Chapter 20 Harvesting Spirit Valley

With the arrival of the flowering season for the spirit grains, the spirit farmers along the shores of Bishui Lake are busy.

Normally, you could hardly see more than a few people in the spirit fields in a day, but now every spirit field is being looked after by someone, who is busy with rainmaking and pest control.

These spiritual fields are not built on spiritual veins. If they are planted solely using the spiritual energy emanating from the spiritual veins, it is impossible to have a good harvest.

Those spiritual fields built on spiritual veins belong only to the sect.

The role of the spirit farmers is to use methods such as rainmaking, regulating the earth's energy, and extracting wood elemental energy to replenish spiritual power, so as to make up for the spiritual energy gap and help the spirit valley grow strong.

Ji An understood that they were the 'fertilization' machines of Ling Valley.

He is currently at the very bottom of the sect's pyramid, but one day he will see the view from the top and whether it is lonely at the top.

Busy days always seem to fly by; two months have passed in the blink of an eye.

In the days leading up to the harvest, Ji An spent all his time squatting in the spirit field, not daring to leave for a moment.

Thousands of birds gather around the lake, and when no one is looking, they fly over to the spirit field and peck at it.

If we dare to let these little creatures linger in the spirit field for even a moment, we don't know how much spirit grain we will lose.

Some wealthy spirit farmers bought puppets to guard their spirit fields. Old Huang had one, but he didn't have the financial means, so he could only be the guardian of his rice fields himself.

"It's finally over," Ji An wiped his sweat, picked up the bag of spirit grain, and returned to his bamboo house.

He tied the cloth bag with a rope, took out the borrowed large scale from behind the door, hung the rope, lifted the wooden scale with his right hand, and moved the weight with his left hand.

"One hundred, one hundred and one, one hundred and twenty-one catties of spirit grain, not bad!"

Ji An smiled with relief.

Under ideal conditions, with proper management and the cultivators' planting techniques reaching the second level, one mu of spirit field can yield two hundred jin of spirit grain per season.

Ji An possesses the third level of the Lesser Cloud and Rain Technique, the Thick Earth Technique, and the Withering and Flourishing Technique. Under ideal conditions, half an acre of spiritual field can yield 130 catties of spiritual grain.

The sect buys first-grade spirit grains for one spirit crystal per kilogram, with slight variations depending on the quality.

Ji An's batch of spirit grains is of good quality. If he sells them all, he should get more than 120 spirit crystals, which is a huge sum of money. He will probably get 20 to 30 more spirit crystals than the other spirit farmers who entered the sect at the same time.

However, he could only reap such rewards in the first year. After that, he would have to pay land rent and taxes, as well as other additional costs.

One mu of spirit field, calculated on a quarterly basis, costs about twenty spirit crystals to buy seeds, sixty jin of spirit grain for rent, and there is also a 'head tax'.

The first level of Qi Refining costs 10 contribution points per year, the second level costs 20 points, and so on. The contribution points are deducted directly from the jade tablet.

If someone fails to pay their taxes in full for two consecutive quarters, they will be forced to work in a mine for three months and then expelled from the sect.

Old Huang said that if they wanted to save money on grain seeds, the harvest would teach the spirit farmers how to cultivate grain seeds, a secret method passed down only within the sect. Three years ago, the land rent suddenly increased from fifty catties of spirit grain to sixty catties, making life even more difficult for many spirit farmers.

Ji An sighed. Even though the sect's taxes were not low, it was still much better than being a rogue cultivator. His father once said that when he was in the early stage of Qi Refining, he sometimes earned less than two spirit stones a year.

He pulled out a chair and sat in the courtyard, wondering if he should get a rocking chair.

As dusk falls, place a rocking chair under a big tree, brew a pot of spiritual tea, sit down happily, and have a spirit beast lying beside the chair.

Tsk tsk, just thinking about it evokes a sense of otherworldly tranquility.

He closed his eyes, his mind connecting with the stone tortoise.

