Chapter 203: Another Year’s Harvest_l
By the second year, the caliber of new students in Chen Mobai’s batch had become pretty clear.
Although they were prodigies produced by the 36 celestial caves and 72 blessed lands of the Immortal Sect, there was a hierarchy among them as well.
Most people initially thought that Chen Mobai, a student from a minor blessed land who only made it into one of the four major Daoist Academies by barely meeting the score cut-off due to the expanded enrolment, would be the bottom of the barrel. Unexpectantly, however, he managed to make quite an impressive reputation for himself among this group of geniuses.
Aside from the calligraphy and talisman course in the second semester, Chen Mobai also ranked first in all the other Puppetry Agriculture Studies courses.
As a result, his moniker ‘the awakened sleeper’ started to echo amongst his batch and even came to the knowledge of the seniors and faculty members.
Besides Chen Mobai, other students also outshone the crowd by displaying their extraordinary talent and brilliance.
For instance, Ming Yuhua, who ranked first in artifact refining, Yunyang Bing, the top-ranked formation master, Wang Xingyu, the top alchemist, Lu Zixuan, the leading beast tamer, and Zhai Jianbai, who held the first place in sword training, etc…
Chen Mobai was also included among these, being collectively referred to as one of the “Top Ten Dancers” of their Dance Tool Dao Academy’s class of 5012. To this, Chen Mobai only responded with a dismissive laugh.
These were mere reputations. Only reaching the Foundation Establishment stage could be considered a real achievement.
Even combining all the reputations of the “Top Ten Dancers”, it wouldn’t amount to a fraction of Zhongli Tianyu’s formidable standing. Once you mentioned you are a classmate of Zhongli Tianyu within the Immortal Sect, most people would look at you in awe.
It was in this year that Zhongli Tianyu had another breakthrough, reaching the third level of the Foundation Establishment stage.
In his hands, “The Union of Differences” was radiating luminosity it had never before, leading some to speculate that he might approach the threshold of Core Formation before hitting sixty.
Some of the seniors and older students who were cultivating in seclusion in the back mountain of Crimson City could not help but come out to witness this prodigy from the Daoist Academy, potentially the most outstanding Real Path Seed in hundreds of years.
While everyone’s attention was drawn to Zhongli Tianyu entering the back mountains, Chen Mobai quietly picked up his end-term report card and left the Daoist Academy.
He did not return to Red Sandstone City.
Since his parents were out traveling, although he longed to catch up with close friends like Lu Hongsheng, after not seeing them for two years, Chen Mobai could feel their figures gradually fading from his memory.
He made a call to Qing Nu who he was still in touch with and finding out he would not be returning to Red Sandstone City that year, she felt relieved.
She was busy preparing for the Rank-2 Alchemist certification exam and had to self-study at least a dozen related books during the holidays. After learning that Chen Mobai would not return, she had no reason to return to Red Sandstone City and could focus on studying.
“Wishing you all the best and success in your examination.”
Chen Mobai ended the call with Qing Nu smiling, but inwardly, he was amazed at how fast the Heavenly Spiritual Root progressed.
He knew that thanks to the effects of the Soul Awakening Dao Pill, he had managed to pass the Rank-1 Talisman Maker exam in one go this year. However, to pass the Rank-2 exam, he would probably need to study for several more years, or probably even after reaching the Foundation Establishment stage, before he could confidently pass.
In contrast to the strict examinations of the Immortal Sect’s Hundred Arts of Cultivation Immortal, the Tianhe Realm was widely regarded as being lenient and having almost no threshold.
As long as you could refine any Rank-2 talisman, you could call yourself a Rank-2 Talisman Maker.
According to these standards, Chen Mobai was already a Rank-2 Talisman Maker.
However, in the Tianhe Realm, he had suffered a lot and did not reveal this fact.
That year, Chen Mobai primarily focused his energies and attention on his studies at the Daoist Academy. However, thanks to the effects of the Soul Awakening Dao Pill, he saved a lot of study time and did not slack off at the Divine Wood Sect.
He cultivated the two acres of medicinal fields and twenty-six Spirit Fields under his name excellently.
