Chapter 70: Chapter 70: The Mountain Lord’s Recompense
The village head bustled off again, and Wang Sheng himself returned to his room with two ink sticks that were still a bit soft.
He wouldn’t be using these ink sticks any time soon as they required a long time to air dry. After finding a dry place to store them, he returned to the yard, or more accurately, to the cultivated area.
He had planted a variety of things. Having not tended to them before, they were mostly thrown in haphazardly, as long as they could be planted.
Recently, having some time on his hands, he had started tidying up the medicinal herb field, classifying and organizing all the plants.
After all, during the process of sorting out the medicinal herbs, he could also progress his “Medicinal Plant Cultivation” skill.
“This is Codonopsis…”
…
It took him two or three days to classify and organize all the medicinal herbs. He also found the right spot for the Iron Wood, and then finally—
“Rice!”
He had been growing rice in Qingshan Village for some time, although not much, just a small plot of about one square meter.
Back then, because he hadn’t paid much attention to it, he had invested the least amount of time among all his skills into it, working on it only when he remembered, so he hadn’t yet achieved a Breakthrough.
However, after such a long time, he was nearly there.
“Rice Planting: 9 (8%)”
He had originally planned to let things take their natural course, but a new idea had sparked his interest.
What would the yield be like for an ordinary person or a Martial Artist who planted seeds of medicinal herbs or rice, post-Breakthrough?
Of course, he wasn’t considering the speed of planting, but rather the effects of the yield.
For example, the Codonopsis that he grew after three Breakthroughs in “Medicinal Plant Cultivation” certainly had extraordinary effects. Would an ordinary person planting seeds with three Breakthroughs yield something extraordinary too?
However, even ordinary medicinal herb cultivation took a long time, which is why he turned his attention to rice.
But it wasn’t just rice.
“Chrysanthemums can be experimented with too!”
Both chrysanthemums and rice, under normal circumstances, took a few months to mature from seedlings.
For ordinary people or Martial Artists, even if a Breakthrough required more time, it was still shorter than the cultivation time for medicinal herbs.
Most importantly, both rice and chrysanthemum planting were skills the villagers were good at and were easy to grow.
Thus, when Li Yongfeng came by, Wang Sheng immediately presented him with the seeds from the post-Breakthrough chrysanthemums.
“Brother Yongfeng, could you plant these chrysanthemum seeds?”
Li Yongfeng looked at the small bag of chrysanthemum seeds in his hand, utterly baffled about why he was suddenly asked to plant chrysanthemums.
But he nodded anyway.
“Sure, I’ll plant them.”
It wasn’t large-scale cultivation and wouldn’t take much time.
Wang Sheng nodded and said, “Call me when they bloom!”
“Will do!”
Although it seemed somewhat cryptic, Li Yongfeng didn’t ask too many questions. If there was something special about them, he would find out once they were grown and the results were in. So he took the chrysanthemum seeds home with him.
Back at home, Li Wenguang saw the cloth bag in his hand and curiously asked, “What’s that?”
“Chrysanthemum seeds Yun Sheng gave me to plant.”
“Given by Yun Sheng? Let me plant them. You’re out all year and definitely don’t know as much about planting as I do.”
Both Li Yongfeng and Li Wenguang took matters related to Wang Sheng very seriously.
After all, if it weren’t for Wang Sheng, Li Yongfeng’s progression to a Martial Artist would not have been so smooth, and he wouldn’t have become the strongest in their group.
Although Li Wenguang was a Hunter, he had also planted chrysanthemums back in Qingshan Village, so he had plenty of planting experience.
After receiving the chrysanthemum seeds, he planted them straightaway and took great care of them every day.
Before long, about a month had passed.
Li Wenguang looked at the germinated chrysanthemum seeds, deeply moved.
Finally, they’ve sprouted!
Li Yongfeng had just come home and saw this scene, quite puzzled.
“Dad, why that expression? Is there something wrong with Yun Sheng’s chrysanthemum seeds?”
Li Wenguang said, “Generally speaking, as long as the temperature is right, chrysanthemum seeds take no more than twenty days to germinate. Our village’s varieties, around ten days should do. But the seeds Yun Sheng gave, stubbornly took a whole month to sprout… If it wasn’t from Yun Sheng, I would have thought someone was playing a trick on me…”
Although Li Yongfeng had helped with farming at home, he only ever did simple tasks, so he didn’t know how many days it should take.
But hearing his father’s words—
“Dad, the chrysanthemum seeds Yun Sheng gave aren’t ordinary.”
“Nonsense, don’t I know that? Don’t worry, I’ll take good care of them.”
Of course, Li Wenguang knew the chrysanthemum seeds Wang Sheng had given were extraordinary, not only due to the long germination time but also because of Wang Sheng’s impressive abilities. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have had the patience to wait.
“I’ll go and tell Yun Sheng.”
With that, Li Yongfeng went straight to Wang Sheng’s house and told him about the germination of the chrysanthemum seeds.
“Yun Sheng, what kind of variety are these chrysanthemum seeds? Just for germination, they require such a long time?”
Wang Sheng, hearing that the planting was successful and that the seeds were different from ordinary chrysanthemum seeds, was thrilled inside.
Looking at this situation, it might just be a success!
“A special variety, Brother Yongfeng, you’ll understand once they’re mature!”
Wang Sheng didn’t elaborate. Everything would have to wait until the seeds matured to see the results. Even he couldn’t guarantee the effect of his chrysanthemum planting at maturity, so he wouldn’t speak carelessly.
Li Yongfeng didn’t ask further; his main purpose was to inform about the sprouting.
After updating Wang Sheng, he left directly, and Wang Sheng also planned to go back to focus on his own skills.
At that moment, a wind blew by, carrying a hint of a bloody scent.
Turning around, he saw the Mountain Lord.
The Mountain Lord now went out to search for food every day, which had become its habit.
However, today the Mountain Lord was slightly different; it was carrying something in its mouth.
“Why have you brought food back again?”
Previously, the Mountain Lord had brought food back once, but after being scolded by Wang Sheng, it hadn’t done so since.
The Mountain Lord put down what was in its mouth and then pushed it towards him.
Only then did Wang Sheng clearly see the creature the Mountain Lord had brought back—it appeared to be a wolf.
“Big White, are there wolves around here?”
Big White was the name Wang Sheng had given to the Mountain Lord, which had not objected or seemed to care, so the name stuck.
“Didn’t you say that no other fierce beasts would be around where you are? Or has this one only recently turned up?”
“Roar~”
Big White simply pushed the wolf towards him again; clearly, it couldn’t explain.
Seeing Big White’s actions, Wang Sheng suddenly remembered stories about cats showing gratitude, some of which brought dead rodents back for their owners.
Tigers were strictly a member of the cat family—could it be that it had inherited this “admirable virtue”?
“Big White, it’s good that you brought this back, but I’m not short on food, so…”
“Roar~”
Big White roared, attempting to pull the wolf’s body back—it had found something good and brought it back for him to taste, why all this hesitation, if you don’t want it, forget it!
But at that moment, Wang Sheng pressed down on its paw.
“Trying something new is good too!”
He couldn’t disappoint Big White’s good intentions, but could this wolf be too much to handle?