Chapter 143 – The Farmer’s Divine-Grade Talent, The Difference Between Blessed Grounds! (5k Mega Chapter)

【Over the following week, you remained in the dormitory, occasionally going to see Jin Congxue. It seemed you had not been exposed.】

【But you still couldn’t rest easy, so you decided to investigate the Black Dragon Guild yourself.】

【You pretended to be a college student looking for employment at the Black Dragon Guild, and smoothly made your way into the guild hall.】

【The customer service girl who received you was extremely enthusiastic, but you detected something off in her eyes.】

【That somewhat glazed look—it was a sign of spiritual soul invasion!】

【Your heart stirred. You pretended to accidentally touch the girl’s wrist, but in truth swept her with your divine sense.】

【After a thorough examination, you confirmed one thing: a soul seed had been planted in this customer service girl’s spiritual soul.】

【Though you weren’t sure of the soul seed’s exact effects, you were certain—this was a cultivator’s technique!】

【Next, your gaze swept across the dozens of customer service staff, managers, and other personnel of the Black Dragon Trading Company in the hall.】

【What somewhat shocked you was that all of their spiritual souls appeared to have been tampered with.】

Su Xing frowned slightly at this.

The guild’s reception staff and managers were obviously ordinary Class Users.

But the unusual thing was that soul seeds had already been planted in all of them!

Soul seeds were a very special existence. They could forcibly control a person and turn them into a puppet, or they could impose psychological suggestions on someone, achieving the goal of making the target obedient.

Su Xing estimated that the soul seeds planted by the Black Dragon Guild should belong to the latter category.

“So, the entire Black Dragon Guild—even the Black Dragon Trading Company—is already under Protector Dragon’s control?”

Su Xing’s gaze sharpened. This was not good news.

The Black Dragon Trading Company, as a thorn the Advent Cult had planted in the Capital City, should be an important stronghold.

It didn’t just serve Protector Dragon—it likely served the entire Advent Cult.

“But right now, the most critical question is: if I break into the secret chamber, will there actually be danger?”

Thinking this, Su Xing turned his gaze to the simulation panel.

【In the Black Dragon Guild hall, you didn’t release your divine sense widely to probe, because while ordinary Class Users might not be able to detect divine sense, a cultivator of similar strength to you could easily notice the anomaly.】

【You left the Black Dragon Guild without drawing attention and returned to the academy.】

【One day, your homeroom teacher Liu Xiaodong sought you out. He told you that because your strength didn’t meet the standards, you now faced two choices: drop out or repeat a grade.】

【You didn’t hesitate and chose to repeat a grade.】

【Ever since learning that the Black Dragon Trading Company was an Advent Cult stronghold, you understood that even the Capital City wasn’t absolutely safe.】

【And compared to the outside world, the Capital City Academy—brimming with experts—was clearly much safer.】

【You secretly pulled some strings and secured yourself a cushy position as a school librarian. This way, with dual status as both a student and a school employee, you could stay at the academy with a perfectly good excuse.】

【On graduation day, you and your good brother Fatty Yu, along with several other classmates you were close with, went out drinking. With some sentimentality, you bid farewell to everyone.】

【Afterward, you moved into a secluded faculty dormitory within the school—a single room—making your trips in and out of the Blessed Spirit Field much more convenient.】

【Over the following months, you continued your daily routine of planting spirit plants and refining pills in the Blessed Spirit Field, occasionally meeting with Jin Congxue. You encountered no danger.】

【During this period, thanks to your encouragement, Wang Qingxuan continued her studies at the academy. You secretly used the Tarot Society’s connections to provide Wang Qingxuan with financial support.】

【With Wang Qingxuan’s potential, once she grew into her strength, she would become a valuable ally.】

【One day, you decided the time was ripe—it was time to find a way to infiltrate the Advent Cult.】

【So, following the memories in your mind, you began searching for the Advent Cult’s headquarters.】

【You quickly found someone unexpected—Old Dog Zong!】

【Through divine sense, Old Dog Zong easily determined that you, like him, were a cultivator—and moreover, a great cultivator at the Spirit Transformation stage.】

【You exchanged smiles and conversation, appearing harmonious on the surface, but in truth each of you was guarding against the other.】

【You casually let slip information about the Life-Sustaining Pill. Sure enough, Old Dog Zong took the bait, trading a batch of spirit medicines for two Life-Sustaining Pills and introducing you into the Advent Cult.】

【Because of Old Dog Zong’s recommendation, you received the Advent Cult’s attention from the moment you joined, successfully becoming an Elder.】

【Afterward, you acted like sworn brothers with Old Dog Zong on the surface, but secretly contacted Luo Shuying and won her trust.】

