Chapter 56: Distribution of Forces around Ling Shui Island

With the completion of the crop harvest, the pirates had nothing else to do.

Not long after, they left Ling Shui Island under the guidance of several pirate leaders.

Fang Yun watched as the pirates sailed away on the large ship they had arrived in, then returned to the mountain.

The pirates could only use the information they had after leaving, and perhaps it would turn out to be useful.

Before the pirates departed, Fang Yun obtained some information from the Black Widow about other nearby forces, along with the information the Fang family had collected over the years.

Fang Yun now had a general understanding of the surrounding environment and the existing powers.

Ling Shui Island, where Fang Yun was located, was situated to the north of the Wind Spirit Sea, where spiritual energy was sparse, resulting in a limited number of cultivators.

Most of the cultivators wandering in this area were low-level Qi Refiners.

When he learned this information, Fang Yun let out a sigh of relief.

What he feared most was encountering high-level cultivators.

However, while the number of cultivators here was small, the number of mortals was significant.

After all, mortals had no demand for spiritual energy; instead, an environment without spiritual energy meant no cultivators or demon beasts around, which was the safest for them.

The closest island to Ling Shui Island was Feng Lin Island, over a hundred miles away.

That island was more than three times larger than Ling Shui Island, but unfortunately, it was merely a mortal's island, lacking any spiritual energy and therefore less valuable than Ling Shui Island.

There were countless islands like Feng Lin Island scattered throughout the northern part of the Wind Spirit Sea.

The nearest island with spiritual energy was Hai Yuan Island, a thousand miles away from Ling Shui Island.

This island had a genuine first-level spiritual vein, occupied by the Lin family.

It was said that there were cultivators at the ninth level of Qi Refinement within the Lin family.

For this reason, they could occupy this spiritual vein.

The gathering point of cultivators Fang Yun had wanted to find was Hai Yuan Island, one of the nearest.

Aside from this, other gathering places for cultivators were at least several thousand miles away, even tens of thousands of miles distant.

Given Fang Yun's current cultivation, it was impossible for him to reach such far-off places.

Even Hai Yuan Island, a thousand miles away, was too far for him.

After all, reaching such distant places would take considerable time, during which unforeseen circumstances could arise.

What Fang Yun feared most now was unexpected events.

However, he wasn't in a hurry to leave Ling Shui Island. He was merely gathering information for now.

Having learned about the surrounding forces and where he needed to go, Fang Yun felt more prepared.

After returning to the mountain, he spent some time cleaning up the root systems of the spiritual rice and weeds in the spirit field.

He planned to wait a few days before starting new planting of spiritual rice.

Since he hadn't found a means of attack yet, he decided to accumulate more life essence.

The benefits of life essence were substantial; accumulating more would aid him in his future cultivation.

After handling the matters in the spirit field, Fang Yun once again went to the upper part of the gorge.

He checked on the vines he had previously planted.

After more than ten days, the planted vines had not yet sprouted. If it weren't for Fang Yun sensing the growing vitality within the seeds, he might have thought they were all dead.

Considering that these vines were of a higher level than the spiritual rice, it was understandable that they took longer to germinate.

Thus, Fang Yun returned to the mountain and, after resting for a few days, began planting the spiritual rice again.

The planting of spiritual rice was still as repetitive as ever.

He simply used Earth Control and Spiritual Rain to provide sufficient nutrients and spiritual energy to a piece of land.

Then he began the cultivation process, waiting for the seeds to grow before transplanting them.

After spending a day on this task, Fang Yun found himself with free time again.

In this free time, he could only revisit the martial arts he had practiced before and refine them to perfection.

The remaining time was spent practicing the Metal Qi Technique. Currently, due to the presence of spiritual insects, this spell had no practical use. Therefore, Fang Yun could only find time to practice. After all, the island was mostly inhabited by ordinary insects.

They did not dare approach the spirit fields under the deterrent of the spiritual insects, but once he left the island, he would inevitably encounter other spiritual insects when planting other spiritual plants. In that case, his Metal Qi Technique would come into play.

Fang Yun didn't want to be in a situation where the technique was insufficient to deal with those spiritual insects; that would be embarrassing.

After more than ten days, the spiritual rice had been successfully transplanted.

At this point, Fang Yun had perfected all the martial arts manuals he possessed.

The Metal Qi Technique also showed considerable improvement.

Name: Fang Yun

Cultivation: Third level of Qi Refinement

Magic Power: 50

Life Essence: 630

Spells: Earth Control (69% proficiency), Spiritual Rain (82% proficiency), Growth Technique (10% familiar), Metal Qi Technique (15% beginner)

Plant Control: Vines (36)

Taking a glance at the panel, he saw that each spell had made different progress.

In comparison, the Metal Qi Technique, which he had specifically practiced, showed the least improvement.

However, there was nothing to be done; Fang Yun's talent in this area was somewhat lacking.

He felt fortunate just to be able to cultivate this technique and didn't dare ask for too much.

One day, Fang Yun was beside the spirit field, manipulating the golden light points he had condensed using the Metal Qi Technique.

Each of these light points was a condensation of metal-type spiritual energy.

If observed from a microscopic perspective, one would find that these condensed light points had a small conical shape.

This shape could ensure that when encountering harmful insects in the spirit field, it would quickly breach their defenses.

While manipulating these light points, Fang Yun not only wanted to familiarize himself with them but also hoped to see if he could condense them into something more substantial.

If he succeeded, it would form a certain level of lethality against external threats.

This way, when he left the island for the gathering place of cultivators, he wouldn't be in such great danger.

Unfortunately, these golden light points were as difficult to condense as sand in a desert.

Of course, it might also be that he had not grasped the key techniques involved.

Just then, Fang Yun keenly sensed something unusual coming from the north.

This made him pause in surprise, then he quickly realized that the 32 vines he had planted earlier had sprouted.

He hadn't expected them to convey information across such a long distance.

This was something Fang Yun had not anticipated.

Opening the panel, he saw:

Name: Fang Yun

Cultivation: Third level of Qi Refinement

Magic Power: 40

Life Essence: 630

Spells: Earth Control (69% proficiency), Spiritual Rain (82% proficiency), Growth Technique (10% familiar), Metal Qi Technique (15% beginner)

Plant Control: Vines (36), Spiritual Rice…

Indeed, on the plant control interface, the number of vines had increased by 32.