In the Tea Garden, the tea trees were lush with branches and leaves. Despite the falling snow, a few flower buds had quietly erged.
Fang Qingyuan hadn’t known much about tea before. Only after taking over the Qingfeng Tea Garden did he learn that the flowering season for tea trees was, surprisingly, winter.
The buds wouldn’t bloom en masse until spring, after the new year. But the tea trees had already begun gathering their strength and producing buds during the winter.
Fang Qingyuan’s main purpose for visiting the Qingfeng Tea Garden this ti was to confirm sothing. In the past two years, the tea-farming families had given birth to several more children, and he was here to see if any of these newborns possessed a Spirit Root.
But unfortunately—or perhaps fortunately—none of the recently born children had a Spirit Root.
This result made Fang Qingyuan let out a long sigh of relief. ’Thank goodness no children with Spirit Roots were born,’ he thought. ’Otherwise, even a fool would know sothing is wrong here.’
The appearance of two children with tal Spirit Roots at once could barely be passed off as a coincidence. But if children with tal Spirit Roots kept appearing one after another, Fang Qingyuan wouldn’t be able to hide this place’s secret. If anyone dug to the root of the matter, even Jinbao wouldn’t be safe.
Jinbao was now trotting obediently behind Fang Qingyuan. When they were out, it still put on an act of being shy around strangers.
Jinbao didn’t know that its mother was buried a thousand zhang beneath this very spot.
Fang Qingyuan had no intention of telling it now. ’Perhaps when Jinbao reaches the Nascent Soul realm, it will finally be strong enough to bear the truth of this place.’
After checking on the tea-farming families, Fang Qingyuan had intended to leave imdiately, but the sudden arrival of an opportunity for a breakthrough forced him to remain.
Such opportunities were fleeting, so Fang Qingyuan chose to make his breakthrough right there in the Tea Garden, with Jinbao standing guard. An hour later, he was finished. Unable to contain his joy, he and Jinbao began to stroll through the snow-covered Tea Garden.
Feeling the surging Spiritual Power within him, Fang Qingyuan compared his current state to the day before. He found that the total amount of Spiritual Qi in his body had increased by half.
An increase in his total Spiritual Power ant he was much more formidable in a fight—not that he’d ever had much fighting prowess to begin with.
The rewards of his advancent didn’t stop there. The increase in his total Spiritual Power was just one aspect. His soul had also grown stronger, the range of his Divine Sense had expanded, and even his physical body was significantly tougher than before.
Cultivation was a process of holistic improvent; there was no such thing as only increasing one’s Spiritual Power while all other aspects stagnated.
Although his body was still no match for Body Refiners who specialized in Body Refining Techniques, Fang Qingyuan could now drop his Protective Spiritual Power and allow a mortal to strike him without sustaining any injury.
He had only ever seen the trope of a Cultivator losing their Spiritual Power and being left at the rcy of mortals in storybooks written by common folk.
And if an Immortal Master ever caught sight of such a story, the mortal who wrote that scene would probably be in for a world of hurt.
Strolling through the snow-covered Tea Garden, Fang Qingyuan inhaled the crisp air and released his Divine Sense, enveloping a ten-zhang radius around him.
All sorts of information flooded his mind like a flowing stream. Anything close by, he could perceive as clearly as the lines on his own palm. Things farther away were like viewing a scene at the bottom of a rippling pool—blurry, but he could still make out the general shapes.
This perception extended in all directions, unhindered by his line of sight. He could sense what was on the other side of high walls, trees, or rocks.
It was similar to a bat’s echolocation, but on a level that was countless tis more advanced.
Previously, his Divine Sense could only cover a range of seven or eight zhang. Now that he had advanced, it had expanded to ten zhang, making it far more practical.
He estimated that as a Cultivator’s cultivation grew higher, they would beco more accustod to using their Divine Sense to gather information, with their eyes serving rely as a supplent.
’Cultivation...’ he mused. ’From the mont a Cultivator first makes contact with Spiritual Power at the First-Layer Qi Refining, they begin to evolve into a completely different species: an Immortal!’
