The commotion on the other mountain had naturally caught the farmers' eyes.
Although they could not cultivate, they still knew a little about such things.
They knew that mountain must have undergone some beneficial change, so they all craned their necks in anticipation, curious about what Lin Ke would say after gathering them.
"Everyone, hand over all the Blackgold Silkworms you collected."
Lin Ke had previously told them to collect every last Blackgold Silkworm, along with the Blackgold Moths.
Now, to implement his greenhouse assembly-line production plan, he needed people to help him.
But these people normally had to tend the Blackgold Silkworms. If any of the silkworms died or were injured, the losses would outweigh the gains.
So he simply decided to put all the Blackgold Silkworms into his Niwan Palace first, then release them once the work outside was finished.
Unfortunately, the Niwan Palace lacked natural conditions such as sunlight, rain, and dew. Otherwise, he really would have liked to try planting trees and raising silkworms inside it.
"Yes, Immortal. We haven't missed a single Blackgold Silkworm."
A sturdy man dressed in the Miao Mu Clan's embroidered, wax-dyed clothing cupped his hands in reply.
The women were led by the plump woman from earlier, while this sturdy man led the men.
Before coming to the Green Mulberry Garden, they had lived in villages whose inhabitants had worked and lived in the Poison Tempering Mountains for generations, so they were very familiar with plants, insects, and the like.
The sects in the Poison Tempering Mountains liked recruiting disciples from those villages, or bringing the villagers in as laborers.
Of course, their methods were not particularly friendly.
"One at a time." Lin Ke stood where he was, extended his right hand, and closed his eyes.
The men exchanged glances with their carrying baskets on their backs. They did not quite understand how one right hand could hold so many Blackgold Silkworms, but they dared not disobey Lin Ke.
Under their leader's direction, they stepped forward in turn.
The first man took a mulberry leaf from his basket and placed it on Lin Ke's hand. Two Blackgold Silkworms clung to the leaf.
The instant they touched Lin Ke's palm, the Blackgold Silkworms vanished.
Curious, the man took a few extra looks.
"Move faster," Lin Ke urged with his eyes closed. Time was pressing, after all.
"Yes, yes," the leader hurriedly replied, then signaled the others with his eyes to come forward.
Two more men stepped up and took Blackgold Silkworms from their baskets.
As soon as they brought them out, Lin Ke stored them away. Out they came, and away they went.
Although the farmers were somewhat surprised, they did not make a fuss over something they had never seen before. Everyone knew how formidable the cultivators here were.
After half an hour of this, Lin Ke took a break.
Blackgold Silkworms were small, but with the weight of the mulberry leaves added, the load was no longer insignificant.
Putting them into his Niwan Palace one by one would drain even a large reserve of spiritual power.
Besides, his spiritual power was only at the ninth layer of Qi Refining. Even ordinary sword flight was difficult for him, and he traveled on foot.
Only upon reaching the Dao Foundation stage could a cultivator freely use a flying sword to travel, because only then would their spiritual power be strong enough.
So he rested for a little over ten minutes, then resumed storing the Blackgold Silkworms once his spiritual power recovered.
It took more than three hours before he finally stored all the Blackgold Silkworms in his Niwan Palace.
"Phew..."
Lin Ke's complexion was rosy, but his eyes were no longer as bright and spirited as before.
"Let's go. That job is finished. Now come with me to dig up the mulberry trees."
He pointed at the mountain from earlier. "I've laid a formation on that mountain. If your legs and feet tend to ache on rainy days, spending more time moving around inside it will help."
The Earth Cicada Warm-Sand Formation was a Spirit Grade formation usually used to raise insects called Earth Cicadas, which could be used in medicine refining.
Lin Ke felt that the environment created by this formation suited Blackgold Silkworms very well. It would also have a warming, nourishing effect on people suffering from rheumatic arthritis.
People living in the Poison Tempering Mountains happened to be prone to precisely this sort of ailment.
Apart from the poisonous plants, venomous insects, and miasma everywhere, living in a damp environment was particularly hard on the joints.
Without cultivation, their constitutions would not improve. Add the effects of poison, and ailments naturally multiplied.
"Th-thank you, Immortal!"
"You truly are our great benefactor, Immortal!"
"My legs and feet always ache. I have to soothe them with hot compresses. Looks like I'm in for a blessing!"
These people were very simple and honest. Once they realized Lin Ke was not the murderous sort, they grew less nervous and thanked him one after another.
Lin Ke smiled without saying much, then led them off to dig up mulberry trees, placing the prepared trees one by one at the foot of that mountain.
Given the circumstances, Lin Ke also gave the mountain a name-Golden Silkworm Peak!
Some mulberry trees already grew on Golden Silkworm Peak, but they were scattered irregularly, and weeds ran rampant.
