Immortality and Cultivation: This old man seeks enlightenment through mere survival.

The sky was clear and the thick fog in the valley was rarely dissipated.

"The Art of Gentle Breeze and Rain!"

Lu Zaian murmured softly as he walked through the medicinal herb field, chanting incantations and making hand seals.

As he moved, the water-attribute spiritual energy in the surrounding air began to stir.

As if drawn by an invisible force, they gradually converged towards Lu Zaian.

As these water-attribute spiritual energies gathered, they eventually formed a massive vortex of spiritual energy.

At the center of the vortex, a gentle, moist rain quietly fell, as fine as cow's hair.

These magical raindrops gently fell on the flowers in the medicinal field, bringing a refreshing rain to those already beautiful and vibrant blossoms.

Less than a quarter of an hour.

Lu Zaian stopped his spell, bent over, put his hands on his knees, and gasped for breath with a pale face.

"It really consumes a lot of mana to keep casting this Spring Breeze and Rain spell."

Although the spiritual veins of the Spirit Medicine Valley are already at the second-tier top level, the more spiritual energy the Three Mysterious Flowers need to grow, the better.

In particular, the irrigation spell "Spring Breeze and Rain Technique" researched by Lingyao Valley can transform pure water elemental power to deeply nourish the Three Mysterious Flowers.

Lu Zaian performs his magic once every three days, and this is the tenth time.

At first, I was so unskilled that I could only last for half an hour, but now I can barely last for a full fifteen minutes.

The flowers in the fields bloom in the wind, swaying gracefully, a truly beautiful sight.

"Red, white, and purple—the three petals are indeed fully ripe, and we can harvest them tomorrow."

Lu Zaian stood with his hands on his hips, admiring the swaying three-flowered plants in the field. Upon careful counting, he found there were only 365 plants.

Four of them only produced red and white flowers, and three of them only produced red flowers.

The rest were either buds that drooped and remained closed, never blooming;

Or the petals wither and fall, turning into mud and dust;

Or they simply wither and fall limply into the field, turning into fertilizer to nourish other plants.

Lu Zaian shook his head helplessly; he had already done his best to nurture the growth of these Three Mysterious Flowers.

For the past month, the first thing Lu Zaian did every morning was to check the medicinal herb field to see if it needed pest and weed control, followed by watering every three days.

Although he inherited Elder Xiao's planting memories, there are still many aspects of practice and integration that need to be explored.

However, the Three Mysterious Flowers are extremely delicate; if the soil fertility decreases even slightly, or if the spiritual energy is unevenly distributed, they will wither and die...

Looking back now, it's truly remarkable that wild three-flowered flowers can grow in the mountains.

"Of the 365 plants, 7 were deemed unqualified, and 10 were kept for further cultivation, leaving only 348 plants in the end."

"Tsk tsk, I thought I'd have some left over to pocket? Looks like I've worked for nothing, and I can't even make up the monthly target of 360..."

Fortunately, the disciple's manual provides a detailed explanation of this.

Once the disciples of the medicinal field complete their monthly planting tasks and meet the standards, they can immediately receive the corresponding rewards.

However, if the target is not met, all penalties will be accumulated and settled at the end of the year.

Such regulations are actually very beneficial.

Unexpected losses in a particular month can be spread over the entire year, thereby reducing the pressure faced by the disciples.

For example, a disciple neglected to take care of the medicinal field because he was in a critical period of cultivating his skills, which ultimately led to a decrease in the monthly yield.

If punishment is implemented immediately, it is highly likely to disrupt his normal cultivation process.

Conversely, the shortage of elixirs can be replenished in the following month, or even before the end of the year.

This would greatly alleviate the pressure on the disciples.

However, if the vacancy is not filled by the end of the year, the disciple's monthly salary and the scale of the medicinal herb cultivation will be reduced.

Day two.

Lu Zaian picked the three mysterious flowers one by one, put them into a special storage bag, and went to the Gathering Spirit Pavilion to hand them over.

The area in front of the Gathering Spirit Pavilion remains bustling with activity.

Lu Zaian, dressed in the blue robes of an outer disciple and riding a yellow sand gourd, had a cultivation level of the fourth level of Qi Refining that seemed insignificant among the disciples in the middle and late stages of Qi Refining.

His silver hair and aged face were rather striking.

