The three acres of Jade Marrow Mushroom fields were located on a shady slope deep within the Spiritual Plant Garden.

Jade Marrow Mushroom was a mid-grade Yellow-tier spirit medicine, extremely delicate and finicky. It liked moisture but feared waterlogging, preferred shade but dreaded cold, and had extremely stringent requirements for the spiritual energy environment.

At this moment, a thin layer of spiritual rain was enveloping the field above, a sign of the “Drizzle Formation” in operation.

But Su Ming spotted the problem at a glance.

Although the spiritual rain was falling, its landing points were extremely uneven. The eastern section of the field had already accumulated a puddle of water, while the western part remained dry. The few most precious mother plants in the center were being washed by an intermittent flow of spiritual energy water, their leaves drooping, looking as if they were about to breathe their last.

“See that?” Steward Wu pointed at those mother plants, his heart aching so much he kept sucking his teeth, “This ‘Drizzle Formation’ was set up three years ago by a senior brother from Formation Peak. It was fine originally. But these past few months, something went wrong. The rain falls like a drunkard pissing—sporadic and splashing everywhere!”

“Pfft…” In the Consciousness Sea, Lin Yu couldn’t help but laugh out loud, “That analogy is absolutely perfect.”

Su Ming’s expression remained unchanged. He didn’t rush to touch the formation plate. Instead, he took out a set of simple tools from his storage pouch.

Several transparent glass tubes engraved with measurement marks, a compass, and a few sheets of blank grass paper.

He rolled up his trouser legs and stepped directly into the muddy field.

“Hey? What are you doing?” Steward Wu was taken aback, “The formation plate is over by the ridge. Aren’t you going to fix the plate? What are you doing down in the field?”

“The formation is dead, but the land is alive.”

Su Ming didn’t even turn his head, inserting a glass tube into the area with the deepest water accumulation and carefully observing the markings on it, “If I don’t figure out how the water flows and how the soil absorbs it, messing with the formation plate would be pointless.”

For the next half hour, Steward Wu watched as this young disciple walked through the field like an old farmer, taking deep, uneven steps in the mud.

Every few *zhang*, he would stop to take measurements, then scribble and sketch on the grass paper.

The sun gradually shifted westward. By the time Steward Wu had smoked two pipes of tobacco and was nearly out of patience, Su Ming finally climbed back onto the ridge.

He wasn’t covered in mud and looking disheveled. Instead, he had used a Dust-Cleaning Technique to clean his robes spotlessly.

“Steward Wu, please take a look.”

Su Ming handed over the sketch filled with lines and data.

On the diagram, the terrain undulations, spiritual energy concentration distribution, and water flow directions of these three acres were clearly marked. Especially the nodes marked with red circles were particularly alarming.

“The problem isn’t with the main formation plate.”

Su Ming pointed at the three curves on the diagram, his tone certain, “The main formation is operating normally. The issue lies in the mismatch between the spiritual energy output nodes of these three auxiliary formations and the slope gradient of this field.”

“You see, although this field looks flat, it’s actually ‘higher in the west, lower in the east,’ with a slope of about three *fen*. The original formation setting was for uniform rainfall. Water flows downhill, naturally causing waterlogging and root rot in the east, and dryness and thirst in the west.”

Steward Wu looked at the diagram. Although he didn’t understand some of the symbols, he grasped what Su Ming was saying.

“Then… in your opinion, how should it be fixed?” Steward Wu’s tone softened a bit. This kid didn’t seem like someone who only knew theory.

“No need for major changes.”

Su Ming took out three blank Formation Flags from his sleeve, toying with them in his hand, “We won’t touch the core, only adjust the endpoints. We just need to adjust the output power of these three nodes: increase the west by thirty percent, decrease the east by twenty percent. And add a miniature ‘Flow Split’ rune in the low-lying area to divert the excess water into the underground drainage channel.”

“The cost?” Steward Wu was most concerned about this.

“Five spirit stones for materials.” Su Ming held up a hand with all fingers extended, “Plus the thirty spirit stones you’ll pay me as reward.”

