Chapter 1: Tanaka's Light Like Jade

Linyang Market.

The sky was just beginning to brighten, the mist had yet to dissipate, and the entire market was enveloped in a thin, gauzy layer of white mist.

A small courtyard surrounded by gray stone walls, about three zhang long and two zhang wide, had most of its area covered in gray-black soil, with only a narrow path of blue stone running through the center.

In the gray-black soil, some low-grade spirit plants were planted. After a night of silent nourishment from the mist, the spirit plants were thriving, lazily stretching their tender green branches and leaves.

With a creak, a stone house at the end of the blue stone path opened, and a young man walked out.

The young man was about sixteen or seventeen years old, wearing a gray robe, tall and slender, with a handsome face and clear, lively eyes.

He was Lu Xuan, who had been in this world for quite some time after crossing over.

Originally, he was an ordinary young man on Earth, but he woke up one day to find himself mysteriously occupying the body of this young man, becoming a lowly spirit plant cultivator in the vast world of cultivation.

After the initial confusion and fear, Lu Xuan gradually adapted to his new identity.

A standard beginning: no parents, alone, average talent, and a cultivation level of the second stage of Qi Condensation. He had rented a plot of spirit land in the market through years of savings, planting spirit grass and herbs, striving to survive in this world of the strong preying on the weak and riddled with danger.

The thin mist in the courtyard refreshed Lu Xuan, who had just woken up. He walked around the spirit plants, carefully observing them.

There were about twenty to thirty spirit plants, each with a certain gap between them, about a foot tall, with long, narrow leaves that had faint white fluorescence, like stars dotted in the white mist.

These were Spirit Fire Grass, a first-grade spirit plant with a low planting difficulty. When mature, they could be used as materials for refining several healing elixirs, making them widely used in the cultivation world.

In addition to the Spirit Fire Grass, there were two trees in the courtyard, both being Moon Erosion Trees.

The Moon Erosion Tree was a first-grade spirit plant. Under Lu Xuan's careful care, it was growing well, taller than his head, with dozens of silver-white fruits, resembling hooks, hidden among the emerald leaves.

These fruits were called Moon Erosion Fruits. When they first formed, they resembled crescent moons, gradually growing larger until they became full moons when mature.

Mature Moon Erosion Fruits could be consumed directly, slightly increasing the spiritual energy in the bodies of low-level cultivators, or used to refine precious elixirs like the Essence Nourishing Pill.

The Moon Erosion Tree, in terms of planting difficulty and rarity, was slightly higher than the Spirit Fire Grass, and Lu Xuan had invested the most effort in it.

Both types of spirit plants were growing well, but a hint of worry appeared on Lu Xuan's face.

He quickly went to the west side of the courtyard, squatted down, and pinched the leaf of a Spirit Fire Grass near the stone wall, carefully flipping it over.

As expected, there were thin, pale black lines on the back of the leaf. If not for Lu Xuan's attention to detail, these hair-like black lines would have been hard to notice.

"Compared to yesterday, the number of black lines has clearly increased."

Lu Xuan mentally compared them, looking at the Spirit Fire Grass being eroded by the lines, and sighed softly.

A few days ago, while tending to the spirit plants, he had noticed that a Spirit Fire Grass near the stone wall was behaving abnormally. After much searching, he finally found these black lines on the back of the leaf.

The lines seemed to have fused with the Spirit Fire Grass, tightly adhering to it, making them difficult to separate.

Lu Xuan, being a low-level spirit plant cultivator with limited knowledge, did not know the origin of these black lines.

Unable to treat the problem effectively, he had no choice but to use his spiritual energy to carefully separate the black lines from the back of the leaf.

It took a great deal of spiritual energy and mental effort to clean them up, but the next day, the black lines reappeared, and their number increased each day.

"At this rate, in a day or two, this Spirit Fire Grass will be completely taken over by the black lines, and it will likely spread to the nearby Spirit Fire Grass."

Thinking about this, Lu Xuan felt troubled and stood there in a daze.

