Three months later, it was once again the season for harvesting spirit grain.
The bright moon shone between the pines, while faint yellow-green specks flickered across the wilderness, fireflies glowing in the night.
The silhouette of the mountain peaks loomed like crouching beasts, and the shadows of the trees swayed in the night breeze.
Inside the bamboo house, the fragrance of Yellow Sprout Rice lingered in the air.
Two thick beeswax candles, as wide as a child's arm, burned quietly, filling the small house with a brightness like broad daylight.
Ji An was carefully cutting talisman paper. Occasionally, the candlewick crackled, sending droplets of wax splattering outward.
When the task was finally done, he stretched, his joints popping crisply.
Counting the finished papers, he broke into a satisfied grin.
"Two mu of talisman grass yielded 120 sheets of mid-grade first-rank talisman paper. Over thirty percent of them are premium quality. Just relying on making talisman paper, I can live comfortably from now on."
He went on to inspect the talisman ink. A faint scent of pine resin drifted from the jade bottles.
Ji An put the talisman paper and ink away, slid his cutting tools beneath the table, then walked to the doorway of the bamboo house and pushed it open.
He formed a hand seal, releasing an earthy yellow spiritual light that blanketed the small courtyard, tinting the green leaves of the vegetables into a withered yellow.
Then he switched hand seals. A veil of white mist rolled out, covering the courtyard inside and out. Dense raindrops pattered against the bamboo house and vegetable leaves, producing a lively, crisp sound.
Listening quietly to the falling rain, Ji An's heart grew tranquil and calm.
After a while, he returned indoors and lay down on his bed.
Just before sleep claimed him, his mind linked with the stone turtle within his dantian.
The turtle glimmered faintly with a barely perceptible spiritual glow, floating amidst the vaporous sea of mana.
[Master: Ji An]
[Dao Rhyme: 0]
[Spiritual Qi: Kan 36.8, Kun 0.1, Xun 18.2]
[Spells: Minor Rain Technique (Perfection 6%)
Thick Earth Formula (Great Accomplishment 82%)
Withering-Bloom Formula (Great Accomplishment 29%)
Flamefire Incantation (Proficiency 68%)
Sharp Gold Art (Great Accomplishment 5%)]
Once the Minor Rain Technique reached Perfection, relying on refining elemental essence to improve it further was no longer realistic, at least for now.
A full month of accumulating Kan essence was only enough to raise progress by 1%. Ji An had simply decided to store all of it for emergencies.
Once he could cultivate at a spiritual vein node, the stone turtle would absorb far more essence, and this bottleneck would finally ease.
Still, the Minor Rain Technique was something he used constantly. With his decent comprehension, he could increase his proficiency by about 1.5% each month.
Even without refining essence, five to six years would be enough to reach Great Perfection.
As for the Wither-and-Flourish Formula, reaching Mastery was sufficient. Ji An began storing Xun essence as well.
His consciousness grew drowsy, and soon he drifted into deep sleep.
When the agreed date arrived and Li Changqing came to collect the spirit grain, Ji An set aside what was needed to exchange for new seeds and to pay his field taxes. Then, carrying all his wealth on him, he mounted his talisman bird and flew straight for the Bihai Market.
"Junior Brother, didn't we agree I would come to find you tomorrow?"
Wei Songnian asked in surprise. He had only just arrived at the plaza himself and hadn't even finished setting out the goods from his storage pouch.
"I couldn't wait," Ji An replied with a grin.
Ji An patted the small pouch hanging from his chest, eyes burning with excitement. From now on, he too would be someone who could make use of a Spirit-Draining Formation.
With this, he had everything in place: pills, spirit grain, and now a formation. In terms of external resources for cultivation, he had filled the board.
Although his aptitude was only average, and half the mana he refined was devoured by the stone turtle, none of that mattered!
Among qi refinement disciples, there was a saying: As long as you have enough spirit stones, even a pig can be piled up to Foundation Establishment.
