Chapter 22: Treasure Grass
Chapter 22: Treasure Grass
Wu Jingwan was already somewhat tempted, and after hearing everyone’s encouragement, she made up her mind.
However, this matter couldn’t be rushed. She planned to visit the village and town in a few days to investigate what kind of food would be more convenient to sell and more profitable in terms of spirit pearls.
The next day, the Li family woke up early, and the three little ones were sent to Uncle Li San’s house again.
Today was the first day they could see the immediate results of planting the spirit rice.
Not only was Li Xi’s family on high alert, but every household in the village had also started preparing early.
Li Xi set out with her family, taking a detour to her small spirit field along the way.
Before reaching the spirit field, she wondered if Ling Niang would be there too. Sure enough, as soon as she arrived at the spirit field, she heard Ling Niang greeting her.
“Xi’er, you’re here!” Ling Niang ran a few steps to Li Xi.
Li Xi also greeted her: “I’m here. When did you arrive? Even earlier than me?”
“I was so excited thinking about us being together today that I came very early this morning. I’ve been waiting for you!” Ling Niang intimately linked arms with Li Xi, smiling very happily.
“Last time the rain came suddenly, and I forgot to set a time with you. Next time, let’s arrange a time to come together.” Li Xi said after admiring Ling Niang’s enthusiastic smile.
Ling Niang became even happier and eagerly replied, “Yes, yes!”
After their conversation, they looked towards their respective spirit fields.
At this moment, in the spirit fields, not only were there small green shoots about three to four inches tall from the spirit rice seeds, but next to most of the spirit rice plants, there was also a small spirit grass growing.
This spirit grass was less than an inch tall, deep blue all over, with slender leaves that flickered with fine spiritual light under the sun and gentle breeze.
This wasn’t just some weed that could be treated carelessly, but a treasure grass that had a tempering effect on the eyes of children aged six to eight, called Clear Eye Grass.
Li Xi had heard from her father that their village didn’t have this kind of spirit grass before. It was about ten years ago when the Tianyan Sect developed the Level 1 Spirit Rice No. 5 spirit seed. They said that this spirit seed not only didn’t require seedling cultivation and produced better spirit rice, but it also came with Clear Eye Grass, a level 1 spirit grass.
The people from the Tianyan Sect heard that the villagers in Taohua Village and nearby villages were all excellent farmers, so they gave this spirit rice seed to them to cultivate. They also promised that there would be dedicated people to collect the Clear Eye Grass, and although the purchase price varied according to different qualities, it was still a considerable amount of spirit pearls.
This wasn’t even the main point. The key was that the Tianyan Sect also promised that for any village that planted this spirit rice, they could keep enough spirit grass each year for the six-year-old children in the village to temper their eyes. The village school teacher would use it for them as soon as they reached six years old and entered the village school.
The better one’s farming talent and technique, the more Clear Eye Grass would grow alongside the spirit rice they planted. For example, in the spirit rice field in front of Li Xi, most of the spirit rice seedlings had Clear Eye Grass growing beside them, with only a very few spirit rice seedlings standing alone. In contrast, in the spirit rice field in front of Ling Niang, almost half didn’t have Clear Eye Grass.
Although the spirit rice seedlings in Ling Niang’s field weren’t as good as Li Xi’s, they were still decent, showing that Ling Niang had quite good farming talent. However, she just didn’t have as much Clear Eye Grass.
But Ling Niang wasn’t jealous that Li Xi’s talent was better than hers. Instead, she happily said, “Xi’er, look! There’s so much Clear Eye Grass in your spirit field! You’re amazing!”
Li Xi was also very happy because the spirit pearls from selling these Clear Eye Grass would go into her own little savings.
“Ling Niang, wait a moment. Before it’s time to harvest the Clear Eye Grass, I’m going to quickly use Green Spirit Technique on them a few more times!” Li Xi said happily.
There was still about an hour before they could harvest the Clear Eye Grass. Using Green Spirit Technique now could make this batch of Clear Eye Grass look even better, allowing them to sell for more spirit pearls.
Ling Niang excitedly said, “Great! I can finally see what Green Spirit Technique is like!”
Then the two separated, and Li Xi walked to the center of her spirit field and stood still.
Li Xi took a deep breath, calming her excited emotions.
Her one-handed seal formation for Green Spirit Technique was still average, only able to perform the finger seals that each hand would need to do in sequence when using both hands. Although she was quite proficient, it was currently not as fast as using both hands together to cast the technique.
So, to ensure that each Green Spirit Technique could achieve the best effect, she still chose to use the double-handed seal formation that she had already mastered to cast Green Spirit Technique.
As she moved, the faint light of Green Spirit Technique spread evenly outward from her center, just covering her entire spirit field.
