Chapter Seventeen: Mastery Lies in Practice

“Why are you only just arriving? Xu Zhong has already come asking three times.”

Catching sight of Zhou Changwang’s belated figure, Old Xu hurried up to greet him and spoke.

“I was held up by something,” Zhou Changwang replied, his gaze drifting to the distance where Xu Zhong, too, had entered the fields, weeding with the aid of a spirit hoe. Zhou wasn’t surprised; just yesterday he’d helped rid Xu’s two acres of spiritual farmland of spirit insects. If Xu didn’t seize this opportunity to weed, the spiritual grain would truly be in trouble.

With that, Zhou shouldered his own spirit hoe and entered the field. Though exterminating insects earned him spirit stones, he never forgot his own proper work—his own spiritual fields were what truly belonged to him. The greater the harvest, the more he gained. He would never sacrifice the greater good for petty gains.

Half an hour later, he had cleared the weeds from his fields and quickly began to cast the Spiritual Rain Technique. After performing the spell twice in succession, a sudden inspiration struck him: countless techniques for casting the Spiritual Rain, the nuances of spiritual power control, and the refinement and optimization of rune structures all surfaced in his mind.

The Spiritual Rain Technique—had advanced.

It had risen from the level of proficiency to the stage of minor mastery.

He glanced at his attribute panel.

Skill: Spiritual Rain Technique (Minor Mastery 1/400)

As expected, it had reached minor mastery. Additionally, the experience required to further advance the technique had increased to four hundred—he would need to perform the spell four hundred more times to reach full mastery.

But Zhou Changwang knew this was not much. For an ordinary cultivator, even casting the spell thousands of times might not bring them to mastery. Only he, with his attribute panel, could reduce the time needed for practice, face no bottlenecks, and steadily improve without hindrance.

After the upgrade, Zhou cast the Spiritual Rain Technique once more.

One breath, two breaths, three breaths passed—the spell took shape.

He moved forward a little. As the wind and clouds shifted, a dark cloud quickly gathered overhead, shading half an acre of his spiritual field. Soon, a fine, spiritual rain began to fall from the cloud, evenly watering every corner of his field.

“As expected of the minor mastery stage—the casting speed is faster, the area covered is broader, and even the spiritual energy in each drop of rain is richer.”

Zhou Changwang felt the changes brought by the advancement and was delighted.

Afterward, he only needed to cast the spell four more times to irrigate his remaining two acres.

“Fellow Daoist Zhou, your Spiritual Rain Technique is truly something extraordinary,” Xu Zhong, who had been waiting nearby, couldn’t help but remark as he watched Zhou’s skillful use of the technique.

“It’s nothing—just a matter of practice,” Zhou replied vaguely, unwilling to explain further.

“Then, I’ll trouble you to help me with the insect removal next,” Xu Zhong said, not pressing the matter, simply assuming Zhou’s talent for spellcasting was exceptional.

“No problem,” Zhou agreed, heading for Xu Zhong’s fields.

As for Old Xu, with ten acres to weed and irrigate, he would be busy until noon at least.

…

After lunch, Old Xu approached Zhou Changwang mysteriously. “I asked Old He for you. He just replied: Lin’s Tavern has indeed been purchasing spirit insects for some time. The price, though, is a bit lower than what you’d get selling on the freelance cultivator’s market.”

“How much?” Zhou asked.

Yesterday, overwhelmed by the number of spirit insects in his pouch, Zhou had asked Old Xu to find out if anyone was buying spirit insect corpses. Old Xu happened to know Old He, whose wife worked in a tavern kitchen, so he had made some inquiries.

Now, it seemed, there was news.

“Sixteen spirit insects for one low-grade spirit stone. But the quality has to be good—the bodies undamaged. Otherwise, it’s eighteen insects for one spirit stone. He also mentioned insect kings—those are much more valuable, filled with spiritual energy. One insect king is worth eighty fragments, and five would fetch four low-grade spirit stones.”

As he spoke, a tinge of envy flashed in Old Xu’s eyes. Having a skill like that was truly enviable.

Zhou Changwang’s technique for exterminating insects was exquisite—not only could he earn spirit stones from Xu Zhong, but he could also make a tidy profit from the insect corpses. Unlike Old Xu, who could only earn spirit stones by farming, and, should spirit insects infest his fields, would have to spend spirit stones hiring someone to deal with them.

“This price is acceptable. Here’s what we’ll do—just tell Old He I don’t care about quality; I’ll sell them all to him at eighteen insects per spirit stone, and he can handle the rest. I don’t care how much he makes on top; I just want my share.”

Zhou knew that since he was asking for a favor, he needed to show consideration—only then would others put in effort. Though this meant sharing some of the profit, it saved him a great deal of trouble. Why not?

“Well…”

At Zhou’s words, a glint appeared in Old Xu’s eyes. “Changwang, we’ve known each other for so long. If there’s such a good deal, just leave it to me. No need to trouble Old He…”

“What do you mean?” Zhou glanced at Old Xu.

“I’ll sell them for you. Eighteen insects for a spirit stone. I’ll give you the spirit stones, and as for how much I sell them for, you don’t need to worry. How’s that?” Old Xu said, shrewdness evident in his expression.

He knew Zhou Changwang’s extermination technique was precise, never damaging the bodies. Most of the insects could fetch the higher price of sixteen per spirit stone. There was profit to be made, and he was eager.

“Of course, that’s fine. I just want my spirit stones,” Zhou said with a carefree smile.

…

That afternoon, Zhou Changwang once again appeared in Xu Zhong’s fields, exterminating insects.

Under the strike of his Gengjin Finger, spirit insects had no chance to resist. Even when he encountered an insect king, his caution, skill, and the precision of the Gengjin Finger enabled him to dispatch it with ease.

“The eighty-fifth,” Zhou counted, swiftly dispatching a green-armored beetle, a satisfied smile appearing on his face.

At this point, he had scoured all five acres of Xu Zhong’s fields, eliminating every spirit insect he could find, including two insect kings—one a spiritual locust, the other a green-armored beetle.

Though inevitably a few might have slipped through, the fields were no longer overrun as before. Now, only regular, occasional extermination would be needed to keep the spiritual grain growing well.

Of course, being able to cast spells continuously to exterminate insects had its cost—the bottle of Vitality Pills Xu Zhong had given him was down to a single pill.

“But it’s all worth it,” Zhou thought, his gaze falling upon his attribute panel.

Skill: Gengjin Finger (Minor Mastery 13/400)

The Gengjin Finger had reached minor mastery as well!