The Hardship of Tilling the Land, Seeking the Method of Artifact Forging

"A cultivation base at the half-step Heavenly Immortal stage is indeed a bit weak."

Ancestor Sui agreed; since Jiang Yuan was not even a Heavenly Immortal yet, he was truly insignificant in the current Primordial World. He was no different from a toddler who had just learned to walk, so it was not appropriate to publicize his identity with great fanfare.

"Then it won't be too late to announce your identity once you have attained the Heavenly Immortal stage."

Ancestor Sui did not dwell on this, for he could see that Jiang Yuan was only three or five years away from reaching the Heavenly Immortal stage. Although he was in a hurry to enter seclusion, he could afford to wait those few years.

"Very well. Once I have planted the Profound Yellow Grain, I will begin my breakthrough to the Heavenly Immortal stage. I imagine it won't take long."

Jiang Yuan thought the same. Attaining the Heavenly Immortal stage was currently effortless for him; if he were not anxious to plant the Profound Yellow Grain and obtain more seeds, he would already be pushing toward that realm.

"I know nothing of the Profound Yellow Grain, so you may arrange these matters as you see fit. You have full authority to mobilize the clansmen."

Ancestor Sui waved his hand, signaling that Jiang Yuan could make these decisions himself without needing to seek his approval for every little thing.

With the support of Ancestor Sui, even though the clansmen did not know what the Profound Yellow Grain was, they still displayed great enthusiasm for the planting process.

In the area near the Trade Zone, patches of undeveloped wasteland were cleared and transformed into high-quality spiritual fields.

Then, the clansmen began to sow the seeds of the Profound Yellow Grain into the earth according to the methods Jiang Yuan had taught them.

Farming was actually quite exhausting, even for the Human Race of the Primordial World, who all possessed magical power.

How to put it? Although the people of later generations lacked magical power, the land they farmed was ordinary soil, which even a mortal body could easily dig through.

However, the land of the Primordial World was formed from the flesh and blood of the great god Pangu mixed with primordial turbid energy, and every inch contained astonishing spiritual energy. This made the ground incredibly hard, requiring a cultivator at the Pre-Heaven Realm to exert their full strength just to break it.

The phrase "full strength" said it all. No matter how high one's cultivation was, how many times could one truly exert their full strength? Two or three times might be fine, but twenty or thirty times would leave even a sage gasping for breath.

That was why Jiang Yuan said farming in the Primordial World was exhausting. At the very least, Void Refinement Realm cultivators had to be deployed, and even they could not maintain the labor for long; they had to work for a while and then rest, appearing no different from the mortals of later generations.

Fortunately, Jiang Yuan could mobilize a large number of people to work in shifts, otherwise, the mere act of clearing the wasteland would have delayed him significantly.

"I only regret that I do not know the art of artifact refining; otherwise, why would it come to this!"

Watching the people working hard in the fields, Jiang Yuan sighed helplessly.

The Heavenly Immortals in the tribe were all busy with other matters, so he could only ask the Void Refinement clansmen for help. However, their strength was limited, and making them clear land and farm was pure manual labor, which was quite grueling.

If Jiang Yuan knew the art of artifact refining, he could have forged various farming tools or even heavy machinery.

With the help of such tools, they could not only improve the efficiency of clearing the land but also reduce the burden on the clansmen—a win-win situation.

Alas, Jiang Yuan did not know how.

What ordinary people could achieve with technology, cultivators could achieve with Daoist arts.

But just as ordinary people needed long-term study to create technology, cultivators needed long-term study to create Daoist arts.

However, Jiang Yuan had never even touched upon the knowledge of artifact refining, so how could he learn it? Thus, he was unable to craft the farming tools or mechanical magic treasures that could lighten the burden on his clansmen.

"One only regrets not having read enough when the time comes to use it!"

Flipping through the inheritance left by Lady Nuwa, Jiang Yuan did find quite a bit of knowledge related to the Dao of artifact refining. But it was all too profound; he could not understand it at all.

There was no helping it; the level at which Lady Nuwa resided was too high. The Dao of artifact refining she studied pursued the method of refining Post-Heaven items into Pre-Heaven spiritual treasures. Jiang Yuan, however, only needed to be able to refine Post-Heaven spiritual treasures.

The intent was different, and the gap between their levels was too vast; it would be a miracle if Jiang Yuan could understand it.

In fact, how to refine Post-Heaven items into Pre-Heaven spiritual treasures was the mainstream of the current Primordial World's artifact refining.

The Dao of artifact refining had not been born long, and those who studied it were all powerhouses of the Primordial World. They all shared one common trait: they looked down upon Post-Heaven objects.

Since they looked down on Post-Heaven objects, they naturally would not waste effort researching how to refine them, focusing all their energy on how to refine Pre-Heaven spiritual treasures instead.

This resulted in their refining methods being far too high-end; even if they were gifted to Jiang Yuan, he could not comprehend them.

Since he could not get help from his predecessors, Jiang Yuan had to find a way to research the tools he needed for farming himself.

This, of course, could not stump Jiang Yuan, who had his "cheat," but it required time. And what Jiang Yuan lacked right now was precisely time. Therefore, he chose to postpone this matter for the time being and would research it after attaining the Heavenly Immortal stage.

Currently, there were not many seeds of the Profound Yellow Grain, and manual labor was more than enough for the time being, which left him with sufficient time for research.

The wasteland Jiang Yuan cleared was located near the Trade Zone. He did this intentionally, wanting to attract the attention of the Ten Thousand Races.

His goal was easily achieved, as quite a few outsiders were indeed drawn by the strange actions of the Human Race. Consequently, they began to inquire: what were the humans doing?

To this, those who were asked kept their mouths shut, saying only that it was a secret and that they would know in due time. No matter how much the outsiders pressed, they did not utter a single word.

This abnormal behavior of the Human Race did not dispel the curiosity of the outsiders; instead, it piqued their interest even further.

Afterward, whenever they had free time, they would stare at the nearby farmland, wanting to uncover what secret was hidden there.

The more curious they became, the more satisfied Jiang Yuan was.

As the saying goes, scarcity creates value. In the promotion plan he had formulated for the Profound Yellow Grain, it was not initially intended to be a currency, but a scarce resource, meant to trigger a scramble among the Ten Thousand Races.

In this way, the reputation of the Profound Yellow Grain would quickly spread and become known to more people.

Once it had a reputation, even if Jiang Yuan did nothing, the Profound Yellow Grain would be sought after by the Ten Thousand Races. Then, for the sake of profit, the Ten Thousand Races would all plant the Profound Yellow Grain in large quantities.

Once the Profound Yellow Grain became abundant, its attribute of scarcity would vanish, and its value would gradually slide to a normal level, at which point its function as a currency would gradually become prominent.

With this, Jiang Yuan's goal was achieved; he could reap a massive amount of Merit and Luck, and perhaps even leap to become the God of Wealth of the Primordial World.

Although this plan was sound, it was not a task that could be accomplished overnight, so Jiang Yuan could not wait around indefinitely.

After planting all the Profound Yellow Grain, he departed and returned to the temple, beginning his seclusion to break through to the Heavenly Immortal realm.

He had delayed this moment for too long and could not afford to put it off any further. Of course, the delay was not entirely a bad thing, as it had provided him with more options.