The Chronicles of Emberstone Farm [Cozy Fantasy] [Farming LitRPG] Novel

Chapter 301 – Emberstone Farm Book 4

“Yes!” shouted the younger, more enthusiastic members of my staff.

The others all cheered or smiled.

At a signal from me, Lari, Kharli, and Mo took out the farmer’s hats we had prepared for everyone. They were conical, made of woven bamboo, and topped with a small, cute button finial made of the local “fire silver,” which was just bronze with an outer layer of heat-bonded silver. The words “Emberstone Farm” were written on each one in black ink and sealed with a light varnish. A chin strap held them in place, and we had also added cloth tassels to the back to protect the neck area from the sun.

I put one on and gave a small one to Eggy. “Baby, do you want to be a farmer like your Mom?”

“Yes!” Eggy put it on and rushed off to show it off to my apprentices, saying, “I’m a real farmer now.”

Prince Baiyu laughed and picked him up. “But you said you would be a swordsman like me.”

“I can be a farmer and a swordsman.” Eggy waved his arm around with his hand curled as though he was holding a sword.

“Do you want to farm with everyone?” I asked.

He nodded and I handed my housekeeper, Fengying, a packet of seeds. “Alright, let’s get started!”

Today’s project was simple. I wanted to test whether mundane methods could grow spiritual plants, both on Emberstone Farm and nearby. Thus, I asked for volunteers among my human staff who would be given a small bonus for their work. We were now at the edge of the farm, and they were to plant using hand tools and compost they had bought in the nearest marketplace. One field was inside the farm, while the one right beside it was outside. They were chosen this way to ensure that the conditions were exactly the same, with the only difference being their locations.

I hypothesized that both fields should be able to grow spirit crops. If the test was successful, I could build extension farms outside and hire human farmers to grow more crops. Although I had sold many seeds to outside farmers, they had a high failure rate. I reckoned it was very probable that farming near my farm would result in a higher success rate.

Of course, the seeds were provided by me. Last fall, I planted five types of special ancient crops and took many seeds from them, which the staff would use today.

[Ancient Five Grains:

In prehistory, the people of the land were starved and weak. The Divine Farmer, born of a priest and sacred deer in an ancient grove, traveled all over the world and discovered the Five Grains, which he used when he taught agriculture to mankind. These five staples, rice, wheat, millet, sorghum, and soybeans, were a vital innovation, transforming the people from a nomadic, hunter-gatherer society to a settled, agrarian one by providing a reliable and abundant source of nutrition and materials.]

These were chosen by me because of their cultural significance and also because they were very hardy and should give us the biggest chance of success.

“Thank you, my lady,” said Fengying.

I smiled at her and noticed that she had dyed her hair brown and cut it shorter, which made her look younger, especially now that daily access to high-grade spiritual food and the [Ageless Beauty Essence] had erased most of the lines from her face. She was aging backwards! I was about to answer when her husband, Deming, stepped beside her.

My mouth fell open.

Prince Baiyu, still holding our son, coughed and gently closed my mouth for me.

Eggy also noticed it. He waved Deming over. “Mingming! Did you change your face?”

Deming, who was a cultivator also known as the Demon Chef for his scary intensity in the kitchen and expertise with a knife, obligingly walked closer to let Eggy touch his face.

“Wow, your face is really nice!” said Eggy. He let the Demon Chef go and stared at him adoringly.

“Thank you, young master,” Fengying spoke for her husband, who rarely said anything.

With a twinkle in her eye, Fengying bowed and left to supervise the planting.

“He must have decided to match Fengying’s apparent age,” said Prince Baiyu.

“I see.” My lips twitched a little as I suppressed a giggle.

A cultivator is a person with the innate ability to sense and absorb qi, which gives them many powers, among them an extended lifespan and youth. Deming was a cultivator, but Fengying was not, and so when I first hired them, they both looked older. Now that Fengying was looking a lot more youthful, Deming had matched her. When I first saw Deming’s real appearance, it was a bit of a shock. I had expected the Demon Chef with a formidable reputation to look fierce and cruel, but he turned out to be the cute type!

Prince Baiyu put Eggy down, and they joined the others who immediately started working.

I took out a table and chairs from my inventory and placed them under a tree. My apprentices, the nanny, and I sat there as we watched the staff work.

