Wait… I’m a Druid in a Cultivation World?! - Chapter 88

“Right, burning it into plant ash!” Qi Ping nodded in affirmation, addressing Ya Ya’s question.

“These plants have absorbed quite a bit of spiritual energy. Burning them into plant ash with Yang Fire’s flame is somewhat beneficial for the growth of the spirit herbs.”

Mainly, Qi Ping felt this was just a simple, convenient task—something to do to help the first batch of Hundred Herb Grass mature a bit sooner.

“Caw caw. (Alright then! You’re the boss!)”

Under normal circumstances, as a crow with dignity, it certainly wouldn’t engage in such menial work.

But if it was Qi Ping’s order, that was a different matter entirely.

Seemingly reading Ya Ya’s thoughts, Qi Ping shook his head helplessly.
“Go ahead and absorb the Solar Essence to cultivate first! Once the bees have gathered and piled up the plants nearby, you can just go over and spit a couple of flames at them.”

“Caw caw. (Boss is wise!)”

The Yang Fire Crow praised Qi Ping, then flapped its wings happily and flew off to bask in the sunlight.

Qi Ping was well aware that Ya Ya had been cooped up in the Spirit Beast Bag for the last couple of days. Given its fanatical dedication to cultivation, it had been itching to get out and practice. Now that it had the time and place, it definitely didn’t want to just stay put burning plant ash. Its heart had probably already flown off to lie under the sun.

So, Qi Ping didn’t stop it; in fact, he was quite happy to see it go. If Ya Ya could continuously evolve and upgrade, and eventually help him, its master, soar to greater heights, that would be a wonderful thing for Qi Ping!

After delegating all the tasks, Qi Ping didn’t idle around either. He found spots to plant the Moonslumber Flowers and Sun Essence Flowers he had brought with him.

These two types of spirit flowers bloom year-round, grow quickly, and their pollen is suitable for the bees to collect nectar and make honey. Qi Ping planned to cultivate more of them. After all, relying solely on Hundred Herb Grass was too monotonous. Having more suitable spirit herbs and flowers would diversify the bees’ diet and honey recipes, and might even help the Brewmaster Pot-Bellied Bee mask the properties of the Hundred Herb Grass in the honey…

After working busily with the bees for quite some time, they finally completed the preliminary organization of the spirit land on Peak #29.

All areas suitable for planting Hundred Herb Grass had been loosened, watered, and mixed with the simple fertilizer—plant ash.

The mature Moonslumber Flower and Sun Essence Flower plants had all been planted by Qi Ping.

Standing atop Peak #29, looking down at the neatly prepared and loosened spirit fields, and the all-too-familiar Moonslumber Flowers, Qi Ping felt quite happy in his heart.

“It’s starting to feel a little like home!”

“Once I gradually transform this place, it will be a great spot for my cultivation and growth in the world of immortal cultivation!”

Truth be told, compared to participating in various competitions and fighting for resources within a sect, Qi Ping much preferred this kind of stable, development-oriented cultivation life.

The main issue with being a rogue cultivator was the difficulty in obtaining techniques, rare spirit herbs, and cultivation knowledge. Sometimes, even having spirit stones couldn’t buy you the truly core knowledge and techniques.

Therefore, Qi Ping felt that if he had the chance to join a sect, gaining access to more cultivation knowledge, techniques, and precious spirit herbs would be good. But ideally, it wouldn’t interfere with his low-key, farming-focused lifestyle. Being able to leverage the identity of a sect member for benefits, without getting entangled in sect conflicts, was the most ideal state for Qi Ping.

However, he also knew this was very difficult to achieve. Joining a sect always required paying some price. How to balance this… Qi Ping felt he needed to learn more about the internal situation of the sects by gathering information from other sect disciples first.

Anyway, the abilities of the Beast Master Druid and Forest Druid were his foundation in the cultivation world; that wouldn’t change. All other methods were merely tools for him to obtain resources, techniques, and knowledge. He would simply choose whichever tool was more suitable.

The sun set in the west, the crimson twilight dyeing the horizon and also reflecting on Qi Ping’s slightly weary face.

“Finally finished planting all the Hundred Herb Grass, plus the Sun Essence Flowers and Moonslumber Flowers.”

Thanks to the bees’ hard work, all the grass seeds Qi Ping had bought were planted neatly in rows.

Now he just needed to wait for the fastest-growing Hundred Herb Grass to mature on a large scale.

Qi Ping had been busy all day today: going to the market district, being followed and then turning the tables on his pursuers, returning to choose which spirit land to lease, building his own home, and planting the Hundred Herb Grass… After all this busywork, he now felt mentally quite exhausted.

