Chapter 11: Plan

"Exactly."

"The Beast Fang Rice hasn't matured yet, but it's already been successfully planted—it's only a matter of time." Qin Ming said calmly.

A hint of delight appeared on Fellow Daoist Ruan's face.

"Since there's such a thing as a bonus, then naturally we can trade."

"However, ten jin is a bit too few—I need at least twenty jin of Beast Fang Rice." Fellow Daoist Ruan deliberated briefly and named his price.

Hearing this, Qin Ming furrowed his brow, turned, and walked away.

Is this fellow trying to take advantage of a newcomer? Twenty jin of Beast Fang Rice?

That's outright robbery.

One must remember that in the past, the price of Beast Fang Rice was already ten times that of ordinary Golden Spirit Rice.

Now, all sorts of cultivation resources in the Qingyang Market Town are skyrocketing.

At present, the price of Beast Fang Rice is at least five spirit stones per jin and upward.

From his introduction, the "Hundred Treasures Glazed Scripture" sounds quite decent at first hearing, but after all, no one has ever managed to cultivate it successfully.

Nobody knows whether the original founder of this art had exaggerated it to the skies.

Moreover, once one begins cultivating it, it means continuously burning through spirit stones.

Even after several generations of the Ruan family painstakingly exploring it, their highest achievement was only reaching the third layer. Although Qin Ming was somewhat interested in this art, Fellow Daoist Ruan's asking price had already exceeded his expected price range.

Seeing Qin Ming turn and leave without a word of protest, Fellow Daoist Ruan—

—immediately grew anxious, secretly regretting that he shouldn't have quoted such a high price all at once.

"Hey, hey, hey, Fellow Daoist Qin, we can negotiate! Don't be in such a rush to leave, please stay!" Fellow Daoist Ruan hurriedly stopped him.

"Then I'll take a step back—how about adding another fifteen jin of Beast Spirit Rice?"

Hearing this, Qin Ming said nothing, simply watching the other party in silence.

Seeing Qin Ming's stance—looking utterly unmoved—Fellow Daoist Ruan was also helpless.

'These young people nowadays are so impetuous.'

He knew this was already Qin Ming's absolute bottom line.

Fellow Daoist Ruan sighed deeply, hesitated for a long moment, and murmured softly: "Sigh, forget it. My Ruan family has guarded this art for so long, yet no one has been able to cultivate anything noteworthy from it."

"Perhaps our Ruan family simply lacks the fortune."

"Then as Fellow Daoist Qin says—one hundred spirit stones plus ten jin of Beast Fang Rice."

He put on a look of relief.

A faint smile appeared on Qin Ming's face as he said: "Deal."

"May I ask when Fellow Daoist Qin can deliver the Beast Fang Rice?" Fellow Daoist Ruan finally breathed a sigh of relief and asked slowly.

"Probably... about another two years or so." Qin Ming considered for a moment.

"In that case... here's what we'll do. Fellow Daoist Qin pays me one hundred spirit stones first, and I can copy the first five layers of the art for you. Once your Beast Fang Rice matures, come back to take the original."

"What does Fellow Daoist Qin think?"

Fellow Daoist Ruan deliberated briefly and offered a compromise.

"Fine."

Qin Ming nodded crisply in agreement.

He then took out one hundred spirit stones from his storage bag and handed them to Fellow Daoist Ruan.

When he passed the spirit stones over, although outwardly he remained silent and exceedingly generous and open-handed,

inwardly he was practically bleeding. The spirit stones he had painstakingly saved up—

—this time he had truly nearly gone all-in.

Fellow Daoist Ruan pocketed the spirit stones, then took out a jade slip and handed it to Qin Ming with a beaming smile.

Qin Ming took the jade slip, pressed it to his brow, and carefully examined it with his spiritual sense.

He repeatedly compared it against the art on the beast hide in Fellow Daoist Ruan's hands, and after confirming everything was correct—

—the trade was successful.

Qin Ming exchanged only a few casual words with the other party before leaving the Ruan residence.

He returned to the shantytown.