Steward Wu’s eyes rolled thoughtfully. The previous formation master had immediately demanded to replace the main formation plate, asking for one hundred spirit stones. This kid in front of him only wanted five?

“You have two days.” Steward Wu made a prompt decision, fishing out five spirit stones from his robe and tossing them to Su Ming, “Materials are your responsibility. Succeed, and you get paid. Fail, and don’t come back.”

“Half a day is sufficient.”

Su Ming caught the spirit stones, turned, and left, “I’ll go to the Repair Hall to fetch some things. I’ll be right back.”

…

Half an hour later, Su Ming returned to the Spiritual Plant Garden carrying several inscribed rune stakes and a bundle of materials.

He didn’t let Steward Wu intervene, instead walking into the formation alone.

It was dusk, and the light within the Spiritual Plant Garden had softened.

Su Ming stood beside those nearly withered Jade Marrow Mushrooms, took a deep breath, and quietly circulated the *Like Water Art* within his body.

In his perception, his surroundings were no longer just soil and plants, but a world filled with the flow of moisture.

The underground currents, the mist in the air, the sap flowing within plant roots and stems—everything was revealed in minute detail.

“Kan position, channel the flow.”

With a flick of his wrist, Su Ming precisely drove a wooden stake carved with the “Lead” character rune into the soil at the lowest point of the terrain.

The stake entered the earth silently, yet it seemed to open an invisible valve.

The stagnant water that had accumulated there, as if summoned, began to slowly seep underground, flowing away along the runic patterns on the stake.

“Li position, increase pressure.”

He then moved to the higher ground on the western side, embedding a formation plate fragment into a formation node.

As he injected a point of faint blue spiritual energy from his fingertip, the previously sparse drizzle instantly became denser.

Su Ming moved through the field, his actions flowing smoothly and naturally, without any unnecessary flourishes.

Every move he made precisely targeted the nodes of spiritual energy flow.

“This kid… actually knows his stuff.”

Squatting on the ridge smoking, the suspicion in Steward Wu’s eyes gradually turned to surprise.

He was an expert. Although he didn’t understand formation setting, he understood farming.

He could clearly feel that as Su Ming made adjustments, the “qi” in this field smoothed out. That previously congested, stagnant feeling disappeared, replaced by a vibrant, lively vitality.

Just as Su Ming was adjusting the final node, an unexpected event occurred.

This was an old, worn-out node located at the edge of the field ridge, buried extremely deep.

Su Ming was just about to implant a fine-tuning rune into the ground when he felt the soil beneath his feet loosen.

“Crack.”

A crisp sound, as if something had shattered.

Su Ming frowned slightly, crouched down, and carefully brushed away the soil.

Deep in the soil, a corner of a broken clay pot was revealed. The pot, buried for who knows how many years, was already severely decayed and had half-collapsed under Su Ming’s foot.

Amid the fragments of the clay pot was a pile of old, long-inactive formation plate debris.

“So it’s just garbage from an old, discarded formation foundation.” Su Ming felt somewhat disappointed and was about to fill in the soil to bury it.

“Wait!”

In the Consciousness Sea, Lin Yu suddenly spoke up, “Don’t bury it! Pick up that blackish stone!”

Su Ming paused his movement, his gaze falling on an utterly inconspicuous black pebble in the debris pile.

The stone was only the size of a thumb, covered in mud, looking no different from an ordinary pebble.

But he trusted his Master’s judgment.

Su Ming reached out without changing his expression, pretending to clear the debris, and casually scooped up the black stone. He wiped it with his sleeve and stored it in his storage pouch.

“What is it?” Lin Yu asked in his mind.

“Moisture Stone.” Su Ming’s voice carried a trace of pleasant surprise, “A low-grade water-attribute material. Although not particularly precious, its advantage is being natural. This thing has been buried underground for some years, saturated with earth qi. It’s perfect as supplementary material for the formation core of the ‘Minor Heavenly Cycle Water Rhythm Formation.'”

Su Ming was secretly delighted internally, but showed absolutely nothing on his face.

This counted as an unexpected harvest.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep