With his goals now clear, Fang Yun felt a newfound lightness in his heart, and hope for the future began to sprout within him. He carefully counted the sprouted spiritual rice seeds and confirmed that indeed, only 63 had germinated. It seemed his golden finger was quite accurate. Whether the remaining seeds would eventually sprout was still uncertain.
Fang Yun made a mental note to implement some breeding techniques the next time he planted seeds to improve the survival rate. He marked the spots where the unsprouted seeds were located and then returned to the cave.
In the days that followed, Fang Yun visited the spiritual field daily, observing the sprouted seeds and sensing their emotions, checking for any signs of discomfort. He also watched for any changes on his panel and monitored the unsprouted seeds to see if any new signs of life appeared.
However, after a few days, there were no changes to the golden finger, and the remaining 37 seeds still showed no signs of sprouting. Disheartened, Fang Yun eventually dug up those seeds and discarded them, focusing his attention on the 63 that had already sprouted.
Time flowed by, and before long, a month had passed. The sprouted seeds had grown exceptionally well and had now emerged above the surface of the water. Each one was lush and vibrant, without any blemishes or issues.
This success was entirely due to Fang Yun's meticulous care and attention. During this time, weeds had occasionally sprouted, but the spiritual rice would immediately send out an alert, allowing Fang Yun to swiftly deal with them before they became a problem.
He pulled them out before the weeds could grow, eliminating the possibility of competition for spiritual energy between the weeds and the spiritual rice, which allowed the rice to thrive. However, he couldn't afford to relax yet. According to the growth cycle of the spiritual rice, it would take another eleven months for them to fully mature. Fang Yun was powerless in this regard.
Although he was eager to see if there would be any changes in his golden finger once the rice matured, the plant's growth cycle was fixed, and there was nothing he could do about it.
A few days later, while inspecting the spiritual field, Fang Yun suddenly felt some discomfort coming from one of the spiritual rice plants. This strange feeling was much stronger than when he had first discovered the weeds, immediately capturing his attention. He entered the field and approached the problematic rice plant.
Crouching down, he focused intently on the spiritual rice before him. It stood tall and upright, still lush and vibrant, with no apparent abnormalities. There were no signs of pests, and no weeds nearby. Checking the panel revealed no alerts either.
It seemed his golden finger wasn't as powerful as he had hoped. Perhaps its more advanced functionalities lay within his own senses rather than just the panel. The panel only provided a summary display. This realization made Fang Yun frown, so he concentrated even harder on the spiritual rice.
After a long while, he finally determined that the rice seemed to be in a state of hunger—it wasn't getting enough to eat.
Not getting enough to eat? Fang Yun stood up and looked around the entire spiritual field. He quickly realized that this meant there was an insufficient supply of spiritual energy! After all, spiritual rice required both rich black soil and the spiritual energy from the spring water to grow.
However, the levels of spiritual energy in both the soil and the water were barely meeting the standards, so it was only logical that they couldn't satisfy the needs of the spiritual rice. Previously, the cultivators had not had a golden finger like Fang Yun's, so they never noticed this issue. To them, even having some yield was satisfactory, and they didn't care about much else.
Even if they had noticed the problem, they wouldn't have known how to fix it. Fang Yun stepped out of the spiritual field, standing to the side with a frown as he stared at the entire area.
Although he understood that the current situation of the spiritual field being unable to support the growth of the rice was normal, the rice's well-being directly affected his golden finger and, thus, his path in cultivation. He couldn't just ignore it.
If he allowed this situation to persist, even if the spiritual rice miraculously survived the pest challenge, it would still face inevitable yield reduction due to malnutrition. That was certainly not the outcome Fang Yun wanted to see. As the first batch of spiritual rice he had planted, he hoped for it to grow perfectly and flawlessly, even if it required certain sacrifices.
Fang Yun resolved within himself! To ensure that the spiritual rice grew perfectly, there were only two approaches: one was to increase resources, and the other was to cut costs.
Increasing resources meant boosting the supply of spiritual energy in the field, while cutting costs meant reducing the number of rice plants, allowing the remaining ones to have enough resources to grow. The latter approach didn't align with Fang Yun's expectations, so he had to choose the former.
The only method he could think of to enhance the spiritual energy in the field was the dozen or so spiritual stones he had in hand. These were the only valuable items he possessed. However, he realized that if he didn't spend them now, he wouldn't get the chance later. At this point, he had no choice but to part with these spiritual stones—it wasn't a big deal.
He was no longer the old Fang Yun, who wouldn't dare to use a single spiritual stone until the very end. With the existence of the golden finger, he firmly believed that he could quickly regain any lost stones.
Thus, Fang Yun returned to the cave and gathered all the spiritual stones he had. Since one of the spiritual rice plants was already showing distress, it was likely that the others would soon follow suit. A small number of stones would certainly be insufficient, so it made more sense to take them all and adapt based on the actual situation.
Returning to the side of the spiritual field, Fang Yun gazed at the spiritual rice plants and began to think about how to maximize the use of the spiritual stones in his possession. After all, the quantity of spiritual stones was quite limited, and he absolutely couldn't afford to waste them.
If he exhausted these spiritual stones and the rice still hadn't matured fully, his plan would be completely doomed. That was a scenario Fang Yun couldn't accept. Therefore, he took out three of the fifteen spiritual stones he had as an emergency reserve.
The remaining twelve spiritual stones were divided into two parts. Fang Yun planned to directly apply six of them in the spiritual field to increase the concentration of spiritual energy. He kept the other six in reserve, in case the first batch ran out and more were needed.
Fang Yun carefully placed the six stones evenly across the field, without burying them in the soil. He intended for the stones to release their spiritual energy gradually as they were washed by the spring water. If the stones were buried in the soil, the spiritual rice's roots wouldn't be able to break through their hard outer shells to absorb the energy, rendering them ineffective.