Chapter 49: The Replanting of Spirit Rice

Fang Yun crouched down and carefully sensed the young soybean seedlings in front of him.

Although he felt that these seedlings transmitted emotions much more weakly than those he had planted in the canyon, emotions couldn't be easily quantified.

So, it was indeed unlikely for Fang Yun to estimate the final harvest of vital energy based on this aspect.

He decided to wait until the harvest to see how much vital energy he could obtain and then plan accordingly.

After all, these weeds would mature in about a month, and the soybeans would likely be ready in a little over two to three months.

For him, this wasn't a particularly long time.

He could take this opportunity to harvest another batch of spirit rice.

That way, even if the life energy harvested from these crops was less than he had imagined, he could supplement it with the spirit rice.

Thinking this, Fang Yun looked at the five pirate leaders, especially the Black Widow.

"From now on, you just need to focus on taking care of the crops here.

Don't rush to cultivate the other uncultivated land for now.

Wait until I see the harvest of these crops before making a decision!"

Upon hearing this, the five pirate leaders respectfully bowed and replied, "Yes, immortal master!"

For them, as captives, Fang Yun's orders were everything.

So, whether it was cultivating wasteland or taking care of crops, there was no difference to them.

Fang Yun nodded, gave a brief instruction to the two clan elders, and then returned to the mountain.

He first went to the top of the canyon and looked at the vine that was entering its maturity period.

He found that this vine was lazily coiled on the ground, neither hunting the beasts like the other four vines nor showing any signs of flowering or pollination that should be present in the maturity period.

This puzzled Fang Yun. Could it be that this vine reproduced asexually?

If that were the case, how would one determine whether this vine was mature?

Fang Yun moved a little closer and carefully sensed the specifics of this vine.

He found that although this vine lay still on the surface, the energy within it was circulating quite rapidly.

In addition to the rapid energy flow inside it, Fang Yun also noticed several points of energy convergence appearing on its branches.

Looking at the branches of the vine, he indeed saw a few small bulges.

Seeing this, Fang Yun realized that this was likely where it would flower, pollinate, and produce seeds.

Since it could flower and pollinate, this vine was a sexually reproducing plant.

That made it easier to determine its maturity.

However, based on the current progress, it seemed this vine might take even longer to mature than the spirit rice.

But that was normal; after all, the spirit rice he planted was only the most basic type of spiritual plant.

It was likely that these vines were of a higher level than the spirit rice, so it was no surprise their maturation period was longer.

After observing the condition of this vine, Fang Yun returned to the mountain.

He spent a day next to the spirit field, cleaning up the weeds and the root systems left behind by the last batch of spirit rice.

Even though some time had passed since the last planting, the ordinary energy in the soil and the spiritual energy hadn't fully recovered due to the previous planting of spirit rice.

So, Fang Yun entered the northern mountain range again.

Following his earlier method, he concentrated the ordinary energy in the soil and transported the energy-rich soil back to the spirit field.

However, this time, Fang Yun didn't go to extremes and completely cut off the ordinary energy from other lands.

After replacing the soil in the spirit field, he used the Spirit Rain Technique twice to replenish the spiritual energy in the field.

Once all this was done, Fang Yun began the cultivation of the spirit rice.

Following the previous work mode, he scattered the spirit rice seeds in the specially designated breeding area he had prepared earlier.

Then he covered the seeds with soil.

Next, he would wait for these spirit rice seeds to sprout and grow to the transplanting stage.

This process would take about ten to twenty days. After the transplanting, he would still need to wait a while for the spirit rice to enter its growth phase, at which point he could accelerate its development.

Before that, there wasn't much Fang Yun could do, aside from pest control and weeding. However, with the presence of spirit insects, he no longer needed to handle pest control. The only task left was occasional inspections.

After taking a few days off, Fang Yun, who now had some free time, began to work on his next plans. According to his previous thoughts, Fang Yun had completed the expansion of crop planting and the replanting of spirit rice.

Although the outcome of the crop expansion didn't turn out as ideally as he had hoped, it also wasn't as bad as he had initially feared. Overall, it was somewhere in between—not fully satisfying but not entirely disappointing either.

Now that the crop expansion was completed, Fang Yun no longer needed to manage that area. Until results emerged, he had no plans to speed up the crops' growth to produce new seeds.

So, Fang Yun's primary task moving forward was to take care of the spirit rice. Besides that, he was waiting for the vine to mature and see what rewards it would bring.

These tasks wouldn't require too much time.

As far as planting was concerned, there was nothing else to do for now. The next phase would have to focus on improving his cultivation and practicing his spells.

This plan had actually crossed Fang Yun's mind when he recently broke through to the third level of Qi Refinement. However, looking back, he realized that he hadn't thought it through thoroughly enough.

The main issue was that he had overlooked one crucial factor.

To raise his cultivation and reach the fourth level of Qi Refinement, he would need not only a sufficient amount of life energy but also the cultivation technique for the fourth level.

The Changchun Technique that Fang Yun inherited from the Fang family only reached the third level of Qi Refinement.

As for the technique for the fourth level, Fang Yun didn't have it in his possession.

In other words, even if he had enough life energy, without the proper technique, it would likely be impossible to break through to the fourth level.

Perhaps, during his previous breakthrough, he had been too focused on worrying about not having enough life energy and had never considered the issue of the cultivation technique.

As a result, in the past few days, Fang Yun hadn't realized that there was such a big obstacle standing in the way of his breakthrough to the fourth level of Qi Refinement.

Thinking about this, Fang Yun suddenly became a bit anxious.

The only way to obtain the next part of the Changchun Technique was to leave Lingshui Island and find a place where cultivators traded.

However, given his current cultivation level and limited protection methods, going to such a place seemed too dangerous.