【With Luo Shuying’s help, you obtained large quantities of spirit medicines.】

【You spent your days slacking off in the Advent Cult, occasionally completing missions, but spending most of your time in the Blessed Spirit Field refining pills and growing spirit medicines.】

【In the second year, with the blessing of the Divine Farmer talent, the thirty Spirit-Gathering Flowers you had previously planted had fully matured, and you harvested a new batch of fifty Spirit-Gathering Flower seeds.】

【You planted all fifty Spirit-Gathering Flower seeds, preparing to harvest even more Spirit-Gathering Flowers in two years.】

【At the same time, over the course of a year, you stockpiled Organ Tempering Pills, Essence Nurturing Pills, Dragon Spirit Pills, and other elixirs—totaling one hundred thousand pills.】

【Things were developing exactly as you had planned. You only needed to bleed the Advent Cult dry of their medicinal ingredients before defecting at any moment.】

【In the third year, you had accumulated a considerable number of contribution points. You planned to visit the Advent Cult’s treasury with Luo Shuying once more, exchanging for whatever medicinal ingredients remained.】

【You and Luo Shuying entered the Advent Cult’s secret instance. After passing the inspection procedures, you successfully entered the treasury.】

【Inside the treasury, aside from you and Luo Shuying, the only other person was Protector Dragon, dozing in a corner against the wall.】

【You glanced at Protector Dragon, feeling cautious.】

【In a simulation long ago, you had once died from his soul search. But now you were a great cultivator at the Spirit Transformation stage, and with Luo Shuying by your side, Protector Dragon shouldn’t dare do anything to you.】

【However, as you brushed past Protector Dragon, the man who had been dozing suddenly opened his eyes.】

【He scrutinized you carefully, let out a couple of sinister chuckles, and demanded to know why you had raided the Black Dragon Guild back then.】

Su Xing’s heart clenched at this.

After raiding the Black Dragon Guild, Su Xing had encountered no danger whatsoever during the first two years.

He had thought things would remain peaceful, but he never expected Protector Dragon to discover the clues after all.

“How did Protector Dragon find out? Was it residual aura I left behind when I broke into the secret chamber?”

Su Xing pondered, and also began to understand why he had been safe during those first two years.

“Protector Dragon is different from the other Protectors—his duty is to guard the treasury, so he can’t easily go out!”

“And precisely because of this, Protector Dragon can’t even easily take action to investigate or retaliate against me.”

“On top of that, the Black Dragon Guild was already shady to begin with. After being raided like that, they’d probably be even more nervous and wouldn’t dare conduct a large-scale investigation. In the end, they could only let it go!”

Su Xing followed this line of reasoning further.

“And after I fled the Black Dragon Guild, I went straight to the busiest Class User marketplace. The daily foot traffic there is in the hundreds of thousands—that makes investigating even harder!”

“What’s more, the Blessed Spirit Field is something they could never find no matter what!”

Su Xing closed his eyes in deep thought, weighing the gains and losses of raiding the Black Dragon Trading Company.

“The benefit is that I can directly obtain over one hundred million energy…”

“And the downside is that if I ever encounter Protector Dragon in the future, it’ll be easy for him to discover the clues!”

“So, should I go through with the robbery or not?”

After deliberating, Su Xing clenched his fist and muttered:

“What’s there to be afraid of? That Protector Dragon sits in the treasury all day long—he probably can’t leave at all. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have gone two or three years without incident!”

“Two or three years from now… heh, by then, even if Protector Dragon knows, so what? By then, it’s anyone’s guess who’ll be soul-searching whom!”

With that thought, Su Xing made up his mind.

“I’m doing this job! Over a hundred million energy!”

“As long as I do it cleanly, there won’t be any problems!”

For a moment, Su Xing felt a surge of excitement. Robbing the robbers—was there anything more satisfying than this?

Over a hundred million energy could save Su Xing two whole months of time.

“The only question is, how exactly will Protector Dragon handle this matter?”

Su Xing’s thoughts stirred as he turned his gaze back to the simulation panel.

【After being confronted by Protector Dragon, you paused for a moment, then pretended to only just recall the incident, openly admitting to it.】

【You stated that back then you had just completed a body-seizing and were short on magical treasures and money. You happened to pass by the Black Dragon Guild, so you robbed them.】

【You said this with utter brazenness, looking Protector Dragon straight in the eye without a shred of guilt.】

【Protector Dragon’s expression shifted between light and dark after hearing this, seemingly weighing your identity and strength.】

【After a long while, Protector Dragon waved his hand irritably, telling you to hurry up and exchange your treasures, then get lost.】

【Seeing that Protector Dragon had nothing more to say, you hastily redeemed the medicinal ingredients and fled the Advent Cult together with Luo Shuying.】

【After defecting from the Advent Cult, you and Luo Shuying were quickly pursued by assassins. But by then you had already escaped to Capital City, where the Advent Cult didn’t dare act recklessly.】

【As for that unlucky bastard Old Dog Zong, he happened to be inside the cult when the incident broke out. Besieged by several Protectors, he burned through every last trump card before barely escaping with his life.】

Su Xing let out a long breath of relief at this.

