Lu Feng stood alone on the ridge of the field, stunned for a long time before finally shaking his head with a bitter smile.
Leaving the spirit field, he walked into the thatched hut.
Inside, there was only a wooden bed and a stove, alongside a few farming tools and a bag of spirit seeds. Forget about furniture; there wasn't even a single quilt.
"Damn it!"
Even Lu Feng, usually calm and low-key, couldn't help cursing aloud.
Was this any place for a human to live? Even livestock lived better than this.
With no other choice, Lu Feng could only treat this place as a temporary shelter and simply cleaned up the inside of the room.
A sudden wave of weakness washed over him; it seemed his old injuries were acting up again. Before he could sit cross-legged to regulate his breathing, his stomach let out a series of rumbling growls.
"Sigh, I suppose I should make some spirit rice porridge first."
Looking at the fifty catties of spirit rice he had borrowed from Manager Chen, Lu Feng abandoned the idea of making cooked spirit rice and decided on porridge instead. That way, the consumption of spirit rice would be slightly lower.
Soon, the spirit rice porridge was ready. A single mouthful went down, and the sensation of hunger immediately subsided somewhat. Even the injuries within his body stopped spreading.
After eating and drinking his fill, Lu Feng went back out to inspect his spirit field.
Not only was this acre of spirit field severely lacking in moisture, but the vitality of the spirit soil was also nearly gone. To grow anything in this spirit field, these two problems had to be solved first.
Lu Feng looked up into the distance and discovered that the irrigation ditch was several kilometers away. Or rather, that ditch didn't connect to his spirit field at all.
After further investigation, he found that his plot originally received water channeled from the adjacent spirit field. But now, the neighboring field had blocked the water channel, completely cutting off the water supply to his land.
If he wanted to irrigate his field now, his only option was to dig several kilometers of irrigation channels himself. But how could he possibly complete an excavation project like that on his own?
He had originally thought he finally found a place to settle down, only to realize he had been plotted against all along. If he failed to deliver two hundred catties of spirit rice next year, he would completely degenerate into a slave of the Chen Clan, and whether he lived or died after that would be out of his hands. Furthermore, the tenant contract he had signed with the Chen Clan lasted for a full three years.
At the thought of all this, Lu Feng felt as though his head were twice its normal size.
"Could heaven really be trying to destroy me?"
Suddenly, Lu Feng remembered that he knew the Spirit Rain Spell, a skill exclusive to spirit planters. He had learned it previously just to complement his Wood Vine Spell, but now it seemed it might actually come in useful.
Without hesitation, Lu Feng cast the Spirit Rain Spell toward the parched spirit field. Instantly, one-fifth of the spiritual qi in his body was drawn away; the Qi Condensation-level Spirit Rain Spell didn't consume a massive amount of spiritual qi.
The next moment, a dark cloud three meters in diameter gathered directly above the spirit field, and drops of spirit rain began to patter down.
[You cast the Spirit Rain Spell once, proficiency +1]
Although the area covered by the spirit rain wasn't large, it gave Lu Feng a glimmer of hope. Nourished by the spirit rain, the cracked earth began to revive, frantically drinking in the moisture.
Without a second thought, Lu Feng cast the Spirit Rain Spell four more times in different spots across the field.
[You cast the Spirit Rain Spell once, proficiency +1]
[You cast the Spirit Rain Spell once, proficiency +1]
.........
Under the irrigation of five Spirit Rain Spells, the originally cracked spirit field gradually regained its vitality. However, the beginner-level Spirit Rain Spell only lasted for about five minutes.
Watching the recovering spirit field, Lu Feng let out a long breath. The spiritual qi in his body was now completely exhausted, so he sat down cross-legged on the spot and began running the Azure Wood Formula to recover his spiritual qi.
An hour later, his spiritual qi was fully replenished once more. At the same time, a new prompt popped up on his Proficiency Panel.
[You circulate the Azure Wood Formula once, proficiency +1]
Based on his estimate, this acre of land would need at least a hundred rounds of spirit rain irrigation to fully recover. Calculated this way, he would need to exhaust his internal spiritual qi twenty consecutive times to accomplish the task.
"Forget it, I'll take it one step at a time."
Having made up his mind, Lu Feng cast the Spirit Rain Spell again, continuously irrigating the spirit field.
New notifications frequently popped up on the Proficiency Panel.
