Chapter 14
Chapter 14: Planting Mission
When Shao Heng finally settled her spiritual power into the yellow sprout, it held eleven furnaces of power.
After she laid the foundation of Origin-Nourishing Qi-Raising Art, auspicious cloud-like silver patterns surfaced on the sprout’s pure white surface. Her spiritual power felt thicker and more refined, as if it carried more weight within the same volume.
Shao Heng opened her eyes and exhaled a thread of black, turbid qi—impurities forced out of her bones and muscles through cultivation.
She looked up at the timekeeping talisman hanging on the wall. Provided by the sect, it recorded the passage of time accurately once adjusted.
The date had changed from October 11 to October 14.
“Three days,” she murmured. “Without spirit stones, I cultivated seven furnaces of power.”
Only now did she truly understand: First Realm cultivation might look like nothing but accumulating spiritual power, but it was actually nourishing the yellow sprout.
Before, she had found something strange about it. If she cultivated three hundred furnaces and advanced to the mid First Realm, then spent all her spiritual power in a duel, would she fall back to early First Realm?
After cultivating Origin-Nourishing Qi-Raising Art and advancing again, she finally saw the answer.
Each furnace of spiritual power did not simply sit there like water in a bucket. It raised the yellow sprout’s capacity limit.
Even if a cultivator exhausted their spiritual power, as long as the yellow sprout remained unharmed, their realm would not drop. And because the sprout’s capacity had increased, recovery would be faster.
After eleven furnaces, Shao Heng could see it clearly—the sprout was visibly larger than before.
And only once a cultivator amassed nine hundred furnaces, toughening and enriching the sprout until it was full to bursting, could they reach the peak of the First Realm. Then the stored power would surge upward, crash into the crimson palace, and advance into the Second Realm.
The further one went, the harder it became to expand the sprout. Speed slowed inevitably with each realm.
Shao Heng rubbed her chin.
“One spirit stone added a furnace of power in no time… If I don’t want my speed to slow, resources really are indispensable.”
She had planned to practice the basic spells after finishing the art, but there was something she wanted to test even more.
She rose, stretched, and pushed the door open.
It was near Frost’s Descent. Even with the sun bright overhead, the wind carried a chill.
The One Yuan Sect disciple robe, though not an artifact, was woven from high-grade golden-jade silkworm silk. Ordinary water and fire could not harm it. With spiritual power circulating, Shao Heng was indifferent to cold and heat.
She strode forward. Before long, she reached a five-story building washed in blue-white from top to bottom.
The Law Enforcement Pavilion.
Two disciples guarded the entrance. A female disciple spoke first, her tone brisk.
“What business brings you to the Law Enforcement Pavilion?”
Her eyes swept Shao Heng’s robe and youthful face.
“Judging by you, you haven’t entered the Qi Induction Realm yet. You should be a newly admitted outer sect disciple. If there’s something you don’t understand, ask the teaching elder directly. Don’t waste the first three months of lesson time.”
Shao Heng smiled sweetly. “Thank you for the guidance, Senior Sister. I heard outer sect disciples must complete sect missions every year. I’m curious, so I came to ask about it.”
Her voice turned earnest, almost innocent. “I’ve been listening to the elder’s lessons and cultivating hard at night. I can already sense spiritual qi. Once I go back and put in more effort, I’ll definitely succeed.”
The female disciple’s expression softened a fraction.
“Missions are divided into three levels by difficulty. There’s no quota on the number you can take each year, but you must earn ten contribution points.
“Disciples like you, who have been in the sect less than a year, usually choose lower-difficulty miscellaneous tasks. The mission plaques hang in the first-floor hall. You can go look yourself. Planning early isn’t bad.”
The other guard—another outer sect disciple—added, “Junior Sister, you should also look carefully for planting-type missions. They’re simple, and you can usually keep extra spirit plants to sell for spirit stones.
“But they’re popular. There might not be any left.”
Shao Heng nodded and handed over her disciple token for verification. Then she walked into the hall.
She followed their directions into a circular display chamber that buzzed with movement. Outer sect disciples drifted between plaques like fish through reeds.
Hundreds of thousands of carved wooden plaques floated in the air.
Shao Heng reached up and grabbed one at random.
“Second-Class Task—pill alchemist herb search: collect three First Grade precious medicines, Wind-Subduing Grass, from Bai Cui Mountain. Reward: 10 contribution points.”
“Wind-Subduing Grass?” Shao Heng frowned. “I don’t know it.”
She let go. The plaque floated back into the air, joining the swarm again.
[I need to read up on precious medicines. Otherwise I’ll stumble onto a heavenly treasure someday and not even recognize it.]
Her gaze swept the sea of plaques. Though all were the same brown-yellow wood, the plating along the edges differed—white, silver, gold.
She grabbed two more to confirm her guess, then released them.
The edge plating marked mission level.
Her hand moved again, quick and sure, and closed around a white-edged plaque.
“This one,” she murmured. “My luck isn’t bad.”
“Third-Class Task—plant spirit rice: White Jade Spirit Rice ripens once every four months. The disciple must receive three jin of seeds and one mu of spirit field. Within half a year, the disciple must turn in three hundred jin of spirit rice to supply the inner sect’s spirit kitchen.
“Reward: 3 contribution points. The remainder may be kept. Failure requires paying 1 spirit stone, and the disciple may not take planting-type missions again for five years.”
Shao Heng’s thoughts flicked to the spells in the booklet—Spirit Rain Technique, Earth-Breaking Art, Object-Command Spell. Each could be used for planting. If she took this mission, she could practice spells while she worked.
And the penalty was revealing too.
“Three jin of White Jade Spirit Rice costs one spirit stone as a penalty,” she calculated quietly. “Maybe not the exact price, but it gives a rough estimate. Three hundred jin would be about a hundred spirit stones.”
Almost as much as the resources she received in a year.
The more she grew beyond the quota, the more she could keep—or sell.
Just as Shao Heng started toward the desk to accept the mission, a voice cut in at her ear.
“Junior Sister, you should have just joined. Right now you should behave, listen to the elders’ lessons, and enter the Qi Induction Realm as soon as possible. Stop reaching above your station.”
Shao Heng turned.
A young man stood close by, a jade crown pinning his hair. He was tall—about seven chi—handsome and refined, sixteen or seventeen at most. He looked down at her as if the height alone granted him authority.
Shao Heng studied the faint fluctuations of power around him. Stronger than her, but not by an impossible margin.
Early First Realm.
He extended his hand, palm up, impatient. “Hand the mission plaque to me.”
Shao Heng tightened her grip on the plaque and lifted her chin. “I’m not giving it to you.”
The male disciple’s brows sank. “You don’t even have spiritual power. You can’t cast a single spell. Planting spirit rice requires Spirit Rain Technique just to sprout. Holding it is nothing but wasting someone else’s chance.”
His name was Xia Huan.
He had been waiting for a planting mission like this one. The moment he heard there was an opening, he rushed over—and arrived just late enough to see a newly admitted female disciple snatch it first.
As he spoke, Xia Huan reached toward Shao Heng, fingers curling to seize the plaque right out of her hand.
Shao Heng snapped her right hand behind her back. At the same time, her left palm chopped down onto his wrist with sharp, practiced force.
“Hiss!”
Xia Huan sucked in a breath, face twisting with pain.
Shao Heng retreated two steps, eyes cold now, her earlier sweetness gone like mist burned off by sun.
“Were you the one who gave birth to this mission?” she shot back. “You just reach out and take it?
“The plaque is in my hand. This mission is mine!”