From the Yin hour to the Wu hour there was still most of the morning left, and since today was not a "three" day, there was no Spirit Plant class.
Lin Donglai tried the Chaoyang Qi-Gathering Method again, facing the newly risen sun to collect purple qi.
This technique was an auxiliary art, cultivated alongside their main methods by most Green Wood Sect disciples.
That was because Chaoyang purple qi, aside from being accumulated to break through bottlenecks, also served as a material for alchemy, and some spirit plants needed purple qi for nurturing.
Thus, although this technique could at most be cultivated to the Purple Mansion realm, its Qi Refining early-stage portion circulated widely throughout the sect.
This method was not a qi-refining cultivation art, but a "spirit-soul art"—one used the light of one's eyes, with the spirit guiding the qi's movement. Only by visually gathering the sun's purple light could one draw in the Chaoyang purple qi.
Whether it was Lin Donglai's Jia Wood Body or his spirit root dao seed, neither could help him get started just now.
After all, the window for gathering qi lasted only a single instant each day. Miss it, and one had to wait for the next day.
Seeing that he had made no progress, Lin Donglai went to the Spirit Plant Hall on Lingxi Peak instead. Huang Yue had said the Spirit Plant Hall had a dedicated library on farming.
To do a good job, one must first sharpen one's tools. Though the art of spirit planting did not rank as highly as the four arts of alchemy, artifact-crafting, talismans, and formations, it was extremely important.
Alchemy required spirit medicines and spirit fruits.
Making talisman paper required spirit grasses, spirit bamboo, and spirit tree bark.
Artifact refining and formation-setting also inevitably required materials like spirit wood.
When Lin Donglai arrived at the Spirit Plant Hall's library, he found that it contained almost no cultivation arts or spells—only notebooks, handwritten records, and spirit plant encyclopedias.
After a moment's thought, Lin Donglai turned toward the shelves on spirit rice cultivation.
Huang Yue had given him a farming compendium yesterday, but Lin Donglai had not yet had a chance to read it.
There happened to be a copy here as well, so he picked it up.
He opened the table of contents.
Land reclamation, soil cultivation, seed breeding, solution adjustment, pest extermination...
A spirit field had to be opened near a spirit vein. Of course, if there was no spirit vein, land made rich in spiritual qi by a Spirit-Gathering Formation would also do.
The reclamation portion was similar to ordinary farmers' land-clearing steps: deep plowing, clearing the field, weeding, planning the ridges and furrows.
However, spirit land soil was harder than mortal soil, and most importantly, weeds in spiritual lands would grow wildly.
Therefore, clearing and reclaiming required at the minimum an Innate martial artist who had cultivated to the Fetal Breath realm, or a low-level Qi Refining disciple. Especially with the spell "Spirit-Casting Earth-Shaking Art," one could shake the soil loose, draw out the spiritual qi and earthly qi within the spirit land, and thoroughly sever the weeds' vitality.
The soil cultivation after reclamation was the part concerning stabilizing a spirit field and raising its grade.
A newly opened spirit field had infertile earthly qi and insufficient spiritual qi. Thus there were fertilizers, spells, and formations that could nurture a spirit field to better suit the growth of certain spirit plants.
The most basic spirit fertilizer was simple: crush used spirit stones and mix them into the soil.
Used-up spirit stones could also be backfilled into spirit veins, and spirit stone powder inherently helped stabilize spiritual qi.
There were also wood ashes from burned cinnabar wood, and composted spirit beast dung.
One formula above read: for one mu of Grade-One Lower spirit field, one needed spirit stone powder crushed from twenty used spirit stones, one hundred jin of cinnabar wood ash, and one hundred jin of manure fertilizer.
If one needed to maintain the spiritual qi, it was best to have a Grade-One Lower Spirit-Gathering Formation and apply measured fertilizer every year.
As Lin Donglai read on, he felt it was much the same process as farming in the countryside, merely with spirit items substituted in and a few spells added.
After finishing the farming compendium, Lin Donglai also read the cultivation methods for several Grade-One Lower spirit grains.
