[NR] Close To A Breakthrough - Chapter 697

Jason had put up a nice split log fence. The sort of thing you see in pictures of ancient history. Though more properly, it would be called a colonial split log fence.

It was a wood intensive style of fencing, though in exchange it was simple to construct and didn’t need nails or any fasteners. Not that Jason needed an easy solution. He could have made a more modern fence.

No, he went with this design for another reason and that reason was about to make Jason get messy. See, more material meant more space. And what all that space now needed is to be soaked in blood.

Jason looks around his field and nods, this was going to need a lot of blood. After all, this is natural wood. He hadn’t even treated it the minor amount he had done for the other stuff. The Bloody Lingzhi is going to grow phenomenally on the fence!

Of course, he wasn’t going to get all that blood at once and he wasn’t exactly in a position to go out and hunt the monsters. Wouldn’t want to over level.

The solution was right nearby though and it isn’t the dynamic duo out hunting the Deep Wilds. Rather, the settlement had a butcher who would happily sell him blood. And it was sell, because out here nothing could go to waste.

Well, they probably could afford a bit of waste. It was just cheaper not to. Either way, Jason happened to have just come into some cash, so buying the blood wasn’t a problem. Even if it did end up requiring a week and a half to fully impregnate the wooden fence.

And of course, it was quite easy to spread the spores over them. If anything, Jason had more difficulty making sure the spores didn’t go where he didn’t want them to so they didn’t crowd themselves too much. It could get quite crowded if he wasn’t careful.

There was one very obvious downside. By spreading all that blood? Well, that put out quite a stink and attracted some attention. Said attention was partly why it did take a week and a half. After each application, something or other would show up for him to deal with.

Though Jason is thankful that it is mostly scavengers. There isn’t anything too tough and he managed to skirt by without a level. Without a challenge, the System isn’t going to let you gain experience.

On the flip side, he is spending less time in NeoRealm than ever. Instead of stealing hours of sleep, Jason is getting a full night’s sleep, while also logging out for an hour irl. His progress on his meridians was rocketing ahead.

And to be fair? This early stage isn’t exactly meant to take a long time. So as days pass in NeoRealm, hours pass outside and about one hour out of five of those hours is spent excavating his meridians.

That actually ended up being a little too quick and after a bit, he reduced his time outside to half an hour. Which was convenient anyway as his plants are starting to need more care. Well, not the plants themselves, so much as Jason had to be extra vigilant about weeds.

The Deep Wilds didn’t just have crazy monsters, but odd weeds as well. Without the hardy grass that had been covering the land before, those weeds grew with magical efficiency. Beyond that, they were strong with deep roots.

If Jason didn’t catch them fast, just pulling one up could uproot the nearby herbs. At least, if he wasn’t careful. For this task, he fully turned to using Energy tools instead of the metal ones.

While the metal tools from the settlement were actually quite outstanding, created for exactly this purpose, they weren’t as flexible. Jason might not have been able to cost the roots like some sort of coating, that is a little too out there. What he could do? Dig down to the end of each root and assure the weed was fully removed.

Early on, more than a few weeds managed to come back with a vengeance after first being picked. Not just regrowing, but with deeper roots. After all, the root nubs that had been left behind were already down there.

This did not shock Jason. The fact that root tips being left behind being able to regrow was something he knew. A thing he thought he had guarded against. The weeds of the Deep Wilds proved his preparations wrong and it was only once he did start using Energy that they stopped coming back.

Which gave new weeds a chance to take their place.

Some might have found it tedious or pointless. Jason found it relaxing and fulfilling. Though with time, all things must come to an end and it isn’t long before the herbs didn’t need such close attention. After all, they had their own power and so once fully established, could keep most of the outside plants away.

Along with that, Jason had to turn his attention back to meridian clearing. So much time had passed that this process was nearing the end. And while things didn’t back slide much to start, with each cleared meridian that became less true.

After all, each one cleared represented another flow of power to drop off more detritus into the still plugged meridians. It is like the meridians are windows into the body. They started closed and nothing could pass, but with each one opened, air could flow more freely. 

Except the ones that are still clogged act more like they have an air filter or a screen. So as more air flowed, those screens would have more things caught on them. Worse, what is being caught actually becomes a part of the screen. All while you are constantly trying to scrape out those screens.

Now? He is on his last meridian and at an impasse. Even an hour of work is simply holding ground, Jason would need to invest more time and make a final push. For that, he would wait for Rosha and Courtney to return so they could watch the clearing and his garden. After all, even ignoring the weeds, it isn’t like pests stopped showing up.