Chapter 55: Stealing Spirits and Grinding Skills

On a dark, windy night, it is time to forage, identify, and seek spirits.

While the other corpse-buriers were fast asleep due to the day's exhaustion, Du En was full of energy, moving quietly through the darkness to take action.

He had actually been planning for tonight's affair for a long time, so under the cover of night, he quickly approached a pre-selected destination.

He was not in a rush to run straight in, as he still wanted to see if he could take the opportunity to grind his "Spirit Seeking" count.

Looking up, a spirit herb garden, reclaimed and cultivated within the mountain forest, sat quietly at the edge of his vision.

At this moment, the herb garden was empty, and there were no strict protective measures in place; it was essentially wide open.

However, under normal circumstances, no one would actually dare to come over and steal.

Chatting and passing the time with Ren Li previously had provided him with a wealth of fragmented knowledge on the subject.

Yet, Du En did not become greedy and over-forage because of this.

He pulled out his cooking utensils and began his first attempt at cooking graded spirit items.

Going to those deep mountains and old forests, venturing into treacherous terrain to seek spirits and forage, didn't guarantee a harvest; how could that compare to this kind of clustered, fertile plantation?

"I can only grind it to 'Initial Mastery'..."

Du En thought to himself as he left.

"Working in the herb garden is a truly cushy job. As long as you understand the medicinal properties and your movements are skilled enough, you can steal while working and pass it off as natural loss during cultivation, which won't arouse any suspicion at all."

Even these overseers—who could say they hadn't dipped their hands in?

Du En saw a type of seed-bearing spirit herb, went to its side to observe it, and quickly captured its signature feature: the upper leaf stalk had a white leaf sheath, thus identifying this spirit herb.

The skill of Spirit Seeking, from the very beginning, takes spirited objects as its target, which is significantly different from the previous two items; therefore, to grind it to "Well-Versed," one needs at least a second-tier target.

And once discovered, being caught is basically just a matter of time.

For example, right now, Du En was about to secretly reach out his own hand toward this herb garden.

Finding a stealable and usable spirit herb right off the bat—tonight's luck was quite good.

"As expected, I can grind the count for Spirit Seeking here."

For his own good, and it wouldn't affect others either.

For spirit herbs that haven't been processed, due to the differences in medicinal properties, this approach—at best—is a huge waste, as one cannot absorb the full medicinal power; at worst, it results in injuring or killing oneself from consumption.

The result was that the pot broke, and the first attempt failed.

Du En continued his foraging and identification; after plucking the White Sheath, he went to find other spirit herbs with warm-yang properties to pair with it. Through small actions like taking seeds and digging up roots, he quickly stole a small bag.

During this process, relying on his "Well-Versed" foraging and identification skills, he keenly discovered that the spirit herbs in this garden actually showed signs of being stolen to a certain degree.

He moved again, advancing stealthily in the darkness, and soon arrived inside the herb garden without anyone knowing.

Then, Du En began to grind his foraging and identification count.

This was a matter of course; he was not surprised.

However, it wasn't outside theft like his, but rather left behind by internal thieves.

After quietly leaving the herb garden, he didn't rush back, but instead found a place and began to move in and out, grinding his proficiency in Spirit Seeking.

First-tier, high-grade!

"The consumption of magic power is a bit high."

Count plus one!

Because although the protection wasn't strict, it still existed; without certain methods, it would be very easy to be detected.

"However, considering the special nature of culinary cooking, first-tier ingredients and medicinal materials can actually produce second-tier finished products, but this way, the quantity and quality of the main and auxiliary ingredients cannot be lacking..."

Ridge by ridge, plot by plot, various first-tier spirit herbs were neatly planted on the reclaimed land.

After all, he was already at the "Well-Versed" stage, so when he tried again, although the pot broke this time as well, this dish of Herb-Braised Tiger Meat did not fail.

【Hundred Arts: Foraging and Identification (Well-Versed 0/50), Culinary Cooking (Well-Versed 0/50), Spirit Seeking (Initial Mastery 0/20)】

He could only use magic power to pressurize and accelerate combustion, providing heat in this inefficient manner.

Because he couldn't waste that portion of Herb-Braised Tiger Meat's culinary power.

The quantity didn't need to be too much; after all, it wasn't alchemy, just auxiliary materials for culinary cooking.

Initial Practice → Initial Mastery

The next day, he got up a bit late, or rather, he came out late.

