Chu Feng passed through the barrier gate and arrived upon a vast plaza.
The plaza was enormously spacious, yet packed with people. Nearly every one of them held a scroll, reading it with rapt attention.
Behind them, the barrier gate continued to spew out a steady stream of newcomers who stepped onto the plaza one after another.
Without exception, these were all young Spirit World Masters, and each one gripped a sickle in hand.
The plaza sat atop an extremely tall mountain peak. From the plaza's edge, or by taking to the air, one could take in all the scenery below.
"Rice paddies?"
Chu Feng noticed that the mountain peak was surrounded on all sides by rice paddies.
The paddies stretched as far as the eye could see, yet they had been divided into countless plots, each exactly ten mu in area.
At the center of each plot stood a small house, and above its door hung a signboard.
The signboards of the houses closest to the mountain peak already bore names.
But farther out, many signboards still hung blank.
Swish—
Suddenly, a scroll flew toward Chu Feng and stopped right in front of him.
It was the same scroll that everyone on the plaza held.
Chu Feng opened the scroll and learned the purpose of the sickle.
Each person could choose one plot of rice paddy. Every day, they were to harvest the ripe rice, turn it in, and receive cultivation Spirit Pearls in return.
The better the quality of the rice they submitted, the more Spirit Pearls they would earn.
Furthermore, after thirteen days, a ranking list would be announced. The person ranked first would receive a Heaven-grade Spirit Pearl.
Within the Seven Realms Sacred Palace, the Heaven-grade was a treasure second only to the Sacred-grade.
And thirteen days from now, the entry trial would officially begin.
Chu Feng put away the scroll, rose into the air, and swiftly streaked off into the distance.
At his speed, it was not long before unoccupied houses and rice paddies appeared below. But Chu Feng did not stop — he wanted to find a quiet place.
So he flew on for a good while longer, until every plot stretching out below was devoid of occupants, then finally descended.
He picked a rice paddy at random and, without hesitation, used the sickle to carve his name onto the house's signboard.
Yet unlike the others, Chu Feng did not immediately begin harvesting the rice in his field. Instead, he studied the sickle with great care.
He had already observed that the rice across all the paddies appeared identical.
So why was there a difference in quality?
There had to be a reason.
After careful examination, Chu Feng discovered that the sickle contained the power of a formation array within it.
He then held the sickle, cut down a single stalk of rice at random, and examined it closely.
The rice itself did not contain any formation power, but the patterns on its surface bore certain similarities to the formations he had seen.
Of course, this was not easy to discern, and an ordinary person would never think to make the connection.
Chu Feng realized that the rice could not simply be cut down at will — there was a specific method required.
That method involved matching the patterns on the rice stalk with the formation array inscribed on the sickle.
The more perfectly the two were combined, the higher the quality of the harvested rice would be.
Now that Chu Feng had started turning the problem over in his mind, time flew by quickly. Before he knew it, two hours had passed.
When Chu Feng had arrived, the sun had been setting. Now, night had fully fallen.
It was at that moment that a figure came streaking through the sky.
It was a fair-skinned, plump man. Like Chu Feng, he was not wearing a Spirit World Master's robe. Instead, he was clad in a black robe.
Upon spotting Chu Feng, he descended directly to the ground.
Without so much as a greeting, he carved the characters "Chen Hui" onto the signboard of the house right beside Chu Feng's.
"With so many places to choose from, you just had to pick here?" Chu Feng asked.
"Come on, brother — where I choose to set up is my business, isn't it?" The man called Chen Hui spoke with a grin on his face, yet his tone was unmistakably firm.