Chapter 164: Harvesting the Spiritual Fields!

The green-robed cultivator was unable to approach Big Gold. With no other choice, he could only cast a hopeful gaze toward Ye Mo.

After Ye Mo pacified Big Gold for a moment, he allowed the green-robed cultivator to draw near.

This fellow first stroked the golden feathers as if he couldn't bear to let go, then pinched Big Gold's wings, and finally tried to touch its head, only to be pecked by Big Gold, which frightened him into retreating repeatedly.

Ye Mo frowned and said, "Be careful. Although this spirit eagle has been tamed by me and is more docile than wild demonic eagles, it is still the first generation, and its wild nature has not yet been completely eradicated. What you are doing is very dangerous."

The green-robed cultivator was only at the Qi Condensation stage, and his strength was no match for Big Gold. Approaching Big Gold so defenselessly meant that if he were truly attacked, he would easily be injured.

The green-robed cultivator couldn't help looking awkward. "Seeing such a rare purebred golden eagle, I just couldn't help wanting to touch it more."

At this point, his brows furrowed. "We do have golden-feathered spirit eagles here, but they are all mixed-breeds, and not a single one can match this purebred. Breeding it with ordinary golden eagles would be somewhat a waste; its offspring would certainly be inferior to itself."

At the end of his words, he suddenly looked at Ye Mo. "By the way, didn't City Lord Ye mention three of them just now? May I see the other two?"

Ye Mo called Big Gold back and released Second Gold and Little Gold respectively, letting the green-robed cultivator inspect them.

The green-robed cultivator's eyes shone brightly as he carefully examined them, and he hurriedly said, "City Lord Ye, could we strike a bargain? Once your spirit eagles lay eggs, could you sell a few golden eagle eggs to me?"

"Do you have spirit eagles suitable for breeding here?"

Ye Mo asked with a puzzled expression.

The green-robed cultivator pointed at Ye Mo, shook his head, and smiled. "City Lord Ye, you happen to have one male eagle and two female eagles right here—what a wonderful combination. Why look far when the solution is right at hand?"

Ye Mo said somewhat strangely, "But, they were born from the same pair of golden-feathered demonic eagles... Won't breeding like this weaken their bloodline?"

The green-robed cultivator shook his head and said, "Well, under normal circumstances, such inbreeding would produce very weak spirit eagles. However, the situation is different now. All three of these belong to purebred golden eagles, and they have been through generations of inbreeding.

If they were to be bred with other non-purebred golden eagles instead, the resulting offspring would very likely turn out mediocre, reaching at most the second rank and failing to grow to the third rank.

The best method is to let them mate with each other. However, some eggs will be normal while others abnormal. If any abnormal eagle eggs are produced, simply do not hatch them and select only the normal eagle eggs for incubation, and there will be no problems at all."

The green-robed cultivator spoke endlessly about his expertise, detailing how to use spiritual sense to distinguish between normal and deformed eagle eggs, how to induce adult spirit eagles to mate with each other, and how to shorten the cycle to produce a clutch of eagle eggs every month.

He spoke for a good two hours, and fearing that Ye Mo might forget, he even enthusiastically carved a jade slip for Ye Mo.

Seeing Ye Mo put away the jade slip, the green-robed cultivator finally asked, "I wonder where City Lord Ye's immortal village is established? This junior would like to pay a visit, if it is convenient? I happen to master a spirit beast estrus-inducing secret technique, which might be of help."

Ye Mo couldn't help but chuckle silently; it seemed this fellow really had his eyes set on the eagle eggs.

However, this person did possess some genuine skill in spirit beast breeding. If he could make the spirit eagles lay more eggs, giving him a few afterwards would be of no consequence.

Ye Mo knew that under normal circumstances, a spirit eagle would only lay eggs once a year, and only about two or three at that. If he were to rely on the spirit eagles to lay eggs naturally and gather a hundred of them, heaven knows how many years or months it would take.

How could Ye Mo afford to wait that long? He would definitely have to utilize the power of the ancient scroll to drastically compress this timeframe.

