Cultivation: Beginning with the Heart Reflecting Heaven and Earth

As for Meng Lingjun, whom they had met on the flying boat, she showed no intention of working. She simply found a shady spot on the beach to rest, with some spiritual fruits beside her, treating it as scenery while watching the others work.

Lu Qian glanced at it briefly before turning his attention away. He stepped onto the mudflat and dug through the silt with his hands. Before long, he pulled out a spirit shell with mud spots on its surface and a snow-white, jade-like shell with mountain-ridge-like patterns on it. It looked quite beautiful.

These spirit shells usually grow on the seabed and are bound by arrays. When it's time to harvest them, they are brought to the mudflats.

Because forcibly harvesting pearls would kill these spirit shells, they chose to hire a large number of outer disciples of the Canghai Sect to harvest pearls by hand.

"These spirit shells also cultivate regularly, absorbing and exhaling spiritual energy to condense spirit pearls within their bodies. When it's time to harvest, the large net sweeps across, and their spirit pearls disappear."

Lu Qian couldn't help but laugh. He took out his jade staff, channeled his true energy, and touched the spirit shell. The shell opened, revealing a spirit pearl inside that was no bigger than a grain of sand.

"Too small, does not meet the collection standards."

Lu Qian then searched for several more spirit shells, but none of them were up to standard, which frustrated him. "It can't be just a drop in the ocean, can it? Is it really this difficult to collect a spirit pearl?"

On the fifth one, Lu Qian finally opened the shop. In the middle of the snow-white shell meat, there was another smooth and shiny spirit pearl the size of a fingertip, full of spiritual energy, which definitely met the collection standards.

He touched it with the jade rod, and the clam struggled a few times before the spirit pearl finally fell off and landed in his palm.

There were also special jars for storing spirit beads, about the size of a palm. Lu Qian quickly put the spirit beads into them. "When I saw the jar, I should have realized that spirit beads are not so easy to collect, otherwise they would not have used such a small jar."

Most of the people who came worked very diligently, and it seemed that they cherished this opportunity. Occasionally, someone would meditate, but they would quickly finish their practice and immediately start working again.

However, there are also those who are cunning and deceitful. When a group of them chat together, the person in charge turns a blind eye and a deaf ear.

Lu Qian firmly remembered what Zhao Qi told him: even if he couldn't see or hear anything, he didn't try to slack off or rest; there was no need for that.

Moreover, he is well aware that what others can do, you may not be able to do, because you don't know what their background is, and you can't assume that everyone is the same.

During the day, everything was normal, and Lu Qian didn't notice anything too strange. But at night, things started to get suspicious. People would leave the mudflats from time to time, saying they needed to use the restroom. And it wasn't just one or two people leaving; even a fool could see that something was up.

However, Mo, the senior brother who led Lu Qian's team, also turned a blind eye to these obvious abnormal behaviors, seemingly a master of feigning ignorance.

But then again, there are people in charge here. Don't they have eyes and can't see these things? Why do they have to wait for others to speak up?

Therefore, the situation here is very complicated, and Lu Qian has no intention of finding out the inside story. He just wants to do his job honestly, and the rest is none of his business.

The three-day pearl-harvesting trip ended without much fanfare. During the trip, Lu Qian even tried cultivating, and sure enough, spiritual energy surged in, quite unlike usual.

If he continues to cultivate on the spiritual veins, and with ample elixirs, Lu Qian is confident that he can reach the third level of Qi Refining within two months. If he relies solely on his own slow and steady progress, it will take more than three months.

The main reason is that Lu Qian usually has to do missions, which wastes too much time, leaving him with not much time for actual cultivation.

"These are the spirit pearls that were left over; you may take one or two."

As soon as the manager finished speaking, a large group of people rushed over, but Lu Qian remained where he was. Since he already knew in advance that there might be some twists and turns in this matter, it was best not to do anything.

Anyway, Zhao Qi has already paid him the reward he was entitled to, so there's no need to go through the trouble of doing it again.

In three days, Lu Qian had collected so many spirit pearls that he hadn't even filled half of the jar.

There seem to be many spirit shells, but few are actually available for collecting spirit pearls. With several hundred more people arriving, it's really not going to be easy to fill the jars.

Meng Lingjun was another one who didn't rush forward to compete for the spirit pearls. She held several spirit pearls the size of pigeon eggs in her hand, and seemed somewhat dissatisfied and unhappy.

"Why don't you go and get some spirit orbs?"

Meng Lingjun seemed to remember Lu Qian and walked over from the beach. "Don't you think they're good enough? Do you want any of my spirit pearls?"

She opened her fair palm, on which several pigeon-egg-sized spirit beads glittered. These were perfectly capable of being used as second-tier spirit materials, yet she treated them as trivial trinkets that could be given away casually.

Lu Qian had no doubt that as long as he asked, the other party would definitely give it to him. People of this status, if not always keeping their word, would at least not take back what they had just said.

However, Lu Qian also noticed that as Meng Lingjun came to his side, many eyes were now on him, so he politely declined, saying, "Thank you for your kindness, Senior Sister, but I don't really need it."

Meng Lingjun is an inner disciple, so it is only natural for Lu Qian to call her senior sister, even though Meng Lingjun doesn't look as old as him.

In the world of cultivation, status is not determined by age.

"So you don't like it either. I knew it wasn't that I was too picky."

After muttering a few words, Meng Lingjun stormed off to confront the manager, demanding, "Have you been hiding the good stuff?"

Before Lu Qian could look away, he suddenly felt a cold gaze. He looked up and saw an inner disciple at the mid-stage of Qi Refining. He didn't know which peak the disciple belonged to, but for the time being, he couldn't afford to offend him, so he could only pretend not to see him.

"Indeed, wherever there are people, there is a world of intrigue and conflict."

He was also a little helpless; he hadn't done anything unnecessary, yet trouble still befell him.

"Don't worry about it. Even if he's an inner disciple, he can't control you. Fighting is not allowed within the sect."

Senior Brother Mo approached unnoticed, his voice low and deep, "However, if you continue to get closer to that girl, it's hard to say what might happen."

Lu Qian quickly shook his head, "Thank you for reminding me, Senior Brother! How could I do such a superfluous thing? This is completely an undeserved disaster!"

Senior Brother Mo glanced at him. "Since you're already standing here, what's the point of talking about an undeserved disaster?"

That's true.

Pearl harvesting is a lucrative job, but Lu Qian, an outer disciple with no background and low cultivation level, happened to be here.

Even without the Meng Lingjun incident, it's likely that some people would still dislike him and would take the opportunity to kick him while he's down.

However, the others ignored Lu Qian's intentions, or rather, they didn't take him seriously. But when Meng Lingjun approached him, she naturally attracted the attention of the others.

Soon, a group of people boarded the flying boat they had come from and headed back towards the Canghai Sect. However, this time they did not go directly to the mission hall, but instead landed in an unfamiliar place.

"They've arrived!"

Zhao Qi had given him a heads-up beforehand, so Lu Qian wasn't surprised at all. He had taken this into consideration when he didn't take the spirit pearl.