Facts proved that Ren Li was not wrong; ordinary pots, even the extra-thick ones bought, were completely unsuitable, and ordinary fire couldn't even heat these spirit ingredient materials.

Traveling under the stars and moon, he headed back to the small courtyard.

【Foraging and Identification (Well-Versed 0/50)】

However, there was no need to feel too regretful, because a second-tier herb garden would certainly not be as "leaky" in its defenses as these numerous, scattered, ordinary herb gardens.

"I suppose other Hundred Arts, like alchemy or artifact refining, which start with first-tier objects as targets, are in the same situation."

Which is to say, he wasn't the only one secretly reaching out his hand.

The Spirit Seeking verification was complete; that can be set aside for now.

"Of course, this is just the general situation; it's not to say there are no exceptions..."

"... Got it, this spirit herb, White Sheath?"

Du En thought this when he withdrew his gaze.

Except for culinary cooking, which was limited to once a day for various reasons, the other two could easily be ground to their maximum counts.

At the same time, because low-level cultivators generally lacked various cultivation knowledge, and private circulation channels for spirit herbs were basically non-existent, even if one could sneak in and steal spirit herbs without being discovered from start to finish, the result was that they could only swallow them directly.

"Sure enough, as long as you choose the right place, mastering this craft is easy."

The pity is that outside this border city, there are no herb gardens planted with second-tier spirit herbs, so he cannot continue to grind.

"Warm nature, hmm, bitter taste, the effect is decent, first-tier mid-grade, it can match the demon tiger meat."

Du En silently circulated his power, sensing the resonance, discerning with his eyes, to find the traces of the spirit item.

In any case, when it comes down to it, what the overseers want are the overall targets; as long as the final annual harvest meets the standard, there won't be any problems.

He intended to carry out a roving style of theft, moving and rotating from one medicinal garden to another, to minimize the probability of the spiritual herb thefts being discovered as much as possible.

One must not seek the distant while ignoring the near!

And with Du En's current mastery of the Breath-Concealing Technique, there was no need to fear being discovered; furthermore, with his current consummate skill in the Yellow Earth Art, he could completely and easily detect and avoid the defensive measures here.

A plan gradually took shape, waiting only for the time to be implemented.

However, although the overall structure was tight and orderly, encompassing the various spiritual herbs in the entire medicinal garden, it could only be called a first-tier arrangement and could not reach the second tier.

Because these two types of spiritual herbs, after being stolen, would not be easily detected, and at the same time, it would be convenient to hide and use them afterward.

Rushing toward his face was the fragrance of various spiritual herbs.

There was no need to expend any effort at all; it was very easy to discover the traces of spiritual objects in this kind of place.

His idea was very simple.

Like a lit light bulb, there was no need to take a step closer; it could already be considered found.

Du En was not discouraged, only silently absorbing experience.

Du En muttered to himself, because time waits for no one, he didn't tidy up much, carried the tiger meat with its restrained fragrance, returned to his room, and began to race against time.

Herb appraisal, spirit seeking, and culinary cooking—for the proficiency of these skills, one only needed to complete the process once to accumulate the count.

In this way, first-tier spiritual objects and spiritual meals could no longer provide proficiency accumulation, and the advancement of the three skills had to temporarily come to an end.

As well as the gathering vortex of the spiritual Qi flow, which, although appearing slow and sluggish, was actually quite massive and shrouded the sky above the entire medicinal garden!

It was obvious that this was an artificially arranged Spirit-Gathering Guidance, which was very well-suited to the patterns of various spiritual herbs absorbing spiritual Qi in its setup.

Everything is ready, it is time to act!

"..."

This spirit seeking, having glimpsed the path, allowed Du En to vaguely sense that the surrounding earth energy was flowing in an orderly fashion toward the medicinal garden.

Du En's goal was quite clear: preferably seed-type spiritual herbs, and secondarily root-type spiritual herbs.

For example, right now, facing several long ridges and hundreds of White Sheath Plants, and facing those heavy, seed-bearing ears, Du En selected one from each plant to pick and appraise; after busying himself for a while like this, the proficiency for "First Glimpse of the Path" was maxed out.

As for the others, smelling the burnt odor permeating the air and looking at the shattered pot, no one said anything about it; they all intentionally ignored it, appearing quite like they were guessing and following the intentions of their superiors.

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(End of this chapter)