For Your Growth

On the outskirts of Mirror Lake City lay the Brown Family's cultivation base for potion ingredients.

At a glance, it looked like ordinary farmland: reddish gray-brown soil, lush crops, and fields stretching as far as the eye could see.

Yet there was no one tending the fields, only an old man and a young man walking along the ridges.

The old man walked barefoot in the soil, unafraid of the dirt and stones underfoot.

The young man wore a bulky robe and a magician's hat. His steps were uneven, and he clearly disliked the fields:

"Grandpa, I only just got back from the capital, and you brought me straight to the fields. Couldn't you leave this to the servants? Oh, right, Father already asked for me. I got a perfect score."

The old man ignored the young man's expectant expression and looked ahead.

"I came to clear some weeds."

"Oh, right, where's Third Uncle? Has he still not broken through to Magister?" the young man asked eagerly, wanting to know how the family was doing.

"Life in the capital was so stifling. Everyone there was hard to get along with. If I'd known, I would've stayed in North Plains Province to take the exam."

The old man spoke slowly:

"Your third uncle went to Black Pine City with your Aunt Cynthia to take care of a few minor matters. As for breaking through to Magister, he's still a long way off. Maybe next year, maybe the year after. He'll have to wait."

"As for you, Bai Luo, where else could you have gone if not the capital? If you stayed here, there wouldn't have been much I could do to help you for now. If you wanted a perfect score, staying in the capital was the right choice."

The young man's name was Bai Luo Brown Ilya, born of a marriage between the Brown Family and the Ilia Family.

Bai Luo complained:

"It's all because they decided everyone had to take the exam. I wasn't supposed to have to take it. We're all born magicians, so why take a magic apprentice exam? What a joke. I crammed for a year, and it all felt useless. Things like the Southwest Province's terrain-I don't even know why we had to learn about it. Drop any high-level spell on it, and wouldn't the terrain change..."

The old man listened patiently to the boy's complaints without arguing.

When they came to a spot where weeds were poking through, an agricultural magic array operated in his hand, and a wind blade cut the little plants down.

Bai Luo noticed the fallen weeds and crouched to examine them. "Why not pull them out by the roots? I heard they'll just grow back like this."

The old man chuckled, touching the array in his hand.

"Pulling them out by the roots is too much trouble. Once they've been cut down, the crops will grow and block the sunlight, and the weeds will naturally stop growing."

"In the time it takes to pull the weeds from one qing of land by the roots, I could have cleared a hundred qing."

At his thought, thousands of wind blades flew from his hand toward every part of the fields. With incredible precision, they passed around the crops' leaves and descended on weed after weed.

They scattered hundreds, even thousands of meters away, growing to tens of thousands in number, yet never losing their accuracy, as though a pair of eyes guided them.

"Besides, pulling them out by the roots is liable to make the weeds fight back," the old man said.

"How could weeds fight back?" Bai Luo didn't understand.

It was obviously illogical. The grass simply grew in the ground, well-behaved and quiet. As long as it didn't grow too much or too wildly, Bai Luo thought he still liked it.

The old man offered no explanation and continued:

"Give them a little hope of growing, and they'll naturally behave. Once the crops grow tall, block out the sunlight, and put down deep roots, the weeds naturally won't be able to grow. It won't take long; crops grow fast."

When he spoke of the crops, he looked at Bai Luo and cautioned him:

"Your disappointing third uncle isn't much good. He's lazy, unruly, and self-important. If the weeds aren't cleared, he'll be among the first crops unable to hold on."

"Once he dies, the weeds will draw nutrients from him and grow even more vigorously, fighting the crops beside them for sunlight and water. They'll lose their sense of awe. That's how a field falls into ruin, little by little."

"You mean..." Bai Luo Ilia felt he seemed to understand what his grandfather was saying, but he didn't quite dare be sure.

He was still immersed in the joy of having finished the big exam. The revelry with his friends in the capital last night seemed as though it would never end.

The old man went on, regardless of how the boy heard or understood him:

"If too many weeds are cleared, after a few generations the crops will also fall ill and grow weak, unable to withstand pests and disease. Sometimes, letting some of the weaker crops leave the field is a good strategy too. Or you can rotate crops, or crossbreed them. But the crops themselves don't consider these things. All they know is how to grow. If no one tends the field, after they've grown on their own for a season or two, it will fall into ruin all the same."

Bai Luo seemed to grasp the key point:

"We're the crops?"

The old man smiled, but shook his head.

"Perhaps you are, perhaps you aren't. But I expect more than that from you. Your talent surpasses your mother's and father's. You can be more than that."

"I'm happy that you were willing to come back to the North Province to see me, but you must understand that I'm not important. The North Province is your home, but it won't be where you end up. Sages have always gathered together. How many people have you seen become great magicians while living alone in some remote place?"

A Sage? Grandpa really dares to dream... Bai Luo pursed his lips. He actually wanted to say he might not reach that level, but didn't dare.

It was rather unrealistic to expect Grandpa to advance from Five-Star Magister to Sage at his age.

But there might still be a good chance of his own father advancing to Sage.

"You got a perfect score. I can't prepare a gift for you just yet, but sometime this year, I should be able to give you a grand one." The old man changed the subject, no longer discussing such heavy matters.

"What gift?" Bai Luo asked curiously.

Although he didn't think he lacked anything, it was a token of his grandfather's affection, and he couldn't let him down.

"An immeasurable amount of spiritual power. It will mean a great deal to both the Brown Family and the Ilia Family bloodlines..."

As he spoke, the old man looked into the field, bent down, and picked up a piece of cut weed.

"Cut weeds can be useful on occasion too. Gather them together and burn them into fertilizer, and that works well enough."

"Thanks also to your father's support, the kingdom passed the Mental Supervision proposal. I still have some influence within the North Province, enough to make a few preparations for the younger generation."

The Mental Supervision proposal... Does he mean providing mental care for magic apprentices still in school? Bai Luo recalled a bill he had once happened to glimpse.

It was a draft on his father's desk. It had been put to a vote a few months ago and would probably be implemented this year.

He hadn't paid it much attention, but now that he thought about it, it did have something to do with his family.

Whether it was the "Pure White" in the Brown bloodline or the "splitting" in the Ilia bloodline, both depended on nourishment from the power of the mind and soul.

"Our potions can help any magic apprentice who wants to improve their studies, making them focused, calm, and composed. Their minds, meanwhile, will become fragile and easier to extract, making the harvest easier and more painless. A steady supply of power in payment for using the potions-that's a very fair trade."

The old man discarded the weed in his hand and stroked the leaves of a nearby crop. He spoke earnestly:

"With this power of the mind and soul, I could help your third uncle reach Magister, or help myself advance another step. But I would rather use it to help you. You're younger, and you have more of a future ahead of you."

"Bai Luo, I've prepared the nutrients of the entire Northern Plains Province for your growth."