9: Chapter 9 Strange Reward

"Even though I've made a Breakthrough to the Qi Refining Sixth Layer, it shouldn't have hit you this hard, right?"

"Planting spirit rice in the threshing floor?"

"You're just being wasteful."

Ding Xin stomped on the hard ground beneath his feet.

[You have completed the sowing of spirit rice, Experience +10.]

Hearing the pleasant sound in his ear, Zhao Mo gave a gentle smile.

"Hmph, a mere Qi Refining Sixth Layer. I'll be able to reach that Breakthrough by the end of the year."

"Come over and help me cover this with the transparent film."

"Sigh! I went through a lot of trouble for this stuff, and spent quite a few purple gold coins too."

Zhao Mo muttered to himself. This transparent film was actually a type of silk spun by a spider demon; Liu Yue had gone through a great deal of effort to get it for him.

This was to ensure the hybrid spirit rice seedlings germinated smoothly, which was why Zhao Mo had specifically replicated a plastic greenhouse.

The rest involved watering and ventilating every few days.

It was just a pity he couldn't farm any experience points from it, which made Zhao Mo rather unhappy.

After about twenty days, Zhao Mo officially transplanted the ten-centimeter-tall seedlings into the spirit fields.

[You have completed the transplanting of seedlings, Experience +10.]

"Holy crap, do you have to be such a freak?"

Looking at the seedlings lined up in perfect rows and columns in the spirit field, Ding Xin was stunned.

Since ancient times, planting spirit rice meant throwing seeds directly into the field and waiting for the harvest. The more diligent ones might pull some weeds or water them, but few ever applied fertilizer.

It was nothing like Zhao Mo, who first laid out lines and then planted them one by one by hand.

"Look, doesn't doing it this way make things like weeding much more convenient?"

Zhao Mo was helpless too; the hybridization techniques in his mind were a complete set, and every step he took followed the technical requirements.

Ding Xin nodded in agreement. "Mm-hmm."

But he still felt like something wasn't quite right.

Returning to his own spirit field and looking at the scattered seedlings inside, Ding Xin inexplicably felt like learning from Zhao Mo, but then he shook his head, tossing the thought out of his mind.

"I'll wait until Senior Brother Zhao is successful, just like with the composting."

After the seedlings were transplanted into the spirit field, the rest was watering and weeding. As for the fertilizer from the pig manure pile, it had been applied before the spirit field was flooded.

In a flash, it was the heading stage. Although it wasn't the first time, every time Ding Xin saw Zhao Mo in the spirit field with only his head showing, he couldn't help but be shocked. He never thought spirit rice could grow like this—this wasn't spirit rice anymore, was it a spirit rice tree?

In fact, it wasn't just Zhao Mo; everyone in Xiao Ji Village who grew spirit rice had noticed Zhao Mo's spirit field.

This hybrid spirit rice was already starting to attract attention.

Zhao Mo, inside the spirit field, didn't notice any of this. All his focus was now on the spirit rice in the field.

And for good reason—this hybrid spirit rice had actually attracted bugs.

"Damn it, die!"

Zhao Mo held a refined iron needle, about one and a half meters long and as thick as a finger, with a tip ground sharp and lethal.

Impaled on the iron needle was a palm-sized flying insect. It was grayish-brown, oval-shaped, with six legs and wings, and it flew incredibly fast.

Most hateful of all, every time it came, it would cling to the rice stalks and gnaw on them, not stopping until it had eaten through the stalk.

Fortunately, its weakness was also obvious: every time it flew, it made a loud buzzing sound. As long as it was discovered in time, one just had to catch it.

"How is it?"

"Did you catch it?"

Zhao Mo raised the iron spike. "Caught it."

[You have completed pest control in the spirit field, Experience +10.]

"What the hell is this thing? I've never seen this damn thing before."

Zhao Mo looked at the few withered spirit rice plants nearby, feeling a bit of heartache. These were all from the first wave that had been eaten.

"It's probably some kind of Demon Worm."

"Maybe it's only interested in your hybrid spirit rice; there aren't any in my spirit field."

Zhao Mo was speechless.

At the beginning, only one would fly in every few days, but now that the spirit rice was nearing the heading stage, one came almost every day.

