Her Cultivation Diary

In the fields, machines roared as the villagers worked and chatted; heaps of wild grass and trees piled up on the ridges, and the long-uncultivated brown earth, carrying a moist breath, was exposed under the dazzling morning sun.

The mountain village was alive with activity that had been absent for a long time.

Wang Lifan opened the storage room in the corner of the yard, which had been locked for a long time. It was a mud house built decades ago.

That year, she had just given birth to the daughter when Song Youde, along with his brothers, kneaded the yellow clay, chopped the straw, and moulded the bricks to slowly build the house.

At first, it was their main house.

As the children grew up and they built a house of bricks and tiles, this room became the storeroom for grain and straw stacks… Then, when they stopped farming, it completely turned into a storage room.

Qiaoqiao ran over, "Grandma! Grandma!"

Wang Lifan had just rummaged out some carrying poles from inside and upon hearing him, she responded, "Qiaoqiao!"

Soon after, Qiaoqiao's neatly trimmed round head peeked in, "Grandma, sister said she will take me to farm later and told me to borrow a small basket."

He was quickly distracted by the stacked carrying poles on the ground, "Grandma, what are these?"

Wang Lifan handed him a small basket with a chuckle and, after thinking for a bit, took a piece of plastic rope, folded it several times, and tied it around his waist, "Our Qiaoqiao can farm now!"

Song Qiao proudly puffed up his chest.

But he still persisted, asking, "Grandma, one, two, three… seven, eight, eight of them… what are these for?"

"Oh, these are for the mother hen to hatch chicks with."

Qiaoqiao's eyes lit up, "I want to hatch them too!"

Wang Lifan: …That was the reason she didn't want to answer immediately. This child's questions were endless, too many of them.

Fortunately, little kids like to play with the older ones. Song Qiao was three when Song Tan was eight, and now at eighteen, he still thought he was three years old.

He should indeed play with older kids.

Wang Lifan, understanding his thoughts, now asked,

"So, are you going to farm with your sister, or are you coming back to hatch chicks with grandma?"

For Song Qiao, such a question was indeed quite challenging.

He hesitated for a long time, eventually looking in the direction of home, "I'll go farm with sister."

As he was leaving, he lingered, "Grandma, tell the mother hen not to hatch them too quickly. Wait for me to come back and do it together…"

Once the pestering child finally left, Wang Lifan took out four bamboo baskets and placed them in the storeroom, first laying a thick layer of dry grass at the bottom, then counting and placing twenty to thirty eggs in each, one after the other. Following that, she went to the chicken coop and caught all four mother hens—

The local country chickens were skinny with long legs and would peck painfully, not easy to catch usually.

Unlike the fatty broiler chickens nowadays which were lethargic; chase them a couple of steps, and they were too lazy to run, simply sitting down, but whether for laying eggs or for eating, they couldn't compare with the country chickens, only more efficient.

To catch them, Wang Lifan had specifically not opened the door to the chicken coop early in the morning, and it had been clucking away all morning.

She put each mother hen into a basket with large holes, covered it with another basket, and secured it. If they were kept like this for a few days, the hens would start preparing to hatch the chicks.

Just wait twenty to thirty days, and the chicks would be ready to break out of their shells.

Just in time for late March, when the weather would also be warmer, everything growing, making it a good time for the chicks to grow.

...

After two days of cleaning, enough oak trees in the back mountain had been cleared, and of the seven fields, only the outer two remained today.

Song Tan saw the weather was about right, so she decided to sow the milk vetch seeds with Song Qiao.

Wu Lan was still a bit hesitant, "It's still very cold early in the morning and at night..."

The temperature difference was too great, it could easily freeze the tender buds to death, at the very least, one should wait another half a month.

Song Tan thought to herself, I know that. But the day before yesterday, when I activated Spiritual Energy for the first time without paying attention, the seeds almost sprouted on the spot.

Alas, it was also due to her lack of experience in planting in this world, she simply did not realize how precious Spiritual Energy was for the plants here.

If she delayed another two days, either the vitality of the seeds would be completely used up, or she would have to watch them sprout right there where they lay.

So, she could only appear stubborn, "Mom, Milk Vetch is not rice, it's not that delicate. It will surely survive."

Then she extended her hand to call out, "Qiaoqiao, are the seeds packed? If they are ready, let's go to the field."

Song Qiao didn't care what the season was or about sprouting; her waist basket was filled with Milk Vetch seeds mixed with sand, weighing almost ten jin.

The Milk Vetch seeds were flat and small, and even mixed with sand, there wasn't much, nearly enough for two mu of land, it was more like playing for Song Qiao.

He looked beaming with joy, full of anticipation:

"Sister, let me plant today!"

"Good Qiaoqiao, sister knew you would plant!"

The siblings then left the house like two cheerful fools.

Wu Lan: ...

...

Standing at the edge of the field, the earthy smell hit her face; the overturned chunks of soil revealed wild grasses that had already sprouted white roots.

Song Tan had eaten her hometown's food for several days and although it was much better than what was available in the city, and Wu Lan's cooking was unquestionably good, as her Qi Refinement progressed, her tolerance for impurities became increasingly difficult...

What she ate each day, after a night of cultivation, she still had to go to the smelly toilet the next day...

Sigh.

Anyway, it was completely unrelated to the Cultivators' way of living on nothing but wind and dew and maintaining a crystal clear body without a trace of impurity.

Thinking of this, Song Tan became more impatient.

The two large bags of seeds she was carrying were also eager to germinate, she could feel their pulsing life through the bags.

Song Tan hesitated no longer, grabbing a handful of seeds and flinging them. The moist seeds fell silently onto the soil after soaking, quickly merging with the brown earth, indistinguishable to the naked eye.

Below the undetected surface of the ground, that vigorous life force burst forth, and the overlooked seeds began to split open from inside out.

Just waiting for a nourishing dew at dawn and the right amount of sunlight, they could grow exuberantly and vigorously without even needing to be covered with soil.

This vibrant vitality brought immense tranquility, and Song Tan looked down at them, deciding to wait until all were sown, then, taking advantage of the warmth during the day, she would stealthily draw more moisture to press them into the earth.

In a month, this place would blossom with vast patches of purple flowers.

Her first step to recouping the investment would start with these Milk Vetch.

Holding onto that belief, Song Tan quickly finished sowing this plot of land and was ready to move on to the next when she saw Qiaoqiao still squatting on the ridge, scrutinizing the seeds.

"Qiaoqiao, what are you doing?"

But Qiaoqiao said solemnly, "Sister, your way of planting won't work, you need to dig a hole, put two seeds in, and then cover them with soil."

Song Tan was taken aback, then it dawned on her—wasn't that the method for planting corn?

It turns out Qiaoqiao only knew how to plant corn!