"First, plant the test crops."
Zhao Xing put down the bamboo box, cast a spell of cloud conjuring, and covered the entire courtyard with clouds.
Then, he began to plow the ground with the wind.
"Whoosh~" Small tornadoes plowed furrows into the soil.
"Whoosh~" A gentle breeze lifted the grass seeds from the bamboo box and accurately deposited them into the furrows.
"Rustle~" Raindrops began to fall from the clouds.
"Grow strong!"
"Earth Vein Return!"
"Endless Palace!"
Zhao Xing quickly cast his spells.
He explored the earth veins, using the area’s stature to perform Ksitigarbha Returning Origin and Endless Palace.
The first few spells went smoothly.
But he encountered a problem when casting the Earth Palace Skill.
"What’s happening? Why isn’t it working?" Zhao Xing was stunned. His [Endless Palace] was already at the Eighth Transition of the interdiate level. Although the earth veins here were weaker than elsewhere, they still existed; failure should have been impossible.
"Let’s try again." Zhao Xing took off his shoes and placed his feet on the ground. As he cast Endless Palace, his mind seed to delve deep into the earth, starting to probe the earth veins.
Quickly, Zhao Xing detected the earth veins’ pulsations, a dark red vein that he estimated to be at third-tier fire vein strength based on his perception.
This discovery surprised Zhao Xing.
"Third-tier earth vein? Did I sense wrong?"
"How could that be? This area was once scorched by Earth Vein Fire, even though Old Chen repaired it, it should only be at first-tier strength."
"How is it that my perception now registers it as third-tier? No, it might even be close to fourth-tier!"
With doubts in his mind, Zhao Xing continued casting, golden light enveloping his spirit and venturing deeper.
At that mont, a faint yet clear thought erged from the earth veins: "Why is it you?"
"You... Old Chen?" The golden light representing Zhao Xing wavered by the earth veins, clearly astonished.
Chen Shijie didn’t mind Zhao Xing’s address, asking rather unexpectedly, "Didn’t you say your mastery of the Earth Palace Skill was only at the Third Transition? How could you find ."
Zhao Xing controlled the golden light to relay information through the earth veins: "I reached another breakthrough at the end of the month, and you were too busy for to inform you clearly."
Chen Shijie asked, "What is your current transition?"
"Eighth transition."
"..."
Seeing Chen Shijie remaining silent for a long ti, Zhao Xing couldn’t help but ask: "What’s with the earth veins here? Didn’t you say this place was burnt by the Earth Vein Fire and should be at first-tier strength?"
"That was once the case. Half a month ago, I strengthened the earth veins. After a month, it will return to its original strength."
"So why can’t I cast the Earth Palace Skill?"
"Look more closely below."
Zhao Xing increased his output of primordial energy, adding another stream of it, and finally saw below clearly.
Beneath the earth veins, a dark red palace slowly erged. Its color was very similar to the fire veins, shrouded by a cloudy energy. Without careful observation, it was invisible.
As the cloudy sensation dissipated slightly, Zhao Xing glimpsed a corner of it.
"Hiss~"
A massive crimson palace, with just a tile asuring three to four ters in length and width.
Judging by the scale of the palace’s roof, Zhao Xing imdiately surmised that this crimson Earth Palace could enshroud the entire abandoned factory area.
"This is the Fire Hell Dungeon! Old Chen, did you do this?"
Recognizing it surprised Chen Shijie, but he mildly replied: "Indeed. You don’t need to waste extra energy casting the Earth Palace Skill."
"Impressive." Zhao Xing exclaid in his heart.
After all, from the theoretical test during the Start of Winter assessnt, he knew Chen Shijie was the Minister of Agriculture from the Earth Advantage Sect.
Knowing the Earth Palace Skill was only normal.
Zhao Xing’s Endless Palace emphasized enormity, but now he realized his Endless Palace couldn’t match the vastness of Chen Shijie’s Fire Hell Dungeon.
"I’m heading back up now."
"Be careful. In case of any ergency, Long Xiao and I might not notice you."
"Understood." Zhao Xing would stay low to avoid troubling Chen Shijie.
....
At night, the small courtyard was covered with grass and vines, with bamboo shoots erging as saplings.
Co nightfall, Zhao Xing lit a candle on the table, burning through the night.
November 7, nothing eventful happened.
November 8, Mao Hour, the Weaving Bureau’s officials completed their assessnt.
After the ranking was announced, the Weavers could present their crafted vestnt robes to the other four occupations.
Zhao Xing encountered a Weaver lightly knocking on his courtyard door.
"Hello..."
"No, thank you." Zhao Xing waved without even looking up.
Lin Baiwei, who had just achieved the first rank, looked at Zhao Xing busy planting and swallowed back her words. She hung the vestnt robe on the fence and walked away silently.
After a while, Zhao Xing looked up and noticed the item on the fence, puzzled: "Did you weave your brain out? I said I didn’t want it, why still force it on ?"
He motioned, instructing the Grassman to fetch the item, discovering its quality was quite good. A third-tier top-grade True Essence Robe, wearing it could enhance the speed of primordial energy recovery.
A vestnt that could be rated first rank in the Weaving Bureau’s assessnt, but to Zhao Xing, it was quite pointless.
"So random, I don’t even know any Weavers... do they think I look handso?"
Zhao Xing tossed the vestnt robe aside and continued tending the soil.
....
November 8, during the day, the sounds of battle cries were heard nonstop. Zhao Xing stood on the courtyard wall, watching from a distance. It was the military departnt personnel battling soldiers playing demons.
November 9, as night fell, the long-lasting lamps began to flicker. Personnel from the devine temple started to light lanterns to capture souls.
With keen eyes, Zhao Xing scanned the surroundings, noticing these ghosts had a touch of crimson, indicating how they had died.
November 10, Chen hour, the military departnt, and the temple’s assessnts concluded. The surroundings quieted down, leaving only the Minister of Agriculture’s profession’s assessnt ongoing.
November 10, late at night, midnight.
Having confird his assessnt scores would reach the first rank, Zhao Xing rested with his eyes closed at the table. The Mountain Cat lay bored in front of him, yawning.
Suddenly, the Mountain Cat shivered! It arched its back, eyes glinting green, staring intently outside the door.
"Whoosh~"
The long-lasting lamp shook violently, then extinguished abruptly, plunging the surroundings into silence.
It patted Zhao Xing, but he remained asleep, seemingly in a deep slumber.
"Rustle~"
The Mountain Cat heard a noise and turned to look.
The Calender of Evil automatically flipped a page, finally settling:
[Ghosts Entering Dreams, extre bad luck!]
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