Chapter 192: Harvest
After staying in Lüliang for less than half a day.
Qin Ming was just about to head back, so he bade farewell to Lüliang and asked him to open the formation to let him pass.
"Fellow Daoist Qin, don't forget your spirit wine," said Lüliang, noticing that Qin Ming had not taken the jar of Spirit Fire Wine from the dining table.
Qin Ming smiled. "I've been troubling Fellow Daoist Lü too often; consider this jar of spirit wine a small token of my appreciation."
"How can I accept that? This is..." Lüliang hesitated.
"Fellow Daoist Lü, please don't mind; my island has plenty of spirit wine, and one jar makes no difference."
Only then did Lüliang cup his hands and accept it with a smile. "In that case, many thanks, Fellow Daoist Qin."
This Spirit Fire Wine was a great tonic for his precious disciple, Lü Wanjun; to claim he wasn't tempted would be false.
Afterwards.
Qin Ming visited several nearby shops to purchase materials for refining high-grade puppets.
Then, accompanied by Lüliang, he departed from Canghai Immortal City.
Once outside the city, Qin Ming summoned his Silver-Winged Frost Bees and returned to Wangyue Island with the speed of wind and lightning.
After returning to the island.
Qin Ming was just preparing to enter his cave dwelling to cultivate.
When suddenly, Wu Jiang sent him a message talisman, which he immediately opened to read.
"Fellow Daoist Qin, I saw you return today; please come to my house by the lake for a chat."
Qin Ming immediately muttered, "What trick is Wu Jiang up to now?"
He then stepped down from the island.
When Qin Ming entered the wooden house by the lake, he found Wu Jiang and his wife busy at work; they had already prepared a full table of dishes.
With a smile of harvest joy on his face, Wu Jiang carried up a pot of five-colored spirit rice, emitting an enticing aroma.
Seeing Qin Ming arrive, he quickly set down the pot and invited him to take a seat for the meal.
"Fellow Daoist Qin, sit, sit, sit!"
"Start eating first."
"There are just two more dishes coming; they'll be ready shortly."
After putting down what he was holding, Wu Jiang took out a storage bag, handed it to Qin Ming, and said with a smile:
"Fellow Daoist Qin, here is the spirit rice tax for renting the spirit fields over the past two years; please take a look."
"In total, there are one hundred and fifty shi of Golden Spirit Rice, twenty shi of Beast-Tooth Rice, and five shi of Five-Colored Spirit Rice."
"Originally, we agreed with Fellow Daoist Qin to pay thirty percent of the spirit rice as rent."
"But unexpectedly, the spirit vein environment of Wangyue Island has undergone a tremendous transformation, and our Wu family's various spirit fields have also yielded a bumper harvest!"
"After discussing with my clansmen, we decided to pay forty percent of the spirit rice as field rent from now on."
"Hehehe! Fellow Daoist Qin, what do you think?"
Wu Jiang was naturally sharp-witted and knew that a place as good as Wangyue Island could hardly be found anywhere else in the Spirit-Dwelling Archipelago of the Immortal Realm today.
The island was not only protected by a third-grade great formation but also abundant in spiritual energy, making cultivation twice as effective with half the effort, and farming even more fruitful.
He also knew one should never forget the source of the water, so naturally, he ought to give more spirit rice to Fellow Daoist Qin.
"Mm, Fellow Daoist Wu, you've done very well! Keep up the good work!"
Qin Ming smiled, accepted the spirit rice, stored it away, and then patted Wu Jiang on the shoulder.
The feeling of reaping without sowing was quite pleasant; with the Wu family farming for him, there was no risk of leaving vast tracts of spirit fields fallow.
At the same time, Qin Ming himself didn't have to lift a finger yet could harvest a large quantity of spirit rice, which he could later sell to the Mirror Snow Pavilion for a substantial sum of spirit stones.
Under Wu Jiang's leadership, the farming techniques of the Wu family's spirit farmers had improved significantly, and the quality of the spirit rice they produced was also excellent.
Inside the wooden house.
