Cultivation is just so scientific!

Early the next morning, Li Shiming felt the Spiritual Energy Vortex in his chest and sighed helplessly.

He hadn't cultivated the "Five Elements Qi Absorption Technique" the previous day, wanting to see if his body's natural recovery could restore the consumed spiritual power.

However, after a night, there was no sign of recovery in his spiritual power.

Additionally, he discovered something even more serious.

Previously, while he had the Gathering Spirit Plate, he couldn't feel it as he cultivated the "Five Elements Qi Absorption Technique" every day because the plate couldn't be activated, leaving him two days without being able to cultivate the "Five Elements Qi Absorption Technique."

It was these two days without cultivating the "Five Elements Qi Absorption Technique" and without the nurture of spiritual energy that he felt his body becoming tainted.

The source of the contamination was his daily food.

It wasn't that the food was poisoned; it was that the mundane food devoid of spiritual energy was a contaminant to a body accustomed to being baptized with spiritual energy.

Of course, this contamination was not severe, but in the long term, coupled with the lack of spiritual energy for cultivating the "Five Elements Qi Absorption Technique," his cultivation level would not only fail to increase; he feared it would decline.

It wasn't that he lacked spiritual energy; in the machine room space, there was abundant spiritual energy.

However, the spiritual energy in the machine room space was like rootless water, diminishing with each use.

He had originally intended to use the spiritual energy in the machine room space as a reserve for emergencies.

Now it seemed he had to use this spiritual energy to address his current urgent needs.

First, he had to resolve the issue with his food. Without spiritual energy food, even if he used the machine room's spiritual energy for cultivation, it would only prolong his capability slightly.

In "Spirit Plant Basics" and Shi Ximing's cultivation notes, there were methods on how to cultivate Spirit Rice.

But with no rice, how could one cook? To cultivate Spirit Rice, he needed a spirit field.

The methods to create a spirit field existed, but he had neither seen nor heard of such materials, let alone consider purchasing them.

He understood that given his current situation, even if such materials were available for sale, he wouldn't dare to buy them.

Being only at the Qi Refining Second Level without any means of self-protection, daring to exchange his magic artifacts or books for spirit field materials would probably lead cultivators to swallow him whole, skin and bones included.

Naturally, the approach using the spirit field was not feasible, so he thought of the advanced agricultural techniques from his previous life.

Although Spirit Rice was a crop that required spiritual energy and couldn't grow through ordinary cultivation, he could still be considered somewhat skilled in spirit planting; the "Spring Breeze and Rain Skill" could enable the growth of Spirit Rice.

Since he had nothing else pressing recently, he began navigating the vast databases within the large server IBMz15, searching for relevant agricultural information.

Li Shiming had forgotten that this morning was the day results were announced for the Imperial Examination, and probably he was the only candidate indifferent to the outcome.

"Congratulations, young master, you've won second place!" the young servant Mo Yan called out from outside the study.

Normally, such joyful news would be delivered by a government official, but residing in the back garden of the government residence, Mo Yan delivered the news right after receiving it.

"Si Qin, give Mo Yan two taels of silver, and let all the servants have a reward!" Li Shiming, having his train of thought interrupted, instructed Si Qin with resignation.

"Young master, you've become a scholar!" Si Qin, unlike his composed self, said with a leap and a laugh.

"I know, have Mo Yan quiet down and go play somewhere else after he takes his reward silver!" Li Shiming waved his hand and soothed the excited Si Qin.

Si Qin could not comprehend Li Shiming's indifference to becoming a scholar, but it didn't dampen her joy as she skipped out of the study.

Li Shiming refocused his mind on the database in the large server IBMz15, which contained a lot of agricultural information.

In the world of his previous life as a flower grower, the cultivation of rice was leading the world, with individuals like Mr. Yuan who elevated rice cultivation to an unprecedented height.

Yet given his limited time and resources, it wasn't realistic to expect the breeding of an optimal, stronger rice variety in the short term.

His first need was to cultivate Spirit Rice, and only on this basis could he consider other matters.

Comparing a massive amount of data, he found the most feasible method to be aeroponic technology.

Aeroponic technology, particularly for rice, had already matured considerably.

Li Shiming ultimately chose to implement rice cultivation under a plant factory environment because this method allowed him to utilize space to its fullest extent.

Considering the machine room space was not large and excluding the area already in use, only seventy square meters were left available.

Seventy square meters of space was too small for cultivating rice.

However, establishing a plant factory environment would enable multi-layer aeroponic cultivation. With a height of four meters in the machine room space, aside from the bottom layer serving as a germination layer, four more layers of cultivation space could be formed above.

To maximize the use of the machine room space, Li Shiming removed the suspended ceiling.

The suspended ceilings were for placing central air conditioning and several rows of LED cold lights. The central air conditioning, needless to say, without external equipment, left only exhaust ports, which were better removed.

Before, Li Shiming had accessed the machine room space merely with his consciousness, so he had no demand for lighting; in the perception of his consciousness, the absence of light in the machine room space didn't affect his perception at all.

However, to create a plant factory environment in the machine room space, he needed lighting to facilitate photosynthesis.

Fortunately, the electricity was already available, and once the wiring was done, the LED cold lights could be turned on.

The number of LED cold lights was plentiful. The machine room had been designed with LED cold lights covering the ceiling to create a shadow-free effect. The distribution of LED cold lights was more than sufficient for multi-layer plant factory use.

This greatly saved his time; although he had the technology to make electric lights and the micrometric control within the machine room space, actually producing light bulbs would still take considerable time.

In the following days, except for needing to visit his master, Li Shiming spent almost all his time in the study.

In just a few days, he spent hundreds of taels of silver to buy a large amount of necessary materials.

In his machine room space, a structure made of wood with five layers had already been built.

The wooden racks held glass trays, which were quite muddled in color. In this era, any piece of colored tray would be a costly luxury if taken out.

The glass trays were made from sand. Making clear glass would require higher-quality silica; he wasn't intending to make money from glass, only needing the stable characteristics of glass; the color did not affect its use.

Of course, this was also because he had obtained a large amount of gold and silver from his storage bag, sparing him the need to worry about silver.