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

After hesitating for a moment, Lu Qingchen took out two handfuls of the remaining spirit rice, washed it, and cooked it in a pot.

When the spirit rice is put into water, it soon emits a delicate fragrance, much richer than that of ordinary jade spirit rice.

Once cooked, the rice grains are crystal clear, shimmering with a faint fluorescent glow, making them incredibly appetizing just to look at.

He ladled out a bowl and took a bite.

As the spirit rice entered my mouth, a warm spiritual energy dissolved in my abdomen and slowly flowed into my dantian along my meridians.

The spiritual energy was purer than any spiritual food he had ever eaten; it could be absorbed directly without any need for refining.

He closed his eyes and sensed it for a while, and was secretly surprised—the spiritual power contained in this batch of Spirit Rice was at least two or three times that of ordinary Jade Rice, and it was much smoother to absorb, with almost no loss.

He ate two more bowls, and the clear energy in his dantian increased slightly.

Although it wasn't much, you have to understand that this was just from eating a few bowls of rice.

If one eats this kind of spiritual rice every meal, the cumulative benefits to cultivation will be considerable.

Lu Qingchen put down the bowl, a thought popping into his mind—what would be the effect if the spirit rice matured after being infused with spirit energy a second time? Would it have more spiritual power? Or would there be other mysteries?

He thought about it and temporarily suppressed the idea.

I will definitely try it when I have the chance in the future, but not now.

......

Sow the seeds, water them thoroughly, and then all you have to do is wait.

For the first few days, everything was normal.

The seeds sprouted, the tender shoots broke through the soil, and a patch of tender green spread across the field ridges.

Lu Qingchen would go to the fields before dawn every day to check on them, squatting on the ridges and examining each row.

By the tenth day, he began to feel that something was wrong.

The seedlings are still the same seedlings, and they are still green, but their growth is noticeably slower than normal.

It's not the kind of slow growth that comes from "bad planting," but rather like something is dragging and pulling it down, making it impossible for it to grow.

He had planted crops in the sect for a season and knew what the normal growth rate was like.

The seedlings in this field are growing at least 20% slower than normal.

And this is a seed that has been blessed with spiritual energy! How could it possibly grow like this?

Lu Qingchen squatted by the field, frowning, and pulled up a seedling by the roots, examining it carefully in his palm.

The roots are white, but there is no disease, and the leaves are not infested with insects.

Everything is normal, except that it grows slowly.

He closed his eyes and focused his consciousness into the seedling, perceiving it little by little.

Then he discovered the problem.

There should have been a very faint trace of spiritual energy within the seedling—a trace left by the spirit-cultivation technique, weak but pure.

This wisp of spiritual energy should have remained within the seedling to nourish its growth, but now it's all gone, not a trace left.

Lu Qingchen suddenly opened his eyes.

The spiritual energy has completely vanished!

"What exactly is going on?"

He murmured to himself, his gaze fixed on the lush green seedlings.

Could this be the strange thing about this spirit field?

The previous cultivators of spirit plants couldn't cultivate them well, not because the soil was infertile, the water source was bad, or the seeds were faulty—it was because some kind of force in this land absorbed all the spiritual essence from the spirit plants.

Moreover, this phenomenon seems to be very subtle.

If it weren't for the Dao Stele allowing him to clearly perceive the existence of every trace of spiritual energy, he would never have been able to discover it.

The previous plant growers couldn't cultivate this land well, not because they weren't dedicated, but because they simply couldn't see this aspect.

Even when people from the Spirit Plant Hall came to investigate, they couldn't find out the reason.

Spiritual energy is formless and intangible; it cannot be perceived by anything other than a Dao stele of the same level.

Lu Qingchen was unwilling to give up, so he pulled up a few more seedlings and checked them one by one.

The result was the same—all empty.

The lingering spiritual energy left behind by the spirit-invoking technique vanished without a trace.

What exactly is going on with this spirit field? How can it absorb the spiritual energy from the spiritual plants?

As he was thinking, he heard footsteps coming from the other side of the field.

Sun Zhiyuan walked slowly over with his hands behind his back, stood by the field, glanced around the field, and slightly curled the corners of his mouth.

"Manager Lu, the seedlings are growing well," he said.

"Not bad," Lu Qingchen said casually, glancing at him.

Sun Zhiyuan squatted down, picked up a seedling, and examined it.

"It just grows a little slowly," he said casually.

"But that's normal. In this land, it's good enough if the seedlings even sprout. Take it slow, there's no rush."

"Senior Brother Sun is right," Lu Qingchen smiled.

Sun Zhiyuan stood there for a while, and seeing that Lu Qingchen didn't seem inclined to respond, he nodded, put his hands behind his back, and walked away.

After taking a few steps, he turned back and said, "Work hard, or you'll be sent back to the sect if you don't grow it well."

Lu Qingchen watched his retreating figure without replying.

Although Sun Zhiyuan spoke politely, his slightly upturned lips made it sound anything but encouraging.

The last sentence, "send him back to his sect," was what he truly wanted to say.

Lu Qingchen had a general idea of ​​why Sun Zhiyuan was targeting him.

He was one of the five people selected for overseas assignment assessment.

If he is forced out, the vacant spot will naturally fall to those who did not pass the assessment.

Sun Zhiyuan had worked in the manor for several years and must have some connections with the Lingzhi Hall. It wouldn't be difficult for him to run errands or pass on messages for anyone.

I wanted to push him back so that the other person could take his place.

Lu Qingchen squatted down, straightened the seedling, and added some soil.

Will he give Sun Zhiyuan and the person behind him this opportunity?

impossible.

No matter how bad this land is, he will still grow something.

He didn't think much about Sun Zhiyuan's matter.

The most important thing right now is the strangeness of this spirit field.

......

After finishing work in the evening, Lu Qingchen did not go back to the house. Instead, he squatted by the field, selected a few seedlings that were growing well, and injected a trace of his cultivation into the roots of each seedling.

This time he was careful. After injecting the energy, he did not leave. He locked his senses onto one of the seedlings and used the faint connection between the Dao Tablet and the spiritual energy to track its whereabouts.

In less than the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, the spirit was stirred.

They were pulled away from the seedlings by a force and sent deeper into the ground.

That connection was like a thin thread, pulling his senses deeper.

The direction is not directly downwards, but diagonally, towards the northwest.

Lingyun was drawn by that force and headed northwest, leaving the spirit fields and entering the mountains and forests.

The connection between the stele and the road was gradually weakened until it was completely severed.

Lu Qingchen opened his eyes, his palms were sweaty.

Northwest, in the mountains.

He looked up at the dark forest to the northwest, his brows furrowing into a knot.

That thing wasn't in his field, it was in the mountains.

Even from this distance, it could still absorb the spiritual essence of the spiritual plants in his spiritual field. That thing's sensitivity and greed for spiritual energy far exceeded his imagination.

He squatted down and dug into the soil with his fingers, but couldn't dig any deeper than a foot.

The soil was too hard; underneath was compacted clay and gravel.

But he no longer needed to dig deeper—he already knew the general direction of the thing.

It's already dark, and it's not safe to go into the mountains now.

He suppressed the thought, stood up, and turned to walk back.

......