“Just as I thought — a Spirit Transformation cultivator combined with an Elder’s status means even Protector Dragon has no choice but to swallow this loss!”

What Su Xing had told Protector Dragon was a straightforward admission that he had double-crossed them.

But what could Protector Dragon do about it?

After all, they hadn’t been on the same side to begin with.

And the losses Su Xing had caused weren’t exactly devastating — around a hundred humanoid puppets, plus some high-grade equipment and exotic metal. That was all.

It simply wasn’t worth it for Protector Dragon to offend a Spirit Transformation stage Elder, not to mention Luo Shuying standing right beside him.

Thinking this, Su Xing sighed and said, “In the end, it all comes down to strength!”

“When I first met this Protector Dragon, I was nothing but a lowly Golden Core cultivator — naturally beneath his notice…”

“But a great cultivator at Spirit Transformation? Even Protector Dragon has to weigh the costs and benefits!”

With this in mind, Su Xing formed a rough assessment of Protector Dragon’s strength.

Perhaps stronger than Spirit Transformation stage, but absolutely not at a level where he could disregard Spirit Transformation cultivators entirely!

“In that case, the Black Dragon Guild really is worth paying a visit!”

Su Xing thought this as his gaze turned back to the simulation panel.

【After defecting to the Great Xia Military, your formidable strength quickly earned the military’s high regard.】

【Then, you produced over a hundred thousand pills, which further cemented your status. The Great Xia Military hailed you as a hero of the human race, granting you an extremely elevated position!】

【Year three. This year you continued refining pills and tending the farmland. You refined all remaining spirit medicines into pills that enhanced combat strength, adding many powerful cultivators to Great Xia’s ranks.】

【For a time, the Great Xia Military’s strength at Demon-Sealing Pass reached unprecedented heights!】

【Yet you remained as detached from fame and fortune as ever, devoting most of your energy to the cultivation of spirit medicines.】

【With the Divine Farmer talent, you discovered that spirit rice yields had increased dramatically. Still harvesting twice per year, the yield per mu of spirit field skyrocketed from five thousand jin to ten thousand jin!】

【Moreover, each grain of spirit rice was plump and distinct. You could even distinguish the quality of individual spirit grains, allowing you to optimize the spirit rice varieties and enhance their effectiveness!】

【Year four. The second batch of Spirit-Gathering Flowers you planted matured. You harvested fifty mature Spirit-Gathering Flowers and eighty Spirit-Gathering Flower seeds.】

【You transplanted the mature Spirit-Gathering Flowers into the spirit-gathering formation, then began a new round of sowing.】

Su Xing immediately perked up at this, muttering:

“Impressive — I didn’t expect the Divine Farmer talent to be this powerful!”

“On average, each batch matures in two years, and the seed yield is about one and a half times what it used to be. At this rate, I’ll easily be able to grow over a thousand Spirit-Gathering Flowers this time!”

At this thought, the corners of Su Xing’s mouth curled upward.

If he truly had over a thousand Spirit-Gathering Flowers, he wouldn’t need to worry about energy for a long while.

“And the spirit rice — yield per mu has doubled… one mu produces twenty thousand jin per year, with even better quality!”

“With my five hundred mu of land, wouldn’t that be an annual yield of ten million jin?”

Su Xing raised an eyebrow. If this trend continued…

Then his plan to cultivate spirit rice on a large scale on Earth could be moved up ahead of schedule.

After this simulation, the number of Spirit-Gathering Flowers should be about sufficient. The only thing he’d still be short on was spirit stones.

His gaze returned to the simulation panel.

【Year five. You inadvertently discovered that after advancing to the Spirit Transformation stage, Mind-Condensing Pills once again became effective at expanding your divine sense.】

【Though the effect was modest, it could still increase your divine sense range by approximately fifty zhang per year.】

【You quietly took note of this, then distributed most of the Spirit-Gathering Pills to Luo Shuying.】

【Year six. A new batch of Spirit-Gathering Flowers matured.】

【By now, the total number of newly planted mature Spirit-Gathering Flowers in your possession had reached one hundred and sixty, with seeds numbering one hundred as well.】

【You began a new round of sowing.】

【Year seven. Your spirit rice project achieved a major success. Within the Blessed Spirit Field, each mu of land provided you with twenty thousand jin of spirit grain per year. Five hundred mu in total yielded ten million jin of spirit rice.】

【Not only that, you also sealed off two mountain areas on the outskirts of Capital City — a total of three thousand mu — to serve as your dedicated spirit rice test fields.】

