Chapter 245 - A World in a Grain of Sand: Grotto-Heaven Farm

Chapter 245: A World in a Grain of Sand: Grotto-Heaven Farm

“Why would I think that?

“Why would any farmer plant themselves as a seed?”

Jiang He quickly perished the thought even as it occurred to him and cut short his wild imagination. Focusing his spirit, he carefully felt the change occurring in the farm—the mystical energy was extending, shrouding the entire farm in no time at all.

The willow tree rapidly grew, affected by that energy.

At the same time, the Cloudscraper Vine bloomed abruptly, a frightening aura released from its body even as a new tendril grew out from the base of each of its original nine tendrils!

At first, the new tendrils was only as wide as a finger, but they enlarged quickly, becoming as long as the original nine tendrils even as it continued to grow, although at a slower pace.

Veins of emerald radiance shone atop the tendrils of the Cloudscraper Vine!

“The Cloudscraper Vine is divine-tier already?”

Jiang He looked delighted. That meant the house finally had another divine-tier aside from himself, and since the Cloudscraper Vine was a special lifeform, it could match divine-conversion elites even if it just recently reached divine!

It definitely was the best house-guarding… vine!

Still, what surprised Jiang He most was that there was now greenery over the piles of graves in a corner of his farm. Grave grass was beginning to grow out—even from the many graves that were only recently buried.

A fresh sprout also grew out of the Graywolf King’s grave, soon growing into a small shoot.

At the same time, the walls around the farm were being pushed outwards as the farm’s area slowly expands.

[Ding!]

[Your farm area is expanding.]

[Ding!]

[Your farm’s soil quality improved!]

“…”

[Ding!]

[Farm leveled up.]

[Congratulations, host! You have improved your farm’s level to 5. Additional rewards: Mysterious Seed x1, +6 System Backpack boxes, cultivation manual planting x3.]

[Your farm is now level 5, and has upgraded into Grotto-Heaven Farm.]

The System Notification jingled beside his ear then.

Taken aback, Jiang He then exclaimed in delight, “Grotto-Heaven Farm?”

‘Grotto-Heaven’ was a word that occured only too frequently in novels. Most big shots depicted would have a handful of Grotto-Heaven residences, carrying them around anywhere they went and putting them down wherever they liked.

As for Grotto-Heaven Farm…

Does the same principle apply?

With a single thought, Jiang He suddenly felt his body began to expand, and he was becoming larger and taller.

Of course, that was an illusion—Jiang He’s body was not enlarging. Instead, the farm was shrinking, along with everything inside: the willow tree, the Cloudscraper Vine, Dumbo, and Trumbo.

But as a matter of fact, neither the Cloudscraper Vine nor the willow tree within the farm was shrinking.

It was a profound mystery that involved the principles of spatiality, and not easily explained.

Eventually, the farm was a grain-sized radiance that landed on Jiang He’s palm.

Jiang He then held the grain in front of his eyes—he could clearly see everything inside the farm.

“This feels a little like the Buddhist legend of Mount Meru. Wouldn’t I be able to carry the farm around as I like from now on, wherever I went? How convenient is it, being able to carry the farm anywhere, anytime?”

Jiang He tested it.

He could still enter the farm even though it was grain-sized, and the space inside did not change—in fact, it had expanded up to 9 Mu after leveling up again.

One Mu was 666 square meters, making 9 Mu a total of 5994 square meters.

It would be even more perfect if he placed his capsule mansion in a corner of the mansion too.

“But one mansion isn’t enough.”

“The farm would continue to expand as it levels up again in the future. I could modify the farm slightly, partitioning a residential area out of it where I’ll put my capsule mansion, as well as other decorations like fake mountains and a flower patio. In fact, I could make an artificial lake, a lodge over the waters, rafts, and the like. Wouldn’t it be perfect when I bring along a handful of maids while I strolled around the lake and go fishing?”

Jiang He was himself surprised by how wonderful his ideas were.

He could not feel more pleasure if that really could come to be.

Most importantly, the idea was very achievable. He had capsule mansions available at any moment, and he could leave the flower patio to the maids. As for fake mountain… He just had to plant a rock and let it grow on its own.

