Planting in the氪金农场 (kè jīn nóng chǎng - premium farm) was a simple affair, requiring no consideration for the seasons or breeding. One simply dug a hole, placed the item to be planted, and covered it with soil.
Thus, in no time...
As Ding Yun buried the items obtained from the treasure vault, she also tossed in several hundred pounds of gold.
With ample gold serving as fertilizer, various golden plants quickly sprouted on the golden land. Some grew into trees, others into vines, and there were even plants that only grew leaves and flowers, bearing no fruit.
Ten minutes later.
The latest version of the玉华宝典 (Yù Huá Bǎo Diǎn - Jade Flower Manual), which included the Grandmaster realm beyond the Innate Grandmaster, and the legendary Celestial Realm, successfully grew into a large golden tree, bearing skill fruits.
The九元保命丹 (Jiǔ Yuán Bǎo Mìng Dān - Nine Yuan Life-Preserving Pill) grew into a shrub, laden with golden pills.
The fist-sized meteorites transformed into vines, each bearing several melons. These melons were dozens of times larger than the original meteorites and were a lustrous golden yellow. They looked like chunks of pure gold at first glance.
The divine weapons and sharp tools were even more wondrous. They simply sprouted and flowered, their fruits still underground. Upon digging them up, the divine weapons and sharp tools, originally buried in the golden soil, remained unchanged in appearance, except that they had all turned golden.
As these items matured, Ding Yun gained insights into them while harvesting.
"Golden quality Nine Yuan Life-Preserving Pill: The original pill could only save one's life, and was even ineffective for severe injuries. Golden quality Nine Yuan Life-Preserving Pill: As long as there is a breath left, it can preserve life. Even with severe injuries, one can at least become a living dead person, barely keeping their life."
"Golden quality Nine Heavens Profound Iron: Increased in size and quantity, its appearance improved, but its function remains unchanged."
"Golden quality Cold Iron Spirit Sword: Its lethality, toughness, and overall weapon strength are all doubled, doubled, doubled."
"Golden quality Flesh Ganoderma: Consuming it has the effect of extending one's lifespan. One jin can extend life by ten days to half a month."
"Ugh, what does it mean to become a living dead person? So the golden quality Nine Yuan Life-Preserving Pill is actually equivalent to the Heavenly Incense Cardamom, only guaranteeing that the person will absolutely survive, but not specifying the state of survival.
Alas, it's good enough to survive.
The other items don't seem particularly impressive. They look good, but in reality, they are far inferior to planting cultivation manuals."
After this experimentation, Ding Yun had a general understanding of the golden land's specific function. It was essentially a multiplier and upgrade system. Sometimes it would trigger a quality improvement effect, sometimes a quantity increase effect, and sometimes both. For instance, the divine weapons and sharp tools triggered a quality improvement effect, while the meteorites triggered a quantity increase effect. The Nine Yuan Life-Preserving Pill triggered both effects simultaneously, thus growing in large quantities while also improving in quality.
The only exception was the martial arts manuals.
Or one could call it knowledge.
With this thought, since Ding Yun was not lacking in elixirs, divine weapons, or sharp tools, she decided to continue experimenting with planting martial arts manuals and other knowledge-based books.
After all, she was in charge of the scripture repository.
There were no top-tier martial arts manuals.
But she could get as many copies of mid-to-low-tier martial arts manuals as she wanted.
At worst, she could ask some disciples the next day to copy the books she took.
There was nothing special to say about the martial arts manuals.
They all produced skill fruits first, followed by inner energy fruits or experience fruits. After these two harvests, the golden trees would completely wither and disappear.
However, other books were quite peculiar.
The things they produced were not fixed.
After planting a set of historical records, it first yielded a 'History Mastery' skill. After harvesting the 'History Mastery' skill fruit, the golden tree that grew from the historical records did not wither. Instead, it grew many other fruits.
For example, a 'Witch Doctor Mastery' fruit, a fragmented 'Ancient Qi Induction Technique' skill fruit, an 'Imperial Heart Technique' skill fruit...
In total, it produced seventy-six fruits of various kinds.
Most of them were useless skills.
For instance, what use was the 'Ancient Slash-and-Burn Cultivation Technique'?
After planting a set of the Four Books and Five Classics, it first yielded a 'Great Scholar' skill fruit. Consuming it would immediately elevate one's Confucian knowledge to the level of a Great Scholar.
Then, it successively produced 'Six Arts of Confucianism' skill fruits:
Rites, music, archery, charioteering, calligraphy, and mathematics.
However, perhaps because the Four Books and Five Classics were not comprehensive enough to encompass the entire Confucian path, the quality of the 'Six Arts' skill fruits was not high, only reaching the mastery stage.
They were still far from reaching the Grandmaster or Master levels.
Furthermore, books such as novels and storybooks could also yield various skill fruits when planted. They could even produce 'blind boxes' of fruits, randomly yielding items from the novels. The few romance novels Ding Yun planted yielded a 'Hairstyle' skill, a 'Matchmaker' skill, and a set of ruby jewelry.
In addition, there were four 'Big Brother's Flatbreads'.
Although there seemed to be no pattern, the skills yielded were mostly related to the books themselves. At least, they were never completely irrelevant.
After completing all the experiments.
To avoid wasting anything, Ding Yun specifically consumed all the skill fruits except for the latest version of the Jade Flower Manual skill fruit and the nine corresponding inner energy fruits.
After all, having more skills does not weigh one down, nor does it fill the stomach.
The reason she didn't consume the latest version of the Jade Flower Manual skill fruit was that she had just broken through. If she ate another skill fruit and accidentally broke through again, perhaps to the Grandmaster realm or even the Celestial realm, she wouldn't be able to explain it.
Therefore, she could only set these fruits aside for now.
She would eat them later when she found an opportunity, or perhaps after refining more Golden Cores for the sect. At that time, it would likely be less abrupt and easier to explain.
...
Early the next morning, Ding Yun received over three hundred pounds of medicinal ingredients, which her senior brother, the sect leader, had hastily gathered overnight. Among them were ten centuries-old ginsengs. It was estimated that the sect had emptied its coffers. Once this batch of ingredients was used up, the next batch would have to wait until the disciples who went out to acquire herbs returned. How much they could bring back was uncertain.
However, Ding Yun did not inquire about matters that were not her concern. After receiving the medicinal ingredients, she immediately announced that she would enter seclusion to refine pills. Unless it was something she herself emerged for, no one was to disturb her focused pill refining.
Consequently, any events that transpired in the sect afterward,
Such as internal disputes among elders, dissatisfaction from the other two factions, or even nearly coming to blows in the sect leader's hall, did not affect Ding Yun.
The only thing that did have an impact was:
Her granddaughter had become a sought-after prize. Although her son had died, her daughter-in-law and granddaughter were still alive and were receiving protection within the sect. As she was still young and couldn't leave her mother, she had been raised by her mother's side. She was currently just three years old.
In order to win over Ding Yun, a core figure, the elders of the three factions who were aware of the situation all wanted to take her as a disciple.
Furthermore, they all declared their intention to accept her as a personal disciple.
The reason they had nearly fought in the sect leader's hall earlier was not to争 (zhēng - contend for) the remaining Golden Cores, but to争 (zhēng - contend for) who would become Ding Yun's granddaughter's master.
What was sustainable development?
Taking this child into their tutelage was sustainable development, especially for the other two factions practicing other core martial arts, who were eager to recruit this child.
As long as this child practiced their martial arts,
Wouldn't the grandmother naturally focus on researching congenital pills suitable for their faction's core martial arts?