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Cultivators ruled this world, but there were many paths open to ordinary people as well.
For example, one could pass exams to become an official, gaining access to the government's basic cultivation techniques and resources, along with a decent monthly salary.
Alternatively, one could train insects or wild beasts, improving taming skills and strengthening pets.
Even if the pet evolved only a slight special ability, it could greatly increase its owner's worth.
There were countless success stories of individuals living in luxury because of a single pet.
Hu the limper from our village raised a rat that not only often dug up buried treasures for him but also had an extremely sensitive nose. If someone's belongings or child went missing, all it took was for the rat to sniff out the lingering scent, and it could track down the lost item.
Thanks to this little rat, Hu the limper not only had no worries about food and clothing but also became an apprentice member in the Beast Tamer Association.
Everyone respected him by addressing him as Master Hu, and no one dared to call him a limper anymore.
Even the local influential figures would give him respect.
Now, Hu the limper had become a success story everyone in the village envied, and it was said he was considering taking that rat to the city to seek his fortune.
There was also a farmer from the neighboring village who, after improving his planting skills, became a high-level farmer. A landlord offered him an annual salary of thirty taels of silver to manage his estate, directing the ordinary farmers at work and only personally tending to the important technical tasks.
You know, ordinary farmers work themselves to death for an entire year for just two or three taels of silver.
With bonuses and allowance for heating, it wouldn't exceed four taels.
His income was ten times that of an ordinary farmer.
Indeed, every trade has its master.
Qin Niu now had two paths before him. The first was to improve his farming skills to become a high-level farmer, in which case, even if he just worked for a landlord, he could still earn more than thirty taels of silver a year.
To an ordinary person, this was definitely the mark of a successful person.
Relying on labor points to improve his farming skills, he believed it wouldn't take more than two or three years to achieve this goal.
The other path was the female termite he was raising.
As long as it lived long enough to successfully establish the Termite Kingdom, it would surely bring tremendous surprises for Qin Niu.
Qin Niu would also try his best to help it evolve and advance continuously.
If it could develop even a little special ability, he could entirely rely on a single termite to embark on the path of cultivation.
He checked the status of the female termite; its energy had decreased by 3 points, leaving only 168 points.
Everything else was normal.
It was probably still hard at work building its nest.
He hoped there wouldn't be any problems.
If this attempt failed, and he had to gather another tael of silver to buy a Contractual Talisman, he might only be able to work as a long-term laborer for a landlord.
That was not the life he wanted.
The next day, at the break of dawn, he got up, took a meat bun Wang Wanyan had given him, and rushed into the mountains.
This time, he was holding a sickle and a small hoe in his hands.
The female termite had already chosen a location for its nest. Although letting it grow in the wild was meant to enhance its ability to survive in nature, he still had to deal with the overly dangerous threats near the nest.
After all, it was still in a pre-labor state, without even a single worker ant at its disposal, let alone soldier ants.
In the face of enemies, it had no means of fighting back whatsoever.
Arriving at the slope where the female termite was constructing its nest, from the outside, it appeared to have almost completely sealed the entrance to its burrow.
Doing so significantly reduced the chances of being discovered by predators.
Without disturbing it, Qin Niu crouched down and carefully observed for any signs or tracks around the Termite Nest, checking for potential threats.
He could see a relatively noticeable trail on the slanting surface to the right above the nest.
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The grass along the path had all fallen to the sides.
Dense rows of pinhole-shaped footprints were visible.
Based on the width of the path, it must have been caused by multi-legged insects like centipedes, sowbugs, or millipedes.
He lay down, propped himself up with his hands, and brought his nose close to the ground to smell.
There was a faintly sour and stinky scent.
Looking closely at the pinhole-shaped footprints, they looked like hooks that slightly pulled up the top layer of the soil.
These must be the tracks of a centipede.
[You have learned Insect Trace Identification. You can now identify common insects' tracks through obvious signs.]
