South Hidden Mountain

The original wooden courtyard, where a dozen or so Spirit Plant Cultivators lived, was dismantled one by one. Ten Thousand Treasures Pavilion invited disciples from the Lao Mountain Sect, a small sect specializing in building houses, to construct a delicate mountain villa on the site of the dismantled courtyard. Built against the mountain, they diverted a mountain spring into the villa, which meandered and flowed into a stream, surrounded by patches of Spirit Field. Under the Spirit Gathering Array, the entire villa was shrouded in Spirit Mist, exuding an extraordinarily beautiful charm.

"Greetings, Master Li!"

The two guards at the villa's entrance saw Li Mu descending with Sword Control and hurriedly greeted him in unison.

"Hmm! Servants and guards should all go back! You as well, I don't need anyone else to attend to me." Li Mu looked at the two guards from Ten Thousand Treasures Pavilion and gestured.

"But, Master Li, if we go back, Shopkeeper Wang will reprimand us!" The guard commander was momentarily perplexed and said with a troubled expression.

"Are you afraid I'll run away? Tell Shopkeeper Wang, this is my decision!" Li Mu said firmly with a stern face.

"Alright! Understood! The young ones understand." Fearing to argue further with Master Li, the guard commander quickly gathered his subordinates and led a group of maidservants and guards to withdraw from the villa.

Watching them leave, Li Mu smiled, looking much more relaxed.

Li Mu thought of something, took out the Spirit Beast Bag, and released the Red Wolf.

"Woof!" The Red Wolf fell to the ground, waking up dazedly, barked at Li Mu, and then looked around blankly at the new environment.

Soon, the Red Wolf joyfully ran around the villa, lifting its hind legs from time to time, marking corners, tree trunks, ..., with urine everywhere.

Seeing this, Li Mu was both amused and annoyed, but he didn't have time to take care of it. Before the sky darkened, he needed to manage the 82 acres of Spirit Field, and replant Spirit Plants.

To maximize efficiency, one must first sharpen the tools, and so it is with Techniques.

Li Mu planned to spend 220,000 Free Skill Points to upgrade Earth Flipping Technique to Full Level in one go.

...

[Ding, you consumed one Free Skill Point, Earth Flipping Technique proficiency +1, Earth Flipping Technique level increased to: Level Five, Minor Achievement, you comprehended the derivative technique: Earth-penetrating Skill.]

...

[Ding, you consumed one Free Skill Point, Earth Flipping Technique proficiency +1, Earth Flipping Technique level increased to: Level Nine, Perfection, you comprehended derivative technique divine ability: Earth Dragon Skill.]

Awakening from a wealth of Earth Flipping Technique usage experience and derivative technique insights, Li Mu opened his eyes, condensed a stream of Earth Spiritual Power in his hand, and shot it toward the 82 acres of Spirit Field.

The ground trembled, as if an Earth Dragon quickly burrowed below, rolling along a large patch of Spirit Field. The roots of White Jade Spirit Rice were unearthed, and the spirit field soil was perfectly overturned, soft and appropriately loose.

Li Mu deeply felt the power of the technique divine ability - Earth Dragon Skill. The Spirit Field was precisely tilled due to his meticulous manipulation of the Earth Dragon Skill. If one pursued destructiveness, full spiritual power output from a single Earth Dragon Skill could collapse 100 acres of Spirit Field, unexpectedly attacking disciples.

Similar to Harvesting Technique, upon upgrading, Earth Flipping Technique's derivative techniques also possess tremendous attack power.

Li Mu pondered, planning to use up over 1.9 million remaining Free Skill Points. These Free Skill Points were reserved for improving Yin Yang Five Elements Scripture Technique, aiming to surge toward Foundation Establishment, but due to the lack of Five Elements Spiritual Objects for auxiliary cultivation now, he had to wait for the next batch of Wind Spirit Grass to mature.

First to be upgraded is the Level 5 Quenching God Technique, directly elevated to Full Level.

Li Mu focused his divine sense on the character's virtual panel, channeling Free Skill Points into Quenching God Technique.

...

[Ding, you consumed one Free Skill Point, Quenching God Technique proficiency +1, Quenching God Technique level increased to: Level Six, your divine sense greatly enhanced, divine sense range increased: +2000 feet.]

...

[Ding, you consumed one Free Skill Point, Quenching God Technique proficiency +1, Quenching God Technique level increased to: Level Seven, your divine sense greatly enhanced, divine sense range increased: +3000 feet.]

...

[Ding, you consumed one Free Skill Point, Quenching God Technique proficiency +1, Quenching God Technique level increased to: Level Nine, Perfection, your divine sense greatly enhanced, divine sense range increased: +10000 feet, you comprehended divine soul divine technique - Divine Soul Self-Stabilization, Micro-consciousness.]

Upon suddenly advancing Quenching God Technique to the Ninth Level Perfection Realm, Li Mu's head surged with energy, his sea of consciousness shook, feeling his divine soul rapidly condensed in size. However, the ethereal divine soul became substantial, its power significantly enhanced, further comprehending a divine soul minor divine technique - Divine Soul Self-Stabilization. This is not a divine sense attack type divine technique, but a divine soul defense divine technique, enhancing divine soul's defense against divine sense attacks, divine soul recovery power, recovery speed, ..., and so forth, comprehensively strengthening divine soul defense.

Without opening his eyes, however, Li Mu 'saw' that the world had changed its appearance. Between heaven and earth, it was filled with micro-particles of nine colors: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet, gray, and white. They flowed chaotically under the disturbance of various mysterious powers, the tremendous force of the earth's veins, and other such forces...

