As they walked, they arrived at the top of the spirit mountain.
The Immortal's Cave was located halfway up the mountain, and they were looking for cave number five.
Pushing open the cave abode, there was a pill furnace, an earth fire, a hot spring, and a bed made of Warm Jade. On the whole, it looked relatively simple, and its area was only 70 square meters.
Lu Xuanji stepped forward and opened the spirit cave, and immediately, streams of spiritual energy leaked out.
Sensing the density of the spiritual energy, Lu Xuanji frowned slightly and said, "The spiritual energy here is only one-third of that of Mount Ziyang. This spiritual energy is so thin."
"Brother, there's nothing we can do about it. The Wu Clan Market only has a tier-2 middle-grade spirit vein, but Mount Ziyang has a tier-3 upper-grade spirit vein," Ye Feixue said. "Brother, I want to learn alchemy."
"This..." Lu Xuanji hesitated, then said, "Little Xue, alchemy requires two great Spiritual Roots, wood and fire. Fire is the main element, and wood is the auxiliary element. As for you, you have a Heavenly Spiritual Root, and you have a pure fire attribute. You're not suitable for alchemy."
"The Lu Clan is gone. We can't just sit around do nothing. As long as I work hard, I can still become a top-tier alchemist," Ye Feixue said firmly.
"Okay," Lu Xuanji agreed. "However, you have to remember, whether it's refining pills or refining weapons, they are just external things. They are just side jobs. Cultivation is the main occupation, and longevity is the foundation. Some alchemists are obsessed with refining pills, obsessed with earning spirit stones, but they neglect the improvement of their cultivation."
"It doesn't matter how many spirit stones there are. The important thing is to have a strong cultivation base."
"After the Lu Clan was destroyed, we became unaffiliated cultivators. We can't be unaffiliated cultivators forever. Instead, we have to constantly improve our cultivation base. The sooner we reach the Foundation Establishment stage, the sooner we can rebuild the Lu Clan."
"I understand," Ye Feixue said firmly.
Just like that, the two of them lived in the Wu Clan Market.
Usually, they focused on cultivation. As their cultivation base increased, they could continue to cultivate for six hours a day. After six hours, their meridians began to ache slightly, and they would stop.
When they were not cultivating, they were tending to two hundred acres of spirit fields.
In the spirit fields, White Yang Rice was planted. In order for the spirit rice to grow normally, not only did one have to control the amount of spirit rain, the conditions of the land, and the light, but one also had to fertilize the soil regularly.
The yield of White Sun Rice would be different for every farmer, as each of them would have different capabilities.
However, when the Wu Clan Market collected land rent, it was based on two hundred catties per acre. It was based on three levels, which meant that one had to collect sixty catties per acre.
Whether there was an increase or decrease in grain production, it was based on the land rent of 60 catties per acre.
Most cultivators only produced 150 catties per acre when they planted White Yang Rice. However, outstanding spirit farmers produced 200 catties per acre. Lu Xuanji relied on his Three Spiritual Roots of Earth, wood, and fire to have a keen sense of water and soil, so he could produce 230 catties per acre.
However, with the mobile phone and the Fate Deduction, he could collect data on soil, air, light, spiritual energy density, seed condition, and so on. He could deduce reasonable data and carry out scientific farming.
The yield per acre reached 250 catties.
Looking at the yield per acre of spirit rice, Lu Xuanji immediately gave up the idea of becoming an alchemist and chose to be a spirit farmer.
Being an alchemist seemed to be a glamorous job. However, in the beginning, one would face the problem of burning money. Then, in the middle and later stages, one would face a shortage of spirit herbs.
In this world, there was no shortage of alchemists. What was lacking were high-level spirit farmers.
A high-level spirit cultivator was harder to find than an alchemist or an array master.
Take the Lu Clan for example. They had a high-level tier-2 spirit farmer who was good at taking care of the Ganoderma, the clan could harvest two mature Ganoderma every twenty years. Alchemists had enough raw materials to refine Foundation Establishment Pills.
