Chapter 15: Pioneering and Farming

Scrolling down several more pages in the exchange forum, he finally came across some useful posts.

"The black bear beast in the outskirts of Rongcheng's North District has early second-stage strength. It is extremely powerful; it is best not to provoke it unless you are led by a mid-second-stage cultivator. Our team encountered it by accident this morning. After a brief clash, our captain, who is at the early second stage, sustained heavy injuries while covering our retreat."

"In the outskirts of Rongcheng's West District, about 5 kilometers from Erxian Bridge, we encountered a pack of forest wolf beasts of unknown numbers. There were fifteen forest wolves in total. The strongest alpha had high first-stage strength, while the others were generally mid-first stage. Except for the strongest alpha, which escaped, the rest of the forest wolves were all killed by our team at the cost of minor injuries."

After browsing the exchange forum for half an hour, Lin Li exited the app. His most direct takeaway from this browsing session was that hunting beasts in the wild was extremely dangerous and injuries were very easy to sustain.

Furthermore, after reading so many posts, he discovered that everyone who posted had joined a beast hunter team; not a single one was a lone wolf.

Because of his "Golden Finger," in order to obtain beast flesh that was less than an hour old, Lin Li simply had no way to join other beast hunter teams.

If it were purely for the sake of making money, he could temporarily join those teams to hunt beasts together.

"Sigh..." Lin Li scratched his head in frustration. "I'll try it out tomorrow. If it doesn't work alone, I'll think of other ways... I'm getting a bit hungry. I'll cook a bowl of egg and shredded pork noodles to fill my stomach first!"

Checking his phone, it was already 11:30 AM. Lin Li stood up, walked into the kitchen, and began cooking the noodles.

…………

3:00 PM.

A figure appeared out of thin air on the mysterious island.

The figure had a damp towel hanging around his neck, a hoe in his left hand, and a plastic bucket in his right. Inside the bucket were a small red plastic bag and a ceramic water cup.

Since there was still a long time before tomorrow's hunt, Lin Li, who had nothing to do at home after waking up from his nap, thought about coming to this mysterious island to plant some vegetables to see if he could make them grow here.

Although Lin Li had never farmed before, he had "seen a pig run even if he hadn't eaten pork"—he wasn't completely clueless.

Moreover, with the internet being so developed nowadays, he could just search for farming tutorials on video websites. Even if he couldn't immediately become a veteran farmer, following the steps wouldn't turn out too badly.

Placing the plastic bucket on the grass, Lin Li shouldered the hoe he had spent fifteen yuan on, chose the northeast corner of the mysterious island, and began to reclaim the land.

"Heave-ho..."

"Heave-ho..."

"Heave-ho..."

Having carefully observed videos of veteran farmers, Lin Li's posture while reclaiming the land looked quite professional.

He bent over, swinging the hoe in his hand to clear the weeds and loosen the soil.

Although the temperature in the space where the mysterious island was located was pleasant and didn't feel too hot or cold, Lin Li was performing heavy physical labor as he swung the hoe, making it hard not to get hot.

Ten minutes later, Lin Li was drenched in sweat. He used the damp towel hanging around his neck to wipe the perspiration from his forehead.

Despite having carefully watched the veteran farmers' videos beforehand, he realized during actual operation that doing it was not as simple as it seemed when watching.

Lin Li had originally planned to reclaim fifty square meters of land in half an hour, but in reality, it took him over an hour to complete the task.

"Gosh, I didn't expect reclaiming such a small patch of land to be so tiring." Having finished the cultivation, Lin Li wiped the sweat from his face with the damp towel and tapped his aching waist with his hand.

However, despite the exhaustion, a happy smile appeared on Lin Li's face as he looked at the patch of land he had cleared.

Now that the land was prepared, the next step was to plant the vegetable seeds.

Lin Li walked toward the plastic bucket placed at the edge of the island. He first took out his ceramic cup, crouched down, filled it with water, and gulped it down in one go.

"Refreshing..." Drinking a large cup of water after hard labor was truly satisfying.

Setting the cup on the grass, Lin Li took the red plastic bag out of the bucket and pulled out a packet of white radish seeds.

Then, he filled the bucket halfway with water, held the seeds in his left hand and the bucket in his right, and walked toward his newly reclaimed field.

He poked holes in the soil with his finger and placed four to five white radish seeds into each hole.

Repeating this action, after half an hour, Lin Li—having finished watering the seeds—looked at the field before him with an affectionate expression.

"Grow, grow! You must grow! Don't let these nearly two hours of my time go to waste."

With the goal of reclaiming the land and planting white radishes achieved, Lin Li used the plastic bucket to fetch some water and watered the magical little tree located in the center of the island.

Then, he left the cup, the bucket, and the hoe directly on the island and returned to the real world.

On the empty and quiet mysterious island, within the patch of land reclaimed by Lin Li...

An hour after Lin Li left the mysterious island, the white radish seeds planted in the soil actually began to sprout.

…………

The space where the mysterious island was located had no day or night.

By the time Lin Li, who had been busy on the island for over two hours, emerged, it was already past 5:00 PM on Blue Star, and the sky outside was somewhat dim.

Because he had bought that hoe, Lin Li, who originally had only seventy yuan left, now had only fifty-five.

"Sigh... I guess I'll just have egg and shredded pork noodles again tonight!"

Just as Lin Li, who could no longer afford to order takeout, was preparing to go to the kitchen to cook himself a bowl of noodles, the phone in his pocket rang.

"Ring, ring..."

He pulled out his phone and saw the caller ID: it was Su Yue.

The moment he saw it was a call from Su Yue, the image that flashed in Lin Li's mind was not Su Yue's charming face or her voluptuous figure, but the massive amount of delicious food she had cooked.

Having eaten egg and shredded pork noodles for several meals since yesterday, Lin Li couldn't help but salivate at the thought of Su Yue's delicacies.

"Hello..."

"Lin Li, have you had dinner yet?"

"Not yet! Have you eaten?"

"I haven't either! I've made dumplings and am just about to put them in the pot! Do you want to come over and eat?"

*Dumplings, I love them...* Just as Lin Li was about to say he wanted to come over, he swallowed the words back down.

…………

PS: Thanks to "08a" for the 100-point tip.

(End of Chapter)