"The Ao Lai Sea Area, Ye Family Immortal Village? So it's a new sea area—haha, what a great place. City Lord Ye, I will come looking for you in a few days. I will help you breed the spirit eagles in my private capacity, induce estrus in your spirit eagles to make them lay more eggs, and identify whether the eggs are abnormal. Haha, no reward is necessary; just giving me a few eagle eggs will suffice."

The green-robed cultivator hurriedly finalized the matter to prevent Ye Mo from going back on his word.

"Isn't the Daoist friend on duty here?"

Ye Mo asked with a strange expression.

"Hehe, as for being on duty, I can find someone to cover for me first. Golden eagle eggs are the real priority..."

The green-robed cultivator laughed嘿嘿.

Since a solution had been found, Ye Mo was no longer in a hurry to return. He chatted with the green-robed cultivator for a while, asking many questions regarding beast taming.

After a short conversation, Ye Mo realized that this person was utterly fanatical about beast taming, which explained why he wanted to go to the Ye Family Immortal Village solely because of the purebred golden spirit eagles.

Before leaving, Ye Mo remembered to ask for his name.

His name was Zhang Pengju.

Originally, Ye Mo had been worried that the golden-feathered spirit eagles would reproduce too slowly and was even prepared to purchase other spirit eagles, such as fire-type spirit eagles.

However, after a thorough chat with Zhang Pengju, he came to understand that true avian cavalry mounts are best chosen from the exact same species of flying beast. This ensures that their stamina, speed, and combat prowess are completely uniform, otherwise their coordination would be affected.

After careful consideration, Ye Mo decided that this entire aerial cavalry force would exclusively use golden eagles.

Ye Family Immortal Village.

The entire village had decided to go all out in clearing the fields, and almost everyone was engaged in reclamation. The rogue cultivators' topics of conversation all revolved around spirit grain cultivation. Many rogue cultivators had already accepted employment to clear spirit fields within the village.

To prevent devastation from the demonic beast tide, all the spirit fields were located within the immortal village on the main island.

Ye Mo returned to the immortal village, cultivated for the entire night, and only snatched an hour of light sleep just before dawn.

Zhang Pengju's spirit beast estrus-inducing secret technique could enable the golden eagles to mate and lay eggs rapidly. Coupled with the ancient scroll, this could solve the problem of rapidly expanding the golden eagle population.

However, feeding such a massive force of eagle cavalry with spirit grain remained a huge challenge. It required mobilizing the entire immortal village and the strength of all cultivators to clear more spirit fields.

Looking out the bedroom window of his private courtyard, Ye Mo suddenly fell into deep thought.

"The open space in my courtyard is quite large, over an acre of prime land. I might as well clear it into a spirit field. Besides, during my usual leisure time early in the morning and late at night, it will be very convenient for me to tend to the spirit fields here.

Every extra acre counts; I cannot rely solely on the villagers to do the clearing, I must shoulder some of it myself."

No sooner said than done, he picked up a dark-iron hoe and buried himself in hard labor within the small courtyard.

Strictly speaking, this was an inner courtyard of the City Lord's Mansion, where Ye Mo rested at night. It was different from the outer courtyard of the City Lord's Mansion where village affairs were handled.

Without permission, not even the Five Earth Guards would enter or exit casually.

A Shui usually guarded outside the door of the inner courtyard, and without permission, no one was allowed in or out.

It took a full half-day for Ye Mo to clear out the acre of open land in the inner courtyard into a spirit field. He felt somewhat fatigued, and beads of fine sweat seeped onto his forehead.

Ye Mo reached out to wipe his sweat when he suddenly felt something unusual. The ancient scroll hidden close to his body actually began to grow faintly warm.

Ye Mo was astonished in his heart, wondering what was happening.

The ancient scroll growing warm had only ever happened when he first entered the mine caves on East Coming Spirit Island.

"Is there some spiritual object nearby?"

Ye Mo froze for a moment, hastily dropped his hoe, took out the ancient scroll, and checked it carefully.

