Compared to her older brother Luo Zhao, Luo Mumu still fell a little short.
She seemed rather cautious.
She lacked Luo Zhao's composure.
To put it bluntly, she simply lacked confidence.
Fortunately, these pests had been discovered early.
Most of them had only just crawled out of puddles and pools, while there were comparatively few on the Spirit Rice.
Thus, they had not caused any losses. It was a blessing amid misfortune.
Adhering to the principle of asking whenever he did not understand, Xu Changqing asked, "What kind of bugs are these?"
Luo Mumu struggled to control the Sword Pellet. Only after several seconds did she say, "Rice planthoppers."
"Rice planthoppers?" Xu Changqing committed the name to memory.
Seeing that the spiritual energy within her was nearly exhausted, Luo Mumu hurriedly stopped to rest. Then she continued, "They are especially common in spring, particularly just after it rains."
Xu Changqing followed up, "Is there any once-and-for-all solution?"
Last winter, Winter Awakening Bugs had crawled out of the Black Soil.
This spring, Rice Planthoppers had emerged after the rain.
If they appeared throughout all four seasons, then he would always have to ask someone for help.
To be fair, while the cost was not high, it was rather troublesome.
Luo Mumu sat cross-legged and slowly recovered her depleted spiritual energy. Then she said, "This is a natural phenomenon. If you want to avoid it,
either ask us for help, or install a formation."
"A formation?" Xu Changqing fell into thought.
Luo Mumu nodded. "Many Spirit Farmers, especially those who have reached the Foundation Establishment Realm, will install a Low-Grade Golden Slaughter Formation to avoid losses."
Xu Changqing hurriedly asked, "How much does this Low-Grade Golden Slaughter Formation cost?"
Luo Mumu frowned. "Last year, hiring a formation master to install a Low-Grade Golden Slaughter Formation cost around ten Mid-Grade Spirit Stones. But every so often, you also had to hire a Metal Spiritual Root disciple to supply spiritual energy and keep the formation running. So it came to roughly eleven."
Xu Changqing raised an eyebrow. "Why last year?"
Luo Mumu said helplessly, "Everything's gone madly expensive this year!"
Xu Changqing immediately fell silent.
Indeed.
Many things had been quite cheap last year.
But this year, with only two years remaining before the Formal Disciple Grand Competition,
and the five major powers deliberately controlling market prices to harvest chives,
prices now changed by the day.
Installing a formation had cost only eleven Mid-Grade Spirit Stones last year.
This year, it might cost twenty Mid-Grade Spirit Stones.
Looking at it this way, he simply could not afford one anytime soon.
After a long while, Luo Mumu finally finished clearing away the pests.
The reason this had taken so long
was mainly because Luo Mumu's cultivation realm was low, and her spell proficiency was low as well.
Therefore, to avoid damaging the Spirit Rice in Xu Changqing's Grade-Two Spirit Field,
she had deliberately slowed the pace and efficiency of exterminating the pests.
However, Xu Changqing paid her not with First-Grade Spirit Rice, but Second-Grade Spirit Rice.
How much?
Twenty jin!
When Luo Zhao had come to remove pests last time, Xu Changqing had given him fifty jin of First-Grade Spirit Rice.
At market value, that had only been worth five Low-Grade Spirit Stones.
This time, it was Second-Grade Spirit Rice. Based on the current market ratio of 1:1.5,
it was worth roughly fourteen Low-Grade Spirit Stones.
It had nearly tripled.
"Expensive, far too expensive." Xu Changqing felt as if his heart were bleeding.
Only then did he understand just how heaven-defying Multiple Spiritual Roots, especially Five-Element Spirit Roots, were.
If he had a Metal Spiritual Root, he would not need to hire anyone to remove pests.
If he had an Earth Spirit Root, he could install formations by himself.
If he had a Water Spirit Root, he could cast Minor Cloud-Rain Art every day.
In the blink of an eye, spring was about to end.
The time for harvesting spiritual plants arrived.
Xu Changqing stood on the ridge between fields and circulated the Evergreen Formula, sensing the condition of the Spirit Rice.
[Mature] [Spiritual energy sufficient] [No losses] [Second-Grade Spirit Rice] [Supreme grade today] [Yield: 3500 jin]
"The quality hasn't changed, but the yield has indeed increased greatly." Xu Changqing nodded slightly.
Last time, during the previous winter,
when he had only loosened the soil himself and applied a small amount of fertilizer,
the final yield of Spirit Rice had been 2100 jin.
This spring, Han Su had loosened the soil, and all of it had been fertilized.
He had also brought in Bai Ling'er to cast Minor Cloud-Rain Art.
There was also the terrifying boost from the fifth layer of the Evergreen Formula.
