Things went back to normal rather uneventfully.
If there was one thing that changed for Sen Lin, then it was the fact that he was now playmates with Yu Yao.
It felt a bit strange but he put up with it since the girl seemed to enjoy it so much. Another reason was that it lightened the weight on his heart considerably.
He'd been accompanying her on a daily basis for the past four days but decided not to go down the hill today.
The stone berry seeds he'd left in water had finally germinated.
This was something he'd been looking forward to for quite some time. He walked to his backyard with the sprouts and crouched down in front of the empty stone excitedly.
With these sprouts, he'd finally be able to start his experiment. He could already feel his hands itching to get started.
Unfortunately, he ran into a problem as soon as he tried planting the first germling – the cracks in the stone were too big for the tiny sprouts. The'd just fall to the very bottom of the cracks if he were to plant them as is.
Unsure of what to do, he filled the cracks partially with sand and tiny pebbles. He initially thought of filling it with soil but decided against it after thinking of how these stone berries don't grow on soil.
Though it wasn't a foolproof plan, the chances of success were higher with sand when compared to soil.
Furthermore, there were plenty of plants that could grow on sand, both here and back on Earth.
Sen Lin was hoping that the sprout would push out the sand as it grew since the stone berry roots were capable of even digging into stones. Taking root in these stones that already had root pathways from the previous bushes should be an easy task…
As long as the sprouts don't die off because of the sand filling the cracks.
He was a bit worried about it but not too much. Even if this batch of sprouts died, he still had plenty of seeds for each of his selection ready to be germinated again.
After some time, all the cracks now had a sprout planted in their cracks.
Sen Lin looked at the two unplanted germlings remaining and wondered what he should do with them.
I should just make tiny holes in the stone and 'plant' these in there. It should be more in line with what happens naturally.
I'm pretty sure the Stonepecker birds doesn't germinate the seeds before planting them.
Having made up his mind, Sen Lin retrieved various tools from his hut and got to work. But no more than a couple of minutes had passed when he realized he didn't have anything useful for the job.
He'd already tried with a sickle and knife. And all he managed to do was make their blades dull. At one point, he had even wondered if he had chipped the tip of his knife.
Thankfully, it had only bent a bit and could be repaired with some light hammering.
"Little Sen, where are you? Are you sick?" Yu Yao's voice sounded from his farm's entrance, "I've come to check up on you."
"I'm back here."
Sen Lin hollered back while inspecting for any other damages.
"Little Sen, are you sick? Why didn't you come down? I was waiting by the big tree for you all this time."
He scratched the back of his head while listening to the little girl's barrage of questions.
"I was planting these berries."
Yu Yao's eyes finally landed on the stones placed everywhere. Looking at the unique plants growing on them, her eyes sparkled with wonder.
"Wow… what fruits are those? Can I try some?"
"You can't," Sen Lin replied truthfully. "They taste very bitter. Not tasty at all."
"Liar. I don't believe you."
Yu Yao skipped to a bush and picked a berry. She then looked at Sen Lin to see if he was angry.
Seeing that he was just staring at her with a playful smile, she made a "hmph" noise before biting into the berry.
Ptooh!
As expected, no matter who it was that tried these berries, their first reaction was always to spit it out immediately.
"See," Sen Lin spoke while holding back his laugh, "I told you it was bitter. That's what you get for not believing in me."
"You tricked me."
Yu Yao pointed at him; her eyes full of righteous indignation.
Sen Lin apologized casually and she pretended to reluctantly forgive him. She then took a bunch of berries to Blacky after learning that the donkey really liked this bitter fruit.
Soon, the little girl's playful laughter and a happy donkey's braying could be heard from the barn.
Listening to it, Sen Lin could only shake his head.
He didn't know why but Blacky had become very lazy recently even though winter was already over. The only times he showed any signs of life was when little Ying came over to play with it or when eating.
Well… not like there's much to do these days anyways. I'll let him play with his new friends for a while more.
Bringing his attention back to the stone berries he just planted, he decided to use the spiritual irrigation technique just for good measure.
Though his understanding regarding cultivation and cultivators was shallow at best, he'd heard tales of how spiritual energy was beneficial for all living beings.
Going by that logic, the spiritual irrigation technique, a technique that distributes spiritual energy to plants should be beneficial for the stone berries.
It wasn't exactly scientific but Sen Lin could only go for this method and pray that it would help in the case of sprouts being unable to grow because of the sand.
Focusing all his attention, he started using the spiritual irrigation technique. Soon, he could feel the spiritual energy inside his body flowing out and landing on the stone in front of him.
It was difficult to maintain as he was still a novice with the technique but he managed to do a somewhat decent job.
He only stopped after nearly half an hour when he had completely exhausted the spiritual energy inside him.
It was a strange sensation. His body was completely fine but he felt drained of energy. He even felt dizzy for a while.
I should do things in moderation.
Sen Lin made up his mind to not push himself like he'd just done and walked towards the barn.
"Blacky, Yao, let's go down to the village. I need to borrow a hammer and a chisel."