Breeding

Zhao Xing's choice of plants had been very deliberate.

The Green Vine, Fragrant Lotus, and Adamantine Bamboo were respectively lower, middle, and upper second order in quality.

Anything too low-grade would not do, as it would earn too few points. But anything too high-grade would not work either; three days was too short, making it difficult to reach the scoring threshold.

Their uses also mattered. Three days was too short for plants, yet far too long for the examinees.

The examination provided neither food nor water, while they also had to expend vital energy cultivating plants. It was an immense test of endurance.

The Green Vine Zhao Xing had chosen could bear Green Vine Fruit once fully cultivated, filling his stomach and restoring his vital energy.

The Fragrant Lotus was an aquatic species. Both its seeds and roots were edible, and since he had claimed the spring well, he held a major advantage in cultivating it.

The first two would ensure Zhao Xing could get through the three days in good health and secure a decent ranking. They were his safety net. The upper-grade second order Adamantine Bamboo, meanwhile, was for pushing his score higher.

If he could cultivate an upper-grade second order plant, he would stand out from the crowd and compete for the Grade A List.

Furthermore, Adamantine Bamboo itself was excellent material for casting Every Tree and Bush an Enemy. If any fools came to cause trouble later on, he would have more ways to deal with them.

The soil in the Planting Area had been cultivated before, but it was exceedingly dry. If he wanted to draw upon the earth's strength, he would have to dig deeper.

Zhao Xing cast Rising Wind once more. Under his precise control, the wind connected with the clouds overhead, forming two small tornadoes as tall as a person.

"Whooo—" The tornadoes skimmed along the ground, precisely plowing the furrows deeper.

"Hm?" Wen Nanxing had just returned to his own plot when he saw this and froze. "What exquisite spell control!"

Spells of the same level could be executed far more exquisitely by some people. Some people's Cloudcalling was like a wad of cotton, while Wen Nanxing could make Moving Clouds Form Sword, and Xiao Ze could make Moving Clouds Form Tiger. Not only were their spells more powerful, they also had more Wonderful Uses.

Mastery of technique depended entirely on one's own comprehension. At this stage, junior agricultural officials were like children just starting school. Some could only memorize by rote, some could not memorize at all, while others had already mastered the material and could draw inferences from one instance to another.

Without a doubt, Zhao Xing belonged to the last category. As Wen Nanxing watched, he actually became somewhat engrossed!

Only after Zhao Xing dismissed the tornadoes did he come back to himself.

"When officials are recruited next year, this man will be my strongest competitor!"

Wen Nanxing composed himself and focused on the matter before him.

Zhao Xing had no idea that Wen Nanxing had already regarded him as his number one rival. What others considered exquisite spell control was merely basic operation to him. He did not think much of it at all. At the very least, it had to reach the level of Old Sima Nong's Palm Cloud Movement and Three Feet Heavenly Thunder before it was worth mentioning.

"Damn it, why is this spring well dug so deep?"

The Green Vine Sapling and Adamantine Bamboo Sapling were easy to plant. He only needed to bury them in the ground.

But the Fragrant Lotus was an aquatic species and had to take root in water.

Zhao Xing ran over to the spring well and found that it had been dug at least sixty meters deep!

There were no tools nearby. Want water? Then figure it out yourself!

"Chen Shijie, you really are a crafty bastard. You'll do anything to torment people." Seeing this, Zhao Xing could only give up on directly planting the Fragrant Lotus seeds in the spring well.

Without tools, how was he supposed to draw water?

Naturally, by using Cloudcalling to absorb it.

Zhao Xing lowered his clouds, bringing them closer to the ground. At this point, the cloud vapor could begin drawing up the moisture from deep within the spring well.

Chen Shijie wanted the officials to think outside the box before they could obtain water.

Zhao Xing found it too slow, so he cast a tornado again. This one was much larger.

It connected to the clouds above and the spring well below.

Water vapor surged upward without end, rapidly pouring into the clouds.

"What a Dragon Absorbs Water!" Chen Shijie had been watching the few officials who had seized the spring all along. He discovered that Zhao Xing was once again the first to solve the problem of drawing water, and he had done so with remarkable efficiency!

"Old Xue's words were far too modest. How is he merely talented? He is practically a precious jade! You taught him well!"

"I never taught him this move." Xue Wenzhong was quite surprised as well, because he truly had never taught Zhao Xing this—at least not the technique for Rising Wind.

"Could it be that he merely watched my Three Feet Heavenly Thunder and Palm Cloud Movement, then drew parallels and comprehended it on his own?" At that moment, Xue Wenzhong became even more certain of a certain thought in his heart.

On the day of Start of Autumn, the scorching heat was no less intense than during Great Heat.

Under the bright, cloudless sky, how difficult was it to make rain fall?

Many officials discovered that after gathering clouds, continuing on to perform Rainmaking had no effect whatsoever. Spells below the third transformation were greatly affected by extreme weather!

Many officials sighed in dismay.

"Without water, in such scorching heat, even cultivation spells will be greatly weakened."

"Looks like we can only plant after nightfall."

"Plant my ass. Tomorrow will be the same. Whatever you plant will die!"

"Ah, my strength is insufficient. If only my Rainmaking had reached the third transformation..."

"Damn it, I'm not taking this exam anymore. I'm going home and waiting for the makeup exam."

Less than two hours after the examination began, many officials had already Given Up. First, they had failed to secure a plot. Second, they found that even if they did secure one, they could not keep anything alive.

Those two factors alone eliminated a third of them. One after another, people withdrew early and abandoned this examination. There was no penalty anyway, and they could not become full officials regardless, so why suffer here as someone else's backdrop?

"Pitter-patter~"

Rain began falling across the Planting Area.

But everyone controlled it carefully, not allowing the water to flow elsewhere and keeping it only over the areas where they had planted their seedlings. The examiners had calculated this perfectly: if you helped someone else now, you would inevitably drag yourself down.

Besides, those who were capable did not need help, while helping those who were incapable this time would be useless anyway.

Zhao Xing separated off a small cloud, only five meters across and two meters high.

He brought it beside the spring well, where he had dug a small pit to plant the Fragrant Lotus.

"Splash—"

The tiny black cloud, dark as ink, was not raining at all. It was practically pouring out water!

Before long, the little pit had been filled to the brim.

A layer of grass ash had already been spread within it. Once washed by the water, the soil and ash mixed together, immediately turning murky and forming mud.

"Twenty portions of Fragrant Lotus seeds should be about enough."

Zhao Xing took out the bag of seeds and sowed them at intervals.

Lotus seeds were fragile, so Savage Growth was not suitable for the moment. Zhao Xing therefore used Flourishing Growth first.

His vital energy flowed without pause. Half an hour later, the Fragrant Lotus seeds had taken root and sprouted, breaking through the soil.

"A hundred percent survival rate. Whew..." Zhao Xing let out a breath. The seedling and seed stages were the most fragile, and he could not afford to be careless for even a moment.

But once they made it through this period, things would improve greatly afterward.

"First, a drink of water." Zhao Xing summoned the dark cloud, buried his head in it, and gulped down mouthful after mouthful.

"In another four hours, once all three types of plants have rooted properly, I can use Savage Growth. But I still can't rest yet."

Zhao Xing looked around. The Planting Area, once a field of dull grayish yellow, was now filled with greenery everywhere.

"If I want a Grade A evaluation, I need to prepare for every possibility." Looking at his colleagues around him, Zhao Xing revealed a sinister smile. "Sorry, but the nutrients in your fields are mine now."