As for the artificial lake… he just had to draw some water.

“But I won’t get the artificial lake done for now, since it’s just 9 Mu worth of land.”

“That said, we could get to setting up the other stuff first.”

“The only problem here is…”

Jiang He looked up at the skies then.

It was a dull grayness overhead, and there was neither sun nor moon.

Perhaps he could consider getting his hands on some mystic treasure as the farm’s celestial body?

“Mystic treasures… perhaps I could create some crafting technique. After all, aside from Sword Arrays, a cultivator must be able to craft items and brew pellets too.”

“That said, even if I created a crafting technique, creating the sun and moon is not accomplishable in a while.”

Suddenly, Jiang He remembered the Womb Realm, the microworld in the Secret Realm belonging to the Diamond Sect.

The night and day cycle exists in the Womb Realm, and Jiang He had a hunch that the sun and moon there were mystic treasures.

Should he pluck the sun and moon of the Womb Realm and put them on his farm?

“But… that’s not very appropriate, is it?”

“After all, the lamas of the Diamond Sect had been quite courteous to me…”

“Right, the Sky Demon Cult!”

“Wasn’t it said that they have a Secret Realm too? Although there’s no telling if there are suns or moons in that microworld…”

Jiang He walked around his farm and closely sensed the change in his farm. Aside from the soil and area expansion, the increase in farm level filled it with Yuan Qi.

“The Yuan Qi in here must be thirty times more concentrated than the outside, isn’t it? It’s almost equal to a Secret Realm… cultivating one day in here is equal to cultivating for a month outside.”

“Such a shame that I am not that gifted when it comes to cultivation. So, instead of sweating in here to cultivate, wouldn’t it be better to farm harder in here? I’m willing to go through the hard work in exchange of the delight of the harvest.”

Meow!

That was when Trumbo ran to him with notebook in paw.

It had interpreted Sky Daemon Invincibility, and was imitating Dumbo’s style of wagging its tail to curry favor.

Jiang He opened the notebook and roughly scanned it a few times, only to find…

He still did not understand it.

Though the Sky Daemon Invincibility was translated from Tadpole Script to simplified text, its writing style was still ancient. Stuff like ‘the way of all daemons is to go against the heavens’, ‘consuming the Yuan Qi of the world and refine the essence of the stars’ or ‘feeding on qi and never dying’ leave the skull aching just from reading it.

Even so, he certainly could not let his pet know that he did not understand it.

Nonchalantly throwing the book back to Trumbo, he said, “Take it to Dumbo, study it and cultivate it on your own. It is only by studying that yourself that you would gain a more profound understanding of a cultivation technique.”

Dumbo and Trumbo acted as if they had picked up treasure, picking up the notebook and running off to a corner of the farm to cultivate.

Jiang He took out the Unnamed Sword Array, redeemed a bag of Mysterious Soil, and planted it, before turning to Dumbo and Trumbo.

Dumbo was illiterate, and had to ask for Trumbo’s instruction.

Trumbo adjusted its reading glasses that had no lenses and put up a scholarly look as he explained the meaning of the mnemonic chants in Sky Daemon Invincibility.

Dumbo appeared thoughtful, and would either nod or shake his head, appearing puzzled or understanding from time to time.

Pfft!

Jiang He almost laughed out loud. The dog was such an actor—how could it pretend so well?

It did not know a single letter and could only count to 50… and yet it put up so many expressions! Did it really believe it could understand Sky Daemon Invincibility?

Ooom!

All of a sudden…

Dumbo’s aura shuddered before he began to absorb the Yuan Qi around him, exclaiming in delight, “I get it now, I get it now—strictly speaking, Sky Daemon Invincibility is a daemonic physique cultivation… it hones the body inside out, strengthening physicality and cultivate Daemonic Qi, Daemon Pellet and Daemon Soul…”

“When cultivated to mastery, I could be reborn with just a drop of blood, never dying as long as my daemon soul is not destroyed!”

Jiang He: “…”

Ooom!

The aura on Dumbo’s body shook once again, and his cultivation leapt up from rank-seven novice to rank-seven intermediate. A dark Daemonic Qi also materialized from his body then, and the temperatures around it plummeted significantly.