Ch 58: The Malevolent Monster Just Wants To Farm

Jiang Lin was taken by the Yan Emperor to a vast, unclaimed plain. The Shen Nong tribe’s territory was immense, and the population was sparse compared to the land’s size. Moreover, in this era, everyone could become a warrior, and many of the tribe’s brave warriors were stationed in various places to ensure the safety of the tribe. As a result, there was a lot of unused land.

The people of the Shen Nong tribe were accustomed to the protection of the Yan Emperor, and their lands were highly productive. Typically, a family would manage their own land, and as long as the food produced was enough to sustain them, it was considered sufficient. They spent more time hunting and honing their martial skills.

Jiang Lin didn’t think this approach was necessarily bad, but he believed that this self-sufficient model left the tribe with a low ability to withstand risks. Their high yields were due to the protection of the God of Agriculture, and everyone assumed this blessing would never disappear.

But Jiang Lin thought differently.

Even without knowing the storyline where the Yan Emperor would eventually fall into a deep sleep, Jiang Lin wouldn’t be as optimistic as the people of the Shen Nong tribe. Raised in modern times with the belief that “relying on others is not as reliable as relying on oneself,” Jiang Lin preferred to have both hope and backup plans firmly in his own hands.

Nothing is eternal and unwavering, except for what one has already mastered.

The Yan Emperor looked at Jiang Lin and said, “Jiang, try it yourself.”

Jiang Lin was puzzled. “Try what? You haven’t taught me how to use divine power yet.”

The Yan Emperor looked even more surprised than Jiang Lin. He frowned and said, “I have been too lenient with you in the past, letting you grow up without understanding even the most basic principles. Divine power doesn’t need to be taught. With the bloodline of the God of Agriculture, the power of the God of Agriculture is naturally within you. Jiang, close your eyes now and feel it carefully. Follow your intuition.”

He had come with Jiang Lin just to see how talented his youngest son was.

Jiang Lin thought to himself, “Are all gods this hands-off in raising their children?”

But he recalled the sensation he felt when he first arrived in this world and began to understand what the Yan Emperor meant.

He closed his eyes and, sure enough, he once again sensed that familiar power within him—this must be the divine power of the God of Agriculture.

In the Yan Emperor’s eyes, a gentle, pale green divine power radiated from his youngest son, spreading out far and wide. Like a breeze brushing over the land, all the plants seemed to sense the call of the divine, subtly moving in response.

A hint of satisfaction flashed in the Yan Emperor’s eyes: Jiang had not disappointed him.

In Jiang Lin’s perspective, his consciousness extended with this divine power, reaching far into the Shen Nong tribe’s territory.

He saw the golden, heavy heads of rice swaying gently in the wind, proudly displaying their bounty; late-ripening lantern fruits hanging from tree branches, shyly greeting their god; outside a stone house, a freshly picked vegetable seedling trembled as it was touched by the divine power, sprouting two new leaves and shooting up in height.

Jiang Lin found this experience incredibly novel. This time, the sensation was deeper, and he could see further.

Suddenly, he heard a child’s voice saying, “Great God of Agriculture, I wish the orange tree I planted today would bloom and bear fruit tomorrow.”

He was startled and wanted to listen more closely. As soon as the thought occurred, countless voices suddenly filled his ears:

“Great God of Agriculture, please grant me a bountiful harvest.”

“My little daughter wants to eat shiny gem grapes.”

“I heard the young prince inherited the bloodline of the God of Agriculture. Truly, heaven has blessed our Shen Nong tribe.”

“…”

A massive influx of information flooded into Jiang Lin’s mind in an instant. Even with his experience in cultivating the Nine Spirits Technique and traversing several worlds, his soul was heavily impacted. His complexion turned pale in that fleeting moment.

The next moment, a gentle yet powerful force enveloped him, forcibly isolating those overwhelming voices. Jiang Lin opened his eyes, still shaken, and looked at the Yan Emperor with lingering fear.

The Yan Emperor’s eyes held both concern and admiration. “You’ve already touched upon the realm of faith, Jiang. You are even more remarkable than I had imagined.”

Faith?

Before Jiang Lin could ask, the Yan Emperor’s expression grew stern. “However, with your current strength, it’s best not to dabble in the realm of faith lightly. You cannot yet bear the weight of that power.”

Understanding that Jiang Lin must have many questions, the Yan Emperor placed a hand on his son’s forehead, transmitting a vast amount of information directly into Jiang Lin’s mind.

Jiang Lin couldn’t help but think how convenient this method was—far better than verbal explanations. He briefly worried whether the jade space and the system within his consciousness would be discovered, but the Yan Emperor’s touch was brief, without any intention of probing deeper.

After ensuring his son had received the information, the Yan Emperor casually said, “Alright, take your time to understand this. Experiment on your own. I need to go to Yuqing Mountain to find your mother. If you have any questions… well, call for me in a hundred years.”

With that, he left in a hurry.

Jiang Lin stood there speechless.

