Ch. 141Second-Generation Hybrid Rice
Chapter Summary: “Second-generation Hybrid Spirit Paddy”
Key Plot Points and Events
- The Spiritual Plant cultivation trial of the Immortal Path Competition begins. Contestants are given one mu of land and ten days of accelerated growth through the Natural Rotation Grand Array, which makes one day equal to a year for the crops.
- Spectators discuss the importance of Spiritual Plant cultivation. Although considered a minor art, it supports Spirit Cuisine, Spiritual Medicine, and the cultivation of rare, difficult-to-grow plants. Scores are based on the total Spiritual Power contained in the harvested crops, measured by the Earth Spirit Scale.
- Contestants are warned that using rare seeds does not automatically guarantee success. The Cloud Concealment Spirit Sect possesses an extensive seed bank and already knows which varieties are superior. Knowledge and accumulated experience are therefore essential.
- Yang Genshuo reveals that the Yang Family has access to a second-generation hybrid Spirit Paddy developed by the Daoist through advanced gene-editing techniques. In experiments at Spirit Lake Manor, it yielded 1,500 catties per mu—400 catties more than the family’s previous record.
- The hybrid rice has a major flaw: it cannot reproduce normally from harvested grain. New seeds must be produced in the Daoist’s laboratory from first-generation hybrid stock, limiting its current use to small-scale cultivation.
- Yang Fu plants the hybrid Spirit Paddy during the trial. Other competitors and spectators dismiss his ordinary-looking seeds, assuming they are low-quality common rice.
- Using his Five Elements cultivation, Yang Fu applies Fertile Soil, All Things Growth, and Moisturizing Techniques. The rice grows extremely quickly, flowers, and matures within a single day.
- Yang Fu harvests the crop with the Golden Spirit Sword Technique and measures the yield at an astonishing 2,000 catties per mu, far exceeding expectations and shocking everyone present.
Character Developments
- Yang Genshuo demonstrates foresight by reserving the Daoist’s experimental hybrid rice for the competition. He recognizes that it is Yang Fu’s best chance to excel in a trial where conventional knowledge favors the sect’s established seed varieties.
- Yang Fu shows that his strength is not limited to combat. Though initially underestimated because he uses ordinary-looking Spirit Paddy, he proves capable of applying multiple elemental cultivation techniques to maximize crop growth.
- The Daoist is portrayed as deeply absorbed in agricultural experimentation, focusing on developing improved Spirit Wheat and Spirit Paddy. His scientific methods produce powerful but imperfect hybrid crops.
- The Cloud Concealment Spirit Sect disciples and contestants reveal their confidence and extensive knowledge of Spiritual Plants, but their certainty causes them to misjudge Yang Fu’s seed.
Significant Themes
- Knowledge over appearances: The trial rewards genuine understanding rather than flashy or rare-looking materials. Yang Fu’s plain seeds conceal an extraordinary advantage.
- Innovation versus established knowledge: The sect’s seed bank represents centuries of accumulated cultivation expertise, while the hybrid Spirit Paddy represents a new breakthrough that even the sect may not have encountered.
- The importance of agricultural foundations: Spiritual Plants support many other cultivation arts, especially medicine and cuisine, making the supposedly “minor” art essential to the cultivation world.
- Limits and trade-offs of advancement: The hybrid rice achieves exceptional yields but loses heritability, showing that technological or magical breakthroughs may create practical problems of their own.
- Underestimation and reversal: Yang Fu is mocked as ignorant and unskilled, but his results overturn the spectators’ assumptions and establish him as a serious competitor.
Character Interactions
- A naïve female disciple repeatedly questions senior disciples about the trial’s rules, prompting explanations about accelerated growth, scoring, and the importance of Spiritual Plant knowledge.
- The senior disciples use contestants who bring their own seeds as examples of foolishness, explaining that the sect’s seed bank already contains superior varieties.
- Yang Genshuo privately places his hopes in Yang Fu and the Daoist’s hybrid rice, believing it can overcome the Yang Family’s disadvantage.
- Other contestants watch Yang Fu closely because of his strong performance in the first trial, then ridicule him when he produces ordinary Spirit Paddy seeds.
- Their mockery turns to shock when Yang Fu’s single mu of rice produces a mountain of grain with an unprecedented 2,000-cattie yield.