Chapter 26: Cabbage and Spirit Rice Repaired
The snake demon's core had already been buried in the ground by Li Chang'an.
The demon core of a high-level demon in the Golden Core stage is not even in the same league as the demon core of a low-level demon in the False Core stage.
Three days after the snake demon's core was buried, half an acre of soil turned into inferior spiritual soil, which was hundreds of times better than that of a demon beast core.
Cabbage was planted on that half-acre of poor-quality soil.
After the soil turned into poor-quality fertile soil, the cabbages that had originally formed small heads of cabbage ripened in an instant.
When Li Chang'an woke up, he saw cabbages in the field, each the size of a basketball, almost twice the size of a regular cabbage.
Fortunately, when Li Chang'an planted them, he left a relatively wide gap between each cabbage plant; otherwise, these much larger cabbages would definitely be squeezing each other together now.
On half an acre of poor-quality soil, there were about seven hundred cabbages.
Li Chang'an walked into the field, bent down, grasped a cabbage head, twisted it clockwise, and plucked the cabbage off to examine it carefully.
The cabbage leaves are tender and tightly wrapped, and the stem is fleshy and crisp. You can even feel a little juice when you gently pinch it with your fingernail.
Li Chang'an weighed the cabbage ball in his hands; it weighed about eighteen pounds.
At noon, Li Chang'an used this cabbage to cook a dish.
One dish of boiled cabbage, and another dish of stir-fried cabbage.
Boiled cabbage has a sweet taste, even sweeter than regular cabbage. The water used to boil it also has a sweet taste, and it's very thirst-quenching.
The stir-fried cabbage absorbs the flavor of the dried chili peppers. When you eat it, the first thing you taste is spiciness, followed by the flavor of the cabbage itself, leaving a lingering aftertaste.
Although it hasn't been growing in inferior soil for long, its quality is just as good as the cabbages we sold before, so it's worth selling.
Li Chang'an nodded in satisfaction and first sent a message to Xie Kuling, inviting him to come and try the cabbage.
After tasting it, Xie Kuling immediately ordered twenty more, which weighed over 300 jin.
There were about 700 seedlings left in the field. Li Chang'an used a few of them for seed saving and prepared to supply the remaining 700 seedlings to Xiaoping'an Supermarket.
*
The Xianshan Farm section of Xiaoping'an Supermarket has launched a new product today – ten cabbages. Due to limited quantity, each person is limited to one cabbage.
The first customer in line was initially pleased to see the new products, but upon seeing the purchase limit, he sighed regretfully, "Ah, another purchase limit."
And there are only ten of them.
Prior to this, due to the loss caused by customers rushing to buy Chinese cabbage, Xiaoping'an Supermarket limited the purchase of Chinese cabbage to one head per person.
Customers line up early every morning; such a lucky chance to be at the front of the line is rare, and everyone wants to buy more.
The customer who was second in line asked, "Will there be purchase limits on vegetables in the future?"
"It must be." The first customer sighed, took the lead into the Xianshan Farm's special area, and quickly grabbed a large Chinese cabbage and a head of cabbage.
The price of cabbage is the same as that of Chinese cabbage, and one head weighs more than 18 jin (9 catties).
Two vegetables are enough to last for several days.
Thinking about this, the customer felt very happy and left satisfied.
Carrying two vegetables that weighed a total of thirty pounds back home, customer Xu Tan had a lot of sweat on his forehead.
She put the dishes down and then eagerly drank a few glasses of water.
Hearing the noise in the living room, her best friend Yang Jin stretched and came out of the bedroom.
"Tan Tan, you're up so early?" Yang Jin yawned.
"I didn't get up so early, I didn't sleep at all." Xu Tan chuckled. "I couldn't sleep until four in the morning, so I just got up and went to Xiaoping'an Supermarket to queue up for groceries. I was the first one there. Look, I bought vegetables from Xianshan Farm. They have a new cabbage variety today."
