This matter was of utmost urgency. Only by cultivating the technique to the first level as soon as possible could Fang Ming become a cultivator. And only by becoming a cultivator could he start farming the spiritual fields and eventually harvest that hundred and forty catties of spiritual rice.
Fang Ming did not want to end up visiting the sect’s disciplinary hall, as mentioned by Steward Liu, due to failing to harvest the spiritual rice.
Steward Liu had actually made it very clear—he had warned Fang Ming that it would be best not to delay the harvest. Fang Ming naturally understood the consequences of delaying the harvest—he wouldn't die, but his life would be miserable. In the immortal sect, no handyman disciple could rely on their youth to shirk their duties.
Violating overt rules came at a price.
Fang Ming, after carefully studying the "One Qi Technique," found it to be very simple.
It merely described how to absorb the spiritual energy between heaven and earth, and then cultivate a cool, refreshing energy within one's body, or a kind of energy like magical power.
Since its simplicity was confirmed, Fang Ming spent almost all of his time for the next thirty days, except for eating and sleeping, cultivating the "One Qi Technique."
The process went without any errors.
On the thirtieth day, Fang Ming felt a cool stream of energy emerge from his dantian. With the control of his will, this cool energy could circulate throughout his meridians.
With the enhancement of this cool energy, Fang Ming’s body didn't change much, but he possessed rudimentary magical power and could perform a spell recorded in the "One Qi Technique"—the Grass Cutting Art.
He chanted the incantation, and the cool energy within his body condensed on his finger. With a raise of his hand, a green light flashed out, and a large tree in the distance fell, crashing heavily to the ground.
"Is this the spell the White Cloud Sect specially uses for spiritual farmers to cut spiritual grass?"
Fang Ming recalled the description in the "One Qi Technique" about the difficulty of harvesting spiritual plants, requiring cultivators to cut grass and harvest spiritual rice. Looking at the damage he had inflicted on the mundane plant nearby, he understood the defensive capabilities of spiritual plants.
With the defensive power of these spiritual plants, even ten adult men wouldn't be able to harvest a single grain of spiritual rice.
And this spell, although named Grass Cutting Art, could be learned and mastered at the first level of the One Qi Technique, specifically for harvesting spiritual grass or eliminating pests in spiritual fields. However, if truly used against mortals, it could kill more than ten people in an instant.
Its power was no less than that of ordinary firearms.
Moreover, it could be used solely by oneself, making it extremely covert.
It had many advantages.
"I could probably dominate the mortal world with this... No, this world doesn't seem to be governed by dynasties."
Just as Fang Ming was thinking this, with this single Grass Cutting Art and the first level of the One Qi Technique, his survival ability had greatly improved, making him capable of making a living in the mortal world.
However, he immediately quashed this idea based on the information he had gathered.
During this past month, from the information obtained from other fellow disciples, he learned that this cultivation world was basically ruled by major immortal sects. For instance, the White Cloud Sect governed an entire commandery, along with numerous counties and villages.
And other immortal sects outside the White Cloud Sect governed other commanderies, or their spheres of influence extended to entire provinces.
Whether it was a village chief or a county magistrate, judging by the fact that the White Cloud Sect recruited most people from various villages and towns to work as spiritual farm laborers, it was difficult to say that these areas were not influenced by immortal sects.
This world was unlike some novels where cultivators transcended the mortal world, needing no mortal sustenance and dwelling in deep mountains.
Instead, cultivators had interactions with various counties and villages—at least they needed spiritual farmers as laborers and selected outer disciples and inner disciples from among mortals.
In such circumstances, it was difficult for ordinary dynasties to govern the people of these villages and towns, and instead, some external cultivators under the immortal sects concurrently held the authority of government officials.
This was fundamentally equivalent to the immortal sects taking over the functions of dynasties.
Although this cultivation world had designations like villages and towns, it was clearly not ruled by a single unified dynasty but by multiple immortal sects.
The relationship between the mortal world and cultivators was very close. For example, in this vicinity, many individuals who held a certain status in the mortal world might have originated as spiritual farmers of the White Cloud Sect.
Therefore, relying solely on the magical power of the first level of the One Qi Technique and a spell for removing grass and pests to dominate the mortal world was impossible.
Even the mortal world was a mortal world influenced by cultivators, not a purely mundane one.
The fact that spiritual farmers could descend the mountain after twenty years of work implied that cultivators existed even in the mortal world.
As fellow spiritual farmers, they had cultivated for at least twenty years, while Fang Ming had only cultivated for a month, making the difference in strength obvious.
The mortal world in this cultivation world was different from the mortal world in ordinary worlds.
"This actually fully illustrates that my previous idea of developing technology in this cultivation world is even more unreliable... Small-scale endeavors might be fine, but if I were to develop something in the mortal world and attract the covetous gaze of cultivators, whether they wanted to seize the results, eliminate me out of animosity, or due to conflicts of interest, it would be extremely difficult to resist."
Despite saying this, the situation was different now. Fang Ming could now be considered a cultivator, albeit the lowest-level one, but at least he had a spell for protection.
With this power, his room for maneuver had greatly increased, and the environment was vastly different.
Fang Ming felt that he might be able to leverage some knowledge from his previous life to earn cultivation resources in this world—knowledge from one world was always useful, and if it could help him advance in his cultivation, that would be excellent.
"The primary task now is to cultivate the spiritual fields and learn how to nurture various spiritual plants... This is crucial for surviving in the White Cloud Sect."
"Wait—what is this?"
Just as Fang Ming was about to focus his attention on how to farm, how to deal with pests, how to cultivate spiritual plants, and how to care for them.
Suddenly, his head felt a little dizzy.
Then, in a hazy state, a blurred environment appeared before his eyes.
It could be called chaos, or it could be called nothingness.
Within this void, there were many, many blurry points of light.
The points of light seemed to have a pattern, and yet they seemed to have no pattern. There were cylinders formed by numerous points of light, and a large pile of points of light drifted outside.
Most of the points of light were blurry.
And at this very moment, two points of light were illuminated.
Fang Ming didn't know what his state of mind was, but he inexplicably confirmed one thing.
The larger point of light was the world he was currently in.
The smaller point of light seemed to be another world he had never visited.
Why did he inexplicably know these things?