Cultivation begins with harvest.

"However, the rewards from spirit beasts are not as easy to obtain as those from spirit plants, with the Ice-tailed Shrimp being an exception..."

The first stage of accumulating rewards for spirit beasts and monsters is fifty times.

The second stage is 350 times, and the third stage is 2,000 times. This might be easy for a spirit beast like the Ice-Tail Shrimp, but it would be very difficult for any other kind of creature.

The Thousand Needle is a case in point; only four out of five eggs have hatched so far. Whether the Thousand Needle can accumulate the rewards for the first stage remains a question.

Ice-tailed shrimp cannot be considered true demonic beasts. They are born without any magic, and their demonic power after adulthood is only one-thousandth of what it used to be. They are a kind of demonic beast offspring with impure blood, but surprisingly stable blood. True demonic beasts and spirit beasts would not be so easy to raise into groups.

Strictly speaking, there are only two ways to cultivate the newly unlocked Ice Tail Shrimp.

One is about reproduction, how to guide and ensure the quality of reproduction. The best strategy is to directly use the [Da Mo Flower], which is another unheard-of plant, like the Black Silk Algae and Ice Silk Algae. It may not be a spiritual plant within the scope of the Qingheng Sect.

The second item is related to shrimp veins, which can improve the quality of shrimp veins in frozen shrimp and enhance their usability.

The shrimp vein of the ice-tailed shrimp is exceptionally tough, giving it some value as a raw material, but its lack of juiciness means that its market demand is not high.

If you use a recipe that combines [Ice Crystal Stone] fragments and the blood of metallic monsters and spirit beasts to raise them, you can enhance the shrimp vein spirit of the Ice Tail Shrimp.

Chen Guang originally didn't care, but with the recipe for ice shrimp oil, things changed. Ice shrimp oil can increase the width and toughness of the veins. It requires brewing whole shrimp, and the shrimp vein is the most important part. Although the shrimp vein is part of the digestion of the ice shrimp, it is also the part with the most abundant energy. Improving the quality of the shrimp vein is also indirectly improving the quality of the ice shrimp oil.

Simply feeding the shrimp some special spirits before brewing will keep them clean, so there's no need to worry about cleanliness. This makes Chen Guang even more determined to get his hands on the shrimp oil.

Gourmet recipes are still common in the cultivation world. They are divided into two types: one is gourmet recipes, which non-gourmets can also make by obtaining the recipes. Common examples include spirit wine and spirit tea. Tea leaves taken directly from the spirit tea tree are not as effective as those processed with recipes. The other type is rare gourmet recipes, which only gourmets can make.

Gourmets and alchemists are actually quite similar. Alchemists' elixirs emphasize "qi," which is a mysterious aggregation; gourmets' recipes emphasize "spiritual inspiration," which is a mysterious release.

From the perspective of absorption, the Glutton's Recipe is superior. Even Qi Refining cultivators can enjoy the third-tier recipe, but the benefits they can absorb are limited, and most of their spiritual energy will be wasted, causing it to dissipate into the world.

If a pill cannot be absorbed, it may remain in the body for life without being refined. If a third-tier pill is given to a Qi Refining cultivator, it can even cause the body to explode and die. Even the Qingheng Sect has no shortage of such examples.

Therefore, the market for recipe products is quite good, especially those related to cultivation. This is much more cost-effective than selling Ice Tail Shrimp directly to inns and taverns. Selling Ice Tail Shrimp directly means selling raw materials, which requires a continuous supply and has a low price ceiling.

Ice-cooked shrimp oil is a finished product. If Chen Guang were truly greedy, he could factor in the cultivation costs of his next generation. Ice-cooked shrimp oil is not available in Xingfeng Market, at least not to Chen Guang. It might be a monopolistic business, so he could "discretionarily" raise the price.

Ice-mouthed shrimp oil requires adult ice-tailed shrimp, cold water essence, [ice salt], [amber flower] juice, and monster bile.

Chen Guang hadn't expected that the Cold Water Elixir would come in handy here.

Ice salt is a product of gourmet recipes and a standard delicacy recipe. Its function is to catalyze certain spiritual substances, allowing their spiritual essence to be extracted. Many gourmet recipes require the use of ice salt. This is a milestone creation of gourmet skills. The advent of ice salt has further strengthened the status of gourmets.

With the advent of ice salt, many gourmet recipes that were once only for gourmets became gourmet recipes, indirectly creating a demand for ice salt among many monks. Although many may not have the intention of becoming gourmets, there are many people who are interested in tasting and making gourmet food, and naturally, they will have a demand for ice salt in order to make gourmet food.

Amber flowers are a first-tier common spiritual plant and a common ingredient in recipes. They can preserve the spiritual energy stimulated by ice salt.

Only a small amount of monster bile is needed, and there are no restrictions on the type of monster.

Gathering them wasn't difficult. Compared to other pills and spiritual items that were beneficial to the meridians, Chen Guang found that Ice Mouth Shrimp Oil had an advantage. In addition, Ice Tail Shrimp would be rewarded with Cold Water Spiritual Liquid as soon as they matured, further reducing costs and making the profits even more considerable.

After pondering for a while, Chen Guang guessed that the Ice Tail Shrimp should have some kind of spiritual energy that was beneficial to the meridians, but because it was too little, it did not show up.

After watching over the ice-tailed shrimp in the pond for a while, and mentally deciding on a different way to kill them, I left the area of ​​the ice mist array.

Back in the courtyard, the first thing Chen Guang did was to find the thousand-needle wrens and listen to their calls.

