4 Chapter 4 Efficiency Tripled_1
Trantor: 549690339
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Cultivators ruled this world, but there were many paths open to ordinary people as well.
For example, one could pass exams to be an official, gaining ess to the governments basic cultivation techniques and resources, along with a decent monthly sry.
Alternatively, one could train insects or wild beasts, improving taming skills and strengthening pets.
Even if the pet evolved only a slight special ability, it could greatly increase its owners worth.
There were countless sess stories of individuals living in luxury because of a single pet.
Hu the limper from our vige raised a rat that not only often dug up buried treasures for him but also had an extremely sensitive nose. If someones belongings or child went missing, all it took was for the rat to sniff out the lingering scent, and it could track down the lost item.
Thanks to this little rat, Hu the limper not only had no worries about food and clothing but also became an apprentice member in the Beast Tamer Association.
Everyone respected him by addressing him as Master Hu, and no one dared to call him a limper anymore.
Even the local influential figures would give him respect.
Now, Hu the limper had be a sess story everyone in the vige envied, and it was said he was considering taking that rat to the city to seek his fortune.
There was also a farmer from the neighboring vige who, after improving his nting skills, became a high-level farmer. Andlord offered him an annual sry of thirty taels of silver to manage his estate, directing the ordinary farmers at work and only personally tending to the important technical tasks.
You know, ordinary farmers work themselves to death for an entire year for just two or three taels of silver.
With bonuses and allowance for heating, it wouldnt exceed four taels.
His ie was ten times that of an ordinary farmer.
Indeed, every trade has its master.
Qin Niu now had two paths before him. The first was to improve his farming skills to be a high-level farmer, in which case, even if he just worked for andlord, he could still earn more than thirty taels of silver a year.
To an ordinary person, this was definitely the mark of a sessful person.
Relying onbor points to improve his farming skills, he believed it wouldnt take more than two or three years to achieve this goal.
The other path was the female termite he was raising.
As long as it lived long enough to sessfully establish the Termite Kingdom, it would surely bring tremendous surprises for Qin Niu.
Qin Niu would also try his best to help it evolve and advance continuously.
If it could develop even a little special ability, he could entirely rely on a single termite to embark on the path of cultivation.
He checked the status of the female termite; its energy had decreased by 3 points, leaving only 168 points.
Everything else was normal.
It was probably still hard at work building its nest.
He hoped there wouldnt be any problems.
If this attempt failed, and he had to gather another tael of silver to buy a Contractual Talisman, he might only be able to work as a long-termborer for andlord.
That was not the life he wanted.
The next day, at the break of dawn, he got up, took a meat bun Wang Wanyan had given him, and rushed into the mountains.
This time, he was holding a sickle and a small hoe in his hands.
The female termite had already chosen a location for its nest. Although letting it grow in the wild was meant to enhance its ability to survive in nature, he still had to deal with the overly dangerous threats near the nest.
After all, it was still in a prebor state, without even a single worker ant at its disposal, let alone soldier ants.
In the face of enemies, it had no means of fighting back whatsoever.
Arriving at the slope where the female termite was constructing its nest, from the outside, it appeared to have almostpletely sealed the entrance to its burrow.
Doing so significantly reduced the chances of being discovered by predators.
Without disturbing it, Qin Niu crouched down and carefully observed for any signs or tracks around the Termite Nest, checking for potential threats.
He could see a rtively noticeable trail on the nting surface to the right above the nest.
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The grass along the path had all fallen to the sides.
Dense rows of pinhole-shaped footprints were visible.
Based on the width of the path, it must have been caused by multi-legged insects like centipedes, sowbugs, or millipedes.
Hey down, propped himself up with his hands, and brought his nose close to the ground to smell.
There was a faintly sour and stinky scent.
Looking closely at the pinhole-shaped footprints, they looked like hooks that slightly pulled up the topyer of the soil.
These must be the tracks of a centipede.
