Spring is the planting season.

While the Crimson merchant caravans were still busy at the bottom of the semicircle, everyone in the Crimson tribe was also busy with a new round of land reclamation and farming.

These past few days, Kaelen forced himself to be as busy as possible, sending the two little eggs over to Zale’s place. The babies were very obedient; as long as they received enough energy, they wouldn’t bother Zale and his mate.

During this time, Sane had personally led a hunting team into the magical beast forest, both to hunt high-level magical beasts to harvest magic cores to help the babies break their shells and to expand the search radius for their eldest child.

The administrative system in the tribe was basically complete, not needing the Chief to be on duty every day. Sane planned that if there was no news of his eldest son from this trip to the magical beast forest, he and Kaelen would personally leave the tribe, heading across the magical beast forest, even crossing the entire Beastman Continent to find their child.

The two little ones were about to break their shells, so they could be left at the tribe; after all, it was safer than following their fathers running around outside.

However, they at least had to wait until the merchant caravans returned first.

Returning to the tribe, Kaelen was currently directing everyone in planning the land to plant corn, sweet sorghum, millet, mung beans, and soybeans. He had the old valley completely planned into dry fields, specifically used for planting corn, soybeans, canna lilies, and sweet sorghum.

Additionally, a hectare of land was reserved specifically for purple yams, and two hectares for other cash crops. Later, when Ian’s group brought wheat seeds back, they could plant them over here as well.

The area over here reached up to several hundred hectares; even without cutting down trees to clear the land, it was already enough for the tribe to farm.

The river in the old valley flowed through a peat bog, making it originally unsuitable for farming, but the water falling from the high waterfall was not contaminated with acid. Kaelen had already told Mossi to dig an artificial river and an artificial reservoir.

He planned the riverside area to plant some acid-loving crops like purple yams, cranberries, and tea trees. As for the jute plants, the old brick-making area of Obsidian already had them, so he wouldn’t waste effort hauling them over here to plant.

As for planting millet, unlike pearl millet or foxtail millet which needed to be planted in dry places, the millet in this area was barnyard millet, whose characteristic was loving water. Kaelen chose the land across the river in the tribe, where all the clay had been extracted, to be the farming site.

This piece of land was over two hectares wide. Kaelen had embankments built, dividing it into plots about 720 square meters wide, building dikes to guide and drain water to soften the soil.

Currently, the soil in the fields was being thoroughly harrowed using wooden harrows pulled by oxen, then self-composted organic fertilizer was spread. After the soil preparation was done, the millet seeds could be transplanted. He also planted the millet using the wet rice cultivation method.

First was soaking the millet seeds in warm water for a day, removing the empty, moldy, and rotten seeds, then putting them in linen sacks to drain the water, and placing them in a cave lined with dry grass to incubate. After about three days, the seeds would crack, and a day later, sprouts would emerge. At this time, the seeds would be sown into the nursery field.

In about ten days, the seedlings would be taller than a hand’s span and could be transplanted into the fields.

Barnyard millet’s vitality was stronger than wet rice, and its harvest time was also earlier. But barnyard millet was a heavy nutrient absorber; soil planted with barnyard millet would quickly become barren. At that time, the soil would have to be rested and nourished for at least a year before it could be planted again.

In modern times, barnyard millet was considered a weed; as long as they appeared in a rice field, they had to be pulled out. However, in this era of food scarcity, barnyard millet became a life-saving food.

"This field has been harrowed. Everyone, come with me to pull the seedlings; I will show you how to transplant the seedlings."

Before going to the Magic City, Kaelen had also farmed. Even though they were a government-subsidized orphanage supported by philanthropists, the children in the orphanage didn’t just eat and play. The kids also had to learn how to grow vegetables, raise chickens, transplant rice, plant trees, etc.

Kaelen had done all the chores a farmer’s child needed to do. Later, when he went to the Magic City to work as a Plant Cultivator, although he didn’t need to wade in the mud, he still had to know the procedures for caring for various types of plants.

"The roots of the seedlings are very weak. If you just pull them straight up vertically, the roots will snap. We need to pull them at a forty-five-degree angle like this." Kaelen demonstrated by pulling up a clump of about three or four seedlings, easily pulling out the entire cluster of seedlings with their roots and mud intact: "Only pull a small clump like this each time, then continue to the next clump. When you have a handful like this, gently hold the middle of the stem and the base, and dunk it into the water to remove the dirt clinging to the roots."

Everyone watched Kaelen’s actions attentively, then eagerly waded into the field to try. The task of pulling seedlings seemed simple but was indescribably difficult. It clearly looked so easy when the Great Priest pulled the seedlings, yet when it came to the hands of the others, it became a disaster.

Some pulled the wrong way, snapping all the roots off the seedlings. Others used too much force, pulling so hard they lost their balance and fell backward, turning themselves into mud pigs. The entire nursery field was filled with joyous laughter.

Watching this scene, Kaelen suddenly felt a bit nostalgic for his childhood in his past life.

After ruining the seedlings a few times, the clansmen participating in transplanting gradually grasped the pattern, quickly pulling up dozens of bundles of seedlings. At this time, Kaelen said:

"Alright, pulling this much is enough. When there are only about two or three bundles left, pull more to avoid having leftover seedlings that will spoil."