He had considered uprooting this Spirit Fire Grass to prevent the black lines from spreading to the nearby plants.

But after some consideration, he abandoned this idea.

After all, the origin of the black lines was unknown, and the way they eroded the Spirit Fire Grass was unclear. If uprooting it did not solve the problem and the other Spirit Fire Grass still got infected, it would be a disaster.

"The only option now is to find a reputable, experienced spirit plant cultivator in the market to help solve this problem."

"Those hard-earned spirit stones... I had planned to use them to pay the rent for the spirit land in two months."

Lu Xuan was only a second-stage Qi Condensation cultivator, unable to fully own a plot of spirit land.

The small plot of spirit land in the courtyard was rented from a mid-stage Qi Condensation cultivator in the market, requiring a significant amount of spirit stones each month.

"For the next period, I'll have to tighten my belt."

He stood up, his expression resolute.

After the spirit plants matured, they could be sold to shops or cultivators in the market, and the spirit stones earned would cover the rent and daily cultivation needs, with a little left over.

But if he sought help from an experienced spirit plant cultivator, it would cost him dearly.

Lu Xuan made his decision and looked around.

The gray stone walls were surrounded by a circle of black thorns, with dense, sharp black spines, providing some protection.

However, the defensive capability was minimal, only deterring the honest, not the dishonest, let alone protecting against the mysterious insects and beasts that coveted the spirit plants.

"After dealing with this issue, I need to save some spirit stones to get a protective formation to prevent similar incidents."

"Relying on this straw puppet to guard the spirit land is completely unrealistic."

Lu Xuan looked at a straw puppet in the corner of the courtyard.

The puppet was about three feet tall, leaning against the courtyard wall, made of unknown dried grass, with a large, somewhat deformed head and a gray, knobby growth on top.

This straw puppet was a second-hand item he had bought from a stall in the market. According to the stall owner, it was made by the Thousand Mechanisms Sect in the cultivation world, with a simple behavior pattern, often used to guard lower-grade spirit lands.

If it sensed a cultivator or beast entering the spirit land, the straw puppet would send a warning to the owner. If it detected any intent to harm the spirit plants, it would attack and trap the intruder.

However, the one in the courtyard, perhaps due to being second-hand, had inconsistent warning capabilities, and the idea of it attacking was laughable.

Of course, this was also related to Lu Xuan himself. Since crossing over, he had mostly stayed indoors, with little interaction with the outside world, so no cultivators or beasts had entered the courtyard.

Lu Xuan glared at the straw puppet with a knobby head, his spiritual energy surging, and a fine mist of spiritual rain appeared above the Spirit Fire Grass and Moon Erosion Tree, falling onto the branches and leaves, seeping into them.

Nourished by the spiritual rain, the spirit plants in the field became even greener and cleaner, their dust-free branches and leaves gently swaying, exuding a charming aura.

This was a basic skill every spirit plant cultivator must master, allowing them to infuse fine spiritual energy into water vapor to nourish the spirit plants, ensuring their smooth growth.

"Hmm? This Spirit Fire Grass has entered the maturation stage."

After watering each spirit plant, Lu Xuan noticed that the fluorescence on a Spirit Fire Grass was constantly flickering, as if about to fall off the leaves.

He quickly returned to the house, took out a white jade box, and carefully harvested the Spirit Fire Grass, placing it in the jade box.

The jade box could slow down the loss of spiritual energy in the spirit plant, preserving its medicinal properties to some extent.

"What is this?"

As Lu Xuan was about to leave, he suddenly noticed a fist-sized white light orb left where the Spirit Fire Grass had been planted. The orb was faintly glowing, with points of spiritual light radiating out.

Lu Xuan curiously reached out and gently touched the white light orb.

Instantly, countless light points from the orb surged into his palm, and a thought involuntarily flashed through his mind.

"Harvested one Spirit Fire Grass, gained three months of cultivation."

The seedling needs everyone's care. Your support is my motivation.