The birch tree might be nurturing Spirit Insects, which undoubtedly brought a sudden happiness to Russell, yet also a great pressure.
It's not unheard of for sprites to be bred in the wild, but it is extremely rare.
The reason for this isn't that plants and mushrooms in the wild cannot draw on the earth's power. Rather, it's because the power of the earth is ultimately sparse, and without the enhancement of kin sprites, relying on plants and mushrooms to themselves absorb nutrients and successfully breed sprites is incredibly difficult.
Most likely, due to insufficient supply of the earth's power, it would end in miscarriage.
"This tree... can it really give birth to birch Spirit Insects?"
Looking at the dim glow emanating from the tree trunk, Russell desperately recalled the memories of his past self, trying to find a way to help the birch tree.
From what he had learned from his past life, sprites have been in the view of humans for at least four thousand years.
How to use sprites to plant Magic Potions has become quite adept.
How to use Magic Potions, in turn, to cultivate new sprites, a mature plan has also been devised.
But, how to improve the breeding of wild sprites remains a great unsolved mystery, and people don't even know how to look for wild sprites. After all, whether plants or mushrooms will breed sprites is random without any fixed pattern to follow.
Tonight, Russell encountered the thickest birch tree, which was nurturing a sprite, but this doesn't mean that the thickest, tallest birch tree will definitely give birth to sprites.
And just because it is nurturing, doesn't mean it will surely succeed.
Perhaps the shortest, most slender birch tree might also breed a sprite and have a higher chance of success compared to the thicker, taller ones.
Thus, methods like fertilizing, watering, weeding, and pest control have no effect on the breeding of sprites.
Otherwise, with thousands of years of human agricultural history, we would have cultivated countless crop and fruit tree sprites, happily farming away.
"Ice Cream, do you have a method?" With no solutions in mind, Russell could only idly ask the Little Dream Dragon.
Without high expectations.
However, the next moment, the Little Dream Dragon turned its head to glance at Russell, snorted two puffs of hot air from its nostrils, looking very disdainful.
Then.
It turned back, aimed at the birch tree trunk, opened its finely-toothed mouth, and whooshed out a breath of dragon's breath even thinner than mist.
A magical scene thus occurred.
The extremely dim light of the birch tree, upon receiving the dragon's breath, began to warm up as if it had come to life. And it even gained a rhythmic breathing pulse, its light pulsing bright and dim. With each pulse, the brightness increased a little bit more.
"Gaga!" Having done all this, the Little Dream Dragon again turned its head to look askance at Russell.
Although Russell couldn't be sure what exactly the Little Dream Dragon's breath had done to the birch tree, nor how it stimulated the magic power within, this didn't prevent him from guessing that this breath of the dragon was absolutely crucial for the breeding of the Spirit Insects.
"Well done, Ice Cream!" he vigorously rubbed the Little Dream Dragon's big head.
"Gaga!"
The Little Dream Dragon shook its head, then directly shook Russell off, and with a flap of its wings, it left Russell's side.
It was tired.
"Just one breath of the dragon..." Russell only managed to entertain this half-thought before his consciousness faded and he plunged into chaos.
...
Cock-a-doodle-doo!
The rooster at a distant serf's house issued a loud crow.
Russell in the tent stretched out his arm from the sleeping bag, flexed his whole body for a wonderfully comfy stretch, and greeted the marvelous morning.
"Ever since I got Ice Cream, I haven't had a bad night's sleep," he fetched the pocket watch he carried from under the pillow of his sleeping bag and checked the time; it was six-thirty in the morning.
He lifted the tent's flap.
The sunlight had already evenly scattered throughout the birch forest.
Jack, the somewhat confused knight attendant, was leaning against a birch tree, nodding off like a pecking chicken, only to be startled awake by the noise.
"Ah, Sir."
"Go to the manor's annex to wash your face, have some breakfast, and then get some good sleep," Russell instructed, expanding his chest.
"I'm not tired," Jack lied, his eyes red.
Russell simply repeated, "Go."
Jack bowed and took his leave: "Understood!"
Left alone, Russell carefully observed the birch trees. Since the part that bore the spirit insects was over three meters high, he couldn't see anything clearly from the ground, but he had a strong feeling that this particular birch spirit insect would successfully be nurtured.
"The fourth spirit insect, I never thought the fourth one would come so soon!" Russell's heart grew warmer as he looked up for a while.
This was only his second night living at Wuyao Snake Manor.
If he changed his camping spot every night and initiated the Gloomy Dreamland at different locations, did that mean he could invite the Little Dream Dragon to breathe out Dragon Breath on all the potential spirit insects throughout his territory, leading to their successful nurturing?
"Brilliant!"
The more he thought about it, the more excited he became.
Until Butler Morris came with two male and two female servants, bringing him toiletries as well as breakfast.
"Sir, are you going to continue to stand guard here?"
"I plan to watch over the caterpillar fungus," Russell replied casually, since he was the one in charge of his own land, he didn't need to explain his actions to anyone else.
With the servants' help, he brushed his teeth and washed his face with the clear water from the Glowing River, then ate a simple breakfast.
After lingering by the birch tree for a bit and confirming there was nothing abnormal, he handed the caterpillar fungus over to the serf technician who had rushed over to take care of it, then went to inspect the other caterpillar fungus.
The rainflower caterpillar fungus and the dill caterpillar fungus had already taken root, greedily absorbing the power from beneath the earth.
The serfs planting wheat and beans nearby had begun to harvest the not yet mature sprouts under the lead of the serf supervisor.
After the harvest, it would be time to plant the rainflowers and dills.
"The weather's getting better by the day. When the ice age ends, the warm season begins. Planting the Magic Potion now, at this time, it will grow quickly without delaying the harvest," Hans, hunchbacked, came up to Russell's side.
"Have you ever grown Magic Potion?"
"I used to grow it in town. Speaking of which, I, Hans, am also a serf technician. It was only after Lord Baron sent me to Wuyao Snake Manor to be the overseer that I put aside growing Magic Potion," Hans said, reminiscing about the past as he unconsciously reached for his waist.
There hung a starch-covered pipe.
Without cigarettes or cigars, people here who wanted to smoke either used a pipe or chewed tobacco leaves directly.
Suddenly remembering something, Hans hurriedly hung the pipe back: "Sorry, Sir, almost gave into the craving."
"It's okay, smoke if you want to," Russell said casually.
He didn't think a serf smoking in front of him was an act of defiance against his noble authority, even though he didn't like smoking himself.
He also didn't like secondhand smoke.
This was, after all, the wilderness; one couldn't inhale much secondhand smoke, and besides, with Battle Qi nourishing the body, even if one smoked all day, it was impossible to develop lung cancer—knights with Battle Qi rarely got sick as the Qi was more miraculous than any elixir.
In the end, Hans didn't dare to light his pipe in front of Russell, instead doing his best to please him.
As Russell inspected the field ridges, he asked, "Hans, you've lived at Wuyao Snake Manor for a long time. What do you think should be the first issue to address in order to develop the manor?"