Chapter 173: Grade-Three Spirit Fields

Refusing the proposal of the monk Kongse, Jiang Yan returned to the sect and immediately summoned the first-generation disciples. He held a grand sect meeting in the newly upgraded tier-three sect hall, assigning tasks to his junior martial brothers and sisters based on their individual strengths in order to strive for the sect's early advancement to a tier-five sect.

The sect hall had advanced to tier-three half a year ago, and compared to the original one, it appeared much more magnificent.

Its tall walls were built of white jade, and the extended eaves stretched out for a considerable distance, forming a spacious porch in front of the hall. More than a dozen thick pillars supported the eaves projecting from the walls, each pillar being roughly as thick as what several people could encircle together with their arms.

Beneath the surrounding porch, on both sides of the hall entrance, stood two rows of cyan bronze bells suspended on racks made of a material that seemed neither stone nor wood. The bells gradually decreased in size the further they were from the door, though even the smallest bell reached half a person's height, while the largest one towered well above a person.

At the entrance of the sect hall stood two youths clad in white with scabbarded long swords strapped to their backs. With stern expressions, they guarded the hall door without moving an inch.

Inside the sect hall, the layout was drastically different from before. Upon a high platform towering far above the ground, Jiang Yan sat cross-legged on a cloud bed. Behind the cloud bed stood the gentle-looking Ning Qian and the icy-cold Zisu. Beside Jiang Yan sat the delicately sculpted little Yunying, also cross-legged.

On the flat ground in front of the steps, two rows of chairs were placed side by side. Tang Wan, Mu Yunnan, and Men Luo sat in their respective positions, with their own personal disciples standing behind them.

Seeing that all the junior martial brothers and sisters had arrived, Jiang Yan shifted his gaze to Men Luo on his left and asked calmly, "Junior Brother Nan, within a month, can you forge a tier-four spiritual artifact without any difficulty?"

Ever since the smithy forged its first tier-three spiritual artifact half a year ago, it had successfully advanced to tier-four. At the same time, the plaque on the lintel of the smithy was changed to the Crafting Hall. Under Jiang Yan's instructions, Men Luo became the master of the Crafting Hall, taking charge of the spiritual artifact forging tasks. At present, the Crafting Hall housed Men Luo and his three disciples: Fan Fen, who was at the ninth layer of Qi Condensation, alongside Wei Wen and Li Qing who had later joined the Mount Hua Sect. Assisted by Mount Hua's spiritual herbs and special structures, the latter two had also reached the seventh layer of Qi Condensation.

In the main quest, for the sect to advance to tier-five, the Crafting Hall had to reach tier-five as well. This meant that Men Luo had to forge at least one tier-four spiritual artifact to push the sect into tier-five. Jiang Yan's task for Men Luo was to halt his cultivation in the small practice room, operate the Crafting Hall at full capacity, and strive to forge the first tier-four spiritual artifact within a month.

After Men Luo accepted the forging task and sat down, Jiang Yan turned his gaze to Tang Wan.

Since the establishment of the alchemy room, it had been overseen by Tang Wan. Among the first-generation members of Mount Hua, Tang Wan's cultivation closely followed Jiang Yan's. Presently, she was nearing the Great Circle of Foundation Establishment, just a single step away from catching up with Jiang Yan—a testament to the superior spiritual root bestowed upon her by the Bone-Altering Pill.

As Tang Wan's cultivation grew deeper, the alchemy affairs under her charge progressed rapidly as well. A year ago, through her efforts, the alchemy room successfully brewed the tier-three Genesis Pill, elevating itself into the Alchemy Hall. Following this upgrade, Tang Wan utilized the supportive effects within the hall to brew the first tier-four Soul-Returning Pill half a month ago, propelling the Alchemy Hall into the tier-five realm. Arguably, the Alchemy Hall was currently the only tier-five structure in Mount Hua.