As the prompt text appeared, he checked his personal attributes and indeed, a new skill had been added.
Skills:
Planting class, Sowing Proficiency 10/100, Soil Loosening Novice 0/10, Fertilizing Novice 0/10, Watering Novice 0/10, Weeding Novice 0/10
Insect Commanding class, Insect Trace Identification Novice 0/10.
This was also the first Insect Commanding skill he had learned.
Currently just a novice, he could only identify the tracks of common insects with clear signs.
Still, he felt very happy.
Learning the skill of Insect Trace Identification would be a huge help in capturing some expensive and scarce insects.
For example, the price of the tiger-striped cricket had already been driven up to five taels of silver each in the Insect Market.
It wasn't large, but its combat ability was strong and agile, and it was very fierce in battle. Among the fighting crickets, the 'General' would either die or be severely injured when facing it.
However, to catch such a precious and scarce insect, he'd probably need to improve his Insect Trace Identification skill further.
Qin Niu followed the centipede's tracks all the way to its nest.
It was hiding under a rock.
When deciding whether to remove this centipede, he hesitated.
The centipede's diet was varied and ferocious; covered in a tough shell with a deadly poison, it could defend this area by killing as many invading insects as came its way.
It was both a huge threat to the female termite and a guardian deity.
Leaving it here seemed to be more beneficial than harmful for the time being.
Not far to the left of the female termite's nest, there was a low tea-oil tree with a wasp-nest-looking gray-brown nest on it.
Black stink ants could be seen busily entering and exiting the nest.
These were the rather ferocious Black-Bellied Stink Ants, of a medium size.
Just any one of them could kill Qin Niu's female termite.
They only moved around in the area to the left, foraging for food, not daring to cross even a fraction of an inch to the right.
Insects too are sentient; they must know the right side is the centipede's territory. To go there meant death.
It was precisely because of this nest of Black-Bellied Stink Ants that other small ants dared not settle in this area.
After observing the lay of the land, Qin Niu couldn't help but admire the female termite's intelligence even more.
Finding a place to live wedged between two major powers seemed dangerous, but was actually safer than many other places.
The most dangerous place might actually be the safest.
Qin Niu was secretly relieved that he hadn't acted rashly.
This area had already formed a delicate ecological chain balance, and breaking it could bring disaster for the female termite.
Given its excellent performance, from now on, visiting it once or twice a day should suffice.
Being a hands-off shopkeeper is actually better.
What I'm most looking forward to now is waiting for it to lay eggs and hatch the first batch of worker ants, at which point its food supply will be secured.
The ant queen is unable to forage on her own and can only rely on the worker ants to feed her.
When descending the mountain, Qin Niu noticed an area where straw was collapsed and in disarray, upon closer inspection, he discovered that there were patches of blood that had coagulated and turned black.
It seems that a fight took place here last night, and a medium-sized wild beast was killed.
Before gaining strength, it's wiser to spend less time in the mountains after dark.
Back in the village, he carried his hoe to his own thin stretch of land, ready for a hard day's labor.
Compared to families with no land, he considered himself fortunate.
Landless poor either rent land to farm as tenants or work as servants in wealthier households.
This acreage consisted of bad land; it was all stones underneath, impossible to clear away.
Because the soil layer is so thin it doesn't retain nutrients or moisture well and is prone to compacting, such bad land is commonly referred to as thin land.
Planting maize, a good plot of land can yield over two thousand pounds.
This poor land can yield at most five or six hundred pounds, and it requires much more labor.
The poorer the land, the more work there is.
Fertilizing and watering must be frequent, and as the crops hardly grow, weeds begin to thrive. Just weeding becomes a very troublesome issue.
Then, every now and then the soil must be loosened because it is prone to forming hard clods.
Looking at the fields covered with weeds, he felt a headache coming on.
Weeding and soil-turning would be particularly arduous tasks.
