Qing had noticed the difference early on. She understood that her affinity with plants also manifested in promoting their growth, so she had put quite a bit of effort into caring for other crops as well.
But even though she used the same methods and techniques, the crops she later tended never grew as well as those facing heaven peppers.
Under her care, those facing heaven peppers had grown at nearly twice the normal rate. Now, she could only make plants grow about a quarter faster than their usual pace.
Not only that, her efficiency had drastically dropped. She could only assist with one mu[mfn]”mu” (亩) is a traditional Chinese unit of area. 1 mu ≈ 666.7 square meters or about 0.165 acres.[/mfn] of land per day. Any more than that, and it would lead to the complete depletion of her power.
She hadn’t even deliberately released her affinity in that facing heaven pepper field, and they had still thrived. So why wasn’t it working now?
Qing was utterly baffled. She had tried several different approaches, but none of them worked.
That was why she hoped Yang Yi, as a Divine Envoy, could offer her some insight.
Yang Yi regretfully shook his head. “This isn’t within my area of responsibility, and I don’t really understand much about it.”
Who hadn’t dreamed of being a hero as a child? Yang Yi had once fantasized about having superpowers and using them to punish evil and uphold justice.
Now, seeing the warriors awakening their innate gifts, he found it all very fascinating.
After all, he had arrived in another world. Maybe, just maybe, the heavens would grant him some special ability too. So he’d deliberately tried to learn and get close to the subject.
In the end, he realized he’d been overthinking it. He hadn’t even come close to touching the edge of it. He completely failed to grasp how it all worked or why certain people were suddenly blessed with these talents.
After signing the contract with Hei Lie, he had even deliberately asked Hei Lie to use his ability in front of him, hoping that through their bond, he might somehow feel a trace of supernatural power.
In the end, he found that he couldn’t sense even the slightest bit of it.
Qing wasn’t surprised by this result. After all, Yang Yi’s combat power was even weaker than that of an ordinary person. But still, not being able to find an answer inevitably led to some disappointment.
“There’s no need to rush. Just care for the plants using normal cultivation methods. You don’t need to do anything special.”
“Divine Envoy, I understand.”
Qing looked quite dejected, still frustrated with herself for being so powerless, unable to control her own talent.
“In the future, the land we’ll need to cultivate will be far more than what we have now. Even if you could control your ability, you wouldn’t be able to manage it all on your own.”
Yang Yi didn’t feel particularly regretful. From the beginning, he had planned to contribute as an ordinary person.
He had a wealth of knowledge and had also brought high-quality crop seeds. These alone were enough to ensure high yields and good quality.
Having warriors with plant affinity was certainly a bonus, but they wouldn’t be overly dependent on that. The inheritance of agricultural techniques was the key to stability and longevity, and could continuously improve over time.
“I hope my ability can do more for the tribe.”
Qing’s plant-based ability was indeed rare and useful. However, once a tribe had stabilized and gained an understanding of the surrounding environment, the usefulness of her power would gradually diminish. In this world, warriors with high combat strength were still more respected.
This gave her a strong sense of insecurity. She was always trying to prove something. She didn’t want to be seen as merely someone well-suited for reproduction.
“I suggest that until you’ve fully mastered the ability to promote growth, you focus your efforts on learning everything you can about plants, like how they express their needs or lack thereof at different times and in different states.
Then you can teach that to others, so even those without any plant-related gifts can still ensure healthy growth.”
Qing regained her composure and responded with utmost seriousness, “I will do everything I can to accomplish this task.”
“Aside from that, you can also use your ability to think about how to improve them. Make them easier to grow, and increase their yield.”
Qing didn’t quite understand this sentence. “Improve them?”
“Yes, plants can evolve too, just like warriors,” Yang Yi affirmed. “The seeds you’re seeing now were actually cultivated by people. It’s just that the gods had me bring them here.”
Qing was completely stunned. “They weren’t created by the gods?”
“What the gods provided wasn’t good enough. They preferred that people use their own wisdom to obtain more and better. Before these seeds were cultivated, their yield was much lower, and their taste wasn’t very good either.”
Qing was thoroughly bewildered. She couldn’t react for a moment.
“We’ve always been using the things around us to make changes, just like we did with our stone tools. Plants can be changed, too.”
Hearing this explanation, Qing immediately understood. The gloom between her brows vanished, and her whole body was filled with motivation.
“Divine Envoy, I know what to do now!”
Yang Yi nodded in reassurance. “This kind of work can’t be rushed. Don’t put too much pressure on yourself.”
Qing didn’t really know what “pressure” meant, but she still got the general idea.
“I won’t be impatient like before.”
Then Qing suddenly changed her expression. Her eyes burned with intensity as she stared at Yang Yi, making him feel completely on edge.
“Divine Envoy, I have a request. Please—you must agree to it.”
Yang Yi immediately became alert. His experience told him one thing very clearly: never get tricked into agreeing to something with a woman when you’re feeling muddled or distracted.
“What kind of request?”
“I have too many responsibilities. A lot of situations and data need to be recorded. Could you assign a few of your training class students to me?”
Yang Yi was speechless. Qing looked soft and delicate, but she was clearly a tough one!
He only had ten students in total. One of them had already taken on responsibilities independently and even helped Qing from time to time.
Now she wanted to make a big ask and trick him into giving her several of them all at once?
“If several won’t do, even one is fine.” Qing clenched her teeth, looking like she had made a huge, painful decision.
