The Cornflower Witch Chapter 147

In late August, the wheat in the valley began to ripen, and the lush green gradually turned golden.

【Wheat】(Rare – 89): Growing exceptionally well, it seems there’s still potential for further improvement.

Standing before the wheat field, Hylial raised her hand, extending her perception to cover the entire field. The growth of the plants, the nutrients and moisture in the soil, and everything else was presented in her mind.

The wheat had reached a critical point in its cultivation. If she could help it break through, these wheat plants could successfully condense their aspects and reach perfection.

Such a feat would be easy if she were tending to a few dozen wheat plants individually. However, she was now facing nearly 100 acres of wheat fields, countless in number. In this situation, she could only rely on the “Branch Combing Method” to improve the wheat she passed, and as for how many would ultimately break through, it was up to luck.

Time passed slowly.

Two days later, some wheat successfully condensed its aspects. The golden wheat ears unfurled in the wind, plump and flawless, and a rich aura permeated the valley.

【Wheat】(Perfect – 91): Under your careful cultivation, this wheat plant has grown perfectly and condensed its aspect under the law of ‘Jade Nectar’.

【Wheat Ear】(First-Order Jade Nectar): Contains wheat grains refined from the plant, with 10 times the nutrition of ordinary wheat, and the effect of rapidly restoring physical strength and subtly enhancing the physique. (If used by a professional baker, all nutrients can be fully activated, reaching 30 times that of ordinary wheat)

In another two to three days, it would be harvest time, Hylial thought, a faint joy bubbling within her.

As if confirming some invisible law, when Hylial was still asleep the next morning, toads arrived at her hut, croaking loudly.

“Croak, boss.”

“It’s bad, croak, there are bugs.”

“Bugs are eating the wheat, lots of bugs, croak.”

Hylial opened her eyes, quickly gaining consciousness. She changed her clothes and hurried downstairs.

Then she saw many toads busy in the fields below the hillside, driving away insects. Some directly swallowed the bugs, while others used their abilities to burn them or spray water to knock them down.

Hylial walked over quickly and found that many wheat plants were being gnawed by dark-red insects. They had a pair of wings, looked like mosquitoes, and had long proboscises that they inserted directly into the wheat ears to suck the grains.

【Dark Blood Sucking Sap Insect】(First-Order Moth): A special type of insect that can sense abundant auras. They can grow by sucking the sap from plants that have condensed aspects and are a great enemy of ‘Jade Nectar’.

Although they were first-order, first-order insects couldn’t be regarded individually. Usually, the aspect power of a swarm of insects was equivalent to that of a single ordinary first-order creature, meaning that individual insects were not powerful. However, their ability to gather and disperse at will made their attacks incredibly hard to guard against.

There were unknown numbers of ‘Dark Blood Sucking Sap Insects’ fluttering in the wheat field, probably hundreds of thousands. They rose and fell in the fertile wheat field, occasionally choosing plump wheat grains to suck.

Seeing this scene, Hylial’s mood plummeted, but she quickly picked up her lantern and counterattacked.

Driven by her full power, drops of highly concentrated Emerald Dew Water dripped into the Fire Cloud Orchid stamens. Invisible waves of fire swept through repeatedly, burning large numbers of ‘Dark Blood Sucking Sap Insects’ into black ash.

Under such high-temperature fire waves, even if Hylial carefully controlled it, large areas of wheat stalks were ignited, but at this point, there was no time to worry about it.

Holding her lantern, she quickly moved through the wheat field. The orange-yellow rings of fire continuously expanded, burning the dark-red flying insects in the sky, turning them into expanding fireballs that rapidly perished. Large areas of wheat ears were also scorched black.

After several passes, the situation was finally brought under control. Although there were still ‘Dark Blood Sucking Sap Insects’, they were no longer in large, organized swarms.

Afterward, she reduced the fire to minimize damage to the wheat field, then dealt with the remaining insects and had the toads extinguish the fires.

