Chapter 30: Growth Technique

As the day wore on, Fang Yun didn't rush to check the ordinary crops in the valley. It was easy to guess that they were certainly overgrown with dense weeds. Even if he went over now, it wouldn't be convenient to weed at night, so he decided to wait until tomorrow.

Returning to the cave, he sat beside the spiritual spring and began to absorb the spiritual energy emanating from it, slowly recovering his magical power.

The next morning, Fang Yun glanced at his panel.

Cultivation Level: Qi Training Stage 2

Magical Power: 20

Vital Energy: 20

Control of Plants: Spiritual Rice (320), Astragalus (2536)…

Spells: Earth Force Technique (6% proficiency), Spiritual Rain Technique (30% entry level)

In just one night, he recovered two points of magical power, meaning he would need at least seven nights to fully recover. If he completely exhausted his magical power, it would take sixteen nights. The wasted time was indeed alarming.

It could only be said that the spiritual energy here was too sparse, which limited the speed at which he could refine it. In comparison, the efficiency of vital energy was incredibly fast, allowing him to almost instantly restore his magical power to its peak. The only downside was the limited quantity, which couldn't withstand even minor expenditures.

It seemed he needed to quickly start expanding the planting of ordinary crops. With the help of thousands of pirates, expanding the planting area for ordinary crops shouldn't be too problematic. The only concern was whether the crops grown with others' help would fall within the recognition range of the golden finger. 

If the crops grown with others' help didn't qualify, then the area he could cultivate on his own would be truly limited. This would likely jeopardize his plan to use the vital energy from ordinary crops to supplement the lack of vital energy for the spiritual rice. However, whether it would work or not would only become clear later on.

Next, Fang Yun initially planned to check the crops in the valley, but he suddenly remembered there was something more urgent he hadn't done: checking the spoils he obtained yesterday. So, he had to postpone the valley matter for now.

After worrying about the growth situation of the spiritual rice, he had spent the whole day weeding and then hurried to recover his magical power, forgetting about the spoils he had collected earlier.

Sitting beside the spiritual spring, he took out the spoils obtained from the Greenwood Elder. First, there were only five spirit stones, which was indeed quite meager. Given his own poverty, he had the audacity to ask Fang Yun for twenty spirit stones. It was quite reckless.

He put away a few spirit stones, adding to his original stones to recover to fourteen; that should give him some purchasing power. However, as of now, Fang Yun didn't plan to leave the island, so these spirit stones didn't have much use for the time being.

The second item was four spiritual talismans, two of which were fire attribute talismans, similar to his fireball talisman. They should be the same kind of talisman. 

Fortunately, the Greenwood Elder didn't use the fire attribute talisman against Fang Yun but opted for a wood-type spell. Clearly, he believed the wood-type spell was more powerful than the talisman.

It was a good thing; otherwise, Fang Yun would have had no means to counter the talisman attacks since he had no defensive methods.

After some reflection, Fang Yun turned to look at the other talismans. The remaining two were wood attribute talismans, reminiscent of the protective shield the Greenwood Elder had used before. They might be the same kind of defensive talismans.

With these two talismans, he would have a certain level of security when facing other cultivators in the future. He placed the four talismans with the remaining ones and stored them all in the corner of the cave where he kept things. These talismans wouldn't be needed for a while, so he decided to put them away for now.

The remaining spoils consisted of a small booklet and some seeds. Fang Yun picked up the booklet, which had the words "Wood Element Technique" written on it, likely a wood attribute cultivation method.

Opening the booklet, he found that the technique only allowed cultivation up to Qi Training Stage 2, which was one level lower than the cultivation method of the Fang family. Therefore, it didn't have much use for him. However, it did contain a wood attribute spell.

The name of the spell is Growth Technique, and its main function is to use the wood attribute spiritual energy produced by the spell to accelerate the growth of plants. 

It's the same spell the Greenwood Elder used in conjunction with those seeds. Overall, its power is quite decent; if Fang Yun didn't have the magical artifact sword in hand, it would be quite difficult for him to face such a spell.

However, upon seeing the function of this spell, Fang Yun's first thought wasn't its power, but rather its ability to accelerate plant growth. If this spell could make the plants grow as fast as ordinary ones, it would be a spell even more important to him than the Earth Force Technique and Spiritual Rain Technique.

The reason he was so lacking in vital energy was not only due to the size of the spiritual field and the limitations of spiritual energy. 

The main reason was that the spiritual rice took too long to grow, while ordinary crops, though quicker to grow, provided too little vital energy. If this spell could shorten the growth time of the spiritual rice, even reducing it by half would be a huge benefit for him.

After memorizing the incantation for the Growth Technique, its hand signs, and other important notes, Fang Yun didn't bother checking the condition of the remaining seeds. 

He went to the spot in the spiritual field where he originally cultivated the spiritual rice seeds. Since the spiritual rice had been transplanted, all the remaining rice had been removed, leaving this corner useless.

Now it was just right for practicing the Growth Technique to see if the rice stimulated by this spell would produce vital energy. 

First, he adjusted the energy and spiritual energy in the soil using the Earth Force Technique. Once the energy was sufficient and the spiritual energy abundant, Fang Yun returned to the cave to retrieve the spiritual rice grains he had stored earlier.

These were originally meant for food, but Fang Yun had been busy with other matters lately and hadn't eaten much. He decided to take out a portion to test the new spell's effects. He scattered the spiritual rice in the corner of the spiritual field and then began to form the hand signs while reciting the incantation.

"Growth of wood, hidden vitality. Spiritual breath gathers, wood power blooms. Stimulate all things, flourishing upward…"

With the hand signs and the incantation reinforcing him, Fang Yun's not yet fully restored magical power began to circulate through his meridians, radiating a subtle wave.

Before long, a green light condensed above his hand signs. However, the spell was still not skilled enough; the green light barely coalesced before flickering several times and breaking apart. Nonetheless, Fang Yun didn't feel discouraged. After all, he didn't expect to master every spell as quickly as the Spiritual Rain Technique.

After attempting it a dozen times without success, his magical power began to gradually dwindle. At this point, he didn't care about conserving vital energy anymore. He rolled his magical power to the side, absorbing a large portion of the vital energy nearby. Feeling some recovery in his magical power, Fang Yun continued practicing the Growth Technique.