Fruit Farmer In A Cultivation World

Liang Zhi breathed a sigh of relief when the familiar farm in the hill entered his sight. Ever since he'd managed to slip away from his master using guiding Xiang Lan to Sen Lin as an excuse, he could feel her gaze piercing his back like needles.

Because of the unfortunate circumstances in which the two departed, Liang Zhi hadn't been able to put any of his earlier plans into motion. Now, all he could do was hope Sen Lin could bring about a miracle.

Controlling the paper bird to descend slowly, the two got off by the entrance of the farm and walked in.

The first thing the duo heard was the sound of someone spitting loudly.

Ptooh!

Curious, Liang Zhi and Xiang Lan followed the sound only to see a strange sight. A young man sat on a stool and put a berry in his mouth. After a moment, his expression distorted because of the taste and he spat the berry to the ground.

The man then picked up a charcoal pen, cleared away the snow in front of a berry bush and wrote down the word 8.

After he was done, he moved on to another bush where he tried three fruits and wrote down a "6."

The scene was anything but normal but Liang Zhi was happy to see it. He didn't know what Sen Lin was doing but it was a good thing for him. After all, wasn't this something that could be described as "eccentric."

The young disciple of the Sky Sword Sect suppressed the happiness in his heart after noticing Xiang Lan's gaze and coughed to attract Sen Lin's attention.

Sen Lin, who finally noticed he had guests turned around and greeted the two politely.

"Young immortal Liang, it's been a while. What brings you to my place?"

Liang Zhi returned the greeting with his signature bright smile. "Farmer Sen, it's been a while indeed. I am here on business today. Miss Xiang here wanted to meet you."

Sen Lin observed the young woman accompanying Liang Zhi. She was dressed in all black, a rare fashion choice in this world, especially for a beautiful girl like her. He couldn't make out her entire features because of the veil covering her face but her eyes gave off a gentle yet sharp feeling.

"I'm Xiang Lan. It's a pleasure to finally meet farmer Sen."

"Likewise," Sen Lin replied with a somewhat confused face.

He couldn't figure out why a woman he'd never associated with traveled all this way to meet him, even going so far to have Liang Zhi, a cultivator act as her guide.

"I'm very curious about what you were doing. If it's not too big of a deal, could you help satiate my curiosity?"

"Oh this…" Sen Lin thought for a while before answering the woman's question. "I'm grading the stone berries on a scale of one to ten depending on how bitter they are."

"What for? They taste horrible." This time it was Liang Zhi who couldn't help but speak up.

Xiang Lan nodded in agreement. She'd tried a few stone berries as a kid. It was definitely something that wasn't fit for consumption, especially for someone like her who trained her palate from an early age as training for becoming a spirit chef.

Sen Lin understood their sentiment. He wasn't tasting these berries for enjoyment. But because of these berries' strong vitality and short fruit bearing cycle, they made for an excellent research subject. He was sure that there were many other better fruits out there but he didn't have the means to get his hands on them.

"I'm going to breed the ones with the least bitterness together. Doing so, the bitterness should go down with each generation. Eventually, if my plan succeeds, the stone berries won't be so bitter anymore."

Sen Lin explained briefly, eager to end the conversation. Unfortunately, his answer seemed to have the opposite effect. Liang Zhi, unable to contain his curiosity asked once again, "Are you sure such a method can work?"

"Of course," Sen Lin recalled the science classes of his previous life and continued. "It's like how the chances of two tall people having a tall child is higher. While it's not a guarantee, the experiment should see success if continued for enough generations. As long as I am persistent enough, I should be able to get the berries to pass down the traits I want."

"To think that the principle of spiritual root inheritance can be used on plants as well," Liang Zhi sported a look of being enlightened.

Contrary to him, Sen Lin was confused. "What's the principle of spiritual root inheritance?"

"It's not an established truth so calling it a principle might be too much but many cultivators believe that two cultivators who have a child will result in the child having higher chances of awakening a better spiritual root." Xiang Lan answered in Liang Zhi's behalf before praising Sen Lin. "I didn't expect farmer Sen to have such a unique approach. I was right in my decision to come meet you."

Sen Lin now understood what the principle of spiritual root inheritance was. But what was up with her comment about her decision to meet him being right? Who was she? Why was she here to meet him?

Sen Lin suppressed the questions popping up in his head and invited the two inside his hut. The two in front of him were powerful cultivators and he'd have to show good hospitality to them, lest he anger them.

Picking out two of the best stools from his set of self-constructed furniture, he offered them to his guests. "It's not much but please made yourselves comfortable. You guys must have had a long journey, I'll go fix up some food."

Liang Zhi opened his mouth to refuse but Xiang Lan's glare from the side caused him to swallow his words. He just wanted to save Sen Lin the trouble because Xiang Lan was infamous for having a sharp tongue and a picky palate.

If he'd known he'd earn her ire for trying to be nice, he'd have never bothered.

The two sat in silence while Sen Lin got busy. The young farmer looked at his kitchen and felt a headache coming.

He was but a poor villager, how was he going to serve anything to the two immortal cultivators that would satisfy them?

He had heard of plenty of stories of cultivator's short temper, with the most popular one being the story of a cultivator who turned a kid into a mute frog for crying too loudly at night and disturbing his practice.

It was a story often told to children at night to get them to behave.

Sen Lin found Liang Zhi quite easy to get along with but the lady he was with had a somewhat cold aura. From his observation, he'd noticed that even Liang Zhi seemed afraid of her.

Sen Lin didn't want to risk anything even if the story was most likely made up. After all, this was a world full of cultivators capable of magical things. Who knew if the cold lady in sitting in his hut wasn't capable of such a feat.