My housekeeper was in charge because I only knew how to farm by using the System. It turned out to be quite labor-intensive. First, they used spades to loosen the soil, then hoes to break up the chunks of earth. They also removed grass, roots, and rocks. Second, when the ground was properly tilled, they added compost. Third, they dug small holes and planted the seeds in them, covering them up with soil afterwards. Lastly, they used water from the river to water the plants since the liquid we got from the [Wells] on the farm was spirit water, and I wanted to use all mundane material for this test.

It wasn’t too much work since each person only planted one to three seeds, depending on their seniority. The oldest staff, those who had been with me since the beginning, got three seeds while the newest hires got one.

Shuye, my Farm Guide, arrived just as they were watering both fields.

Or, rather, my farm sales manager.

The player’s Farm Guide was a very important person in Adventure Incarnate, and though I knew Shuye was the local feudal lord, not a character in the game, I still often thought of him as a Farm Guide.

“Shushu!” Eggy ran to him and held his arms up for a hug and a toss.

“Eggy boy.” Shuye, a large man with brown hair and eyes, flung Eggy up in the air, making him scream in delight.

They played like that for a while until they got bored, and Shuye joined us at the table while Eggy ran off to help with watering the plants. It was Kharli’s turn to serve the tea, and she did so with graceful, practiced motions. Shuye had just finished his cup when Fengying reported that their work was done.

“Good job,” I said.

My staff returned to the house to wash up, while the rest of us accompanied Shuye in inspecting the field. All I could see was damp earth, but the clan members told me they could sense that the qi was slightly elevated compared to yesterday, when crops had not been sown yet.

Prince Baiyu and Shuye then went to their offices in the outer courtyard to work while Eggy and I went to the indoor hot spring to bathe. I told the nanny to take the rest of the day off, and I let Lari, Kharli, and Mo do whatever they wanted until noon, when we met again for lunch.

The midday meal was served as a self-service buffet style. Since it was the day after the New Year's feast, the food was mostly leftovers from the night before. I had a nap with Eggy after that and checked some paperwork with Shuye until sunset, when my entire household turned up for the twilight ritual.

It was time to plant the seed that would resurrect my parents.

[Flower Seed:

Plant this, along with the stone, in a deep hole at the border of night and day.]

[Stone:

Plant this with the Flower Seed.]

The seed was a very small one, around the size of a grain of rice. It was brown and ordinary-looking, with almost no qi to speak of, according to my husband. The stone was likewise a very ordinary rock that you could find anywhere, grey and irregularly shaped, and the size of a peanut.

Together we walked to the spot I had chosen. It was a pretty clearing full of wildflowers, near the edge of the forest, but not too near. As everyone watched me, I mentally navigated to the System’s [Build] tab and chose the dig tool.

Since the quest info said “ a deep hole” without specifying the exact depth, I was at a loss about how long to dig. If a person was burying something they didn’t want to be easily dug up, say by wild animals, then surely waist-deep or around three to four feet was enough. The legendary “six feet under” was also an option. Below that, well, a person with a shovel would surely find it difficult since the hole would be deeper than they were tall. Therefore, I decided to try six feet.

A glowing, magical circle full of runes appeared on the ground, and its light flashed thrice before disappearing. When it was gone, it left behind a hole three feet wide and six feet deep. The soil that had been displaced was neatly piled beside it. The others were used to this and weren’t surprised at all, though they still clapped to show their appreciation. I threw the [Flower Seed] inside, but the sound of a warning siren nearly deafened me, and a System message popped up.

[Error: Insufficient Depth]

I turned the System volume down and asked Prince Baiyu to retrieve the seed for me, which he did by manipulating wind qi.

“Thank you, my love. The hole isn’t deep enough,” I explained.

I tried again with twelve feet, then twenty feet, and thirty feet, but the System still gave the same warning. This made me so frustrated that I set the depth to ten thousand feet. This time, the earth rumbled when the magic circle appeared, and it took the System five minutes to finish digging. By the time it was over, there was a towering mountain of soil beside it, though not nearly enough for a hole of this size. I leaned down over it to check, and I couldn’t see the bottom.

This time, when I threw the seed in, there was no response from the System, so I threw the stone in after it. The System automatically covered it with the soil it had excavated. I waited for something to happen.

Nothing happened.

I waited some more.

Still nothing happened.

I turned to the others and said, “The ritual has been completed.”

Everyone cheered and congratulated me. The crowd dispersed, but I stood there for a long time, waiting, with my husband, child, and apprentices.

I placed a few tiki torches around the clearing when it got too dark to see much. That was when Prince Baiyu spotted something in the sky.

“Look there!”