Chapter 63: Memory Array, Activate!
Chapter 63: Chapter 63: Memory Array, Activate!
After feeding the Spirit Chicken, Chen Mo spent over an hour converting the remaining two hundred-plus catties of Spirit Rice into two catties of Spirit Seeds. Calculating based on two harvests, his fifteen acres of Spirit Fields would require ten catties of seeds. The amount in his Dou was still not enough. After finishing this, Chen Mo rested for the night. Early the next morning, he shouldered his hoe and went to plow the fields.
When he opened the door, Kang poked its head out. Clearly, the cramped wooden cabin could no longer satisfy its growing need for space; it needed a larger territory and a vaster world to run around in. However, Chen Mo kicked it right back inside. It had only been here for a month. If he really let it out and it ran away, wouldn’t his Spiritual Sand have been spent for nothing?
Plowing fifteen acres of land alone still took quite a bit of effort. He only managed to turn over half the soil on the first day, about seven or eight acres. However, he still had plenty of time. He could take it slow; there was no rush.
Chen Mo wasn’t in a rush, but someone else was!
Towards the evening, Miao Chen dragged He Zhiping along, coaxed and tricked Lan Ling into joining them, and showed up at his door. The one who spoke first was still the coy Lan Ling, who was still fantasizing about Dual Cultivation. "Fellow Daoist Chen, we went to the Yi Er San Grain Station you mentioned." She hadn’t actually gone; only Miao Chen did.
Swinging his hoe down to turn over another patch of soil, Chen Mo straightened his back, wiped the sweat from his forehead, and asked, "What’s the matter?"
"They said they don’t have the seeds with higher yields and larger grains," Miao Chen said, taking the initiative as he grew impatient.
"Oh." Chen Mo responded casually. He was done for the day anyway and just happened to not want to plow the fields anymore.
"Ah! We spent Spiritual Sand for this, you can’t lie to us!"
"Spiritual Sand?"
As soon as these words were spoken, Lan Ling’s expression changed drastically. She looked at Chen Mo with pleading eyes, only hoping he wouldn’t expose her. However, in the next second, her hopes were dashed.
"I didn’t take your Spiritual Sand. Isn’t telling you the information for free enough? What, do you expect me to help you buy them too? When others refuse to sell to you, you come to me?" With that said, Chen Mo ignored their reactions and walked back into his wooden cabin by himself.
The moment he opened the door, Kang, yearning for freedom, flapped its wings and tried to fly out of its cage, but before it could take off, Chen Mo kicked it back inside again.
Outside, Miao Chen looked at Lan Ling with an unfriendly expression. "You lied to us?"
"I didn’t!" Lan Ling denied it categorically.
"Then why did he say he never took any Spiritual Sand?"
"He did it on purpose!" He Zhiping interjected suddenly. That kid was just a guy who liked to sow discord! The incident where he was tricked out of his Drunken Aphids instantly surfaced in his mind! Just thinking about it made his teeth itch with hatred.
"Then... were those seeds really bought at the Yi Er San Grain Station?" Miao Chen asked dubiously.
"Most likely!"
"Then how about the two of us go take another look tomorrow?"
"Okay!"
***
The next day, Chen Mo finished plowing the rest of the Spirit Fields. Afterward, he spent some effort casting the Rainfall Technique to soak the Spirit Fields. If all went well, he would be able to sow the seeds in two days.
Early on the morning of the third day.
Chen Mo left his house early and headed straight for the top left corner of his Spirit Fields. He took out a fingernail-sized piece of Spiritual Sand. Following the records in the *Mountain Gazing Shadow Retaining Array*, he cast a spell to drive it deep underground, then did the same at the bottom left and bottom right corners.
Chen Mo’s fifteen acres of Spirit Fields were not entirely connected in one piece. Rather, Wang Lixia and Xiao Changhua’s ten acres were right next to each other and could be treated as a single plot. Therefore, when setting up the top right corner, Chen Mo walked over to the other ten acres of Spirit Fields and drove the prepared Spiritual Sand into the bottom right, top left, and top right corners respectively.
