Chapter 42: Opening Up Spiritual Fields

One day, half a month later, Song Qingming was making talismans at home when a voice of Song Qinghe asking to see him suddenly came from outside the door.

Hearing this, Song Qingming hurriedly put down the talisman brush in his hand, put away the unfinished talisman-making materials, tidied up the desktop, and welcomed Song Qinghe in.

Seeing Song Qingming, Song Qinghe didn't twist and asked straight to the point: "Qingming, I don't know if you have any magic tools for setting up a Spirit Gathering Formation on you now. In the past two days, I found a place with very abundant spiritual energy in a mountain col on the west side of the Xuantie mine, and there happened to be a spring eye on the side. I want to cultivate a few acres of spiritual fields there. Can you take action to help me set up a Spirit Gathering Formation?"

After Song Qinghe arrived at Lingyuan Mountain, contrary to his usual behavior, he didn't close his doors to cultivate all day, but wandered around Lingyuan Mountain. Song Qingming looked at it strangely, but didn't ask much. Only now did he know that he originally wanted to open up some spiritual fields here.

The Song family also had dozens of acres of spiritual fields on Mount Funiu, which could produce more than 10,000 catties of spiritual rice every year. 30% of these spiritual rice had to be handed over to the Carefree Sect, 30% to the main family Huang family, and the Song family could only keep 40%.

In addition to supporting the family's twenty-odd cultivators, they could also save about 2,000 catties. These spiritual rice were put into Qinghe Market by the Song family, and they could create an income of more than 200 spirit stones for the Song family every year, which was one of the important financial resources for the Song family now.

"Seeing you wandering around these few days, I thought you were not used to living here. It turns out you are restless. It just so happens that I have a set of formation flags on me. I will go with you to see it in a while. Don't worry, leave the formation setting to me."

The Spirit Gathering Formation is an ordinary formation that gathers spiritual energy from spiritual veins, generally set up in spiritual fields and spiritual medicine gardens. Some cultivators will also specifically set it up in their cultivation caves to facilitate the breakthrough of cultivation or cultivation techniques, so that they can have sufficient spiritual energy.

The difficulty of setting up a Spirit Gathering Formation is not high. A low-grade formation master like Song Qingming can easily set it up. When he was still on Lingyuan Mountain, he often helped other cultivators in the clan set up such formations, and he also prepared a few sets of such formation flags on his body.

Song Qingming followed his Sixth Brother and soon arrived at a mountain col not far from the west side of the Xuantie mine. This mountain col was located on the right side of the mine, looking down, and he could just see the entire Xuantie mine.

This place was dozens of zhang high from the bottom of the mine, and the mountain wall was very steep. Ordinary mortals couldn't climb up at all without external force. Even those dozen or so innate martial arts masters with some cultivation techniques would be a bit dangerous if they wanted to climb up.

Song Qinghe could find this place, which shows that he had put in a lot of effort in the dozen days he came to Lingyuan Mountain.

The mountain col was a triangular platform, only the sharp corner was slightly higher, about twenty zhang in size, and a stream flowed slowly.

The spring water dripped incessantly from the mountain crack at the sharp corner of the mountain col, trickling and dripping, forming a tiny clear stream, flowing on the rugged rocks overgrown with weeds and thorns, passing through the middle of the mountain col, falling along the cliff, and finally gathering into Crescent Lake a few miles away.

Song Qingming carefully felt the spiritual energy here, which was indeed more abundant than at the foot of the mountain. As long as the platform was slightly organized, it was enough to open up two acres of spiritual fields.

Taking out five three-inch-sized formation flags from his storage bag, Song Qingming buried these formation flags in several places three feet underground on the platform, and took out a first-level formation disk and placed it in the center of the platform.

After casting a set of magic spells, there was a fluctuation of spiritual energy on the platform ground, and the spiritual energy in the entire mountain was slowly guided to this platform by the Spirit Gathering Formation.

It was not until an hour later that the spiritual energy slowly stabilized. The two buried more than a dozen spirit stones into the ground where the spiritual fields were to be opened. After waiting for a month for the Spirit Gathering Formation to slowly refine the spirit stones inside, the land here would seep into spiritual energy and become a first-level low-grade spiritual field.

