#254 - Chapter 254 Harvesting the First Acre of Peonies

Inside the profession space, Shen Xingyan instantly teleported to his first plot of peony farmland upon landing. His gaze rapidly swept across all the peony plants, rechecking the state of the crops before using his skill.

However, the harvesting mindset for peonies differed from other fruit-bearing crops. There was no direct way to judge the yield based on the fruit itself.

Shen Xingyan could only observe the overall growth of the peony plants and combine it with his knowledge from the real world to make some basic assessments.

Although breaking records was currently the biggest source of value from harvesting crops, he knew that the crops themselves were his foundation. Everything originated from these plots of farmland, so he naturally took it very seriously.

If it weren't for the existence of Wangcai and the others, which made him seem a bit 'unfocused,' Shen Xingyan's drive might have allowed him to become a 'master' in the field of agricultural professions in the future.

After inspecting the growth of the peonies, Shen Xingyan turned to look at his Longevity Tree. After a long moment, he sighed softly.

"This time, my profession skill will determine whether a plot of level four crops and a plot of spirit-ranked crops will succeed. It's quite a bit of pressure for me."

"This is a huge test of my luck! I wonder what the outcome will be?" Shen Xingyan felt uncertain about the upcoming developments.

However, as his first profession skill finished its cooldown, Shen Xingyan decided not to dwell on it any longer, thinking:

"Whatever! Even if it doesn't succeed the first time, I can use it a second or third time. It'll succeed eventually."

"I can now use my first profession skill almost twice a day, and with my luck, I'll keep using it until the success rate goes up!"

Shen Xingyan encouraged himself inwardly. At the same time, his Primal Staff appeared in his hand.

After selecting all the farmland as the target for this skill, he gritted his teeth and directly used his newly cooled-down first profession skill: Crop Growth Speed +10%!

As the profession skill activated, the primal energy within Shen Xingyan began to stir. Over a hundred points of primal energy were quickly mobilized, and after a surge of unusual fluctuations, they gathered at the tip of the Primal Staff.

Immediately, Xingyuan's notification appeared before his eyes:

"Ding! Detected that you are using a profession skill on partially matured crops. The use of this skill may result in failure for these crops. Do you wish to continue?"

Seeing this notification, Shen Xingyan's mood was not as relaxed as before. After exhaling deeply, he slowly nodded, indicating his agreement to continue using the skill.

Sensing Shen Xingyan's intention, the notification instantly disappeared. At the same time, the primal energy gathered at the tip of the staff shot out, instantly affecting all the crops.

Watching the current situation, Shen Xingyan felt slightly apprehensive. He subconsciously fidgeted with his hands, tilting his head slightly and looking at the Xingyuan sky, at the place where the skill notification would soon appear.

Immersed in a small sense of anticipation, Shen Xingyan, after enduring a few seemingly long seconds, finally reached the moment of revealing the final result.

He saw the Xingyuan skill notification suddenly appear where he was looking:

"Congratulations, you have successfully used your profession skill, Farmer profession experience +1. Skill application failed for partially matured crops!"

This extremely long skill notification caused Shen Xingyan's expectant mood to feel a chill. He hadn't seen this notification in a long time, and he couldn't help but rub his eyes lightly. After finally confirming the skill's failure, he sighed and shook his head.

Although he had made ample mental preparations beforehand, he still couldn't help but feel a little disappointed when he saw the final result, and he gently rubbed his forehead.

"But, there's nothing I can do about it. All I can do is accept the current result."

"After all, this isn't something I can control! I wonder if the peonies and the Longevity Tree both failed this time, or if only one of them failed?"

With this thought in mind, Shen Xingyan accepted the failure. While shaking his head and sighing, he also looked back and forth at the two plots of farmland.

At this moment, he saw the plot of peony farmland that was about to mature rustling, and all the peonies were undergoing visible changes.

But looking at the Longevity Tree, the increase in growth from previous skill applications had been very small, and now there was no movement at all. It still stood there as steady as Mount Tai.

Seeing this, Shen Xingyan knew the final result: the peonies succeeded, but the Longevity Tree failed!

"This result is still acceptable. After all, in about 13 hours, I can use my profession skill again. At that time, using the profession skill on the Longevity Tree alone should have a much higher success rate."

"But it's a pity that my profession skill can't control the growth progress within 10% of the crops, like controlling the number of skeletons summoned. Is this a limitation after the skill mutated?"

"It seems that I need to calculate the growth time of the Longevity Tree more accurately in the future. It's best to reach its natural growth time shortly after using the profession skill."

Shen Xingyan thought to himself, while also comforting himself: "Having experienced this failure, I can consider it a lesson learned. But on second thought, it's just delaying the acquisition of hundreds of thousands of profession experience points. I can wait."

In his slightly uplifted mood, the ten-odd seconds of the profession skill's duration passed, and the farmland maintenance notification icon and the harvestable notification icon appeared one after another.

"Without the Longevity Tree, this 'labor-eating' household, my skeletons can work even more leisurely. This can be considered good news amidst the bad news!"

Shen Xingyan thought with a somewhat wry smile. Then, as before, he carefully controlled the Art of Telekinesis, 'plucking' all the matured peonies from the ground.

Since the target of the Art of Telekinesis was the entire peony plant, its roots were very intact when it left the ground, which saved Shen Xingyan a considerable amount of effort.

As all the peonies rose from the ground, Xingyuan's harvest notification appeared before Shen Xingyan's eyes:

"Congratulations, you have harvested 600 square meters of peonies this time, with a yield of 560 kilograms, gaining 44,800 Farmer profession experience points."