The principles of various techniques, the drawing of spirit talismans, the condensation of artifact patterns during artifact refining... Li Mu encountered many perplexing issues. Seeing the movement of these 'micro-particle spirits', he suddenly understood, naturally comprehending the mysteries from the very foundation.

...

In this state of enlightenment, time passed swiftly.

When Li Mu awoke, the night had already enveloped the earth. The Red Wolf lay at his feet, whimpering softly in grievance, but obediently didn't cause any disturbance.

"Hungry, huh? Eat a Spirit Feeding Pill to fill your stomach and go play by yourself, I'm busy!" Li Mu smiled as he took out a bottle of Spirit Feeding Pills from the Nine Treasures Storage Pearl, poured out one, and fed it to the Red Wolf.

The Red Wolf took it in one bite, eating the Spirit Feeding Pill and running off excitedly.

In the night, Li Mu could clearly 'see' the Red Wolf's exuberant figure frolicking around. With a slight smile, he extracted a Cyan Jade Scroll from the Nine Treasures Storage Pearl. Just now, inside Chen's Book Tower, it was inconvenient to receive the inheritance of the Spirit Taming Contract. Now was the perfect time to learn it and use free skill points to increase its level.

Li Mu focused his divine sense into the Inheritance Jade Scroll, immediately acquiring the inheritance of the Spirit Taming Contract.

Using the soul as the foundation, the contract seal as the line, linking with the divine soul, directing spirits with the soul command, establishing contract imprints, though repulsive to heaven and earth, all laws return to one, Heavenly Dao is unkind...

...

[Ding, you have successfully received the inheritance of the "Spirit Taming Contract", you have learned the Spirit Taming Contract Seal Art.]

Li Mu opened his eyes and looked at the character's virtual panel, immediately seeing the new prompt in the log. The Spirit Taming Contract, this cultivation technique, had successfully been inscribed on the character panel.

After receiving the Spirit Taming Contract's inheritance, Li Mu finally understood why the female shopkeeper at Chen's Technique Tower wanted to explain this cultivation technique's flaws to him in advance. This technique leaned towards a demon technique, focusing mainly on cultivating the Divine Soul Contract Seal, directly enslaving other beings' divine souls, which was repulsive to heaven and earth.

This method has advantages and disadvantages. By directly intersecting with the divine soul, it perfectly achieves spirit taming roots. However, the more spiritual objects bound by the contract, the heavier the burden and backlash on the divine soul.

There are ways to reduce the burden and backlash on the divine soul: reduce proficiency with contracted spirits, contract spirits during their juvenile stage, establish close relationships, and so on...

Having roughly understood the benefits and drawbacks of the "Spirit Taming Contract", Li Mu had no hesitation, beginning to lavishly use free skill points to increase the "Spirit Taming Contract" level.

[Ding, you consumed one free skill point, "Spirit Taming Contract" proficiency +1.]

...

[Ding, you consumed one free skill point, "Spirit Taming Contract" proficiency +1, "Spirit Taming Contract" has increased to level 3, you have comprehended the derivative technique - Spirit Possession Technique.]

...

[Ding, you consumed one free skill point, "Spirit Taming Contract" proficiency +1, "Spirit Taming Contract" has increased to level 4, you have comprehended the derivative technique - Soul Burst Technique.]

...

[Ding, you consumed one free skill point, "Spirit Taming Contract" proficiency +1, "Spirit Taming Contract" has increased to level 5, you have comprehended the derivative technique - Spirit Taming Soul Sharing Technique.]

Li Mu opened his eyes and awoke, feeling his divine soul was fatigued, not daring to continue leveling up the Spirit Taming Contract.

While others rely on time to gradually refine their cultivation techniques, he relied on acquiring plant spirits and using free skill points to level up quickly. Although the upgrade speed was indeed fast, obtaining too much "spell experience" from these upgraded techniques all at once was overwhelming for him, even though he had "divine soul self-stabilization". By improving this many techniques at once, he gained a significant amount of spell-casting experience, which was a bit too much for him to absorb at the moment.

Additionally, the free skill points consumed by Earth-tier techniques are ten times that of Yellow Level techniques and Profound Level techniques, and the same goes for the Spirit Taming Contract. Originally, 19,600 points would suffice to upgrade a skill to level 5, but the Spirit Taming Contract demands ten times that amount. To continue leveling up, he would need 2 million free skill points.

Li Mu gave up on increasing the Spirit Taming Contract's level, as the newly derived techniques were already sufficient. The Spirit Taming Contract, originally only able to reach level 2, through the proficiency panel's support, was now able to advance to level 5.

The Spirit Taming Contract is indeed worthy of being an Earth-tier technique. After level 3, each level grants new derivative techniques, unlike Yellow Level or Profound Level techniques, which only have a chance to derive techniques upon reaching the fifth minor achievement realm, and obtain divine skill at ninth-level perfection.

Li Mu's gaze fell on the two other Earth-tier techniques in the character panel, "Profound Celestial Sword Array - Basic Chapter" and "Spirit Devouring Body Nourishing Technique", both at level 3.

However, to elevate these two techniques' levels, he needed to make some preparations, especially for the "Spirit Devouring Body Nourishing Technique", which required a substantial amount of high-tier Demon Beast meat.

After some thought, Li Mu decided to forgo leveling up and instead started farming.

In the night, Li Mu cast a Drying Technique on the spirit field, 'burning' the spirit rice seedlings within. Then, he cast a Clear Wind Rain Summoning Skill, calling forth a torrential spirit rain to wash over 82 acres of lower grade spirit fields.

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