Looking at the changes on the Proficiency Panel, Lu Feng felt a surge of excitement in his heart.
When the excitement subsided, a puzzled expression appeared on Lu Feng's face: "Wait a minute, my cultivation level doesn't seem to have changed at all. What is going on here?"
Normally, cultivators in the Qi Condensation Realm would gradually increase their cultivation level as long as they continuously absorbed and refined spiritual Qi through their cultivation techniques.
Yet, for the past three days, Lu Feng had been constantly running the Azure Wood Formula and the Spirit Rain Spell; the moment spiritual Qi appeared in his body, it would be instantly used up, leaving no spiritual Qi behind to elevate his cultivation.
Naturally, his cultivation level was stuck at a standstill.
Furthermore, the injuries to his dantian had not yet fully healed, so even if spiritual Qi were absorbed and refined, it would slowly leak out of his body.
"Sigh, it's a pity my storage bag was snatched away, leaving me without even pills for healing."
Now Lu Feng could only rely on time to slowly repair the injuries to his dantian; as for his destroyed Spiritual Root, repairing it was basically out of the question.
To cultivators, the Spiritual Root was the very foundation of immortal cultivation, playing a decisive role in both cultivation and combat.
Such an important thing was not something everyone could possess. In the mortal world, finding someone with a Spiritual Root was as rare as one in ten thousand.
Moreover, Spiritual Roots were graded from low to high: Impaired Spiritual Root, Mixed Spiritual Root, Single Spiritual Root, and Celestial Spiritual Root.
Among them, the Impaired Spiritual Root referred to an underdevelopment of the root, or someone like Lu Feng whose Spiritual Root had been mostly destroyed.
People of this sort basically had no hope of immortal cultivation. Although they could absorb spiritual Qi, the speed at which they absorbed and refined it was appallingly abyssal, and most importantly, such individuals would find breaking through major and minor bottlenecks several times or even dozens of times harder than others.
In the end, it was extremely difficult for them to break through to Qi Condensation Layer 4 for their entire lives—that is, the so-called Qi Condensation Mid Stage.
Better than the Impaired Spiritual Root were the multi-attribute Mixed Spiritual Roots; the more Spiritual Root attributes one had, the worse their aptitude.
For example, many outer disciples of the Tianling Sect possessed five-attribute or four-attribute Spiritual Roots, while their inner disciples were predominantly those with three-attribute and dual-attribute Spiritual Roots.
As for a cultivator with a single wood Spiritual Root like Lu Feng, he was also known as a supreme single Spiritual Root genius; such individuals were prized talent disciples fought over by major top sects.
Barring any accidents, a cultivator with a supreme single Spiritual Root could at least cultivate to the Golden Core Realm.
These were merely the effects of Spiritual Roots on cultivation; in combat, a single Spiritual Root cultivator's spiritual Qi circulation speed was much faster than anyone else's, giving them a head start on that alone.
Secondly, the hundred arts of immortal cultivation—such as alchemy, weapon refining, and array formations—also had certain requirements for Spiritual Roots, making Spiritual Roots vitally important to cultivators.
Yet now Lu Feng had gone from having a supreme single Spiritual Root to an impaired one. At the mere thought of this, his hatred toward Luo Qing and the Tianling Sect surged continuously.
Gathering his thoughts, Lu Feng carefully sensed the condition of his dantian.
"It will take about a week to recover. It seems I can only practice spells during this time," Lu Feng muttered to himself.
Now his spirit field had already been restored. According to the guide who had shown him around earlier, sowing seeds would have to wait until the middle of next month.
What should he do with over a month's time, then?
After pondering for a moment, Lu Feng decided to plow the soil in the spirit field tomorrow to prepare for sowing the seeds.
Returning to the thatched cottage, he ate and drank his fill, then lay down on the wooden bed and went to sleep.
The night passed without incident.
Early the next morning, Lu Feng carried a spiritual hoe over to the spirit field. Just as he was about to start turning the soil, he saw someone walking toward him.
The newcomer had dark skin, wore peasant clothing, and looked to be around thirty years old. Faint ripples of spiritual Qi emanated from him, marking him as most likely a cultivator.
Since Lu Feng's current cultivation was only at Qi Condensation Layer 1, he could not see through the other man's cultivation level, so he stopped hoeing and looked at the middle-aged man with vigilance.
"Haha, Fellow Daoist, no need to be nervous. My name is Li Yang, and I'm a tenant farmer here," the middle-aged man said with a smile.
Lu Feng nodded, cupped his fists, and said, "So it is Fellow Daoist Li. My name is Lu Shan, a new tenant for the Chen Clan."
"Yesterday I heard the steward mention that someone had rented the spirit field next to mine, so I came over to take a look. I never expected Fellow Daoist Lu to be so young."
A thought stirred in Lu Feng's mind: so the spirit field next door belonged to this person.
That meant he and Li Yang would be neighbors from now on.
However, Lu Feng hadn't seen the other man's dwelling, and he didn't know where this person had come from.
Seeing that Lu Feng remained silent, Li Yang looked at the spirit field under his feet and suddenly revealed an expression of astonishment.
"Eh?! Isn't this plot of spirit field an impaired spirit field? Why has it suddenly become so full of vitality?"
With that, Li Yang stepped into Lu Feng's spirit field and crouched down to inspect the soil condition.
"How strange, how strange! It wasn't like this a few days ago." Li Yang muttered to himself, then suddenly stood up after a moment and looked at Lu Feng: "Fellow Daoist Lu, could you be the one who did this?"
Unfamiliar with this person, Lu Feng made up an excuse: "Impaired spirit field? No, it was already like this when I took it over."
With a perplexed look on his face, Li Yang scratched his head, unable to figure out the reason behind it. "Alright, from now on we are neighbors. If there's anything you don't understand, feel free to come and ask me."
"Right, many thanks then, Fellow Daoist Li."
Lu Feng didn't refuse; since he was going to stay here for three years, getting along with his neighbors was still necessary.
After exchanging greetings, Li Yang turned and left directly.
Subsequently, Lu Feng resumed the work of turning the soil. After a day of labor, this plot of spirit field had been thoroughly tilled from end to end, which also left him quite exhausted.
Lu Feng slumped down on the ridge of the field, wiping the sweat beads from his forehead.
At that exact moment, a new message suddenly popped up on the Proficiency Panel.
[You performed a spirit field tilling task, Spirit Planter proficiency +1]
"Huh?! What is this?"
Lu Feng immediately checked the Proficiency Panel and discovered that the information inside had undergone new changes.
[Name: Lu Feng]
[Age: 20/50]
[Cultivation: Qi Condensation Layer 1 (1/100)]
[Cultivation Technique: Azure Wood Formula (Minor Accomplishment 19/300)]
[Spells: Vine Wood Spell (Proficient 1/200), Spirit Rain Spell (Proficient 0/200)]
[Hundred Arts of Immortal Cultivation: Spirit Planter (Tier 1 1/100)]
"Spirit Planter? I've become a Spirit Planter just like that?"
Lu Feng wore a look of utter astonishment; he had only tilled the soil in the spirit field once, and it had unlocked the occupation of Spirit Planter.
This piece of information caught him slightly off guard.
A moment later, Lu Feng suddenly stood up and muttered to himself, "Damn it, if I go and brew a batch of pills, could I also unlock the Alchemist occupation?"