Fields of plenty

Fang Shi looked at the notification floating in front of him, the roulette wheel prize didn't impress him much last time but it was a free gift so he accepted it. He reached out and spun the wheel until it stopped. 'Notes of a 2nd rate alchemist' was displayed, so he looked at the prize description.

[ In a secret cave a few days travel away, a 2nd rate alchemist spent his last days before passing away. It's still there undiscovered, waiting for a fortunate soul to discover the man's legacy. It is yours to claim now.]

'Query: Is the host ready to dispatch puppets to claim the prize?', the system asked.

"Yes, proceed", Fang Shi answered, "Include a guard puppet to travel alongside with it."

With this business taken care of, Fang Shi went to his pod to practice and cultivate before bed.

The next day, Fang Shi saw the number of customers return to normal numbers as the troublemakers realized their blockade was ineffective. The number of delivery birds lessened, but there was enough orders that Fang Shi felt justified in keeping them. He was pleased to see the situation turn back to normal as he chatted with people as they passed through or checked out. Fang Shi found it funny, in his past life he had never worked a service position in a store before, but he enjoyed discussing and debating philosophy with his guests now that he was used to working in the store.

That evening, a task completion chime rang in his mind before the end of his shift. He left when his replacement appeared, and even greeted his three employees as he walked back to his house. As he ate dinner, he opened the panel and selected the tasks tab. A line of tasks filled the screen, but at the top was one that indicated it was completed.

He looked at the entry titled [ Welcome to the Ricefields, ************] and selected it.

[ Welcome to the Ricefields, *************

Sell 100k kilograms of grains (completed)

Reward: Upgrade 'Fields' wall scroll.

The 'Fields' wall scroll now consists of two separate plots, the first has a lower concentration of Qi than the second and is larger. Also the smaller field with the higher level of Qi aura concentration can purify the essence of the plants.]

Fang Shi was about to to accept the reward when he was reading the description.

"System, what does this last part mean?", he inquired.

'Explanation: In the beginning, everything was only chaos', the system began to narrate, "Some chaos transitioned to Yin and Yang which in turn became the elements. As the myriad of worlds were formed, beings of immense strength were born in the environment. As the universe expanded, the power contained within also spread out further and the beings of power had to find a suitable place, adapt to the changes, or die. Only the few strongest plants and creatures were able to survive in the changing conditions without changing themselves, but everything else wasn't so lucky. Living beings adapted to lower levels of powers or specialized in certain types of power, until some adapted to areas with no power at all. But even these plants and animals can randomly contain bloodline or heredity of their ancestors, and this unit will identify those who have it. Once identified, the host can decide to put them in the higher level field in the hopes that the seeds or offspring will advance into the next realm.'

"So, even if I acquire 3rd rate plants or beasts", Fang Shi alluded to, "There is a chance their future generations could be a 2nd rate species?"

'Response: Precisely', the system replied.

"I'll accept", Fang Shi said while smiling, "It's weird though, I don't know how I sold that much grain so fast."

'Explanation: The host doesn't sell food only to customers', the system said, 'For example, the restaurant the owner uses to sell food to customers has to purchase the ingredients from the wall scrolls just as a restaurant in this world has to.'

Fang Shi reacted to this comment with a very confused look on his face, "Isn't that just taking money from one pocket and putting it into another?"

'Response: No', the system answered, 'This is how the system operates, and is true for any of the businesses the host owns. This unit hasn't been authorized to explain the process in detail at this time, so the host will have to wait until then.'

Fang Shi was disappointed by this answer, but since there wasn't much he could do, he turned his attention to the wall scroll. As he walked up to it, he still saw the familiar scene of fields and rice paddies but when he almost reached the wall scroll, he noticed the image distort slightly. This shocked him so he walked back and forth from the left and right. When looking from the left angle, the fields he was familiar with appeared, but when he looked from the right, empty space was seen. It reminded him of the pictures in his past life that would shift based on the angle you saw it from.

"System, stop the growth cycle of everything growing in the 'Fields' wall scroll", he commanded.

'Response: It is done', it replied.

"Harvest everything that's mature, and store it", he directed the system, "once everything mature is removed, continue to grow everything else until it also reaches time for harvest and then do they same until the fields are empty."

'Response: In progress', the system answered, 'Estimated time until completion: 2 hours 27 minutes 25 seconds.'

"I'm going to the pod", Fang Shi said, "Notify me when it's finished."

The system signaled its compliance, and when the time came, Fang Shi found himself back at the wall scroll again.

"System, now that all the seed has been collected, this is what I want to happen", Fang Shi began explaining, "Start scanning all the seeds we just harvested, and separate the seeds you detect have a chance to produce better results from the normal seed."

'Response: This is unnecessary as this unit scanned the seeds at harvest', the system replied, 'Separating now…Done.'

Fang Shi took the time to seed the new and old fields according to the information he gained from his daily reports. He did make a change though, he no longer sold high quality spirit rice and drastically reduced the amount of mid quality rice produced after finding out that he had large quantities of both in storage unsold.

"Why didn't this rice sell?", he asked in confusion.

