Chapter 30: Slicing Meat with a Sickle

"Forget about him for now; there’s nothing we can do, and it’s truly a pity for that child. Little Golden Silk, please keep an eye on him. I have a feeling he will eventually set his sights on me, your master," Wen Yue said, voicing her concerns.

"I understand! I will keep watch. If it comes down to it, we can find an opportunity to strike first," Little Golden Silk replied, showing signs of independent thought.

"I wish I could! But my current strength doesn't allow for it. Give it a year or two; within that time, there’s really nothing we can do."

"I’m going to go cultivate now." Little Golden Silk was also quite competitive; the feeling of going out and seeing everyone stronger than itself was not pleasant.

"Go ahead and cultivate. I’m going to get some sleep."

With that, she lay down and fell into such a deep slumber that even a thunderclap wouldn't have woken her. When she woke the next day, Wen Yue felt refreshed and full of energy.

Having spent all of yesterday out, she hadn't tended to her fields. She knew she had to check on them today. The three acres of spiritual rice all required watering. Since Wen Yue’s spiritual power was still weak, she had to stop midway through her rain-summoning incantations to meditate and recover her energy, usually sitting on a ridge in the middle of the field.

Today, she noticed that the spiritual rice surrounding her usual resting spot was exceptionally lush and sturdy. It seemed her spiritual aura was beneficial to them. Since she knew this now, she decided not to change her spot; she wanted to see what the harvest would look like there.

While casting her rain-summoning spell, Wen Yue scanned for weeds. She didn't need to step into the fields; a simple telekinetic spell was enough to pluck them and bring them over. She thought to herself that if she had possessed such magic in her previous life, she would certainly have become a farmer. In her mind, a cultivator-farmer should be able to plow, plant, water, weed, and harvest everything with just a few incantations. After cultivating for a while, she realized that to achieve such efficiency, one would likely need to be at the tenth level of Qi Refining, and even then, only for the simplest spiritual rice.

After watering the three acres of rice, she moved to check the other three. Next to the rice was an acre of Purple Cloud Grass, the main ingredient for Bigu pills. Wen Yue planted this because she wanted to learn alchemy.

If she were to buy the materials, they would be expensive—and as a destitute cultivator, saving money was a virtue. Furthermore, there was no marketplace nearby; even if she wanted to buy, there was nowhere to turn. Thus, she had to be self-reliant. The Purple Cloud Grass was an annual plant, and at this stage, it was only a few centimeters tall; the harvest was still a long way off.

Adjacent to that was an acre of medicinal herbs. This was truly a hodgepodge, mostly consisting of small seedlings she had found in the fields and planted haphazardly. Another half-acre was filled with White Birch Grass, which looked similar to dandelions from her past life but with slightly paler leaves. It was the primary ingredient for making Hemostatic Powder, the most basic form of wound treatment. Ideally, Wen Yue should have carried these during her training trips, but the lack of a marketplace was exactly why she was growing them herself. Hemostatic Powder was very simple—it didn't even count as a real pill—and since it required little technical skill, she was determined to produce it herself.

The final acre was planted with Arrow Bamboo. It grew quickly, so she had planted it last, and it was already ten centimeters high. This was a valuable resource; the bamboo was the main material for forging Green Bamboo Swords. Most cultivators below the seventh or eighth level of Qi Refining used Green Bamboo Swords, as they wouldn't be able to handle anything more powerful anyway. Wen Yue only planted one acre because the growth cycle was too long—it took at least eight years, and usually ten, to reach maturity. She couldn't afford to have no production for so many years! Of course, the yield would be impressive; if cultivated well, it could cover the quota for all six acres for ten years, and everything else would be pure profit. That was why she was determined to make it work.

Looking at the neat six acres, Wen Yue felt a sense of accomplishment. She had planted every bit of it with her own two hands. Since the plants seemed to love her spiritual aura, she decided she would move her cultivation sessions outdoors. After all, cultivation was cultivation, no matter where she did it. Why not recharge the plants while she was at it?

She sat down cross-legged and began to cultivate, having developed the habit of running two full cycles each session. In truth, she was on the verge of breaking through, but she didn't feel at her best, so she decided to regulate her state slightly to ensure a smoother transition. When she reached the first level of Qi Refining, she had suppressed her spiritual energy for a long time, allowing her to jump straight to the middle stage of the second level upon breakthrough. Having tasted the benefits of this, she made it a point to suppress her energy as much as possible before each breakthrough. The results were excellent, completely avoiding the issues of unstable foundations or weak spiritual power.

Since she didn't want to advance just yet, she stopped cultivating and turned her attention to the storage pouch she had obtained yesterday. She retrieved it from her spatial dimension. It looked quite worn, similar to the one issued by the Task Hall, suggesting the woman had also been a member of the Heaven Demon Sect. Wen Yue felt no guilt for killing a fellow disciple; instead, there was a sense of confirmation. With the owner dead, the pouch became ownerless, and the restrictions on it naturally dissipated.

She opened the pouch and poured the contents out. A large pile of items tumbled out with a clatter. The most striking was a pile of spiritual stones, numbering in the thousands. The woman had likely been scraping them together to buy a cultivation technique, which explained why she had been as relentless as a mad dog the day before.

There was also a pile of ordinary women's clothing, which Wen Yue promptly burned. Once the clothes were out of the way, the rest was clear. On the ground lay a book with a cover depicting a scene from the Joyous Zen; it was likely some form of dual-cultivation manual. Flipping through it, she saw primitive diagrams of intimate positions, though the artistry was surprisingly good, with lifelike figures. Wen Yue didn't burn this; she set it aside to read as a "dirty book" whenever she felt bored. It was unlikely she would find such things in these parts otherwise. There were also a few pieces of jade jewelry, which she stored away, thinking they might be useful to trade for spiritual stones later.

After sorting through the items, she packed them back into the storage pouch and tossed it into her spatial dimension. She then brought out the tiger carcass from yesterday to examine it closely. It was just a common yellow-striped tiger, but much larger than any she had seen in her previous life. Being a spirit beast, its corpse still exuded a powerful aura.

She intended to skin it, but realized she didn't even have a basic first-tier spiritual tool. If only she had retrieved the woman's Green Bamboo Sword! What to do? Fortunately, the sickle provided by the sect was a first-tier spiritual tool; it would have to suffice. She doubted many people used a sickle to skin spirit beasts, let alone carve the meat afterward. The thought was somewhat amusing—all a consequence of being poor.