When Hu Yufen arrived at the backyard, Wang Ying was holding the newborn Shen Chongxu, leaning against the edge of the bed.

On the bed, Zhao Xuan seemed to have fallen asleep from exhaustion.

Shen Chongxuan was doing quite well, sleeping soundly beside Shen Wenyan on a bamboo bed.

"Mother."

Upon seeing Hu Yufen arrive, Shen Wenyan carefully adjusted himself to let Shen Chongxuan sleep comfortably, then got up to greet her.

Hu Yufen nodded and approached Wang Ying with an apologetic face, "Sister-in-law, I'm really sorry. Lingxiu is heavily pregnant, and Chongming and Chonghong suddenly fell ill…"

Wang Ying chuckled and shook her head, "Yufen, we've been sisters for decades, don't mention it."

The two exchanged smiles, and Hu Yufen discreetly sat next to her, looking at the little one in her arms.

"Chongxu also had a fever, cried for a long time, and just fell asleep now."

"Yufen, how strange is it, those children were perfectly fine, how did they suddenly fall ill?"

"Luckily, Chongxuan, that pesky boy, is healthy and didn't add to the chaos."

Hu Yufen shook her head slightly.

She didn't know what was going on either.

"Sister-in-law, let me hold him for a while, you take a rest."

Taking Shen Chongxu, Hu Yufen sat on a stool.

As Wang Ying slowly got up, a pained expression appeared on her face.

She was two years older than Hu Yufen and had already passed the age of forty; her body was clearly not as strong as before.

The two sat together, no longer from the same era.

Shen Wenyan approached and whispered, "Mother-in-law, you haven't slept all night, go lie down next to Chongxuan for a while."

Wang Ying nodded and lay down on the bamboo bed.

The next morning.

After being ill for a day, Shen Chongming and Shen Chonghong woke up lively once again.

This peculiar phenomenon left the household staff amazed.

After breakfast, Shen Yuan found Shen Chongming and brought him to the Black Water Pavilion.

"Chongming, today Grandpa will teach you a cultivation technique, alright?"

Shen Chongming was already six years old, and at these words, his eyes lit up instantly.

"Will I be as powerful as Third Uncle once I cultivate?"

Shen Yuan nodded, then pushed three jade tokens in front of him.

"Here are three cultivation techniques."

"This is the Supreme Mysterious Sword Scripture, cultivated by your Third Uncle. This is the Mist Flood Dragon Nourishing Vein Technique practiced by Grandpa."

"This one hasn't been cultivated by anyone yet; it's named Moonlight Pine Mountain Technique. Have a look and see which one you prefer?"

Hearing this, Shen Chongming immediately touched the three jade scrolls in front of him.

"You can place it on your forehead."

Shen Yuan reminded him.

Ordinary people who haven't cultivated can't project their divine sense externally; they must place the jade scroll on their foreheads to see its contents.

Hearing this, Shen Chongming individually placed each of the three jade scrolls on his forehead to feel them.

After a long time, he first ruled out the Supreme Mysterious Sword Scripture; it was evident he didn't like the path of the sword cultivator.

Then, hesitating between the Mist Flood Dragon Nourishing Vein Technique and the Moonlight Pine Mountain Technique for a moment, he picked up the jade token of the Moonlight Pine Mountain Technique and said, "Grandpa, I choose this one."

Shen Yuan nodded, putting away the other two jade scrolls.

"Then you can study it here first, and once you've memorized it all, we'll proceed."

Possessing the unusual Thunder Spirit Root, Shen Yuan also wanted to use this opportunity to see which technique he resonated with more, to roughly determine the specifics of his spirit root.

The Moonlight Pine Mountain Technique is more inclined towards the Wood attribute. The little one chose it, suggesting his spirit root might be of the Wood or other Thunder Element type.

When he begins actual cultivation, he will personally guide him.

That day, Zhao Shuan hurriedly arrived at the mansion, where two guards at the entrance saluted, "Steward Zhao."

Zhao Shuan stopped in his tracks, with an urgent expression, "Is the Master and Young Master here?"

The two exchanged a glance, and one of them replied, "The Young Master has gone to Anyang County, and the Master should be cultivating in the Black Water Pavilion."

