Chapter 23: Chapter 23 Spirit Plant
Li Shiming took out a bag of Spirit Rice seeds, and instead of starting with a small experiment, he brought out half of the Spirit Rice seeds all at once.
With the support of a vast non-soil rice cultivation technology, coupled with his nearly omnipotent perception and micrometer-level control in the computer room space, failure was unlikely. Otherwise, he wouldn't have other methods to plant Spirit Rice in the short term.
Now, with every passing day, the contamination of his body by mundane food became more severe.
He needed to quickly grow a batch of Spirit Rice to solve his current troubles.
The Spirit Rice seeds were placed in a solution, which was formulated based on the best nutrient ratio for seedling culture.
His consciousness focused on the Spirit Rice seeds, not daring to relax in the slightest.
Inside the seedling culture solution, the Spirit Rice seeds began to absorb nutrients, and the germ inside the seed coat was growing.
However, he also sensed a feeling of powerlessness from the Spirit Rice seeds. If left to grow like this, perhaps the germs of these Spirit Rice seeds wouldn't even break through the seed coat, failing to form Spiritual Rice Seedlings.
Li Shiming mobilized the Spiritual Power within his body, then used his consciousness to draw the rune of the "Spring Breeze and Rain Skill" in the computer room space. Thought to spell, a mass of dark clouds appeared in the space.
A spirit rain of twenty square meters began to fall, and his consciousness caught every drop, channeling it into the seedling culture solution at the bottom layer of the cultivation rack.
With the spirit rain from the "Spring Breeze and Rain Skill," the Spirit Rice seeds seemed to gain vitality, the germs breaking through the seed coats one after another.
Li Shiming observed the changes in the Spirit Rice seeds while recording the data onto the large server IBMz15.
The "Spring Breeze and Rain Skill" filled the seedling culture solution with spirit rainwater that was extremely beneficial to plants, and since he didn't waste a single drop, collecting it all in the seedling solution, its effect continued to be exerted.
Normally, a spirit cultivator would find that the majority of the spirit rain from the "Spring Breeze and Rain Skill" would be absorbed by the soil, with only a small part actually benefiting the plants.
It was not the ignorance of spirit cultivators but, rather, for countless years in this world, cultivation had always been inseparable from soil.
This was a rigidity of thought, an aspect never considered by the spirit cultivators of this world.
Of course, another important reason was the lack of absolute mastery over the nutrients required by plants, which made it impossible to develop non-soil cultivation methods.
Mastery over the various nutrients needed by plants involved research in botany, chemistry, and other sciences, which could not be solved by a single person.
In his former life, the presence of so many scientific and technological achievements was built from the ground up, through the efforts of the entire world over hundreds of years, resulting in the technological findings in the database of the large server IBMz15.
The Spiritual Rice Seedling continued to grow, and after two days had passed, the Spiritual Rice Seedling was transferred to the upper four layers of the cultivation rack.
In order to cast the "Spring Breeze and Rain Skill," Li Shiming drew upon some Spiritual Energy within the computer room space. By practicing the "Five Elements Qi Absorption Technique," he restored the Spiritual Power in his body.
Furthermore, to save the Spiritual Energy of the computer room space, he would stop supplying Spiritual Energy from the room as soon as his Spiritual Power was restored, only practicing the "Five Elements Qi Absorption Technique" to recover.
There was no way around it; Spirit Plants must grow in an environment rich with Spiritual Energy.
Fortunately, adopting the no-soil cultivation technology had multiplied the effects of the Spring Breeze and Rain Skill, reducing the number of times he needed to use it, thus remarkably lessening his consumption of spiritual energy within the server room space.
As for the two other Spiritual Plant Cultivation Spells, "Geng Metal Skill" and "Earth Spirit Technique", in the interest of conserving spiritual power, he didn't bother to learn them.
The function of the "Geng Metal Skill" is to kill spiritual insects harmful to spirit plants. These spiritual insects are sometimes extremely small, yet highly destructive, and they resist various pesticides, making it necessary to precisely eliminate them with the "Geng Metal Skill" to avoid affecting the spirit plants.
The "Earth Spirit Technique" is a spell to increase the spiritual energy in the spirit field. After a season of planting, it is necessary to use the "Earth Spirit Technique" to readjust the spiritual energy within the spirit field.
However, since Li Shiming adopted no-soil cultivation, the "Earth Spirit Technique" was unnecessary, and in the server room space, it was impossible for spiritual insects to appear. Even if spiritual insects did exist, his consciousness within the server room space was more effective than any spell.
In the server room space, his consciousness monitored the growth of the Spirit Rice, ensuring that the Spirit Rice plants received the best care.
He regulated the optimal light quality, intensity, and photoperiod, as well as other environmental and nutritional factors, significantly increasing the rate of photosynthesis, inducing early flowering, and accelerating the crops' rapid growth, thus greatly shortening the life cycle of the Spirit Rice plants.
According to the planting knowledge left by Shi Ximing, the maturity period for Spirit Rice is two months.
Yet in the server room space, the Spirit Rice plants could undergo photosynthesis for twenty-four hours a day. He also continuously adjusted the brightness of the LED cold lights through his perception, maintaining the Spirit Rice plants in the optimal growth environment at all times.
After only twenty-five days, the Spirit Rice plants had already reached maturity.
Li Shiming also discovered that cultivating Spirit Rice in the server room space did not reduce the total amount of spiritual energy within. Instead, it even increased slightly.
During the growth of the Spirit Rice, a portion of spiritual energy was produced through photosynthesis.
This portion of spiritual energy was minimal in relation to a single Spirit Rice plant, but the cumulative effect from the seventy square meters of four-layer planting racks was enough for him to perceive an increase in the concentration of spiritual energy.
It could even fully replenish the spiritual energy he consumed daily when using the Spring Breeze and Rain Skill, resulting in the concentration of spiritual energy in the server room space not decreasing but actually increasing after twenty-five days.
Of course, the spiritual energy in the server room space was only enough for cultivation purposes and not sufficient for his daily spiritual practice.
In these days, Li Shiming had secluded himself, spending each day shut within his study, making outsiders believe he was preparing for the spring examinations.
So, no one disturbed him, not even his father Li WenYuan who had ordered everyone inside and outside the residence not to interrupt his studying.
Today was an important day: after twenty-five days of effort and countless days and nights, Li Shiming had only slept for short periods, devoting all his consciousness to the growth process of the Spirit Rice.
He had succeeded, all the Spirit Rice had matured.
His consciousness perceived each golden stalk of Spirit Rice bent by its weight, and the joy of the harvest excited him.
In a month's time, he had reduced his food intake, but as a result, his body had accumulated a significant amount of impurities.
He was waiting to free himself from the contamination of ordinary food, for the Spirit Rice was his hope.
Having experienced the sensation of being thoroughly refreshed and clean, he couldn't tolerate the polluted state of his body now. When calling upon the spiritual power within, he could feel a certain roughness; if it continued like this, he even believed that it would eventually affect his ability to wield spiritual power.