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

After fertilizing, Lu Qingchen sat cross-legged on the edge of the field and began cultivating the "Azure Wood Spirit Condensation Technique".

In the past few days, he has gradually gotten the hang of it. When he releases his spiritual energy, he can clearly feel the traces of vitality emanating from the seedlings of spiritual rice.

Although each strand is as faint as a hair, their sheer number makes up for it. As they accumulate, the process of condensing pure energy becomes much smoother.

He closed his eyes and focused on guiding the life force into his body, and before he knew it, he was immersed in it.

After an unknown amount of time, a voice suddenly sounded in my ear: "Cultivating?"

Lu Qingchen was startled and opened his eyes to find that Old Sun had come down again at some point and was standing next to him, looking down at him.

"Old Sun?" He quickly stood up.

"Sit down," Old Sun waved his hand. "You cultivate the 'Azure Wood Spirit Gathering Technique'?"

"Yes."

"Are you using cultivation techniques to summon life force?"

Lu Qingchen nodded honestly: "This disciple is trying it out, I don't know if it's correct."

After pondering for a moment, Elder Sun nodded: "You have the Azure Wood Spirit Body, so it's correct for you to cultivate the Azure Wood Spirit Nourishing Technique. Your cultivation method is also correct. You must persevere in the future."

Lu Qingchen was overjoyed. Gaining Elder Sun's approval meant that he was on the right track.

At this moment, he noticed that Old Sun was holding a package wrapped in oil paper, which was bulging.

"Old Sun, what is this?"

Old Sun handed him the oil paper package: "This is some fertilizer I mixed myself. Take it back and try it. Use this on your plants that are growing well and see if they can grow even better."

Lu Qingchen took it; it felt heavy in his hand. When he opened it, he saw that it was a grayish-brown powder with a faint herbal fragrance, completely different from the kind sold by the Spirit Plant Hall.

"This... was specially made?" He looked up at Old Sun.

Old Sun didn't answer, but only said, "Dissolve it in water and water it on the roots, not the leaves. Water it once every seven or eight days, don't do it too often."

After saying that, without waiting for Lu Qingchen to say anything, she turned around and walked up the mountain.

Lu Qingchen held the bag of spirit fertilizer, stood there, and suddenly understood something.

Although Old Sun didn't say it, he was indeed concerned about those few spirit rice plants—otherwise, he wouldn't have specially sent a bag of spirit fertilizer.

I took a closer look when they were dealing with the pests last time, and this time they even brought some things over. They don't say anything, but they know exactly what's going on.

He carefully put away the spirit fertilizer, squatted down and looked at the few spirit rice plants. Their leaves were glossy and their stems were thick and strong, much more robust than the ones around them.

Something this eye-catching is hard to ignore.

"Since we can't hide it anymore, let's just plant it properly."

He muttered something to himself, stood up, and patted the mud off his hands.

Since Old Sun didn't press further, it means he's at least not averse to it, so let's just go along with this path.

......

Over the next few days, Lu Qingchen followed Elder Sun's instructions, diluted the spiritual fertilizer with water, and poured it on the roots of the spiritual rice plants that had been infused with spiritual energy.

The results were surprisingly good.

Every time I watered the spirit fertilizer, the next morning when I checked, the leaves of those spirit rice plants were shinier and the stems were thicker than the day before, as if they had absorbed plenty of nutrients and were glowing.

The plants next to it that weren't fertilized were also growing well, but compared to those that were fertilized, the difference was immediately apparent.

"That's incredible..."

Lu Qingchen squatted by the field, touching the leaves of the few spirit rice plants, feeling both surprised and delighted.

As expected of an elder of the Spirit Plant Hall, the spirit fertilizer that Elder Sun casually prepared was more than ten times more effective than the kind sold in the Spirit Plant Hall.

He himself couldn't explain whether it was the effect of the spiritual fertilizer, the effect of the spiritual point, or the combined effect of the two.

Regardless, the growth of these few spirit rice plants has far exceeded his expectations.

Seven days later, Old Sun came to visit again.

Lu Qingchen was weeding in the field when he looked up and saw that Old Sun was standing on the edge of the field, his hands behind his back, his gaze fixed on those few special spirit rice plants, motionless.

"Old Sun?"

Lu Qingchen steeled himself and walked over, standing to the side, not daring to breathe.

Old Sun ignored him, squatted down, picked up a rice stalk of spirit rice, looked at it over and over, then parted the leaves to look at the stem, and finally brought it close to smell it.

His movements were very gentle, as if he were handling something precious.

After watching for a while, he stood up, turned around, and looked at Lu Qingchen seriously for the first time.

The gaze was no longer as casual as before, but carried a scrutinizing quality, as if the person was being re-examined.

"How exactly did you take care of these plants?"

Old Sun asked, his voice neither warm nor cold.

Lu Qingchen quickly calculated in his mind, but tried his best to appear nonchalant: "This disciple doesn't know either. I just put more effort into watering and fertilizing than other places. Perhaps... it's because of your spiritual fertilizer, or maybe I just got lucky?"

"Just lucky?"

Old Sun repeated the three words, his lips twitching slightly, it was hard to tell whether he wanted to laugh or curse.

After a few seconds of silence, he said, "Good luck has to be for a reason."

After saying that, he turned and left.

Lu Qingchen stood there, his heart pounding.

What did Old Sun mean by that? Did he believe it or not? Or was he waiting for Old Sun to speak up first?

He thought about it for a long time, but couldn't come up with a solution.

For a while after that, Old Sun didn't come again.

Lu Qingchen went up the mountain twice to inquire about the spirit fertilizer and to see if Elder Sun had any new instructions.

The herb garden was empty, and the door to the thatched shed was locked. No one knew where Old Sun had gone.

He didn't pay much attention—a senior like Elder Sun had his own things to do and couldn't possibly wait on this hilltop every day for him to come and ask for advice.

......

That evening, the cafeteria was steaming, and as usual, several people sat together to eat.

Spirit chicken soup, braised spirit pork, stir-fried spirit vegetables, plus a large bowl of jade spirit rice. Lu Qingchen buried his head and ate a few mouthfuls before noticing that the atmosphere today was more serious than usual.

"I've decided to make a decision."

Li Si put down his chopsticks, his tone more serious than usual, "I'm going to delve deeper into the array formation."

"Have you thought it through?" Zhao Ming asked.

"I've made up my mind."

Li Si nodded. "Although the art of array formation is difficult and requires a large initial investment, the more you learn, the more interesting it becomes. Moreover, array formation masters are sought after everywhere and never have to worry about making a living."

Qian Wanliang chimed in from the side, "Aren't you afraid that you'll be drawing array diagrams every day until your hands cramp up?"

Li Si glanced at him: "Aren't you afraid your hands will cramp up from drawing talismans every day?"

The two looked at each other and then remained silent.

Wang Ming, holding his bowl, ate a few mouthfuls of rice and then spoke up: "I've also made up my mind on this side... to forge weapons."

"Are you really not going to try alchemy anymore?" Li Si asked.

Wang Ming shook his head and gave a wry smile: "I've tried for a month, ruined more than a dozen batches, and haven't even gotten close to getting started."

"After switching to weapon crafting, although I wasted a lot of materials, I could at least feel myself improving. My hands were shaking when I first made a weapon blank."

He paused, as if savoring that moment, "That feeling, I've never had before when refining pills."

"Then do a good job," Lu Qingchen said.

Wang Ming nodded and didn't say anything more.

The group then looked at Lu Qingchen.

"And you?" Li Si asked, "How's the spiritual plant business?"