Yang Yi had trained those people precisely for managing this kind of work, so of course, he wouldn’t refuse.
“Sure. But their current skill level still isn’t enough. They can only work as interns for now.”
Not everyone had Lan Jian’s kind of talent. His students were smarter than average children, but still within the normal range.
They had only been studying for a short time, so what they could do was still very limited.
Qing was delighted, even a little overjoyed. “I’ve already picked someone. He’s capable of handling this task.”
“So you had this all planned out,” Yang Yi said with a smile.
Qing gave an awkward laugh. “Lan Jiao is just too busy. I really need someone dedicated to helping me.”
She didn’t want to be like this either, but she truly couldn’t manage everything on her own, especially now that the Divine Envoy had just pointed her toward a new direction. She realized there were so many things she needed to do.
“There will be more and more helpers in the future,” Yang Yi assured her, then asked, “With so many plants planted, are there any that aren’t suited to grow here?”
Qing shook her head. “Our land is favorable for them. Some plants may not be very well-suited, but they can still grow, just not in large amounts.”
Yang Yi asked which plants, and Qing listed a bunch. He soon realized that those crops were better suited to dry climates and sandy soil, which were quite different from the conditions here.
Back then, he had just tried planting everything, and then planned to sort them out later.
“Keep an eye on them. If they can’t grow or bear fruit, replace them with something else.”
Yang Yi then made another round through the fields, focusing especially on the rice.
As someone from the south, plain white rice was incredibly important to him. It was the one food he could eat every day without getting tired of it.
The rice was already in the transplanting stage, and many people were bending over in the fields, working hard.
The water in the paddies had been carried in, bucket by bucket, from the well—an extremely time-consuming and labor-intensive process.
Yang Yi had originally wanted to bring out the water pump from his storage space. Even though he only had one, and the diesel was limited, it would still be enough to meet the needs of all the fields.
But when Hei Lie found out, he immediately refused.
He said that things shouldn’t be made too easy from the start, especially since those tools wouldn’t last forever.
The fact that they already had lightweight aluminum buckets for carrying water was considered very fortunate. They couldn’t make such a huge leap all at once.
Yang Yi agreed with that reasoning. But seeing how exhausting it was for everyone, he still felt a bit uneasy.
Now that even the locals were saying so, Yang Yi no longer interfered in the matter.
At the moment, some of the rice paddies still hadn’t been irrigated, but they were no longer carrying water over bucket by bucket. Instead, they had dug small irrigation channels.
Judging by the soil around the channels, it looked like they hadn’t been dug very long ago.
Now, only one person was stationed there operating the pump. The water flowed through the channels to each of the fields.
“Divine Envoy!” The one manning the pump was a boy around twelve or thirteen years old. When he saw Yang Yi, his eyes lit up.
Yang Yi couldn’t help but sigh a little when he saw kids like this, thinking just how easy his own life used to be.
“Good work.”
The boy flashed a bright, toothy grin and beamed.
“Not hard at all! I actually won this job in a duel! The gods are amazing to have created something so useful!”
In this world, strength was revered. Even among non-warriors, fists were often the way to settle things.
Yang Yi watched as a steady stream of water from the well flowed with a gurgling sound into the channel, then branched off toward the surrounding network of ditches near each paddy.
A small opening in the side of each rice field let the water flow in naturally.
The rice paddies had all been laid out in relatively low-lying areas, so the water could flow in directly. And in places where it couldn’t, filling buckets from the nearby channels to pour in manually was now much easier.
It hadn’t even been that long since he last came, but this group had already come up with a method that saved effort while increasing efficiency.
“This was your idea?”
When Yang Yi saw the irrigation channels, he couldn’t help but want to slap his thigh in excitement.
He had completely forgotten this was even an option!
He’d been fixated on the fact that he had a water pump, so all the convenient solutions he’d considered involved machinery. But since he couldn’t bring that out, he’d just let the matter drop.
He hadn’t expected that these people would come up with the solution themselves!
Hei Tu, who was in charge of farmland construction, saw the pleased look on Yang Yi’s face and instantly felt his earlier worry melt away. With a hint of pride, he explained:
“We just came up with it. We remembered how you said that in the future we could dig channels to bring mountain spring water over. So we thought, why not try channeling the well water into the fields?”
“You’ve done an excellent job,” Yang Yi said, sincerely impressed.
This was the power of a collective. No matter how thorough one person’s thinking might be, there would always be blind spots.
But when everyone brainstormed together, great ideas could emerge.
Hei Tu’s face flushed slightly. Truth be told, he hadn’t been sure at first if doing it this way was appropriate.
But he remembered what the Divine Envoy and the Chief had said before. So long as the overall direction didn’t change, they were allowed to make adjustments based on real-world needs. That was what gave him the courage to try.
Now that the Divine Envoy had affirmed it, confirming that his decision had been the right one, he couldn’t hide the excitement in his heart.
“Later, give me a list of the people who helped plan and dig the channels.”
Hei Tu froze for a moment. Qing, who was standing nearby, reminded him, “The Divine Envoy wants to reward you.”
“R-Really?” Hei Tu was so excited that he started to stutter.
Everyone in the tribe understood just how precious the gifts bestowed by the Divine Envoy were.
That brat Mao, for instance, was now pushing his little cart around all day, making who knows how many people green with envy.
Yang Yi smiled. “You thought of digging irrigation channels and executed the idea well, improving efficiency. That’s worthy of a reward. And not just this time. In the future, anyone who comes up with a good idea will be rewarded, no matter who it is.”
