Two months later.
Qin Ming stood beneath a large tree near the spirit fields.
He tilted his head back, inspecting an earthen-yellow beehive hanging on the tree—it was fully as large as a pot lid.
Buzz!
Buzz!
Buzz!
Buzz!
Tens of thousands of bees continuously swirled and hovered densely around the beehive, a sight that made one’s scalp tingle.
Each bee was as large as a pinky finger, completely snowy white, possessing two pairs of wings and a nearly transparent toxic stinger on its tail that concealed a poison extremely difficult to guard against.
Without careful observation, it would truly be hard to spot them.
This was the Four-Winged Frost Bee, unique to the Yunhuang Great Marsh.
Although unranked, their sheer numbers were overwhelming.
If swarmed by the hive, the toxicity of their tail stingers could even briefly paralyze a cultivator’s spiritual energy circulation.
Of course: Qin Ming no longer feared these insects.
He was merely observing where the queen bee was located to facilitate casting the Bee Control Art.
As long as he controlled the queen bee, he could issue commands to the entire swarm.
“Found it!” Qin Ming’s eyes lit up.
Forming a peculiar hand seal, he struck it into the lower right interior of the beehive.
The [Bee Control Art] trait stored in his sea of consciousness was consumed.
A Frost Bee over five times larger than an ordinary bee was currently sleeping inside.
Suddenly, it felt a wave of dizziness in its head.
A trace of confusion surfaced in its eyes.
Qin Ming succeeded in casting the spell, a smile of joy emerging on his face.
He could clearly feel an inexplicable connection established between himself and that Frost Bee queen.
Immediately after, Qin Ming issued an order to the queen bee.
The bee swarm on the tree suddenly flew out from the hive in droves, heading straight toward the three mu of Yin-Congealing Flower fields Qin Ming had planted.
“It actually works!” Qin Ming was overjoyed.
He promptly gave the Frost Bee queen instructions to have the swarm pollinate the Yin-Congealing Flowers.
Soon: The swarm of Frost Bees began bustling about within the three mu of Yin-Congealing Flower fields.
Qin Ming looked at the spirit fields and nodded with satisfaction.
Originally, Alchemist Su only required him to successfully keep one-tenth of them alive.
Now, the survival rate had reached a terrifying 90%.
Moreover, once this seven-day pollination window concluded, the quality of the spirit herbs surely wouldn’t be too bad.
Qin Ming remained quite confident about this point.
Across the three mu of Yin-Congealing Flower fields, roughly one hundred stalks matured per mu, yielding a total harvest of around three hundred Yin-Congealing Flowers.
If calculated according to the price of five spirit stones per stalk Alchemist Su had quoted him back then, it was already well over a thousand spirit stones.
Qin Ming pondered that perhaps he should consider developing further in the direction of growing spirit herbs and medicinal plants.
…
Seven days later.
The continuous seven-day pollination period came to an end.
The Yin-Congealing Flowers wafted a dense, refreshing fragrance, ready for harvest.
Qin Ming sent a transmission talisman to Alchemist Su.
Before long: Alchemist Su arrived at an unhurried pace, dressed in a white robe with a small bamboo basket slung across his back.
However, when he laid eyes upon the scene of three mu of Yin-Congealing Flowers in full bloom, the expression on his face turned quite magnificent.
“These were all…
grown by you?!” Alchemist Su pointed at the spirit field, staring at Qin Ming with a tone full of disbelief.
Qin Ming gave a dry laugh, “Fluke!
Purely a fluke that I managed to grow them.” Alchemist Su glared at him, “Who are you trying to fool?
A fluke that allowed seven days of continuous pollination to be completely successful?” Saying so, he carefully picked a stalk of Yin-Congealing Flower and examined it closely.
“Hmm…
not bad.
The quality of the Yin-Congealing Flower is top-tier; it can be used for concocting pills.” Then, Alchemist Su turned his head and scrutinized Qin Ming up and down, speaking slowly: “I really couldn’t tell.
Fellow Cultivator Qin’s talent in spirit planting is actually this high.” “Working as a spirit farmer here is truly a waste of your talent.” Qin Ming waved his hand and gave a wry smile, “Alchemist Su flatters me; it’s just good luck.” “Be that as it may, with such a large quantity of Yin-Congealing Flowers, I now owe you a favor, neither too big nor too small,” Alchemist Su said slowly.
“I don’t particularly like owing favors to people.” “How about this: when I refine pills on ordinary days, you are allowed to observe from the side.
However, I won’t teach you step-by-step; how much skill you can learn depends entirely on yourself.