[Master: Ji An]

[Taoist Rhyme: 0]

[Spiritual Interpretation: Kan Spirit 23.4, Kun Spirit 7.2, Xun Spirit 0.1]

[Spell: Minor Cloud Rain Spell (Minor Success Rate 92%)]

Thick Earth Technique (Minor Success Rate 97%)

The Secret of Withering and Flourishing (Small Success Rate 52%)

Flame Spell (Beginner 1%)

[Sharp Metal Technique (Mastery 12%)]

In two months, Ji An diligently practiced his magic, and with the help of the stone tortoise, his Lesser Cloud Rain Technique and Thick Earth Technique were on track to reach the level of Old Huang's many years of arduous cultivation.

The only bad news is that despite two months of diligent and tireless cultivation with no shortage of pills, he still hasn't advanced to the third level of Qi Refining.

If he weren't worried that the spells were too advanced for his current level of cultivation to handle, the Lesser Cloud Rain Technique and the Thick Earth Technique would have already reached the level of mastery.

"Brother An, how's the harvest?"

Interrupted from his thoughts, Ji An opened his eyes and saw Old Huang standing outside the fence with a smile.

He quickly stood up and said with a smile:

"Please come in, senior brother. Thanks to you, the harvest was pretty good."

He then pointed to the cloth bag on the ground:

"Senior brother, weigh me, and you'll be in for a surprise!"

"Oh, I'd like to take a good look."

Old Huang picked up the rope binding the cloth bag and weighed it in his hand, a knowing look appearing in his eyes:

"Weighing around 120 pounds, Brother Xiao An is simply a born spiritual farmer!"

If I had your talent back then, I might be a Foundation Establishment cultivator by now.

After saying this, he couldn't help but sigh.

"Senior brother's perception is amazing!"

Ji An praised him, quite surprised to see that Lao Huang had accurately estimated the weight without using a scale.

"Sigh, I've done the math. If we start paying sect taxes a year from now, this little bit of income will barely be enough to make ends meet."

After three months of hard work on one acre of spirit field, all I got was a little over a hundred spirit crystals. I didn't even dare to take as many pills as I wanted.

Half of the refined magic power was fed to the Stone Turtle, and without taking medicine to accelerate cultivation, it would be difficult to even advance to the mid-stage of Qi Refining.

He still owes a lot of debt, and he has to pay back part of it in a year, otherwise he will lose his credibility.

Ji An stepped closer and said:

"Senior brother, how much more can the first-tier spirit field you cultivated increase production?"

"have no idea."

Ji An frowned slightly. He wasn't willing to disclose trade secrets?!

Old Huang chuckled: "Brother Xiao An, a spirit field that doesn't meet the standards can only grow yellow sprout rice."

But the yield of yellow-sprout rice is capped at three hundred catties per mu of fertile land.

"Even if you practice planting techniques such as Lesser Cloud Rain Technique, Thick Soil Technique, and Withering and Flourishing Technique to perfection, you still cannot break through the limit."

However, even a low-grade first-level spirit field can grow jade corn. Hehe, this is the main ingredient for refining the Jade Pill, a mid-stage Qi Refining pill.

No one would use a first-tier spirit field to grow yellow sprout rice.

"You've posted a lot, senior brother!"

Old Huang's face turned bitter:

"Brother Xiao An, you don't think that the rent for the spiritual fields is settled in yellow sprout rice, do you? You have to settle in the same rice you grow."

The cost of Jade Corn seeds is approaching 20% ​​of the total cost, and even advanced planting techniques have significantly reduced their effect on increasing Jade Corn yield.

Life is tough.

Ji An sighed.

Old Huang nodded in deep agreement. He opened his cloth bag, grabbed a handful of spirit grains, peeled them, and praised them:

"It's in very good condition; it can sell for a few more spirit crystals."

"It's alright," Ji An smiled. He didn't plan to sell it; he would keep it for himself.

Huangyadan should not be taken every day, as there is a risk that the erysipelas will accumulate and become difficult to remove, but Linggu can be eaten every day, at every meal.

For him, once his cultivation level increases, he will have more options.

Others have to painstakingly comprehend magic, but he doesn't; that's his greatest advantage.

The settings have been modified. Spirit fields not located near spirit veins are now considered low-grade. A first-grade spirit vein corresponds to a first-grade spirit field.

(End of this chapter)