Chapter 32: The Repair Plan

Chapter 32: The Repair Plan

"You're a bit heavy!"

Arriving at his spiritual field with Chu Feifei, Gu Mo let out a long breath. Carrying a person on the paper crane consumed a significant amount of spiritual energy. Fortunately, Gu Mo's spiritual power was three times that of an ordinary first-layer Qi Refining cultivator; otherwise, he might not have been able to fly back in one go.

Hearing Gu Mo say she was heavy, Chu Feifei's fists clenched instantly. Female cultivators cared about their weight too!

However, before she could punch Gu Mo, her attention was drawn to the spiritual field before her.

"Is this the spiritual field you rented?"

On the way here, she had already learned from Gu Mo that he had managed to rent his own spiritual field through the Spiritual Plant Hall.

Chu Feifei was shocked—this was a privilege usually reserved for outer disciples. In that moment, she even regretted not choosing the Spiritual Plant Hall herself.

However, upon learning the conditions for renting a spiritual field, her regret disappeared. One needed to master at least one spiritual farming technique to qualify for the rental.

Chu Feifei struggled even with the basic Cleaning Technique, let alone other spells. She likely lacked talent in spellcasting but instead had a natural affinity for formations.

Gu Mo, on the other hand, had already demonstrated his aptitude for spells while still in the servant disciple area. Now that he had mastered a spiritual farming technique and rented his own spiritual field, it no longer seemed surprising.

"What do you think?"

Gu Mo deactivated the illusion formation surrounding the field and led Chu Feifei inside. The field was currently in a state of disarray, with leftover stalks from the previous spirit rice harvest scattered everywhere.

Yet, from the quantity and quality of these remnants, Chu Feifei could roughly estimate the field's yield. At that moment, she finally understood how Gu Mo had so many good resources.

"This field is of decent quality." Chu Feifei might not be a spirit farmer, but she could gauge the quality of the land based on its spiritual energy.

As she spoke, she walked around the field a few times before stopping at a specific spot.

"Found the formation core."

Gu Mo's eyes lit up. Chu Feifei truly had a knack for formations.

"To repair this formation plate, you'll need to replace the formation stones and restore some of the formation lines." After a quick inspection, she gave her assessment.

"I can refine the formation stones, but I can't repair the formation lines yet."

Currently, at the Formation Peak, her main tasks involved refining formation stones and assisting formation masters in placing them.

"How long until you can attempt the repairs?" Gu Mo asked.

"About a year."

Chu Feifei estimated that by then, she would be considered a senior member at Formation Peak. Given her current performance, she had a chance to take on more advanced tasks, such as repairing basic formation lines engraved on formation stones.

For simple formations, ordinary blank formation stones sufficed. However, complex formations required stones engraved with intricate formation lines.

Over time, these engraved lines would deteriorate, either naturally or due to damage from external attacks, necessitating repairs. Large formations, in particular, required thousands of formation stones—like the one protecting the Spiritual Plant Hall's valley, which used over ten thousand. Periodic inspections and replacements were essential.

Each inspection could result in hundreds or even thousands of formation stones being swapped out, and the same applied to other peaks. Formation Peak was responsible for maintaining all these formations.

Damaged formation stones weren't simply discarded. Instead, they were sent to servant disciples for repair and later repurposed for less critical formations.

Compared to refining new formation stones, repairing existing ones was far more cost-effective—at least in terms of material costs. However, in terms of technical difficulty, restoring formation lines was much harder than creating blank stones.

Due to the skill required, formation line repair was highly lucrative. Many servant disciples at Formation Peak fought tooth and nail to learn this craft, as it was a skill that could secure their future.

Only servant disciples who excelled in refining blank formation stones had the opportunity to learn this advanced technique.

Chu Feifei was among the best in this regard, so she was confident in securing a spot.

"Alright."

Gu Mo nodded. A year was not too long to wait. He then took out ten pounds of spirit rice and handed it to her. "Consider this a down payment."

Chu Feifei did not refuse. This spirit rice could help her improve her cultivation, and the stronger she became, the more she could assist Gu Mo. Besides, Gu Mo did not seem to be lacking in spirit rice at the moment.

At that moment, Chu Feifei felt that Gu Mo was more suited to be their leader than Yao Shifeng. Yao Shifeng still needed their financial support, while Gu Mo was already supporting them instead.

This so-called down payment felt more like a sponsorship—just like how they had been supporting Yao Shifeng.

The only difference was that Yao Shifeng was supported by all four of them collectively and would need to repay them all in the future, while she was receiving support from Gu Mo alone and would only need to repay him.

If the spirit rice was a form of material support, then Gu Mo's guidance on the Cleaning Technique was a form of cultivation support.

After resolving her doubts about the Cleaning Technique, Chu Feifei took her leave. As a servant disciple, she had daily tasks to complete and couldn't stay away for too long.

Meanwhile, Gu Mo continued his farming endeavors.

For his third planting cycle, he initially wanted to experiment with higher-grade spiritual plants to accelerate his accumulation of sect contributions.

With his mastery of all five spiritual farming techniques, the success rate of cultivating high-grade plants would be quite promising.

However, high-grade spiritual plants required at least a year—some even two or three years—to mature. This meant that during that period, Gu Mo wouldn't have any income.

Yet, he needed to continuously maintain the illusion formation, which was a significant expense. Additionally, if a cultivation-concealing technique became available at the market, he had to be ready with sufficient funds to purchase it.

For these reasons, he needed to save up some money first before fully committing to high-grade plants.

The best option for accumulating funds quickly was none other than Spirit Jade Rice.

Normally, it matured in six months, but with Gu Mo's enhanced farming techniques, he could harvest it in just over four months—making it the fastest way to build up savings.

As he headed to the Spiritual Plant Hall to collect Spirit Jade Rice seeds, preparing for another one or two planting cycles to amass wealth, an unexpected piece of news disrupted his plans.