Chapter 12: Planted a Money Tree
“Nine Yin Manual?
“Nine Yang Manual?
“Shaolin’s Seventy-Two Supreme Moves?”
Jiang He had arrived at the photocopy shop of the village around four in the afternoon.
Madam Wang, the lady owner of the shop’s usually lively face was full of surprise, and she was staring at Jiang He with the concern one would give to a moron. “Why would you print this stuff, Xiao Jiang?”
After all, everyone living in the village knew each other.
Although Madam Wang’s joint was called a ‘photocopy shop’, it was actually a shopping mart with a photocopier in it, making things convenient for the villagers while earning Madam Wang some side income.
Jiang He smiled and said, “Madam Wang, just print it for me. It’s not like I won’t pay you.”
Since he had put it that way, the lady owner had nothing to say in return and promptly printed the manuals from the web.
Meanwhile, Jiang He stood at the door, watching as cars zoomed by outside.
Jinyintan Village was near the city and the entrance to the village was the main road directed to the city. Many vehicles often took this route—especially today, with exceedingly many police and military vehicles passing by.
Jiang He even saw an entire convoy of vehicles with military number plates, carrying truckloads of storages as they streaked past the road.
The lady owner of the shop glanced outside as well, and said, “I heard the military is going to build a barracks and an arsenal here in Linzhou. They have some land in Huangshawo Village next door, don’t they? Over ten thousand Mu, and now everything is going developed. It’s going to be major project—my husband even ran off to ask round to see if he could get some labor contracts.”
“Oh?” Jiang He’s eyes sparkled.
The military was making a move already?
“Xiao Jiang, it’s done—eighty-eight pages in total, but I’ll charge you five per page since you’ve printed a lot.”
“I’m getting some snacks too. Add that to the bill.”
Jiang He took two boxes of cup noodles, a pack of dried noodles along with sunflower seeds, spicy bars, pickled pepper, and chicken legs. He was about to adjust his palate when he returned home, because he was about to throw up after eating cucumbers for days!
After paying up using WeChat, Jiang He went home while humming a little tune.
He picked a manual that didn’t require the energy of qi, but there was no reaction.
“What’s going on, System?”
[Planting of cultivation manuals is limited to 2 at current farm level, verified as Level 1. Please try again after improving farm to Level 2, host.]
Dang…
Jiang He almost vomited blood.
He quickly dug out the soil.
Luckily, the nitrogen fertilizer was still there.
After all, would he have enough tears to weep if he did not plant anything but wasted the pellet of fertilizer worth 100 farm points?
Still, Jiang He was utterly inspired after having tried ‘planting’ cultivation manuals on his farm.
Holding the fertilizer and changing his mind, he muttered, “Surely I can’t just leave it be after redeeming this thing?”
“System, since I could plant cultivation manuals… what about weapons? What else could I plant?”
[Please find out yourself, Host.]
“Damn it!”
Jiang He cursed, and put aside the crystalline fertilizer pellet as he picked up a shovel to keep digging.
Soon, he had cleared a hole.
Then, he drew a hundred-dollar bill out of his pocket and placed it in the hole, before putting in the nitrogen fertilizer and burying it.
After watering the spot, Jiang He sat at a corner, open a pack of spicy bars and turned on his phone, combing through the forums and video websites for news of the day that were related to the return of qi and nuclear explosions.
He was naturally surprised that it turned out to be a quiet day on the various forums, video sites, and social network, as if every post regarding qi revival had disappeared overnight.
Nonetheless, that did not unsettle Jiang He, though he had the feeling that something was coming.
After all, there was always calm before the storm.
“And here I was thinking that I could adjust my palate with other food. But now, it seems that I can’t afford slowing down my improvement.”
“That said, now that I’ve reached rank three, cucumbers aren’t as effective as before.”
According to Jiang He’s estimation, he should reach rank four after eating every last cucumber. However, since Indestructible Diamond had improved his cultivation by leaps and bounds, he managed to save quite a few cucumbers, which could probably be used to help him push him a whole notch above rank four.
“That said, the cucumber would be even weaker when I start to cultivate True Qi at rank four. I have to study the System to see if I could get new seeds… Eh? It’s really sprouting?”
Jiang He’s gaze had shifted.
Putting away his phone but continuing to chew on one spicy bar, his eyes were kept fixed at his toes.
A tender sprout had just tunneled its way out of the soil.
Curiously, however, the sprout was not green in color, just as it wasn’t the pale yellow of a seedling that had not seen sunlight. Instead, it had a faint shade of red.
“That luster…”
As the tender sprout quickly enlarged into a shoot, the corner of Jiang He’s mouth couldn’t help twitching. “Why would this shoot be red, just like a hundred-dollar bill?”
Be that as it may, his eyes were already ablaze.
The proverb ‘you reap what you sow’ was certainly true here.
So, what would you reap if you plant a dollar bill?”
“Cultivation manuals can be planted, and money too… but why aren’t normal seeds that different when sowed?”
“That’s not exactly true though—there is a difference, but it’s just not too obvious.”
Jiang He turned to look at another corner of the yard, where there was still a field of corn.
Of the handful of corn he sowed, only the twenty-eight corn stalks which were growing on the ashes of the other cucumber plants had been harvested. The other corns were growing slower in comparison and just stood a foot tall, and could only be reaped around another half a month.
“Maybe my farm level is too low. Perhaps normal seeds would be different when I level up my farm.”
Meanwhile, the red shoot had grown into a short tree right in front of Jiang He’s eyes, reaching the height of an adult human.
The trunk, branches, leaves, and even the flowers of a small tree were all the color of hundred-color bills.
“One… Two… Three…”
“A hundred flowers?”
Jiang He counted the blossoming flowers, noticing that they quickly wither and would turn into… a coin?
“…”
“What the heck?”
All those coins were one cent.
Jiang He’s mouth twitched as he scowled. “I sowed a hundred dollars only to reap a hundred one-cent coins? Hold on… are the coin faces changing?”
Five minutes later, the 1-cent coins all turned into 10-cent coins.
After another five minutes, the 10-cent coin turned to 50-cent coins, which in turn became 1-dollar coins. The same sequence continued, with the coin turning into 5-dollar bills and then 10-dollar bills.
Then, after an hour, 100-dollar bills were hanging on the branches, dancing enchantingly as a breeze billowed.
[Ding!]
[Farm point +1]
Jiang He plucked off a hundred dollar bill to check. “It’s real money! Haha… I planted a hundred dollars and got ten thousand dollars in return! I’ll even get a chunk of EXP—how profitable!”
He plucked out every last 100-dollar bill.
Surprisingly, however…
The human-height tree didn’t rapidly wither into ashes.
“…Is this thing going to bear more fruit like an apple tree?” Jiang He exclaimed in delight. “Isn’t it a real money tree now?”
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