It had even been nourished by a spring rain.
The yield had finally surpassed three thousand jin, reaching as much as 3500 jin.
All the effort he had put in before was clearly worthwhile.
Now, after subtracting the one thousand jin he had to hand over,
the eight hundred jin supplied to Li Lingbi,
the fifty jin for Han Su's soil loosening,
and Hu Bugui's 150 jin,
that meant he still had 1500 jin of Supreme-Grade Spirit Rice left.
Based on the recent market ratio, where Supreme-Grade Spirit Rice grown in a Grade-Two Spirit Field was valued at 1:1.5,
1500 jin of Second-Grade Spirit Rice equaled 1000 Low-Grade Spirit Stones.
That was ten Mid-Grade Spirit Stones.
Now, together with the previous eight hundred jin of Supreme-Grade Spirit Rice,
he had a total of 2450 jin on hand.
"If I save a little this year, wouldn't I be able to install a formation?" Xu Changqing's eyes lit up.
Then, he decisively picked up his everyday spiritual tool, the sickle, and began harvesting happily.
[Harvested 1 stalk of "Supreme-Grade Spirit Rice," lifespan +6 days] [Harvested 1 stalk of "Supreme-Grade Spirit Rice," lifespan +6 days] [Harvested 1 stalk of "Supreme-Grade Spirit Rice," lifespan +6 days]
Once all the Spirit Rice had been harvested, Xu Changqing looked at his status panel.
[Xu Changqing] [Male] [19 years old] [Wood Spirit Root] [Late Qi Refining] [Evergreen Formula (fifth layer)] [Spirit Rice Wine (Expert) ↑] [Wood-Spirit Entanglement Art (third layer)] [Remaining lifespan: 50769 days]
He still remembered that last time, it had been 43769 days.
That meant this harvest of Spirit Rice had added seven thousand days.
Although the yield had increased, the number of days added had not increased by much.
Converted out, he now had nearly one hundred and forty years of lifespan.
For an immortal cultivator, over a hundred years was not much.
But one had to know that Xu Changqing had only just begun, and he could continue increasing it indefinitely.
After resting for a while, he turned his gaze toward the Four-Leaf Clover.
This was a spiritual plant he had bought from Zhang Su, who was in the Foundation Establishment Realm.
According to Zhang Su, it was somewhat more advanced than Spirit Rice.
Of course, what Xu Changqing cared about most was this thing's value.
If it was worthless, would that not mean Zhang Su had played him for a fool?
Then there would be no need to keep growing it in the future.
[Three-Leaf Clover not yet mature] [Two-Leaf Clover not yet mature] [Spiritual energy sufficient] [Matures tomorrow]
"It actually split into two batches, and even the names are different." Xu Changqing raised an eyebrow.
It seemed that although it was called Four-Leaf Clover,
its true classification should be based on quality.
Judging from the current situation, Three-Leaf Clover was superior to Two-Leaf Clover.
Unfortunately, since he had no experience planting it, not a single Four-Leaf Clover had grown.
Since it would not mature until tomorrow, Xu Changqing was in no hurry. He turned and headed toward the wooden house.
After being busy for so long, it was time to eat a proper meal and reward himself.
In the blink of an eye, the next day arrived.
After several inspections, the time for the "Four-Leaf Clover" to mature finally came.
[Three-Leaf Clover mature] [Two-Leaf Clover mature] [Spiritual energy sufficient] [Undamaged]
"Fully mature." This time, Xu Changqing did not take out the sickle. He used a hoe instead.
[Harvested 1 stalk of "Three-Leaf Clover," lifespan +3 days] [Harvested 1 stalk of "Two-Leaf Clover," lifespan +2 days]
In the end, the Three-Leaf Clover granted Xu Changqing 510 days of lifespan.
The Two-Leaf Clover granted him 482 days.
Together, they came close to one thousand days.
Xu Changqing was not surprised by this result.
First, his planting method had been wrong.
Second, this had only been a small-scale experiment.
One had to know that this spiritual plant was small to begin with.
Moreover, it had not reached its final Four-Leaf quality.
If the entire Grade-Two Spirit Field were planted with it, and all of it were Four-Leaf quality,
the added days would definitely surpass what harvesting Spirit Rice produced.
But for now, Spirit Rice offered Xu Changqing better value.
It could be sold, and it could be eaten.
As for Four-Leaf Clover, he still did not know its value.
There was even only one seller, Zhang Su.
Over the next few days, Xu Changqing deliberately waited.
Only after most Spirit Farmers had reached the same stage did he leave with this harvest.
He planned to first go to the Core Administration Office to submit his task,
then find Zhang Su to see whether he needed help with harvesting, and whether he wanted these Four-Leaf Clovers.
Before you continue