He slowly came out of his trance-like state and savored the aftertaste for a long time. Was this what enlightenment felt like? He thought, with a mix of fondness and regret.

  As expected, afterwards he performed the Grass Wood Technique several times, but not once did he enter that empty and spiritual state from before. However, his finger technique had clearly improved by a level, becoming much smoother, especially in terms of the coordination between his finger technique and spiritual energy; it was as if he had suddenly grasped the key to it, and with just a single movement of his fingers, the spiritual energy would change accordingly, harmonious and without any gaps.

  Magnificent finger movements, terrifying effects, made all the female disciples who were still a bit apprehensive shut their mouths obediently.

  Zuo Mo hadn't expected the effect to be so strong either.

  The tyrannical aura of the "Grass Wood Technique" far exceeded his expectations, and he couldn't help but secretly be on guard. From now on, when using the "Grass Wood Technique", he must be careful.

  Things became much simpler afterwards, and it was enough to just replow the spiritual field once more before they could plant the spiritual grass.

  The female disciple and the method of planting spiritual grass broadened his horizons. A female disciple took out a bamboo tube from her waist, pulled out the plug, and a golden earthworm crawled out. She recited an incantation, and the golden earthworm burrowed into the spiritual field.

  In an instant, the spiritual field suddenly churned up a muddy wave, which lasted for half a stick of incense time before stopping. The spiritual field had been turned upside down, and strangely, not a single speck of mud splashed out of it.

  Zuo Mo couldn't help but feel very interested: "What is this thing? It's actually quite convenient!"

  Li Yingfeng heard the elegant tone of the zither and understood, saying: "We all call it a mud-snail, nothing high-end, just for tilling fields, quite effective. Later I'll send a few to my younger brother, useful for planting Linggu Valley too."

  Zuo Mo was overjoyed: "Thank you, Shifu!"

  In the newly turned spiritual field, the female disciples immediately sprinkled the spiritual grass seeds. The planting of spiritual grass is not as particular as Spiritual Valley, as long as it's dense enough.

  After sprinkling, Zuo Mo saw a female disciple preparing to cast the Small Cloud Rain Technique and volunteered: "If rain is needed, I'll do it."

  Repay peach with plum, it's always not good to take other people's things for nothing.

  Li Yingfeng was overjoyed: "I heard that Shidi's 'Xiao Yunyu Jue' has reached the third layer, today is a good day to take a look!"

  The Xiao Yunyu Jue is the most familiar spell to Zuo Mo, almost no preparation is needed, and with a slight press of the spell, clouds and mist gather, appearing in the sky above the spiritual field.

  The soft and gentle silver threads poured into the spiritual field, the air was filled with vitality, and everyone felt a refreshing spirit.

  The fourth layer 【Xiao Yun Yu Jue】 is still quite different from the third layer, and as soon as the rain is applied, a rainbow appears floating in the air above the spiritual field.

  Just as everyone was admiring, a female disciple suddenly pointed at the spiritual field and screamed: "Heavens! Look, it's sprouting!"

  Sure, here is the translation:

  As expected, in the spiritual field, a small sprout of tender green appeared at some point.

  Zuo Mo took out the wooden spiritual bead from earlier and once again cast [Wooden Spiritual Array]. It immediately transformed into countless green threads, merging into the spiritual field.

  The light green seedlings in the spiritual field suddenly deepened several shades of green and grew vigorously.

  "Junior brother is indeed famous for a reason!" Li Yingfeng sincerely praised, this unknown junior brother seemed to have endless methods, always bringing her many unexpected surprises. Moreover, she found that Zuo Mo's methods were quite different from what she had heard.

  What is he hiding? Li Yingfeng thought of this question for the second time involuntarily.

  The combination of "Cao Mu Jue" and "Xiao Yun Yu Jue" has an unexpectedly good effect, with a significant increase in efficiency. Li Yingfeng doesn't care what method Zuo Mo uses, she just hopes to quickly produce spiritual grass.

  To speed up, Zuo Mo spent several consecutive days, except for going to Cold Mist Valley to make it rain once a day, all the other time was spent on Eastern Peak. He also enjoyed the luxury of using crystal stones to recover his spiritual power for the first time.

  A person's body is like a container, and to hold more spiritual energy, it needs to constantly increase its capacity. How to increase the capacity? The simplest way is to transform the body. Constantly mobilize the spiritual energy, and the spiritual energy will continuously strengthen the meridians, allowing them to hold even more spiritual energy.

  The spiritual energy inside the crystal is pure and dense, far exceeding the free-roaming spiritual energy in the air. It's easier to absorb and has a more obvious effect on transforming the meridians.

