Chapter 1099

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Protagonist:

Xu Zhangqing

Dawn broke.

The sun rose from the direction of Qingshui Zhen, sunlight passing through the two Jingxin Bamboo Groves and casting fine golden specks of light upon the ground.

Xu Zhangqing stood up from the stone, and instead of returning to the Bamboo Hut to rest, he walked directly toward the Spirit Field.

His Spirit Field was not far from the Bamboo Hut; a few steps and he arrived.

One mu of Fifth-Grade Spirit Field, ten mu of Fourth-Grade Spirit Field, one hundred mu of Third Grade Spirit Field.

These fields all still lay empty, waiting for the first crop of Lingti to be sown.

For this, Xu Zhangqing felt great anticipation in his heart.

When passing by the Fourth-Grade Spirit Field and Third Grade Spirit Field areas, he did not linger, but passed straight through, walking directly to the front of that one mu of Fifth-Grade Spirit Field.

After all, he had long since grown tired of looking at Spirit Fields below Fifth Grade.

Soon, Xu Zhangqing stood on the Spirit Field Ridge, then lowered his head to look.

With just one glance, his pupils dilated slightly.

Good fellow.

The Fifth-Grade Spirit Field was actually not flat.

Spirit Fields of other grades were all pressed neat and even, like a piece of cloth spread on a table.

But the Fifth-Grade Spirit Field before him rose slightly, bearing an extremely natural arc.

This was not an arc trimmed out by human craftsmanship; it was as if the land itself were breathing.

The soil inside the field was not the ordinary black or brown or Five Colors, but an extremely deep, heavy dark gold.

It did not float on the surface, but grain by grain seeped up from deep within the soil.

As if countless golden sand grains had been crushed to pieces and evenly mixed into every inch of soil.

Xu Zhangqing crouched down, grabbed a handful and placed it in his palm to examine.

The feel of it in his hand made him freeze for an instant.

It was not soil.

At least not soil in the ordinary sense.

This pinch of dark gold soil in his palm was actually warm.

Not scalding, but genuinely carrying temperature, like warm jade just sunned by sunlight.

Its texture lay between solid and liquid; pinched in hand it was solid, but when he loosened his grip it carried a sense of flow.

What surprised Xu Zhangqing most was that he actually felt a pulse.

This handful of soil in his palm was beating, thump by thump, at a frequency almost impossible to perceive.

Not violently like a heart, but like the faint, delicate rise and fall at a newborn infant's fontanelle.

It was alive.

Xi Rang is not soil, at least not dead matter.

In Xu Zhangqing's mind emerged the records from the Myriad Things Record.

That ancient book's description of Xi Rang was only a few brief lines, yet every line carried a tone bordering on reverence.

"Xi Rang: the soil of heaven and earth's initial opening, the source of all things' birth and growth."

"Meeting water it increases; take from it without end, use it without exhaustion."

"A Great Power used Xi Rang to dam the Flood; the water receded and the Xi Rang regenerated of itself, accumulating into mountains."

When in the Tianyuan Realm, Xi Rang was a thing existing only in classics and legends.

Xu Zhangqing had never seen true Xi Rang.

In fact not only him — including all the Spirit Farmers he had previously known — not a single person had ever seen true Xi Rang.

Elsewhere, for a single grain of Xi Rang one could kill.

But now, before Xu Zhangqing lay a whole one mu.

He lowered his hand, pouring the Xi Rang from his palm back down.

The dark gold soil slid from his fingertips, merging back into the ground.

At the moment of contact, the Xi Rang automatically fused into one with the surrounding soil, leaving not a trace that it had ever left.

Like a drop of water falling into a lake surface, silently returning to its origin.

Xu Zhangqing patted the residual soil off his hands, then stood up.

At this moment, he stood on the Fifth-Grade Spirit Field's Spirit Field Ridge; to his left were one hundred mu of Third Grade Spirit Field, to his right ten mu of Fourth-Grade Spirit Field, behind him two Jingxin Bamboo Groves and a brand-new Bamboo Hut.

And farther off, cooking smoke from Qingshui Zhen had already risen, drifting in the morning light into a thin white line.

