Breeding

To Jiang Yuan, tasting myriad grasses to discern their medicinal properties was not difficult. He was immune to poison, as poison was merely a form of primal energy of heaven and earth. Once it entered his body, it could be refined by the Creation Scripture.

If the poison was too potent for the Creation Scripture to refine? That was also fine. His merit was not for naught; he could directly use merit to detoxify himself.

Besides, tasting myriad grasses also aided Jiang Yuan's cultivation. Spirit grasses were also among the myriad beings of the Primordial World, each containing a different kind of innate primal energy.

Myriad grasses meant myriad types of innate primal energy. If Jiang Yuan could comprehend them all, even without condensing the Nine Sons avatars, he could achieve the Creation Heavenly Immortal Dao Fruit through this alone.

The creation of all things was not limited to transforming into living beings; mountains, rivers, plants, sun, moon, stars, wind, rain, thunder, and lightning could all be created.

Whatever met his eyes could be transformed!

Only by doing so could creation be perfected and the supreme Hunyuan Dao Fruit be achieved.

Tasting myriad grasses was not only related to merit and the Earth Emperor's Book but also to cultivation. It became increasingly important to Jiang Yuan, so he paid more attention to it.

This led to his external avatars interacting more frequently with other races, striving to have them help collect more spirit grasses for his cultivation needs.

Tasting myriad grasses simply required collecting enough spirit grasses, which was not difficult for the wealthy Jiang Yuan.

Cultivation was the same principle: collecting enough Nine Sons' essence blood. This was already being done and was not difficult, merely requiring patience.

The truly difficult task was domesticating foxtail grass and cultivating it into grain.

Although the two shared a common origin, once foxtail grass transformed into grain, they were no longer the same species. It was like a flood dragon transforming into a dragon; a dragon was transformed from a flood dragon, but could one say a dragon is a flood dragon?

The transformation of foxtail grass into grain was precisely this principle, a magnificent metamorphosis of life's tier, ascending from mortal to sage, stepping into a new realm.

As it was a metamorphosis of life's tier, the difficulty was imaginable. This was a profound mystery in the Dao of Creation, second only to creating something from nothing, and it had stumped countless beings.

The path of metamorphosis was fraught with peril, not only being a near-death experience but also requiring not a moment's effort but a long, arduous period of suffering. The resources consumed during this time were also astronomical.

To undergo a metamorphosis of life's tier, immense resources were indispensable. Without investing vast resources, how could one defy heaven and alter fate? Relying on willpower? Utterly useless!

"The first step in cultivating grain is to select high-quality seeds."

The avatar Jiang Yuan used to cultivate grain emerged from the Sacred Temple and went into the wilderness. From billions of foxtail grasses, he selected the finest batch to be cultivated as seeds.

Although foxtail grass was the most common spirit grass and its growth cycle was not as long as that of innate spirit roots, which took tens of thousands of years to mature once, even so, it took a year to mature once.

Jiang Yuan was unsure how many trials it would take to cultivate foxtail grass into grain, but it would surely be thousands or tens of thousands of times, wouldn't it?

Each maturation took a year, and thousands or tens of thousands of times meant thousands or tens of thousands of years. This was too long, and Jiang Yuan was growing impatient.

Fortunately, the Character Creation Diagram proved immensely useful at this juncture. Previously, Jiang Yuan had used it to record history, and it had unexpectedly resonated with the River of Time and Space.

It was from this point that the Character Creation Diagram gained the ability to manipulate the flow of time. Jiang Yuan had already tested it; the Character Creation Diagram could slow down or accelerate time by a hundredfold at most.

In other words, foxtail grass that originally took a year to mature could now mature once every three to four days under the time acceleration of the Character Creation Diagram.

Thousands or tens of thousands of years were long, but with a hundredfold acceleration, ten thousand years would only be a hundred years, which was much more acceptable.

Cultivating grain required resources, and accelerating time with the Character Creation Diagram also required resources. This time, Jiang Yuan truly spared no expense, investing resources second only to his own cultivation.

If this succeeded, it would be fine, but if it failed, Jiang Yuan feared he would spit blood.

Soon, the first experiment began.

Jiang Yuan requested the Breathing Soil treasured by Ancestor Sui. Beside the Sacred Temple, he transformed it into a small spiritual field, then planted the carefully selected high-quality seeds, and finally used the Character Creation Diagram to accelerate time.

Lastly, all that remained was to wait for it to mature.

Breathing Soil, the essence of the earth, was a byproduct of the Creation Treasure, the Nine Heavens Breathing Soil, and contained rich creation essence. It could transform into divine mountains to fill seas or into spiritual fields to accelerate the growth of spiritual herbs.

Back then, Lady Nuwa created humans with the Nine Heavens Breathing Soil at the foot of Mount Buzhou. The divine earth nearby sensed this aura of creation and spontaneously transformed, becoming pieces of Breathing Soil.

After Ancestor Sui was born, he felt that the Human Race might need this item. Before migrating to the East Sea Coast, he collected all of them.

And these pieces of Breathing Soil thus became Ancestor Sui's magical treasure. That's right, a magical treasure. Breathing Soil was the essence of the earth; each grain was only the size of a rice grain, yet it was as heavy as a mountain.

If one grain was like this, what about ten thousand, a hundred thousand, or a million grains?

Ancestor Sui possessed over a million grains of Breathing Soil. Once unleashed, it was as if over a million innate divine mountains descended simultaneously. Even a Zenith Heaven Golden Immortal could be crushed to death.

It was with this item that the Human Race established a foothold on the East Sea Coast and repelled all invading Fierce Beasts.

Breathing Soil was a powerful magical treasure in Ancestor Sui's hands. But in Jiang Yuan's hands, it became a great helper for farming. The creation aura it contained could greatly reduce the difficulty of foxtail grass transforming into grain.

Four days passed in the blink of an eye. The foxtail grass, which had been mere seeds, was now fully mature.

Waving his hand, he collected them and made a comparison. He found that they had not changed significantly from before. This was normal; it was only the first experiment. To see obvious changes, more experiments would be needed.

From this batch of seeds, he selected the finest ones, replanted them, and waited for the harvest.

In the blink of an eye, another three to four days passed. The process was repeated: select high-quality seeds, plant them, and wait for them to mature.

Thus, through repeated selection and breeding, the ears of foxtail grass grew larger, the fruits became fuller, and the spiritual energy contained within increased and became more refined.

Everything was developing in a positive direction, but good times did not last. Before long, Jiang Yuan encountered a problem.

The growth of foxtail grass also required energy. Some came from the spiritual energy contained in the soil, and some came from the spiritual energy in the air.

The latter was fine; the amount required for the Foxtail Grass to grow wasn't enough to drain it dry.

However, the spiritual energy contained within the soil had been sucked up bit by bit as the Foxtail Grass matured time and again, leaving it gradually depleted.

As the spiritual energy in the ground diminished, the Foxtail Grass, which had already begun to resemble Grain, started to show signs of regression.

Insufficient spiritual energy meant insufficient nutrition, making it impossible to support further evolution. Forcing it to grow under these conditions naturally led to regression.

"Fertilizer!"

Having come from a later age, Jiang Yuan quickly devised a solution upon discovering the situation. If the soil lacked fertility, he would simply supplement it with fertilizer.