Su Ming offered no explanation, simply walking up to the most severely withered seedling.

He took a deep breath, the Qihai within his Dantian rotating faintly. The spiritual energy transformed by the “Like Water Art” was no longer that violent, crashing current, but had turned into a deep blue, viscous liquid like oil, slowly dripping from his fingertip.

“Go.”

Su Ming uttered a light command.

That mass of deep blue spiritual energy did not pour directly onto the leaves. Instead, it silently seeped into the soil at the roots.

Steward Wu’s eyes widened.

He saw that piece of purplish-red soil, originally hard as iron, emit an extremely faint sizzling sound the instant it came into contact with the blue light. Wisps of gray smoke, barely discernible to the naked eye, rose up and then dissipated in the wind.

Immediately after, the compacted soil began to soften and become moist.

The most miraculous thing was that Fire Sun Grass plant.

The originally curled, blackened leaves, like a traveler in a long drought finally getting the first sip of sweet rain, actually began to unfurl at a speed visible to the naked eye. The scorched black on the leaves faded away, revealing a bright, vivid crimson once more.

Although it was just one plant, that aura of lifeless decay instantly dissipated for the most part.

“This… this is the Moistening Technique?” Steward Wu’s Adam’s apple bobbed, his eyes filled with disbelief.

An expert’s first move reveals their skill.

He had cultivated spiritual plants for half his life, seen people water them, but never seen anyone control water-attributed spiritual energy with such needle-like precision.

This wasn’t watering! This was clearly giving the spiritual plant a massage!

“Excellent! Masterful technique!”

Steward Wu was so excited he rubbed his hands together, his previously troubled face instantly blooming into a chrysanthemum-like smile. “Brother Su, no, Master Su! This job, no one but you can do it! Tell me, how do we treat this?”

Su Ming withdrew his spiritual energy, his complexion slightly pale—of course, this was an act.

The “Like Water Art” was inherently ever-renewing; this level of consumption was a mere drop in the bucket for him. But in business, you always have to make the client feel they’re getting more than their money’s worth, feel that you’ve paid a great price.

“This one acre of land, its accumulated problems run deep.”

Su Ming wiped non-existent cold sweat from his forehead, his tone grave. “To completely eradicate the fire poison will take at least two months. I will come once a week, each session lasting two hours, to perform deep conditioning on this plot of land for you.”

He paused, glancing at Steward Wu. “As for the compensation…”

“Name it!” Steward Wu now looked at Su Ming as if he were his own father. As long as he could save this land and his rice bowl, anything was negotiable.

“Eighty spirit stones.” Su Ming quoted a figure.

Steward Wu’s brow furrowed slightly.

Eighty was indeed not a low fee for an outer sect disciple’s labor.

But he looked at that revived-from-the-dead seedling, then thought about the half-year’s allowance and his future prospects he’d lose if he failed the assessment, gritted his teeth.

“Deal!”

Steward Wu fished out a heavy spirit stone pouch from his robe, but didn’t hand it directly to Su Ming. Instead, he lowered his voice and leaned closer.

“Brother Su, this payment… let’s not go through the official accounts.”

Steward Wu’s shrewd little eyes darted around. Seeing no one nearby, he whispered, “Going through official accounts requires approval from the Administration Hall, and those bloodsuckers will take a cut. Too troublesome. This is my own private savings. Let’s make a private agreement. If this garden has any more of these ‘hard-to-treat ailments’ in the future, you’ll be my first call.”

Su Ming chuckled inwardly.

This suited him perfectly.

Going through official accounts meant leaving a trail, being recorded by the sect, and possibly attracting attention from Formation Peak. A private transaction, payment upon delivery, was both safe and cost-effective.

“Steward Wu is decisive.”

Su Ming took the spirit stone pouch, weighed it in his hand, then tucked it into his sleeve. “In that case, let’s make a gentleman’s agreement. For these two months, this land is entrusted to me.”

