Five days had passed.
At dusk, just like usual, Li An closed the doors tightly, then lit a fire to cook dinner.
To avoid the scent of not fully matured new Spirit Rice being noticed, he added over a dozen grains of mature Spirit Rice each time he cooked.
Actually, the aroma difference between the two was not that noticeable, and Wang Zilin and Zhang Susu wouldn't possibly find out.
But caution and carefulness were ingrained in Li An's bones, becoming an instinct.
These past few days, Li An collected about a pound of Spirit Rice every night.
This was the limit.
Because his method of theft was too careful, he only took three to five grains from each stalk, rather than taking an entire stalk.
While taking, he also used his fingernails to disguise some bite marks as if from insects or ants, hence it was very slow.
Moreover, Li An wasn't greedy, mainly because the Spirit Rice contained many impurities, limiting the speed of extracting Spiritual Qi.
At present, within a day's time, his body could process at most one pound of Spirit Rice.
Any more would just be wasted, unable to absorb.
This was still benefiting from his previous life's cultivation experience, otherwise, like Wang Zilin and others, at this stage, they could only handle half an ounce a day at most!
This highlighted the importance of resources; if cultivated with Spirit Stones, the speed of absorbing Spiritual Qi would be much faster!
Naturally, the cultivation progress would be quicker as well.
...
A large pot of Spirit Rice was fully cooked, and Li An ate heartily.
The taste wasn't as fragrant as fully matured Spirit Rice, with a faint grassy taste, yet Li An relished it.
He finished the entire pot of rice.
Li An checked his body. Under the nourishment of a large pot of Spirit Rice Essence Qi each day, the green sprout in his Dantian had grown to about the size of a pea.
But it remained at the budding stage!
These past days, about one-fifth of Li An's Spirit Root damaged by Thunder Spiritual Qi had been repaired.
Very slow, but he was satisfied.
This fully proved the defying effect of the Life Nourishing Immortal Skill.
After all, damage to Spirit Root could generally only be repaired with Second Grade Pill!
A single Second Grade Pill, let alone someone like him in miscellaneous duties, even a formal disciple couldn't easily obtain it.
...
When midnight descended.
As usual, Li An sneaked into the Spirit Field.
Through days of observation, he had gained a deeper understanding of this Spirit Field overall.
A Spirit Gathering Array was set around the Spirit Field, capable of concentrating Spiritual Qi for the crops to grow.
But the Spirit Gathering Array was distributed unevenly, resulting in the left land being the most barren with the poorest quality of Spirit Rice.
The right side was next, and the middle was the best!
Tonight, he directly slipped into the middle area, which was the core production area and also the center of the Spirit Gathering Array.
Under the moonlight, the tall and dense rice stalks before him were plump with grains.
Li An's movements were extremely skillful, plucking along the ditches.
"Hmm?"
Suddenly, a green moth that landed on Li An's sleeve caught his attention.
The moth, which comes out at night, feeds on rice leaves; its larva looks like a grub, while the adult resembles a moth.
Moths in the Spirit Rice field were normal, but this one was particularly fat and large, and its body seemed a bit transparent, indicating it had somewhat undergone Spiritualization!
This was unusual; Spiritualizing moths were incredibly rare, usually showing signs of Spiritualization only in their adult stage, and currently, the Spirit Rice couldn't support its Spiritualization.
Li An remained vigilant, advancing along the ditch.
Here, the terrain was flattest, the water in the ditch hardly flowing, in a stagnant state, but as he walked, his skin sensitively felt the water moving, as if something ahead was siphoning water.
Li An moved over, sensing that the Spiritual Qi around here was extremely dense, and at the intersection of two ditches ahead, came the sound of water bubbling.
It was a whirlpool!
The water flow in the Spirit Field was being sucked into it.
Moreover, the Spiritual Qi in the Spirit Field was also converging here, carried away by the water flow with parts unknown of its destination.
The weed leaves around the whirlpool were covered with a dozen large moth larvae, nearly all transparent, all Spiritualized.
"So someone is stealing the Spiritual Qi!"
Li An realized suddenly.
At this whirlpool spot, there was certainly a hidden mechanism array, stealing a portion of Spiritual Qi from the Spirit Field's Spirit Gathering Array.
"This Spiritual Qi siphoning whirlpool caused the Spiritual Qi imbalance in the Spirit Field, which also resulted in a large number of moths..."
Li An pondered, who could be the one stealing the Spiritual Qi?
He instinctively glanced at the top of Spirit Plant Mountain.
Fan Jie was the only possibility.
Guarding and stealing!?
However, Li An had no desire to meddle.
On the contrary, he was quite pleased, collecting all the Spiritualized moths from the leaves around the whirlpool.
In terms of his previous life, these bugs were all high-quality protein!
A Spiritualized moth larva the size of a thumb contained Spiritual Qi roughly equivalent to a pound of Spirit Rice.
Were it not for the concentrated Spiritual Qi here, the entire Spirit Field probably couldn't produce so many Spiritualized moths.
For a cultivator just entering the Qi Refining Stage, this was a rare delicacy, but for someone like Fan Jie in the mid-stage of Qi Refining, it was useless.
Of course, these bugs also contained trace amounts of insect poison, so other low-level workers wouldn't know how to consume them.
Thus, these moths had remained uncaptured.