Thankfully, he had been a demon in previous worlds and had experienced retreats lasting several decades. Otherwise, it would have been hard to get used to the kind of family relationships where a hundred years apart was considered normal.

For the people of the archaic era, fifty years passed in the blink of an eye.

If, fifty years ago, the young prince Jiang was known to the people of the Shen Nong tribe as nothing more than a delicate and beautiful young prince, without any other notable qualities, then fifty years later, their perception of him had completely changed.

In these fifty years, “Jiang, who had awakened the bloodline of the God of Agriculture,” had traveled almost all the lands of the Shen Nong tribe. He perfectly inherited the Yan Emperor’s love for planting.

During these years, he discovered “sweet potatoes” and “corn,” two new staple crops that could be used to stave off hunger. Moreover, these crops had low requirements for soil and climate, were easy to cultivate, and their sweet taste was highly favored by the tribe’s people.

In addition to discovering many novel and delicious crops, Jiang Lin also transformed the farming practices of the Shen Nong tribe.

Previously, each family produced its own food, with farming mostly done by elderly people, young children, or warriors who could no longer fight due to injury or illness.

However, this was still the archaic era, where even elderly women could easily lift hundred-pound stone pestles to crush wild boars that strayed too close to their homes. Children, only waist-high, could already lift weights of over a hundred pounds with ease.

Typically, a household consisted of about ten people. Their primary food sources were rice, wheat, and game hunted from the wild. This meant that the labor force for farming was severely underutilized.

Around each settlement, vast expanses of fertile land lay idle.

After visiting many places and discovering this widespread situation, Jiang Lin felt a deep sense of regret. Such abundant labor, such fertile land, such favorable conditions—and yet they were being wasted!

Especially when considering the original plot, after the Yan Emperor fell into a deep sleep, the following events unfolded: Without the protection of the agricultural god’s power, their land was no longer as fertile, and crop yields decreased. However, this didn’t mean the land itself had become unworkable.

The Shen Nong tribe occupied the most expansive and fertile plains in the southern part of the continent. Losing the agricultural god’s blessing merely stripped away the aura, returning the crops to their natural yields. The Shen Nong tribe, possessing the climate and land that the Tu Su tribe could only dream of, still fell into internal strife because they couldn’t even grow enough food after the Yan Emperor’s slumber.

One could argue that most of the blame lay with them. Or perhaps it was because the Yan Emperor had been too gentle, allowing his people to become overly dependent on him.

Jiang Lin didn’t plan on spoiling them. After all, when the Yan Emperor left, he told Jiang Lin that he could make his own decisions on ordinary matters.

Jiang Lin didn’t act hastily at first. He sought out the tribal leaders of a few core clans in the tribe and had a simple conversation with them. The closer to the core of the tribe, the more loyal these people were to the Yan Emperor. They were almost unconditionally obedient to Jiang Lin’s orders.

When Jiang Lin mentioned mobilizing the idle elderly and children in the settlements to collectively manage large farming areas, dividing the land and crops for cultivation, the tribal leaders didn’t see any particular need for it. However, since farming didn’t take much effort or time, and it was the young prince’s first request, they agreed.

Jiang Lin selected two locations as pilot sites. In each tribe, the same people continued to be responsible for farming. Whether it was fertilizing, watering, or pest control, these tasks weren’t difficult for the naturally strong people of this archaic era, and they didn’t find them particularly tiring.

Moreover, Jiang Lin divided the population into specific tasks, with each person responsible for a part, greatly improving efficiency.

Six months later, the Shen Nong tribe experienced its first harvest season. When the people of these two tribes finished harvesting and counted their yields, they were shocked to discover that with the same number of people, they had cultivated ten times more land than before and achieved nearly twenty times the previous harvest!

Most importantly, when Jiang Lin asked the elderly and children responsible for farming in these two tribes, they all responded that they didn’t feel particularly tired and that it wasn’t much more exhausting than before.

This reassured Jiang Lin: The Shen Nong tribe didn’t need to toil harshly for their livelihood. Although he loved farming, it was based on joy, and there was no need to overly exploit these elderly people and children.

When the news of the two pilot sites spread, it caused a sensation, and enthusiasm surged among the people: Who would ever think there could be too much food?

Riding this wave of enthusiasm, Jiang Lin began to encourage all the small tribes to cultivate the unused idle land and to divide the regions reasonably to maximize the use of these lands for the highest possible return.

In just three short years, the Shen Nong tribe’s territory had undergone significant changes.

Jiang Lin once again stood in the place where he had first arrived in this world. This was a rather remote area of the Shen Nong tribe, with few tribes gathered and vast, empty, idle land.

But now, things were different. The previously barren plains were now covered with lush green seedlings. Even the uneven hills on the far left had been fenced off, with fluffy white sheep grazing on them like clouds.

As Jiang Lin looked out over these lands, he felt not only immense joy in his heart but also great physical satisfaction—the more crops the Shen Nong tribe grew, the better they thrived, and the more divine power continuously flowed into him from across the continent.

Although the young prince Jiang was still a “little cutie” at one meter eighty, his strength had grown far beyond what it was when he first arrived.