Chapter 118. Yuheng was absolutely delighted...
Yuheng was overjoyed.
These wines—named "Spirit Wine" by Li Chang'an—have terrifying effects. Each bottle, weighing 500 milliliters, contains an increase in spiritual energy equivalent to ten catties of immortal rice, hence their price is several times that of immortal rice.
Li Chang'an supplied a total of one hundred bottles of spirit wine this time, and in addition, he also gave five bottles to Yuheng.
Yuheng was taken aback, not understanding what he meant, when he heard Li Chang'an say, "Star Lord, please accept this. It's a gift for my friend."
The words of refusal stuck in his throat. After a long pause, Yuheng smiled and readily accepted: "Thank you."
After Li Chang'an left, news that the Cultivation Alliance's exchange shop had put spirit wine on the shelves spread throughout the Fangcun Forum.
[Spirit Wine, 8,000 points per bottle, 5,000 points with the first-month discount, its effects are equivalent to ten catties of Immortal Rice! Is this real or fake?]
[Is what the alliance released fake? And this was provided by Li Chang'an.]
[My goodness! I've accumulated so many points from completing tasks over the past year, and I was planning to exchange them all for thirty catties of Immortal Rice later. But now that I see this Spirit Wine, I'm so tempted! One bottle is only five thousand points, which is equivalent to five catties of Immortal Rice, but it has the effect of ten catties of Immortal Rice. It's such a great deal!]
Waaaaah... I just used up all my points!
The cultivators who had been accumulating points hurriedly flew to nearby alliance branches to exchange them, while those who had been eager to exchange their points were now wailing in anguish, wishing they had waited.
The news of the spirit wine was so shocking that it was being discussed in various sects.
Since learning that Li Chang'an had sponsored immortal rice for the reform of cultivation, some small sects couldn't help but join in. During this period, those disciples did some tasks and gained a lot of benefits.
Only the three upper sects and some other sects with considerable strength remained stubborn and disagreed.
But now... the effects of the spirit wine are making them waver.
The reform of cultivation has been underway for some time now, and some cultivators have indeed reported that by using spiritual power in daily life, their control over spiritual power becomes more refined, and their cultivation is faster than before.
This is also why the average quality of cultivation among independent cultivators is now better than that of disciples from the three major sects.
This is also the fact that Yuheng wants these sect elders and leaders to see.
"How about... we participate in the reform of cultivation?"
This thought arose in the minds of many sect elders without prior agreement.
In the past, they would have their disciples help wealthy merchants with rituals and talismans to earn money to maintain the sect's income, while also giving the disciples some opportunities to gain experience.
The opposition to the reform of cultivation is also due to the concern that wealthy businessmen, after learning about this, will go to the cultivation alliance to place tasks instead of paying them.
However, over time, they have also observed that tasks such as performing rituals, drawing talismans, and consulting feng shui offer very few reward points when posted on the Cultivation Alliance website. As a result, not many cultivators accept these tasks, and wealthy merchants ultimately spend money to hire disciples from nearby sects.
Perhaps the Jade Balance Star Lord thought these things were unimportant, or perhaps it was intentional, leaving these sects with opportunities to make money...
Now, the reform of cultivation can benefit disciples in their cultivation without affecting the sect's livelihood, so why not participate?
A week after the spirit wine was put on the shelves, more sects participated in the reform of cultivation, with the three upper sects being among the first to join, which in turn affected other sects that were still observing.
The number of cultivators participating in the cultivation reform increased several times over, and Jade Balance Star Lord also increased the reward points for some tasks.
In this way, the cultivators won't have too many participants, making it difficult for them to accumulate points and thus preventing them from being unable to redeem their desired items for a long time.
The Qingfeng Sect, however, did not participate in the cultivation reform.
The reason is simple: the Qingfeng Sect teaches its disciples differently from other sects. Moreover, the disciples can directly exchange immortal rice and spirit wine with Li Chang'an, which is much faster and more convenient than for the cultivators who participated in the cultivation reform. They don't need to compete with other cultivators for reform points.
The other monks had mixed feelings.
