Huang Li Island was actually quite large for a mini island. Such islands normally had a radius of about ten miles, but can reach up to a larger range in size.
Such was the case with Huang Li Island. It had a radius of more than twenty miles and at its center was a small mountain. On the small mountain was a lush small forest where two narrow rivers originated from. The first river flowed from the forest to the northeast and the other to the southeast into the seas.
The sides of the mountain were mostly flat fields with fertile soils where the islanders planted their food, especially on the eastern side of the island, which was positioned between the two rivers and had the flattest terrain. Hence, due to the sufficient water source nearby, a lot of paddy fields were built here.
In comparison, the western part of the island had a relatively small population and much less arable land. However, many fruit farms were located here and the area was geographically suitable as a natural harbor; the fishermen on the island moored their boats there. The islanders would also chop lumber from the forest atop the mountain, transporting them down to build fishing boats.
With the harvest being bountiful, life on the island wasn’t bad overall.
Lu Ping’s arrival only caught the attention of several leaders, and he settled down at the same place the Xuan Ling Sect disciple had been stationed on the island.
When the islanders learned that their new master immortal had saved the fishermen from the sea beasts last time, they were all extremely happy. They believed that Master Immortal Lu was not as arrogant as the other master immortals; he was kind and good-hearted, and even willing to help the islanders from danger. And so, on the day of his arrival, several islanders bestowed him with local goods, filling his abode with gifts.
Moved by the kindness of the islanders, Lu Ping decided to treat them well for the next three years.
After Lu Ping settled down, other than his daily cultivation and routine patrol over the island, he also began to operate and manage his own little base.
He first checked the island’s spirit paddy field. The five-acre spirit paddy fields were distributed across seven locations on the island. Their overall condition was quite satisfactory and the scattered underground spirit veins were also stable. He could tell that the previous Xuan Ling Sect disciple took good care of the island’s one and only cultivation resource.
Spirit rice was the main source of food for Blood Refining Realm and Blood Condensation Realm cultivators who had yet to achieve grain avoidance. The spiritual energy contained in spirit food was helpful for their cultivation and for strengthening their bodies, especially daily foods like spirit rice that affected them subtly over time.
After casting a growth spell on the spirit seeds, Lu Ping planted them in the spirit paddy field. He covered the seeds with a layer of soil and then took out a jade bottle, hovered it above the paddy field and cast a spell at it. Immediately, mist sprayed out from the jade bottle and covered the entire spirit paddy field, drizzling over the seeds.
The field now felt laden with life force after being moisturized by the diluted spiritual spring water.
The jade bottle was truly a good item. It was a low-grade mystic instrument Lu Ping looted from one of the Cultivator Sharing Union members in the back forest. Although it was capable of attacking and defending, Lu Ping realized it was actually a mystic instrument with spatial attributes. Its biggest advantage was that it could store a large amount of spiritual fluid in it without losing any of the spiritual fluid’s spiritual energy.
Lu Ping stored the diluted spiritual spring water in the jade bottle and used it to sprinkle the five-acre spirit paddy fields. This helped to save his arcane energy as he wouldn’t need to cast additional spells to water the crops.
Lu Ping clapped his hands with satisfaction and ordered the islanders nearby to take good care of the spirit paddy fields. The spiritual spring water had enhanced the spiritual energy in the fields, hence, as the islanders worked over the land, the long-time cleansing effects of the spiritual energy would eventually strengthen their bodies and keep them healthy.
Amidst the gratitude of the islanders, Lu Ping finished planting the spirit seeds.
The second thing Lu Ping did was to set up four sets of Parent-Children Warning Charms within a radius of a few hundred yards around his place of cultivation. The warning charms were used to monitor the safety of the island and ensure a comfortable environment for him to cultivate.
At the same time, he couldn’t help wishing for an array formation instead. Sadly, he had yet to enter the Blood Condensation Realm, and without the divine sense, he couldn’t control an array formation. Even if he could somehow manage to, he wouldn’t be able to use it effectively either. Not to mention that setting up an array formation would cost an absurd amount of spirit stones, which he couldn’t even afford now.
The third thing he did was release his recently tamed Spirit Seeking Mouse. He let the mouse loose onto the island and hoped that it would find him an undiscovered spiritual land that could be used as a spirit paddy field. And of course, he’d be happier if it could discover something else more valuable on the island.
After finishing these three tasks, Lu Ping sunk into the regular routine of cultivation life. Every day, he would cultivate for a fixed amount of time, then patrol the island, and then manage the spirit paddy fields. After that, he would spend the rest of his time crafting charms or going out to fish with the islanders. At times, when he felt like it, he would kill a few sea beasts to either satisfy his cravings or simply just for fun, and then add them to the fishermen’s gains. Furthermore, his presence guaranteed the fishermen’s safety, so the islanders were very grateful and often sent him their home delicacies.
Lu Ping had yet to achieve grain avoidance, and even if he did, he wouldn’t stop eating anyway. After all, eating was a form of pleasure itself, how could he give it up? Having nothing but spirit rice every day was too monotonous.
Sadly, the sea beasts were uncultivated. Otherwise, he could’ve raked in some extra wealth.
The sea beasts were just animals that knew how to refine their blood out of natural instincts, but they didn’t understand cultivation and had no cognition. Only after cultivating to the Blood Condensation Realm would they awaken their intelligence and be considered as monsters, a race on par with the humans.
Peaceful times always flow quickly, and the three months would soon be over. The Spirit Seeking Mouse had traversed almost every corner of the island but didn’t find any areas that gathered spiritual energy. Lu Ping was inevitably disappointed. It didn’t feel good to just live on whatever he had now without generating any extra income, and this constantly gave him a sense of crisis.
However, he still had one piece of consolation. His cultivation didn’t slow down as he expected after leaving the spirit vein in the side hall. Perhaps the free and unfettered life here on the island made Lu Ping’s mind calm and peaceful; in addition to the sufficient supply of medicinal pellets, his cultivation base was actually steadily improving.
On the day of harvest, Lu Ping’s mood finally improved a little. The spirit seeds were surely worth those 20 spirit stones. Due to the constant watering of diluted spring water, an average of 130 pounds of spirit rice were harvested from every acre of spirit paddy field.
According to the rules of Zhen Ling Sect, only a fixed amount of spirit rice harvested must be turned in to the sect no matter the total production. Hence, Lu Ping only had to hand in the fixed amount of 400 pounds of spirit rice back to the sect and the rest of the harvest would be his. This included his sect dividend of 100 pounds of spirit rice for managing the spirit paddy fields and the extra 150 pounds from the quality spirit seeds.
The harvest was valued at more than 80 spirit stones. In addition to his monthly allowance of 60 spirit stones, as well as the charms he crafted that he estimated were worth 200 spirit stones, his total income for the past three months would add up to roughly 450 spirit stones. To the other cultivators of the same layer, this was already a huge fortune.
However, Lu Ping thought about the medicinal pellets he used in his cultivation for the past three months, such as the three bottles of Blood Vigor Pellets, three bottles of Blood Solidifying Pellets, and three more bottles of Blood Essence Pellets to make up for the shortage of the other medicinal pellets. Just the medicinal pellets alone cost him more than a thousand spirit stones. Not to mention the other cultivation resources he had used.
Lu Ping’s head started aching whenever he thought about it. Spirit stones, spirit stones… he needed to find a way to get more spirit stones. At this point, Lu Ping no longer cared to disguise his desire for spirit stones anymore.
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