Cornflower Witch

Chapter 147 A Bountiful Harvest After Many Tribulations

At the end of August, the wheat in the valley began to ripen, and the lush green gradually turned golden.

[Wheat] (Rare-89): Growing condition is excellent, and there seems to be room for further improvement.

Standing in front of the wheat field, Hilti raised her hand, extending her senses to cover the entire field, where everything from the growth of the plants to the nutrients and moisture in the soil appeared in her mind.

Wheat cultivation has reached a critical point at this stage. If she can help it break through, these wheat plants can successfully condense into a cohesive phase and reach perfection.

If she were to care for a few dozen wheat plants by herself, it would be an easy task. But now she has to deal with nearly 100 acres of wheat fields, with countless plants. Under such circumstances, she can only rely on the ability of the 'pruning method' to try to improve the wheat along the way. As for how many of them can be improved in the end, it depends on luck.

Time passed slowly.

Two days later, wheat began to successfully condense into its granulation phase. The golden ears of wheat stretched out in the wind, each grain plump and flawless, and the aroma of abundance permeated the valley.

【Wheat】(Perfect-91): Under your careful cultivation, this wheat has grown perfectly and, under the law of 'Emerald Honey', has formed a cohesive phase.

【Wheat Ear】(Tier 1 - Emerald Honey): Wheat grains containing the essence of the plant, with 10 times the nutrition of ordinary wheat, and possessing the effect of quickly restoring physical strength and slightly enhancing physique. (If used by a professional baker, the nutrition can be fully activated, reaching 30 times that of ordinary wheat.)
In another 2-3 days, it will be ready for harvest, Hilti thought, a faint sense of joy rising within her.

As if confirming some unseen law or rule, when the night passed and before Hilti had woken up the next day, toads came to the foot of her hut and started croaking.

"Quack, boss."

"Oh no, quack, there's a bug!"

"Insects are eating wheat, so many insects are squeaking."

Hiltiya opened her eyes, quickly regained her senses, changed her clothes, and hurried downstairs.

Then you see many toads busy chasing insects in the fields below the hillside. Some of them swallow them whole, while others use their abilities to burn them or spray water to knock them down.

Hiltiya walked quickly over and found that many wheat plants in the field were being eaten by small, dark red insects. These insects had a pair of wings, looked like mosquitoes, and had long, slender mouthparts that inserted directly into the wheat ears to suck out and consume the grains.

【Dark Bloodsucking Insect】(Tier 1, Insect Moth): A special insect that can sense the aura of abundance. They can grow by feeding on plants with a coagulating phase and are a great enemy of 'Emerald Honey'.

Although it is called Tier 1, Tier 1 insects cannot be judged by a single individual. Often, the combined strength of a group of insects is equivalent to that of an ordinary Tier 1 creature. This makes individual insect creatures not very powerful, but because they can gather and disperse at will, their attacks are difficult to defend against.

There are probably hundreds of thousands of 'dark blood flukes' currently swarming in the wheat fields. They rise and fall in the fertile wheat fields, occasionally picking out plump wheat grains to suckle.

Seeing this, Hilti's mood plummeted, but she quickly picked up her lantern and retaliated.

Under her full urging, drops of highly concentrated emerald dew dripped into the stamen of the 'Fire Orchid' flower. Invisible waves of fire washed over it again and again, and a large number of 'Dark Blood Suckers' were burned in the fire waves and turned into black ash.

Under such high temperatures and intense heat, even though Hiltiya tried to control it, large swathes of wheat stalks were still ignited, but at this point, there was no time to worry about that.

Holding a lantern, she moved swiftly through the wheat field, the orange flames spreading and burning the dark red flying insects in the sky, turning them into large fireballs that spread and perished rapidly, while large swathes of wheat were scorched black.

After several rounds of back and forth, the situation was finally brought under control. Now, even though there are still 'Dark Bloodsucking Worms,' they are no longer a large-scale swarm.

Afterward, she reduced the firepower to lessen the damage to the wheat field, then dealt with the remaining insects and had the toads put out the fire.