A full table of dishes exquisitely cooked from demonic beast meat and refined spirit ingredients, complemented by the five-colored spirit rice, whetted the appetite; Mu Ruyin's culinary skills were truly unparalleled.
Qin Ming ate with great delight, while Wu Jiang and his father, Wu Hanyuan, repeatedly toasted and flattered him.
Within the residence area of the Wu family clansmen, bonfires were lit and grills set up.
A group of spirit farmers danced and sang around the bonfire, drinking heartily and eating meat in large mouthfuls, celebrating the joy of the harvest.
That fellow, the Profound Water Crocodile, who had originally been dozing at the bottom of the lake, smelled the aroma, slowly crawled onto the island, and was fed several whole roasted sheep by the Wu family.
It was now lying not far from the Wu family crowd, leisurely eating the roasted meat at the dining table.
After three rounds of drinks, when everyone was nearly full from the meal.
Wu Jiang seemed to have something he had long prepared to say, yet he hesitated, several times bringing the words to his lips only to fail to speak them.
"Fellow Daoist Wu, if you have something to say, just speak directly," said Qin Ming, noticing his unusual behavior.
Even Mu Ruyin beside him shot him a fierce glare, prompting Wu Jiang to force a smile and say to Qin Ming:
"Hehehe! Fellow Daoist Qin, it's like this."
"Wangfeng and Wangyue have obtained an opportunity from Lei Yuanzong to return home for a visit, possibly in a month or two."
"I wonder if Fellow Daoist Qin... if Fellow Daoist Qin agrees to let them enter the island?"
The reason Wu Jiang was uncertain was that his children had now joined Lei Yuanzong.
He knew that Fellow Daoist Qin had never been fond of sects, so he needed to ask for permission from the island master in advance.
Qin Ming thought it was some serious matter that made Wu Jiang so cautious, so he replied indifferently, "I thought it was something important! So it's just those two children returning after completing their studies? Why wouldn't that be allowed? It's been a long time since I last saw them; they must be quite grown up by now, I suppose?"
"They can return whenever they wish."
As soon as Qin Ming spoke.
Wu Jiang and his wife were immediately overjoyed; they had originally worried that since the spirit island had changed so drastically, Qin Ming might object to this matter.
Time slowly passed.
Qin Ming returned to his days of farming and cultivation.
In his spare time, he also studied puppetry arts; through constant study, he was not far from upgrading those two low-grade second-rank turtle puppets to mid-grade second-rank.
Apart from that, he was refining Yu Xuan Dan.
After several attempts at pill refining by Qin Ming, he successfully refined two bottles of the high-grade second-rank spiritual pill, 'Yu Xuan Dan'.
Furthermore, Qin Ming deliberately set aside a portion of the spiritual materials in his possession and, using the 【Regenerative Spirit Seed】 trait, revived and planted all the most difficult-to-gather spiritual herbs from this pill formula, including the Seven-Leaf Nether Ganoderma, within his medicine garden.
The other spiritual materials could all be purchased and gathered relatively easily in Yunze Xiancheng.
In this way, when he subsequently broke through to the late stage, he would not lack pills to increase his magic power.
Inside the cave dwelling.
Qin Ming took out a Yu Xuan Dan and placed it in his mouth.
Immediately, the pure medicinal power transformed into a massive torrent and began circulating through his meridians for a full cycle.
He immediately activated the
Several hours later.
The aura of magic power on Qin Ming's body suddenly surged upward; he was now only one final step away from breaking through to the late-stage realm.
He slowly opened his eyes, feeling that the liquid magic power within his Lake of Magic Power had increased significantly.
"This Yu Xuan Dan is indeed extraordinary; I truly wonder how many such pill formulas remain within the Profound Stream Valley."
"However, the difficulty of refining Yu Xuan Dan is no ordinary matter; I estimate that apart from Grandmaster Alchemist Gongsun Yang, no other alchemist could refine it."
"Otherwise, the Profound Stream Valley would not have sold the formula for this pill to outsiders."
(End of Chapter)
End of Chapter