Going back and forth repeatedly, Hylial’s footsteps constantly moved through the fields, dealing with ‘Dark Blood Sucking Sap Insects’ hidden in tiny corners, striving to leave no hidden dangers. However, she still found many invisible insect eggs in the soil. Even after sweeping with fire waves, some remained deep in the soil, difficult to burn and kill.

At this point, increasing the fire would only destroy the wheat field. Helplessly, Hylial could only temporarily let these insect eggs go and focus on dealing with the adult insects.

Through a whole day of hard work, the remaining insects in the field were completely cleaned up, thanks to the girl’s extremely strong perception and observation skills. No minuscule insect could escape her notice.

In the evening, standing in front of the wheat field, looking at the scorched and fallen wheat, Hylial sighed, having to accept the result.

Indeed, she was still inexperienced. Relying solely on her talent to grope around could easily lead to pitfalls. Things that happened in the transcendent world couldn’t be considered with common sense and presuppositions.

According to later investigation and data review, she found that these ‘Dark Blood Sucking Sap Insects’ must have flown from a distant place, probably from the dangerous and unstable Shadow World outside the outpost border. They were attracted by the abundant aura of ‘Jade Nectar’ condensed in the valley and came rushing over.

The war between ‘Jade Nectar’ and ‘Moth’ could be traced back to the Sky Sea Epoch of the Second Epoch, when the primordial ‘Mycelium’ aspect was gnawed by centipedes, and its sap spilled into the Primordial Sea, transforming into swimming fish that, in turn, devoured the centipedes.

Finally, ‘Mycelium’ was completely consumed by the centipedes, and its lingering charm transformed into tides. The swimming fish hunted the insects and became overlords. They were colossal and enormous, roaming the sky and sea, condensing the ‘True Fish’ aspect.

As for how Jade Nectar was reborn, after the extinction of the centipedes, the moths inherited the centipedes and soared with wings. This would have to wait until the Fourth Epoch, the era of species explosion.

Cleaning up the ash and residue in the fields, as well as various insect corpses and eggs, took until the next day.

For the next three days, Hylial would get up every night to patrol once, ensuring no unexpected incidents occurred. During the day, she had the toads guard the fields, and if anything happened, they were to wake her immediately.

Finally, the remaining wheat in the fields fully matured, leading to a bountiful harvest.

After going through twists and turns and hardships, these heavy wheat ears seemed to possess an extra weight, making Hylial realize the difficulty of cultivating and harvesting grain.

Several days later, all the wheat was harvested, sun-dried, and threshed.

100 acres of land yielded approximately 20,000 jin of wheat, with about 17,000 jin of rare quality wheat and about 3,000 jin of perfect quality wheat.

The wheat fields tended by other students and gardeners produced an average of 120 jin of grain per mu, which was the result of their use of fertilizers. The fields in the valley, due to the powerful fertilizing effect of alfalfa, increased the yield to a limit of 300 jin per mu. To increase it further, the wheat varieties would likely need to be improved.

If there hadn’t been an insect infestation, the total yield of 100 acres should have reached about 30,000 jin, which was the peak Hylial could currently achieve.

The combined effects of pure water washing away distortions, alfalfa fertilization, dew prayer, branch combing, green eye, nature sense, and discerning eye brought about this ultimate quality and yield.

If production were to be further expanded, ‘rare’ quality wheat could probably be mass-produced, while ‘perfect’ quality wheat, due to personal energy and time constraints, would amount to at most about 3,000 jin.

Although there were some setbacks, such a harvest would still shock the entire Ash Plains. It should be noted that the total amount of perfect quality wheat from the fields tended by other third-tier gardeners in the city was only around 6,000 jin, and a single gardener’s cultivated land probably wouldn’t even yield 1,000 jin.

Now, the harvested wheat grains were piled high in the granary, and how to deal with this harvest of golden grains had become a headache for Hylial.

How could she explain how a gardening apprentice, who had only recently advanced, managed to achieve results far exceeding those of third-tier gardeners in just a few months?

Was she genuinely going to become famous overnight, a shining new star of the entire Glittering Gold Plain outpost, and then be noticed wherever she went?

That would be far from the leisurely pastoral life she longed for.