He told everyone to carry the seedlings to the first field, saying: "Before transplanting, you must pinch off these top leaves to prevent the leaf tips from touching the water and rotting. This type of plant tillers heavily; each time you transplant, you only need to take two seedlings, gather them together like this, and press them into the mud." 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

Holding a handful of seedlings, he twisted his hand to pinch off the tops of the seedlings, then proficiently took out two seedlings from the bundle, transplanting while speaking: "You cannot transplant them too shallowly, otherwise the seedlings will float. You also cannot transplant them too deeply; the plant will rot and die. You guys estimate so that the roots are fully submerged in the mud and the base of the plant is submerged about two or three centimeters into the mud."

"Additionally, any holes like these footprints must be filled with mud before transplanting the seedlings. Each seedling should be a hand’s span apart horizontally and vertically like this..."

Transplanting rice was never an easy task. Everyone struggled to imitate him. Some pressed too shallowly; when they looked up, a row of newly transplanted seedlings was already floating on the surface. Some accidentally pushed too deeply; looking up, not a single seedling top could be seen protruding above the water. Some planted them too far apart, some planted them too densely...

Everyone went transplanting, yet they were so tense their glutes clenched, their muscles tightened, and their facial muscles strained. Seeing this, Kaelen burst out laughing and comforted them: "Don’t be too tense, consider these seedlings as practice. If you don’t do it well, pull them up and do it again. Right, bending over for a long time will be uncomfortable; you guys should occasionally raise your heads a bit before bending down again. When looking up, do it slowly, or you’ll get dizzy."

Under Kaelen’s supervision, within a day, the over two hundred people in the transplanting team finally learned how to transplant rice. Although the rows were still crooked and uneven, it was already very good. Barnyard millet was not like wet rice; it didn’t need weeding.

If it didn’t compete for nutrients with other weeds, no weed could compete with it. Therefore, fundamentally, this first batch of seedlings was just a practice tool for the clansmen.

After a day of practice, the next day everyone began to divide into groups of three, transplanting seedlings in different fields. Kaelen walked along the field embankments to supervise for a while. Seeing that everyone could do it well, he left the millet fields and went to the wild soybean patch on the mountain.

Under Alden’s care, the soybeans bore heavily, and the beans were plump and round. Kaelen observed around, seeing that the soybean leaves had all turned yellow and the beans were mature, so he told Alden:

"These plants can be harvested now. Uncle, have people pull the entire plants up, shake off the dirt, and bring them back to dry in the tribe’s courtyard. As for this soil, turn it over, let it dry in the sun, then transport it back to the old valley to plant soybeans there later. This place is too far from the tribe; farming here is inconvenient. On this empty plot of land, we will transplant fire-oil trees here to grow."

Fire-oil trees, or more accurately castor oil plants, had seeds that could be pressed for oil for lighting, and could also be used to lubricate the wooden axle mechanisms of waterwheels or carts, etc.

Currently, the oil from this plant was all sourced from wild-growing seeds, which was a very small amount. If they could plant the trees on a large scale, the tribe wouldn’t have to worry about lamp oil and engine oil in the future.

Near noon, a portion of the soybeans had been transported back to the tribe. Kaelen then took some newly threshed soybeans to make soy milk and tofu for a change of pace. He soaked the soybeans in dilute salt water to detoxify them. Even after soaking in salt water, he had to wait until at least the afternoon to make tofu, so for lunch today, he had grilled meat dipped in garlic fish sauce with shrimp powder cabbage soup.

His fish sauce had been successfully made; aside from the slightly pungent smell, the taste was passable. Initially, when he tried cooking food with Linh fish sauce, many people in the tribe had to plug their noses.

But after eating a few bites, everyone immediately felt the flavor was much richer. Gradually, they completely ignored the smell of the fish sauce, starting to feel unaccustomed to eating without it.

Are you kidding? They used to be able to eat naturally sitting next to a pile of animal dung; what was a little pungent, raw fish-like fish sauce smell!

The most miserable person in the tribe at that time was probably Theron. It made sense; who told his nose to be so sensitive. The first day the communal kitchen cooked food with fish sauce, Theron passed by and was smoked by the pungent smell of the fish sauce until he frothed at the mouth and convulsed on the ground, making everyone panic because they thought he accidentally ate a poisonous mushroom.

Later, Kaelen had to use an anaerobic burning method to create bamboo charcoal and used the bamboo charcoal to filter the fish sauce, only then did that pungent smell reduce to a level Theron could accept. After trying it a few times, he also became a devotee of fish sauce, even able to slurp down the leftover fish sauce dip for boiled meat on the tray...

Because no one in the tribe rejected fish sauce, Kaelen had an additional workshop built specifically for producing fish sauce.

After finishing lunch, Kaelen went to Zale’s house to pick up his two eggs.

Since their eldest child went missing, the teleportation function of the three eggs also disappeared; the babies stayed wherever they were placed, making people feel much more at ease.

When Kaelen arrived, Cael was wiping the shell of the smallest egg. Finding it strange, Kaelen asked:

"What are you doing? Why are you bathing them at noon?"

Hearing him ask that, Cael immediately burst out laughing and said:

"Earlier, when setting up the meal, Zale accidentally spilled a bowl of fish sauce on him. I’ve been wiping him with soapy water all this time, and the smell still hasn’t gone away."

Kaelen: "..."

No wonder he heard the boy crying ’hoo hoo’ in his head; it turned out the child felt he wasn’t clean anymore...