NOVEL NEXT Chapter 23: Selecting Spirit Grass
Chapter 23: Selecting Spirit Grass
After much hard work, the family finally managed to get home half an hour before the agreed time for the spirit grass collectors to arrive.
Before handing over the spirit grass, they still had an important task to do.
Among the three young nephews in the family, apart from the two youngest, Song’er was now five years old. His birthday was in December this year, and he would enter the village school next March.
However, in March each year, spring plowing hadn’t started yet, and the village had no new Clear Eye Grass harvest. This meant they had to select ten plants from this year’s harvest, process them properly, and store them carefully for Song’er to use next year.
Of these ten Clear Eye Grass plants, five were needed for tempering the eyes, and the other five were spares, in case of any unexpected situations that might lead to a shortage of Clear Eye Grass.
The family entered the house and immediately unloaded the baskets of Clear Eye Grass from the cart.
The baskets for Clear Eye Grass at home were much larger than Li Xi’s own backpack, which is why they could transport all the Clear Eye Grass from the 170 mu spirit rice field in one trip.
However, they weren’t going to pour out the Clear Eye Grass for re-selection. They noticed the weather outside was changing, and there was a possibility of rain. The Clear Eye Grass feared rain; if the rain was heavy enough, it could directly lower the quality of the Clear Eye Grass by one grade.
The other family members were experienced and had already separated the high-quality ones while digging up the Clear Eye Grass, waiting to compare and keep the best ones once they got home.
So the only one who needed to re-select the Clear Eye Grass was Li Xi, who lacked experience. However, she didn’t have that many Clear Eye Grass plants from her spirit field, so it wouldn’t take much effort to select them.
Li Xi quickly went to get her small backpack and poured her share of Clear Eye Grass onto the table in her room.
At this time, the sky was gloomy, and the wind had picked up. The room was dimly lit, but the pile of Clear Eye Grass on the table flickered with tiny spots of light in the dark room, appearing quite extraordinary.
“It seems little sister’s Clear Eye Grass is definitely of high quality!” Liu Qiniang exclaimed in surprise.
“Looking at this spiritual light, it’s the first time I’ve seen so many high-quality Clear Eye Grass gathered in one place!” Li Shan stepped forward quickly to examine them closely.
If anyone in the family was most concerned about Li Xi’s farming, it was Li Shan.
It wasn’t that others didn’t care, but Li Shan had always had a strange feeling that Li Xi was the only hope among the younger generation who loved farming and had talent for it.
So he was particularly attentive to Li Xi’s farming results.
At this moment, he picked up a Clear Eye Grass from the table, examined it carefully, and suddenly said excitedly, “Quick, light the lamps, light several!”
The family members immediately sprang into action, each finding a lamp and lighting it with a fire starter. The dim light in the room suddenly brightened, the light slightly fluctuating with the gentle flicker of the oil lamp flames.
Everyone crowded around the central table, bowing their heads to observe, as if performing some mysterious ritual.
A moment later, everyone burst into exclamations of surprise, some even cracking their voices.
“All high and medium grade! No low grade!” x6
Only Li Xi remained calm, in stark contrast to everyone else’s excitement.
It wasn’t that she was truly calm, but that she hadn’t yet learned how to distinguish the quality of Clear Eye Grass.
It was the ignorance of one not yet steeped in knowledge that made her appear calm.
But after hearing everyone’s exclamations clearly, she also belatedly burst into surprise.
“Really? Are they all really high and medium grade?” She couldn’t help but cup her face in her hands and grin foolishly.
Although it was her first time farming, she knew the significance of producing all high and medium grade crops.
To say nothing else, in Taohua Village alone, no one could match her. However, what she cared about more wasn’t this.
“We’ve struck it rich, we’ve struck it rich!” Li Xi didn’t think deeply about how amazing her talent was, but was more excited about how many more spirit pearls she would earn.
Then, she suddenly felt a pair of large hands grab her waist, and her whole body was lifted up, just like an adult lifting a small child high in the air.
