We agreed to farm, but you're planting a divine tree in the eternal night?

Zhou State was located in the southwestern province.

The Ninth Plantation in Hetan County, Yegu City.

Winter had just passed, and early spring was still chilly. Steam rose from the greenhouse, and hundreds of interns were scattered among the flower racks and potted plants. Snap, scissors cut off withered and curled branches, splash, water poured from the spout of a can, the two actions alternating repeatedly.

Everyone's pupils were unfocused, like automated robots walking in parallel rows. As soon as one pot of flowers was finished, the next pot would come into view. There were endless dead branches to cut and water to water.

Meanwhile, Jiang Qiu, with sharp eyes and quick hands, snapped and slashed, and one branch after another fell onto the surface of the nutrient soil in the pot. Beads of sweat dripped down the edge of the pot, splashing out and soaking the soil along with the waterline at the spout of the pot.

Ha~

The intern next to the flower stand yawned, haphazardly pruning branches, and muttered, "It's so boring. They said they would train us on how to cultivate spiritual plants independently, but after half a year of internship, we're still doing odd jobs. They said we should first familiarize ourselves with the growth characteristics of the level 1 spiritual plants in the greenhouse."

One by one, more and more people abandoned all rules and started cutting casually, thinking, "Hehe, it's good to do odd jobs. I don't have to get promoted, and I'm not afraid of taking responsibility if something happens in the garden."

"Tsk, who can say for sure? What if the yield is poor and we blame it on our poor care? We'll have to write a report to the higher-ups."

"I've already written it. The other plantations in the county all had intensive training on the first day of their internships, and they were issued level 1 spirit seeds six months ago. We don't know anything, and we only have a fixed salary of 1000 yuan. What's the point of caring?"

A self-deprecating whisper lingered in her ear. Jiang Qiu remained silent, her dark eyes gleaming with an even brighter light. Her movements were clean and efficient as she trimmed branches and watered them, proceeding step by step.

Time passed as the sun began to set in the west. The shed was stuffy and hot, and his clothes were soaked with sweat. Yet the sound of his scissors opening and closing remained crisp and clear, like a lone fledgling among a flock of ducks, oblivious to the ebb and flow of the quacking noise.

"Beep..."

The clock ticked precisely at six o'clock in the afternoon. The interns, who had started chatting, casually sprinkled water around the potted plants to wet them, then tossed their tools into the storage room and left complaining all the way.

Snap, snap, Jiang Qiu continued pruning the tangled branches in her assigned section, letting the interns walk past her in groups, oblivious to her presence.

When the sky outside the high window was dark and the clouds were thin, a crackling sound appeared, and the fluorescent lights inside the shed lit up one by one, connecting from one end of the shed to the other, making it bright.

Glancing at the rows of potted plants she had cared for, Jiang Qiu twisted her aching arms, wiped the sweat from her cheeks with her shoulder, let out a sigh of relief, returned the tools, and walked alone towards the door.

In the eighteen years since his birth, he has long been accustomed to the way of life in this world.

Not every high school graduate intern aspires to a full-time position, but cultivating spiritual plants and developing one's own land is indeed everyone's dream. After all, this is a small county town on the outskirts of the southwestern province, where cultivation is the foundation of one's career.

Since the eternal night descended three hundred years ago, monsters have run rampant, sweeping in with the force of a flood. Most firearms have become obsolete, and cities and villages have been relentlessly destroyed, leaving ordinary people with nowhere to survive.

However, along with the eternal night came a transformation in some of humanity. They created new worlds and not only forged mainstream martial arts practitioners, but also discovered unique cultivation paths such as alchemists and formation masters, mastering more exquisite methods to resist the calamity.

Among them, the [Spirit Plant Master] is the pillar of the entire cultivation system and even humanity, enjoying a high social status and privileges independent of ordinary people.

After all, the only thing in the world that can resist the erosion of eternal night and establish a safe zone is a special [spiritual seed] that can only be cultivated by spiritual plant masters by opening up fields within their bodies.

They re-established the foundation of the provincial, municipal, and county-level protection zones, enabling the Great Zhou to rebuild its homeland and continue its unbroken civilization for five thousand years.

It can be said that wherever a city's spiritual plant masters are based, their jurisdiction extends there; wherever a country's spiritual plant masters are stationed, its borders stand there.

Therefore, being a Spirit Plant Master is a synonym for status and ability, and it is also the key to whether one can make a future in the Southwest Province. Jiang Qiu wants to become a Spirit Plant Master.

His idea was simple: once he became a spirit plant master, he could choose any land to build a courtyard and garden, and eat fruits that improved his physique every day. Even if he chose to develop in the suburbs, near the monsters of eternal night, he would never be the first to sacrifice himself.

......

After clocking out of get off work, Jiang Qiu, with various spiritual plants and rotten leaves he had picked up from the plantation in his pocket, walked through the shantytown on the outskirts of the city. A street lamp hung high, shining like a glowing dandelion, casting his shadow into the alley.

The unpainted mud-brick houses were tightly pieced together, their brown surfaces pitted and uneven. If you accidentally brushed your elbow against one, a layer of loose dust would fall off.

Passing by the public dry toilet, the pungent smell of excrement and urine made Jiang Qiu squint and tear up. He turned his head away and hurried forward.

Soon, it stopped in front of its own brick house. Stainless steel door, green rusted brass lock, click, key inserted, click, turn, creak, the door was pushed open, dust rushed into its face, the hall was dark, as if the night was inside.

Three years ago, his parents were transferred by their work unit and sacrificed their lives on the front line of land reclamation deep in the mountains as non-staff members. He received a modest pension and signed a special plan with the county. After graduating from high school, he gave up the college entrance examination and devoted himself to the plantation in the county town. He then inherited the long-term right to live in this house.

The house was very rough, and its biggest advantage was that it was located in Hetan County, a county-level protected area. Therefore, his biggest dream was to advance to the level of a spiritual plant master through plantation training, obtain cultivation resources, choose his own land, and build his own home.

Click, the kitchen window is opened, and the bright white light from the street lamp slants in, dispelling the darkness and illuminating the cracked rubber basin on the windowsill, as well as the cutting board and cleaver. Chop, chop, chop, chopped up the rotten vegetable leaves.

With a whoosh, the cleaver shoveled the scraps into the palm of his left hand and poured them into a rubber pot used for potted plants. In no time, the fresh aroma released by the rotten leaves filled the square meter of kitchen, and a rough layer of nutrients was laid in the pot.

There are no spirit seeds available yet, but the incomplete level 1 nutrient soil formula observed in the plantation is still thriving when used to grow ordinary vegetables.

Behind him, pots of chives on a homemade flower stand were lush and green. The first batch was harvested a week ago, and the second batch will be ready soon to be sold at the underground market.

"drop......"

Jiang Qiu was dealing with the rotten leaves of the spiritual plants when suddenly the screen of her phone next to the cutting board lit up with a message—

[Wu Shan, Training Director of the Ninth Plantation: @All members, there are three months left until the internship assessment. You have become familiar with the growth characteristics of the Level 1 spiritual plants in the plantation, and your foundation is solid. The Level 1 spiritual seeds have just been approved. Please prepare your own nutrient soil as required and come to pick them up tomorrow.]

[Intern Zhao Xueming: Director, many of the ingredients in the nutrient soil formula you provided need to be ground and dried one or two weeks in advance. The shops in the underground market haven't been restocking yet. Where can we find nutrient soil to mix in just one night?]

[Wu Shan, Training Director of the Ninth Plantation: Anyone who is serious about passing the internship assessment will prepare the nutrient soil early. If you can't even handle the most basic Level 1 nutrient soil, it shows a bad attitude and you are not suitable for training as a spiritual plant master!]

[Wu Shan, Training Director of the Ninth Plantation: In that case, don't bother picking up any more seedlings tomorrow. It'll be a waste of the plantation's resources. They'd be better off staying in the greenhouse for a few more years to mature. And don't expect to be promoted to a regular plantation!]

Upon seeing this message, Jiang Qiu was stunned, while at the same time, another intern's private group chat was already filled with sarcastic remarks.

The so-called internship assessment is not only a necessary step to become a full-time employee, but also an important channel for the plantation to regularly select potential spiritual plant masters. It is also the only way out that interns in special programs cannot afford to miss.

Interns who pass the assessment are hired as full-time employees and work in nursing positions. They continue to look after the lower-level spiritual plants in the shed, day in and day out for ten years. As they gain more experience, the number of things they are responsible for increases and they become more and more tired.

Interns with outstanding performance will be recognized by the park and treated as trainee spiritual plant masters. They will receive valuable internal resources, access to spiritual seed exchange channels, and instruction in cultivation methods free of charge.

Conversely, if you don't meet the standards, you'll continue working on your internship salary until the five-year special program is completed. You'll either be sent to the front lines in the deep mountains to explore and be haunted by strange creatures, or you'll be dismissed and have to find your own way, like scavenging in ruins.

Therefore, there has never been a plant master who has not been trained in a plantation; this has been an ironclad rule for three hundred years.

"Rather than living a mediocre life, spending my whole life at the bottom, I might as well take a chance to become a spiritual plant master." Jiang Qiu stopped cutting and opened the recipe diagram issued by training director Wu Shanfa, browsing it by the light of the street lamp.

[30% ordinary garden soil, 20% decomposed leaves from level 1 spiritual plants, 10% sand from the Wu River, half a portion of exotic beast manure, a small amount of spirit stone powder...]

The recipe includes detailed illustrations of ingredient proportions, supplementary ingredients, and preparation methods. It is more comprehensive and detailed than the recipes he observed, but also more expensive, requiring valuable spirit stone powder.

Jiang Qiu took a deep breath, opened the kitchen cabinet, and saw bottles and jars of all sizes and heights, containing the accumulation of his nine months of internship, basically covering the ingredients needed for the recipe.

Even though spirit stone powder is more valuable than gold, he still picks up a pinch every day while cleaning the plantation, sifting out the impurities himself, and accumulating it into a small bottle.

Not much, but enough.

With a series of taps, Jiang Qiu arranged the bottles and jars needed for the recipe on the table, planted the chives in the pots that had just been filled with nutrient soil, moved them to the flower stand, and then took out another discarded rubber pot that she had picked up from the garden.

With a whoosh, the ingredients are poured in according to the proportions, a specific spring water is poured in, it is stirred, and finally, with a shake of the wrist, a layer of spirit stone powder is sprinkled on top.

"The nutrient soil is prepared exactly according to the formula and can meet the conditions for the growth of level 1 spirit seeds. As long as the corresponding spirit plants mature and bear fruit normally, the test will be passed."

"However..." Jiang Qiu's gaze unconsciously drifted to her phone. In the private group chat among the interns, the sarcastic voices gradually faded away, and more and more people were intentionally or unintentionally posting photos of their own pots and pans.

[Qian Cheng (Administrator): Luckily, my family had previously arranged for me to order a Grade 1 ceramic pot, a specialty of the pottery capital. Although the shipping was ridiculously expensive, it's perfect for storing Grade 1 potting soil (image.ipg).]

[Qian Cheng (Administrator): I heard from merchants in Taodu that the level 1 spirit seeds planted in this container absorb nutrients very quickly, equivalent to a month's worth of nutrients in a regular container in one week. I don't know if it's true. I'll try it out tomorrow after receiving the spirit seeds from Director Wu and see how it goes.]

[Zhang San: Your ceramic pot is nice, but the spirit stone powder on the surface of the soil is too thin. This kind of 'golden sand' is always better the more the better. Look at mine, it's a Grade 1 pot ordered from out of town (image.ipg).]

[Li Si: I'm almost there (image.ipg).]

[......]

Among the group were interns from wealthy families. They never worried about passing the assessment and were already secretly competing, as if the limited number of spiritual plant master training slots were reserved for them to compete for, while others were just there to accompany them.

After comparing her own pots and the texture of the potting soil in the group photos, the difference was so great that it was like a beggar's broken bowl placed in front of a royal jade cup. Jiang Qiu couldn't help but laugh and sigh, "Can I really stand out in the end?"

Ding! A sound echoed from the depths of his soul. He froze, and a passage of text appeared in his vision, brighter than the streetlights outside the window.

[Completed Level 1 nutrient soil preparation]

[Choose an optimization direction:]

[1. The growth cycle of Level 1 Spirit Seeds is reduced by 10%]

[2. Increase the yield of level 1 spirit seed fruits by 10%]

[3. Level 1 Spirit Seeds gain a 5% mutation rate (Rare)]

After confirming that this was not a hallucination, Jiang Qiu's brows relaxed, and a faint smile appeared on her face.