The former was one thing—mountains of meat piled up within the army were not something outsiders could see.
But the grain produced in greater quantities by Heavenly Dew was delivered directly to the homes of many mountain folk.
Of course, this grain was not millet, but sweet potatoes.
Sweet potatoes had not originally been a product of the Divine Land. Many years ago, a Daoist had traveled through the badlands beyond the Divine Land and discovered this miraculous crop there.
This crop needed only to be planted in the soil, and in a short time it would spread across an entire patch. It required little care as well.
It was simply better suited to hot climates. With suitable weather, it could yield eight hundred jin per mu, but it placed heavy demands on the soil and could easily turn fertile fields into wasteland.
The climate within Chain Mountains was unsuitable. With meticulous care, the yield was roughly five hundred jin per mu; otherwise, a mu of land could produce only two hundred jin.
To people of this era, such a situation was caused by incompatible earth qi.
In truth, it was simply a matter of climate, compounded by unsuitable soil acidity and alkalinity.
Under such conditions, the sweet potatoes that grew were thin as tree roots.
They tasted bad, had little nutrition, and could not grow large.
Yet he had used Daoist arts along with chemistry to refine an inferior fertilizer, making up for some of those flaws.
When it came to farming, even if the climate was somewhat lacking, high yields were still possible as long as enough fertilizer was provided.
For sweet potatoes, after varietal improvements and with superior fertilizer in the real world, yields could reach as high as eight thousand jin per mu. In laboratory conditions,