After all, contribution points from the sect are needed to exchange for Foundation Building Pills in the future. The contribution from these fields is tenfold the rewards of regular missions. While Chen Mobai has enough resources and time, he also puts this matter in mind.
It is naturally impossible for one person to take care of so many Spirit Fields alone, but Chen Mobai has not forgotten that he is part of the Spirit Plant Division.
He launched a mission through the Spirit Plant Division to the Spirit Treasure Pavilion to recruit three people to care for the Spirit Fields. Their Cultivation Level was irrelevant; all they needed was to have cultivated Spiritual Power to activate the Azure Light Formation and ward off birds and animals.
After all, the main tasks of plowing, sowing, fertilizing, rainfall, bug removal, and harvesting will all be completed by him.
He offered a compensation of 15 Spirit Stones for this task, which is considered low. Nevertheless, two Rank-2 Qi Cultivation and one Rank-3 Qi Cultivation disciples from the Divine Wood Sect took it up.
Chen Mobai himself took care of the two acres of medicine field and two acres of spirit field at Small Yang Ridge. The remaining twenty-four acres of spirit fields are just distributed in three places, with one disciple taking care of each. He was not selfish either. When it came to sowing, transplanting seedlings, and even during rainfall and insecticide, he always held the attitude of guiding them and generously demonstrated it in front of the three Divine Wood Sect disciples.
However, he kept the key piece of information about the fertilizer, which was brought from the immortal gate, a secret from them.
“Junior Brother Chen, another year of good harvest.”
With the guidance of Chen Mobai, Lu Jun and Teng Jie have harvested all the two acres of the medicinal field and nineteen acres of the spirit field under the name of the Spirit Plant Division. Due to the large yield, both of them were busy for three full days before they finished the task.
“Both Senior Brothers have worked hard. Come, have a drink before you leave.”
“Junior Brother Teng, this is the Spirit Wine that Inspector Sun couldn’t stop praising after he drank it last time. We are in for a treat.”
The jar of wine that Lu Jun took from Chen Mobai last time, after tasting it, he was ecstatic and immediately forwarded it to his superior, Sun Gaochang. The latter was also a wine lover; after drinking, he directly sought Chen Mobai to buy all his stock.
But Chen Mobai was also aware that scarcity adds value. He only took out ten jars of wine and was not thinking about Spirit Stones, but directly gave it to this inspector of the Spirit Plant Division.
However, Sun Gaochang was particularly serious. After taking the wine, he directly gave one intermediate-grade Spirit Stone.
“We from Reward Virtue Hall value clean accounts the most. If this account is not cleared at the beginning, it will become increasingly difficult to clear in the future. If it turns into a debt of gratitude, it might even cost lives, so I must give this Spirit Stone.”
After he said this, Sun Gaochang took away the ten jars of wine and left.
It is through this that Chen Mobai feels that Sun Gaochang, this Foundation Establishment Elder who looks like a smiling tiger, is a good backing to seek.
In the Tianhe realm, Spirit Wine is not developed at all.
The Green Mountain Yeast from Chen Mobai’s hometown can brew Rank-2 Spirit Wine at the most.
When used on Jade Bud Lingmi in the Divine Wood Sect, due to its abundant spiritual energy, although the variety is unexceptional, the brewed Spirit Wine barely diminishes in comparison to Green Mountain Wine.
The one Lu Jun and his companion were drinking was the Jade Bud Spirit Wine he brewed at the beginning of the year.
After the two had finished drinking, they opened another jar of Green Mountain Wine. After comparison, they found that each had its own flavor.
Jade Bud Spirit Wine is strong, Green Mountain Yellow Wine is mellow.
After the reception, the three of them settled the yield of Lingmi, and there were 3,000 more contribution points in Chen Mobai’s account.
Among them, there are 2650 points for Jade Bud Spirit Rice and 350 points for the two acres of Dew Grass.
Comparatively, indeed, the harvest from planting Spirit Grass and Spiritual Medicine is more. No wonder even with tenfold contribution from farming in the Divine Wood Sect, everyone is still flocking to the medicine fields, and almost no one cares about the Spirit Fields..