"I've come to hand over the medicinal herbs for this month; these are three hundred and forty-eight Three Mysterious Flowers."

Lu Zaian went to a window and handed in the disciple's token and storage bag together.

A moment later, a voice came from the window, and a token and a storage bag were handed out.

"The quality of the medicinal herbs has been verified. There are twelve plants missing. You will receive thirty-four spirit stones and three contribution points."

Lu Zaian's face lit up with joy, and he reached out to take it.

The price of a Three Mysterious Flower outside is two to three spirit crystals per plant. A spirit crystal is a unit below low-grade spirit stone, and ten spirit crystals are equal to one low-grade spirit stone.

However, Spirit Medicine Valley has uniquely favorable planting conditions, so the purchase price for disciples is one spirit crystal per plant.

Even so, this was Lu Zaian's first legitimate earnings of spirit stones.

As for contribution points, they are a means used by Spirit Medicine Valley to encourage disciples to build up the sect, and can be viewed in the disciple token.

Some precious medicinal herbs or elixirs, or powerful cultivation techniques from the Scripture Pavilion, can only be obtained by exchanging contribution points.

Contribution points are only obtained by completing sect missions and are extremely valuable.

For planting tasks like Lu Zaian's, the settlement only yields a pitiful three points.

Next, Lu Zaian went to Lingbao Hall to collect his disciple's salary for the following month.

"Being a sect disciple is great; you can obtain cultivation resources without taking much risk."

With his salary, he immediately received eighty-four spirit stones and a bottle of pills to enhance his magical power.

"Let's go check out the trading floor..."

After a moment's thought, Lu Zaian decided to head to the Juling Hall trading hall.

I still have some wealth on the surface, and since I live in the Valley of Spirit Medicine, I don't have to worry about the danger of revealing my wealth. I can see if I can find some items that I need.

Across a corridor, the trading hall was equally bustling.

It happened to be the end of the month, and many disciples would be coming to the Gathering Spirit Hall to hand in their tasks or collect their salaries.

It could be said that Lu Zaian's arrival was perfectly timed.

By the way, contribution points cannot be traded.

Dozens of stalls were set up on the bluestone floor on both sides of the hall. Disciples placed the magical treasures, pills, and medicinal herbs they wanted to trade on them, either marking the prices or shouting them out directly.

"Senior brother, would you like to take a look at my Spirit Wind Mirror? It's a mid-grade first-tier magic treasure, 90% new, for only 130... no, 120, 120 low-grade spirit stones. If I didn't urgently need spirit stones, I wouldn't be selling it so cheaply. What do you think, senior brother?"

"No way! This mirror has cracks and you call it 90% new? 70% is more like it!"

"Come and see! We just hunted a black-crowned python in the Strange Stone Forest. Its gall can be used to make wine to nourish yin and tonify the kidneys, its meat can enhance qi and blood, and its scales can be used to make armor. It only costs eighty spirit stones!"

"The freshly made Ice Heart Pill can calm the mind and spirit and eliminate inner demons when taken during cultivation. One pill costs seven spirit stones."

"..."

Lu Zaian walked through the hall, overwhelmed by the sights.

While the selection of goods here isn't as comprehensive as in Blackrock Market, items of the same tier are much cheaper.

After all, it's a trading hall within the sect, and the disciples want convenience so they don't have to travel far.

If I want to sell more spirit stones, I will naturally go to Black Rock Market to sell them.

"First-tier basic blank array plate and array flags?"

Suddenly, Lu Zaian saw what he wanted.

In front of them, there was a stall displaying many array plates, array flags, array symbols, and some small, unranked crafted items.

The stall owner was a somewhat slovenly fat man whose aura was around the sixth level of Qi Refining. He was currently engrossed in fiddling with something.

"Hey, senior brother, how much are these Tier 1 basic blank array plates and array flags?"

Lu Zaian had previously obtained the "True Explanation of Talisman Arrays, Volume 1" from the Blood Spirit Orb's storage space, and after three years of dedicated study, he had barely grasped the basics.

However, I have never had the opportunity to obtain real array plates and flags to practice.

Now that he had the time and spirit stones, Lu Zaian naturally wanted to give it a try.

Coincidentally, Lu Zaian had a good idea regarding the cultivation of medicinal herbs, which could be combined with array formations...