How does that sound?” Alchemist Su spoke earnestly to Qin Ming after a moment of thought.
Hearing this, Qin Ming was instantly overjoyed beyond measure.
Hadn’t he been bustling about for an entire year waiting for precisely these words?!
Even now, Qin Ming could not forget the taste of those two Qi-Gathering Pills from Alchemist Su.
He had even dreamed of a day when he himself could refine pills that boosted cultivation.
“Then I shall accept deferentially,” Qin Ming cupped his hands to express his thanks to Alchemist Su.
Afterward, the two began harvesting the Yin-Congealing Flowers.
“A total of 320 stalks of Yin-Congealing Flowers harvested.
According to our previous agreement, ninety percent for me, ten percent for you.” Alchemist Su immediately pulled out thirty-two stalks from his bamboo basket and handed them to Qin Ming.
“Remember to seal these Yin-Congealing Flowers inside a jade box when you return, otherwise their medicinal properties will dissipate.” Qin Ming took the Yin-Congealing Flowers and stored them away with extreme care.
Afterward, Alchemist Su bade farewell and departed, telling Qin Ming that he would notify him via transmission talisman whenever he was about to refine pills.
Qin Ming did not rush to leave.
Instead, he released the swarm of Four-Winged Frost Bees back to their original location.
After so many days of pollination, these Frost Bees showed no fatigue; on the contrary, every single one appeared exceptionally excited.
‘These bees might come in handy again whenever I plant spirit herbs in the future.
I’ll leave them here for now, and come back to take them after buying a spirit beast bag another day.’ …
Two days later.
The spirit rice in the fields reached full maturity as well.
Deacon Gu of the Spirit Feather Sect led his disciples over to collect the spirit rice tax as usual.
In this season, Qin Ming’s Beast-Tooth Rice had matured completely.
Naturally, it became a key focus of attention during this spirit rice tax collection.
Soon: The four mu of Gold Spirit Rice and one mu of Beast-Tooth Rice were all harvested.
After weighing the harvest with the large measuring bucket artifact, Du Haifu immediately said to Qin Ming: “A total of 12 shi and 40 kg of Gold Spirit Rice harvested.” “A total of 4 shi and 5 kg of Beast-Tooth Rice harvested.” Having announced the numbers, Du Haifu approached Qin Ming with a beaming smile and said, “Congratulations, Fellow Cultivator Qin!
Having completed the harvest of the Beast-Tooth Rice, from this day forward you enjoy a flat 50% tax reduction on all spirit grain.” Qin Ming was somewhat surprised as well; Du Haifu, the tyrant supervisor over the spirit farmers, had actually changed how he addressed him this time.
He didn’t call him “Little Qin,” which Qin Ming didn’t react to for a brief moment.
“I’ll still need Supervisor Du’s care in the future,” Qin Ming replied.
“Fellow Cultivator Qin, this is your identity token for the Spirit Plant Master Assessment.
You can choose your own time to head to the Spirit Feather Sect’s Deacon Hall office inside Qingyang Marketplace to complete the assessment.” Du Haifu produced a wooden token and handed it to Qin Ming.
“Hehehe, allow me to congratulate Fellow Cultivator Qin in advance for stepping into the ranks of Tier-One Spirit Plant Masters.” Qin Ming took the wooden token and looked at it: his name was carved on the front, while the pattern of a spirit plant was on the back.
Inspecting it with his spiritual sense, he saw that the token recorded his completion of cultivating the Tier-One spirit plant ‘Beast-Tooth Rice.’ Spirit plant knowledge assessment: Pending completion.
The Spirit Feather Sect members departed after collecting the tax, taking away the bottom-ranked spirit farmers as usual.
After paying the tax, Qin Ming still had over 300 kg of Gold Spirit Rice and 105 kg of Beast-Tooth Rice left over from this season.
For him, this was yet another considerable income.
“Little Qin, you made a promise, remember?” “It’s time to treat me to a meal at Juxuan Pavilion.” “Let’s go, let’s go, time to celebrate you becoming a Tier-One Spirit Plant Master.” Old Nine Cai ambled over with a grin, envy eating him up inside.
“Sure, I’ll treat you.” Qin Ming was in a good mood; he gave a faint smile and nodded.
It so happened he also needed to visit Shopkeeper Liao to sell his spirit rice, and while at it, inquire about moving into Qingyang Marketplace to live.
In addition, he had to make a trip to Fellow Cultivator Ruan’s place to get his hands on the remaining four layers of the Hundred-Treasures Glazed Scripture.