Once the preparations were complete, he formed hand seals. Using the six corners of the array as catalysts, he channeled the Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi. A moment later, a mist rose up. In the next instant, the array was formed!
With a thought from Chen Mo, the current scene was recorded. Then, his Talent, Rapid Maturation, was activated! Following that, he buried five catties of seeds into the ground. By the time he finished all this, it was already noon.
He stepped out of the Spirit Fields and walked a lap around the ridges. Sure enough! From the outside, his ten acres of Spirit Fields still looked freshly plowed and unsown! Mountain Gazing Shadow Retaining, indeed! Although the array was basic, its effects were immediate!
He lightly sprinkled some water, allowing the Spirit Seeds to absorb moisture without drowning them. Having farmed continuously for three years, Chen Mo was already very familiar with this process. Once these seeds sprouted new shoots, it would be a scene of a bountiful harvest for the year once more.
He took out a futon, sat cross-legged in the Spirit Fields, and began to meditate and cultivate. After over a month of diligent, unceasing cultivation, his Qi Refining Third Layer experience had accumulated 9 points. At this speed, if he continued using Low Grade Spirit Stones, it would take about another two years for him to break through to the Qi Refining Fourth Layer. Compared to the favored children of heaven in the Cyan Yang Sect, this speed was still appallingly slow.
But for the Spirit Plant Cultivators scattered around the Ancient Dust Marketplace, taking only two years to break through from the Qi Refining Third Layer to the Qi Refining Fourth Layer could be considered progressing a thousand miles a day! What’s more, for these Spirit Plant Cultivators, the Qi Refining Fourth Layer was considered the ceiling! In the entire Ancient Dust Marketplace right now, those who had reached it could be counted on two hands.
Approaching evening, Miao Chen and the others showed up at his door again.
They waited at Chen Mo’s door, hesitating whether to knock. Just then, the man himself walked out from behind them.
"What is it?"
The sudden voice startled them. He Zhiping subconsciously took a step back, not daring to speak at all. Instead, Miao Chen braced himself and asked, "The... the Yi Er San Grain Station still said they don’t have any."
"Ten taels of Spiritual Sand for a catty. If you want some, I’ll sell it to you."
"Ah!" Miao Chen’s vision darkened. Ten taels? Niu’s Shop was only selling them for five taels this year!
"Do you want it or not? If not, get lost," Chen Mo snorted coldly. He had zero goodwill toward these neighbors of his, especially He Zhiping who stood off to the side. The fact that he hadn’t beaten him to death was already his greatest mercy, yet this guy still had the nerve to show up in front of him every now and then!
Miao Chen exchanged a glance with He Zhiping before finally gritting his teeth. "We want it! We’ll buy it!"
"Are you sure?" Chen Mo turned around and asked.
"We are sure!"
"Spiritual Sand," he said, holding his hand out.
Miao Chen gulped, then reluctantly dug ten taels of Spiritual Sand out of his Dou. This was his final remaining wealth, but for the sake of next year’s harvest, he had to risk it all!
Chen Mo took it with a flip of his hand, then looked at He Zhiping. He finally received another ten taels of Spiritual Sand from the reluctant man. It would be a waste not to take it! It wasn’t a small amount, after all.
Seeing Chen Mo pocket the Spiritual Sand and head toward his house, He Zhiping and Miao Chen immediately panicked.
"The... where are the seeds?"
"Do you expect me to breed them for you?" Chen Mo retorted.
"Ah?!"
"Of course, you go to the grain station to buy them tomorrow!" With that said, he kicked away Kang, who had poked its head out, and returned into his house.
Outside the door, He Zhiping and Miao Chen looked at each other in dismay. They felt like they had been scammed, but they couldn’t quite pinpoint how.
That was until Miao Chen spoke up, "It looks like he is raising a Spirit Chicken..."