Chapter 66: First Clash Between Summer Cloud and Nature

Qin Haoxuan’s decision was met with widespread confusion. Although he was an Uncolored Seed, he had still managed to sprout. With allies like Li Jing, Xu Yu, and Murong Chao, who all held considerable influence, he surely could have secured a place in one of the four great halls. Why would he choose the Nature Hall?

He paid no mind to the gossip, and Pu Hanzhong, for his part, was long accustomed to the strange looks people gave the Nature Hall.

In Qin Haoxuan’s mind, the logic was simple. He was an Uncolored Seed, and so were the disciples of the Nature Hall. Compared to the four great halls, which were filled with powerful geniuses, the Nature Hall would have a much deeper understanding of how the weak should strive to cultivate. The senior brothers from the great halls, with their Full Immortal Seeds, couldn’t possibly know the most effective way for someone with a weak foundation to improve. Only the weakest could truly understand the weakest. After all, the Nature Hall had accumulated generations of experience in this exact struggle.

Even the followers in Xu Yu’s camp felt that Qin Haoxuan had lost them face. He was, after all, a disciple who had successfully sprouted. If he had just swallowed his pride and asked Xu Yu to put in a good word, it wouldn’t have been difficult to join a group from one of the great halls. In their minds, even being in a large group guided by a senior from a great hall was infinitely better than one-on-one tutelage from the Nature Hall.

Zhang Kuang merely sneered. Qin Haoxuan was already an Uncolored Seed; now he had chosen a guide from a trash hall. It would be a miracle if he didn’t end up as a complete waste.

The only person who held unwavering faith in him was Xu Yu. In her heart, every decision Qin Haoxuan made was for a good reason, and none of his decisions were ever wrong.

After the groups were formed, Elder Chu led everyone to a large, desolate area within the Spirit Field Valley. The plot was overgrown with weeds, and in some places, it was covered by a thick layer of gravel. To call it a wasteland was being generous.

The elder pointed to the land. “This area has never been cultivated. The quality of the soil varies greatly. Follow your Guiding Senior Brothers to select and mark your plots. Unrooted disciples will receive no land. Rooted disciples will each get five mu. Sprouted disciples, ten mu. And disciples with leaves, twenty mu. Once you have marked your land, report to me, and it will be yours.”

The moment he finished speaking, the experienced Guiding Senior Brothers led their groups into the wasteland. They knew that choosing land was no simple task, and finding a good plot was even harder. As everyone else scrambled to begin the arduous work of surveying, Qin Haoxuan calmly walked over to Elder Chu.

Seeing him approach, the elder composed his expression, assuming the boy had a question. He prepared to answer it and, at the same time, gently lecture this disciple who, despite his firm Dao Heart, seemed to have his priorities mixed up. It was, after all, his duty as an initiating master.

But Qin Haoxuan simply offered a respectful bow. “Elder Chu,” he said, “this disciple was fortunate enough to sprout yesterday. May I trouble the elder to raise my family’s annual stipend to the Sprouting Stage standard of six hundred taels of silver?”

Elder Chu, who had been ready to dispense wisdom, was left speechless. After a long pause, his face turned livid as he grunted his assent. He was torn between anger and amusement. Everyone else was rushing to claim good land, and this boy was worried about silver? Weren’t ten mu of fertile spirit land worth infinitely more than a mere six hundred taels?

After receiving the elder’s nod, Qin Haoxuan joined a similarly dumbfounded Pu Hanzhong, and the two headed into the wasteland.

There, Pu Hanzhong began to teach him the art of selecting land. “To know if a plot is good, we can use Feng Shui and the lay of the land to make calculations. Now, watch me carefully.” He took out a simple compass, preparing to use his knowledge of divination.

This scene did not escape the notice of Yelu Qi, who was standing nearby with his own compass. He let out a snort of derision and turned to Zhang Kuang. “When it comes to the arts of divination, my Summer Cloud Hall is undeniably number one. Even the other three great halls have to admit it. Look at that shoddy compass of his, made from a block of elmwood. You can tell its accuracy is pitifully low. And his posture… it’s as amateurish as it gets. Junior Brother Zhang Kuang, observe my technique closely.”

With that, Yelu Qi raised his own exquisite compass, carved from tiger-bone wood. He took a measurement from the sun, found his bearings, and began his calculations. The entire process was as smooth as flowing water, giving him the air of an enlightened master. Compared to Pu Hanzhong’s clumsy movements, his form was indeed far more elegant.

Zhang Kuang watched with admiration, but also a sliver of concern. Although Yelu Qi was the Legacy Disciple of the Summer Cloud Hall Master—who had even proclaimed that Yelu Qi’s skill in divination would surpass his own in thirty years—he still vividly remembered the incident with the spirit spring. Qin Haoxuan had made even an elder lose face that day.

“Junior Brother,” Yelu Qi said, turning to Zhang Kuang, “this land is not fertile. It is, however, quite suitable for an Uncolored Seed from the Nature Hall. A weak seed for weak land. Shall we look elsewhere?”

Behind Zhang Kuang, his followers exchanged glances. Some were confident in the skills of a Summer Cloud Legacy Disciple, while others worried that Qin Haoxuan had some strange trick up his sleeve.

“What could someone from the Nature Hall possibly calculate?” one of them jeered, testing the waters. “A single pointer from Senior Brother Yelu is worth a year of his fumbling!”

The insult, though directed at Qin Haoxuan, was an affront to the entire Nature Hall. Even the good-tempered Pu Hanzhong was on the verge of exploding with anger.

