My path to immortality began with my posting to guard Dawancun.

Chapter 12 River Monster
Dawan Village is situated in a valley plain surrounded by mountains.

A huge river, shaped like a crescent moon, flows through the vast plains between the mountains, dividing the entire valley basin into two irregular sides.

Dawan Village is located on the upper reaches of the river, at a high elevation at the foot of the mountain behind it.

And where the twelve mu of spiritual fields are located
It is located on the hillside behind the village, next to a courtyard halfway up the mountain, on terraced fields that look like a series of stairs.

The spiritual spring in Dawan Village flows out from the mountains, and its water has gradually permeated the earth, giving the surrounding area where it flows a spiritual charm that allows for the cultivation of spiritual grains.

However, at this moment, Shen Changchuan was in the main hall of the village at the foot of the mountain.

Therefore, he naturally heard the noise outside.

Organize the ginseng.

Shen Changchuan arrived outside the village.
A group of people were gathered on a high place, pointing and gesturing towards the river.

"what happened?"

As soon as Shen Changchuan arrived, the surrounding crowd made way for him.

At this time,
Shen Changchuan followed the gaze of the others and looked in the direction they had been looking.
Not far away, on the turbid river surface rippling with waves, a small, covered boat was upside down, most of it submerged, with only the top visible.

Amidst the surging and bubbling waters, a faint crimson color could be seen rising from beneath the river.

The once lush grass along the riverbank
A large area was suppressed, leaving a mess.
It was clear that many people had been on the once lush riverside grassland, and not far away there were piles of black silt, several feet high, that had been dredged from the riverbed.

Meanwhile, a few dozen feet away from the riverbank, Grandpa Han Qinhu and other members of the Han family were maintaining order, asking those gathered around to step back.

"Grandpa, what's going on?"

Shen Changchuan approached Han Qinhu and asked.

"Something's happened! There's a monster in this river!"

"Those reckless fools tried to dredge the silt from the river, but they didn't expect there to be a monster in the river. Two of them were dragged down by that beast!"

When Han Qinhu saw that Shen Changchuan had arrived, he didn't hide anything and told him the whole story.

After listening to Han Qinhu's story,

Shen Changchuan frowned slightly.

Speaking of this incident,
This is not unrelated to his reform experiments.

Originally, when the reform plan was set up, in order to maximize the enthusiasm of the members of Team Eleven and Team Twelve, and to motivate them to take better care of Linggu and increase the yield per mu of the two experimental fields as much as possible.

Shen Changchuan made a promise that when the spirit grain is harvested, they can get 30% of the portion exceeding 100 jin.

Subsequent developments,
Just as Shen Changchuan had thought, this reward-sharing plan greatly motivated both teams.

Therefore, in the process of cultivating the spirit valley,

Teams 11 and 12 almost entirely read through the two summaries of experience in planting spirit grains left by Shen Changchuan.

Analyze it word by word, sentence by sentence, and carefully apply the various methods within to the work.

Almost everyone was doing their best, hoping to get a great harvest from this season's spirit grain.

Deep plowing, turning the soil, seed selection, seedling cultivation, etc., should all be done to the best of our experience.

However, among these experiences, there is one that is rather troublesome.

That's composting.

The fertilizer here is not something that comes from the cycle of human grains.

Spirit grains are, after all, spiritual objects imbued with spiritual energy. Even without Shen Changchuan's deepest thought, he knew that human grains, used in their natural cycle of production, not only couldn't increase the yield of spirit grains, but might even cause them to become 'polluted,' leading to the withering of the rice seedlings. Spiritual objects are inherently delicate.
The methods for tending ordinary crops cannot be completely replicated on spirits.

However, since Shen Changchuan has written down the steps for composting,

This is not wishful thinking.

Because at that time,

I recalled an incident I read in a travelogue by one of the Shen family ancestors during the two and a half years I spent in the Shen family compound.

He had once witnessed a low-level cultivator in a place near a place with abundant water vein power dredging a large amount of silt containing "sediment" from the water, and then forcibly clearing out a field in a spiritually barren area where spiritual grains could be grown.

Although the spiritual grain produced by such artificial 'spirit fields' is far inferior to that of real spirit fields.

But that sight amazed the ancestors of the Shen family at the time.

Later, out of curiosity, I investigated further.

He discovered that when the energy of river veins and the energy of the earth veins merge, some fertile "sediments" are produced.

It is precisely because of the 'deposition' of the water vein essence and earth vein essence contained in the silt that the growth environment of the Spirit Valley is provided.

This allows even ordinary fields to grow spiritual grains.

At the time, Shen Changchuan was only a little curious when he saw this record, but he didn't pay much attention to it.

Not long ago,

When Shen Changchuan was compiling a summary of his experiences in improving the cultivation of spirit grains, he remembered this incident.

At the same time, a thought arose in my mind.
If we use the silt containing 'sediment' as fertilizer and pile it in the spirit field, will it make the spirit grains in the spirit field grow better?
With this idea in mind,
Shen Changchuan then included the matter of composting in it.

The source of the silt,

Naturally, it is this river that runs across the entire valley and plain before us.

The members of teams 11 and 12 were greatly encouraged by the profit-sharing bonus.
They also naturally wouldn't overlook the step of improving composting from their experience.

As a result, they had only been working for a short time when...

Then something bad happened.

An unknown river monster suddenly attacked, capsizing the small boat used for dredging silt and sweeping the two people on board into the water.

"How could there be monsters in this river? Have they always been here?"

After learning the whole story, Shen Changchuan's expression was not good.

He never expected that...
Before his attempt at reform could yield any results, an accident occurred, and people even died as a result.

"That's not clear."

“I asked the villagers, and they didn’t know if there were any monsters in the river.”

"This river is wide, and the current is even more rapid in the middle section. Even the outer side of the Crescent Bay, where the water is calm, appears calm on the surface, but there are turbulent undercurrents and dangers inside."

"In addition, the village itself uses stream water drawn from the mountain as its water source, so very few people have ever ventured into this river, and they don't really know anything about the monsters in the river."

As Shen Changchuan's most trusted person, his maternal grandfather Han Qinhu held a position similar to village chief in Dawan Village, managing all kinds of affairs in the village.

Even before Shen Changchuan arrived, Han Qinhu had already figured out all the details.

He answered Shen Changchuan's questions almost fluently and quickly.

(End of this chapter)