Chapter 69: Swordfish Seedlings

  What made Xiao Ping worried was that he found the upgrade speed of Lian Yao Hu had slowed down a lot. In the past, as long as he consumed tens of millions worth of jade materials, Lian Yao Hu would undergo an obvious evolution. However, this time Xiao Ping spent more than 100 million to make Lian Yao Hu's space change obviously, and the difference was huge.

  Xiao Ping thought that upgrading the Alchemy Cauldron was similar to leveling up in an online game. Maybe it only took 100 experience points to upgrade from level one to two, but upgrading from level two to three might require 200 experience points, and if you wanted to upgrade from level nine to ten, who knows, maybe it would take 10,000 experience points.

  Xiao Ping still doesn't quite understand the Alchemy Cauldron up to now, and naturally he also wouldn't comprehend why this kind of situation would appear. But at least there's one thing he can be certain about - wanting the Alchemy Cauldron to continuously evolve will cost money in the future!

  "Money!" In the breathtakingly beautiful Refine Cauldron, a long and mournful howl destroyed this peaceful atmosphere.

  Although Xiao Ping was heartbroken about the money, he had to admit that it was worth spending. In addition to the increased space of the Alchemy Cauldron, each output of spiritual liquid was also more abundant, reaching as many as 22 drops! If all these spiritual liquids were poured into a cup, they would be enough to cover the bottom of the cup with plenty to spare. Even if those few hundred small chickens hatched, it would be enough for Xiao Ping and the farm's needs.

  What made Xiao Ping even happier was that on the third day after the water tank became larger, the knife fish finally spawned.

  On the lush aquatic plants in the pond, a grain of fish roe was stuck. These fish roe were not much larger than needle tips, all of which were semi-transparent. If Xiao Ping's eyesight wasn't particularly good and the water in the pond wasn't extremely clear, he wouldn't have noticed these inconspicuous fish roe at all.

  The broodfish, according to its instincts, stayed close to the eggs and chased away or ate any small fish that dared to approach. Although Xiao Ping knew that some fish species had the habit of guarding their eggs or even fry, he didn't know that knife fish also had this same behavior. Seeing the broodfish's qualified parent-like appearance, Xiao Ping found it very interesting.

  Xiao Ping attaches great importance to the artificial breeding of knife fish, so he is not at ease with entrusting the fish eggs entirely to the care of the knife fish breeders. Xiao Ping quickly found the plastic fish tank that was used to transport the pair of knife fish and drilled large holes on all four sides and the bottom, then covered it with a very fine mesh net, forming a barrier that allows water to flow through but can block fish from entering, which is equivalent to creating a simple incubator.

  Xiao Ping was very satisfied with this simple incubator, and after measuring it up and down, front and back for a while to confirm that there were no problems, he quickly took the incubator into the Lian Yao Hu. He hung the incubator by the side of the water pool, and after confirming that other small fish could not enter the box, he jumped into the water pool to pick up those aquatic plants with fish eggs stuck on them.

  When they saw the intruder trying to harm the fish eggs, the knife fish also put up a fierce resistance. However, for Xiao Ping, their actions were in vain, and soon all the aquatic plants with sticky fish eggs were carefully transferred to the incubation box. Satisfied, Xiao Ping crawled onto the shore, sat on the edge of the pool, wet and dripping, staring at the fish eggs in the incubation box and grinning foolishly.

  The price of knife fish is expensive, and Xiao Ping knows it. The eggs on these few water grasses are probably not less than a few thousand, and as long as half of them can hatch and grow to more than two taels in size, it will be an income of several million for Xiao Ping, how can he not be happy?

  In the following days, Xiao Ping would enter the Lian Yao Hu every day to observe the changes in the fish eggs. The semi-transparent fish eggs first became less transparent, then a black dot appeared in the middle, and the black dot had a tendency to grow larger and larger. This was exactly the appearance of the fish eggs starting to hatch, which made Xiao Ping more confident in successfully breeding the knife fish.

  One week after the knife fish spawned, the fry finally broke out of their eggs. The newly hatched fry were very small, no more than three millimeters long, and their bodies were almost completely transparent, with only their eyes being two black dots. These fry could not swim yet, but instead used their mouths to attach themselves to aquatic plants, relying on the yolk sacs inside their bodies for nutrition to grow rapidly. Two or three days later, the nutrients in the yolk sacs would be depleted, and at this time, the fry would start to open their mouths to eat food.

  Since the discovery of knife fish spawning, Xiao Ping has been searching for information everywhere to find out what to feed the fry. However, no one had successfully bred knife fish before Xiao Ping, so he couldn't find any relevant information. In the end, Xiao Ping had to call Professor Song Tianming, an authority on knife fish breeding, but even he didn't have a precise answer and vaguely replied that the fry generally eat very small floating organisms, but in artificial feeding environments, boiled egg yolks can be used as a substitute. As long as the egg yolks are cooked and ground into powder, they can be fed to the fry.

  For Xiao Ping, this was a good idea. There were no other things in the farm, but eggs were abundant. So Xiao Ping immediately followed suit and started using the yolks of green-shelled eggs to feed the knife fish fry that had just begun to eat.

  The plants and animals in the alchemy cauldron were originally growing faster than those outside, and with Xiao Ping's food containing spiritual liquid components, the growth rate of these knife fish fry was even more astonishing. From hatching to just over a week, the knife fish fry had already generally exceeded one centimeter in length and no longer needed to eat egg yolks, but could feed on larger floating animals such as fish insects in the water tank.

  The fish seedlings are growing so well, which also makes Xiao Ping very satisfied. However, at present, both fish ponds on the farm are raising perch, and there is no extra space to put these seedlings, so Xiao Ping decided to raise the seedlings in the alchemy pot for now. After selling all the perches before the New Year, he will put the knife fish seedlings into the pond to raise them. Anyway, the area of the water pool has increased a lot, and it can completely accommodate these seedlings.

  Xiao Ping found a slightly larger fishing net and isolated an area in the corner of the water tank for the fish fry to live, so as not to be eaten by their parents. Xiao Ping went to great lengths to ensure the safety of the fish fry, after all, each one would be worth several thousand yuan when they grew up, so it was worth spending a little more thought on them.

  In order to provide sufficient food for the fish fry, Xiao Ping had to go to the flower and bird market every other day to buy some aquatic insects to put into the water tank. The fish fry originally lived in the unique environment of the Lian Yao Hu, and with Xiao Ping's careful care, they naturally grew strong and fast. Xiao Ping estimated that by the time they were released into the fish pond after the New Year, these fish fry would generally grow to be about an inch long, and even if they were put outside, they would still be easy to raise.

  Time flies, and it's already mid-December. Even in Jiangnan, the weather has started to get cold. It was a Sunday, and Xiao Ping didn't go to driving school, but instead went to the fields to pick some vegetables, then to the fish pond to catch two fish. Finally, he brought several boxes of green-shelled eggs and two iron-plated buckets, leaving the farm to visit as a guest.

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  Today's second update is brought to you by the rewards from "定风波0328" and "红色月牙", two book friends.

  There is still one more update tonight.