However, four thousand Qian Gold sounded like a lot, yet that was the yield of an entire ten years.
And the expenditures involved were enormous as well.
That one Spirit Gathering Array alone needed its Spirit Stones replaced every five years. Each replacement required five Spirit Stones, averaging one Spirit Stone consumed per year.
Furthermore, the fertility of the Spirit Fields was a huge problem. A Spirit Field without fertility was like a human body lacking all kinds of vitamins; it could easily cause Spirit Medicines to grow stunted or even wither and die.
The best source of fertility was fermented matter containing spiritual essence. For instance, straw left after Spirit Rice was harvested and threshed, the purple leaves left from Purple Leaf Fleeceflower, and scraps from Spirit Fish and Spirit Meat.
Of course, the primary source of fertility was still the dung of raised Spirit Beasts.
For example, the Huangfu Family raised quite a few Spirit-Horn Yaks, producing a considerable amount of dung each year. Aside from supplying their own Spirit Fields, they sold the remainder outside to offset the cost of raising Spirit Beasts.
Spirit-Horn Yak meat was expensive for good reason—the breeding costs were simply too high. Vast quantities of Spirit Grass had to be grown in Spirit Fields to feed them, and occasionally one had to buy leftovers from pressed Spirit Bean Oil, or rice bran left after Spirit Rice was threshed, and so on!
Even Celestial Aristocratic Clans had to calculate every penny carefully if they wanted a steady, unending stream of profit.
Likewise, maintaining Spirit Fields was exceptionally troublesome. Gathering spiritual energy, replacing Spirit Stones and maintaining the Spirit Gathering Array, building and maintaining irrigation systems for Spirit Springs, replenishing the fields' fertility, controlling diseases and pests—every aspect came at an enormous cost.
Yet