【But even after spending an entire year, you had only managed to set up just over a hundred small spirit-gathering formations. This fell far short of your projections.】

【Left with no choice, you temporarily halted the spirit rice cultivation and turned your focus to improving your mastery of spirit-gathering formations.】

【Year eight. The number of Spirit-Gathering Flowers you planted each year continued to surge. As their numbers grew, you had to set aside two shichen each day to ensure the Spirit-Gathering Flowers matured properly.】

【Year nine. Your Qi Refinement cultivation continued to advance. You felt yourself drawing ever closer to the second level of Spirit Transformation.】

【As time passed, the spiritual energy within the Blessed Spirit Field grew ever more abundant.】

【Spiritual energy was no longer the bottleneck for your advancement. However, breaking through in the Spirit Transformation stage was several times harder than in the Nascent Soul stage. Even advancing a single minor realm was no easy feat.】

【Year ten. The number of mature Spirit-Gathering Flowers in your possession reached four hundred, with seed count at a full one hundred and fifty.】

【Simultaneously cultivating one hundred and fifty Spirit-Gathering Flowers — even with your talent for spirit cultivation — required you to spend three shichen per day tending them just to prevent them from withering.】

【Year eleven. Your Qi Refinement cultivation remained at the first level of Spirit Transformation.】

【The good news was that, thanks to your daily use of Demon Emperor Blood Essence, your Body Tempering cultivation achieved a minor breakthrough. You became a fifth-level Divine Power Realm cultivator!】

【Year twelve. Your research into spirit-gathering formations achieved a minor breakthrough, with your formation success rate reaching over sixty percent.】

【Over the years, you had set up a total of five hundred small spirit-gathering formations.】

【That same year, the spirit rice project was implemented on a large scale. You transplanted five hundred Spirit-Gathering Flowers into the spirit rice test fields, supplemented by spirit stones. Each mu of Earth spirit field could now yield up to ten thousand jin per year!】

【Five hundred small spirit-gathering formations could cover fifteen hundred mu of spirit field. Earth’s annual spirit rice yield reached fifteen million jin!】

【Year thirteen. You reported the progress of the spirit rice cultivation to Great Xia’s top leadership, which drew the government’s intense attention.】

【The Great Xia Military even dispatched one Legendary Class User and two Martial Emperor Class Users specifically to protect the spirit rice test fields.】

【Fifteen million jin of spirit rice per year was enough to supply a million people. This meant that each year, Great Xia could produce nearly a million additional Silver-stage Class Users, while also nurturing a large number of talented Class Users.】

【Year fourteen. After the spirit rice project was implemented, you devoted more of your energy to cultivating Spirit-Gathering Flowers and advancing your own cultivation.】

【Year fifteen. Your Qi Refinement cultivation finally achieved a minor breakthrough. You successfully advanced to the second level of Spirit Transformation!】

Su Xing sighed at this.

“Alas, even with abundant spiritual energy, it still takes nearly fifteen years to break through a single minor realm?”

“While this speed would be considered extremely fast among Spirit Transformation cultivators, it’s still not enough for me!”

Spirit Transformation cultivators could live for a thousand years. With life-extending medicines, living thirteen to fifteen hundred years was entirely possible.

And breakthroughs in the Spirit Transformation stage were extremely difficult. For an ordinary Spirit Transformation cultivator, advancing a single level without some fortuitous encounter might require twenty to thirty years of bitter cultivation.

Su Xing possessed a Dual-Element True Spirit Root, which made his cultivation speed nearly twice as fast as ordinary Spirit Transformation cultivators.

But even so, with fifteen years per minor realm — even cultivating desperately — a single simulation could probably only push him to the third level of Spirit Transformation at most.

And cultivation only grew harder the further one advanced!

“Sigh, it seems that if I want to advance quickly, I’ll need to obtain a higher-grade spirit root!”

Su Xing sighed. His current spirit root was a blue True Spirit Root. If he could draw a purple spirit root, his cultivation speed would skyrocket.

But drawing spirit roots wasn’t something he could control — it was all down to luck.

“Well, talent isn’t something I can decide. Let me just focus on what’s in front of me!”

Su Xing turned his gaze back to the simulation panel.

【Year sixteen. As the base number of Spirit-Gathering Flowers grew ever larger, you now had to spend nearly a third of each day tending them.】

【But it was all worth it! This year, the number of Spirit-Gathering Flowers in your Blessed Spirit Field approached seven hundred, with seed count reaching three hundred as well.】

【Based on your calculations, if the number of Spirit-Gathering Flowers could reach three thousand, the Blessed Spirit Field would likely undergo a metamorphosis!】

【The dense concentration of spiritual energy might allow your portable spirit field to ascend from a blessed land to a grotto-heaven!】