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

As the two were talking, the door of the Array Dao Hall suddenly opened from the inside.

A young disciple in a blue robe came out. He had a fair complexion and a hint of arrogance between his brows. When he saw Li Si sitting on the steps, he paused and slightly curled the corners of his mouth.

"Li Si, still sitting at the door? Have you finished drawing the battle formation?"

His voice wasn't loud, but there was an indescribable air of disdain in his tone.

Li Si's smile faded slightly. He stood up, dusted off his pants, and said, "I'm done drawing. No need for Senior Brother Song to worry about it."

The disciple, referred to as Senior Brother Song, glanced at Li Si, then at Lu Qingchen, the smile on his lips remaining unchanged.

His gaze lingered for a moment on Lu Qingchen's mud-stained clothes and shoes, and he let out a faint chuckle.

"People from the peasantry are indeed people from the peasantry; they can certainly blend together."

After saying that, he walked away with his hands behind his back.

After taking a few steps, he left without turning his head and said, "It's good that the drawing is finished. Let's hope there are no more problems later."

Li Si stood on the steps, watching his back without saying a word, but Lu Qingchen noticed that his fingers, which were gripping the array diagram, were turning white at the knuckles.

"Who is this person?" Lu Qingchen asked.

Li Si was silent for a while, then shook his head: "Song Wenjin from the Array Dao Hall, he entered several years earlier than us, has good spiritual roots and high cultivation, and has always disliked me."

He paused, switched the array diagram in his hand, and said in a flat tone, "I've dragged you into this."

Lu Qingchen waved his hand: "What's with all this talk about being implicated? I don't work with him, so let him say whatever he wants."

He glanced at Li Si, hesitated for a moment, and then asked, "Why does he dislike you?"

Li Si remained silent for a while, then shook his head and said nothing more.

Seeing this, Lu Qingchen didn't press the matter further.

Everyone has their own difficulties. His difficulties lie in Qingmu Manor, while Li Si's difficulties lie in the Array Dao Hall. No one has it easier than the other.

The two chatted for a few more minutes, and Wang Ming, who had received the news, also rushed over.

He was in a worse state than Li Si; his hands were covered in burn scars, his clothes were covered in rust and charcoal ash, and he looked ashen, like he had crawled out of a stove.

"Qi Refinement Level Two?" Wang Ming's eyes widened. "You kid, you're fast?"

"Farming in Qingmu Village means dealing with spiritual plants every day. The more vitality you absorb from the plants, the faster your cultivation will naturally be."

Lu Qingchen smiled.

Wang Ming opened his mouth as if to say something, but then swallowed it back.

He looked at his scarred hands, gave a wry smile, and didn't ask any more questions.

The three of them sat on the steps at the entrance of the Array Dao Hall for a while and chatted about their recent situations.

I don't know how much time passed.

"Alright, stop sitting there."

Lu Qingchen stood up, dusted off his pants, and said, "I'm going to check on Senior Sister Shen Yao. You all keep going."

"Shen Yao?" Wang Ming winked. "Are you close to her?"

"They're all from the Spirit Plant Hall," Lu Qingchen said. "She's helped me a lot."

Li Si and Wang Ming exchanged a glance and smiled knowingly, but neither of them said anything more.

Lu Qingchen cupped his hands in greeting, then turned and left.

Shen Yao's spiritual field is located on the north side of Cuiping Peak. Lu Qingchen followed the path he had taken last time, passed through a bamboo forest, and saw her in the distance.

She was squatting by the field, holding a medicinal herb in her hands, looking closely at something, her brows slightly furrowed.

Hearing footsteps, she looked up and saw Lu Qingchen. Her brows relaxed and the corners of her mouth curled up slightly.

"Junior Brother Lu? What brings you here?"

"I went back to the sect to take care of some business, and I thought I'd drop by to see my senior sister."

Shen Yao looked him up and down, a slight smile playing on her lips: "You've reached the second level of Qi Refining? Congratulations."

"Did you figure it out, Senior Sister?" Lu Qingchen asked deliberately.

"The aura emanating from you is much stronger than when we last met."

Shen Yao said, "A low-grade five-elemental root, reaching the second level of Qi Refining in just over five months, that's not easy, congratulations."

"Thank you, Senior Sister." Lu Qingchen cupped her hands in thanks.

Shen Yao wiped the sweat from her forehead and pointed to a big tree by the field: "Want to sit for a while? I'm almost done here."

The two sat under the shade of a tree, and Shen Yao poured him a bowl of cool tea.

The tea was brewed with medicinal herbs, and it had a faint, refreshing fragrance. It felt cool and refreshing in the throat when you drank it.

Lu Qingchen sipped his tea, his gaze inadvertently sweeping over Shen Yao's spiritual field.

This field was much larger than when he last came, and there were more kinds of spiritual plants, such as Jade Spirit Rice, Azure Spirit Grass, Crimson Fruit, and Jade Spirit Ginseng, all neatly arranged in rows.

However, in the northeast corner of the field, there is an area isolated by an array, with several wooden stakes forming a circle, engraved with runes, and a faint light curtain can be vaguely seen.

"Senior sister, what's that over there?" Lu Qingchen pointed to the area surrounded by the formation.

Shen Yao followed his finger and smiled, "Those are some special spiritual plants that I cultivate. They need protection, so I isolated them with an array."

"A special spiritual plant?"

"Yeah, I just figured it out myself." Shen Yao stood up. "Want to go inside and take a look?"

Lu Qingchen was taken aback for a moment: "Is that alright?"

"Why not?"

Shen Yao had already walked over, taken a token from her waist, and stuck it onto the light screen.

A crack appeared in the light barrier, and she slipped inside, turning back to wave at him, "Come in."

Lu Qingchen followed behind her, passing through the light curtain.

Inside the formation was a small plot of land, about half an acre, planted with a dozen or so spiritual plants whose names he didn't know.

Some leaves are golden, some stems are purple, and some flower buds are ridiculously large, bigger than a fist.

These spiritual plants weren't growing very well; some were even drooping. But you could tell that Shen Yao had put a lot of effort into them.

"This is a variety that I bred myself through hybridization."

Shen Yao squatted down and pointed to a spiritual plant with golden leaves, saying, "It's a hybrid of Jade Spirit Rice and Crimson Fruit. We've tried several generations to make it have both the yield of spiritual rice and the medicinal properties of Crimson Fruit, but it's still unstable."

She then pointed to another spiritual plant with purple stems next to her: "This one was hybridized with the jade spirit ginseng using the spiritual rice plant you gave me as the mother plant."

"Your spirit rice has a spiritual glow on its leaves, and its spiritual energy is much richer than that of ordinary spirit rice. I'll try using it as a seed to see if I can pass on that characteristic."

She sighed, "It has some effect, but it's not stable yet. Only three plants in this generation have inherited that characteristic."

Lu Qingchen squatted down and carefully examined the spiritual plant with its purple stem.

Sure enough, there was a very faint spiritual light on the edge of the leaf, which was very similar to the batch of spiritual rice he had grown on Panlong Peak, but much fainter, and could not be seen at all without careful observation.

"My senior sister put in a lot of effort," he said.

"I'm not afraid of putting in the effort; what I'm afraid of is getting no results."

Shen Yao stood up. "That's how farming is. You have to try it year after year. You can't rush it."

"Senior sister, these spiritual plants... are surrounded by an array because you're afraid they'll be stolen?"

Lu Qingchen asked.