Yang Jin was startled: "You haven't slept?! How can you do this? Your days and nights are reversed, your health will only get worse. Have you forgotten the last time we went to see the doctor, he said your body was already very weak after taking your pulse?"
"It's alright, I'll be fine after a nap during the day." Xu Tan put down his water glass, walked to the sofa and lay down. "It's so hot today, I'm covered in sweat after just one trip outside."
Yang Jin sighed: "It's only in the twenties today, and it's still early in the morning. You're sweating because you're too weak."
"You sit here, I'll make breakfast."
After Yang Jin finished speaking, she carried the groceries into the kitchen.
She cooked a simple breakfast, but when she brought it out, she found Xu Tan asleep on the sofa.
Yang Jin shook her head helplessly and had no choice but to put the other breakfast in the refrigerator and give Xu Tan a light blanket to cover him with.
Xu Tan woke up while Yang Jin was making lunch.
The range hood in the kitchen was running loudly, and even though the kitchen door was closed, the noise could still be heard quite loudly in the living room.
Xu Tan stretched and got up to put the blanket back in the bedroom.
When she came out again, Yang Jin was carrying dishes.
"You're awake? Dinner's ready, let's eat."
Xu Tan nodded and walked to the dining table.
Yang Jin prepared three dishes: boiled cabbage, stir-fried cabbage with pork, and cabbage and pork soup.
"Wow, it smells so good! Xiao Jin, you're such a good cook."
Yang Jin chuckled: "I'm tired of hearing you praise me like this every day."
Xu Tan chuckled and went to the kitchen to get bowls and chopsticks to serve rice.
The weather was already getting hot in mid-June. Even with the air conditioning on, Xu Tan still sweated a lot during lunch.
She got up and went to the water dispenser to get some water, but after filling it halfway, she found that the water was gone.
Seeing this, Yang Jin quickly said, "Is there no water left? Drink this cabbage soup. The soup from boiled vegetables is sweet and delicious."
"Okay." Xu Tan nodded and went over to pour a bowl of the boiled cabbage soup.
The soup is clear and sweet without any oil, and it tastes just like cabbage.
"It really tastes good." And for some reason, after drinking it, she felt a sense of relief and was not as hot as before, and her sweating stopped a lot.
Xu Tan carefully tasted the cabbage soup and took another sip.
“Xiao Jin…” she hesitated before saying, “This cabbage soup is so refreshing and delicious.”
Yang Jin nodded and poured herself a bowl.
After lunch, both of them felt a little sleepy and went back to their bedrooms to sleep.
I woke up at 3 p.m.
Xu Tan stretched and suddenly realized something was wrong.
If she had taken a nap in this kind of weather before, she would have been covered in sweat, and she would have felt uncomfortable while sleeping because of the heat, and her head would have been throbbing when she woke up.
But today, I didn't feel hot while sleeping, and I only sweated a little. My head didn't feel throbbing like it used to.
Xu Tan was completely bewildered and then froze.
Could it be because of the cabbage I ate for lunch?
...
[Following its famous Chinese cabbage, Xianshan Farm has produced another amazing vegetable—cabbage! Every time the host drinks water boiled with cabbage, she feels less sensitive to heat and sweats less—it's practically a summer essential!]
I craved it after eating it once at a relative's house, but unfortunately I'm not in Ling'an City and can't buy it there. When will Xianshan Farm start selling vegetables outside the area?
[The quantity is too small; there aren't enough for everyone in Ling'an City, haha. We'll just have to make do with people from other places for now.]
Because of this batch of cabbages, another wave of discussion about Xianshan Farm has started online.
Li Chang'an, however, had no time to attend to this.
He bought glutinous rice seeds and planted them, then cultivated spirit seeds of yellow millet, millet, and wheat, and then busied himself with managing the nearly mature spirit rice.