Although the Thousand-Needle Wren is a spirit beast, its voice does not have any real meaning. Instead, it expresses its needs through tone of voice, speed of speech, and other means. Chen Guang was naturally curious about the specific manifestations of its ability to communicate with spirits.

When I activated the Tongyu Xieling (a spiritual communication technique), my ears seemed to twitch suddenly, and at the same time, I felt a full, warm sensation in my throat.

The chirping of the thousand-needle bird immediately took on a more concrete and tangible meaning.

"Hungry...hungry...Mommy...Mommy...eat...hungry..."

Upon suddenly hearing the word "mother," Chen Guang was momentarily stunned before realizing that it had been relayed through the Tongyu Xieling. The Thousand Needlebird's call still had no meaning, but Chen Guang could hear its true plea.

In formal settings, people use "mother," while in casual settings, they use "niang" (娘). This is because women from all walks of life can use "niang" as a form of address, so it's not as formal and is a common usage.

The word "mother" is used less often and is more colloquial. In Chen Guang's memories of his mortal life, "mother" was only used for elderly or virtuous women. The word "mother" was only used by very young children or spoiled children.

Chen Guang was taken aback when he heard this address.

I didn't try to correct them. These four little guys are not even preschool age yet. It wouldn't help to argue with them or care about them. It's better to focus on their diet and health.

Chen Guang also tried to say a few words, conveying messages like "wait" and "don't rush," which had some effect, but not a very good one. These guys were still in a state where instinct overwhelmed reason, and if they spoke a little softer, they would start making noise again after a few breaths. It wasn't that they didn't understand, but that they didn't have the brains to truly comprehend and implement it.

Chen Guang laughed heartily. This effect was within his expectations. He had only just learned to communicate with spirits and had a long way to go before he could unleash his incredible abilities.

Taking care of the four little ones became much easier. He could tell whether they were simply hungry or needed water, which also made it easier for Chen Guang to clean the nest. These straightforward creatures would quickly make a mess of the nest if not cleaned properly. They could eat a lot and poop a lot too. The droppings of the baby Thousand Needle Wrens were much less clever, but Chen Guang still buried them in the cloud soil of the Dingzhen Tea Tree, which had a slight effect.

Chen Guang glanced at the Xuanwen bamboo, which was already nearly three zhang tall. The fresh woody fragrance it emitted was quite strong. The bamboo surface had mysterious and indistinct patterns, but it was full of the essence of plants.

For now, we can only look at it, not harvest it. Before the Mysterious Pattern Bamboo forms a forest, it is still a protected spiritual plant and cannot be touched. Based on the frequency of one plant reproducing two seedlings, the Mysterious Pattern Bamboo that grows later will take three years to mature. In other words, in the first three years, a total of twelve new bamboos can be added. After three years, it will start to grow again in spring.

A black-patterned bamboo will only begin to produce new bamboo in its fourth year.

Harvesting can only begin around the seventh year. From the seventh year onwards, the bamboo forest will begin to take shape. Without control, the size of the bamboo forest will explode. Just harvest 20 to 30 bamboo plants that are three years or older, ensuring that there are about 50 bamboo plants every year, and everything will enter a positive cycle.

No more than that won't do. The cultivation of Xuanwen Bamboo requires very high-quality spiritual soil, not only because the soil needs to be well-drained, but also because it requires a high level of spiritual energy and earth energy.

All spiritual plants need a certain amount of space to ensure that they have enough spiritual energy and earth energy. In other words, maintaining a certain distance is beneficial to their own growth and also to the recovery of the spiritual field.

Therefore, it is best to plant only eighty Jade Heart Grass plants per mu of spirit field; only nearly a thousand spirit rice plants per mu are too dense, and no one can get enough to eat, and the growth is worrying. It is also a case of living beyond one's means and exhausting one's resources.

What makes spirit bamboo special is that it grows very densely and in large numbers. Instead of extracting the spiritual energy and earth energy from the spiritual soil, it squeezes it dry. Other spiritual plants can control the spacing to allow the spiritual field to complete a self-sustaining cycle without damaging the fertility, but spirit bamboo usually cannot do this. There are only three ways to cultivate spirit bamboo.

First, control the quantity. Keep the number of bamboo groves under control. Otherwise, if a acre of spiritual land is covered with spiritual bamboo, there will be at least six or seven hundred trees. Ten acres of spiritual land cannot withstand such dense nutrient absorption. The disadvantage of controlling the quantity is that the bamboo groves will only occupy one corner, leaving the rest of the space empty, thus inefficiently supplying nutrients to the bamboo.

Secondly, it frequently provides the necessary spiritual soil to maintain sufficient nutrients.

Thirdly, there is the "high-level cultivation of low-level bamboo" method, which requires certain opportunities or backgrounds. It involves using corresponding second-level spiritual soil to plant first-level spiritual bamboo, and so on. The higher the grade, the more likely the bamboo can withstand its rapid growth.

Chen Guang's plan was to control the quantity of bamboo and artificially relocate the bamboo groves to grow in rows on one side of the field. All of this was carefully planned.

The number of plants will be controlled at fifty, so that the thorns will not be affected. The production of Linquan pumpkin will be reduced to about two fen of land. However, Chen Guang predicts that this will not happen. He will break through the third level of Qi Refining this year and will get another acre of exclusive spiritual field. Linquan pumpkin can go to the new spiritual field. The two fen of land will be used to plant blood he shou wu.

That's good. Chen Guang doesn't plan to plant any new kinds of spiritual plants. What he has now is enough to satisfy him.