The collection of flower after flower,
At last,
All the pollen from the Green Wood Vines had been scraped away without a single grain left,
Filling a little wooden box halfway.
Lu Ran carried the small wooden box over to the broad sea of Blue Silver Grass,
Like a diligent little bee, he carefully pollinated the pale blue flowers,
Moving forward bit by bit through the sea of grass.
The pollen from just a few Green Wood Vines was enough for three-quarters of the Blue Silver Grass.
An astonishing amount.
Once the pollination was done,
Lu Ran straightened up and walked back to the Green Wood Vines. He took out a small, delicate silver knife and selected a partly woody section,
Then cut off a rootstock half a finger long,
Small,
With a smooth, even cut.
He returned to the remaining quarter of the Blue Silver Grass,
And bent down,
Choosing a stout Blue Silver Grass plant creeping along the ground that looked pleasing to the eye,
He made a slanted cut of the same size on its stem,
Then fitted the Green Wood Vine rootstock into the cut,
The Green Wood Vine was vigorous, while the Blue Silver Grass was extremely accommodating,
And both had mild attributes,
So neither would reject the other.
Finally,
He carefully secured them together and wrapped the wound.
Done!
And this,
Was the project Lu Ran had been preparing. He had named it—the Hybridization Project!
The Blue Silver Grass Hybridization Project!
Its goal was to cultivate more valuable medicinal herbs, crops, and other plants.
This was also the main reason he had spent so much time studying Blue Silver Grass,
Blue Silver Grass seemed ordinary and unremarkable, yet it was the most adaptable plant on the continent. From the outskirts of the snowy plains in the Far North to the Star Dou Great Forest,
It could be found almost everywhere,
With adaptability and tolerance through the roof, it was an ideal cultivation base.
As for choosing the Green Wood Vine,
It was because the Green Wood Vine was a plant Soul Beast rich in life force. If its slow-growing flaw could be remedied, and its woody stems became tender shoots, what would happen?
Delicious and juicy, brimming with life force—
A perfect food source would be born!
It was well known that,
Soul Beasts that ate food rich in life force could accumulate it inside their bodies and grow stronger over time, while ordinary animals that ate it would grow faster,
And there were plenty of places on the continent where animals—and even Soul Beasts—were raised,
For both food and combat training.
Take the Beast Fighting Zone at Shrek Academy, for example. It kept a number of Soul Beasts that mainly ate plants, such as Mount Goats and Giant Horned Deer,
This new plant, combining the Blue Silver Grass's rapid growth and adaptability with the Green Wood Vine's life force,
Would make excellent fodder,
With its cost-effectiveness through the roof,
And its production costs drastically reduced.
As for why he had chosen to use two methods, naturally, it was because each had its own pros and cons,
Pollination was suited to large-scale cultivation and could produce abundant crops, but it was unstable and slow. From pollination to seed maturation, germination, and growth would take at least a year,
Grafting, on the other hand, was inefficient,
But reliable,
And it could take shape in just a few months, perfectly inheriting the traits of both Blue Silver Grass and Green Wood Vine. It was better suited to reproducing "high-quality parent combinations."
This was only the first step,
Blue Silver Grass was extremely accommodating. It could combine with almost any plant, not just Green Wood Vine,
Though it couldn't inherit both plants' traits completely,
For instance, this Blue Silver Green Wood Vine possessed the Green Wood Vine's life force, but might contain only one-tenth—or even one-hundredth—of the original amount,
In return, however, its yield had increased tenfold, or even a hundredfold,
Bringing enormous returns.
Besides, one percent might not seem like much,
But if Blue Silver Grass were combined with ginseng to produce Blue Silver Ginseng with medicinal properties, even if its effects were less than one percent of the original,
Its price and yield would be another matter entirely.
And if he went one step further,
What if he combined it with an Immortal Herb?
Blue Silver Immortal Herb with one percent of an Immortal Herb's medicinal power,
Could be propagated in batches and harvested quickly,
The strongest experts might not need it, but what about ordinary Soul Masters... or even ordinary people?
Would their old bottlenecks still count as bottlenecks?
How powerful would the effects be!
How widely could it be used!
That was Lu Ran's plan!
For the rest of the time,
Lu Ran repeated the process, cutting off several sections of Green Wood Vine rootstock and grafting them onto Blue Silver Grass stems,
Nearly stripping several Green Wood Vines bare.
Outside the Duke's Mansion,
On a barren slope,
Before a grave.
The midsummer sun scorched the earth, and the cicadas' cries grated on the nerves,
But the boy kneeling before the grave couldn't feel the slightest warmth. All was silent in his ears,
He was thin and wore coarse clothes washed pale with age,
His deep blue, bloodshot eyes brimmed with hatred,
He stared at the gravestone before him, where he had carved the words himself: "Mother—Huo Yun'er's Grave,"
His fists clenched tight,
"Mother..."
The low voice was forced from his throat,
He remembered every little thing about his mother when she was alive: her thin back, how she always worked before dawn, how she always scrimped and saved for him...
"Mother... I'll avenge you, no matter what!"
His deep blue eyes, bloodshot with rage,
Turned toward the mansion that looked like a palace, its golden-yellow glazed tiles glittering dazzlingly in the sunlight,
All the suffering he and his mother had endured had come from this White Tiger Duke's Mansion,
His mother had been only the Duke's concubine, with no family background and no powerful Martial Soul. She could only endure in silence,
And the Duchess had deliberately made things difficult for her. Knowing full well that his mother was weak, she had still forced her to do a servant's work,
And that Dai Huabin had bullied him time and time again...
It was all you... all because of you...
The boy's nails dug deep into his palms. He slowly pressed his forehead to the ground, and at last, he could no longer hold back his scalding tears. They spilled from his eyes,
Dripping onto the earth,
"Mother... I'll avenge you... I swear I will!"
Summer gave way to winter,
And another year passed,
Lu Ran reached level thirty-six,
The continent's number-one academy, Shrek Academy, began its new year of admissions.
Lu Ran was about to enroll as well.
Before you continue