It took more than fifty days for the spirit rice to mature from planting.
Since they are spirit-grade crops, the effect of inferior spirit soil in shortening their growth time is not as obvious as it is for ordinary crops.
The mature rice ears also radiate a five-colored light.
The entire acre of spiritual rice was glowing. When Li Chang'an walked to the edge of the field, he was almost blinded by the light.
"Spirit-grade crops are considered spirit plants, right? So why doesn't the Jade Glory Grass glow at all?" Li Chang'an murmured.
Beside him, the sword spirit glanced at him and explained, "Spirit-grade crops are not innate spiritual plants. Just like the spiritual weapons and elixirs that cultivators refine, they will have their own light when they are fresh out of the furnace."
Li Chang'an understood, reached out and plucked a rice stalk, then rubbed out the spirit rice.
Sure enough, once the spirit rice leaves the rice stalk, it stops glowing. Each grain is translucent white like jade, shaped like a long oval with pointed ends, about seven or eight millimeters long. You can smell a sweet aroma of rice when you get close.
The sword spirit added, "These acquired spiritual plants also contain some spiritual energy. Eating them allows one to absorb this spiritual energy, but for those with high cultivation levels, the effect is negligible."
Li Chang'an raised an eyebrow, but before he could rejoice, he heard the sword spirit say, "The inferior spiritual soil beneath these spiritual rice plants has very little spiritual energy left."
"Huh?" Li Chang'an was taken aback, and bent down to examine it. "How come I can't see it?"
"To the naked eye, there is naturally no difference. Cultivators can all sense spiritual energy. Although you can cultivate, you rely on..." The sword spirit paused and looked away: "Your physical body is actually still that of an ordinary person. If you want to sense spiritual energy, you will have to reshape your physical body or ascend."
Li Chang'an paid no attention to the unfinished words of the sword spirit; his eyes and heart were only on the inferior spiritual soil.
He nodded after listening, then frowned and touched a stalk of spirit rice.
Spirit rice is an acquired spiritual plant, and it needs to absorb a large amount of spiritual energy to grow.
Only one acre of spirit rice was planted, yet the spiritual energy in the inferior spiritual soil has already been lost so severely.
It seems we need to find a way to stabilize the spiritual energy here, otherwise we won't be able to grow the next acre of spiritual rice.
Li Chang'an sighed.
He harvested a few more stalks of spirit rice, rubbed them into a bowl, washed the rice, and then cooked it.
Before Xuanling Immortal Mountain had electricity, he used a wooden steamer to cook rice.
Rice steamed in a traditional steamer is softer and more delicious than rice cooked in an electric rice cooker, so even after buying a generator, Li Chang'an still used a steamer to cook rice.
First, cook the glutinous rice in a pot until it is 70% cooked, until the sides become translucent while the center is still white. Then, take it out and drain the rice water. Next, set up a steamer, pour the 70% cooked glutinous rice into the steamer, and add water to the pot to steam it.
As soon as the water heated up, Li Chang'an smelled a rich aroma of rice wafting from the pot.
A few minutes later, the rice was cooked.
As soon as the lid is opened, steam carrying an even richer aroma of rice bursts out.
Li Chang'an picked up a little bit and put it in his mouth.
The cooked spirit rice is soft, sweet, and glossy, and it doesn't feel greasy even after chewing for a long time.
Li Chang'an filled another bowl with rice, but without any side dishes, and ate the whole bowl.
If it's regular rice, after a few bites, your cheeks will start to feel sour and greasy, and you might even feel nauseous.
But this spirit rice is completely different. After a few bites, you want to eat more and more. Even if you only eat rice without any side dishes, it won't make you feel choked. After eating it, your stomach feels warm and comfortable.
Li Chang'an even felt that even without any other dishes, he could still eat two more bowls.
After finishing three bowls of white rice and cleaning up the dishes, Li Chang'an was surprised to find that his cultivation level had risen to the ninth level of Foundation Establishment.