However, there was an upside: catching these things actually gave experience points. Because of this, Zhao Mo had gained seventy experience points for free, which could be called a blessing in disguise.

To Zhao Mo's disappointment, once the hybrid spirit rice passed the heading stage, those Demon Worms stopped appearing, causing Zhao Mo to lose the opportunity to continuously farm experience points.

As the autumn harvest approached, the number of people passing by Zhao Mo's spirit field increased every day.

Even Luo Yan, whom he hadn't seen for a long time, became warm toward Zhao Mo again, constantly fishing for information about what was going on with his spirit rice.

Even though she was a Fellow Daoist he had played cards with, Zhao Mo remained tight-lipped.

"Hmph, after all my devotion to you, you're actually like this. I won't let you off."

Zhao Mo was speechless~

How was he being? Wasn't it just that he didn't react a moment ago?

Luo Yan left in a huff, and Zhao Mo felt more and more that provoking this woman had been a mistake.

August 18th, sunny, an auspicious day for all things.

Zhao Mo officially began harvesting the spirit rice.

[You have completed the spirit field harvest, Experience +10.]

[Reward: After one hundred and fifty-three days of careful tending, your spirit field has yielded a bumper harvest. Experience +200. Special rewards: ox-driving whip and ox tether.]

"Two hundred experience points? Doesn't that mean I can directly advance to the Qi Refining Sixth Layer?"

"And what's this ox whip?"

Unfortunately, with Ding Xin by his side, Zhao Mo couldn't check the System.

"Holy cow, these rice ears—"

"They're so damn long, so damn big."

Ding Xin looked at the harvested hybrid spirit rice and couldn't stop praising it.

"Knock it off. Haven't you seen enough in the spirit field? This flattery is too forced," Zhao Mo grumbled.

Ding Xin held a rice grain about four or five centimeters long and said exaggeratedly, "Look, I'm not lying."

Looking more closely at the harvested spirit rice, his face flushed. "Senior Brother Zhao, this really might yield a thousand catties per mu."

"Quick, quick, I'll help you thresh it."

The two of them began threshing the spirit rice, handful by handful.

"Yo~"

"Threshing, are we?"

"How should I address you, Senior Brother?"

"What kind of spirit rice seed did you use?"

While Zhao Mo and Ding Xin were busy threshing, people kept coming by. Besides those greetings, most were asking Zhao Mo if he would sell the spirit rice.

Even more exaggeratedly, from the moment Zhao Mo started harvesting, his home never lacked visitors until the spirit rice was dried.

"Two thousand eight hundred and eighty-three catties. That's over nine hundred and sixty catties per mu."

*Hiss—*

"Truly terrifying."

The sound of people sharply drawing in breath filled the air.

One had to know that their spirit fields could only yield three to four hundred catties of spirit rice per mu. Seeing it more than double now, how could they not be shocked?

"Senior Brother Zhao, is this spirit rice for sale?"

These people had been watching ever since Zhao Mo harvested the spirit rice.

Zhao Mo naturally knew what these people meant and what they were plotting, but he didn't call them out. Instead, he said with a smile, "I'll let you fellow Senior and Junior Brothers know, I developed this spirit rice myself."

"The yield is very high now, but this is also my first year of trial planting. What does it taste like? Can it be replanted? Does it contain the same Spiritual Qi as ordinary spirit rice? I don't know any of that."

"If you still insist on buying, I'll sell it for ten purple gold coins per catty."

"Those who want to buy, come now, we'll weigh it directly."

"It's ten times the price?"

The crowd went silent for a moment, then Luo Yan was the first to speak.

"Give me three catties."

Zhao Mo: "Swear an oath that you won't use this spirit rice as seeds."

Luo Yan: "On what grounds?"

"Everyone, help me judge this."

The crowd began to stir.

"Right, right."

"On what grounds?"

"I'm buying the spirit rice with my own money; I can do whatever I want with it."

Zhao Mo said angrily, "Junior Brother Ding, carry it all into the courtyard. I'm not selling anymore."

"That's not up to you."

A deep voice spoke from behind Luo Yan.

"Today, you'll sell this spirit rice whether you want to or not."

Zhao Mo: "Who is Your Excellency? Are you planning to force a sale?"