Shennong Dao Master

An extra training session could be justified as cherishing talent.

Bringing a Fourth Rank 'Preaching Painting' to help Zhao Xing pass the exam was purely selfish.

For the first time, the Old Minister of Agriculture bent rules for personal reasons, feeling somewhat uneasy. Throughout the meal, he said nothing and promptly dismissed Zhao Xing after finishing.

Understanding this, Zhao Xing expressed his gratitude in silence and headed home.

With the Old Minister of Agriculture's assistance, Zhao Xing's initial stage spell of strong growth had reached its limit.

While studying the All Things Growing Map, he happened to comprehend an intermediate spell [Savage Growth].

The agricultural spells could only be categorized as either 'useful' or 'super useful.'

This intermediate spell fell into the 'super useful' category.

[Savage Growth: Intermediate Spell]

[Progress: 0/9999]

[Effect: After casting, it exhibits destructiveness beyond environmental tolerance and affects the survival of other species.]

Proficiency in an intermediate spell still required 1000 points for one turn, with the same ceiling, but the difficulty of improvement was proportionately greater.

Why was Savage Growth considered super useful? Because it was a powerful adversarial spell!

During the shortening of the plants' maturation cycle, it voraciously absorbed surrounding nutrients, with a highly destructive tendency, exceeding the environment's natural tolerance.

Most importantly, it squeezed out the living space of other plants and even absorbed their life force as nutrients.

The subsequent growth path of this spell, after evolving in the awakening version, had a name that was awesomely explosive—"Only My Method Exists!"

It was also hailed by Minister of Agriculture players as the 'ultimate internal battle skill,' meaning if my plants lived, yours couldn't, supremely overbearing!

As for the other initial stage spell obtained from the All Things Growing Map, it was equally practical.

[Earth Vein Comprehensive Element: Initial Stage Spell]

[Progress: 0/9999]

[Effect: Draw and integrate Earth Vein Yuan Qi]

The earth veins were the foundation of the world, with every place connecting to the deeper spiritual veins underground, differing only in strength.

Earth Vein Comprehensive Element was a supportive spell that could extract Earth Vein Yuan Qi to enrich the soil in a particular area.

Using [Earth Vein Comprehensive Element] as the foundation, the ultimate goal was to evolve into [Five Elements Blessed Land].

This was a spell from the Earth Advantage Sect, humorously nicknamed the 'Stealing Elements Skill.'

Unlike [Savage Growth], it was hard to detect and extremely covert.

Many like Old Sixes loved to elevate this spell to high levels and then sneak to nearby Blessed Lands to secretly cast it, fattening themselves up.

Stealing vegetables? My old man directly stole the Earth Vein Yuan Qi!

"Ingrained habits are hard to change... Why do I always comprehend these sneaky spells?" Everyone's understanding of the All Things Growing Map differed, similar to the randomness of divine temple teachings; Zhao Xing figured he must have been deep into the Old Six behavior in his past life.

......

Returning home, it was already dark but not too late.

Zhao Xing planned to head to his vegetable garden and practice the two new spells.

He had barely entered the garden when his little brother enthusiastically ran over with a lantern.

"Big brother, what are you doing? Making a midnight snack?"

Zhao Xing was speechless: "Didn't Mother give you dinner? It's just after dark, and you already want a snack."

"I did eat, hehe, but it's not as tasty as what you make." Zhao Zheng seemed to recall something and smacked his lips.

Though his big brother liked to beat him, he also had his merits: he cooked delicious food and often made tasty preserved fruits.

"Big brother, I'll hold the lantern for you! If you're making food, I'll light the fire."

"Scram, get lost." Zhao Xing was slightly irritated, "I've got some snacks under my bedside table, go find them yourself, and stop bothering me."

"Thanks, big brother!!!" The little brother quickly hung the lantern on the garden fence and ran off.

.......

After tinkering for about two hours, Zhao Xing saw that both spells had reached the one-turn stage and decided to stop grinding.

Tomorrow marked the start of the Start of Autumn exam, and he wanted to conserve his energy.

At dawn the next day, Zhao Xing got up, washed, and prepared to leave. His foster father, Zhao Ruide, was already in the yard practicing slow, fitness-like boxing.

"Foster father, I'm going to the office," Zhao Xing greeted him.

Seeing Zhao Xing empty-handed, Zhao Ruide asked, "Why aren't you taking a lantern? We're not short of money."

"I can see in the dark now." Zhao Xing focused his mind, and his pupils turned yellow-green in the night.

"Oh?" Zhao Ruide glanced at him and nodded slightly, "Then, before you go, wake up Zheng'er for me."

"Got it." Zhao Xing ran to another room and, without hesitation, kicked the door open.

Since last year, Zhao Zheng had been sleeping separately from Mrs. Cai, which Zhao Xing forced; otherwise, the doting Mrs. Cai would have continued to sleep with her baby for a few more years.

"Who the hell dares disturb me…" He hadn't even opened his eyes and was already cursing, but upon seeing Zhao Xing, he swallowed his words.

"Get up! Get dressed." Zhao Xing threw off the thin blanket and yanked Zhao Zheng up, who was still clutching a jar of preserved fruits.

"Big brother, what's wrong?" Zhao Zheng, still groggy, obediently dressed.

"Go train in martial arts."

"Huh?" Zhao Zheng frowned, "It's not even dawn…"

"Hmm?"

"Yes, brother! I'm getting dressed!" Zhao Zheng quickly relented. He figured his brother was about to leave soon; resisting would only result in a beating, but if he trained now, he could later whine to his parents and catch up on sleep.

After waking up Zhao Zheng, Zhao Xing headed out to the Agricultural Supervision Office.

Not long after, Mrs. Cai also woke up to the sound of a child's hunger complaints.

She rushed to the vegetable garden, only to find it flourishing and let out a gasp, "Ah! How come the seedlings from a few days ago are already…"

.......

"…The Start of Autumn exam, held in the Hundred Herbs Garden."

"Starting on the morning of August 6th, and ending at 7 p.m. on August 9th."

As he approached within a kilometer of the Agricultural Supervision Office, he heard a voice echoing, "It's Chen Shijie's voice."

"Transmitting sound on the wind, covering several miles, the voice clearly entering the ears, indeed the power of a Ninth Grade Minister of Agriculture was extraordinary," Zhao Xing thought.

This was an advanced use of the [Rising Wind] spell, and his control over Yuan Qi was far beyond that of a clerk.

But there were even more impressive feats, like that of Gucheng County Venerate Li Wenzheng. During a public decree process, he had demonstrated the ability of [Golden Sound Jade Vibration, Voice Spreading for a Hundred Miles], though that also required some external assistance.

After listening carefully for a moment, Zhao Xing arrived inside the Agricultural Supervision Office and had roughly understood the rules.

From the morning of August 6th to 7 p.m. on August 9th, about four days and three nights in total.

Each clerk could freely select any number of seeds or seedlings from the 'sapling area' in the Hundred Herbs Garden. They then proceeded to the [planting area] for cultivation.

Clerks could enter the field at any time during these three days, but once inside, they could not leave.

At 7 p.m. on August 9th, officials from the county government would witness, tally the results, and record them.

The evaluation criteria were threefold: as of 7 p.m. on the 9th, first, the quality of seeds or seedlings selected by the clerks, second, the survival count of the selected plants, and third, the condition of the surviving plants.