Upon hearing this, Zhao Shuan quickly turned and headed towards the Black Water Pavilion.

In the past, without urgent matters, he generally wouldn't disturb Shen Yuan's cultivation in the Black Water Pavilion.

But this matter couldn't be delayed, forcing him to the floating bridge of the Black Water Pool.

Due to the array, he couldn't tread on the floating bridge, so he could only stand at the edge of the pool and shout!

"Ah Yuan!"

Inside the Black Water Pavilion, Shen Yuan, who was cultivating, heard the shout, furrowed his brows slightly, and walked out of the pavilion.

"Brother Shuan, what's the matter?"

At the head of the floating bridge, seeing Zhao Shuan's anxious face, Shen Yuan asked.

"The rice, something has happened to the rice!"

The rice?

Shen Yuan was puzzled, and Zhao Shuan quickly explained, "It's the Spirit Rice we planted earlier."

Spirit Rice is having issues?

Shen Yuan's brows furrowed deeply.

The Spirit Rice was planted after the summer harvest last year, and it's been over a year, with its growth condition being good all along. How could there suddenly be a problem?

"Let's go, take a look!"

The two brothers hastened to the Spirit Field where the Spirit Rice was planted.

Before even getting close, Shen Yuan saw that the once robust Spirit Rice was now all wilted, with some even outright dead!

"How did this happen?"

A grim expression appeared on Shen Yuan's face as he rushed into the Spirit Rice field, looking at the dead grains with a heavy heart!

These were Spirit Rice, almost ready for harvest in just over a year's time. How did so many suddenly die?

Zhao Shuan, with a sorrowful face, said, "There was some drought in the field recently, and the people reported that the Spirit Rice seemed to be withering. I thought maybe it was because of a lack of water."

"So I had people water it."

"But who would have thought, even after watering, the rice kept wilting."

"I brought Uncle Ya in to see. He studied it for several days but couldn't find the reason, so I rushed to find you."

Shen Yuan nodded.

Uncle Ya is an expert in agriculture. Whenever there's a problem with ordinary crops, he's the one who helps solve it.

Now that there's a problem with the spirit rice, he can't solve it himself, proving it might not be an ordinary issue.

He carefully pulled out a stalk of rice and examined it closely in his hand.

The roots of the rice were moist, confirming that it wasn't due to a lack of water.

The entire rice stalk was withered, and there was not a trace of spiritual power inside.

Shen Yuan was also unsure what was happening.

"Ah Yuan, what should we do now..."

Seeing nearly a hundred acres of spirit rice, painstakingly tended, on the verge of dying completely, Zhao Shuan was extremely anxious.

He didn't understand anything about spirit rice or not, he only knew that even if it was a hundred acres of ordinary rice having such an issue, it would be a huge loss.

Shen Yuan looked solemnly into the distance, letting out a heavy sigh.

Just when he was at a loss for what to do, Shen Wenyan and a young girl approached from afar.

"Eh?"

"Are these... spirit rice?"

The girl, Yu Jin from Luoxia Mountain, had just arrived at the field, and was looking bewildered at nearly a hundred acres of spirit rice.

"Who taught you to plant spirit rice like this?"

Yu Jin looked at the wilted spirit rice in front of her, quite speechless.

Upon hearing this, Shen Yuan quickly bowed his hands, "Fish Fairy."

"Is there a problem with the way we've planted this spirit rice?"

Yu Jin replied with a laugh and a sigh, "It's not just a problem, it's a big problem!"

"Planting this way, unless there's a spirit crystal vein underground, it won't be able to sustain so much spirit rice."

Hearing this, Shen Yuan looked at Shen Wenyan, and Shen Wenyan also looked bewildered.

Yu Jin shook her head helplessly and said, "In an ordinary spirit field, at most a thousand stalks of spirit rice per acre can be planted, even then, cultivators must frequently use spiritual power to perform cloud movement and rainfall skill to drizzle spirit rain for irrigation."

"The spiritual qi seeping from the earth vein beneath the spirit field is not enough to sustain too much spirit rice."

"Take a look at your spirit field..." Yu Jin pointed at the dense spirit valley in front and held her forehead.

Upon hearing this, Shen Yuan looked inquiringly at Shen Wenyan.

