"Mr. Liu, why has the price of Spirit Rice gone up again? Two Spirit Stones a catty, are you trying to rob people!" Suddenly, a voice shattered the calm in the quiet market.

    Li Shiming looked toward the direction of the voice, which came from a stall two places over.

    Upon hearing about Spirit Rice, he moved closer, but not too close, stopping five meters away.

    The other cultivators watching the commotion did the same, standing at a distance to observe without approaching.

    Some cultivators even turned and walked away upon hearing the commotion, pulling further away.

    Li Shiming could see clearly that the sign on the wooden table at that stall bore the character ''Liu''.

    "Spirit Plant seeds!" His eyes lit up when he saw the items for sale on the table.

    The only Spirit Plant seed he had was that of Spirit Rice, which alone could provide a sufficient supply of Spirit Rice for his personal use.

    The space in the cultivation chamber was extremely limited, with all available space currently being used to plant Spirit Rice. If there were more valuable Spirit Plants, he could greatly increase his income.

    However, there was already a cultivator negotiating with the stall owner, making it inappropriate for him to approach.

    "Go ahead and rob people if you want, the Spirit Rice is priced as it is, take it or leave it!" The cultivator known as Elder Liu raised his eyebrows slightly as he spoke.

    "Wasn''t it just one and a half Spirit Stones a catty a few days ago?" the cultivator standing in front of the stall grumbled, though he certainly had to buy the Spirit Rice as it was a necessity.

    He understood that this market was the only one nearby, and the only producer of Spirit Rice was the Liu family, represented by the Elder Liu before him.

    "The price of two Spirit Stones is set because we timely exterminated the spiritual insect plague. Otherwise, forget about two Spirit Stones, it would even be a question whether there would be any surplus Spirit Rice to sell!" Elder Liu spoke of the price with a sense of helplessness.

    It might look like planting Spirit Plants is very profitable, as one only needs to buy the spirit seeds and have a piece of spirit field to plant them.

    Yet in reality, there are many troubles with Spirit Plants as well, something Li Shiming had read about in "The Basics of Spirit Plant Cultivation" and in Xi Ming''s cultivation notes.

    Spirit fields are extremely attractive to spiritual insects that take interest in Spirit Rice, and some of these insects can even burrow through defense arrays from the soil to infiltrate and damage the spirit fields.

    Independent Practitioner Families often lack strong defense arrays, so the damage from spiritual insects can be more severe.

    The problem was, even if he managed to grow earth ginseng, who would he sell it to?

    The market in front of him was small. Although he hadn''t completely walked through, he had a good sense of what items were for sale here.

    The six stalls with tables were fixed, and the rest of the space was used by cultivators who put up their unwanted items for sale.

    Perhaps these items were not profitable to sell to fixed stalls, or maybe the fixed stalls did not accept them.

    In any case, the variety of items that could be bought and sold in this market was very limited, so Li Shiming didn''t want to buy earth ginseng seeds anymore. It would be effort-intensive to figure out the cultivation method, and if they didn''t sell, it might interfere with the planting of Spirit Rice.

    He had originally thought there would be higher-grade Spiritual Medicine seeds here, but arriving here he realized he had been overly optimistic.

    "I wonder if Mr. Liu here is buying Spirit Rice?" Li Shiming thought for a moment and asked.

    Since he was not buying seeds, selling some Spirit Rice meant he would have more Spirit Stones to buy other things.

    "Of course I''m buying Spirit Rice, one Spirit Stone per jin, and I''ll take as much as you have!" Mr. Liu replied in a low voice.

    Li Shiming said nothing, just looking at Mr. Liu.

    Mr. Liu''s old face turned a bit red, remembering the loud claims of a buyer he had had before, which seemed to have been overheard by the man in front of him.

    "Fellow, you might not know, but the cost of Spirit Rice bought from afar is one Spirit Stone per jin, I didn''t press down the price at all!" Mr. Liu spread his hands, explaining.

    "A hundred jins of Spirit Rice, a hundred and twenty Spirit Stones, let''s trade now!" Li Shiming said softly.

    "As a fellow has said, I''ll give you this face, and please remember me, Elder Liu, when you have more Spirit Rice to sell in the future!" Mr. Liu did not insist, as the price was still profitable for him, and he was also worried that Li Shiming might set up his own stall, which could potentially drive down the price of Spirit Rice.

    Li Shiming reached around his waist, and suddenly there was an extra cloth bag, which he placed on the wooden table.

    Mr. Liu opened the cloth bag and sent a stream of Spiritual Power into it, quickly determining the quality of the Spirit Rice, his smile growing even wider.

    "Here are one hundred and twenty Spirit Stones, please take them!" He placed a small bag of Spirit Stones on the table.

    Although Li Shiming didn''t have Mr. Liu''s skills, Spirit Stones were something he could identify by touch. His hand swept through the small bag, he nodded, and pocketed it.

    The transaction between the two was swift, yet even so, several cultivators saw it unfold.