Having grown up in the countryside, Lin Ke knew that careful cultivation, weeding, and pest control were all necessary for crops to thrive.
To make the Blackgold Silkworms produce more silk of better quality, food and water mattered just as much as the silkworms themselves and their surroundings.
Blackgold Silkworms did not drink water, but they needed to draw moisture from leaves.
In other words, mulberry leaves supplied both the Blackgold Silkworms' food and their water.
That being the case, Lin Ke had to ensure these mulberry trees grew well.
Using a formation to turn the environment into a greenhouse was one method, and could be considered a distinctive feature of this world.
The method Lin Ke was now using-digging up mulberry trees and replanting them-was a distinctive feature of another world.
Select superior stock, improve quality, and boost efficiency!
Every plot of land differed in fertility, so the kinds and numbers of plants it could support naturally differed as well.
The soil on Golden Silkworm Peak was fairly fertile. Now that it had the Earth Cicada Warm-Sand Formation, improving that fertility would not be difficult.
It was simple... set the mountain ablaze!
Before science and technology developed, slash-and-burn agriculture was the method ancient humans devised to increase crop yields.
In any case, he would not be left rotting in prison for it in this world. He would first burn the mountain, turning its plants and pests into fertilizer, then turn the soil over to bury the plant ash.
This would improve the soil conditions for the mulberry trees to some extent.
Then he would plant them at sensible intervals, ensuring the mulberry trees did not compete for the soil's nutrients. With that, Golden Silkworm Peak's greenhouse setup would be complete.
"Dig up every mulberry tree!" Lin Ke called to everyone. "Get them all dug up today!"
"Yes, Immortal!"
"Dig, dig, dig! Time to dig!"
"The Immortal is so handsome, even working for him gives me energy!"
With no Blackgold Silkworms to tend and no silk to reel, all thirty-odd people worked the land together at tremendous speed.
They had also become somewhat familiar with Lin Ke's temperament, so their expressions were no longer so tense.
Being more relaxed actually made them work more efficiently.
By evening, the entire mountain's soil had been plowed over. With all the earth turned up, snakes, insects, rats, and ants scurried everywhere.
Some large trees that were particularly difficult to dig up were left to Lin Ke, who used a large tree to dig them out.
Once all the soil had been turned over, all the plants were placed on the mountain's sunny slope.
"Immortal, all the trees and plants are here." The male leader's face was covered in sweat, but he was smiling.
Behind him, green grasses, leaves, trees, and flowers lay densely spread from the foot of the mountain to halfway up its slope. Some insects unearthed during the digging had nowhere to hide and burrowed into the heap.
"Good. Stand farther back." Lin Ke nodded slightly at the male leader, then stirred the Spirit Power throughout his body, condensing a ball of flame at his fingertip.
Fireball Technique!
As one of the basic Spell Arts of the Five Elements—metal, wood, water, fire, and earth—the Fireball Technique was far more useful in the Poison Tempering Mountains than elsewhere.
After all, plants, trees, and insects were the most abundant things here, and fire was their greatest bane.
Whoosh-
The moisture in the plants and trees did not hinder the fire at all. Driven by Lin Ke's Spirit Power, it swept with the wind and ignited the mountain's entire sunny slope.
"Rise!"
Lin Ke unleashed his Spirit Power and activated the Earth Cicada Warm-Sand Formation.
A shimmering green glow immediately rose from the entire mountain, mingling with the firelight.
Once activated, the formation immediately worked to contain the billowing smoke and tremendous heat, keeping them from escaping.
That pitch-black smoke might look like gas, but it was actually made up of solid particles!
All that black soot was essentially carbon. It helped improve soil fertility, so he certainly could not let it go to waste.
As for the heat?
The heat from the blaze would bake and smother the deeper layers of soil they had been unable to turn over, killing the pests, weed roots, and seeds there and turning them into fertilizer.
Thus, Lin Ke activated the formation to retain as much heat and soot as possible.
The farmers from the Green Mulberry Garden behind him did not understand the reasoning, but seeing Lin Ke use the formation to "trap" a mountain-wide blaze left them dazzled and enthralled.
"Even a wildfire that big doesn't dare run wild! Incredible! So this is an immortal!"
"I heard this is a fire-controlling formation. It's really powerful!"
"Ah, who knows when my Tiezhu will be able to join an immortal sect?"
"My nephew Wang Lin joined a sect last year, but I heard his aptitude was too poor, and someone already beat him to death and fed him to centipedes."
"Our Immortal Lin here at the Green Mulberry Garden is still the best!"
The people around him chattered away. Lin Ke did not mind their conversation and simply concentrated on controlling the formation.
The Earth Cicada Warm-Sand Formation could regulate heat and increase humidity. From what he could see now, it truly was the most cost-effective formation available to him!
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