Now that all the elders of the Qingfeng Sect are present, although there is no age limit in the conditions for recruiting disciples, they prefer cultivators who have just awakened their spiritual roots. Those cultivators who have been cultivating for decades no longer have the opportunity to enter.
Well, it's not bad to have the opportunity to exchange for immortal rice and spirit wine through the cultivation reform.
...
The Cultivation Alliance once said that because the spiritual energy is gradually thinning, the weather in the Cangxuan Realm has become increasingly strange in recent years, and natural disasters are frequent.
That summer, several more countries were severely affected by the heatwave. Fortunately, with the experience from the previous year, the monks who went to provide assistance this time were even more adept at helping people.
Some regions are facing floods, one of which is the western part of the Xia Kingdom.
In early autumn, Yuanxi County experienced more than half a month of torrential rain, which eventually led to flash floods that submerged houses and fields in nearby villages and towns, as well as the southwest of the county seat. The floodwaters were very deep, and houses and shops on the first floor were destroyed.
Disciples from the Lian Tian Sect and the Qing Feng Sect arrived when the disaster struck and rescued people and livestock that were nearly swept away by the flood, greatly reducing the losses from the disaster.
Huangtian Village was the area most severely affected by the floods.
Their village is near a river and backed by mountains. The torrential rain triggered a mudslide, burying the houses of several families behind the village and nearly burying the people inside. Fortunately, the monks arrived in time, and in the end, no one was injured.
The cultivators settled the villagers on a nearby mountain and used their spiritual power to reinforce the rocks and soil around the mountain to ensure the villagers' safety. They then used their spiritual power to guide the floodwaters back into the village.
An elderly man stood on the edge of a cliff, looking down at the village submerged by water. His eyes reddened, and tears streamed down his wrinkled face.
His granddaughter came over and tried to help him to rest: "Grandpa, let's go inside and sit down. It's slippery here, be careful not to fall."
The old man waved to his granddaughter, then stood there stubbornly, gazing in the direction of the village.
"Grandpa..." The granddaughter wanted to persuade him again, but was interrupted by a man in his fifties next to her: "Xiaoyun, let your grandpa see it."
The uncle took out a cigarette and took a puff, looking towards the village with the same melancholy: "The fields we've worked so hard on for half a year are gone just like that. Your grandfather is heartbroken."
The flood came so fast and fiercely that the crops in the fields certainly couldn't withstand the impact. Who knows what a terrible scene it will be when the flood recedes.
The land is their root. They have carefully tended it for more than half a year, waiting for the corn, rice and other crops to be harvested, hoping to sell them for several thousand or tens of thousands of yuan.
That's all the income I had all year round, and now it's all gone.
Although the government provides some subsidies so that people won't starve, it's still a lot of hard work over the past six months, so how can people not feel the pain?
“Our climate here is stable all year round, with no earthquakes or disasters. In previous years, at most it was just a bit hot in the summer. How could we have imagined that a flood would break out?”
“Our Huangtian Village was just a wasteland decades ago,” the uncle continued. “Your grandfather reclaimed the wasteland here when he was young and watched it turn into fertile fields. Now those fields are flooded again…sigh.”
The middle-aged man sighed, took the last puff of his cigarette, threw it on the ground, and stomped out the embers.
Upon hearing this, the granddaughter looked at her grandfather with heartache and comforted him, "Grandpa, don't worry. We're using the Xianshan No. 1 seed, aren't we? Researchers from the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences all say that this seed is very powerful and has a stronger ability to resist lodging and disasters."
"Look, it's been raining for so long, but the crops in the fields are still doing fine. You even praised them."
The old man wiped his face and murmured, "Rain is different from flooding..."
That was a flood; how could ordinary crops possibly stand strong and upright under floodwaters?
The granddaughter knows this too.
To be honest, she wasn't really confident.
Although those seeds were hybridized with those from Xianshan Farm, it was the first time anyone had ever planted such seeds. Who knew if they could withstand the floods?
However, even though she thought this way, the granddaughter didn't show it on her face. She still said with a good attitude, "Maybe, Grandpa, don't worry, everything will be fine."
The old man didn't say anything more, and the uncle also stopped talking and stopped smoking.
