Finally, Jiang Xia realized what she had been overlooking.
"Wait, that's not right."
"Didn't I come here to cultivate immortality? How did I end up farming? Shouldn't I be doing something like Qi Absorption?"
Although Jiang Xia hadn't started cultivating yet, the basic steps should be roughly the same; this was all experience she had gained from reading novels.
[Host, you are quite right.]
[However, even if you cultivate immortality, you still have to eat, right? Look, there's nothing at all in Immortals' Valley. What are you going to eat?]
Xingxing tried its best to justify the items obtained through check-in, continuing:
[Tilling the soil like this should also count as part of your training, right? Look, you can exercise your body, and it helps you understand the tools in your hands. Plus, you get a good workout, don't you?]
Xingxing could barely believe its own excuses. What on earth was it even saying? What kind of divine understanding was that?
Hearing this, Jiang Xia could only take the essence of it, thought about it for a moment, and nodded.
"What you said makes sense. There really is nothing here, and the food I brought might honestly not be enough. I'd better work hard at farming; otherwise, before I even manage to cultivate immortality and ascend, I'll go straight to heaven."
"One, two, three, let's go!"
Thinking about it, Jiang Xia figured that food was a necessity no matter where one was, and since she couldn't get out right now, she might as well face reality.
Once she grew things, she could cultivate in peace.
As a result, Jiang Xia spent her very first day in Immortals' Valley tilling the land and turning the soil.
As for cultivating immortality and the like, it hadn't actually started yet.
Xingxing didn't even know whether to consider its host lucky or unlucky.
The items obtained from check-ins were always so good, so why hadn't she started cultivating yet?
She had actually ended up farming instead.
Things had started out fine, so how did they get so off track?
***
At noon on the second day, Jiang Xia began her check-in.
[Congratulations to the host for a successful check-in. This time, the reward is a seed value pack.]
"As expected, exactly as I thought." Jiang Xia had already anticipated this outcome.
She had pretty much finished tilling all the land, and now she was just missing seeds.
So Jiang Xia took the seeds straight to the land she had already tilled and began scattering them, leaving a certain distance between each seed.
She even assigned different areas based on the types of seeds to ensure they would grow up neat and orderly.
That way, it would be convenient for harvesting later, and it would look nice, too.
Although Jiang Xia didn't recognize these seeds, it didn't affect anything at all—the system's value packs had everything sorted out.
Xingxing wasn't idling either; it bustled about alongside its host. Jiang Xia scattered the seeds in front, and Xingxing followed right behind to fill in the holes.
The sooner the host finished her chores, the sooner she could start cultivating immortality, and the sooner it could recover.
Keep it up! Let's go!
Once that was done, Jiang Xia took out the spirit liquid she had acquired earlier, drew a bucket of water from the lake, mixed the liquid in, and watered the patches one by one.
Then, a most astonishing thing happened to her.
She actually saw the seeds sprout rapidly, little seedlings popping out of the soil one after another.
Jiang Xia stared in wide-eyed shock. The effect was this powerful?
Then those little seedlings continued to grow bit by bit.
Jiang Xia poured a little more water.
The seedlings grew even faster.
Jiang Xia decided to just let these seedlings be her experiment.
To her surprise, once the entire bucket of water was poured out, the seedlings had already grown up and borne fruit. They turned out to be tomatoes.
These happened to be her absolute favorite vegetable.
Tomato and egg stir-fry, tomatoes with sugar, napa cabbage in tomato sauce, tomato meatballs, and tomato hot pot—slurp.
Jiang Xia picked them, keeping one for herself and giving one to Xingxing.
Both of them ate with great delight. Things watered with spirit liquid were truly different; these were the best tomatoes she had ever tasted.
After finishing them, Jiang Xia resumed her previous work.
She poured spirit liquid over all the remaining seeds, and all the seedlings emerged as well. However, Jiang Xia was in no rush now.
She still had emergency rations in her system space, so she could wait until those ran out before eating the fresh produce.
Now, it was time for her to begin cultivation.
With no more distractions, she could finally cultivate with peace of mind.
