Beast Taming: I Have an Immortal Mansion-Chapter 47: 1 Mu and 3 Fen

In April, a fine, persistent drizzle fell. Fang Qingyuan sat upright in a room at the Qingfeng Tea Garden, quietly listening to a tea farmer’s report.

"Master Fang, this year’s entire harvest of Qingfeng Silver Hero Tea has been collected. We’ve weighed it, and the yield is a bit higher than last year, totaling eleven catties and three taels. Here are the detailed figures for your inspection, Master."

The man speaking was named Qu Wei. He was in his forties and had a steady, dependable air about him.

Qu Wei respectfully handed a jade box to Fang Qingyuan. Fang Qingyuan opened it and saw neat layers of silvery-white tea leaves stacked inside.

Fang Qingyuan picked up a leaf and examined it closely. He found that the entire leaf was silvery-white and felt heavy in his hand, as if it had been cast from high-quality silver. The veins on its surface were so clearly visible that it hardly looked like something that had grown naturally.

When he placed the silvery-white tea leaf on the table, it even made a faint tapping sound.

’For an ordinary tea tree to produce such leaves... The world is full of wonders.’

Fang Qingyuan had recently begun studying the way of Spirit Plants, so seeing these leaves firsthand piqued his interest.

So, Fang Qingyuan asked,

"How has this Qingfeng Silver Hero been sold in the past?"

Hearing the question, Qu Wei quickly replied,

"In the past, whenever it was time for the harvest, the Steward would come and collect it. As for how it was sold, we don’t know the specifics."

Since Qu Wei didn’t know, Fang Qingyuan didn’t press the matter. He safely put away the box of tea—worth over a thousand Low-grade Spirit Stones—and then said,

"This year’s harvest has been good. I’m quite satisfied with this much Spirit Tea. You all should continue to look after this garden and live your lives in peace. You can sell the remaining tea and take the proceeds as your wages."

Fang Qingyuan only needed the Qingfeng Silver Hero produced from this ten-mu Tea Garden. The remaining tea leaves had no Spiritual Qi, so they were useless to him.

Qu Wei and the other tea-farming families worked hard every day, watching over the tea trees, watering and fertilizing them, catching pests, and chasing away birds.

Back when the Qingfeng Tea Garden belonged to Tianshan Villa, Qu Wei and the other tea farmers were just getting by. Now that Fang Qingyuan was in charge, life was much better.

Fang Qingyuan only came once a year and never bothered them otherwise, nor did he interfere with their lives. For tenants like Qu Wei, this was the kind of master they could only dream of.

After Qu Wei expressed his thanks, Fang Qingyuan mused aloud, "I noticed there’s some empty land around the Tea Garden. I wonder if we could plant more tea trees there? In a few years, we might be able to produce a few more catties of this Qingfeng Silver Hero Tea."

Hearing Fang Qingyuan’s idea, Qu Wei’s expression turned odd as he said,

"Reporting to you, Master, for some reason, tea trees planted anywhere else only produce ordinary tea leaves. They can’t produce this mutated Qingfeng Silver Hero Tea. In past years, the villa’s Steward ordered us to try planting more, but in the end, only these ten mu of tea trees can produce it. It’s very strange."

After Qu Wei finished speaking, Fang Qingyuan pressed,

"Have they figured out the reason?"

Qu Wei shook his head and said helplessly,

"The villa’s Steward also invited a few Spirit Plant Cultivators to take a look, but they searched all over and couldn’t find the source of the problem. In the end, they could only leave things as they are and stopped trying to change anything."

’Alright then. If professional Spirit Plant Cultivators couldn’t figure it out, a half-baked amateur like me shouldn’t even bother.’

For the time being, Fang Qingyuan gave up on the idea of investigating the issue. He gave Qu Wei a few more instructions, then walked out the door, mounted his camel-ray, and flew into the air.

...

After returning to his small courtyard, Fang Qingyuan went into his Quiet Chamber, extended his spiritual sense, and entered the Immortal Mansion Space.

The once-lifeless Immortal Mansion Space was now brimming with vitality. Over a hundred fist-sized Scorpion-tailed Worker Bees could be seen flitting up and down, diligently working around more than half a mu of Spirit Plants.

Gathering nectar, pollinating flowers, and tending to the larvae—not a single one of the Worker Bees was idle.