Shen Wenyan was also puzzled, the spirit seed cultivation manual was simple, only introducing the habits of the spirit rice, without mentioning these aspects.

Thinking back, Li Heshan probably just intended to use the spirit seed to screen various spirit field blessed lands, not intending for people to actually plant spirit rice.

Moreover, the price of spirit rice is expensive, Li Heshan never imagined that one day someone would plant spirit rice like ordinary rice.

Shen Wenyan lowered his head in embarrassment, then hurriedly changed the subject and said:

"Fish Fairy, can these spirit rice still be saved?"

Yu Jin reached out to pull out a stalk of rice, examined it closely, and said: "It hasn't completely lost its vitality."

"Quickly instruct someone to remove ninety-nine percent of the spirit rice in this field, leaving a better batch according to five hundred stalks per acre."

Upon hearing this, Zhao Shuan became a bit anxious.

But Shen Yuan spoke, "Follow what the Fish Fairy says."

Zhao Shuan didn't dare delay, and immediately went back to shout for over a hundred villagers to start pulling out the rice stalks.

After a long time, only a few rice stalks remained standing in the field.

Yu Jin, seeing this, sighed slightly.

"Do you know the cloud movement and rainfall skill?"

Shen Wenyan shook his head awkwardly.

He was a body cultivator, and he barely studied the technique sent by Wei Qiuling.

"I know a bit,"

Shen Yuan spoke, immediately rousing the spiritual qi in his body, and performed the cloud movement and rainfall skill.

With spiritual power drawing, fluffy clouds began to drift over the spirit field, and soon a gentle rain started to fall.

Below, those originally withered rice stalks turned green before the naked eye after being nourished by the spirit rain.

"Amazing!"

"They've come back to life!"

"Is this the power of an immortal!?"

The surrounding villagers, upon seeing this scene, exclaimed in surprise.

But at this moment Shen Yuan was feeling rather uncomfortable.

He realized that the cloud movement and rainfall skill was consuming too much of his spiritual power. After just a dozen breaths, his spiritual power was nearly depleted.

Yet, those clouds summoned by the cloud movement and rainfall skill only covered a few acres of the spirit field.

To rescue all the rice stalks in this nearly hundred-acre spirit field, at least a dozen of cloud movement and rainfall skills would need to be performed.

"Let me give you a hand."

Seeing this, Yu Jin immediately waved her hand and performed a cloud movement and rainfall skill too.

Her realm was clearly much higher than Shen Yuan's, and with a single cloud movement and rainfall skill, she summoned large patches of fluffy clouds, covering up to twenty acres of spirit field.

As the spirit rain drizzled down, the rice stalks in the field straightened their bodies and regained their vitality.

After the performance, Yu Jin's complexion also turned somewhat pale.

"Forget about the remaining ones."

"Given the spiritual power of this spirit field, it needs the cloud movement and rainfall skill irrigation at least once a month to be sustained; even if you save them, they can't be raised afterward."

Yu Jin sighed and said.

She and Shen Yuan together performed the cloud movement and rainfall skill, barely saving twenty-five acres of spirit rice. Roughly calculating, the yield should be a few hundred pounds.

Upon hearing her words, although Shen Yuan felt regretful, he understood.

He could only irrigate four or five acres of spirit field with one cloud movement and rainfall skill, and to cover all twenty acres would require at least five to six iterations, consuming all his spiritual qi, which would require one or two days to replenish fully.

Going on like this, any more, he wouldn't be able to cultivate; he'd just squat in the fields as the rain god.

Instructing Zhao Shuan to have someone take care of these spirit rice, Shen Yuan and the others returned to the manor.

Yu Jin slightly restored some spiritual power, a light flickered from her hand, and she took out a small cloth bag.

"These are some spirit rice seeds."

"I just didn't expect you already had them, and so many."

Mentioning this, Shen Yuan's heart ached again.

Those spirit rice seeds were bought at a great cost, purchased from the Ascension Pavilion in Qiyun Valley.

Now they've just gone completely to waste.

"By the way, Senior Sister also had me bring something good for you."

Yu Jin said, with a flash of light in her hand, she once again retrieved a jade scroll to hand it over to Shen Yuan and his son.

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