Chapter 7: The First Harvest
Time: 30 Days Passed (Outside World).
Space Time: 90 Days (3 Months).
The moment Luo Feng stepped through the spatial distortion of his bedroom and into the Farm, the air hit him different.
It wasn't the smell of damp earth or rain anymore. It was a rich, nutty, sweet aroma that filled the lungs and settled deep in the chest. It smelled like baking bread and morning dew.
It was the scent of maturity.
Luo Feng stood at the edge of the field, his eyes widening. The 10-acre world, once black and empty, was now dominated by a sea of gold.
The 1 Acre of Yellow Jade Rice had fully ripened. The stalks stood tall and proud, reaching up to Luo Feng's chest. They were heavy with grain, swaying gently in the artificial breeze of the Space. They didn't just look yellow; they glowed with a faint, rhythmic golden light, pulsing like a slow heartbeat.
"It's done," Luo Xia whispered, walking up beside him. She reached out to touch a heavy stalk, her face filled with awe. "In the Sect, the Yellow Jade Rice fields looked pale yellow. But this... this looks like actual gold."
"Because the Sect uses dirty river water," Luo Feng said, his chest swelling with pride. "We used Sun & Moon Rain."
He walked into the field. The heavy grains brushed against his robes. Before he began the labor, he needed to check the quality.
Technique: Spirit Farm Sense.
This was a basic utility technique from the Ancestral Inheritance. It allowed the Spirit Farmer to extend their perception into the soil and plants, detecting pests, disease, or ripeness without digging.
Luo Feng closed his eyes and spread his hands, palms facing the golden sea.
"Sense."
He released a gentle ripple of Wood-Attribute Qi. It washed over the acre of grain like a sonar wave.
Hum.
The feedback appeared in his mind as a three-dimensional map.
Roots: Deep, thick, and drinking greedily from the Spirit Vein.
Stalks: Flexible, full of nutrient-rich sap.
Pests: None. (Little Gold had patrolled this field like a general, eating every single beetle).
Grain Saturation: 100%.
He could feel the life force of the rice. It was humming.
"Perfect," Luo Feng opened his eyes, a sharp glint of satisfaction in them. "No rot. No bugs. This is a High-Grade harvest."
He turned to Luo Xia. She was holding a rusty iron sickle they had bought from Old Ge in the market.
"Put that away, Xia," Luo Feng ordered gently.
Luo Xia paused, confused. "Why? It's sharp."
"If you cut these stalks with common iron, the metal will react with the Wood Qi inside the plant," Luo Feng explained, tapping a golden stalk. "We will lose 10% of the spiritual essence instantly upon contact. That's 10% of our money vanishing into thin air."
Luo Xia froze, immediately dropping the sickle as if it were hot. "But we don't have Jade tools. How do we harvest? Pull them by hand?"
"No. We use what we practiced."
Luo Feng raised his right hand. He extended his index and middle fingers.
"The Spirit Finger isn't just for piercing rocks," Luo Feng said, focusing his intent. "It's for precision."
Technique: Spirit Finger (Wind Blade Form).
Luo Feng channeled his Qi. The Sun & Moon energy spiraled in his Dantian, rushed through his arm, and compressed at his fingertips.
But instead of making his finger hard like stone, he pushed the Qi out, shaping it into a tiny, sharp invisible needle of air.
"Watch."
He aimed at a cluster of rice stalks.
Pew. Pew. Pew.
He didn't swing his arm. He just flicked his finger. Three sharp bursts of air shot out.
Snip. Snip. Snip.
Three stalks were severed cleanly at the base. They fell over silently. The cut was impossibly smooth, like a mirror. Because no physical metal touched the plant, the sap sealed instantly, locking the energy inside.
"It drains mana fast," Luo Feng admitted, checking his mana reserves. "But it preserves the quality. And Xia... this is perfect aim training."
Luo Xia's eyes lit up. She raised her own finger, her Qi wobbling slightly. "So we aren't just farming. We are training."
"Exactly. Let's grind."
The Harvest Grind.
For the next six hours, the couple became machines.
Flick. Snip. Stack.
Flick. Snip. Stack.
