Chapter 648: Planting Season’s Promise

Seeing how awkward it was for Teacher Wang to plant rice with just one hand, Tan Qi didn’t hesitate to grab half a basket of seedlings, waded into the water and hurried to her side. “Teacher Wang, let me pass you the seedlings. If you get tired, I’ll take over planting. You can just help me hold the seedlings.”

“Alright.” Zhao Ze’s mother took the seedlings from Tan Qi with a gentle smile. As she worked, she taught her the finer points of planting rice seedlings.

Not long after, Shi Du and Madam Shi arrived at Territory Three. Watching the pair stroll in, Tang Huai grew certain that Xia Qing had set up a secret group chat without inviting him. Sulking, he poked several plump white grubs to death.

Qi Fu and his wife didn’t come over since they were helping Territory Five plant seedlings. The members of the Alliance all lent each other a hand, and before half a day had passed, the rice seedlings were set in fields across all the territories.

They were the first in this region to get their rice paddies planted—not only ahead of the territories that handed over seeds to the Territory Management Department for cultivation, but also quicker than Territory One and Territory Twelve, who grew their own.

Though they didn’t have the means to set up proper greenhouses, their Alliance had the hidden valley and could rent Evolution Stones, so their seedling cultivation conditions were second to none. With technical experts in the group, learning from Territory Seven about rice seedling techniques, their crops grew robust and healthy.

And on top of that, they had high-quality rice seeds.

The Lords of Territory Four and Ten smiled as they looked at the lush, healthier-looking rice seedlings in Territory Three, hearts full of hope. Once Xia Qing’s batch of rice was harvested, they could trade with her for seeds and finally plant this more stable, premium rice in their own domains.

With that harvest, they’d be able to earn more credits and enjoy food that was better for their health.

Lord Tan Qi of Territory Fifteen didn’t understand what everyone was smiling about, but she felt nothing but joy. Every visit to Xia Qing energized her. Just seeing Xia Qing filled her with drive.

Just as her father always said—if she worked hard enough, there was no reason she couldn’t become as excellent a Lord as Sister Xia Qing.

The paddy fields that were nothing but bare water earlier now stood lined with rows of vivid green seedlings. Xia Qing couldn’t help but feel incredibly satisfied.

After bidding farewell to her helpful alliance friends, she picked up her three remaining baskets of Green Lantern rice seedlings and made her way to the terraces.

What the others had helped plant earlier were the rice seedlings grown from forty jin of J-2 Yellow Lantern rice seeds she’d traded with Third Brother, plus two and a half jin of Ld-8 Yellow Lantern rice seeds from compensation by Blazing Fire Squad. All in all, two and a half acres were planted.

The rice seedlings grown from the two jin of Green Lantern rice she harvested last year were destined for the terraces, specifically for cultivating even better rice seeds.

Even if she couldn’t produce anything better, with high Evolution Element soil and pure spring water in the valley, the quality of these Green Lantern rice plants would never decline.

The Devastation Element content of these J-2 Green Lantern rice seedlings matched what she had when harvesting seeds at the end of last autumn—still at 4.7‰.

What did this prove? That the seedling cultivation in Hidden Valley was top notch, and her Idol’s research team did an excellent job breeding such stable J-2 rice varieties!

Not bad at all.

The hundred Green Lantern rice plants Xia Qing traded with her Idol in June last year, and the forty jin of Yellow Lantern rice she got from him that winter, were both of the J-2 variety.

In short, the J-2 Yellow Lantern rice seeds harvested by Territory Seven at the end of autumn—with Devastation Element content over 6‰—were grown from J-2 Green Lantern rice seeds cultivated in the spring.

For Xia Qing’s region, the biggest difference between growing crops during disaster years and before is the presence of Devastation Element in the air, soil and water.

This element gets absorbed by crops as they grow. If a crop isn’t very resistant to Devastation Element, the content in the plant’s body will keep rising, which means with every new round planted, the quality drops noticeably.

For example, if you plant Territory Seven’s Green Lantern rice harvested in summer at 4.7‰, by the time you’ve sprouted and harvested the next crop in autumn, you end up with Yellow Lantern rice at over 6‰ Devastation Element.

As for the Yellow Lantern rice Xia Qing just planted in the open fields—with Devastation Element content slightly above 6‰—the real test will be to see what those levels are by late summer at harvest.

Her Idol once said this batch of Yellow Lantern rice, once grown outdoors, was stable for three generations. That meant after harvesting the third crop, most rice would see Devastation Element levels jump to 13–15‰. Working backward, by this summer’s harvest, Xia Qing’s Yellow Lantern rice should hit around 9‰ for the majority.

Three generations of stability—these are already rather high-quality seeds.

But what does low-stability rice look like?

Take the 400 Yellow Lantern h-14 rice seedlings containing 10‰ Devastation Element that Xia Qing received from the Territory Management Department last July; when autumn came, she only got 260 plants back with levels below 13–15‰.

Seeds with such high Devastation Element can only be eaten, not saved for replanting. If you plant them again, nearly all you’ll get is more Yellow Lantern rice.

The remaining 140 stalks from those 400 either went through Devastation Evolution during Devastation Rain, or spiked in element content, turning into inedible Red Lantern rice. These had to be sold cheaply to Zhong Tao, who sent them to the Safe Zone’s food processing plant. After extracting the excess Devastation Element there, the grains could be made edible for humans, though most of their nutritional value was gone.

In short, the h-14 rice seedlings Xia Qing traded for from the Territory Management Department only lasted a single stable generation for her.

She wasn’t alone—other Lords faced the same problem.

That’s why the lack of high-quality seeds was the biggest obstacle stopping Lords from expanding their farmlands. For Huaguo to move its people away from eating grass-based rations, it had to conquer this hurdle.

Naturally, Lords who relied on farming for a living became part of the effort to solve it—they desperately needed those premium seeds.

Once she finished planting the J-2 Green Lantern rice seedlings with 4.7‰ Devastation Element, Xia Qing carefully took out the last five seedlings in her basket, each tied with a red string, and planted them in the terraces.

These special seedlings belonged to the bS-6 variety, with an impressively low 4.3‰ Devastation Element.

“bS” stands for White San Base. She’d gotten these seeds through Yang Jin when she found ten unhulled grains mixed in with four hundred jin of Green Lantern rice from White San. They’d survived processing with their husks still intact.

When rice seeds are processed into grain, the embryo is destroyed and the rice can’t sprout again.

If Xia Qing managed to dig out those ten intact rice seeds, she could thank not just the workers at White San’s planting center for their lax inspections, but also their old dehulling machines—still running from before the disasters—that couldn’t even get all the husks off.

Most likely, the dehulling machines they’re using now are leftovers from before the catastrophe.

When Xia Qing finished planting her last few, most treasured rice seedlings, she went home to shower off the mud from her protective suit, changed into clean clothes, then grabbed three jin of Green Lantern spare ribs from her fridge. It was time to visit her Idol in Territory Seven and discuss some important business.