Yelu Qi was not normally a spiteful person, but today’s actions were calculated. Since he had the chance to guide Zhang Kuang, he had to do everything he could to build a good relationship with him and form a bond. In cultivation, such a bond was more than just a good relationship; it was a deep, spiritual connection formed over time that allowed cultivators to support each other’s progress. Forming a bond with an Unsurpassed Purple Seed like Zhang Kuang would be a massive opportunity for him. If he could even manage to recruit him into the Summer Cloud Hall, his master would be eternally grateful.

Just as Yelu Qi was about to lead Zhang Kuang away, Qin Haoxuan, who could no longer tolerate the mockery, let out a cold laugh. “Is this the extent of the Summer Cloud Hall’s ability? After all that posturing, you only managed to figure out that this isn’t good land? Even the grass here is sparser than elsewhere. A child could see that.”

Hearing his words, Zhang Kuang’s heart skipped a beat. He had a sinking feeling that another humiliation was imminent.

Ignoring Yelu Qi’s thunderous expression, Qin Haoxuan strode a hundred meters away. He spread his Spiritual Sense, sending it ten meters deep into the earth to survey the spiritual energy below.

Normal divination could, at best, detect spiritual energy three meters underground. But Qin Haoxuan’s enhanced Spiritual Sense not only reached a depth of ten meters with ease, but it could also probe the spiritual content of individual soil particles over a wide area. After comparing several plots, he finally selected a ten-mu area where the underground spiritual energy was relatively dense and the soil itself was rich with it. He stood upon his chosen plot and called out, “So what if your Summer Cloud Hall’s flowery techniques look pretty? Senior Brother Pu’s methods may not be flashy, but they’re solid! He calculated that this is a top-grade spirit field!”

With that, he began to mark out an irregular ten-mu plot, casting a disdainful glance at Yelu Qi.

As Qin Haoxuan made his pronouncement, cold sweat beaded on Pu Hanzhong’s forehead. He hadn’t calculated anything of the sort! The surface of the land was covered in a thick layer of gravel and sand. While the soil underneath wasn’t terrible, it was far from good. Just clearing the surface would be a monumental task. But since Qin Haoxuan had made his choice, he couldn’t very well contradict him in public.

Yelu Qi, having been publicly mocked, quickly regained his composure. He kicked at the ground Qin Haoxuan had chosen, his foot connecting only with loose stones. From a Feng Shui perspective, this land was awful. How could a weakling from the Nature Hall with his shallow knowledge possibly find a good plot? he thought. This Qin Haoxuan is just as reckless as the rumors say. Very well, I will perform a detailed calculation and show Zhang Kuang the true power of my Summer Cloud Hall.

He gave Pu Hanzhong a dismissive shake of his head and raised his compass, his hands moving in a swift, elegant blur that was both beautiful and imbued with a hint of mystical power.

Zhang Kuang’s followers started to cheer but were silenced by a cold glare from their leader. Three months of initial training had given him a deeper appreciation for the vastness of the immortal path, and he was no longer as rash as he once was. Of course, his dislike for Qin Haoxuan had only grown stronger. He had learned to be more cautious when dealing with him, lest he bring shame upon his status as a Purple Seed.

Seeing Zhang Kuang’s prudent attitude, Elder Chu nodded in appreciation. However, he found his own feet carrying him closer to Qin Haoxuan’s plot. He, too, took out a compass and began his own rapid calculations. After what had happened with the spirit spring, he had his doubts about Yelu Qi’s assessment, even if he was a Legacy Disciple. Although by all conventional measures the land was poor, the elder’s past experience with Qin Haoxuan prompted him to verify it himself.

Both men began their calculations with faint, confident smiles. But as their hands moved faster, their compasses spinning like tops, their expressions shifted. The disdain vanished, replaced by looks of gravity, and then, utter shock.

“Good land! Excellent land!” Elder Chu was the first to finish, letting out a long breath of sincere admiration.

His exclamation left the onlookers who had been mocking Qin Haoxuan and Pu Hanzhong gaping, their mouths open wide enough to fit an egg.

A moment later, with a clatter, Yelu Qi’s compass fell from his hand. He stared at Qin Haoxuan, his face pale, his eyes filled with an expression of disbelief, as if he had just seen a ghost. His own calculations, confirmed by the elder’s declaration, forced him to accept the impossible: Qin Haoxuan had indeed chosen a superior plot of land.

As for the claim that Pu Hanzhong had found it—that was utter nonsense. Pu Hanzhong had still been fumbling with his own calculations when Qin Haoxuan had started marking the land. With his rudimentary techniques from the Nature Hall, he wouldn’t have found this place in three days, let alone three minutes. Even he and Elder Chu had taken the time it takes for an incense stick to burn just to verify that it was good land. Finding it in the first place was a task many times more difficult.

The spiritual energy in this plot was hidden extremely deep and was contained within the soil particles themselves, completely defying conventional Feng Shui. It required a complex, counter-intuitive “reverse-bagua” method to detect—a technique so complicated it was normally reserved for setting up large-scale formations. No one would ever use it just to survey farmland. If Qin Haoxuan hadn’t pointed it out, they would never have discovered its secret.

Both Elder Chu and Yelu Qi looked at Pu Hanzhong with bewildered expressions. Had the Nature Hall developed some strange, new method for finding spirit land? The hall was the weakest in the sect, but precisely because of that, they were known for experimenting with unorthodox methods to boost their cultivation. Could this be one of them?

Seeing their reactions, Zhang Kuang instantly understood what had happened. He was secretly relieved that he had silenced his followers. Otherwise, they would have been slapped in the face again, and he would have become a laughingstock for Li Jing and the others, his reputation suffering in the process.

Today’s update is a little late, so I made sure the word count is extra generous. We are all different, everyone has a different situation, and we are here, here waiting for votes!

(End of an Chapter)