After ordinary land becomes a spiritual field, it can be used to plant spiritual items such as spiritual rice. The spiritual energy in the spiritual field is sufficient, which can also shorten the maturity time of spiritual items.

Spiritual fields and spiritual veins are divided into high and low

Low-grade spirit fields can only be used to grow spirit rice and spirit herbs that mature relatively easily. Low-grade spirit rice, which matures about once a year, is the spirit crop that yields the easiest returns and is a favorite among all low-grade spirit planters in the cultivation world.

Other first-grade spirit herbs or medicinal plants generally take more than three years to mature. If one grows a few of these on the side in the spirit field, it will add up to a decent income over a long period.

The Song family only dares to grow first-grade spirit rice and medicinal herbs in their spirit fields on Mount Funiu. After all, planting high-value spirit items often attracts the prying eyes of other high-level cultivators. Without sufficient strength to guard them, even if you have the seeds for spirit herbs, you wouldn't dare to plant them on a large scale; otherwise, you would easily be targeted, inviting the disaster of sect annihilation. In Qinghe County, only those few Foundation Establishment families dare to cultivate some second-grade medicinal herbs at home.

In the cultivation world, spirit trees and medicinal herbs are graded according to their age. Those with a medicinal age of under two hundred years are first-grade, those between two hundred and one thousand years are second-grade, and anything above that, from one thousand to two thousand years, is third-grade. There are very few places in the entire Song Guo that can grow medicinal herbs above the third grade. It is said that the spirit herb garden of the Carefree Sect still holds a fourth-grade medicinal herb that is over two thousand years old.

After Song Qinghe cleared this spirit field, he became busy. With the help of Song Qingming, the two spent several days using magic tools to carve a staircase over ten zhang long into the cliff wall, which would make it convenient for the mortals below to come up in the future. Planting spirit fields certainly cannot be done by cultivators alone; one must also employ some mortals to help with trivial tasks. The dozens of mu of spirit fields the Song family has on Mount Funiu also employ hundreds of mortals to help with the farming.

It took a day to relocate two mortal families from the side of Crescent Lake to the platform to help Song Qinghe manage the spirit fields here. Being able to help an Immortal Master farm made the selected mortal families overjoyed. As long as they worked diligently and responsibly by the Immortal Master's side, perhaps one day they might even receive some rewards of immortal spirit items.

After the spiritual energy in the spirit field stabilized, Song Qinghe opened a new cave dwelling on the side of the platform against the mountain and moved directly from the mine at the foot of the mountain to the platform. Aside from his daily need to inspect the mine, he basically stayed on the platform, spending his time either cultivating or working in the spirit fields.

After Song Qingming finished setting up the Spirit Gathering Array for him, he quickly received the dozen or so spirit stones Song Qinghe paid for the array. Although Song Qinghe had broken through to the fourth level of Qi Refining later than Song Qingming, he showed none of the embarrassment that Song Qingming had displayed right after his own breakthrough.

The reason for this was that he had a cultivator father to support him. Song Qinghe was the son of his second uncle, Song Changwu. After embarking on the path of cultivation, although his innate spirit root was very poor, he had never lacked resources. He was also a spirit planter himself, and by managing the family's spirit fields, he could earn some spirit stones. Coupled with his father's subsidies, his life was much easier than that of brothers like Song Qingming who had to rely entirely on themselves.

Although Song Qinghe had invested the cost of dozens of spirit stones to refine these two mu of spirit fields, as long as he spent a few years carefully cultivating spirit items and allowed the quality of the fields to stabilize, he would be able to earn a significant income even if he left and sold the fields to others or handed them over to the family.

For the profession of a spirit planter, it is relatively easy to earn spirit stones in the early stages. Whether it is growing spirit items or cultivating new spirit fields, it is a very stable source of income.

However, spirit planters generally hide in their spirit fields year-round and are not skilled in combat or hunting demonic beasts; their combat power is a cut below other cultivators. Most cultivators who choose this profession are those who can endure loneliness.

(End of chapter)