So, next, under the protection of the bee swarm and Ya Ya, Qi Ping soon lay down on the grassy lawn and fell into a deep sleep.

Balancing tension and relaxation is necessary for better comprehension and cultivation.

The benefits of having animal companions were evident here. With a mountain full of high-tier, first-grade bee swarms, not even a Foundation Establishment stage cultivator could sneak up on Qi Ping unnoticed.

Otherwise, having to sleep with one eye open would be truly unsettling. Qi Ping definitely didn’t want to live a life of constant fear and anxiety.

The next day, the soft, gentle morning sunlight lazily fell upon Qi Ping’s contented face before he slowly woke up.

Ya Ya had long since flown to the top of the tallest tree, wholeheartedly perceiving and absorbing the Solar Essence. After evolving into a Yang Fire Crow, the speed at which Ya Ya absorbed Solar Essence and grew stronger had skyrocketed.

“This is truly comfortable!” Qi Ping couldn’t help but sigh.

Although in the world of cultivation, going several days and nights without sleep wasn’t a problem, occasionally getting a full night’s rest really allowed both the body and mental state to return to their peak.

The bees had also been busy since early morning.

Knowing that the neighboring spirit land, Peak #28, was unoccupied, they had started collecting various nectars and spirit materials from both Peaks #28 and #29 as soon as the sun rose.

Although the Hundred Herb Grass hadn’t matured yet, there were plenty of wildflowers, morning dew infused with spiritual energy, spirit tree sap, and so on. Brewing these into honey was perfectly sufficient for their rations, and the taste was quite good indeed.

They also knew that Qi Ping worked hard to cultivate the spirit herbs, so they diligently collected these things. They were thrifty and capable little experts!

Occasionally, Qi Ping also enjoyed eating the honey brewed from this morning dew and spirit tree sap—the taste was truly quite excellent!

After waking up, Qi Ping also began planning the development of his new home.

“Currently, all the first-grade low-level spirit land capable of supporting Hundred Herb Grass, and even the areas that don’t quite meet the first-grade low-level standard but can still support it, have all been developed and fully planted…”

“The first-grade mid-level spirit land is quite small, less than ten square meters. This is all reserved for planting Blood Ginseng and Fire Spirit Grass.”

Spirit land was rare, so they could only plant this much for now. If Qi Ping needed to cultivate other spirit herbs on a large scale in the future, he would have to wait until he leased the neighboring Peak #28.

“As for the trees on the mountain, we should leave them be. Even with my Forest Druid profession, cultivating so many trees with hundred or thousand-year lifespans would be very difficult.”

“Furthermore, the older these trees are, the better the boost seems to be for the Forest Druid profession…”

Qi Ping could clearly feel that the various boosts from his Forest Druid profession were significantly higher here compared to the original Peak #7.

“As for the remaining ordinary plants and grasses, we can clear most of them out and plant various types of common flowers in their place.”

“The spiritual energy concentration in these areas isn’t high, but for common flowers, it’s already exceptionally good.”

Qi Ping planned to leave these tasks to the bees. By now, they were very proficient at loosening soil, watering, sowing seeds, and so on. Qi Ping also had plenty of common flower seeds on him, so he could just hand them over to the bees.

The reason Qi Ping chose to plant so many common flowers was partly to supplement the diet of the Black Dwarf Bees and Golden Marrow Bees, and partly to serve as a cover. The number of Black Dwarf Bees still needed to increase to better hide Qi Ping’s true capabilities; otherwise, him leasing such a large area would seem unjustified. Furthermore, if all these ordinary plots were fully utilized, the Black Dwarf Bees could earn Qi Ping several hundred spirit stones a year, providing an additional source of income.

As for Qi Ping himself, he would focus his main efforts on cultivating spirit herbs, his own cultivation, and other more important matters.

The most crucial priority was for Qi Ping to start cultivating more Blood Ginseng, allowing the Brewmaster Pot-Bellied Bees to produce honey suitable for raising young bees. This was the resource needed for the ‘population boom’.

He had lost quite a few combat bees recently during the fights. He planned to not only replenish the numbers of the combat swarm but also multiply the overall bee population several times over. By then, a good amount of Hundred Herb Grass should have matured just in time to solve the food supply problem for the expanded population.

Additionally, Qi Ping planned to prioritize the matters of Fire Ginseng Honey and Fire Spirit Body Tempering Honey. With no imminent threats looming now, it was time to quickly improve his physical body strength and cultivation level.