NOVEL WEB Chapter 6: Cultivation and Spirit Techniques
Chapter 6: Cultivation and Spirit Techniques
While the adults of the Li family were having their small meeting, Li Xi was preparing for today’s spell practice.
She felt a bit different today because there was an inexplicable voice in the depths of her heart, constantly saying: “Re…re…sist.”
But she hadn’t even started learning any spirit techniques related to “resistance” yet.
She wanted to practice but couldn’t, so she could only suppress the inexplicable voice for now.
Amidst the laughter and play of the children, Li Xi closed her eyes, first taking a slow, deep breath, then exhaling gently.
When she opened her eyes, the restlessness from the day was gone. Whether it was today’s birthday, the delicious spirit chicken, her family’s gifts, or the two mu of spirit field – all had faded away in her mind, disappearing without a trace.
She had completely calmed down.
At this moment, she exuded an aura of tranquility, completely different from her usual self.
She raised both hands, her ten fingers moving up and down nimbly, forming various hand seals in a fluid motion, completing a set of spirit incantations.
After finishing the set of incantations, she silently mouthed “Spirit Rain Technique.” Instantly, threads of spiritual light gathered from the surrounding air to her fingertips, then flew towards the sky. Water vapor in the air quickly converged into a rain cloud.
As the rain cloud gently floated up and down, fine rain threads fell from beneath it onto the bluestone slabs, splashing up tiny rain sounds.
Li Xi was already thoroughly familiar with this set of movements and could perform them quickly without thinking.
Her Spirit Rain Technique wasn’t just for show either. The spell’s effect was quite good. Compared to others of her age, her Spirit Rain Technique was much more profound in terms of the speed of spiritual cloud gathering, the scale of rainfall, and the degree of spiritual energy control.
But the Spirit Rain Technique with both hands forming seals was just a simple warm-up.
Daily cultivation for practitioners in the Qi Refining stage was still just about absorbing spiritual energy from the air to slowly transform their bodies, at a stage of relatively low comprehension of spiritual energy.
Therefore, to cast spells in the Qi Refining stage was rather complex, requiring the practitioner to circulate specific spiritual energy routes in the body while coordinating with spirit incantations to successfully invoke the spiritual energy of heaven and earth.
But this didn’t mean that Qi Refining stage practitioners could only use spirit techniques in such a complicated manner.
Since Li Xi began cultivating spirit techniques, she had successfully improved her proficiency and understanding of spells through continuous practice, reaching the level of single-handed spellcasting.
But single-handed seal formation wasn’t her ultimate goal. Her final goal was to be able to gather spiritual energy and cast spells with just a thought and a raise of her hand.
Li Xi had already reached the level of single-handed spellcasting for the Spirit Rain Technique, Dust Micro Technique, and Green Spirit Technique, which she practiced most diligently. Therefore, the main purpose of her spell practice was to improve her understanding of spirit incantations through practicing single-handed spellcasting, further simplifying the seal formation for spellcasting.
If you ask why she was so enthusiastic about these three techniques, it was because these three techniques were collectively known as the Three Treasures of Farming!
The Spirit Rain Technique could gather water spiritual energy from heaven and earth to a greater extent, condensing it into spirit rain to water spirit fields.
The Dust Micro Technique, used daily on spirit fields along with fertilizer, could protect the fertility of spirit fields, promote the absorption of nutrients, and if used persistently during the annual fallow period, could even improve the quality of spirit fields when used properly.
The Green Spirit Technique could promote the vitality of spirit plants, stimulate their vigor, and their desire to grow. Daily use of the Green Spirit Technique on spirit plants could slowly improve their quality and reduce their growth period.
The miraculous effects of the Dust Micro Technique and Green Spirit Technique were actually secret techniques of the Li clan, never shared with outsiders.
Among these three techniques, only the Spirit Rain Technique was the most basic, which could be practiced as soon as one entered the first level of Qi Refining. The Dust Micro Technique and Green Spirit Technique were more advanced techniques, requiring entry into the fifth level of Qi Refining to practice.
Li Xi had persisted in daily cultivation to practice these two techniques as early as possible. At the fifth level of Qi Refining, even the fastest cultivating peers among her age group were only at the fourth level.
After warming up, she began practicing single-handed seal formation for the Spirit Rain Technique.
The small girl stood straight, with one hand behind her back.