  These days, Zuo Mo has been repeating the "Wood and Tree Spell" and the "Small Cloud and Rain Spell" day and night, completing the work of over 400 mu of spiritual fields by himself.

  The female disciples finally saw his craziness and dedication at work.

  Cast a spell, hold crystal stone in hand and meditate, then get up and cast the spell again until spiritual energy is exhausted, then meditate...

  Even they felt tired watching from the side, but Zuo Mo repeated it over and over again, completely unaware of the monotony.

  Zuo Mo certainly didn't think it was dull!

  He never dreamed of such luxurious treatment. Such a great opportunity, if not well utilized, is foolishness?

  He didn't hold back his spiritual energy at all, each time exhausting the spiritual energy in his body completely! Then he took the crystal stone and sucked it wildly.

  These past few days, his gains have been enormous. Even without those ten crystal stones, he would still definitely agree. Never had he absorbed spiritual energy so vigorously, like parched earth suddenly receiving a lot of rainwater. In just these short few days, the spiritual energy within him increased by about one tenth, and his meridians were greatly strengthened.

  Apart from this, repeated use of [Cao Mu Jue] has led to a linear increase in proficiency, with subtle signs of breaking through the second layer.

  Looking at the lush green spiritual field, all the spiritual fields were replanted with spiritual grass, which also means that the work was completed, and his heart was filled with reluctance.

  "When can I still encounter such good things!"

  He sighed deeply in his heart.

  In five days, five second-grade crystal stones were consumed, no wonder Zuo Mo's mind was still unsatisfied.

  Fortunately, however, the ten second-grade crystal stones were enough to make up for his reluctance.

  Li Yingfeng's stone in her heart finally landed. Although the cost was not small, it was good to have finally solved the thorny problem and even made a powerful junior brother, she was quite satisfied.

  One whip, one gallop, the way of literature and martial arts.

  Luo Mo returned to the small courtyard with a bulging waist pack and a very relaxed mood.

  But his daily homework, he still never fell behind. Although the efficiency of meditation was far from comparable to using crystal stones, Zuo Mo persisted. The spiritual energy inside the crystal stone was pure and easy to absorb, but it was a bit overbearing. Usually, meditating to absorb spiritual energy was very slow, but it was very gentle.

  In the long run, over-reliance on crystal stones can easily leave hidden dangers. Sects with a deep foundation mostly have methods to resolve hidden dangers. But for Zuomo, this is still very far away.

  Of course, most importantly, Zuo Mo didn't have that many spirit stones to squander.

  Apart from this, he is now focusing on the Geng Jin Jue and Cao Mu Jue. The Geng Jin Jue has already reached the second level, and the Cao Mu Jue will break through to the second level soon. If both of these can break through to the third level, combined with the Xiao Yun Yu Jue which is already at the fourth level, he will be qualified to become a Ling Zhi Fu.

  Haha, at that time, the crystal stones will come rolling...

  For several days in a row, he was in a great mood.

  Every day, he would leisurely run to the Cold Mist Valley to perform his daily rain ritual. The spiritual herbs in the medicine field were growing well, and the effect of the fourth layer of the "Small Cloud Rain Technique" was remarkable, with the spiritual herbs looking even more vibrant than before. Every time he started raining, the spiritual herbs in the medicine field would sway neatly along with him, as if they were rejoicing. Zuo Mo's mood also tended to brighten up along with the "dance" of these spiritual herbs, and his resistant emotions towards this task that had been forced upon him also dissipated a lot.

  Lengwu Valley's medicine field is a three-product spiritual field, with abundant spiritual energy. The spirituality of these spiritual medicines far exceeds that of ordinary plants.

  The bad luck of the past has been swept away, and his life is once again bright.

  As usual, he reviewed it once before leaving and made sure there were no problems before retreating from Cold Mist Valley.

  Just out of Cold Mist Valley, I hadn't walked for long when I suddenly heard human voices coming from ahead.

  "Lao Hei's family is really miserable, and Linggu Valley has contracted this strange disease. This year, it's estimated that not a single grain will be harvested. Next year, they might not even be able to plant anything in Linggu Valley, and the whole family will have a hard time."

  "Alas, this is fate! I'm worried that this strange disease will spread, if we get infected too, it'll be disastrous!"

  "Oh no! Heaven forbid! I was still counting on this year's harvest to exchange for a new sword manual!"

  "Me too!"

  ……

  Mysterious illness? Zuo Mo's heart skipped a beat.

  Cultivating Linggu, the most feared are those unexplained strange diseases. Once they appear, it's basically impossible to save them, and a year's worth of effort is wasted. In these two years, Zuo Mo had personally seen several senior brothers who, due to bad luck, couldn't even pay the rent for the sect's spiritual fields and were expelled from the sect.

