Chapter 346: Heading to Zhongzhou

In mid-May, the weather gradually grew hot.

After Qin Ming finished tending to the spiritual fields, he summoned Li Lan over.

During this period, Li Lan had witnessed Shopkeeper Lu's astonishing spiritual planting skills and was completely convinced by him.

He had originally thought Shopkeeper Lu was merely a merchant skilled in business, never expecting his level of spiritual planting expertise to be far superior to his own.

When Shopkeeper Lu had previously taught him the cultivation method for Lingxi Rice, he had been somewhat puzzled as to why the other party possessed such detailed experience and techniques for growing it.

After some time had passed,

all the doubts in his mind were resolved.

Originally, Li Lan believed that with his status as a second-rank upper-grade spiritual planter, he could live quite comfortably within the Mirror Jing Xue Ge.

But when he saw the vigorous growth of third-rank spiritual plants within those ten mu of land, he instantly understood that Shopkeeper Lu was truly a hidden master!

Thus, Li Lan's attitude became even more humble; he dared not act arrogantly, working diligently under Qin Ming to plant and cultivate spiritual flora.

Fortunately, hard work pays off, and he finally succeeded in growing Lingxi Rice.

This also gave him a glimmer of hope for advancing to become a third-rank spiritual planting grandmaster; if Shopkeeper Lu were willing to offer him even a little guidance in daily life, the benefits would be immense.

He even wanted to take Shopkeeper Lu as his master, but feared the other party might not think highly of him and, worrying that pushing the matter would backfire and get him driven away, he never dared to speak up.

"Li Lan, I need to go out to handle some matters; during my absence, remember to cast a wave of spiritual rain over the ten mu of spiritual fields every two days, though not too much," Qin Ming instructed indifferently.

Li Lan hurriedly stepped forward and said, "Shopkeeper Lu, rest assured, I will definitely take good care of your spiritual plants with all my heart."

"Mm, go attend to your duties then."

Subsequently,

Qin Ming used his spiritual sense to contact the Shi Tian Shu.

However, after sending messages for quite a while, he received no response whatsoever.

Qin Ming's brows furrowed, his expression shifting several times, but fortunately, he could still feel the divine contract with the Shi Tian Shu remained intact, so he set his mind at ease again.

"What exactly is this rebellious fellow up to?"

"Just patrolling the mountain, surely nothing could have gone wrong?"

In the next moment, Qin Ming's figure vanished from the spot.

Following the resonance of the divine contract deep within his soul, he flew all the way to the Beast Cry Mountain Range south of the spiritual fields.

Half an incense stick later,

Qin Ming arrived before a hillside, but upon seeing the scene before him, he displayed a somewhat speechless expression: the Shi Tian Shu was currently lying atop a huge rock, sticking its butt up, basking in the sun, hugging the Zhu Que flag while fast asleep, its snoring resounding like thunder.

It was likely having some wonderful dream, with drool flowing all over the ground; it was so reluctant to wake up that it ignored the message Qin Ming had just sent.

"Little girl... your massage technique is really not bad, give this Great Lord a shoulder rub."

It continued talking to itself in its sleep, showing not a shred of the dignity befitting a Demon King.

Qin Ming walked up and directly kicked it in the butt.

The Shi Tian Shu instantly jolted, startled into leaping up from the spot; instinctively grabbing the black steel fork beside it, it looked around in all directions and shouted abusively, "Who! Who is it! Which bastard dares to sneak attack this Great Lord!"

Once it saw clearly that the visitor was Qin Ming, it revealed an extremely embarrassed expression, plastered on a smiling face, and stepped forward to flatter him, "Ehehe! So it's Master who has arrived! Why didn't you notify me beforehand?"

"I called you for ages, but you wouldn't wake up."

"Is this how you patrol the mountain for me?" A hint of amusement appeared on Qin Ming's face.

Wiping the saliva from the corner of its mouth, the Shi Tian Shu hurriedly explained, "Master, I patrolled all night last night and found no abnormalities; I just got sleepy during the day and took a short nap, never expecting to oversleep, hehehe."

Qin Ming couldn't be bothered to argue with it, so he instructed, "I'm going out for a trip to catch up with an old acquaintance and will return soon; during the few days I'm away, I'm leaving the spiritual fields in your charge."

"Snap to it! If anything goes wrong with the spiritual fields, I'll hold you accountable!"

"Ah? You're going out?"

"Then can you take me with you?"

"Let Second and Third take shifts for me? It's too boring here; no demonic beasts dare to cause trouble, and I'm dying of idleness."

Upon hearing that Qin Ming was going to visit a friend and catch up, the Shi Tian Shu spoke with eyes full of anticipation.

"No, matters concerning the spiritual fields are also very important and cannot suffer any mishaps; it's settled just like that," Qin Ming stated unequivocally.

