Previously, Fang Qingyuan had gotten a Beast Taming Heart Method from Di Qing and used it on the Bee Queen. By now, he had comprehended about eighty percent of this innate Divine Technique.

He had originally expected it would take ten years to comprehend the remaining twenty percent, but by using the burst of inspiration from his breakthrough to analyze the Divine Technique, he managed to push his comprehension to over ninety percent in just a quarter of an hour.

When everything was over and the vortex of Spiritual Power outside had dissipated like a fleeting cloud, Fang Qingyuan slowly opened his eyes inside his Quiet Chamber.

The immense Spiritual Power surrounding Fang Qingyuan could not yet be fully retracted into his body. He gave off an oppressive feeling, like a volcano on the verge of eruption.

Doing his best to calm the Magical Power in his body, which had doubled, Fang Qingyuan looked at the one remaining Great Barrier Breaking Pill and chuckled. ’This Great Barrier Breaking Pill isn’t much use to me now.’

’Come to think of it, I could have slowly ground my way through in another four or five years even without a Great Barrier Breaking Pill. As for forming my Golden Core, this last pill wouldn’t have been of much help anyway.’

He sent his Five Elements Illusion Beast Dharma Aspects, which had expanded dramatically in size, into the Immortal Mansion. The Immortal Mansion was a much more suitable Land Realm for them to live and grow in than the outside world.

The Wood Spirit Fish Dragon was now a foot and a half long, while the Water Spirit Xuanwu lagged slightly at one and three-tenths feet long. The remaining three Five Elements Illusion Beasts were only a foot in size.

The size and length of their bodies were a clear indicator of the Five Elements Illusion Beasts’ combat strength. Currently, the Wood Spirit Fish Dragon was the most powerful.

The Fish Dragon’s foot-and-a-half-long body was composed entirely of a mixture of highly concentrated magical essence and flesh. The Wood Element Techniques the Wood Spirit could now command were on par with those of a Late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator specializing in them.

The Fish Dragon could now cast Nine Luminaries-level techniques with ease and was even capable of using techniques at the Twelve Celestial Lords level. Only techniques at the level of the Twenty-Eight Mansions remained beyond its grasp.

But this was more than enough. Besides their Magical Artifacts, most Late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivators primarily used techniques at the Nine Luminaries level. Even they couldn’t simply use Twelve Celestial Lords-level techniques at will, unless they were specialists.

And this was just the Wood Spirit alone. If all five spirits were gathered, they could easily handle two or three Late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivators.

Once his aura stabilized, Fang Qingyuan projected his consciousness into the Immortal Mansion.

In the distance, at the border where the Immortal Mansion met the black mist, the Black Land was rapidly expanding, inch by inch. The land area of the Immortal Mansion was increasing in tandem with the surge in Fang Qingyuan’s cultivation.

Fang Qingyuan estimated that the total area of Black Land in the Immortal Mansion would now reach 1,400 mu. This entire expanse was Spiritual Land, suitable for growing Spirit Plants and Herbs. Compared to the mere 400-some mu of Spiritual Land belonging to the entire Qingyuan Sect, his was nearly four times larger.

A surge of delight filled Fang Qingyuan as he watched the Black Land expand. ’The increase in Spiritual Land is a good thing, but how should I use all this extra space?’

He hadn’t even fully utilized the previous 700 mu of Black Land. Aside from the two-hundred-some mu planted with ginseng and Wooden Sunflowers—which were relatively low-maintenance—Fang Qingyuan had used nearly 300 mu of the remaining Spiritual Land to plant Spirit Rice, harvested once a year. The yields had been excellent these past few years, but the work had exhausted his two Spirit Beasts, Jinbao and Nanli.

’If I use this new 700 mu to plant more Spirit Rice, I’m afraid Jinbao will stage a rebellion.’

’Even if Jinbao doesn’t complain, he can’t possibly tend to that many mu of Spirit Rice on his own. And as my cultivation level rises, I can expect the Black Land in the Immortal Mansion to just keep getting bigger and bigger.’

’I need to find a permanent solution. As the Immortal Mansion continues to expand, I could introduce some large Spirit Beasts to live here. As long as I never let them out, letting them live and die for generations within the mansion, I won’t have to worry about my secret being exposed.’

’According to information Jinbao revealed to me before, there’s a Long-armed Ape Tribe a few hundred li into the edge of the Barbaric Wilderness. They’ve already developed a primitive tribal society, picking Spirit Fruits, brewing Monkey Wine, and storing food for the winter.’

’Their chief is only at the Early-stage Foundation Establishment, but the tribe has managed to survive in the perilous Barbaric Wilderness through teamwork, which speaks volumes about their skill and intelligence.’

’My Immortal Mansion needs exactly this kind of demon beast to cultivate Spirit Rice for me. When the time comes, I’ll take control of their chief and have the Bee Queen supervise them at all times. Those apes won’t be able to stir up any trouble.’

Fang Qingyuan felt greatly relieved at the thought. Over a thousand mu of Spirit Rice, harvested once a year, could produce 300,000 jin. At a selling price of one Low-grade Spirit Stone per jin, that amounted to an annual income of thirty Top-grade Spirit Stones.

Furthermore, this harvest would be entirely his private property. It wouldn’t be like the sect’s Spiritual Land, where the annual yield of Spirit Rice wasn’t even enough for its own members, sometimes forcing them to buy more from outside sources.

After watching his Immortal Mansion’s territory expand for a while, Fang Qingyuan turned and headed into the Purple Bamboo Forest. Over sixty years had passed. The forest, which had grown from just ten stalks of Tier One Purple Bamboo, now covered nearly seventy mu. If the Bee Queen hadn’t intentionally limited its scale, a hundred mu of purple bamboo would have been no issue.

When he arrived inside the beehive, the Bee Queen was in the middle of refining Elixir Pills. In their shop at Nine Stars Square—the one from the Far East Alliance—the pills refined by the Bee Queen were quite popular with the White Mountain Cultivators. Fang Qingyuan hadn’t dared to sell the Blood Soul Pills there, opting instead for other, more legitimate elixirs. After all, one couldn’t act as unscrupulously in the White Mountain Territory as one could in the Outer Sea.