In just one month, the pea shooter's spiritual energy-infused pea attacks had advanced from the first level of Qi Refinent to the second level.
Gu Mo's current combat strength was roughly at the sa level, aning a single pea shooter effectively doubled his offensive capability.
During this period, through further research, Gu Mo discovered additional functionalities of the pea shooter. It had two attack modes:
1. Automatic Mode: The pea shooter would autonomously attack all enemies within its range.
Gu Mo determined which creatures were enemies or allies. Currently, he classified small spirit beasts that threatened the spirit fields, like Black Spirit Mice, as enemies.
All human cultivators were added to a whitelist to prevent accidental attacks on visiting cultivators.
2. Manual Mode: In this mode, Gu Mo could directly command the pea shooter to attack specific targets.
However, the pea shooter had two major drawbacks:
1. Immobility: Once discovered, it had no way to evade attacks.
2. Slow Attack Speed: The pea shooter required ti to absorb spiritual energy before condensing and firing peas. This also ant that in areas devoid of spiritual energy, it couldn't function at all.
Fortunately, these weaknesses were not insurmountable. The slow attack speed could be compensated by quantity—Gu Mo could now afford to buy a new pea shooter with second-level Qi Refinent attack power every 20 days. Planting a dozen of them would naturally offset the issue.
As for areas lacking spiritual energy, using potted plants with embedded spirit stones solved the problem. Before acquiring his spirit field, Gu Mo had already used this thod to grow Sunflowers. Additionally, using pots allowed the pea shooters to be relocated, though at a higher spirit stone cost.
With the pea shooters in place, Gu Mo felt a significant boost in security. A few of them could already handle early-stage Qi Refinent cultivators, and with enough numbers, even mid-stage cultivators could be challenged.
This was invaluable to Gu Mo, who lacked a technique to conceal his cultivation and thus couldn't accelerate his progress. For him, the pea shooter was a crucial protective asure.
Unlike the Sunflower, which had an astonishing ability to enhance cultivation and would attract unwanted attention, the pea shooter appeared to be a simple offensive spirit plant. Though rare, such plants did exist.
Moreover, with only second-level Qi Refinent attack power, mid-stage Qi Refinent cultivators likely wouldn't find it worthwhile. As for those below mid-stage, Gu Mo could handle them if necessary.
Of course, he wouldn't expose the pea shooter's existence unless absolutely necessary—after all, it was quite different from ordinary offensive spirit plants.
Deploying Five Pea Shooters
After confirming the pea shooter's effectiveness, Gu Mo devoted all his Solar Essence earnings to acquiring more. The true power of the pea shooter lay in numbers.
His target was five—not because he didn't want more, but because five were enough to deal with any cultivator below mid-stage Qi Refinent. Those at mid-stage were beyond his current ability to handle anyway.
Besides, mid-stage Qi Refinent cultivators wouldn't typically trouble a re servant disciple like him—unless he exposed sothing valuable enough to spark their greed.
Strategically, Gu Mo planted the five pea shooters in east, south, west, north, and center positions within his spirit field. With this defense, his field no longer suffered attacks from small spirit beasts.
For spirit insects, the pea shooters intercepted them before they entered the field. However, once inside, Gu Mo had to deal with them himself. The reason was simple—the insects were too small, and the pea shooter's attacks risked damaging the spirit rice crops. While unleashing full firepower could eliminate the pests, it would also devastate the field.
That ant Gu Mo had to handle the remaining insects manually. However, with the pea shooters stopping most of them, his workload was significantly reduced.
As the fifth pea shooter was planted, fewer and fewer insects managed to bypass the defenses.
With no pest infestations or rodent problems, and Gu Mo's increasing mastery of the Cloud Drizzle Technique, his spirit rice crops thrived. The weighty grain stalks made it clear—this harvest would far exceed the previous one.
Additionally, the crops matured even faster this ti. Previously, it took five months, but this season, it would be ready for harvest in just over four months.
A Year of Growth
This marked Gu Mo's first full year as a spirit farr in the Spirit Plant Hall.
Over the year, he successfully mastered all five exclusive spiritual farming techniques, with the most challenging—Lesser Rejuvenation Technique—finally grasped just a few days ago.
Mastering all five techniques in a single year was an achievent worthy of being called a once-in-a-century talent.
Among all the spirit farrs in the Spirit Plant Hall, only three veteran farrs had ever done the sa. Gu Mo was now the fourth.
If he revealed this now, he could imdiately qualify as an Outer Sect Disciple.
While Gu Mo did want to beco an Outer Disciple, now was not the ti.
A re year to master all five techniques would draw too much attention. And right now, Gu Mo dreaded attention—he had too many secrets that wouldn't survive scrutiny.
So, he decided to wait a few more years before revealing his accomplishnts. Given his previously showcased comprehension talent, it would seem much more reasonable by then.
For cultivators, who had long lifespans, a few years was nothing. Most didn't die of old age but from duels or competition for opportunities.
Accumulated Wealth
Aside from mastering the five techniques, Gu Mo had also built up a considerable inventory over the year:
5 Sunflowers
5 Pea Shooters
1 Damaged Formation Disk
151 Spirit Stones
50 Jin of Spirit Rice
1 Fake Spirit Beast Koi
Among these, the Sunflowers and Pea Shooters were uniquely his, but even without them, his wealth was enormous for a first-year servant disciple.
And soon, the new batch of spirit rice would be harvested, further skyrocketing his resources.
The New Harvest and an Unexpected Letter
As anticipated, after just over four months, marking his first full year in the Spirit Plant Hall, his spirit rice finally reached full maturity.
Just as Gu Mo was about to begin the harvest, he received another letter from Yao Shifeng.
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