She could clearly feel that the Clear Eye Grass quickly changed after coming into contact with Green Spirit Technique.
The entire spirit grass seemed to stand up straight, becoming very vigorous.
Yes, she could sense that a plant was feeling energetic.
Encouraged, she persevered.
After the second round of Green Spirit Technique, the Clear Eye Grass was still gently swaying in the breeze.
By the tenth round of Green Spirit Technique, the Clear Eye Grass seemed to be breathing, moving gently in a specific rhythm.
Li Xi wiped her sweat and massaged her hands.
With her current ability, she could only cast Green Spirit Technique ten times, but the effect was excellent.
The Clear Eye Grass was already quite attractive, but after Li Xi’s Green Spirit Technique, the entire plant was simply radiant.
She almost didn’t want to pull the Clear Eye Grass out of the soil.
Ling Niang, who was watching nearby, saw Li Xi stop and knew she had reached her limit. She quickly came over to support Li Xi.
“Xi’er, you’re so amazing, being able to cast Green Spirit Technique so skillfully!” She praised excitedly.
Li Xi was slightly out of breath, “It’s okay. When your cultivation breaks through, we can practice together. I’ll teach you!”
“Xi’er, you’re so good to me!” Ling Niang was so happy she almost wanted to kiss Li Xi’s cheek.
By the time Li Xi felt rested, it was time to harvest the Clear Eye Grass.
Li Xi bent down and gently dug the Clear Eye Grass out of the soil with her hands, careful not to scratch even a bit of the skin and damage its appearance.
The moment the Clear Eye Grass came out of the soil, its color visibly deepened.
Seeing this, Li Xi confidently put it into her basket.
This change meant that the Clear Eye Grass had become a bit tougher, not as fragile as when it was still in the spirit field, so it was fine to put it directly into the basket.
Although constantly bending down to dig up Clear Eye Grass was tiring, Li Xi was full of energy.
Because each Clear Eye Grass meant spirit pearls!
But no matter how energetic Li Xi was, she only had two mu of spirit field. Once her basket was completely full of Clear Eye Grass, there was no more.
Ling Niang had also finished digging, and the two walked back together before parting ways.
As they were separating, Ling Niang seemed to suddenly remember something and shouted at Li Xi’s back: “Xi’er, don’t forget the homework the teacher assigned! The spring break is about to end!”
Li Xi’s figure stiffened. What homework?
“Okay, thank you for reminding me, Ling Niang! But what homework did the teacher assign? I don’t remember at all?”
She had always thought there was no homework, so she had been indulging in the joy of farming these past two days.
“Xi’er, don’t you remember? The teacher asked us to practice the hand seals for the Fireball Technique!”
Huh?
Li Xi was very confused.
So that day when they went to see the teacher, when he asked about their recent cultivation, he was asking about the Fireball Technique?
Ling Niang wouldn’t lie to her, the teacher must have really assigned homework before the spring break!
But unfortunately, her memory of that afternoon before the spring break was very vague, and she hadn’t remembered it. Now that Ling Niang reminded her, the memory of the teacher teaching them the Fireball Technique hand seals and assigning it as homework gradually became clear, but she still had no impression of what happened after that.
But this wasn’t the main point. The main point was that she hadn’t practiced at all!
Why had she forgotten about this?
Li Xi cried out to the sky: “In the future, I must cultivate spirit plants that increase memory!!!”
But that would have to wait. There was no time now. She had to hurry home to put away the Clear Eye Grass, and then go help in the family’s spirit field.
The family’s spirit rice field was so large, who knows how long it would take to dig it all up. The people coming to collect the Clear Eye Grass would arrive in the afternoon to ensure that the quality of the Clear Eye Grass wouldn’t be diminished due to a long harvesting time.
The house was empty now. Li Xi hurriedly put down her basket and rushed towards the spirit field.
When she arrived near the spirit field, sure enough, everyone was still in the spirit field digging up Clear Eye Grass.
Li Xi immediately joined in.
Then Li Xi discovered that although there was a lot of Clear Eye Grass growing alongside the spirit rice in her family’s field, the proportion seemed lower than in her small spirit field.
It was a bit strange. Could it be that her farming talent was better than her father’s?
After all, she had just started farming, and her farming technique was certainly not as strong as her father’s after thirty years of experience, so the most important influencing factor was obvious.
Never mind, she shouldn’t overthink it. The urgent task was to dig up the Clear Eye Grass.
After a day of hard work, everyone finally finished digging up all the Clear Eye Grass in the two spirit rice fields. In a few days, after applying fertilizer one more time, they could flood the fields and seal them.
The spirit rice fields planted with Spirit Rice No. 5 were not flooded at first, to ensure the growth of Clear Eye Grass. After harvesting the Clear Eye Grass, they could proceed with flooding and also raise rice flower spirit fish.