It was backbreaking work, but also a test of extreme focus. They had to aim the Spirit Finger perfectly at the base of the stalk. If they missed, they wasted Qi. If they used too much power, they blasted the dirt. If they used too little, the stalk bent but didn't break.
Every thirty minutes, Luo Feng's face would turn pale as his Dantian ran dry.
"Rest," he would command.
They would sit right there in the field, surrounded by fallen gold, and meditate.
Drain. Refill. Drain. Refill.
This cycle was brutal, but effective. By emptying his Dantian completely and refilling it with the pure air of the Space, Luo Feng felt his capacity stretching. His Qi control was becoming terrifyingly precise.
Little Gold hopped around the piles of harvested grain, chirping excitedly, acting as a supervisor and pecking at stray husks.
By the time the last stalk fell, Luo Feng lay on his back in the black soil, panting heavily. His fingers twitched involuntarily.
"Done," he gasped, staring at the white mist above.
They spent the next "day" (Inside time) threshing the grain—separating the rice from the stalks using simple wooden flails they had carved.
The result was a pile of rice that looked like a dragon's treasure hoard.
Total Yield: 800 Kilograms.
Luo Feng picked up a handful. The husks had been removed. The rice grains weren't white. They were translucent yellow, like carved beads of amber. They felt heavy and warm in his hand, buzzing with stored energy.
"800 kilos," Luo Feng calculated, letting the grains slip through his fingers like sand. "In the market, Low-Grade rice sells for 3 stones per 50 kilos. But this... this is High-Grade. Maybe even Top-Grade. The purity is terrifying."
The Feast.
They couldn't sell it yet. They needed to taste the fruit of their labor.
"I'm starving," Luo Xia said, clutching her stomach. "Shall I cook the cheap grain from the jar?"
"No," Luo Feng grabbed a pot of Sun & Moon Spring Water. He scooped up two large handfuls of the fresh Yellow Jade Rice. "We eat the good stuff."
Luo Xia set up a simple stone stove near the Spirit Spring. She used a small fire talisman to heat the pot.
Within minutes, a smell filled the Space that made them drool uncontrollably.
It wasn't just the smell of food. It was the smell of vitality. It smelled like sweet cream, fresh rain, and concentrated life.
Little Gold flew onto Luo Feng's shoulder, screaming, "Chee! Chee!" and pecking his ear, demanding a bowl.
"Ready," Luo Xia said, lifting the wooden lid.
Whoosh.
The steam that rose up formed a shape like a small mushroom cloud. The rice had swelled up, each grain glistening with natural oil. It looked like a bowl of pearls.
They sat on the ground, holding simple wooden bowls.
Luo Feng took the first bite.
Boom.
He didn't chew. The rice seemed to melt on his tongue. It slid down his throat like warm honey.
The moment it hit his stomach, it didn't feel like food. It felt like he had swallowed a small ball of fire. A wave of gentle, pure Qi exploded from his gut, rushing through his limbs, warming his cold fingertips and toes.
"Mmm!" Luo Xia's eyes went wide. She dropped her chopsticks. "Husband! My Qi! It's moving on its own!"
Luo Feng closed his eyes, feeling the warmth wash away the fatigue of the harvest.
"One bowl of this rice..." Luo Feng analyzed, his voice trembling, "...has the same spiritual energy as absorbing a Spirit Stone for an hour. But Spirit Stones have impurities. This? This is pure."
He looked at the pot.
"This isn't food, Xia. This is medicine. Gentle, daily medicine."
He took another bite, feeling the soreness in his muscles melt away. His Dantian, which was empty from the Spirit Finger practice, refilled rapidly.
"From today on," Luo Feng declared, scraping the bottom of his bowl. "We stop eating mortal food. No more cheap grain from the market. No more fire-toxin meat."
He looked at his wife, whose face was glowing rosy red from the nourishment. The gray pallor of the slums was completely gone.
"We eat this every day. Our bodies will be cleansed. Our cultivation speed will double again."
He looked at the 800kg pile of golden ambition.
"We aren't poor anymore, Xia. We are eating better than the Inner Sect Elders."
[Author notes]
1. Add to Library: So you never miss a harvest (and the algorithm sees us!).
2. Power Stones: Every Power Stone you drop is like a bucket of Sun & Moon Water for the author. It helps me type faster! 💎
See you in the next chapter!