Cultivation begins with harvest.

In an empty room, a peculiar spiritual soil, filled with various flower spikes and grains and covered with a layer of oil, floated in mid-air.

It cannot be encased in magic power; it can only be gently pushed from one side to move its position. If more force is applied, the entire piece of floating oily cloud soil will crack. After several such attempts, the spiritual energy within it will be lost, and it will fall to the ground and become a useless mass of impurities.

Fortunately, these floating oily soils will naturally merge together when they encounter similar ones. Chen Guang only needs to collect the reward orbs while adjusting their positions to place as much floating oily soil as possible in this room.

It's convenient to unlock as many reward orbs as you can put in.

Soon the room was full. When Chen Guang saw that he had only used 78 reward orbs, he felt a pang of heartache, but he could only bear it. He couldn't just pile them up in the yard.

As for Yue Nishang, Chen Guang dug up some purple spirit soil and found a flowerpot to temporarily plant her in, and it wouldn't be too late to make a decision after she grew a bit more.

Yue Nishang's information was much more straightforward: she needed [Flower Spirit Energy] to accelerate her growth. This was a special spiritual object that could only be formed by a large number of flowers. If they were all ordinary first-tier spiritual plants, it would take several months to collect a single unit of Flower Spirit Energy from tens of acres of flowers.

Although there are three prerequisites for sublimating into a second-tier spiritual plant, the spiritual energy of flowers is a prerequisite, so Chen Guang gave up on this idea.

However, one thing has been confirmed.

Indeed, after being exposed to moonlight for more than half the night, the Moonlit Garment will condense a few special dewdrops in the early morning. These are the Moon Essence Liquid, and once it matures, the quantity will increase by about ten times.

"The quantity is too small, and we have to wait until the Moon Rainbow is fully grown; it's impossible to collect it now," Chen Guang shook his head.

At other times, Moonlit Robe only serves to please the eye. At night, the spiritual energy in the vicinity can be about 60% more concentrated. This is because the concentration of spiritual energy within a thousand miles of Purple Spirit Peak is too high. Otherwise, the effect would be even more amazing. This is also why Moonlit Robe is not very popular on Purple Spirit Peak. If placed in a place where the spiritual energy is not very concentrated, such a first-grade top-quality plant can increase the concentration of spiritual energy several times, and it would be very marketable.

Since it was still a seedling, Chen Guang simply treated it and set it aside, then began his daily practice of the Blood Scripture and spells.

……

The Lingmi rice is ripe.

The fields were a deep, golden expanse, the air filled with the comforting aroma of ripe grains, though the harvesting process itself was anything but pleasant.

This is an important matter. All spirit farmers must plant two acres of spirit rice. They can leave some space on the edge to plant other things, but the main crop must be spirit rice.

In the early stages of Qi Refining, only rice among the five grains can be planted. Because its primary use is as spiritual rice, an essential food for cultivators, it is often called spiritual rice. Its characteristics include a high water requirement, but it can also adapt to relatively dry environments. Being a spiritual plant, its adaptability is quite good. In the mortal realm, it is further divided into drought-resistant and cold-resistant upland rice, sea rice adapted to saline-alkali soil, conventional rice, indica rice that can withstand high temperatures and sunlight, and japonica rice that requires less sunlight and more moisture…

Lingmi rice combines all these characteristics and leans towards the robust stems and leaves of giant rice.

The characteristics of a rice variety are determined by how it is cultivated.

For example, Chen Guang's planting method is a bit more arid. Although he irrigates frequently, the amount is not large, so the taste is a bit rough and more suitable for steaming or boiling. He uses it to make porridge to save money. Before he was a cultivator, taking care of three acres of spiritual fields was very tiring. Making porridge would reduce the workload, so this habit has continued.

If grown in saline-alkaline soil, the rice grains are smaller, harder, and have a stickier texture.

In short, one kind of spirit rice can perfectly adapt to all environments in the mortal world.

If you reach the mid-stage of Qi Refining, you will have more options. You can plant millet, also known as yellow millet, which is more suitable for making porridge, pastries, and brewing wine, but the yield is lower and the planting requirements are more stringent. Alternatively, you can plant sorghum, which can be used to brew wine, make vinegar, eat, produce feed, and produce straw. Among these, the straw is of higher quality and more useful than the other five grains.

As for the remaining two types of grains, only those at the seventh level of Qi Refining, or the late stage of Qi Refining, are qualified to plant them.