“Dad!” She was startled.
Li Shan happily lifted Li Xi, his face showing excitement, pride, and a dreamlike feeling.
He indeed felt as if he were in a dream.
Li Xi was his daughter!
She! For her first time farming! Produced! High grade!!!
Li Xi wanted to struggle at first, but seeing how excited Li Shan was, she decided against it. Let Dad be happy.
But what she didn’t expect was that she was then passed around among all the adults in the family.
Everyone’s face showed delight and excitement.
Well, well, I might as well join in, she thought.
So Li Xi also smiled more happily, blending perfectly with her family.
When she was finally put down, she still felt a bit of lingering excitement.
Since she had grown a bit older, it had been a long time since she had played the game of being lifted high. She had to admit, it was still as fun as when she was little~
Ahem, I’m already ten years old, stay calm.
After the whole family’s excitement subsided, they didn’t forget about the task of selecting the spirit grass.
“I feel like the Clear Eye Grass I selected earlier can’t compare to little sister’s,” Li Jiang said.
Li Shan, still not fully recovered from his excitement, said, “I think the quality of Xi’er’s Clear Eye Grass is probably better than most of what we selected.”
Everyone else agreed.
Li Xi watched as Li Shan’s large hands skillfully sorted through the Clear Eye Grass, continuously setting aside the high-grade ones with more spiritual light on the plants. Then he suddenly stopped.
“Xi’er’s Clear Eye Grass has more high-grade ones, it would be simpler to pick out the medium-grade ones instead.”
So he began to pick out the medium-grade Clear Eye Grass.
As a result, only high-grade Clear Eye Grass remained on the table, but there were too many high-grade ones, so they still needed to select the best among them.
Li Shan was excited internally. What a happy problem to have! He wished for more of such problems!
After a series of selections and comparisons, they finally chose the best ten plants from among the high-grade Clear Eye Grass.
These ten Clear Eye Grass plants were distinctly different from the others.
Their bodies were dark blue, almost black, with spiritual light flickering regularly all over the plants. Even though they had been separated from the soil for some time, they still seemed to be breathing.
They were the highest of the high grade, just half a step away from becoming top-grade Clear Eye Grass.
As for the other Clear Eye Grass, Li Shan discussed with Li Xi and decided to mix them into the family’s Clear Eye Grass collection.
After all, Li Xi was still young, and being too conspicuous wasn’t necessarily a good thing.
Once everything was done, they loaded all the Clear Eye Grass baskets back onto the cart. The appointed time was approaching, and they needed to set out immediately.
Seeing how gloomy the weather had become and the increasing wind, Wu Jingwan quickly went to the storehouse to fetch an oilcloth to cover the cart.
The three men in the family took the Clear Eye Grass to the village threshing ground, while the two sisters-in-law stayed behind to cook. Wang Xiuniang took advantage of the freshness of the Clear Eye Grass to quickly process it.
Li Xi had wanted to join the excitement and see what Tianyan Sect cultivators other than Teacher Chen looked like, but remembering the homework Teacher Chen had assigned, she decided to stay home and practice the hand seals for the Fireball Technique.
Starting from scratch, Li Xi cycled through countless failures in her practice.
Li Shan and Li Jiang were guarding the oilcloth beside the cart, while Li He was pulling the cart in front.
“Dad, shouldn’t our family raise an ox now?” Li Jiang said to Li Shan, watching his elder brother pull the cart in front.
“Our family is going out more and more frequently, and Sister-in-law wants to sell food. Having an ox would be more convenient!”
Li Shan, while holding down the oilcloth and avoiding the wind blowing from the front, said, “Dad has been thinking about this too, and now I have some ideas.”
Hearing his father say this, Li Jiang immediately became interested: “What ideas, Dad?”
Li He, pulling the cart in front, couldn’t easily join the conversation, but he was also very interested, his ears pricked up to listen carefully.