Within the Alchemy Hall, Tang Wan served as a tier-three alchemist. Among her disciples, Lin Ke had followed closely behind Zisu and successfully broken through to Foundation Establishment, while also advancing from an alchemy apprentice to a tier-one alchemist. Apart from Lin Ke, Tang Wan's other disciple, Jiang Anan, lagged slightly behind. Although her realm had also reached the ninth layer of Qi Condensation—not far from Foundation Establishment—she was notoriously lazy when it came to alchemy, severely lacking in brewing proficiency. Far from being a tier-one alchemist, she could barely hold her ground even as an alchemy apprentice.

Since the Alchemy Hall had already reached tier-five, Jiang Yan no longer assigned additional tasks to Tang Wan. Although future advancement of the sect to tier-six would require a tier-six Alchemy Hall, upgrading the Alchemy Hall to tier-six necessitated that the alchemists within reach tier-four. Attaining tier-four as an alchemist required refining one's natal fire, a concept currently beyond the imagination of Mount Hua, even though Jiang Yan was no longer entirely destitute.

The only natal fires an alchemist could absorb and refine were the Azure Wood Fire, the Southern Ming Blaze, and the Departing Water Flame. These three types of flame condensed from spiritual wood, volcanic rock, and departing water respectively. Once absorbed by an alchemist, they could directly condense into one's natal fire, elevating the cultivator to a tier-four alchemist and drastically enhancing their pill-brewing proficiency.

However, these three types of flame were exceedingly difficult to unearth. Any natal fire discovered by cultivators and put up for auction in cultivation auction houses invariably fetched astronomical prices. After all, condensing a natal fire was the dream of every tier-three alchemist, and the wealth a tier-three alchemist could generate was incalculable. Consequently, whenever an auction house hosted a sale featuring a natal fire, no matter how obscure the establishment might be, its name would spread across numerous realms within a remarkably short time, becoming a premier auction house in that world.

Jiang Yan's gaze swept across Tang Wan's delicate head with a hint of apology. Meeting his eyes, a flower-like smile bloomed across her cheeks, and she nodded slightly at her Senior Brother. Her expressive eyes silently conveyed her sweet understanding.

On Mount Hua, there were quite a few structures capable of leveling up, but aside from the alchemy and smithy rooms, the only ones subject to human control were the spiritual fields and the talisman-formation arena.

The talisman-formation arena currently fell under Jiang Yan's direct responsibility. To raise its grade, Jiang Yan first had to elevate himself to the realm of a tier-three talisman master. The arena was currently a tier-three structure; according to the main quest requirements, the talisman-formation arena only needed to reach tier-two to elevate the sect's level. Since it had already reached tier-three, it was no longer a bottleneck for the sect's upgrade. Therefore, Jiang Yan bypassed it for now, as the arena possessed vast and complex functions, and the difficulty of upgrading it was extraordinary.

"Reporting to the Sect Master, the tier-three spiritual fields have been successfully constructed, and the first batch of crops within them has been harvested. Per your instructions, the spiritual herb plants retrieved from the trial grounds have also been transplanted into the spiritual fields. Their growth looks quite promising, and barring any accidents, some of the herbs should be ready for harvest in a month."

Old Chen stood in the center of the hall with his withered figure, speaking with a palpable sense of nervousness. He glanced up at Jiang Yan seated on the high platform, his heart weighed down with anxiety and regret for having accepted Gao Wei's request. Instead of tending to the peaceful spiritual fields, he had ended up here reporting achievements to the Sect Master. The oppressive weight of everyone's gazes was truly more than ordinary people could endure. Old Chen secretly resolved that next time, no matter how eloquently Gao Wei pleaded, he would firmly refuse to take his place at this wretched assembly.

A flash of joy crossed Jiang Yan's eyes; the tier-three spiritual fields were finally completed.