'Explanation: Host, this spirit rice has no impurities and the Qi stored inside is very easy to absorb', it told him, 'But a discrepancy between filling your stomach, and your dantian can happen if you eat incorrectly. For example, if you make three bowls of the same amount of rice, one low, one mid, and one of high quality and then ask a foundation establishment realm cultivator to eat each, different results will happen. The first bowl might not completely fill the cultivator's dantian or stomach but it will fill most of it. The cultivator will probably eat half of the bowl of mid quality rice leaving his dantian full, but his stomach empty. If the cultivator were to try to eat the whole bowl, it would mostly cause damage to his or her meridians. Obviously, if the cultivator tried to eat the last bowl, he or she would eat even less before the dantian was filled.'

"So I have bags of rice that will just sit here until a customer that can use them arrives?", Fang Shi asked in a dispirited tone.

'Recently, a Golden Core cultivator appeared in your store, so the mid quality rice can be used', the system said.

The system's voice carried no emotion, but to Fang Shi, it felt like the system was being smug. Once everything bad been planted again, he ordered the system to restart the wall scroll. But the experience he just had lingered with him, so he started looking at the other scrolls to see if he made any mistakes there too. After checking, he made a few adjustments to the numbers, and so decided to add a new section to the store. Over time, he had built up a large quantity of wood and bamboo, so decided to start selling it as building supplies. He would start out small and sell some in the corner of the main store, so a new floor wouldn't be necessary for now. Satisfied, he went to bed despite not needing to sleep as much as he used to, a simple pleasure he enjoyed.

The next day, the sharp eyed customers that came saw the subtle changes in the main store and the restaurant. A section of the shelves that used to hold bags of rice for cultivators of much higher level were gone, and replaced by a large glass case. Everything in this new glass case was labeled that only Golden core cultivators could purchase these products. At this time only bags of rice were inside, but the size of the case seemed to suggest that more products would appear in the future. In a back corner, stacks of bamboo and lengths of high quality spirit wood were placed.

Yang Cheng curiously looked at the stacks of bamboo and wood, "Owner Fang, I think your employees forgot to clean up this corner, look at all this leftover material."

Fang Shi wanted to roll his eyes but instead he smiled, "If Daoist Yang looks closer, he could see the price. After building so much, I found I still had some extra supplies. I decided that if others wanted to build or rebuild their own buildings with the same materials I used for this place, I would give them the opportunity."

Yang Cheng laughed, and turned to look at the price. Seeing that the spirit wood was at a ridiculous low cost, he bowed to Fang Shi as he ran back home. A few of the other regulars went to see what caused Yang Cheng to react like that, and soon they also were either running back to their homes or scooping up stacks of materials. Even though he had to duck a few times as customers rushed to the counter with long planks of wood, Fang Shi still had a smile from making another sale.

Gu Lang had just returned from the forest neighboring Blue Moon city after a few weeks of hunting. Lately at the city office mission board, more and more tasks had been posted for hunting spiritual beasts in the forest. What concerned Gu Lang more was that he would return with the quantity required by the task, plus extra that he hunted to sell to the Heaven & Earth pavilion, and when he returned to the first to hunt again, the number of spiritual beasts was still increasing.

Gu Lang stopped by the city office to turn in the task he had completed before heading towards Heaven & Earth pavilion.

He was lost in thought as he strolled down the road, 'If this continues to increase, even I will no longer be able to hunt in the forest anymore. Could a beast wave happen in near future?'

A carriage pulled by spiritual horses caused Gu Lang to stop contemplating his predicament as he quickly moved out of the way. He was about to get angry when he noticed the crest on the carriage. It belong to the Rui merchant family, and no matter how angry he was, he wouldn't court death. He continued on no longer distracted by anything as he sped his way to the pavilion. He quickly exchanged his gains for stones, and headed to the pod cafe. If spiritual beasts were going to become a problems, he would train hard and try to recruit a few people.

Meanwhile, at the mayor's house the same carriage Gu Lang saw had arrived. Mayor Chen was personally waiting outside as the carriage door opened as a man the mayor knew but never seen before, and a pair he saw the last time exited the carriage door.

"Mayor Chen, it's an honor to see you again", Rui Lan curtsied, "You already know Yue Jian, so let me introduce my father, Lord Rui Zhong."

"Patriarch Rui, welcome to Blue Moon city", Mayor Chen said without showing any anxiety, "Please make yourself comfortable."

The Mayor could tell that Rui Zhong was stronger than him as he was only an early Golden Core cultivator, but Rui Zhong had to be a late Golden core cultivator.

The father and daughter, their servants, and bodyguards all headed into Mayor Chen's courtyard as the mayor's wife, concubines, and children as greeted the visiting lord. After getting everyone settled, Mayor Chen finally plucked up the courage to ask, "Lord Rui, could I happen to know what brings you to our city?"

Mayor Chen was nervous but only somewhat, as he knew Lord Rui acted to willful in the city, the bigger sects would move against the Rui family to get an explanation.

"My daughter came here recently to handle some small business", Rui Zhong answered, "Unfortunately, a cultivator with no sense decided to intervene, and I came to get some answers. Mayor Chen, don't you know about this Heaven & Earth pavilion?"