At this moment, every rain scene Li Xi had observed while watching rain in the past suddenly flashed through her mind, from drizzles to downpours. A spark of insight flashed by like a meteor, but Li Xi caught it!
Her right hand formed seals in front of her chest, tracing the path of water spiritual energy particles flowing in the air that she had seen.
This time, the seal formation was slower, but a different kind of spiritual mechanism spread in the air.
The number of seals her fingers formed was actually fewer than when using both hands.
Simplification based on one’s understanding of the Spirit Rain Technique varied from person to person.
In the later stages of practicing any spell, a practitioner needed a spark of insight, a bit of comprehension to progress further.
“This practice was successful!” Li Xi happily looked at the cloud mass rapidly gathering in the sky.
As raindrops fell from the sky, Li Xi concentrated and reached out her hand to carefully feel the rain falling into it.
The spiritual energy carried by these rain threads was half a point more than usual.
The hand seals Li Xi formed this time were based on her observations and understanding of the traces of falling rain she had observed since beginning her cultivation.
Turning understanding into achievable results, a successful Spirit Rain Technique practice.
In the time that followed, Li Xi consolidated her new Spirit Rain Technique a few times. She called this Spirit Rain Technique: Spirit Rain Technique No. 1, meaning the first version of her improved Spirit Rain Technique.
I’m such a little genius!
Li Xi thought happily, not at all stingy with praise for herself. She firmly believed that one should praise oneself every day, as this provides more motivation for progress.
“I’ve made such great progress today, let’s conclude the spell practice for now!” she said to herself.
After all, it hadn’t been as long since her other two techniques reached single-handed seal formation as it had been for the Spirit Rain Technique. It had only been a year since she broke through to the fifth level of Qi Refining, and the time she had spent practicing the Dust Micro Technique and Green Spirit Technique was several years less than the Spirit Rain Technique.
Moreover, she had actually been a bit troubled recently.
That was because she still couldn’t deeply understand the working principles of the Dust Micro Technique. How exactly did the Dust Micro Technique help spirit fields absorb nutrients?
A spirit field is just a spirit field, after all.
And how did the Green Spirit Technique stimulate the vitality of spirit plants?
Without understanding these, her spirit techniques could only remain at the stage of mechanical spellcasting, unable to truly internalize the techniques.
Perhaps when she really started farming and caring for spirit plants and spirit fields, she would truly understand?
As the sky gradually darkened and the last rays of the setting sun fell into the courtyard, Li Xi cleared her mind of distracting thoughts. The evening spring breeze made her shiver.
Although spring had arrived, the evening wind was still a bit cool.
The sound of children playing had disappeared at some point, and Li Xi looked suspiciously towards where they had been playing earlier.
Several children were crouching under a tree, doing something unknown.
She saw her nieces and nephews playing every day. Xing’er was a quiet little girl, Bai’er was still young, but that boy Song’er could never be quiet for so long.
If Song’er was quiet, he must be up to something.
“Song’er! Xing’er! Bai’er! What are you doing?” Li Xi said as she walked towards the tree.
The scent of the big tree and a not-so-pleasant smell faintly entered her nostrils.
As she got closer, she found two lumps of mud in front of the three children. The children’s small hands were kneading the mud back and forth, with a mess all around them. Their faces, hands, and clothes were covered in mud. Hearing Li Xi approach, the three little rascals turned their faces towards her in unison.
“Aunt, do you know what’s different between different water and mud?” Song’er blinked his big eyes, looking brightly at Li Xi.
“What are you doing?” Li Xi knew this little guy was up to no good when she saw his eyes rolling, and she wasn’t falling for it.
She took a small step back.
“Aunt, let’s play with mud together!” Seeing Li Xi step back, Song’er knew his aunt was about to escape.
“Sister, brother, let’s charge together! Charge!” Song’er turned his head and shouted to Xing’er and Bai’er. The three children each grabbed two balls of mud and ran towards Li Xi, raising their hands to throw the mud directly.
Li Xi didn’t expect Song’er to be so unethical, launching a sneak attack. She started a bit late and was caught off guard, with the mud from the three little ones hitting the hem of her clothes.
Her sense of smell was quite keen, and an odor went straight to her head.
“Urgh! Urgh!”
“What on earth did you mix with the mud, urgh…” Li Xi seemed to guess, but her strong emotions directly clouded her rationality. Not wanting to accept the answer she thought of, she instead asked the three little ones with a glimmer of hope.