The upgrading process of spiritual fields was extremely sluggish. If one relied solely on the effects of spirit-gathering formations to elevate a tier-one spiritual field to tier-two, not only would the consumption of spiritual stones be astronomical, but the process would also take an unknown number of years.

Thus, there was only one method to rapidly elevate the grade of a spiritual field: constructing a higher-grade one from scratch.

A talisman master would draw talisman formations capable of accumulating immense spiritual Qi, seal them together with a powerful spirit-gathering formation beneath ordinary soil, and then bury a massive quantity of spiritual stones within the field. Under the influence of the formations, the soil would absorb the spiritual stones in a short period and successfully upgrade into a spiritual field of the corresponding grade. Therefore, the grade of a spiritual field depended primarily on the proficiency of the talisman master who drew the formations.

The back mountain of Mount Hua was densely covered with various tier-one and tier-two spiritual fields, yet tier-three fields had been entirely absent. Ever since the main quest rewarded a few talismans for constructing tier-two spiritual fields, no more talismans capable of building higher-grade ones had been awarded. Having advanced to a tier-two talisman master a few days prior, Jiang Yan immediately drew a set of talismans for constructing spiritual fields and tested them on a plot of ordinary land he cleared in the back mountain. Initially, he hadn't harbored high hopes for the experiment, yet unexpectedly, the tier-three spiritual fields had actually been successfully established.

……

Before the new tier-three spiritual fields in the back mountain of Mount Hua, the spiritual crops grew lush and green, and the medicinal plants emitted a faint, crystalline radiance. Jiang Yan stood quietly at the edge of the fields.

Behind him stood Tang Wan, holding little Yunying's small hand. Tang Wan wore a cyan gown with a white sash bound around her waist, cinching her slender waist into a mere handful. Her chest, already boasting an impressive expanse, rose high, tracing a graceful curve between the waistband and the swell of her bosom. Unawares, the pretty young girl who used to stand quietly smiling behind Jiang Yan had blossomed into a gracefully contoured beauty.

Tang Wan's beautiful eyes were brimming with affection as she silently stared at Jiang Yan's back, a blush repeatedly flitting across her delicate face...

"The spiritual Qi within this plot of spiritual fields is still somewhat unstable. It was my first time crafting talismans for constructing spiritual fields, so the distribution of spiritual power was a bit uneven. Wan'er, how is your progress with the Spirit-Dissolving Art?"

Crouching down to inspect the soil for a moment, Jiang Yan spoke without turning his head.

"It has already reached the minor accomplishment stage." Seeing that Jiang Yan did not turn back, Tang Wan bit her lip gently with her teeth, a trace of slight disappointment flashing across her pretty face. Her Senior Brother was busy with sect affairs day in and day out; when would he ever notice... she thought with a tinge of lingering resentment in her heart.

The Spirit-Dissolving Art was a reward bestowed by the Sect Master System after Jiang Yan established the tier-two spiritual fields. Having mastered it himself, he handed the manual over to Tang Wan for practice, given her exceptionally stringent requirements for allocating spiritual power within alchemy furnaces during the pill-brewing process.

Having figured out the cause of the uneven spiritual power distribution within the newly built tier-three fields, and wishing to gently temper the warm, lingering gaze Tang Wan kept casting at his back—a gaze whose intense affection nearly made it difficult for him to breathe—Jiang Yan pondered for a moment before speaking.

"The distribution of spiritual power in this spiritual field is somewhat uneven. Wan'er, try your hand at dispersing the excess spiritual power within the field, and let's test the might of the Spirit-Dissolving Art as well."

Still not turning around, Jiang Yan cast his gaze back and forth between the crops and medicinal plants in the field, his voice gentle.

Tang Wan let go of little Yunying's hand and stepped forward to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Jiang Yan. A flash of delight illuminated her eyes as she raised her right palm, slowly lifting her fair hand above her head. A faint cyan brilliance began to slowly gather upon her palm... To be continued...