  Recently when I watered Lao Hei Tou, his spirit valley was growing very well, how did he suddenly contract a strange disease? Zuo Mo found it somewhat strange.

  If there's one person in the sect who has it the toughest, it would probably be Old Black. He has a family to support, and his son is said to have decent innate talent, having joined a small sword sect. The annual tribute that must be paid to the sect is no small sum, and adding on the various materials and crystal stones needed for cultivation, the expenses are quite substantial.

  Lao Hei's cultivation of the Five Layers of Qi Refining had been going on for two hundred mu of spiritual land. All his time was spent planting spiritual grains, and in these ten years, his cultivation hadn't increased by even half a point. Yet, despite this, the crystal stones he earned each year were barely enough to make ends meet.

  This year Lao Hei Tou is especially desperate, it's said that his son has already reached the critical point of the seventh layer of Qi refining. In order to let his son break through the seventh layer as soon as possible, a lot of crystal stones are needed.

  Hand it over to the gate school and let the elders of the gate school carry it forward. This is an unwritten rule.

  In addition to this, Lao Hei Tou still pinned his hopes on another method.

  There is no spiritual vein in this place, and the spiritual energy in the air is very thin. If you want to rely on these spiritual energies to convert into your own body's spiritual energy, it will be extremely slow.

  Most family-based cultivators adopt two methods. One is to take Linggu long-term, the spiritual power contained in Linggu is not high, but it is mild and easy to absorb. The other method is to directly absorb spiritual power from crystal stones, which is also the fastest way. Moreover, using crystal stones is especially effective for breaking through bottlenecks.

  Lao Hei Tou was thinking of using this method to help his son break through the seven-layer barrier.

  Zuo Mo decided to go take a look, and if it really would spread, then his own fifty mu spiritual field would inevitably be affected.

  At the foot of the mountain, Ling Tian was surrounded by many people. With a glance, Mo Yi found Lao Hei Tou in the crowd. His dark face had turned pale with no trace of blood, his eyes empty and desperate.

  But just a moment before, Zuo Mo had cast Rain of Ling Tian on the field, which gave him quite a fright.

  The lush and vibrant Spiritual Valleys are now almost all withered, their leaves and trunks emitting a dark aura. Anyone who sees this scene would be certain that these Spiritual Valleys are dead for sure. At the edge of the Spiritual Fields, many senior brothers have gathered in small groups, discussing in hushed tones, their voices filled with worry.

  "Master Guo has arrived! Master Guo has arrived!"

  Someone in the crowd cheered, and Lao Hei's desperate eyes suddenly lit up with a hint of spirit, and he quickly picked himself up from the ground.

  Guo Lu Shixiong is the deepest practitioner of our school's [Geng Jin Jue], who broke through the second layer several years ago. Recently, there has been news that he is about to break through the third layer. All along, whenever Linggu appeared with some difficult and complicated symptoms, everyone would recommend Guo Lu Shixiong, and he did not disappoint their expectations, having saved many lives of Linggu who were already considered hopeless by others.

  Guo Lu's elder brother, with his bare feet and shorts, had a bitter face full of wrinkles, resembling an old farmer. When he saw the withered spiritual fields, his expression changed slightly before quickly returning to normal.

  This change was extremely subtle, but it was precisely captured by Zuo Mo. As early as when he saw the withered Ling Tian, he had a bad premonition in his heart, and when he saw the change in Guo Lu's expression, the ominous feeling in his heart grew heavier. The [Geng Jin Jue] has made great progress, and he understands many more things now.

  If it were an ordinary pest, the withered leaves would never turn black. This thread of black death made Luo Mo feel a little frightened.

  Lao Hei Tou almost rushed to Guo Lu Shixiong's face, shouting with a broken heart: "Shixiong! Save me!"

  Seeing Lao Hei's desperate expression, Guo Lu's face suddenly flushed with a solemn tone: "I will exhaust all my abilities!"

  He walked into the spiritual field.

  Everyone's gaze was focused on him, without a single whisper, and everyone stared intently as Guo Shixiong stepped towards the Lingtian.

  Guo Lu's face was solemn, he walked to a withered Linggu and squatted down. He carefully examined the Linggu from all sides, even pulling off the withered black leaves and sniffing them in front of his nose. His examination was extremely meticulous, almost covering the entire spiritual field, taking up nearly half a time period.

  His face showed an increasingly puzzled expression, as if he had encountered some inexplicable problem.

  He shook his head, still looking puzzled on his face, and placed his hand on a withered Linggu.

  At the same time, Zuomo's spirit, who also knew the "Gengjin Jue", suddenly shook, and he knew that the most critical moment had arrived.