Three hours passed quickly in this manner. As night gradually shrouded the earth, Lu Feng stopped casting spells and got up to return to the thatched hut.
Busy all day, he stood by the stove to cook some spirit rice porridge while checking the information on his panel.
[Name: Lu Feng]
[Age: 20/50]
[Cultivation: Qi Condensation Layer 1 (1/100)]
[Cultivation Method: Azure Wood Formula (Minor Accomplishment 4/300)]
[Spells: Wood Vine Spell (Proficient 1/200), Spirit Rain Spell (Beginner 20/100)]
[Hundred Arts of Immortality: None]
"Sigh, my cultivation is still too low; I can only cast the Spirit Rain Spell five times."
"If I were still in the Foundation Establishment Stage, casting it a thousand times wouldn't be a problem."
After finishing the spirit rice porridge, Lu Feng lay down on the wooden bedboard. Perhaps because he had experienced too much today, he drifted off to sleep without realizing it.
Early the next morning, sunlight streamed into the thatched hut.
Lu Feng opened his eyes in a daze.
"Ouch, why does my back hurt so much, and my right leg is numb?"
He stood up and realized it was because the bedboard was too hard, poking him all night long.
Limping over to the stove, he washed up simply and boiled another bowl of spirit rice porridge for breakfast. After that, Lu Feng returned to the spirit field and began casting the Spirit Rain Spell.
He should be able to finish thoroughly irrigating the field today.
In truth, the spirit rain he cast consisted of rainwater infused with spiritual qi, which was countless times better than the water brought in by ditches. Although the water in those ditches did contain a trace of spiritual qi, the amount was pitifully small.
Under Lu Feng's continuous downpour, his acre of spirit field steadily regained its vitality. Weeds in the field even began to sprout under the nourishment of the spirit rain.
To prevent the weeds from absorbing the nutrients meant for the spirit field, Lu Feng picked up a spirit hoe and started weeding.
He alternated between weeding and casting the Spirit Rain Spell, sitting down to meditate and recover whenever his spiritual qi ran out. He repeated this exact routine throughout the entire daytime.
Lu Feng felt as though he had returned to his roots as a farm boy. The first fourteen years before his transmigration had been spent as an ordinary peasant youth, though back then, he hadn't been farming spirit fields.
After a busy day, all the sprouting weeds in the field had been cleared away, and the vitality of the spirit field had recovered by more than half.
Seeing that the sky was growing dark, Lu Feng returned to the thatched hut to eat some spirit rice porridge, then fell into a heavy sleep.
On the third morning, before Lu Feng even woke up, a woman's voice rang out from outside the hut.
"Lu Feng, I know you're in there, get your ass out here right now!"
"My young miss doesn't have time to waste with you here."
"If you don't come out, I'll tear down your thatched hut!"
......
The voice outside woke Lu Feng up. He got to his feet and looked outside, only to find three people standing there.
One man and two women!
He recognized all three of them. One of them was none other than his fiancée, Liu Yuxin, while the girl threatening to tear down his hut was Liu Yuxin's maid, Liu Mei'er.
As for the young man, he was Chen Zihan, an inner sect disciple of the Tianling Sect who was rumored to have been pursuing Liu Yuxin all along.
Seeing these three, Lu Feng's expression turned ugly.
Pushing the door open, Lu Feng walked out to face them.
The moment Liu Mei'er saw him emerge, a look of utter disgust appeared in her eyes. "You sect outcast, you finally show your face. I thought you didn't dare meet us."
Ignoring her clamoring, Lu Feng looked instead at Liu Yuxin, only to find that the gaze directed at him was ice-cold.
At that sight, Lu Feng smiled bitterly inwardly. The girl who had once sworn she would never marry anyone else turned out to be just as snobbish as the rest.
"Liu Yuxin, what is your purpose in coming to find me?" Lu Feng asked flatly.
Hearing his question, Liu Yuxin glanced at Liu Mei'er beside her. "Mei'er, take the things out."
"Yes, Miss!"
Liu Mei'er produced a storage bag along with a document, walked right up to Lu Feng, and spoke in a bossy, domineering tone, "Lu Feng, sign this contract, and everything inside this storage bag will be your compensation."
Lu Feng frowned and asked, "What kind of contract is this?"
"Heh, a letter of annulment, of course!"