The Shi Tian Shu could only dejectedly agree, resuming its patrol of the mountain to guard the safety of the spiritual fields.

After settling the affairs regarding the spiritual fields,

Qin Ming transformed into a streak of cyan rainbow light and vanished into the horizon.

Half an hour later, he once again arrived at the Five Elements Mountain Market; within the large markets established by the Wan Dao Shang Alliance, transmission arrays were constructed that could reach any location in Great Jin directly, which was extremely convenient.

If one were to fly there, the journey from the Southern Border of Great Jin to Zhongzhou would be exceedingly long, requiring more than half a month to arrive.

"Yo! It's Daoist Lu who has arrived!"

"It has truly been a long time; how is the management of the spiritual fields at Five Elements Mountain going?"

Han Yuan and the other two were on duty at the Five Elements Mountain Market; seeing Qin Ming arrive at the Steward Hall within the market, they greeted him warmly.

"It has been a long time since I last saw the three Daoists; the spiritual fields over there are just so-so, only just beginning to show some improvement, so we can only take it slow," Qin Ming said with a smile, cupping his fists to return the greetings to each of them.

"Alas, I heard that place borders Demon Territory; if I had known earlier, Daoist Lu, you wouldn't have bid for this land; although spiritual lands are rare, it is truly too dangerous and not worth it."

"If Daoist Lu encounters any difficulties, just tell the three of us; wherever we can help, we will definitely do our utmost."

Han Yuan assumed Qin Ming was constrained by face and hadn't told them the truth.

"Thank you for the kindness of the three of you."

"Certainly, certainly."

"By the way, the reason Lu has come here this time is to borrow the market's transmission array," Qin Ming said straight to the point.

"Oh? So that's it."

Nearby, Liu Ye smiled gracefully, "Daoist Lu, please follow me; today it happens to be my shift to guard the array."

Subsequently,

Qin Ming followed the three people into a building within the inner hall, where guards were stationed in strict formation all around.

After entering inside.

A black stone array formation in the shape of the Eight Trigrams appeared within Qin Ming's line of sight.

"I wonder where Fellow Daoist Lu wishes to travel to?" Liu Ye asked openly.

Qin Ming immediately replied, "I wish to make a trip to Litian Xiancheng in Zhongzhou."

When he arrived, he had already checked the map.

Litian Xiancheng was the largest Xiancheng in Great Jin's Zhongzhou, established by the Li Fire Palace, located very close to Dragon Court Lake, reachable within a three-day journey.

"Oh? Fellow Daoist Lu actually intends to go to Zhongzhou; the distance is quite remote, and in that case, the spirit stones required to activate the array once are not cheap."

Liu Ye said with some surprise, yet he did not pry into Qin Ming's purpose for going to Zhongzhou.

After all, everyone has their own private matters.

"It is no trouble; Fellow Daoist Liu, how many spirit stones must be paid?" Qin Ming asked with a faint smile.

Liu Ye pondered for a moment and said, "With my authorization, I can give you at most a twenty percent discount; for Litian Xiancheng, the total required is three thousand mid-grade spirit stones."

"Very well, then many thanks to Fellow Daoist Liu." Having said this, Qin Ming took spirit stones from his storage bag and handed them to the other party.

After receiving the spirit stones, Liu Ye took out an ancient-looking token and handed it to Qin Ming, saying, "Fellow Daoist Lu, this is a specially made Teleportation Token of our Myriad Dao Shang Alliance; please keep it safe."

Subsequently.

Qin Ming took the Teleportation Token and stood in the center of the array formation.

Once the cultivators of the Myriad Dao Shang Alliance finished filling the array with spirit stones.

With a "Hum," dazzling light flashed from the eight corners of the array, enveloping Qin Ming's entire body; with a flash of brilliance, his whole person vanished from the spot.

Watching Qin Ming's disappearing figure, Gao Feng could not help but sigh with emotion, "Fellow Daoist Lu's Mirror Jing Xue Ge truly possesses immense wealth!"

"After bidding for the fourth-grade vein spiritual field, he can still spend three thousand mid-grade spirit stones at once to travel to Zhongzhou..."

After becoming accustomed to it, a sensation of the heavens spinning and the earth turning ensued.

When Qin Ming opened his eyes again, he had already appeared within an extremely magnificent and grand main hall.

"Welcome, Fellow Daoist, to Litian Xiancheng!"

A middle-aged Foundation Establishment cultivator with yellow hair hanging down in tufts smiled broadly as he hurried over to greet Qin Ming.

Thanks to Fellow Daoist "Donghuang's Older Brother" for the donation of 100 coins.

Thanks to Fellow Daoist "Reader pxz1004" for the donation of 100 coins.

Thanks to all fellow daoists for your monthly tickets and recommendations; many thanks! (End of Chapter)