In the area of Foundation Establishment Pills, the Lu Clan was basically self-sufficient. In some years, they sold extra Foundation Building Pills.
After familiarizing himself with the surrounding soil, water, light, spiritual energy, and other conditions, Lu Xuanji began to transform the spirit field and plant White Sun Rice. At the same time, Ye Feixue began to try to refine pills, in the end, she failed dozens of times in a row, and none of them succeeded. It could be said to be extremely miserable.
The only lucky thing was that these medicinal herbs were relatively cheap, and she only lost five or six spirit stones.
This made Ye Feixue very disappointed.
Lu Xuanji was helpless and could only go up to comfort her.
Heavenly Spirit Root was a cultivation genius. In terms of cultivation, she was the daughter of the Heavens. However, in terms of the mastery of the skills and arts, she was severely lacking.
In terms of the skills and arts, many professions needed dual or triple attribute Spiritual Roots.
For example, an alchemist needed fire and wood. Fire was the main element and wood was the auxiliary element.
A blacksmith needed fire and metal. Metal was the main element and fire was the auxiliary element.
An array master needed metal and earth. Earth was the main element and metal was the auxiliary element.
As a spirit farmer, earth and wood attributes were needed, with wood as the primary attribute and earth as the secondary attribute.
A talisman maker would require water and wood as the primary attribute and wood as the secondary attribute.
A Heavenly Spiritual Root was simply suitable for such side occupations.
...
A year passed by.
During this year, Lu Xuanji continued to polish his True Qi, and the quality of his True Qi improved.
He finally broke through his bottleneck and stepped into the eighth level of the Qi Refinement stage.
At the same time, it was time for the harvest of the spirit field.
Whoosh...
His left hand urged the flying sword and continuously cut the rice horizontally. His right hand urged the spiritual Qi, turning the Qi into the shape of a palm, holding the harvest.
The harvest was very fast. In just three days, he had finished harvesting the three hundred acres of spirit rice.
Then, he urged the spell to remove the shell of the rice.
In the end, he calculated the yield of the White Yang Rice. The yield was 73,000 catties of spirit rice. The highest yield per acre was 260 catties, and the lowest yield was 230 catties.
About 18,000 catties of spirit rice would be given to the Wu Clan as land rent. The rest of the spirit rice would be his, and he could sell it to the Wu Clan.
The purchase price was 1,000 catties of White Yang Rice, and the value was one spirit stone.
After deducting the price of the seeds and the price of the fertilizer, Lu Xuanji's annual income was 45 spirit stones.
This was considered a high salary.
"Big Brother, let's go out and hunt Demon Beasts." Right at this moment, ye Feixue said, "I've estimated that Big Brother's annual income is 45 spirit stones. After various expenses, he can at most save 30 spirit stones. It will take 500 years to accumulate 15,000 spirit stones."
"500 years. We can't wait that long."
"That's right. We have to go out and hunt Demon Beasts," Lu Xuanji pondered and said.
Only the Heavenly Spiritual Root could guarantee to reach Foundation Establishment without the Foundation Establishment Pill.
As for the other Spiritual Roots, they all had the possibility of failure without the Foundation Establishment Pill.
After taking the Foundation Establishment Pill, even if the advancement to Foundation Establishment failed, it could still save one's life. However, without the Foundation Establishment Pill, once the Foundation Establishment failed, one would die on the spot.
Without the Foundation Establishment Pill, one would lack a sense of security.
When one reached the late stage of the Qi Refinement stage, unaffiliated cultivators would often go outside to hunt Demon Beasts and accumulate spirit stones to exchange for the Foundation Establishment Pill.
Hunting Demon Beasts was very risky. Not only did they have to face Demon Beasts, but they also had to deal with rogue human cultivators. Many cultivators lost their lives outside.
However, when the risk was high, the profits were also great. This was much faster than farming, refining pills, and making talismans.
After working hard for ten years, they had to try something different.