Instead, they benefited Li An!
Moreover, as long as the Spiritual Qi remained imbalanced, the Spirit Field wouldn't lack Spiritualized moths.
"The moths will keep increasing, and the more severe the pest damage gets, the less likely it is for my theft of Spirit Rice to be discovered!"
Li An felt reassured, collected the insects, and continued to gather Spirit Rice.
...
The next day.
Early in the morning, Fan Jie descended the mountain as he had to go out for an errand, and he checked on the cultivation progress of Li An and the other two along the way.
"Hmm, you must be Wang Zilin. Your Cloud Summoning and Rain Bringing Technique has reached a minor achievement."
"Zhang Susu isn't bad either."
Wang Zilin had the fastest cultivation progress, followed by Zhang Susu, which made Fan Jie quite satisfied.
Especially after Zhang Susu achieved success in Qi Cultivation, her complexion became even more enchanting, and her figure became more graceful from consuming Spirit Rice, prompting Fan Jie to greedily steal a few more glances.
"Li An, what about you?" Fan Jie turned to look at Li An.
"To report to the Immortal Elder, my Spirit Root is damaged, so I haven't been able to reach the first layer of Qi Cultivation yet..."
Li An's face looked gloomy.
"Still not in Qi Cultivation?!"
Fan Jie immediately frowned, the muscles on his face twitched, and he shouted, "There's only half a month left, and you're still not in Qi Cultivation. Did you come to Spirit Plant Mountain just to freeload?"
Li An hung his head, not daring to speak.
"Don't think that staying silent will save you. Let me tell you, Spirit Plant Mountain doesn't provide for idlers, let alone useless people. If you can't participate in farming after half a month, all your monthly allowances will be deducted, and you'll be kicked out!"
"Do you understand?"
Li An replied, "This disciple understands."
Only then did Fan Jie snort coldly and say, "I have to leave the mountain for a while. While I'm away, none of you are allowed to step on the mountain. If I catch you, I'll break your legs."
With that said, he turned and left Spirit Plant Mountain.
"Li An, haven't you fixed your Spirit Root yet?"
After Fan Jie left, Zhang Susu asked.
Li An gave a wry smile and shook his head, "Not yet... I'll try again."
After speaking, he went back to his room.
"Susu, don't worry about him. I heard that to repair a Spirit Root, unless you can acquire a Second Grade Pill, he'll never have a chance in this lifetime. He's destined to be a useless person..."
"Come, why don't we practice the Cloud Summoning and Rain Bringing Technique together? I feel I've made some progress and can share my experience with you..."
Wang Zilin's light and smug voice faintly came from outside the room.
...
Tonight's dinner was particularly fragrant.
After boiling dozens of Spiritualized Larvae together with Spirit Rice, the rice carried a hint of meaty aroma.
The Spiritual Qi and Life Essence Qi in this pot of rice were almost equivalent to the entire amount of Spirit Rice from the past half month.
After eating, the Life Seed had visibly grown a size larger, nearly as big as a peanut.
The top of the Life Seed was even slightly pointed, as if a sprout were about to break through.
...
Another dozen or so days passed.
Only three days remained before the "newbie period" of one month for the three of them was about to end.
This evening, after dinner, Li An inspected his Dantian and finally revealed a relaxed and satisfied smile.
In his Dantian, a greenish sapling had already "broken through the soil," growing a tender leaf.
Under the nourishment of the Life Seed, Li An's damaged Spirit Root had finally recovered!
This could be considered a miracle!
Because even if one acquired a Second Grade Pill, it would still take about half a year to repair a Spirit Root.
"With the Life Seed, my vitality and recovery ability have significantly improved. Now, even if I don't cultivate, as a mortal, I can easily live to a hundred and twenty years old."
Li An murmured, then took out that small piece of Spirit Stone.
The Lower Grade Spirit Stone contained limited Spiritual Qi.
Moreover, Li An was well aware that this should be one-third of a complete Spirit Stone.
The three of them were supposed to each receive a total of three Spirit Stones every month, but Fan Jie withheld two pieces and then divided one into three parts to give them.
Truly despicable.
However, reaching the first layer of Qi Cultivation should barely be possible.
Li An absorbed the rich Spiritual Qi from the Spirit Stone and then circulated the Life Nourishing Immortal Skill, refining the Spiritual Qi into his body.
Five more days passed.
Finally, Li An succeeded in Qi Refining and reached the first layer of Qi Cultivation.
"The speed of cultivating with the Life Nourishing Immortal Skill is really... quite slow."
Li An awoke, his expression somewhat complex.
Even Zhang Susu and Wang Zilin, plus those familiar with the Breathing Skill, took a total of seven days.
The actual time spent on Qi Cultivation was less than two days.
But Li An took so much longer...
However, what satisfied him was that the Qi he cultivated was extremely pure, without any impurities.
After all, the path of cultivation is long and arduous. Li An's state of mind had long been tempered to be firm and steady, and he wouldn't become anxious or worried because he fell behind others.
At the same time, Li An activated the Life Seed to continue making his Spirit Root appear damaged.
—This is one of the special functions of the Life Seed, allowing him to disguise and hide his state and aura.
...
Fan Jie had been out for more than half a month and still hadn't returned.
It wasn't until three days later, at noon, that he finally came back from outside.
"Everyone, gather!"
...