On Fang Qingyuan’s command, the Bee Queen had first produced a batch of Worker Bees. Later, after the first batch matured, the Bee Queen produced two more batches, all of which had now fully developed.

With over a hundred Worker Bees now present, life was much easier for Fang Qingyuan. For tasks that he used to have to handle himself, he now only needed to give an order to the Bee Queen, and the Worker Bees would take care of it for him.

These were called Scorpion-tailed Worker Bees, but each one was formidable. If released outside, the stinger on its abdomen could be fired to easily poison a wild dog to death.

If a hundred Scorpion-tailed Bees flew out together, even an ordinary Spirit Beast wouldn’t dare to provoke them.

However, these Scorpion-tailed Bees posed much less of a threat to Cultivators. Cultivators could use Talismans and Magical Artifacts, and they possessed a variety of methods that ordinary Spirit Beasts couldn’t compare to.

After watching the busy Scorpion-tailed Worker Bees for a moment, Fang Qingyuan went to the small bamboo grove.

The Purple Bamboo Forest, which had originally consisted of only ten stalks, was now lush and dense. Over the past half-year, the previous bamboo shoots had all grown into new purple bamboo.

Bamboo was the kind of plant that would shoot up in the blink of an eye. Although the new purple bamboo stalks weren’t as thick as the original ten stalks of Spiritual Bamboo, once they grew in number, they formed a sizable grove.

The Bee Queen’s hive was situated among several purple bamboo stalks. Fang Qingyuan had previously provided it with a wooden box. The box was still there, but it was now so completely encased in large chunks of bee secretions that its original form was unrecognizable.

Fang Qingyuan’s spiritual form approached the hive. The Bee Queen inside sensed her Master’s arrival and shifted her even plumper body, wriggling to the entrance to poke out her small head.

Seeing the Bee Queen’s little head, Fang Qingyuan reached out to pat it. However, the body formed by his spiritual sense was still very tenuous, and his touch landed on the Bee Queen’s head with barely any force.

This was actually an improvement. Because Fang Qingyuan’s cultivation had reached the Fifth-Layer Qi Cultivation, his spiritual form was also more solid than before. At least he no longer looked like he could be blown away by a gust of wind.

After playfully teasing the Bee Queen for a moment, Fang Qingyuan revealed his true purpose. He reached into the hive and scooped out just under two catties of Golden Jade Flower Honey.

Seeing her food being taken, the Bee Queen instantly became unhappy. She turned her head away, wriggled back into the box, and ignored Fang Qingyuan.

Fang Qingyuan didn’t mind the Bee Queen’s little tantrum. ’I fed you so many catties of Golden Jade Flower Honey; it’s about time I saw a return on my investment.’

After storing the two catties of Golden Jade Flower Honey in a jade bottle, Fang Qingyuan walked out of the Purple Bamboo Forest and went to the edge of the Immortal Mansion Space.

The Immortal Mansion Space was now roughly divided into four sections. The largest section, taking up the most space, was the medicinal garden formed by five hundred Spirit Plants.

These Spirit Plants occupied over half a mu of land within the Immortal Mansion Space and were currently Fang Qingyuan’s most important asset.

Fang Qingyuan planned to cultivate these Spirit Plants for a few more years and only sell them once their medicinal potency became more abundant.

Besides the medicinal garden, the second-largest section was the newly grown Purple Bamboo Forest. The Bee Queen had also made her home here, and it would produce a continuous supply of Golden Jade Flower Honey in the future.

Perhaps by this winter, Fang Qingyuan would even be able to eat fresh winter bamboo shoots.

He hadn’t been able to bring himself to eat the first wave of shoots, letting them all grow into Spiritual Bamboo instead. But now that the Purple Bamboo Forest was beginning to form a proper grove, the spirit bamboo shoots would naturally have to make an appearance on his dinner table.

The third section was where Fang Qingyuan had buried spirit materials and Spirit Wood to enhance his Wood Spirit Root. After piling a large amount of Spirit Wood onto this patch of Black Land, Fang Qingyuan simply left it alone, allowing it to be absorbed slowly.

As for the final section, it had been newly opened up. A few days ago, after advancing to the Fifth-Layer Qi Cultivation, he was surprised to discover that an extra three-tenths of a mu of land had appeared at the edge of the Immortal Mansion Space.