Chapter 32: Weeds Planting

Upon arriving at the canyon, which he hadn't visited for a long time, it was exactly as Fang Yun expected; the canyon was overgrown with weeds. After all, without management for such a long time, even the small squares he had created earlier were helpless in this situation.

He sensed the discomfort conveyed by the crops, reminiscent of a sick child crying to their parents, causing Fang Yun a headache. He could only quickly set down the magical long knife and start weeding with the hoe.

After spending several days, he finally cleared all the weeds. He then used the Earth Force Technique to adjust the energy in the soil, concentrating it back into the small squares. Next, he used the Spiritual Rain Technique to replenish nutrients for the medicinal herbs and the yellow bean sprouts that had already grown.

After being nourished by the Spiritual Rain Technique, these crops finally regained their vitality. Unfortunately, due to the delays and the nutrient competition from the weeds, the previously cultivated rice seedlings had not grown at all. Even those that had grown somewhat were not suitable for transplanting.

Unable to do anything else, Fang Yun could only clear all the rice seedlings. However, he didn't continue with the cultivation because he needed to think carefully about what crops to expand into next.

When conducting large-scale planting, there are many factors to consider. Given his situation, the crops he needed must at least be easy to manage and have a short growth cycle.

From this perspective, rice was obviously not suitable for large-scale planting. This crop requires more precise cultivation, and if not cared for properly, the yield would drastically decrease. When the quantity is small, Fang Yun can manage it, but once the scale is expanded, he couldn't provide the same meticulous care for 100 acres of rice as he currently does.

As for those pirates, while they might be able to clear land, relying on them to carefully tend to rice is impossible. If he insisted on planting rice, the yield would be predictable. While Fang Yun wasn't overly concerned about a reduced yield, he was worried that a decreased yield would also lead to a significant drop in the vital energy produced, which he couldn't accept.

Furthermore, on Spirit Water Island, apart from the banks of the great river, there weren't many rice paddies elsewhere, which also limited rice cultivation.

After calmly considering this, Fang Yun decided to exclude rice from his future planting plans. Unless he could find a suitable place for rice to grow in the future, he would reconsider then.

The reason he had initially chosen this crop was due to the influence of the spiritual rice grown on the mountain and the fact that his family members cultivated rice, which had formed a habitual way of thinking.

Having eliminated rice, which wasn't suitable for large-scale planting, Fang Yun looked at the yellow beans, which were also one of the crops most cultivated by his family in dry land. However, compared to the rice along the banks of the great river, these yellow beans were only planted sporadically.

His family had never thought of using these yellow beans to sustain their family. Besides these two crops, the family hadn't cultivated any others. For instance, he had never seen corn, which was popular across the nation in his previous life, on this island. He didn't know if corn seeds simply didn't exist in this world.

If nothing unexpected happened, it seemed that Fang Yun could only choose this one crop to cultivate. However, thinking about the fact that 100 acres of yellow beans would only yield a small amount of vital energy made Fang Yun feel quite a loss. After all, having spent so much time, the returns were too little.

Yet, he had no choice. Whether it was rice or yellow beans, they were ultimately just ordinary crops, far inferior to spiritual rice, which absorbed spiritual energy. Therefore, Fang Yun urgently wanted to find a more cost-effective crop to replace these yellow beans.

It would be best if the crops had a shorter growth time and did not require meticulous care. However, this was ultimately just Fang Yun's delusion. Even in his previous life, there weren't many crops easier to manage and with a shorter growth time than yellow beans, let alone on this island.

Shaking his head, he dispelled the unrealistic thoughts from his mind. He returned to the cave to continue restoring his magical power. After his trip to the canyon, he had used two spells and consumed some magical power points. Without sufficient vital energy, his magical power was indeed not enough. As for the matters down the mountain, Fang Yun wasn't in a hurry; he would deal with them after his magical power had been restored.

In the following days, Fang Yun alternated between restoring his magical power and tending to the crops on both sides. One day, while clearing away the newly grown weeds in the spiritual field, he suddenly had a flash of inspiration when he looked at the green sprouts of weeds in his hands.

There really was a plant with a better cost-performance ratio than yellow beans in this world. That was the weeds in front of him. These weeds had a short growth cycle, were not picky about their growing environment, and required no management at all—once planted, they could be left to grow unattended.

Were there any plants easier to manage than these weeds? What he needed to consider was whether these weeds fell within the range of his "golden finger" ability. However, thinking about it, the golden finger's effects pertained to plants, so it should be useful for these weeds as well.

Now, all that was left was to see how much vital energy these weeds could provide him. Regardless of how much it could provide, this management method was still very convenient for him. He could easily plant these weeds in other areas while growing yellow beans. In that case, it could be considered a gain.

However, he needed to think about which type of weed to plant, and collecting the seeds of these weeds might also take some time. So, Fang Yun went into the canyon to look for suitable weeds.

While there were also weeds in the spiritual field, those were clearly feeding on spiritual energy. Although they appeared to produce more vital energy than ordinary weeds, their environmental requirements were also quite demanding; they needed spiritual energy to grow. Thus, Fang Yun never considered the weeds in the spiritual field from the very beginning.

After deliberately observing in the canyon, Fang Yun soon discovered that the weeds in this world were actually quite similar to those from his previous life. Among these weeds, he quickly found some familiar varieties that met his needs, such as foxtail grass, cowherb, horse mint, and purslane.