Purple Ultimate Rice, Blazing Sun Rice, Blood Marrow Rice, Green Bamboo Rice, Pearl Rice, Golden Bell Millet...
After looking around, Lin Donglai chose Blood Marrow Rice. This rice could nourish the blood and marrow and the vital essence; low-level body-refining cultivators were quite fond of it.
The spirit rice that had to be paid for with spirit stones at Immortal Seedling Peak was this same kind.
Although Lin Donglai had already reached the first layer of Qi Refining, he still had to persist in marrow refining, transforming essence-blood, and cultivating Fetal Breath—he would certainly need to eat this rice every day.
In a Grade-One Lower spirit field, this rice could ripen twice a year. One mu required eight jin of seed grain; one spirit stone bought one jin of seed grain, so seed cost per mu was eight spirit stones.
Once grown, each harvest yielded roughly three hundred jin—six hundred jin per year.
One spirit stone bought ten jin, meaning sixty spirit stones could be harvested. But counting fertilizer, seeds, and field maintenance, a mu actually only earned a little over twenty spirit stones a year. If one ate the harvest oneself, six hundred jin was really just rations—no profit in spirit stones, and in fact a small loss.
Taking outer sect missions—catching bugs, felling cinnabar wood—earned more than farming. Unless one farmed ten or twenty mu, becoming a "landlord," or kept raising one's spirit planting skill to grow more valuable alchemy herbs—in any case, it required patience and experience.
But in truth, only the early stages of reclamation, soil cultivation, and seedling raising took much effort. Afterward one only needed to visit regularly, cast a Rain and Sweet Dew Charm or two, and replenish water and fertilizer—that was enough. One could find time to do other things, or cultivate.
"Twenty used, depleted spirit stones—I wonder what they're worth. And where would I get this spirit fertilizer?"
So Lin Donglai went to find Huang Yue. Huang Yue said, "Spirit fertilizer isn't worth much—a hundred jin for two spirit stones. Cinnabar wood ash is even cheaper, two hundred jin for one spirit stone. As for depleted spirit stones, three spirit beads each—one spirit stone exchanges for thirty-three used depleted spirit stones."
"All of this, our Spirit Plant Hall has channels for. You just need to prepare the spirit stones."
"Still, if you want a higher yield, you'll have to plant some complementary crops. For instance, on the field ridges you could plant some Yellow Spirit Beans. Yellow Spirit Beans help fix fertilizer, and you can also sell them to those beast-raisers at Zhenling Peak as feed."
"The stalks of Blood Marrow Rice can also be used as fodder for herbivorous spirit beasts."
"Go reclaim land first in the Spirit Field Valley below Immortal Seedling Peak, and work hard at cultivating the Budding Gestation Art. This spell can not only hasten seeds to sprout, but also gestate seeds."
"Otherwise the harvested grain can't become seed, and next year you'd have to buy seed again. With this spell, you can keep your own seed, and even breed seed for others to earn spirit stones."
"During your cultivation period at Immortal Seedling Peak, you're in luck—no spirit stones needed to rent land. Don't let that Spirit Field Valley's current barrenness fool you. In past years, many Immortal Seedling disciples invested spirit stone powder and fertilizer into it. It's just that after each two-year Immortal Seedling cultivation period, the valley is sealed for three years, until the next batch of Immortal Seedlings comes, making it look desolate."
"There wasn't even a spirit vein there originally. Later, the disciples sprinkled too much spirit stone powder, and combined with the Grade-Three spirit vein of Piaomiao Mountain here, a Grade-One Lower spirit vein spontaneously gestated. You can tend it casually and things will grow."
"It's all there to build your confidence. Once you formally lease a spirit field and start real farming, you'll know it isn't so nice. By then, even breaking even will be hard."
"What? Really!"
Lin Donglai hadn't expected such a scheme, but thinking about it, it made sense. The farmers of Lin Family Town often farmed themselves into selling their bodies and land, ultimately becoming tenants on their landlord's estate.
"Don't worry. You have the Jia Wood Body, blessed with a wood spirit root. Whatever you plant will live. I have faith in you."