Whenever this ancient scroll came close to spiritual objects, such as spirit ores or spirit artifacts, it would grow slightly warm.

Ye Mo looked around his surroundings. However, there were no spiritual objects whatsoever in the vicinity.

After guessing for quite a while and failing to come up with a reason, Ye Mo had no choice but to give up.

He left the spirit field and walked toward his bedroom, whereupon the ancient scroll immediately cooled down.

"There is a spiritual object inside the spirit field?"

Ye Mo was startled and stepped back into the spirit field. To his surprise, the moment he stepped foot in the spirit field again, the ancient scroll grew warm once more.

Yet, he truly did not see any spiritual object within the spirit field. He used his spiritual sense to search deep underground, but within a few丈 of the earth, he discovered no buried spiritual objects at all.

If it were buried any deeper, the ancient scroll would not be able to sense it and would not grow warm.

He thought for a moment, took two steps back, and left the boundaries of the spirit field. Sure enough, the scorching sensation immediately vanished.

"Could it be... the acre of spirit field itself?"

A flash of inspiration struck Ye Mo, and he was suddenly shocked.

Strictly speaking, a spirit field was a kind of spiritual object, though no one ever regarded them as such because spirit fields were fixed to the ground and no one could move them away.

The ancient scroll could collect spiritual objects.

Could it also collect a spirit field?

Ye Mo felt a surge of excitement.

After pondering for a moment, Ye Mo walked to the entrance of the inner courtyard and instructed A Shui, who was guarding there, "A Shui, without my permission, no one is allowed in, including you."

"Yes, Master."

A Shui looked at Ye Mo with a puzzled expression, her demeanor carrying a hint of grievance as she didn't understand why even she was excluded. Of course, she was accustomed to obedience, and although aggrieved, she nodded firmly.

Only then did Ye Mo rest assured and close the courtyard gates.

Arriving above the spirit field, he poured his magic power into the ancient scroll. The ancient scroll slowly unfurled, hovering in the air above the spirit field.

"Whoosh!"

The ancient scroll flashed with a dazzling brilliance, and right before Ye Mo's eyes, the newly cleared spirit field was sucked inside.

The magic power within Ye Mo's body was also more than half consumed as a result.

"The ancient scroll really can collect spirit fields!"

Looking at the barren ground, Ye Mo trembled all over with excitement.

This ancient scroll was far more powerful than he had imagined.

With a turn of his thought, Ye Mo put away the ancient scroll, hurried back to his bedroom, and impatiently entered the immortal village within the ancient scroll.

As soon as he entered the ancient village in the painting, Ye Mo immediately saw that the original acre of spirit field in front of the small thatched cottage had expanded to two acres.

A Li was standing on the ridge of the field, looking exceptionally excited with a face full of joy.

A Zhi, who was usually haughty, also wore a rare expression of delight and didn't mind the small fox appearing in the spirit field.

Seeing Ye Mo appear beside her, A Li cried out in pleasant surprise, "Master, there is actually an extra acre of spirit field! It looks like we can produce even more spirit grain. But A Li is very curious—how did Master know? Even A Li herself only understood after you collected this patch of spirit field."

"I only discovered it just now as well—that this ancient scroll can actually collect spirit fields!"

Ye Mo immediately understood that it must have been a discovery born of pure coincidence.

Thinking of this, Ye Mo couldn't help but feel fortunate; this discovery had been a matter of sheer luck.

If he hadn't taken up farming to clear the land himself, he wouldn't have stepped onto the spirit field, nor would he have known that the ancient scroll would grow faintly warm, let alone that the ancient scroll could absorb immobile spiritual objects like spirit fields.

Ye Mo watched happily as A Li and A Zhi scampered around the spirit field, and directly sat down cross-legged inside to recover his magic power.

Once his magic power was restored, Ye Mo calmed down from his pleasant surprise. "Since it can collect spirit fields, and surely not just one acre... won't the spirit grain I need to raise the spirit eagles be completely secured?!"