[You have learned Insect Trace Identification. You can now identifymon insects tracks through obvious signs.]
As the prompt text appeared, he checked his personal attributes and indeed, a new skill had been added.
Skills:
nting ss, Sowing Proficiency 10/100, Soil Loosening Novice 0/10, Fertilizing Novice 0/10, Watering Novice 0/10, Weeding Novice 0/10
Insect Commanding ss, Insect Trace Identification Novice 0/10.
This was also the first Insect Commanding skill he had learned.
Currently just a novice, he could only identify the tracks ofmon insects with clear signs.
Still, he felt very happy.
Learning the skill of Insect Trace Identification would be a huge help in capturing some expensive and scarce insects.
For example, the price of the tiger-striped cricket had already been driven up to five taels of silver each in the Insect Market.
It wasntrge, but itsbat ability was strong and agile, and it was very fierce in battle. Among the fighting crickets, the General would either die or be severely injured when facing it.
However, to catch such a precious and scarce insect, hed probably need to improve his Insect Trace Identification skill further.
Qin Niu followed the centipedes tracks all the way to its nest.
It was hiding under a rock.
When deciding whether to remove this centipede, he hesitated.
The centipedes diet was varied and ferocious; covered in a tough shell with a deadly poison, it could defend this area by killing as many invading insects as came its way.
It was both a huge threat to the female termite and a guardian deity.
Leaving it here seemed to be more beneficial than harmful for the time being.
Not far to the left of the female termites nest, there was a low tea-oil tree with a wasp-nest-looking gray-brown nest on it.
ck stink ants could be seen busily entering and exiting the nest.
These were the rather ferocious ck-Bellied Stink Ants, of a medium size.
Just any one of them could kill Qin Nius female termite.
They only moved around in the area to the left, foraging for food, not daring to cross even a fraction of an inch to the right.
Insects too are sentient; they must know the right side is the centipedes territory. To go there meant death.
It was precisely because of this nest of ck-Bellied Stink Ants that other small ants dared not settle in this area.
After observing they of thend, Qin Niu couldnt help but admire the female termites intelligence even more.
Finding a ce to live wedged between two major powers seemed dangerous, but was actually safer than many other ces.
The most dangerous ce might actually be the safest.
Qin Niu was secretly relieved that he hadnt acted rashly.
This area had already formed a delicate ecological chain bnce, and breaking it could bring disaster for the female termite.
Given its excellent performance, from now on, visiting it once or twice a day should suffice.
Being a hands-off shopkeeper is actually better.
What Im most looking forward to now is waiting for it toy eggs and hatch the first batch of worker ants, at which point its food supply will be secured.
The ant queen is unable to forage on her own and can only rely on the worker ants to feed her.
When descending the mountain, Qin Niu noticed an area where straw was copsed and in disarray, upon closer inspection, he discovered that there were patches of blood that had coagted and turned ck.
It seems that a fight took ce herest night, and a medium-sized wild beast was killed.
Before gaining strength, its wiser to spend less time in the mountains after dark.
Back in the vige, he carried his hoe to his own thin stretch ofnd, ready for a hard daysbor.
Compared to families with nond, he considered himself fortunate.
Landless poor either rentnd to farm as tenants or work as servants in wealthier households.
This acreage consisted of badnd; it was all stones underneath, impossible to clear away.
Because the soilyer is so thin it doesnt retain nutrients or moisture well and is prone topacting, such badnd ismonly referred to as thinnd.
nting maize, a good plot ofnd can yield over two thousand pounds.
This poornd can yield at most five or six hundred pounds, and it requires much morebor.
The poorer thend, the more work there is.
Fertilizing and watering must be frequent, and as the crops hardly grow, weeds begin to thrive. Just weeding bes a very troublesome issue.
Then, every now and then the soil must be loosened because it is prone to forming hard clods.
Looking at the fields covered with weeds, he felt a headacheing on.
Weeding and soil-turning would be particrly arduous tasks.
