After resting for a while, Fang Yun continued to cast the Spirit Rain Technique. This time, drawing on his previous experiences from failures, he successfully cast it all at once.
With the appearance of clouds, rain began to fall continuously into the spiritual field, creating ripples on the surface of the spring water. After about ten minutes, the clouds began to slowly dissipate.
In the following days, while eagerly awaiting the sprouting of the spiritual rice seeds, Fang Yun continued to cast the Spirit Rain Technique. With each day of practice, his success rate for casting the Spirit Rain Technique increased, the duration of the spell lengthened, and the spiritual energy in the rain became even denser.
Fang Yun inspected the rainwater produced by the Spirit Rain Technique and found that its spiritual energy concentration was even higher than that of the water flowing from the spring. This made him wonder about the source of the spiritual energy in the Spirit Rain Technique.
Could it be that the air contained such rich spiritual energy? If that were the case, why couldn't Fang Yun absorb any spiritual energy in places other than near the spiritual spring?
Though filled with curiosity about the mysteries of the Spirit Rain Technique, Fang Yun recognized that with his current abilities and understanding, he couldn't fully explore the reasons behind it. However, with the existence of this powerful spell, he knew that the future planting of spiritual rice would undoubtedly become more convenient and efficient.
Moreover, the cultivation of ordinary crops would undoubtedly receive greater support and assurance.
A few days quickly passed, and the spiritual rice seeds successfully sprouted.
Cultivation: Second Level Qi Training
Mana: 32
Life Energy: 23
Control over Plants: Spiritual Rice (436) Astragalus (2536) …
Spell: Earth Force Technique (Proficient 6%) Spirit Rain Technique (Beginner 30%)
Looking at the isolated breeding ground in the corner, it was already filled with tender green seedlings. This time, over 400 spiritual rice seedlings had sprouted, but he would need to select the stronger ones for transplanting later. By then, it might be reduced to just over 300, but that was still several times better than the previous crop.
However, this would still take some time, and the nurturing work for the spiritual field was not yet complete. Taking advantage of this free time, Fang Yun didn't let himself idle. He returned to the canyon, and with his cultivation at the second level of Qi training, he no longer needed to rely on ropes like an ordinary mortal to descend into the canyon. This was one of the conveniences that came with his improved cultivation.
Unfortunately, Fang Yun still didn't know any lightweight techniques; otherwise, it would have been even easier. It had been a long time since he had last visited the canyon, and the place was overgrown with weeds. Aside from the absence of trees, it looked much like it did when he hadn't cleared it out before. Seeing the situation, Fang Yun couldn't help but smile wryly. It seemed that clearing the weeds would require some effort.
He then walked to the far corner of the canyon where he had planted medicinal herbs. Having been busy with the spiritual field and the spiritual rice, Fang Yun hadn't cared for these herbs for quite a while. As he entered the area where the herbs were planted, he could clearly sense the discomfort they were transmitting to him. It was akin to how an ordinary person feels in a subhealthy state—unable to pinpoint exactly what's wrong, but feeling uncomfortable all over.
So, Fang Yun began to clear the weeds from the herb field. He spent an entire day roughly cleaning out the weeds from the medicinal field. After that, he once again cast the Spirit Rain Technique.
As a cloud slowly formed above the herb field, light rain began to fall continuously on the herbs. Under the nourishment of the rain, the herbs below the cloud gradually regained their vitality, no longer transmitting that uncomfortable feeling to Fang Yun.
In the following days, Fang Yun continued to use the Spirit Rain Technique in the herb field. He planned to water all the herbs to restore their vitality. However, the use of the Spirit Rain Technique did come with some troubling side effects. The weeds that had just been cleaned out of the medicinal field quickly grew back, causing Fang Yun to shake his head in resignation.
He then removed the newly sprouted weeds once again. Unlike the weeds in the spiritual field, these grew with weaker requirements for their environment. As long as there was a simple piece of land, they could grow back quickly. Moreover, they had just been watered with the Spirit Rain Technique in his medicinal field.
If left untreated, it wouldn't be long before this area was once again overtaken by weeds. Furthermore, with so much land in the canyon that would require watering with the Spirit Rain Technique in the future, if these weeds grew back so rapidly, he would certainly need to spend a lot of time on weeding.
That was impossible for him; most of his current and future energy had to be focused on the spiritual field and the spiritual rice, and he couldn't afford to waste most of his time on the cultivation of these ordinary crops. Therefore, Fang Yun had to come up with a practical solution to deal with these weeds. Otherwise, the cultivation of crops in the future would be impossible, unless he stopped using the Spirit Rain Technique altogether.
After thinking for a while, Fang Yun suddenly came up with a brilliant idea. However, this required him to accurately use another spell to achieve his goal. Thus, he used the medicinal field as an experimental site.
Building on the previous division of several squares, he created a more detailed segmentation for each herb, placing each one into a small square of its own. This work was indeed very meticulous; every day, apart from observing the newly grown spiritual rice and the nurturing condition of the spiritual field, he spent the rest of his time busy with the transformation of the medicinal field in the canyon.
After completing the transformation of the medicinal field, Fang Yun stood in the field and cast the Earth Force Technique.
With the casting of the Earth Force Technique, Fang Yun once again entered the special vision underground. He then used the Earth Force Technique to concentrate all the nutrients from the soil into the various small squares.
This operation was indeed quite challenging for Fang Yun, who had only recently learned the Earth Force Technique. However, it was entirely possible to continue casting the Earth Force Technique for a second time, building upon the foundation of the first attempt, ultimately achieving a reasonable distribution of nutrients within the soil.
The purpose of this wasn't to completely eliminate weed growth, which was an impossible task at this stage. On one hand, it aimed to allow the herbs to absorb more nutrients, promoting their robust growth; on the other hand, by lacking sufficient nutrients outside these squares, the growth of weeds would be significantly restricted.