Without a cow at home, things would be much easier if he had one.
Ordinary poor families simply cannot afford to have cows; only landlords do. They are considered costly livestock. Even the cheapest ones cost upward of five taels of silver, and a better, adult water buffalo costs seven to eight taels of silver each.
He swung his arms and dug forcefully with the hoe.
Labor Point +0.01, Weeding Proficiency +0.01, Soil Loosening Proficiency +0.01.
This single hoeing unexpectedly earned him three kinds of attribute points.
Full-turn loosening of the soil is a task that requires a lot of physical strength, rarely completed by manual labor.
It's typically done using cattle.
At the rate he was going, it would take at least a month to finish turning this acre of land and shape it into ridges.
This would certainly delay the planting of the maize.
Considering that labor points could rapidly enhance his planting skills, he tried adding 9.99 labor points to his weeding skill.
Weeding Proficiency 10/100.
Now looking at the weeds covering the field, he could see they had become much more manageable.
This is Bermuda grass, with deep roots but no branches, tenacious vitality, and drought resistance. This is foxtail grass, which grows quickly and will mature and spread throughout the field soon after setting seed, making it impossible to eradicate...
The improvement in weeding skills only enhances the efficiency of weeding but is of no help to soil turning.
He wanted to try and raise his soil loosening skill to proficient as well.
However, he didn't have enough labor points.
Only 9.64 left.
Luckily, he wasn't far off, so he started working vigorously, sweating profusely.
Soon after, a small patch of soil was turned over.
Labor points, as well as proficiency in both weeding and soil loosening skills, had increased significantly.
He tried to bring his soil loosening skill to proficient.
This time, he succeeded.
Soil Loosening Proficiency 10/100.
After the successful upgrade, he discovered with surprise that the improvement in his soil loosening skills not only made him adept at many labor-saving digging techniques but also significantly aided in loosening the soil around crops, reducing the damage to their root systems and allowing for a more precise understanding of the required depth.
This would greatly benefit the growth of the crops.
Trying to turn the soil again, he found it was much easier than before.
Still, the task of completely turning this acre of land remained incredibly daunting.
...
Having worked tirelessly until evening, he had managed to dig out three ridges of land.
Because his soil loosening skill had been upgraded to proficient, the efficiency had significantly increased.
In the past, a full day's work would at most turn over one ridge, but now he had done three times that amount. And it seemed that he had expended less energy, as he still felt some strength left.
If it had been earlier, he would have already been exhausted.
This also meant that after tripling the efficiency of his digging, a task that would have taken a month could now be completed in just ten days.
He instinctively checked his attributes.
Qin Niu
Cultivation: Mortal Onefold 17/100, Low-rank Farmer 51/100, Low-rank Insect Master 3/100
Lifespan: 51 years
Cultivation Technique: None
Skills: Planting class, Planting Proficiency 10/100, Soil Loosening Proficiency 36.2/100, Fertilizing Novice 0/10, Watering Novice 0/10, Weeding Proficiency 36.2/100
Insect control class, Insect Trace Identification Novice 0/10.
Talents: None
Divine Skills: None
Labor Points: 26.2
The proficiencies for soil loosening and weeding had increased to 36.2.
He had accumulated another twenty or so labor points.
The harvest was quite good.
The farmer's level experience value hadn't changed at all, which suggests that turning the soil does not increase the farmer's level experience.
Glancing at the sky, he decided to start sowing the first batch of seeds.
Planting in batches reduces the intensity of labor.
Otherwise, sowing and harvesting an acre of land all in one day would be impossible for one person.
Spacing the seeds properly, he planted each kernel of maize into the freshly turned soil.
Planting Proficiency +0.01, Planting Experience +0.01.
It turns out that the farmer's level experience requires the actual planting of crops to increase.
A proficient level of planting technique is quite commendable, the placement of the maize and the depth at which they are buried in the soil layer all have their significance.