Of course, the problem most disciples faced was simply not having enough stones.
Take spirit farmers, for example. According to Old Huang, many farming disciples spent their entire three-year probationary period in the sect, only managing to push the Minor Rain Technique and the Thick Earth Formula up to Minor Achievement.
After paying the sect's land taxes and field rent, their harvests only allowed them to buy a handful of pills to aid cultivation.
Three months, just a few pills, that was the reality for most disciples. Things only began to ease once they reached the mid-stages of qi refinement.
For brand-new disciples, with such low cultivation, even if they wanted to practice spells more, they simply didn't have enough mana to spare. That was the hardest stage for almost everyone.
"Once I pack up, let's find a place to make the trade," Wei Songnian said.
As he packed away the bottles and jars into his storage pouch, his tone carried both envy and respect.
"With this Spirit-Draining Formation, your cultivation conditions will be almost on par with the direct heirs of the great clans.
"Tsk tsk. I myself only received a basic-quality formation from my clan as a reward after I broke through to late-stage qi refinement."
"You flatter me, Senior Brother. A formation is only as useful as the stones it's fed with. I've already estimated it; given my current earnings, I won't be able to afford to use it more than a few times a month."
Ji An chuckled. Using a Spirit-Draining Formation burned through spirit stones like drinking water. He wasn't nearly wealthy enough yet to run it every day.
Keeping stones lying around was pointless anyway. His instinct was always to spend them immediately, converting every last one into cultivation progress.
Wei Songnian shook his head.
"You're too modest. Once your cultivation advances and you can tend more fields, you'll harvest more and more stones to fuel your training. That's as perfect a cycle as it gets."
By now, he had packed everything, even folding up the animal hide he used as a stall mat and stuffing it into his pouch.
"Come on, let's head over to Junior Brother Liang's tavern. We'll trade there and share a few drinks."
The two of them went to Liang Qiu's little tavern and took a private room upstairs.
Wei Songnian produced a brand-new bronze array plate and set it on the table.
"This is the Spirit-Draining Formation."
The formation consisted of five disks, each the size of a large serving plate and four fingers thick, their surfaces etched with elegant patterns.
"The seller left five nearly-drained stones inside when he last used it. They should still have about half an hour of power left. I'll activate it so you can feel its effect."
He set the plates around the room, adjusted their positions, then infused them with energy.
The patterns on the plates seemed to come alive, shifting into fresh green leaf motifs that occasionally gleamed with a ripple of light.
Soon, a faint white mist rose within the array, the visible manifestation of dense spiritual energy.
"Go ahead, Junior Brother. Sit inside and try cultivating," Wei Songnian urged.
"All right!"
Ji An exhaled and stepped into the formation.
Instantly, every pore in his body seemed to open wide. It was like downing a jug of iced water on a sweltering summer day, unspeakably refreshing.
"I've been to Bamboo Peak and Red Copper Mountain. The concentration of energy here feels almost the same."
Wei Songnian laughed.
"Not quite. You probably never entered the core areas of those places. Both peaks sit atop top-grade first-rank veins, and their cores are fortified with Spirit-Draining Arrays that prevent energy from leaking.
"Our little Spirit-Draining Formation is powerful, but nowhere near that level."
He sighed softly and explained further.
"This setup provides an environment somewhere between a low-grade and mid-grade first-rank vein.
So don't waste time running your cultivation method and savor what it's like to train on a spiritual vein!"
Ji An sat cross-legged and began circulating the Clear Source Sutra, drawing in the rich energy as greedily as he could.
As the qi coursed through his meridians, he even felt a faint sense of being overfilled. His refining speed was several times faster than usual.
He didn't know how long had passed before he noticed the energy concentration in the room rapidly dropping. Checking his own progress, he slowly withdrew from his trance.
Wei Songnian leaned in with a half-smile.
"Junior Brother, it's only been half an hour. How does it feel?"