A '1000 Likes'-level Forest Spirit

"Mom, I've meant to discuss with you about certain matters." After getting all the 'love' from Hana's warm hugs, Shiro laid his head upon her lap while savoring on the tender caress given by his mistress. Occasionally, he peeked at the glutton within the spirit pearl pile with worry clouding his eyes.

"Yeah? I knew you had something to add, Shi-chan." Hana spoke while absentmindedly enjoying Shiro's luxuriant fur. She tried her best not to be bothered by the ravenous little bird. Hana, too was worried, since these pearls were her only cultivation resources. Before, she felt like she was stinking rich, but now, at the rate of how this little one gobble up the pearls like candy, she felt like she needed to do something drastic. If not, all these pearls could be gone in a matter of a week or so. Markisah was quietly perching over her shoulder with curiosity. She was still a little confused about the new inhabitant of her friend's sojourn.

"Would you like to visit Ara? Why not visit her home for a while? At the same time, we could iron out the details about our deal with the Waterwave Clan. The deal needed to start, Mom. Their side had been eagerly waiting to send their first test subje.. ehem, their first volunteer. We have delayed enough."

"I did feel that way, deary. I, too, wanted to visit little Ara. However, before anything else, we don't have enough resources to support more experime.. er, cooking sessions. If you and your brother needed to go out to find ingredients, again and again, each time, it'd be very inefficient. The number of trials will significantly be reduced too. It will affect the overall results. We need enough data so that we could tabulate proper statistics. To get enough data, we needed resources too, besides an ample amount of volunteers." Hana ruminated for a second before answering.

Hana was a science-research based student a long time ago. Although she had forgotten most of it, she still understood the reliability of data due to her own experience. With the lack of statistical software, she couldn't implement the highly advanced experimental designs. However, she could still try the conventional way. However, the conventional approach was famed with wasting resources and time. She might need to do so many trials for years to get a reliable result! She didn't have that luxury to complete the whole research. Nonetheless, she was willing to try for the sake of obtaining resources for her beloved little pets.

"Tell me what else do you need. Maybe I could help?"

"First things first, we need to decide our variables." Hana smiled.

"What is a variable, Mom?" Shiro tilted his head in confusion.

"For example, what is truly needed for advancement? Is it the spirituality of the ingredients? How many are needed? Its energy level and age? How about the supporting ingredients? What about the attribute of the main ingredient? Will the natural attribute of a spiritual beast be affected by the attributes of the ingredients used? Mommy can say that from Mommy's observation, the dangerous shrimp skewer had a lower effect on you when compared to your brother. This is also a point that we need to observe. In conclusion, we needed to know what point we have to focus on as a fixed variable."

The sheer number of questions had made Shiro dizzy. His happy-go-lucky mistress had such a complicated mind! He still couldn't really catch what the aunty was saying. Deep inside, he felt a little regretful for spurring Mom into discussing difficult things with him. Since he had crossed the bridge halfway, he had to grit his teeth and go forward until the end!

Hana continued seriously as her science-mode switched on, "In truth, the variation is endless. What we need to do is scope down and target what we want to know first. From there, we list down the type of main ingredients together with their attributes, that has the possibility of advancement. Then we determine the kind of cooking needed. Then, start a large scale of foraging or hunting for the main and auxiliary ingredients systematically. Then, we could finally start implementing the experiment daily and collect data via observation. Both of your spiritual senses will be very important to observe how the energy flows and how a spirit beast will be affected with each round of meal."

Shiro scrunched his brow and nodded hesitantly. "..Then, how can I help?"

"You need to tell me first how a spiritual beast advanced the conventional way. Is it the same for all, or got a different requirement for different attributed spirit beasts. Besides that, we need to start collecting resources."

"I have an idea, Mom."

"Alright. Go ahead."

"How about we start planting? We determine first what cooking we will make. Limit it to maybe three to five types? Then, we make fields to plant all the auxiliary ingredients. Make them all into low spiritual-grade ingredients."

"Hmmm.. that is really a good idea, but the manpower needed will be huge! Another thing is the matter of finding seeds or younglings to start the replanting process. How about the age of the plants and their spirituality? I remember that plants with spirituality are the ones with effects, right?" Hana pondered. In truth, there were so many limitations to implement Shiro's idea. Mostly, it was due to being too time-consuming.

