A normal lettuce seed, physiologically speaking, consists of a seed coat, endosperm, and endosperm cells. According to Li Xingkong's understanding, each seed can be interpreted as an alien colony spaceship.
These two things look different, but they are actually the same thing.
The seed coat is the hull of the spaceship, used to protect the internal crew. The endosperm is the colonists inside the spaceship; it begins to function after taking root. The endosperm cells are the living materials and food they carry.
So what Li Xingkong is doing now looks complicated, but it's actually similar to what leaders do during inspections.
In other words, it's similar to what you did when you bought the car.
First, walk around the car and take a look at its exterior. See if it looks nice, what material the body shell is made of, feel its hardness, check the size of the glass and headlights, and even see if you like the color.
Regarding the seed coat, Li Xingkong looked it over and found very little that needed modification. After all, it only served a protective function, and for a seed, its current protective capabilities were already sufficient; he didn't need to make too many adjustments.
If the seed coat is made too hard, it won't germinate, which would be a disaster.
Then we come to the endosperm cells.
This part is about looking at the interior. Check the interior space and the comfort of the seats. It's best to bring a few friends along for the test drive, fill the car up, and let them lie down and experience it for themselves.
Correspondingly, this section contains the initial resources for the seeds. Li Xingkong needs to make quite a few changes to this section. If he wants the spiritual plants to grow according to his own ideas and produce suitable materials, the basic raw materials are also indispensable.
While plants can obtain additional materials through fertilization, some materials are essential when initially establishing the basic operational structure of a plant.
Seeds are small and can carry little material. Since plants themselves require very little material to germinate, there is now an abundance of seed sizes.
However, if Li Xingkong wants to modify it, he will have to stuff a lot of things in, which will definitely require adjusting the composition of the endosperm cells inside the seed.
For example, if you want seeds to produce high-strength carbon fibers, you have to incorporate some carbon elements.
You can treat this part like a suitcase; all you have to do is stuff it with more things.
The core area I modified was the endosperm.
It's like the operating system of our phones and computers; for a phone to work, the operating system is essential.
The major changes made by Li Xingkong are here.
He needs to understand the existing functions of the endosperm, and then make modifications and additions based on that understanding.
Just like a programmer, modify the entire seed to fit your desired shape.
Although seeds may seem tiny, no bigger than a sesame seed, the amount of information they contain, if described in words, would be enough to fill a book that most people couldn't finish reading in a year.
This level of reading volume is a considerable challenge for Li Xingkong; it's impossible for him to finish it in at least a day or two.
But he wasn't discouraged. Compared to all the years of learning he had done before, what was this mere seed?
He treated it like a book and devoured it; Li Xingkong was an expert at that.
Li Xingkong's life quickly settled into a well-organized state, and he is currently very busy.
He started studying the seeds as soon as he got up in the morning. To others, it just looked like he was staring at the corner of his desk as soon as he woke up, seemingly lost in thought. If his parents didn't usually come into his room, they might have sent him to a mental hospital if they saw him like that.
The afternoon was purely for cultivation: Bone Tempering, Qi Refining, and building Mana Circuit. The whole afternoon was very busy, with basically no time to do anything else.
As he fell asleep that night, Li Xingkong began to combine his existing knowledge to design the seed structure in his dream. Although it was a dream, the discarded design drafts he kept almost filled the entire dream.
In my dream, there were lettuce seeds of all shapes and sizes everywhere, as well as countless design drawings floating in the air, stretching as far as the eye could see.
After five days of intensive research, Li Xingkong finally felt ready to begin. He had already copied the entire structure of the seed into his mind, and he understood every single detail perfectly.
Now, as long as he has enough basic elements and a sufficient level of cultivation, he can even perfectly replicate this seed from scratch using a bunch of basic elemental substances.
Unfortunately, his current level of cultivation is insufficient. To achieve atomic-level operational power is far beyond what a mere Qi Refining stage Qi Refining like himself can accomplish.
Forcibly breaking chemical bonds requires energy and precision that would be difficult even for Golden Core cultivator.
What I can do now is adjust the seed's growth structure at the DNA level.
Just as Li Xingkong began the internal modification plan for the seed, news came back about the homestead: his land had been leveled, and the neighbors he had hired had helped put up the fence. In other words, he could go and cultivate the land at any time to conduct planting experiments.
When it came to modifying the seed for the first time, Li Xingkong naturally didn't think he could do it perfectly in one go, so he didn't do too much in the first step of the modification.
He simply modified part of the lettuce leaf structure to improve its iron absorption, making the new lettuce leaves more resilient.
He always needs to test whether his transformation has been successful; before getting a clear result, he always makes people feel uneasy.
After half a day of revisions, the first version of the improved lettuce seeds was completed, but the seeds were no longer recognizable as they were before.
Li Xingkong was in high spirits and eager to plant the seeds, so he grabbed a hoe and headed to the leveled land.
For Li Xingkong now, hoeing the land is really child's play. If it weren't for the fact that he was close to the village, he could have easily turned over the entire plot of Earthly Capital with a single Shotgun Spell. Unfortunately, that would have made too much noise.
He should just stick to hoeing the ground, even though using a hoe is almost no different from using his hands now.
Because this land had been piled with garbage for many years, the soil was rich in various elements, which saved Li Xingkong the trouble of composting. He only needed to cultivate the land and estimate the soil quality before he could start planting.
It's a pity there's not enough Spiritual Qi; otherwise, there would be no need to farm. A simple Growth Acceleration Spell would suffice.
Although the Growth Acceleration Spell is miraculous and can quickly make plants grow, it still depends on Spiritual Qi. In the current situation where Spiritual Qi is not abundant, this spell is not very effective.
After carefully planting his improved first-generation seeds, Li Xingkong wasn't quite satisfied and wanted to plant them again.
Farming is something that every Divine Land People is truly captivated by; the more they farm, the more they enjoy the feeling of being in the fields watching everything grow.