The Elixir is for You, The Poison is for Me

#369 - Ecological Farm

Lu Jing also realized, after consulting with Wu Han, that he had been a bit naive about farming.

Reality isn't a game where you click a mouse a few times, scatter seeds, and then press a shortcut key to cast a spell and everything is fine.

While lush growth can certainly promote plant growth, it doesn't mean you don't need to choose a suitable environment, or that you don't need to cultivate, water, and fertilize.

Previously, he had mostly used Verdant Surge to stimulate plants that were already growing on the back mountain. Now that he was starting from scratch, there were many more things to consider.

Take sowing seeds, for example. If Wu Han hadn't told him, Lu Jing would have only known that ginseng prefers shade, but he wouldn't have known what kind of soil it needed, how deep to bury the seeds, how far apart to plant them, whether or not to thin the seedlings, and so on…

As for how to deal with diseases and pests, he was even more clueless. Even after listening to Wu Han's explanation, he still lacked the relevant experience to make the right judgment in the first place.

After listening, Lu Jing almost wanted to give up before he even started.

But he quickly realized that he was being a bit of a perfectionist.

His main goal was to practice Verdant Surge, and farming was just a way to earn some extra money. Besides, Wu Han had promised to provide him with seeds, and if he grew them well, he could keep the harvest; if he didn't, he wouldn't lose anything.

With that in mind, Lu Jing no longer had any worries.

Following Wu Han's instructions, he chose a shady slope on the back mountain, cultivated half an acre of land there, and threw all five hundred ginseng seeds down in one go.

Then, without a second thought, he rolled up his sleeves and began casting Verdant Surge on the edge of the field.

Lu Jing could feel the mystic energy constantly湧 out from his Niwan Palace, transforming into spells that landed on his newly cultivated herb field. After about half an hour, movement finally came from the bare soil, and tender seedlings emerged.

You have to know that if the seeds underground were left to grow naturally, the process of sprouting alone would take almost a month.

Farming… doesn't seem that difficult after all.

Lu Jing felt like he had found the cheat code for farming. However, when he stopped and checked the herb field, he couldn't help but feel a little deflated.

Because he discovered that the seedlings didn't look like ginseng seedlings at all, but rather like the weeds that he had removed from his yard before.

After a moment's thought, Lu Jing quickly understood what was going on.

There must have been a lot of weed seeds in the herb field he had cultivated. These weed seeds, like the ginseng seeds he had sown, were all wrapped in the soil.

And there were even more of them than his ginseng seeds, so most of the Verdant Surge that Lu Jing cast landed on these weed seeds, causing them to grow like crazy.

As everyone knows, weeding is a worldwide problem, especially without herbicides. Manual weeding wouldn't be tiring for a top expert like Lu Jing, but it would be too time-consuming, plus he would have to find a way to identify the ginseng seedlings from among the weeds.

Lu Jing gave it a brief try and gave up on this difficult task.

His most valuable asset right now was time, and he didn't have time to crouch in the field and identify each seedling, so his final solution was simple: to lie flat.

Anyway, there are weeds growing next to wild ginseng, so a few weeds in the herb field… shouldn't be a big deal, right?

Lu Jing consoled himself.

Competition brings progress. That's not what I said, that's what Darwin said.

He had heard the story of the wolves and the sheep since he was a child. Everyone thought that the sheep would continue to grow and thrive after losing the threat of predators, but they never thought that the lack of competition would accelerate the sheep's decline, causing them to eat too much, move too little, and greatly reduce their lifespan.

Isn't the ending of the sheep herd worth being vigilant about?!

Okay, Lu Jing admitted that the main reason was that the seeds were free.

… … … …

After determining the development direction of his ecological farm, Lu Jing watered the herb field a bit more, and then continued to cast Verdant Surge.

As a result, after practicing for two hours, he looked down and found that the herb field in front of him had turned into a large patch of weeds, with dense weeds everywhere.

Lu Jing couldn't help but scratch his head as he looked at the results of his afternoon's work. He felt like he could even save the effort of setting up an illusion array, because the place no longer looked like a herb field at all.

To find the ginseng inside, you had to work hard to part the weeds, and you had to have good eyesight.

Honestly, this was quite different from Lu Jing's expectations, but there was nothing he could do now, so he could only leave it like this for the time being.

Lu Jing glanced at the remaining He Shou Wu seeds in his hand, and decided to find a sunny place nearby tomorrow and do the same.

After that, he would just keep casting Verdant Surge on both sides.

As for the final harvest, Lu Jing didn't have high hopes for it now.

If it really didn't work out, he would find other ways to make money. Anyway, there were still half a year left, so it wasn't too urgent.

Seeing that the sun was about to set, Lu Jing packed up his things and walked towards his residence, planning to go back and practice his sword control technique for a while.

As a result, he saw Chen Hanqing, the disciple of the Divine Fist Sect, standing outside his courtyard again from afar.

This time, the latter had changed into a martial suit, holding a heavy sword in his arms, standing with his chest out in front of his courtyard gate. This appearance attracted the attention of many passersby.

People pointed and talked about him from time to time, but he just closed his eyes and didn't answer, as if he didn't care at all. But Lu Jing noticed that he was actually pricking up his ears, eavesdropping on the discussions of those around him.

"Brother Chen, are you well? What brings you here to find me this time?"

Hearing Lu Jing's question, Chen Hanqing finally opened his eyes, and then a hint of anger appeared on his face, and he sneered.

"Grandmaster Lu is truly forgetful. Have you already forgotten our agreement this morning? Or are you deliberately leaving me here, just to embarrass me? If that's the case, I'm afraid Grandmaster Lu will be disappointed. The longer I stand outside your door, the more everyone will see your cowardice!"

"What agreement do I have with you?" Lu Jing was stumped by the question.

"Challenge," Chen Hanqing spat out two words coldly from between his teeth.

"Oh, but don't you have a messenger? I thought you would have the messenger send it directly." Lu Jing really didn't expect Chen Hanqing to come all the way here again for this matter.

That's too polite.

Chen Hanqing was choked by Lu Jing's words and couldn't speak for a long time. After a moment, he said again, "It's no use hiding from me. I've already pasted the challenge on your courtyard wall. So many people have come and gone this afternoon, and many have seen it. It is estimated that it will soon spread throughout the academy. By then, whether you accept it or not will be irrelevant."