"The manpower you need is outside, Mom. We have so many grunts lazing around getting your mental power daily for free. It's time to use them. Additionally, the incoming new helpers from the river could be used as grunts to water the plants too. You can just sit tight and observe like a big 'taitai' landlady (1) WAHAHA." Shiro suggested to Hana while he chuckled gleefully as he envisioned himself as the supervisor for all these lowly servants. Just thinking about it had already given him a kick.

Markisah flew towards Hana's face with eagerness, "I can help you with gathering seeds, Hana! Just let me know what kind of seeds you need. I have lots of friends! Tell her, Fox." Shiro rolled his eyes and sent over Markisah's suggestion.

"Really? Thank you, Markisah! I'll be counting on you for seed collection later. Then, what about the spirituality of plants?"

"We'll work together to graft the same formation for our home in the fields? It's worth trying. We just needed to discuss this matter with Grand Elder Watershade. I'm sure such a small investment will be worth it for his clan." Shiro smiled. He had truly been affected by his mistress' positivity.

"How about the time needed to grow?" This was the most crucial part. If they needed to wait for the plants to grow, they could only start cooking after a few months or even years!

Kuro slithered in quietly and jumped as he naturally circled around Hana's throat like a beautiful onyx necklace. "To the east of our land is the place of a Forest Spirit. It is very timid and loves to hide. But its specialty lies in wood-attributed energy gathering. Wherever it steps upon, the vegetation will grow just like being doused by extra-strength fertilizer. Additionally, it is super cute! I'm sure Mommy will love it! I will catch a Forest Spirit for you, Mommy, just enslave it and force it to work in the fields. Hehehe. You won't regret it."

Hana, Markisah and Shiro, "..." =_____=

Shiro sighed in his heart. [This guy... He's already scheming to start conquering the nearby areas. As long as Mom said yes, it'll be considered a done deal.] He waited for Mom's response while sighing again. Who was he to say anything? Bro-Ku did all this for all of their sakes.

They waited patiently as Hana think through about the plan forming. It actually sounded doable this time. She had tried to think if there were any loopholes left, but for the time being, there seemed to be none. Maybe, just maybe, they could really do it? Will they be able to cultivate the land outside into a sustainable resource in the shortest amount of time? Who wouldn't want that?

"...How cute?" Hana's eye glittered as she envisioned the cuteness of the imaginary 'Spirit Forest' in her mind.

"You'd give it 1000 likes for sure," Kuro replied confidently.

"On!" Although she felt guilty, she suppressed it well, as her curiosity shone intensely. She will give all the tender-loving-care the new pet needed as compensation later. Additionally, she will just let it play in the fields and eat whatever to its heart's content, no need to do any dangerous things. She felt that she could live with that. She will just hole herself in this beautiful sojourn for safety, hence reducing the probability of danger upon herself, and the others bound to her.

Hana kept on thinking about excuses after excuses to convince herself to agree with her little ones' suggestions. Deep in her heart, she felt quite excited to try building an artificial spiritually-imbued crop. She could possibly own cheat-like fields like Zhao Hai~���️ (2)

Our aunty's weakness had been grasped adequately by her own little pet. Oh, Hana.. you're really so helpless!

...

A large spiritual beast felt tremors running through its veins.

It looked upwards in confusion. The greens in its mouth slipped out as it detected something unusual in the air.

[Three leaves of a different color, different shapes, and different smell fell together accompanied by a sudden gust of dark wind.]

[A dark omen is descending!]

[I need to hide!]

The last time it saw such omen was around three hundred years ago when a Lightning Serpent rampaged in the nearby area. The smell of death lingered in its nostrils for weeks, unforgettable still, to its quivering heart. The large, yet timid creature galloped as fast as the wind in between the thick foliage. Every step it took, lush vegetation appeared and grew as fast as the eye could see. This tiny vegetation finally grew into a dense foliage, completely obscuring the steps of the timid beast.

...

Authors' Note:

1. a big 'taitai' landlady = taitai is a Chinese colloquial term for a wealthy married woman who didn't have to work and just enjoy life haha. Yes, this word is also used in Malaysia as the Chinese community was the 2nd majority of the nation. Most generic colloquial Malay, Chinese and Indian terms are used widely by everyone since everyone knew what it means. So, our local English was a little different and didn't conform with a proper English speakers' knowledge. Though, of course, it is during informal situations. Everyone tried their best to speak proper formal English during other times.

2. Zhao Hai = the MC of 'Bringing a farm to another world' XD