Back and forth, Hilti's footsteps traversed the fields, dealing with the 'Dark Bloodsucking Worms' hiding in the smallest corners, striving to leave no hidden dangers. However, she still discovered many tiny, barely visible insect eggs in the soil. Even when she swept them with waves of fire, some remained hidden deep in the soil, difficult to burn and kill.

At this point, increasing the firepower would only damage the wheat field. With no other choice, Hiltiya had to temporarily spare the insect eggs and focus on dealing with the adult insects.

After a whole day of work, all the remaining insects in the field were cleaned up, thanks to the girl's extremely strong sense of perception and observation; no tiny insect could escape her notice.

As evening fell, standing before the wheat field, looking at the scorched and haphazardly bent wheat, Hiltiya sighed, resigned to the outcome.

As expected, I still lack experience. Relying solely on my talent to figure things out makes it easy to fall into traps. The events that happen in the extraordinary world cannot be considered or presupposed using common sense.

Based on subsequent investigations and research, she discovered that these 'Dark Bloodsucking Worms' must have flown in from a distant place, probably from the dangerous and unstable Shadow World outside the border of the base. They were attracted by the abundant aura of the large 'Emerald Honey' in the valley and then came over.

The war between the Emerald Honeybee and the Moth can be traced back to the Second Era, the 'Sea of ​​Dome'. The original 'mushroom silk' was devoured by the 'centipede', and its juice was spilled into the primordial sea, transforming into fish that then devoured the centipede.

Finally, the 'mushroom silk' was consumed by the 'centipede', and the rest transformed into the tides. The fish chased after the insects and became the overlords. They were enormous, roaming the sky and sea, and condensed the nature of 'real fish'.

As for how the emerald honeybee was reborn, after the centipede went extinct, the moth inherited the centipede's wings and took flight. This will have to wait until the Fourth Age, the era of species explosion.

It was already the second day after we finished cleaning up the ashes, debris, insect carcasses, and eggs in the fields.

For the next three days, Hilti would get up every night to patrol and make sure nothing went wrong. During the day, she would have the toads watch over her, and if anything happened, they would wake her up immediately.

Finally, the wheat in the field ripened perfectly, bringing a bountiful harvest.

After enduring hardships, these heavy ears of wheat seemed to have an extra weight, making Hilti feel the difficulty of planting and harvesting grain.

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

The 100 mu of land produced about 20000 jin of wheat, of which about 17000 jin were rare quality wheat and about 3000 jin were perfect quality wheat.

The wheat fields tended by other trainees and horticulturists yielded an average of 120 jin of grain per mu (approximately 0.16 acres). This was the result of their use of fertilizer. The fields in the valley, thanks to the strong fertilizing effect of alfalfa, increased the yield to a maximum of 300 jin per mu. If they wanted to further improve the yield, they would probably need to improve the wheat varieties.

If there were no insect infestations, the total yield of 100 mu of land should reach around 30000 jin, which is the peak that Xilutiya can currently achieve.

The ultimate quality and yield are achieved through a combination of processes, including the cleansing and twisting of spring water, the fertilization of alfalfa, the application of dew, the combing of branches, the emerald eyes, natural perception, and the ability to discern.

If production continues to expand, it should be possible to mass-produce 'rare' quality wheat, while 'perfect' quality wheat, due to individual energy and time constraints, can only be produced at most around 3000 jin.

Despite some setbacks, such a harvest is enough to shock the entire Ash Plains. You should know that the wheat fields tended by other Tier 3 gardeners in the city, with all the perfect quality wheat, would only yield about 6000 catties in total, while the fields tended by a single gardener would probably yield less than 1000 catties.

The harvested wheat grains are now piled high in the barn, but what to do with these golden grains has become a headache for Hilti.

How could she explain that a newly promoted gardening apprentice had achieved results far exceeding those of a level 3 gardener in just a few months?

Does he really want to become famous overnight, a shining new star in the entire Huijin Plains, and then be the center of attention wherever he goes?

This is far removed from the relaxed, idyllic life she longs for.

(End of this chapter)