Chapter 24: 【Guidance and Settlement, Contracting Responsibility】 (Seeking recommendation votes)

Pei Zhang completed his identity registration and bestowed a token; with this token, he could enter and exit Youzhi Valley.

Youzhi Valley was set up with multiple arrays; without this token, let alone the Qi Refining Realm, even the Foundation Establishment Realm would just be looking for death if they forced their way in.

Pei Zhang said to let Lu Chengtong continue to take care of the Baiyuan Fruit tree, but it wasn't just taking care of that one tree.

He called a disciple named "Song Zhihao" and let him lead Lu Chengtong to familiarize himself with the affairs of a Spirit Plant Master.

Song Zhihao's face was about twenty years old, looking about the same as Lu Chengtong, and his actual age should be about the same, but the other party had the cultivation of the Qi Refining seventh layer, which was much higher than the Qi Refining fourth layer he was revealing now.

This person was very humble; as they walked, he introduced:

"Junior Brother Cheng, in the Herb Garden, there are no trivial matters; you only need to pay attention to two points: one is not to offend the seniors, and the second is to take good care of the spirit herbs under your jurisdiction."

"The Herb Garden is managed by Elder Chen, with four deacons in the middle, managing four parts of the garden, called the East, South, West, and North four gardens, and according to different situations, divided into several areas. Each Spirit Plant Master manages areas of different sizes according to their ability."

"You should have understood when you came here; being on duty here has oil and water. How much you can get depends on your ability."

"For different areas, the sect has submission indicators. After completing the indicators, the surplus part is what you can obtain yourself."

"However, when submitting to the deacon, the quantity must be at least five points more than the indicator. As for the specific reason, I don't need to say more, right?"

Speaking of this, he looked at Lu Chengtong, as if waiting for his reaction.

These five points were obviously for the deacons and elders.

They were on duty here, their positions were higher, and naturally, they took more.

The sect was not a fool, let alone a charitable organization; setting indicators, it must be that it was not much different from the maximum output. With an upward float of five points, the oil and water left for the bottom-level Spirit Plant Masters below was not much.

But, compared to other positions, it was definitely considered generous.

Lu Chengtong hurriedly replied:

"I understand, thank you for your guidance, Senior Brother."

Song Zhihao nodded, continued to walk forward, and took Lu Chengtong through a very large area.

Lu Chengtong finally realized how large a piece of land this "Youzhi Valley" was; the area here was at least as large as half of Wenxi County, and each area was isolated with trees and arrays.

At this moment, he deeply felt what was called the Immortal Sect's foundation.

The Lu family, which had been incomparably glorious in his eyes, was more than a grade lower even when compared to this Herb Garden.

Song Zhihao continued:

"Deacon Pei manages the West Garden, and under his hand, including you, there are seventeen Spirit Plant Masters, managing forty-two areas. The area assigned to you is called the White Spirit Area, where two kinds of spirit herbs are planted: one is the Baiyuan Fruit tree, currently existing 273 trees;"

"The other is the Star Spirit Vine Fruit, which grows wrapped around the Baiyuan Fruit tree, and the two complement each other. This quantity is calculated according to the number of Baiyuan Fruit trees."

Speaking of this, they arrived at the place. Here, it was surrounded by five-meter-high Black Iron Wood with an array; looking from the outside, one could only see a layer of white mist, and even if one used divine sense to probe, one couldn't see clearly.

Only by entering inside, one step away, the scene seen was vastly different.

Moreover, once entering here, the rich spirit Qi rushed to his face.

Truly a treasure land for cultivation!

Touching a Baiyuan Fruit tree, Song Zhihao sighed:

"This place has always been taken care of by me. Next, it will be handed over to you."

Lu Chengtong was shocked when he heard this and hurriedly said:

"Senior Brother, this I—"

Before he finished speaking, he was interrupted by Song Zhihao raising his hand, saying:

"You don't have to feel that you are taking advantage of me; now my cultivation has reached the Qi Refining late-stage, and I need to concentrate my energy to cultivate, seeking to break through to Foundation Establishment."

"I originally had to separate some areas for other Spirit Plant Masters to manage. It's just right that you came to take over here."

"Although there are only two kinds of spirit fruit here, their growth cycle is long, and any problem in the process may lead to a poor final harvest. Take these two books."

"One is the 'Common Spirit Plant Record', and the other is the 'Herb Garden Miscellany'. The former can be bought in some markets, but the latter is the Immortal Sect Herb Garden's accumulation of cultivation methods for various spirit herbs, and there are many spells in it, all of which you need to learn."

"If there is anything you don't understand, you can come to the 'Green Bamboo Area' to find me. There is a small courtyard in each area, and as long as it is an area under one's own jurisdiction, one can practice in it."

"The elders and deacons also practice in it, but the areas where they are located are the most precious regions of the Herb Garden and cannot be intruded upon rashly."

Lu Chengtong took the books and thanked Song Zhihao again.

Although he understood that Song Zhihao was so polite, it was mostly because of the face of the person Pei Yuan personally arranged, but he still kept this favor in his heart and would use pills to repay it later.

Song Zhihao left, leaving Lu Chengtong alone to walk into the small courtyard.

In the courtyard, it was empty, which was a good place to practice martial arts and experiment with spells.

The hut was also simple, with some basic kitchen utensils.

At the Qi Refining Realm, one still needed to eat spirit rice to supplement essence Qi; spirit rice was very filling, if one practiced body refining, one or two could last a day, one spirit stone for ten catties of rice, enough to eat for a long time.

Taking a deep breath of clear Qi, Lu Chengtong felt that his heart and chest had opened up a lot.

A clean Herb Garden was indeed more comfortable than a mining area full of dust.

He first picked up the two books in his hand to flip through, and while reading, he let the Treasure Mirror record them.

The first book, he discovered that he had already read it before; it was impossible for the Foundation Establishment True Person who learned alchemy in the Lu family not to have read this kind of basic book, and Lu Chengtong, before starting alchemy, of course, had also recorded these contents.

The most precious was the second book.

This book was very thick, but overall there were only two parts: one part was the characteristics of various spirit herbs and targeted cultivation methods, and the second part was various small spells that would be used.

For example, the "Sharpness Technique" used for harvesting, the "Earth Turning Technique" used for turning soil, the "Scent Seeking Technique" used for finding pests, etc.

Most of them were small spells based on the five elements, and there were also some special types, such as the "Scent Seeking Technique."

This spell belonged to a special spell of developing "spirit sense"; the "scent" here was not used with the nose, but with the cultivator's divine sense.

The so-called "scent" referred to the special aura of a certain creature.

Its function was of course not limited to finding pests; it was also excellent for finding people and tracking.

But this method was extremely difficult to master and had not low requirements for soul power; if one wanted to sense the aura from further away, one had to possess stronger soul power.

For the Spirit Plant Masters of the Herb Garden, they could just get close to the spirit herbs and search for pests inch by inch, so the requirement was very low.

Recording everything, Lu Chengtong didn't immediately learn the spells, but first turned around in this area, counted the quantity, and checked the status of the spirit herbs to prevent himself from having deaths just after taking over.

The indicators for various spirit herbs would never be lowered; when the time came, if things couldn't be handed over, no matter what problems the Herb Garden had, everything would be blamed on the disciple for corruption, and the disciple would need to compensate in full.

This was equivalent to a contract responsibility system; only the surplus part had profit.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 25 =====