Jia Yi had a strong mental power, which meant he had strong soul. As for the extra time, he would have to tend the lotus anyways, spending a few minutes extra didn't matter.
To be honest, Jia Yi knew that through a formation and a little construction, he could make this farming easier.
But, formations require spiritual power and would only save him a bit of time.
This is one of the cases where automation only makes sense when the scale is large enough.
Then again, this was the world of cultivation.
For all effects and purposes, automation would require the assistance and approval of stronger cultivators
Why would stronger cultivators gather so many lower resources? And destroy the economy of lower cultivators on top of that?
It would be better to just lets things be and dissolve any kind of monopoly, so that lower cultivators could become higher cultivators and continue growing higher grades of spiritual plants, benefitting the stronger cultivators.
At least the Azure Cloud Sect had this sentiment, and Jia Yi was happy to fulfil it.
The market of stronger cultivators couldn't afford the cost of automation anyways, it would be better for cultivators to gain a taste of the "independence" higher ranking cultivators "enjoyed".
Thinking of the faces of these genius cultivators who were fed with resources from the early stage, and once they reached the late stage, suddenly, they realised that cultivation was slow and that resources had to be earned by yourself…
Jia Yi nearly burst into laughter before focusing back on reading the jade slip and formulating a plan.
Although the Azure Cloud Sect didn't have the habit of making the young suffer, they had various restriction on how many resources you could give your descendants. The key resources of each stage could only be exchanged for with contribution points.
This is why the sect, although it was technically forbidden, didn't care if outer disciples lied a bit about what they were planting, after all, the young were working hard, if they earned a bit more, that was their own hard work!
It's also because of these measures why Jia Yi never thought lowly of all the geniuses in the family and sect.
Growing in an environment where you had to work hard to get what you want would definitely make great men and women out of these geniuses.
After all, a hardworking man is stronger than a lazy genius, but a hardworking genius is stronger than a hundred hard working men!
It's just… the lines between "genius" and "hardworking man" were a bit blurry.
In the lower stages, the difference might seem large, but the higher one looks, the greater a variety one would see.
Cultivators with born divine roots and born mysterious or even lacking roots would stand shoulder to shoulder…
…
Time passed. The difference between geniuses and hardworking people was never unsurmountable, all that separated them was whether they were popular in their youth or popular in their adulthood.
Jia Yi, a reincarnated young man, firmly believed that whether you were popular young or in your adulthood didn't matter.
As long as you survived longer than both, you would be better.
Six months passed and Jia Yi was tending the lotus once more.
The lotus in front of him had thin roots, withering leaves and a drooped flower head.
He sighed "Another lotus going waste."
On the side, Xianghu was looking at the lotus too. He had chosen a fire element of spiritual rice, because of his natural power and strong affinity with water but also wind and wood, he was able to finish tending to his rice faster than Xianghu, who had chosen an ice element spiritual rice after getting this recommendation by Jia Yi.
"Elder brother, this is the three-hundred seventy-second lotus… nearly forty percent of the lotus have gone bad…"
"I expected it. It's just the first time I'm tending to them, so it's a normal occurrence. Actually, I would've told you both to change your plants to something else, but that has to wait until you are at the late stage.
Say, Xianghu, how far are you?"
"Elder brother, you think too well of me! I'm not like you at all! I've barely reached around a third of the spiritual power required.
Based on my calculations, I will be able to fully fill my middle-bowl in around a year. Opening the large bowl will be harder, the bottleneck might take up to a year or two, so I'm not too optimistic."
"Actually, there are various techniques that help you break through the bottleneck in the sect, you should look through them!
The family didn't offer these techniques to us because they hope we can naturally reach the highest rank, but in fact, the difference isn't large.
As long as you hone your spiritual power once you reach the next stage, it will all be fine.
The family rules are oriented towards those cultivators who are likely to only reach the foundation building stage in the last years of our golden period, but we are talented and it would be best if we can reach foundation building by twenty.
The only time where cultivators have intersecting golden windows of cultivation are the qi-refining stage at the foundation building stage, which is why most fast cultivators in the foundation building stage don't worry about accumulating spiritual power, but focus on learning various creation arts, spells and techniques to strengthen their foundation.
Think about it and consider using one of the techniques."
"What technique?" Xianghe came at this moment.
Jia Yi looked at Xianghu, who nodded and repeated what Jia Yi said, considering the feasibility of the matter.
Right then, their aunt, Miaoxue, came from outside.
"This vision is indeed very good and many cultivators regard it as the true method of advancement, it's just that the family doesn't allow collateral branches to use it, because many have actually ruined their foundation this way to rush to the ninth stage of qi refining, not honing their spiritual power, in the end ruining their chances to advance!
Only side branches, who have foundation building elders who can guide their juniors, may use it."
When the three saw her, they bowed and greeted "Aunt Miaoxue!"