Before long, the floodwaters receded from the foot of the mountain, and a female cultivator dressed in the Qingfeng Sect uniform flew over, her feet tracing a path of blue light with spiritual energy.
She hovered in front of the cliff and informed the villagers: "Everyone, the flood has receded, you can go home now. The other cultivators are drawing purification talismans to clear the silt, and by the time you get home, the silt will be cleared. Some items and livestock that were swept away by the flood have been collected and placed here, and government volunteers are sorting them. Please go and collect them yourselves."
The villagers all stood up and hurriedly thanked the cultivator: "Thank you, fairy..."
The cultivator waved his hand and flew back down the mountain.
The village chief quickly led the villagers down the mountain.
The old man was walking rather quickly, but fortunately his granddaughter was supporting him, so he didn't slip or fall.
When they reached the foot of the mountain, the villagers suddenly stopped.
The old man stepped forward and was immediately shocked.
Before everyone's eyes, on the land that had been submerged by the flood, the crops, though looking somewhat disheveled, were still firmly rooted in the ground.
Most of the vegetables planted in the field only had slightly wrinkled and wilted outer leaves from being soaked in water, while the insides were still fresh. The same was true for the corn leaves, but the corn stalks remained upright.
Even in the newly planted rice paddies, the seedlings are still doing well.
—This batch of rice seeds was bred by Li Chang'an after soaking the seeds in water from the Cangxuan Realm and cultivating them on Jiarong Mountain. They were then hybridized with ordinary rice seeds and were only recently put on the market, just in time for some areas to plant late rice.
Although the land on Jiarong Mountain is not a sacred land, it still possesses spiritual energy, which nourishes the ordinary rice and makes the mortal rice that grows from it of good quality.
Looking at the fields in front of him, the old man was shocked, and his hands trembled uncontrollably.
The granddaughter was also shocked and said in disbelief, "The crops are really all okay!"
The middle-aged man clapped his hands excitedly, his eyes crinkling with laughter. "Oh, that's great! Your little girl was right, it's really nothing!"
The surrounding villagers also recovered from their shock and started laughing excitedly, saying how good the seeds were and how lucky they were to have listened to the village chief and gotten them; the village chief was truly farsighted.
The village chief was a little embarrassed.
He cleared his throat and called out, "Since there's nothing wrong in the fields, everyone should hurry up and collect their supplies. Settle down and have a good dinner."
The flooding started in the morning, and they missed breakfast and lunch.
"Yes!" the villagers responded, and hurriedly and excitedly went to collect their belongings.
Looking at the crops that were still growing well in the field, the village chief was all smiles.
He caught a glimpse of several cultivators meditating by the field and quickly stepped forward to express his gratitude: "Thank you, immortals. You've worked hard. Please stay and have dinner with us."
A cultivator stood up, clasped his hands in a fist salute, and politely declined, saying, "Thank you for your kindness, village chief, but we cultivators need to abstain from grains, so we won't accept it."
The village chief realized what was happening and nodded repeatedly, "Yes, yes, you were supposed to fast, I forgot."
The monk waved his hand to indicate that it was nothing.
The village chief glanced at the crops beside him and couldn't help but ask, "Master, these crops are still fine. Did you help them?"
The cultivator shook his head: "If the crops have already died in large numbers, there is nothing we low-level cultivators can do. Reversing life and death, and time itself, is not something we can do. The reason these crops are still doing well after the flood is because they have a deeper sensitivity to spiritual energy."
After all, it was hybridized with seeds nurtured by the sacred mountain.
"Sensing spiritual energy?" The village chief exclaimed in surprise. "Could these crops be cultivating themselves?"
“No, that’s not it,” the cultivator explained. “All things in the Cangxuan Realm rely on spiritual energy to grow and survive. These seeds can sense spiritual energy, so they can naturally protect themselves with the spiritual energy of the Cangxuan Realm during floods.”
The cultivator paused, but ultimately did not mention that the mature crops contained a trace of spiritual energy.
That amount of spiritual energy was so little that it could be ignored and not worth mentioning.
The village chief laughed again, looking at the crops, and said sincerely, "So that's how it is, they are good seeds."
The monk remained silent, only nodding slightly.
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