168 The Busy Plant Hall (1)
The year came to an end.
“Xiaoqian Mountain doesn’t have differing seasons.”
Jiang Ming looked up at the sky. The outside world should be cold, and everything should be withering. However, in Xiaoqian Mountain, the spiritual energy was dense, and the climate was still perfect for farming. The trees were lush, and the weather was mild and cool.
Of course, this was to create the best growth conditions for the spirit fields that covered the mountains.
“I should have harvested some rice today!”
It had been nine months since he planted the spirit rice for the first time. It was time for his third harvest.
With the steady rise of his farming skills, the yield of one acre of Jiang Ming’s land was now more than three buckets more than a regular farmer’s. Every season, he could earn more than three spirit stones.
That was about a dozen spirit stones a year. With his salary from the Plant Hall and the extra money he earned, he made almost fifty spirit stones a year.
Jiang Ming felt that the Plant Hall was not bad. He could stay safe and sound, save money, and still have time to learn other skills.
In the spirit fields, more than a dozen mortals were harvesting rice with sickles. After that, they had to go to the open space in front of Jiang Ming’s courtyard to hull the spirit rice.
When they saw Jiang Ming coming, these mortals greeted him in fear and awe, and they worked even harder.
Working under immortal cultivators was an honor for them.
Of course, there were both risks and benefits. Although violence was forbidden during the day, if they encountered a bad-tempered immortal cultivator at night, it was easy to lose their lives.
It only cost Jiang Ming some silver to hire these mortals to work. Silver was nothing compared to spirit stones. This saved Jiang Ming a lot of effort.
However, they could only do manual tasks.
Jiang Ming inspected the place and nodded. Then, he was ready to leave.
“Ming! Ming!”
Suddenly, a figure ran over from the ridge, shouting enthusiastically.
“Old Gu Zi.”
Jiang Ming glanced at the person who came. It was an old man with gray hair at the third level of the Qi Refinement Realm. He lived on the small green peak like him.
This was the most common demographic in Xiaoqian Mountain. They were old, had low cultivation, and knew nothing else. However, they had to keep earning to support themselves and their family. Thus, they could only rely on farming for a living.
Although Old Gu Zi was an immortal cultivator, he worked here during the day and was reluctant to rent an immortal’s cave at night. Instead, he left Xiaoqian Mountain and lived in a small town with thin spiritual energy outside. He wanted to earn spirit stones by farming so that he could buy a real immortal’s cave for his son in Xiaoqian Mountain and let his son progress further on the path of immortal cultivation.
Jiang Ming sighed internally. This old man had been planting spirit rice here for fifty years. Perhaps, he would have to continue to plant it for the rest of his life.
However, he did not need to remind Old Gu Zi about this. He still had a glimmer of hope internally. Perhaps he wanted to strike gold one day.
Jiang Ming shook his head and threw these thoughts to the back of his mind. He threw the wine gourd to Old Gu Zi and said with a smile, “You got a queue number?”
“Thank you, Ming!” Old Gu Zi’s eyes lit up as he took the wine gourd and carefully poured a little wine into his mouth. Then, he respectfully returned it to Jiang Ming and handed him a note with runes printed on it.
“Here, this is the token I just bought. Ming, it’s not easy to get your number. You come out five times a month. I’ve already harvested two batches of spirit rice since I got your number!”
An immortal cultivator who had mastered the Misty Rain Technique was definitely a hot commodity in this profession. As soon as Jiang Ming’s information was disclosed by the Plant Hall, many people fought to book his services.
Moreover, although Jiang Ming rarely went out, he did his best and he acquired a good reputation in this circle of immortal cultivators.
Old Gu Zi said humbly, “Ming, you must help me. This year’s last harvest is all in your hands.”
Jiang Ming took the token, glanced at it to confirm its authenticity, and then sighed. “Please forgive me. I still have to cultivate because I’m not very strong. I also have to work for the hall. Therefore, I can’t be on duty every day.”
In fact, Jiang Ming was just used to sleeping in and did not want to work.
“Of course, I understand! You must be very busy”
Old Gu Zi quickly nodded and bowed. The Plant Hall had very few people, but they were in charge of thousands of acres of spirit rice fields and spirit herb fields on Xiaoqian Mountain. It was a tiring job.
As he spoke, Old Gu Zi also hurriedly offered Jiang Ming a few spirit stone chips. The low-level individual cultivators could only earn three to five spirit stones a year by farming. Almost all of their complete spirit stones were carefully hidden at home and were rarely taken out.
Jiang Ming took the spirit stone chips, nodded, and walked to Old Gu Zi’s place.