The Eternal Farmer: I Trade My Harvest for Immortality

Chapter 247: Wood Spirit Returning to Nest Rings

Down in the second basement level, a crimson fire roared within the forging room’s furnace.

Jiang Chen placed the raw emerald jade on his workbench. With smooth, precise strokes of a green jade carving knife, he sectioned the stone into three pieces. Their uneven sizes hardly mattered. He reached for his next tool: a heavy file.

Scrape. Scrape. Scrape. The rhythmic rasping echoed through the quiet room. A fine jade dust coated the table as Jiang Chen meticulously filed down the rough edges, rapidly shaping the uneven chunks into three perfectly identical rings. The Wood Spirit Returning to Nest Rings were a set; combining all three multiplied their power, while separating them diminished their overall impact.

Satisfied with the polished surfaces, Jiang Chen brought over the century-old wood spirit marrow. Taking a slender green bamboo tube, he gently pierced the marrow’s lower center.

Drip. Drip. Pure white liquid slowly oozed from the puncture, accumulating drop by drop into a waiting vial. As the minutes ticked by, the material pre-processing drew to a close.

Jiang Chen arranged the three jade rings inside a large, circular Spirit Weapon mold and poured the extracted marrow over them. Leaving the mold open, he hoisted it over the crimson flames. Soon, the white marrow boiled, transforming into a bubbling, luminescent green slurry. Seizing the perfect moment, Jiang Chen extracted the searing hot rings with tongs and plunged them into a basin of pure spring water.

Hiss! A plume of steam carrying the crisp scent of fresh grass rushed into the air.

He repeated this grueling process. Once, twice… all the way to fourteen times. Finally, delicate spirit patterns surfaced on the emerald jade. He ran his thumb over the grooves, counting exactly five lines. One to three patterns denoted a Low-grade Spirit Weapon, while four to six marked a High-grade. Five patterns placed this set firmly in the High-grade tier, granting him the capacity to engrave five distinct runes.

The weapon’s namesake dictated the first two slots: the Wood Spirit Pattern, forging a deep psychic link with the user, and the Returning to Nest Pattern, enabling the rings to fly out and return to his wrist with a mere thought.

That left three open slots. Jiang Chen mulled over the vast array of Daoist runes. For the third, he selected the Fortress Pattern to reinforce the shield’s durability, allowing it to absorb more kinetic force and generate denser healing energy. For the fourth, he chose the Rotation Pattern. If an enemy shattered his shield, this rune would trigger automatically, drastically accelerating the barrier’s regeneration rate—a true lifesaver in critical moments. Finally, for the fifth slot, he inscribed the advanced Everlasting Pattern. This passive rune continuously siphoned ambient spiritual energy from the environment to maintain the rings’ functions. Together, the five runes formed a perfect, self-sustaining loop.

Gripping his carving knife, he meticulously etched the Wood Spirit Pattern, then the Returning to Nest Pattern, followed by the Fortress, Rotation, and Everlasting Patterns.

This was the most agonizing part of the process. Lacking a system-recognized skill in rune carving, he couldn’t simply burn his Lifespan to master it. He relied entirely on his accumulated experience and steady hands. A single slip of the knife meant starting over. Thankfully, he had plenty of emerald jade, but the wood spirit marrow was desperately low. He only had enough for one more attempt. Century-old marrow was incredibly rare; Lin An had spent hours scouring multiple markets just to find this single batch. If he succeeded on the first try, he could craft a second set—one for Senior Brother Chen, and one to keep for himself.

Two hours vanished in a flash.

As Jiang Chen finished the final stroke, the five runes flared to life. The rings cast a rich, emerald-green radiance across the room. A premium good. On the open market, this set would easily fetch around a thousand Mid-grade Spirit Stones.

While that sounded like a fortune to an outer disciple, Jiang Chen merely smirked. Between the acre of second-grade Spirit Farm and his status as an honored guest of the Rust Empire, he passively earned over three thousand Mid-grade Spirit Stones a year. That was three of these rings, paid out annually just for breathing.

Relieved by his success, Jiang Chen pocketed the rings and stepped out of the stifling forging room. Afternoon had arrived. He had pre-loaded the Fortress with food, ensuring Da Huang and the pearl chickens wouldn’t starve while he worked.

Outside, the cicadas screamed their relentless summer chorus. Jiang Chen leaned against the doorframe, letting the noise wash over him. He enjoyed the sound; it gave the farm a vibrant, living atmosphere. After resting briefly to replenish his depleted spiritual power, he descended back into the basement to forge the second set.

The second refinement flowed with practiced ease. He controlled the heat, the timing, and the marrow concentration with absolute precision. Despite the flawless execution, the resulting rings still only bore five spirit patterns.

Spirit Weapon: Wood Spirit Returning to Nest Rings

Quality: High-grade

Spirit Patterns (5): Wood Spirit Pattern, Returning to Nest Pattern, Fortress Pattern, Rotation Pattern, Everlasting Pattern

Effect 1: Channels spiritual power to condense ten razor-sharp wooden spikes from the wristlet.

Effect 2: Spikes secrete a trace paralytic toxin, crippling the target’s mobility.

Effect 3: Combining three rings detonates a volatile cyan-green explosive sphere.

Effect 4: Projects a semi-transparent green barrier upon taking damage.

Effect 5: The barrier siphons a portion of absorbed damage, converting it into healing energy.

Fortunately, the core abilities remained perfectly intact. Jiang Chen squeezed a drop of blood onto his personal set of rings and swept them with his spiritual sense, binding them to his soul.

Leaving the basement a second time, he found the sun had set. The deafening cicadas had yielded to the rhythmic croaking of frogs and the chirping of crickets. Bioluminescent fireflies danced over the glowing crops of the Spirit Farm.

Pushing the heavy stone door open, he stepped into the cool night air. Da Huang, who despised the daytime heat, was sprawled across the threshold. Hearing his master, the hound scrambled up, yawning widely while his tail thumped furiously against the dirt.

Jiang Chen crouched, vigorously rubbing the dog’s head. “Good boy. You’ve worked hard.”

Da Huang’s eyes slid shut in pure bliss, his paws tapping an excited rhythm against the ground. Knowing exactly what his companion wanted, Jiang Chen retrieved a massive, meaty pig bone from his Storage Bag. Da Huang’s eyes locked onto the bone, drool spilling from his jaws.

Tossing the bone to the ecstatic dog, Jiang Chen rolled up his right sleeve. Three emerald bands hugged his wrist, gleaming faintly in the moonlight.

It was time to test their power.