As for where to stay, she didn't need to overthink it; she would just live among the flowers, and build a house later on.
Mainly because she didn't know how—she had zero experience with house building.
Jiang Xia sat down in the most beautiful place she had access to so far.
Right in the middle of the flower patch, which would also be her living quarters at night.
Although she hadn't built a house, she had moved most of her daily necessities and bedding out of the system space.
Starting her Qi Absorption right here could be considered a perfect experience.
Jiang Xia took the divine-grade Cultivation Method, Huntian Formula, out from the space, and then followed the first step described in it.
To mobilize the spiritual energy all around her for her own use was also known as Qi Absorption.
Jiang Xia operated step by step, while Xingxing and Jinjin watched nervously from the side.
Yet it seemed they had forgotten one crucial step.
After all, this was the modern era, where spiritual energy was scarce.
Since this was Jiang Xia's first time encountering such things, it was uncertain whether her cultivation would succeed.
If she succeeded on the very first try, it would prove that she possessed exceptionally high cultivation talent.
If she failed after multiple attempts, then even if she eventually succeeded, her cultivation aptitude wouldn't be very high, and it might even impact her future cultivation.
However, none of this mattered right now; the most important thing was not to let anything disturb Jiang Xia.
They didn't dare make a sound, terrified of disturbing her at this moment. But soon they relaxed, because Jiang Xia had already entered a novel state of meditation.
Yes, meditation.
Following the instructions of the Cultivation Method step by step, Jiang Xia slowly entered a state of meditation.
Once someone entered the state of meditation, it meant there was a high probability of success.
Jinjin's thoughts at this moment were: Not bad, not bad, truly impressive, worthy of being someone I picked.
Xingxing's thoughts at this moment were: Wow, the host is amazing, roar roar roar, I'm almost going to recover.
At this moment, Jiang Xia was completely oblivious to the outside world; she was communicating directly with her Cultivation Method.
As a divine-grade Cultivation Method, the Huntian Formula naturally had its own standards for choosing its master.
After all, having accumulated power over a long period, a divine-grade Cultivation Method had long since developed its own intelligence.
This was the moment for the Cultivation Method to select its master. Only those approved by the method could practice it; otherwise, they would have to switch to another.
No amount of envy would work—it was useless.
Sensing who this person was, the Huntian Formula made no difficulties at all and agreed immediately.
It even bounded over to Jiang Xia with great affection and rubbed against her. Of course, all of this took place in Jiang Xia's mind, and the outside world couldn't perceive it.
Jiang Xia thought the book in front of her was simply adorable, even rubbing against her like that.
A month passed, and Jiang Xia finally emerged from her meditative state.
A full month was a very long time, but this only proved that Jiang Xia's aptitude was exceptionally good.
Both Jinjin and Xingxing were thrilled for her.
Jiang Xia had also successfully completed the Qi Absorption stage, stepping into the Spirit Disciple rank.
The hierarchy of cultivation in the Immortal Cultivation World was distributed as follows: Spirit Disciple, Spirit Practitioner, Spirit Master, Spirit Venerable, Spirit Realm, Spirit Saint, Spirit Emperor, Spirit Immortal, and Spirit God.
Only after Qi Absorption could true cultivation begin.
Each rank was divided into nine stages: One-Star, Two-Star, Three-Star, Four-Star, Five-Star, Six-Star, Seven-Star, Eight-Star, and Nine-Star.
However, the spiritual energy in the modern world was still rather scarce, so the speed of cultivation was relatively slow.
Jiang Xia was overjoyed; she had succeeded, and she could finally cultivate. This was something she had dreamed of.
At this moment, she was still immersed in the joy of success, completely unaware that a whole month had already slipped by.
Jiang Xia stood up, wanting to share this wonderful news with Jinjin and Xingxing.
Yet neither of them was in sight.
How strange—weren't they just right here? Why had they left without making a sound?
Hearing Jiang Xia's movement, Jinjin immediately flew over and fluttered in a circle around her.
"Jinjin, look, I succeeded!" Jiang Xia happily spun around in front of Jinjin.