"This is the Beidou Xianfu with a Dao Zun presiding!"

At this moment, Xu Zhangqing thoroughly understood the weight of Zhang Zaizhi's words.

In the Tianyuan Realm, seeking a grain of Xi Rang was like fishing for a silver needle in a great sea.

But here, Xi Rang could pave an entire one mu of field.

So-called "a strongman presides" — it was never just pretty words hung on the lips.

It is written in every inch of soil, falls in every drop of rain water, blows in every gust of wind, embodied in every seemingly matter-of-course small matter behind the scenes.

However.

The Fifth-Grade Spirit Field is secured.

But what to plant, and how to plant it — that is the most pressing matter right now.

Admittedly, Xu Zhangqing carries Spirit Plant Seeds of virtually every kind from the Tianyuan Realm on his person.

From the Lowest Grade spirit rice to the extremely rare Nine Spirit Plant, even some ancient varieties extinct in the Tianyuan Realm, all are collected in his Storage Magic Treasure or Personal Space.

According to common sense, one would simply take a few seeds and plant them directly.

But Xu Zhangqing did not do so.

Because he knows full well: what is precious in the Tianyuan Realm may not be worth Money in the Beidou Star Domain.

The reverse is also true.

If he planted Tianyuan Realm spirit plants in this acre of Fifth-Grade Spirit Field, though not impossible — indeed the growth would certainly be excellent — it would Equal wasting the true value of this Spirit Field.

What a Fifth-Grade Spirit Field can bear far surpasses Tianyuan Realm spirit plants.

It ought by right to be planted with even rarer things.

Thinking of this, Xu Zhangqing turned his hand and took out the Cun Chi Mirror.

The Mirror Surface rippled with a layer of faint Spiritual Light, then connected his Divine Sense into the Trading Hall.

In an instant, a Large Amount of information surged out, rapidly spreading through his Consciousness.

The varieties were dazzlingly diverse.

Xu Zhangqing quickly browsed through them once, and the more he looked, the more alarmed he became.

Back in the Tianyuan Realm, he was considered widely knowledgeable, knowing all manner of spirit plants like the back of his hand.

Yet the many categories displayed in the Trading Hall — even their names were things he was hearing for the First time.

Star Core Vine, Seven-Grade Spirit Plant.

Vines like iron chains, can refine Star Chain.

Starting price: fifteen million Faith points.

Myriad Phenomena Life-Death Lotus, Eight-Grade Spirit Plant.

When the lotus blooms it evolves a Small World; when the petals wither the Small World Collapses with it.

The Lotus Pod can enter medicine, the Lotus Seed can refine artifacts.

Starting price: sixty million Faith points.

Tai Yi Flat Peach, Eight-Grade Spirit Plant.

Three Thousand Years to flower, Three Thousand Years to fruit, Three Thousand Years to ripen.

Eating it can extend lifespan by six thousand years; one person in a lifetime may only consume one.

Starting price: ninety-eight million Faith points.

Nine-Revolution Star Grass, Seven-Grade Spirit Plant.

The grass grows Nine Leaves, each leaf corresponding to one layer of heavenly star power.

One with all Nine Leaves complete, after refining, can aid a cultivator in comprehending Star Law.

Starting price: twenty-two million Faith points.

Dao Tribulation Wood, Nine-Grade Spirit Plant.

Rumor has it this wood can attract Dao Tribulation; if a cultivator succeeds in crossing the tribulation beneath the tree, then Heavenly Dao resonance doubles, and the gains after the tribulation far surpass the ordinary.

Starting price: three hundred million Faith points.

Literary Dao Fruit Tree, Seven-Grade Spirit Plant.

When the fruit ripens the peel Naturally splits open, revealing Dao Pattern.

Mortals eating it can awaken to enlightenment; cultivators eating it benefit Divine Sense.

Starting price: eighteen million Faith points.

One kind after another, truly myriad and multifarious.

With each kind he saw, Xu Zhangqing's eyes brightened a degree, but upon seeing the prices afterward, they rapidly dimmed again.

On his person, he currently has only a mere three Faith points.

Not To Mention rare spirit plants — he can't even afford a single grain of soil!