Qin Ming returned to his ordinary days of farming.

Within a one-mu Beast Fang Rice spirit field—

【Name】: Beast Fang Rice 【Affix】: Advanced Spirit Rain Art x5 (Maturity 35%) 【Name】: Beast Fang Rice 【Affix】: Quality Boost x1 (Maturity 32%)

【Name】: Beast Fang Rice 【Affix】: Ripening x5 (Maturity 40%)

Qin Ming observed these three affixes every day, watching them inch toward maturity day by day, and felt reassured.

Over the next two years, Qin Ming already had a plan.

As long as a 'Ripening' affix refreshed in the spirit field, he planned to secretly transplant and ripen a small portion of the Beast Fang Rice for his own cultivation.

Moving just a few hundred stalks—no one would notice anything.

Of course, the three stalks bearing affixes had to be moved and ripened.

There was still one 'Ripening x5' in the Beast Fang Rice spirit field. With the spirit seed and the affix, he could continue ripening when the time came. If not for the surrounding environment gradually growing turbulent and unstable, Qin Ming wouldn't be in such a rush.

A mere two years—he could still afford to wait.

But the current situation would not allow him to keep waiting like this.

Although he didn't go looking for trouble, trouble would come looking for him.

The situation in the Immortal Realm changed with every passing moment.

Nowadays, the power struggles among the upper echelons of the sects had already begun to spread to a small Qingyang Market Town in a remote corner of Yunze Dahuang.

Qin Ming still hoped to firmly grasp the initiative of his own destiny in his hands.

One month later.

Finally, the last crop of spiritual rice of the year had ripened.

This time, it was different from before.

Elder Gu of the Spirit Feather Sect and the overseer Du Haifu had long been waiting in the spiritual fields, followed by numerous disciples keeping watch around the area.

Under Elder Gu's gaze, the spiritual farmers began harvesting the spiritual rice.

The evening glow rose.

Once the spiritual rice harvest was complete, Du Haifu began collecting the spiritual rice tax from each person one by one.

In no time, he finished all the calculations and respectfully handed the ranking jade slip to Elder Gu for inspection.

In this final season, Qin Ming's yield of Golden Spiritual Rice had increased once again.

It had broken through ten stones and ninety jin! Furthermore, for this season, Elder Gu had exempted him from ten percent of the spiritual rice tax.

After paying the tax, Qin Ming was left with three hundred and twenty jin of Golden Spiritual Rice.

His total ranking for all three quarters of this year had even reached the top ten.

When Du Haifu came to collect the spiritual rice tax, his attitude was worlds apart from before.

Every other word was "Little Qin," spoken with sickening sweetness.

Of course, the fact that he could leap into the top ten this time was also due to the recent disturbances caused by the Howling Monkey demonic beasts.

Because only Qin Ming's plot and a few others remained completely intact.

After finishing his review of the spiritual rice yield statistics, Elder Gu's rigid face showed not a shred of emotional fluctuation.

He immediately announced in a cold voice, "This year's spiritual rice yield rankings have all been calculated; you may view them yourselves."

"The thirty cultivators at the bottom of the rankings, board the boat and follow me."

Even though the spiritual fields had suffered demonic beast attacks, the Spirit Feather Sect still offered not a shred of leniency or consideration to these low-level spiritual farmers.

The thirty spiritual farmers stared blankly at the light screen, each looking lost and dispirited; they knew clearly what fate awaited them.

Watching these spiritual farmers, Qin Ming felt a complex mix of emotions in his heart.

Immediately, his gaze turned resolute! He turned, patted Cai Laojiu beside him, and said, "Stop looking; let's go."

"Qin Ming, do you think there might be a day when we two will be among those thirty?" Cai Laojiu asked suddenly, his voice slightly hoarse.

Qin Ming's figure paused.

He said nothing.

If he did not have his golden finger.

Then the scene just now might well be the answer.

The final destination of an ordinary person.

Draft animals in prosperous times, cannon fodder in chaotic times; in peace, their bodies are drained, in war, their lives are spent.

(End of Chapter)