned and quickly checked carefully along the ridge of the field.