After fighting the snake demon a few days ago, he advanced to the eighth level of Foundation Establishment. Now, after eating those spirit rice and absorbing spiritual energy, he has suddenly entered the ninth level and is not far from the completion of Foundation Establishment.
Li Chang'an stared in shock at the remaining bit of spirit rice.
Spirit rice rich in spiritual energy... It's okay for him to sell it at a higher price, right?
*
Li Chang'an spent a whole day harvesting the spirit rice, then used his spiritual power to thresh and dry it into spirit rice.
One mu of spiritual rice yielded 1,000 jin of spiritual rice, which is lower than the yield of ordinary rice.
But since it was spirit rice containing spiritual energy, Li Chang'an was quite satisfied with the yield.
After the inventory was completed, Li Chang'an contacted Xie Kuling and Yang Hao, the owner of Xiaoping'an Supermarket.
He kept 100 jin for himself, ordered 300 jin from Xie Kuling, and supplied the remaining 600 jin to Xiaoping'an Supermarket.
Li Chang'an set the price of Lingmi at 98 yuan per jin, while Xiao Ping'an Supermarket priced it at 128 yuan per jin.
The price shocked netizens who were following and discussing Xianshan Farm.
Rice at 128 yuan per jin?! Am I seeing things? Did the shopkeeper forget a decimal point?
[It's that same Xianshan Farm again. I admit their cabbage and bok choy are good, and the marketing is great, but their rice isn't made of gold. At 128 yuan per jin (500g), who would buy it? Who can afford it?]
However, the price of this rice isn't exorbitant. You can check online; there's a type of rice grown with spring water that sells for 8,400 yuan per kilogram.
[I know the one mentioned upstairs; that's low-yield farmland, only one crop of rice a year, and irrigated with mountain spring water, so of course it's expensive. But why does this Xianshan Farm's rice cost 128 yuan? Is it really grown in a fairy mountain or something?]
Why hasn't anyone figured out who the owner of this fairy mountain farm is yet?
[It's hard to find out. I don't know if it's because Xuanling Immortal Mountain is located in Ling'an City, but people in Ling'an City like to use the name of the mountain when starting a company or advertising. There is a lot of information about the mountain online, but I couldn't find any information about the company called Immortal Mountain Farm. But I guess it's also someone from Ling'an City trying to piggyback on that.]
Uh...maybe they haven't registered the company yet, only the trademark? Doesn't anyone bother to check the trademark?
【We've checked, but it takes time for a new trademark to be approved. We expect to see it on the official website in at least three or four months, and that time hasn't come yet.】
[Boss, is creating an air of mystery part of your advertising and marketing? I admit you've succeeded, making us netizens scratch our heads in anticipation.]
*
Because of the price of 128 yuan per kilogram for the spiritual rice, more and more people want to know who the founder behind Xianshan Farm is, and related discussions are increasing.
Reporters, sensing the potential for a hot topic, staked out Xiaoping'an Supermarket in an attempt to conduct an interview.
However, Yang Hao, the owner of Xiaoping'an Supermarket, smiled and didn't mention a word about who the founder of Xianshan Farm was.
He wouldn't make decisions for others until he knew whether Li Chang'an wanted to reveal that he was the founder. If the reporter was capable, he should go find Li Chang'an himself.
However, the reporter lacked the ability.
He could only take photos of the Xianshan Farm section in the supermarket and interview the customers who were buying vegetables.
The price of Lingmi was too high, so not many people bought it at first; only occasionally would someone buy a pound or two.
Although the price of 128 yuan per catty is expensive, buying one or two catties is enough for a family of five to have a meal or two to enjoy, which is quite good.
However, not many people buy it as a staple food.
The reporter spent two days there, but could only capture this much footage before leaving with regret.
-----------------------
Author's note: It's finished! I added a little plot and refined some details.
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