Chapter 62: The Second Grafting

After pondering for a while, Fang Yun ultimately did not come to a decisive conclusion.

He set the matter aside for the time being.

At this moment, after three months, all the vines had matured.

Fang Yun first picked all the seeds from the five vines outside the cave.

As these vines withered, he also harvested 150 points of life essence.

This brought his life essence back to over 900 points.

In retrospect, it was not a loss.

Then, he returned to the top of the canyon.

There, he saw that the three vines growing together had also matured.

Due to their special cultivation, the seeds they produced varied in size and possessed unique characteristics.

Fang Yun was not surprised by this at all.

After collecting all the seeds, the three vines immediately withered.

Although the panel displayed only one vine, it still provided Fang Yun with 90 points of life essence, bringing his total life essence to over 1,000 points.

Even though he had consumed quite a bit of life essence during this time, overall, it exceeded his original reserve.

Once he had collected all the seeds, Fang Yun entered the canyon and planted the vine seeds in this hundreds of acres of land.

He had considered taking them back to plant on the mountain, but the mountain terrain consisted of scattered small plots.

It was evident that there wouldn't be enough space to plant over 100 vines.

It was better to directly plant them in the canyon.

He transformed all the land in the canyon, clearing over 100 plots, with streams flowing through the gaps between them.

Then, Fang Yun began to use the Earth Power Technique to condense ordinary energy within the soil.

However, to make over 100 acres of land fertile enough, the soil in the canyon was insufficient.

As for gathering this energy from other places, the workload would be too great.

Fortunately, after such prolonged use, the Earth Power Technique was nearing the minor accomplishment stage.

Through multiple attempts, Fang Yun was already able to delve deep into the soil and extract energy to the surface.

The energy buried deep underground was much richer than that found on the surface.

Just extracting a small amount was enough for the plants to grow.

After completing all of this, Fang Yun went to the source of the stream in the canyon, using the Spiritual Rain Technique to cause a large amount of rainwater rich in spiritual energy to flow into the stream.

Although this method could not compare to directly using the Spiritual Rain Technique for irrigation, there was no other option.

The number of vines was simply too great, and if he directly used the Spiritual Rain Technique for irrigation, it would not only waste a lot of time but also result in a terrifying consumption of his magic power.

Thus, he could only use the stream to irrigate the entire canyon with this spiritual energy.

Once the vines grew and were grafted, he could then carry out more detailed management.

With the completion of these two tasks, Fang Yun no longer needed to worry about anything else.

He could quietly wait for the vines to grow.

Compared to ordinary crops that required weeding and pest control, these vines did not need such complicated management.

Afterward, Fang Yun took a month to rest and began to teach Fang Kangseng, who had already learned some characters, about the cultivation of the Changchun Gong.

Fortunately, although Fang Kangseng appeared slow in recognizing characters, he performed acceptably in practical cultivation.

If he continued to struggle as he did with reading, Fang Yun would have been unsure whether he could teach him cultivation.

Perhaps this reflected a lack of cognitive ability but a decent physical capability.

Although cultivation is generally considered a quiet practice, it also involves a degree of physical action.

After a month of teaching, Fang Kangseng was able to begin absorbing spiritual energy and converting it into magic power.

Now, all he needed to do was gradually open up the meridians in his body to reach the first level of Qi Refining.

Compared to the difficulties of opening meridians in martial arts, using magic power to do so was clearly much quicker.

This might be due to the different levels of energy involved.

After observing Fang Kangseng for a few days and seeing that his cultivation showed no signs of deviation, Fang Yun allowed him to continue quietly absorbing spiritual energy while reminding him not to neglect his studies in reading.

After all, the upcoming spell practice would require reading skills.

If he couldn't recognize all the characters, it would be quite difficult for Fang Yun to teach him.

After giving these instructions, Fang Yun returned to the canyon.

Having not been there for a month, the canyon was again overgrown with weeds.

However, these weeds did not affect the growth of the vines, so Fang Yun paid them no mind.

Now that the vines had all fully grown, it was time to begin grafting.

However, he needed to carefully consider how to graft and which types of vines to combine.

He had already given some thought to this during the previous grafting session.

First and foremost, Fang Yun desired vines with harder spikes.

On that foundation, he also hoped these vines would be sufficiently sturdy and long.

This was the result he ultimately wished to achieve.

Thus, following this line of thought, Fang Yun cut branches from the vines with more spikes.

He then grafted them onto the roots of the vines with longer branches.

He also cut another long branch with more spikes and grafted it onto a different vine with sturdier branches.

If these grafts succeeded, Fang Yun would obtain vines with both characteristics.

Once he had the vines with two characteristics ready to shed seeds, Fang Yun would plant them again and then graft them once more, completing his task of obtaining branches with three characteristics.

After reflecting on his approach and feeling confident, Fang Yun proceeded to graft over 30 branches that had more spikes.

This would help ensure their survival rate.

Then, Fang Yun returned to check on Fang Kangseng and found that his cultivation was progressing well.

He had already begun to produce some magic power and started opening up the meridians in his body.

Fang Yun felt quite pleased with this; at least from this perspective, Fang Kangseng should be able to reach the first level of Qi Refining before Fang Yun left.

In that case, Fang Yun would complete his family's inheritance task.

As for reaching the second level of Qi Refining, without the help of a golden finger, and given the limited cultivation resources of the Fang family, it would take at least a decade.

Fang Yun certainly couldn't wait that long.

After observing Fang Kangseng, Fang Yun glanced toward the direction of the spiritual fields.

He ultimately decided not to plant the spiritual rice just yet.

After all, the grafting work for the vines was at a critical point, and Fang Yun had neither the time nor the energy to manage both tasks simultaneously.