Fang Qingyuan experinted with his Divine Sense a few more tis with great interest. After getting a feel for his new changes, he took Jinbao and flew back to his small courtyard via Sword Control.
There were more important changes that he could only inspect safely at ho. The Tea Garden wasn’t the remote wilderness, but it still carried risks.
If a Cultivator happened to pass by, it would be a hassle. His own courtyard, however, was inside Tianshan Villa. Outsiders couldn’t enter, making it very secure.
When Fang Qingyuan returned to his courtyard, he sent Jinbao off to practice its techniques before heading back into his Quiet Chamber.
As for Yinbao, it had been borrowed by Zhang Yuan. He said he wanted to enter the first annual Flying and Grounded Beast Racing Competition hosted by Lechuan, and he was now putting Yinbao through intensive training.
This racing event was sothing Lechuan had specifically organized to boost the morale of the Southern Border Beast Taming Sect. He’d heard it was very popular over at Zongshan, where it was held annually. Each ti, it would attract many Cultivators from other Land Realms, who would travel thousands of miles to place bets and spend money as they watched.
Lechuan was hoping to develop so unique industries for the Southern Border Beast Taming Sect, ideally attracting Cultivators from White Mountain and even Qi Yun to spectate, so he had invested heavily in it.
Zhang Yuan, enticed by the rewards, had asked to borrow Yinbao from Fang Qingyuan, figuring that even if they didn’t place, they could at least get a participation prize.
Fang Qingyuan had been completely focused on his cultivation lately and had no energy to get involved in such matters. Besides, with Yinbao at ho, he had to be the one to feed it. He figured he might as well just toss it to Zhang Yuan and let him handle its care.
Zhang Yuan had said that if they won any prizes, they would split them fifty-fifty. Fang Qingyuan didn’t pay it much mind; he was well aware of Yinbao’s actual capabilities.
’Still,’ Fang Qingyuan thought, ’a Tuoyao Skate that only wants to stuff its face and a Cultivator who’s content as long as he has enough Spirit Stones to get by and loves a good drink... when those two get together, maybe they really can pull off a surprise.’
These thoughts flashed through Fang Qingyuan’s mind before he slipped his soul into the Immortal Mansion Space.
The mont his soul entered, Fang Qingyuan noticed it had beco much more condensed. He held out his hand and examined it closely, finding that the once ethereal limb now had a tangible quality to it.
To put it in perspective, the boost his soul received from this advancent was equivalent to practicing his Soul Dao Technique, the Yindu Black Law Soul-Binding Spell, about ten tis.
However, he couldn’t let the Spiritual Power inside the Immortal Mansion diminish too much, or the Spirit Plants and the Bee Queen would be affected. Because of this, Fang Qingyuan typically only practiced this Soul Dao Technique once a month.
Later, he had grudgingly decided to bury so Spirit Stones, consuming about a hundred Low-grade Spirit Stones, just to allow himself to practice it twice in one month.
But while the efficiency increased, so did the cost in Spirit Stones. With no recent inco, Fang Qingyuan had temporarily set this thod aside.
Now, almost half a year later, Fang Qingyuan had practiced the Yindu Black Law Soul-Binding Spell six tis. Factoring in the boost from his recent advancent, he estimated his soul was now about a quarter stronger than that of a Cultivator at the sa level.
And this was only the beginning. Fang Qingyuan believed that as long as he kept practicing, it wouldn’t be a problem for his soul to beco three or four tis stronger than that of his peers.
After assessing the changes to his soul, Fang Qingyuan turned his attention to the edge of the Immortal Mansion. A brand-new patch of Black Land was materializing there out of thin air.
By Fang Qingyuan’s estimation, this new patch of Black Land was a full half-mu in size.
By comparison, Fang Qingyuan realized this new plot of land was twice the size of the one-bedroom, three-living-room apartnt he’d had in his past life.
The thought of the apartnt he’d made a down paynt on but never gotten to live in made Fang Qingyuan fall silent for a mont. He then quietly walked up to the patch of Black Land.
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