35. In which Wen Zhihao decides to change the scenery from xianxia novel to a farming novel

afflinghaze

Plants grew from seeds.

Wen Zhihao had bought many tropical fruits with the intent to ration them over the next month or so, as the spatial storage could perfectly preserve food. But what if he planted the seeds?

Sure, they weren’t in the tropics, but he could use a talisman to make the air warmer… If he could grow these fruits, then he wouldn’t have to travel far to acquire them, and he wouldn’t have to wait till season for them…

Wen Zhihao mentally patted himself on the back.

(Completely not thinking about whether growing these fruits would be difficult—there should be a talisman for that, surely?)

With this scheme in mind, Wen Zhihao put the mango seed back into his spatial ring and took out some water for him and Sun Fuyu to wash their hands.

“What about the other fruits, Wen-ge?” Now that Sun Fuyu had experienced the deliciousness of mango, he was eager to try more.

“Let’s go back to the Sect first. Eating some of these fruits can be messy ba.”

“Okay!”

The two of them flew leisurely back towards the Golden Sun Sect, taking twice as long on the return trip.

They spent the night outside while they looked for Things That Were Hollow for Wen Zhihao to use as ink reservoirs. Sun Fuyu was very smart in helping him collect thin bamboo and hollow reeds. As for the brush hairs, Wen Zhihao could use the demonic beast kitten cat fur that was shed on him every time he visited them.

The next morning, they continued flying back and arrived at the sect in the late afternoon.

Wen Zhihao accompanied Sun Fuyu to the Missions Hall, where Sun Fuyu went through the administration of registering a completed mission. (Wen Zhihao ignored the look of one of the cultivators there…)

Then, they headed to the kitchen so that Wen Zhihao could acquire a knife.

Mangoes, bananas, rambutan, and jackfruit were all well received by Sun Fuyu and the other kitchen workers.

As for durian, Wen Zhihao decided that more prudence was required. He’ll prepare in the forest away from other people and divide the durian flesh into some kind of air-tight containers for everyone later.

Through this fruit tasting, Wen Zhihao carefully kept all of the seeds.

“Old Tang, I want to plant these seeds. Is there a farmer or gardener who can help?”

Old Tang stroked his beard. “Hm, here we do not grow these particular fruits, but perhaps it is similar to other fruits. Come tomorrow and I’ll introduce you to the fruit gardeners here.”

Sun Fuyu’s eyes widened. “Wen-ge, are you going to raise fruit trees? Can you grow a lot of mangoes?”

Wen Zhihao smiled. “For you, of course.”

Sun Fuyu’s heart skipped a beat. “Then I’ll continue to work hard too!”

Senior Cultivator Liu Zhongmin was very satisfied with her hardworking new direct disciple, Sun Fuyu.

After his successful solo mission, Liu Zhongmin gave him more materials to study and extended her practice sessions with him. Sun Fuyu worked seriously to train his sword and increase his sword cultivation.

Meanwhile, it was a good thing that Elder Liu Ru did not keep tabs on Wen Zhihao. Because Wen Zhihao had temporarily stopped his plan to make writing talismans easy and was flying around learning how to grow fruit trees.

It was a matter of priority: plants needed time to grow. Though he didn’t think it would be hard. He had read multiple novels with characters with a magical space with spiritual spring water that could drastically improve plant growth. And here in the Golden Sun Sect, everyone drank spiritual water, and all the vegetables were grown with spiritual water.

First, with Old Tang’s introduction, Wen Zhihao talked with the non-cultivator farmers of the Golden Sun Sect. From them, he learnt a bit about planting and watering schedules, and that as long as he gave a percentage of the fruits to the Golden Sun Sect, as a sect disciple, he could obtain a basically unlimited supply of spiritual water. Furthermore, herb cultivators could be allotted land around the sect.

...Hm, did ‘internship’ as a concept exist in the sect?

Wen Zhihao headed to the Outer Sect Library next to take a look at various spiritual herb cultivation manuals. There were a lot of complicated techniques, but it all boiled down to injecting the right type/amount of qi into spiritual herbs at the right time, and oh, for some reason, cultivators were expected to remember all of it even though they could easily look it up.

As a programmer who used to search engines and stack.overflow, Wen Zhihao decided that being a herb cultivator was a bit boorish.

Nonetheless, he cleaned himself up, brushed his hair neatly, and went to visit the Herbalist Hall.

The inside of the Hall was an indoor garden, with rows of delicate-looking herbs. Rather than having a junior cultivator doing admin, the only cultivator in the Hall was a powerhouse of a Middle Stage Nascent Soul herbalist currently tending the plants. This particular cultivator, named Zhao Chunfeng, looked like an old man complete with a long white beard.

Wen Zhihao bowed respectfully. “This junior disciple greets the elder.”

Senior Cultivator Zhao Chunfeng finished tending the current pale pink herbs before looking over. “Outer sect disciple, should you not be in class?”

“What are classes, but theoretical knowledge? True progress comes from practice,” Wen Zhihao said smoothly. “This junior disciple is interested in growing magical plants.” Everything had qi in it, so technically mangoes could be considered magical.

“In particular, this junior disciple is thinking of growing plants inside a large magical space. In this manner, surely it would be easier to control temperature and weather conditions. However, this matter is not easily explained in the materials available in the Outer Sect Library.”

“Hmpff, you are getting ahead of yourself,” Zhao Chunfeng said, stroking his long white beard. “Such magical spaces are extremely expensive and entirely inaccessible to outer sect disciples such as yourself.”

“Then it is possible,” Wen Zhihao thought this was the key point.

“Hmph. Most spatial rings preserve time, but you want to have time to pass. Forget it, young one. If you wish to grow some spiritual herbs, then I can allot you a small patch of garden. Say, what is your cultivation pathway?”

Zhao Chunfeng could tell that this young cultivator had reached Middle Stage Golden Core, and therefore should be entering the inner sect soon. If he was a promising herbalist, then he could poach him. If he was a medicinal or crafting cultivator, Zhao Chunfeng would analyse him further.

“This junior disciple is currently a talisman cultivator.”

In an instant, Zhao Chunfeng’s face darkened. “Hmpff! What kind of talisman cultivator needs spiritual herbs? Are you wasting my time?!”

“This junior disciple would not dare and is very serious—”

“Get out!”

Wen Zhihao smiled politely and bowed. “Thank you for your help, Elder.”

Zhao Chunfeng waved an imperious hand and Wen Zhihao was pushed by qi out of the Herbalist Hall. The doors slammed the moment he was outside.

Wen Zhihao’s smile dropped as his qi flared up violently.

Wen Zhihao's new slogan: There's a gadget talisman for that!