…

After reaching the agreement, Su Ming didn’t rush to leave, but immediately began the first “treatment” session.

He sat cross-legged on the ridge between the fields, his hands forming seals.

Deep blue spiritual energy fell like a gentle spring rain, covering the entire Fire Sun Grass field.

To an outsider, Su Ming appeared to be laboriously casting a spell, expending spiritual energy.

But in reality, the current Su Ming was feeling absolutely fantastic.

“Hah…”

Su Ming closed his eyes slightly, sensing the rich spiritual energy fluctuations around him.

The Spiritual Plant Garden was built upon a miniature spirit vein to begin with, and this Fire Sun Grass field concentrated vast amounts of fire and wood attributed spiritual energy.

When Su Ming operated the “Like Water Art” to perform “water-fire neutralization,” the fire poison displaced from the soil, after being filtered and transformed by the “Like Water Art,” actually turned into an extremely pure, warm current that flowed back into his own meridians.

Water nourishes wood, wood generates fire.

This wasn’t work! This was clearly using the advantageous location here to cultivate!

The spiritual energy vortex within his body slowly rotated. The originally somewhat stagnant bottleneck in his cultivation actually showed signs of loosening under this high-intensity cycle of absorbing and releasing spiritual energy.

“Tsk tsk, killing three birds with one stone.”

Lin Yu sighed within the Consciousness Sea. “Taking the man’s money, using his land to cultivate, and still making him feel grateful to you. Disciple, your ‘capitalist’ face is becoming more and more standard.”

Su Ming responded mentally, “Master, this is called resource exchange. I contributed labor and technique; he gets the harvest. It’s a win-win.”

Two hours later.

The setting sun cast its glow. The entire Fire Sun Grass field looked completely renewed.

Although the leaves hadn’t fully regained their emerald green color, that grayish, decaying aura of death had completely dissipated, replaced by a vibrant vitality.

Steward Wu circled the field three times, the word “good” never stopping in his mouth.

“Brother Su, you’ve worked hard, worked hard!”

Steward Wu eagerly handed over a pot of spiritual tea. “You look a bit pale. Drink some tea to replenish yourself.”

Su Ming took the tea and drank a mouthful, then retrieved several prepared empty clay jars from his storage pouch.

“Steward Wu, I have another presumptuous request.”

Su Ming pointed to the pile of compacted, discarded soil he had cleared out, lying at the edge of the field. “If this ‘poisonous soil’ is left here by the field, I fear it might cause secondary contamination. I happen to be researching a formation to neutralize fire poison and need some samples for experiments. Could I take this waste soil away?”

Steward Wu glanced at the pile of foul-smelling muck, waving his hand dismissively. “Take it, take it! I was worried about where to dump it anyway. If you can handle it, Brother Su, you’d be doing me a huge favor!”

With a grateful expression, Su Ming carefully loaded that “poisonous soil” into the clay jars, sealed them, and stored them in his storage pouch.

Only after walking a long way from the Spiritual Plant Garden did Su Ming finally let out a long sigh of relief, a smile he couldn’t suppress curling at the corner of his mouth.

“Master, that soil…”

“Treasure.”

Lin Yu’s voice was uncharacteristically serious. “That soil contains not only concentrated fire poison but also residue of the ‘Heavy Water’ left by that previous formation master. These two extreme energies have been entangled in the soil for months, forming an extremely unstable ‘Thunder Fire Sand’ structure.”

“If you take it back and refine it using your ‘Water Extraction Method’…” Lin Yu chuckled. “Just give it a little stimulation, and this stuff becomes natural ‘Yin Thunder Pellets.’ As for power… blowing off a Qi Refining late-stage cultivator’s leg shouldn’t be a problem.”

Su Ming patted his storage pouch, a glint flashing in his eyes.

Eighty spirit stones, an excellent cultivation spot, plus a batch of raw materials that could be used to craft deadly, sneaky weapons.

This trip… he made out like a bandit.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep