novelraw Chapter 400: Son of the Earth
Chapter 400: Son of the Earth
Before the sky even brightened, Li Wei hurriedly rushed back to Riverside Fortress.
Because next up was his major event.
Everything he planted this year was spring wheat, sown between late March and early April. Now, entering August, it could be harvested successively.
At this moment, he headed straight for the farmlands. He saw Li Yue holding an Enchanted Longbow, standing right in the center of the wheat fields, guarding vigilant in all directions. Flocks of mutant birds densely packed the surroundings, yet didn't dare to approach.
And around the perimeter of the wheat fields, there were also some elderly, weak, women, and children holding weapons and patrolling.
Right now, all the soldiers and strong laborers had been drafted away to dig the foundations of the Level 4 City Wall. Therefore, there was no other way; they could only have the old and the young take to the battlefield together.
Fortunately, with Li Yue this sharpshooter acting as a deterrent, the problem wasn't too major.
From afar, Li Wei waved his hand at Li Yue, and directly began harvesting. Even if the wheat at this moment hadn't reached true maturity, it couldn't be helped. The quantity was too vast, and he couldn't lend the hands of others; he couldn't delay.
Still following the old rules, he first harvested the Four-Star Quality wheat.
That's right, Four-Star.Previously, Li Wei had already used his Farmer Destiny Grid to harvest a wave. He originally thought it was impossible to grow Four-Star Quality wheat. He hadn't expected the Great Flood cooked up by the Frost Duke to bring along massive amounts of free-floating Chaotic Magic Particles, which was equivalent to letting the farmlands eat their fill.
And because of this, in these final ten-odd days, it actually allowed some wheat that originally could only reach Three-Star to break through again, growing into Four-Star.
Tsk tsk, this was truly far too rare and hard to come by. Moreover, there was a high probability it would only happen this one time this year; who could say if it could continue to be grown next year, assuming the Task Settlement wasn't moved up next year.
When that time came, in order to guarantee the fertility of the land, and to ensure a steady trickle flowing long into the future, it would be best to restrict the quality of the grain to Three-Star, or even Two-Star.
Soon, Li Wei had harvested ten mu of land. The quantity of Four-Star Quality ears of wheat obtained wasn't much, only roughly about twenty kilograms.
But this was actually already pretty good.
And these harvested Four-Star ears of wheat didn't even need Li Wei to store them into a Resource Card, nor did he even need to take out a bag. In the void behind him, there was a shadow following along. Every single ear of wheat would be accurately and unerringly stored away. Synchronously, the unit weight and price floated into view before his eyes.
That's right, this was the relevant department of Locke Kingdom directly coming to the edges of the fields to make purchases.
The unit price for half a kilogram of Four-Star wheat was exactly 100 gold coins. This was the market price, fair trade for all; it was just that ordinary people didn't have the qualifications to buy it.
Hehe!
However, it could be used for tax deductions. Selling a full one thousand kilograms could deduct 5% of taxes.
Coupled with the unit price obtained from the sale, it was still very profitable. It was a pity that there was a high probability this was a one-time thing.
Over the next less than four hours, Li Wei finished harvesting four hundred mu of wheat fields. These were the four hundred mu he personally managed the entire process of, from land reclamation to planting. These were also the four hundred mu with the best quality and appearance. There were also one hundred mu planted by others nearby, but even Three-Star wheat was sparse over there because there was no bonus from the Farmer Card.
[You have harvested 1,041.5 kilograms of Four-Star Quality spring wheat. You chose to sell it to the Logistics Department of Locke Kingdom. Based on the market price, you obtained 208,300 Standard Gold Coins. Concurrently, you also obtained a 5% King's Tax deduction, which will be automatically calculated into the final tally during Task Settlement.]
[Your Farmer Destiny Grid has increased. Current: 46.]
Two lines of information silently surfaced. The shadow behind Li Wei vanished, but following closely behind, another shadow appeared. This time, it wasn't the purchasing personnel from the Locke Kingdom's Logistics Department, but the purchasing personnel from the Logistics Department of the Duke of Weir.
Not bad, a mere one thousand kilograms of Four-Star wheat actually brought him an increase of five Farmer Destiny Grid points.
At this moment, Li Wei himself was somewhat in a trance, as if having drunk incomparably mellow fine wine. The earth beneath his feet felt thick, steady, and heavy, and the fragrance of the surrounding wheat fields drifted in the air. He could clearly feel that his Farmer Destiny Grid was about to break through—an extraordinary, highly unusual breakthrough.
What did a Destiny Title like Zhao Xuanxuan's amount to? Who knows, maybe it would unlock a second Hidden Attribute!
"Is it Dulling, Blood Burning, or Delusion Breaking? None of them really feel like it. Perhaps it's outside of the five types of Hidden Attributes?"
Li Wei wasn't too sure, but he wasn't too conflicted about it either.
Next, he began harvesting the Three-Star wheat. The harvest of this quality clearly missed the mark by a degree of heat. Previously, whenever he cut off an ear of Four-Star wheat, there truly was a feeling of tasting rare delicacies of the mountains and seas, taking it as appreciating a great work of art; the benefits to his Farmer Destiny Grid were massive.
Li Wei didn't even dare to imagine what it would feel like to eat it. Just how delicious would white bread made from Four-Star wheat be?
Compared to that, Three-Star wheat truly paled into insignificance.
Wait, he couldn't think like this. Every single ear of wheat was precious food, all painstakingly planted and grown. To cast them aside with contempt because their quality wasn't good enough was an insult to the Farmer profession!
He should treat them all equally without discrimination.
Or perhaps, this sort of harvest... its significance didn't lie merely in the harvest itself, but more so in witnessing the cyclical repetition of life coming full circle?
This thesis topic was a bit too grand.
Forget it, don't overthink things.
He continued harvesting straight until night fell. In total, he harvested roughly one hundred mu, obtaining five thousand kilograms of Three-Star wheat. It seemed about right—one mu of wheat field could produce roughly fifty kilograms of Three-Star wheat.
And the purchase price for Three-Star wheat was 10 gold coins for half a kilogram. It similarly belonged to the market price.
Ultimately obtaining 108,400 Standard Gold Coins, concurrently also obtaining a 5% tax reduction quota.
But this could only be used to reduce the Duke's Tax, and couldn't reduce the King's Tax.
Of course, in reality, Li Wei was already quite satisfied. Having only harvested for one day today, he had already raked in an income of 300,000 gold coins. The total amount of gold coins in the territory's treasury had already broken through to 820,000 coins.
It was just that the Destiny Grid obtained from harvesting Three-Star wheat was much less, only gaining three points. Current: 49.
"Let's stop here for today. You've worked hard, Your Excellency."
Li Wei spoke softly to the shadow behind him, then put away his dagger. His entire person seemed as if he were dead drunk, tottering and teetering on the verge of collapse. Primarily, his Spiritual Power had very little left after this entire day of harvesting.
After all, accurately identifying Four-Star ears of wheat and Three-Star ears of wheat from a massive pile of wheat, this was not easy.
As for doing what ordinary farmers did—swinging a sickle, or pushing a harvester, harvesting the whole patch all together—that would completely ruin everything.
Two-Star wheat was relatively fine, not having so many requirements. But for Three-Star wheat, once harvested, the ears of wheat absolutely could not touch dirt, much less get rained on by rainwater, and couldn't even be placed together with other harvested Two-Star ears of wheat. They required immediate special threshing disposal, or to be stored into a Resource Card. Otherwise, it might only require ten-odd minutes for them to degrade into Two-Star wheat.
If Three-Star wheat was already like this, then Four-Star went without saying. It required even more precise speed; the entire process needed high standards and strict requirements.
To the point where the Locke Kingdom's side and the Duke of Weir's side would specially arrange personnel to store them. It wasn't because they were afraid Li Wei would embezzle them, but because there truly would be severe attrition and wastage.
Therefore, on this day, Li Wei's Stamina consumption wasn't major, but the Spiritual Power consumption was truly taking his life. Even his current 32 points of Spiritual Power couldn't withstand it.
At this time, Li Yue walked over and supported him. She didn't say anything either, merely helping him to the center of the wheat fields. A shack had been erected here. Over these past few days, Li Yue had eaten and slept right here, not daring to leave for even a moment.
"Aunt Yue, you've worked hard these past few days."
"Stop talking. Go get a good sleep. This is a major event that you'll likely never experience a second time in your entire life—"
Yet before Li Yue even finished speaking, Li Wei had already entered dreamland.
Sleeping soundly through the night. Early the next morning, Li Wei was woken up by hunger. It was very noisy outside. The massive flocks of mutant birds had smelled the scent and come over again.
But to no avail.
As long as they dared to approach, the Enchanted Longbow in Li Yue's hands would fire a volley of five or six arrows in rapid succession, resulting in perfect crowd control.
"Awake? Hurry up and wash up and eat. Those people over there have already been waiting for you for a long time." Li Yue urged. Sure enough, outside the farmlands in the distance, a gray mist-like shadow was currently waiting there.
Li Wei walked over, first nodding his head at that shadow within the gray mist. Then he hurriedly went to wash up first. After eating breakfast, he returned to the farmlands. It was exactly when the morning sun was just rising; countless rays of golden light fell down, and the waves of wheat rolled. At this moment, he felt as if his Four Destiny Grids were also oscillating and fluctuating, seemingly on the verge of soaring up at any moment, dancing together with the sunlight.
This, however, was the change brought about by the Farmer Destiny Grid impending to reach 50.
It was good news.
Taking a deep breath, Li Wei began to set his hands to work. That gray mist-like shadow then followed behind his shadow, accurately taking away the Three-Star ears of wheat cut down by Li Wei, conducting transactions synchronously.
This time, Li Wei only harvested roughly less than thirty mu of wheat, and his Farmer Destiny Grid smoothly upgraded to 50.
In this instant, he felt as if a sonorous, resonant bell toll boomed loudly a full four times within his mind. This was also his Destiny Matrix resonating four times!
Completed!
At this moment, he seemingly saw a dim star within the Rare Scout Destiny Grid abruptly light up, blooming into a flower.
Simultaneously, within the Hunter Destiny Grid and Woodcutter Destiny Grid, it seemed as if even more stars surfaced. They linked together, vaguely forming some sort of mysterious, ancient Magic Sequence. But this was still merely a fragment.
That's right, Li Wei was exceptionally certain; it was just a tiny fragment, with even more darkness shrouding the surroundings...
It was baffling...
[You have cumulatively harvested one thousand kilograms of Four-Star wheat, and cumulatively harvested five thousand kilograms of Three-Star wheat. Your Farmer Destiny Grid has upgraded to 50. You have obtained the Destiny Title — Son of the Earth.]
[Description: You are a smart, strong, resilient, and mighty farmer. The earth is your mother. Therefore, you are deeply conversant in the profound mysteries of plowing fields. Not all land can just be taken over and farmed. First, you must make the land your own. You must also use formidable fists to defeat all competitors, and possess the ability to defeat all covetous gazes. Only then can you complete the planting, all the way until harvest.]
[Upon equipping this Destiny Title, you will obtain the following effects: Life +50, Stamina +50, Strength +5, Agility +5, Defense +5, Spiritual Power +5, Perception +1. Concurrently obtaining the trait: As long as your feet are firmly planted on the earth, all magic attacks will be subjected to a mandatory 10% damage exemption. Simultaneously, as long as your feet tread the earth, your Stamina consumption will decrease by 10%, Life recovery effect increases by 10%, Spiritual Power recovery +10%.]
[Description: Current Destiny Title can be continuously fortified and enhanced five times.]
[Description: Current Destiny Title cannot be equipped simultaneously with ordinary titles or aliases. But it can be equipped simultaneously with Kill Titles and Nobility Titles. In a certain sense, Destiny Titles can replace aliases, or be converted into aliases.]
(End of this chapter)