Without a cow at home, things would be much easier if he had one.
Ordinary poor families simply cannot afford to have cows; onlyndlords do. They are considered costly livestock. Even the cheapest ones cost upward of five taels of silver, and a better, adult water buffalo costs seven to eight taels of silver each.
He swung his arms and dug forcefully with the hoe.
Labor Point +0.01, Weeding Proficiency +0.01, Soil Loosening Proficiency +0.01.
This single hoeing unexpectedly earned him three kinds of attribute points.
Full-turn loosening of the soil is a task that requires a lot of physical strength, rarelypleted by manualbor.
Its typically done using cattle.
At the rate he was going, it would take at least a month to finish turning this acre ofnd and shape it into ridges.
This would certainly dy the nting of the maize.
Considering thatbor points could rapidly enhance his nting skills, he tried adding 9.99bor points to his weeding skill.
Weeding Proficiency 10/100.
Now looking at the weeds covering the field, he could see they had be much more manageable.
This is Bermuda grass, with deep roots but no branches, tenacious vitality, and drought resistance. This is foxtail grass, which grows quickly and will mature and spread throughout the field soon after setting seed, making it impossible to eradicate
The improvement in weeding skills only enhances the efficiency of weeding but is of no help to soil turning.
He wanted to try and raise his soil loosening skill to proficient as well.
However, he didnt have enoughbor points.
Only 9.64 left.
Luckily, he wasnt far off, so he started working vigorously, sweating profusely.
Soon after, a small patch of soil was turned over.
Labor points, as well as proficiency in both weeding and soil loosening skills, had increased significantly.
He tried to bring his soil loosening skill to proficient.
This time, he seeded.
Soil Loosening Proficiency 10/100.
After the sessful upgrade, he discovered with surprise that the improvement in his soil loosening skills not only made him adept at manybor-saving digging techniques but also significantly aided in loosening the soil around crops, reducing the damage to their root systems and allowing for a more precise understanding of the required depth.
This would greatly benefit the growth of the crops.
Trying to turn the soil again, he found it was much easier than before.
Still, the task ofpletely turning this acre ofnd remained incredibly daunting.
Having worked tirelessly until evening, he had managed to dig out three ridges ofnd.
Because his soil loosening skill had been upgraded to proficient, the efficiency had significantly increased.
In the past, a full days work would at most turn over one ridge, but now he had done three times that amount. And it seemed that he had expended less energy, as he still felt some strength left.
If it had been earlier, he would have already been exhausted.
This also meant that after tripling the efficiency of his digging, a task that would have taken a month could now bepleted in just ten days.
He instinctively checked his attributes.
Qin Niu
Cultivation: Mortal Onefold 17/100, Low-rank Farmer 51/100, Low-rank Insect Master 3/100
Lifespan: 51 years
Cultivation Technique: None
Skills: nting ss, nting Proficiency 10/100, Soil Loosening Proficiency 36.2/100, Fertilizing Novice 0/10, Watering Novice 0/10, Weeding Proficiency 36.2/100
Insect control ss, Insect Trace Identification Novice 0/10.
Talents: None
Divine Skills: None
Labor Points: 26.2
The proficiencies for soil loosening and weeding had increased to 36.2.
He had umted another twenty or sobor points.
The harvest was quite good.
The farmers level experience value hadnt changed at all, which suggests that turning the soil does not increase the farmers level experience.
ncing at the sky, he decided to start sowing the first batch of seeds.
nting in batches reduces the intensity ofbor.
Otherwise, sowing and harvesting an acre ofnd all in one day would be impossible for one person.
Spacing the seeds properly, he nted each kernel of maize into the freshly turned soil.
nting Proficiency +0.01, nting Experience +0.01.
It turns out that the farmers level experience requires the actual nting of crops to increase.
A proficient level of nting technique is quitemendable, the cement of the maize and the depth at which they are buried in the soilyer all have their significance.