“Junior Brother Han.”

At the Medicine Garden, Han Yu met with Sun Kang, Liu Lan, and Zhong Yue.

After the initial greetings, Sun Kang asked how Han Yu had been faring at the Spirit Field Department.

“I’ve been cultivating diligently with Qi Gathering Pills,” Han Yu replied. “I’m not far from the third layer of Qi Refining.”

Sun Kang and the others were genuinely happy for him.

“Since joining the sect, Junior Brother Han has been relentless,” Zhong Yue said with a smile, having finally moved past the sorrow of the recent massacre. “With the merits you earned during the crisis, your progress is catching up to ours!”

Han Yu watched the disciples passing by, hoes slung over their shoulders. The sight reminded him of Fang Dawei, the Laborer Disciple who had wielded a similar medicine hoe during the competition.

The Medicine Garden had been wiped out by the Demonic Cultivators. It was unlikely Fang Dawei had survived.

A cold shiver of vigilance ran through Han Yu.

Without strength, tragedies like Fang Dawei’s were inevitable. On the path to immortality, survival was the only rule that mattered.

Wanchun Valley had survived this calamity thanks to the Spirit Sword Sect, but the threat wasn’t over. The Spirit Beast Sect, Mystic One Sect, and Little Sky Net Sect were still out there, watching like vultures. Another crisis could strike at any moment.

After bidding farewell to his friends, Han Yu returned to the Spirit Field Department.

Back in his room, he opened the jade box. He lifted the Thousand-Year Sunkwood Heart from its bath of spiritual liquid, gripped it in his hand, and began circulating the Green Grain Qi Cultivation Method.

Instantly, he felt a resonance within his wood-attribute Spirit Root.

The sprout formed by his Spirit Breath in his dantian seemed to wake up, vibrating with a lively, agile energy.

Han Yu quickly understood. This was the power of perfect compatibility.

He held wood from the Ancestral Tree, possessed a Wood Spirit Root, and practiced the founder’s own technique. The synergy broke his limits, pushing his daily Spirit Breath absorption beyond its natural cap.

After two Circulation Cycles, Han Yu calculated the difference. The Thousand-Year Sunkwood Heart increased his efficiency by roughly ten percent.

It sounded small, but over months and years, the compound gains would be massive.

Han Yu stopped cultivating. A new thought crossed his mind.

Can I replicate this?

He gripped the thin, jade-like ring of wood in his right hand and focused. The accumulated replication charge in his mind drained rapidly.

It works!

In a flash, twelve days’ worth of charge vanished. An identical Thousand-Year Sunkwood Heart appeared in his left hand.

Han Yu now had a solid grasp of his ability’s rules.

As his cultivation rose, his capacity increased. His “charge” accumulated like water in a bucket, capping out at around twenty days if unused. The cost depended on the item’s material quality, size, and refinement state—not its market value.

This unrefined slice of wood was only two inches wide, yet it cost twelve days of charge. Its quality truly lived up to the name “Thousand-Year.”

Holding a piece of Sunkwood in each hand, Han Yu resumed his cultivation.

After a full cycle, he estimated the new gain. Two pieces provided an eighteen percent boost. That seemed to be the saturation point; adding more wouldn’t help.

It made sense. His Wood Spirit Root was only one of three. Even with perfect compatibility, there was a ceiling. Still, combining his upgraded Three Spirit Roots with this eighteen percent boost meant his cultivation speed was now leagues ahead of where he started.

“It’s a pity I can’t get the Qi Refining Spirit Boosting Pill,” Han Yu mused. “With that, Qi Refining would be effortless.”

“The next major speed increase probably won’t happen until Foundation Establishment, when I can refine another root…”

He thought back to the Spirit Root Refining Art. The pain was excruciating, the conditions harsh. He had burned nearly two hundred drops of essence blood to repair the damage—equivalent to devouring twenty or thirty cultivators for a Demon Blood Sect disciple.

Even Bai Lingyun, with all his family resources, couldn’t handle the cost. That art was destined to die in obscurity.

Han Yu spent another two days of charge to replicate the jade box and spiritual liquid, storing the second Sunkwood Heart safely.

From then on, he cultivated daily with a piece of ancient wood in each hand.

Ten days passed in a blur.

While circulating his energy, Han Yu felt a sudden surge in his dantian. The spiritual sprout unfurled a new leaf, and his Spirit Breath swelled, breaking through an invisible barrier.

A wave of comfort washed over him.

Qi Refining fourth layer—achieved.

He had officially entered the mid-stage of Qi Refining.

His Spirit Breath capacity jumped significantly, and his physical body strengthened, extending his lifespan. Fortunately, the Blood Refining technique had already repaired the damage from his spirit root surgery; otherwise, this lifespan boost would have only served to pay off his debt.

After stabilizing his breakthrough, Han Yu replicated a third Sunkwood Heart as a spare.

Two days later, Senior Sister Li returned from the Deacon’s Hall with the sect-processed Green Grain Spirit Rice seeds. Han Yu and Hua Qi helped distribute them to the disciples.

“Zhu San! Come get your seeds!”

Hua Qi shouted twice toward the back of the crowd. No answer.

“Where is Zhu San?”

An Outer Disciple stepped forward. “Senior Brother Hua, I saw him leave early this morning. He headed toward the market.”

“The market?” Hua Qi frowned. “What for?”

Since the raid, the Green Grain Market had become a ghost town. With few Rogue Cultivators and Wanchun Valley locked down for recovery, business had collapsed to less than twenty percent of its former volume.

“I don’t know,” the disciple shrugged.

“Stubborn fool,” Hua Qi scoffed. “The sect threatened to cripple him if he tried selling anything again. He’s courting death.”

He ignored the absentee and finished distributing the seeds.

Only the three stewards remained. They moved to their own ten-mu plots to begin tilling and sowing.

Senior Sister Li’s flying shuttle was a marvel of efficiency. It darted through the soil like a silver fish, turning over her ten acres in less than an hour.

Han Yu and Hua Qi had a harder time.

Using their leaf artifacts—Han Yu’s Plantain Leaf and Hua Qi’s seven-foot leaf—they imitated her technique, slicing vertically through the earth. It was crude work compared to the shuttle, and it took them half the day to finish.

Wiping sweat from his brow, Hua Qi looked at Han Yu in surprise.

“Junior Brother Han, your Spirit Breath reserves are impressive. I thought you’d run dry halfway through!”

Han Yu smiled, keeping his tone casual.

“Just luck. I happened to break through to the third layer of Qi Refining yesterday.”