Yield of Three Thousand Jin, Lifespan of Fifty Thousand Days

Compared with her older brother Luo Zhao, Luo Mumu still fell a little short.

She seemed overly cautious.

She lacked Luo Zhao's composure.

To put it bluntly, she simply lacked confidence.

Fortunately, the pests had been discovered early this time.

Most had only just crawled out of puddles and pools, with relatively few on the Spirit Rice.

Thus, they had not caused any losses. It was a blessing amid misfortune.

Upholding the principle of asking whenever he did not understand, Xu Changqing spoke up. "What kind of bugs are these?"

Luo Mumu struggled to control the Sword Pellet. Several seconds later, she said, "Rice planthoppers."

"Rice planthoppers?" Xu Changqing committed the name to memory.

Seeing that the spiritual power within her was about to run dry, Luo Mumu hurriedly stopped to rest. Then she continued, "They're especially common in spring, particularly after rain."

Xu Changqing took the opportunity to ask, "Is there any way to solve this once and for all?"

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 find someone to 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 power. Then she said, "It's a natural phenomenon. If you want to avoid it—

"Either hire 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 through an Earth Spirit Root formation master in order to avoid losses."

Xu Changqing quickly pressed, "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 have to hire a Metal Spiritual Root disciple to channel spiritual power into it and keep the formation running, so it comes to around eleven."

Xu Changqing raised his brows. "Why last year?"

Luo Mumu said helplessly, "Everything has gone crazy expensive this year!"

Xu Changqing immediately fell silent.

Indeed.

A great many things had been quite cheap last year.

But this year, with only two years remaining until the Formal Disciple Grand Competition—

And with the five great powers deliberately controlling market prices to shear the sheep—

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 cleared away all the pests.

The reason it had taken so long this time—

Was mainly because Luo Mumu's cultivation realm was low, and her spell level was low as well.

Therefore, in order to avoid harming the Spirit Rice in Xu Changqing's Grade-Two Spirit Field—

She had deliberately slowed the pace and efficiency of exterminating the insects.

But as payment, Xu Changqing gave her not First-Grade Spirit Rice, but second-grade rice.

How much?

Twenty jin!

The last time Luo Zhao had come to remove pests, Xu Changqing had given him fifty jin of First-Grade Spirit Rice.

At market prices, that had only been worth five Low-Grade Spirit Stones.

This time, it was Second-Grade Spirit Rice. At the current market ratio of 1:1.5—

It was worth around fourteen Low-Grade Spirit Stones.

It had nearly tripled.

"Expensive. Far too expensive." Xu Changqing felt as though his heart were bleeding.

Only now 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 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 day for harvesting spirit plants had arrived.

Xu Changqing stood on the ridge between fields and circulated the Evergreen Formula, sensing the condition of the Spirit Rice.

[Mature]

[Spiritual energy abundant]

[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, he had Han Su loosen the soil and applied fertilizer everywhere.

He had also brought Bai Ling'er in to cast Minor Cloud-Rain Art.

Along with the terrifying enhancement of the fifth layer of the Evergreen Formula—

And even the nourishment of a spring rain—

The yield had finally broken through three thousand jin, even reaching [3500 jin].

All the effort he had put in before had clearly been worthwhile.

Now, after deducting the thousand jin he had to submit—

The eight hundred jin provided 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 remaining.

Based on the previous market ratio, where Supreme-Grade Spirit Rice from a Grade-Two Spirit Field was calculated 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, adding the eight hundred jin of Supreme-Grade Spirit Rice from before—

He had [2450 jin] in total.

"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 usual spiritual implement 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 clearly 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 gained had not risen by much.

Converted, he now had roughly one hundred and forty years of lifespan.

For an immortal cultivator, a hundred-odd years was not much.

But one had to know that Xu Changqing had only just begun, and he could continue increasing it forever.

After resting for a while, he turned his gaze toward the Four-Leaf Clover.

This was a spirit plant he had bought from Zhang Su, who was in the Foundation Establishment Realm.

According to her, it was slightly 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 fooled him?

Then there would be no need to continue planting it in the future.

[Three-leaf clover not mature]

[Two-Leaf Clover not mature]

[Spiritual energy abundant]

[Matures tomorrow]

"It's actually split into two batches, and even their names are different." Xu Changqing raised a brow.

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, because he had no planting experience, 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 hut.

After being busy for so long, it was time to eat a good meal and reward himself properly.

In the blink of an eye, the next day arrived.

After multiple inspections, the time for the Four-Leaf Clover to mature had finally come.

[Three-leaf clover matured]

[Two-Leaf Clover matured]

[Spiritual energy abundant]

[Undamaged]

"It's completely mature." This time, Xu Changqing did not take out his sickle. Instead, he used a hoe to dig them up.

[Harvested 1 three-leaf clover, lifespan +3 days]

[Harvested 1 Two-Leaf Clover, lifespan +2 days]

In the end, three-leaf clover gave Xu Changqing 510 days of lifespan.

Two-Leaf Clover gave him 482 days.

Together, they amounted to nearly a 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 spirit plant was small in size.

And it had not even reached its final quality of Four-Leaf Clover.

If the entire Grade-Two Spirit Field were filled with it, and all of it were Four-Leaf Clover quality—

The days gained would definitely exceed those obtained from harvesting Spirit Rice.

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, and that was Zhang Su.

Next, Xu Changqing deliberately waited several days.

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 he would find Zhang Su, first to see whether she needed help harvesting, and then to see whether she wanted these Four-Leaf Clovers.