Chen Guang watched as his thoughts drifted for a moment before returning to his spiritual field. He glanced at the field containing the Jade Heart Grass. In the past few days, whenever he had rested enough, he would use the Earth-Wood Interaction to check the condition of the Jade Heart Grass. Based on the principle of majority rule, he made continuous adjustments. The Jade Heart Grass was in good condition, and barring any unforeseen circumstances, there would be no more leaf damage. He also confirmed that the roots of the Jade Heart Grass were prone to tangling together. If the roots were not stretched out, it would affect the specific number of leaves. The specific reasons and solutions were not yet available.

His attention returned to the spirit field, his eyes were on the side, but his hands were moving quickly.

With his feet spread about shoulder-width apart, he bent down, grabbing as much spirit rice as possible with one hand, while wielding a blue sickle that gleamed with a terrifyingly cold light in the other. The spirit patterns on the sickle flashed, and a series of crisp "snap" sounds rang out as he cut off more than ten bundles of spirit rice with a single stroke.

It wasn't that he didn't want to cut more, but the spacing between the spirit rice stalks was large, and the straw was more resilient. From the result, it looked like a casual cut, but in reality, Chen Guang had already used 60% of his strength. This was after practicing the "Blood Scripture" for half a year, which significantly improved his physical strength. Otherwise, he would have used 80% of his strength.

This isn't just about physical strength. When doing farm work, strength is important, but endurance is equally important!

If you put in 80% effort to harvest just one acre of land, you'll soon feel your back and hands ache, sweat pouring down your face, and you'll be too tired to speak. That's how Chen Guang was a couple of years ago. Even if he was willing to work diligently, he could only harvest for one or two hours in the morning and then finish in the afternoon. Forcing himself to do it would only cause hidden ailments in his body, affecting not only his early Qi cultivation but also his work performance the next day.

Even though he had made progress this year, Chen Guang couldn't help but stand up after only half an hour. He had only harvested half of the ten acres of land and was already showing signs of fatigue. Fortunately, his hands didn't hurt much, and his back didn't have any bad feedback. On the contrary, after standing up, he felt the blood flowing through his body and quickly felt relaxed.

"The advantage of the Blood Stream is that the blood flows faster and the recovery is stronger. I only need to rest for a while and I can recover to about 70 or 80 percent." Chen Guang simply sat cross-legged on the ground and soon felt less tired. Since cutting the spirit rice didn't require any other spells, Chen Guang used the Spring Spring spell and drank a few mouthfuls before dispelling it.

After a good rest, let's get back to harvesting the spirit rice.

If someone stood on the wide bluestone road and looked into the distance, they would see that this field of spirit rice was filled with the backs of people bending down to harvest the spirit rice. Apart from the sound of the wind, all that could be heard was the irregular but rhythmic "crackling" sound of the spirit rice stalks being cut.

……

"I can't believe I did this!"

Three hours passed, and the sun was high in the sky. Even though it was mid-to-late autumn, the sun was still very hot. It wasn't scorching, but it felt unbearably hot.

Chen Guang stared in astonishment at the four-tenths of an acre of land that had been harvested.

This is no ordinary rice. With ordinary rice, one person can harvest one acre or even more in a day if they work hard, but that is definitely a rare occurrence. Spirit rice is much more strenuous. Although Chen Guang felt tired, he did not feel as tired as he had in previous years, to the point that he did not want to move.

This is the result that the Lu Da couple next door used to achieve in previous years, working hard all morning.

It was only Zhou Ge, who cultivated the [Earth Power Technique] next door, who could continuously recover strength and increase power by stepping on the ground, who could do it.

It was Cao Fang, who seemed weaker than the one next door, who was only able to achieve such efficiency because she was at the fourth level of Qi Refining and used a magical artifact.

I actually managed to do it?

This efficiency is only achieved by outstanding spiritual farmers in the surrounding area who excel during the harvest season, are the first to complete the harvest, and can also help with the harvest.

If the Lingmi rice is harvested late, the grains are prone to falling off, which is a loss for nothing. Picking up each grain from the field is not something that can be done just by talking about it.

Therefore, harvesting spirit rice actually has a somewhat competitive aspect; it's not necessarily proactive, but rather largely passive.

"Whether it's outrageous or not, it's already done, so we have to accept it."

As Chen Guang looked at the harvested spirit rice, he began to think of some words and responses. He had a reward orb, which was like an awl in his pocket that would eventually show its head. It didn't matter if it came a little earlier or later. What he needed was a suitable explanation and the right amount of tact.