I Studied Abroad in the Modern Times-Chapter 174Book 2: : Breeding

Vol 2 Chapter 174 Breeding

Three days later.

Zhenren Qian was walking on the Rainbow Bridge with a few disciples, heading toward the Medicine Garden.

"Did you read those books that Zhenren Zheng gave us?"

Zhenren Qian seemed to recall something and asked the disciples.

The disciples looked at each other, seemingly a little guilty.

"We read them!"

"And? What insights do you have?"

Zhenren Qian continued asking.

"……"

The disciples glanced at one another, exchanging looks… It seemed they were urging each other to speak up.

"What? Not a single insight?"

"……"

"Why did I end up with such dull-witted disciples like you!"

"……"

"How are you going to teach others in the future?"

"……"

One of the youngest and most favored disciples finally spoke: "Master, whether it's the genes mentioned in the book or the stuff about heredity, it's all stuff we've never even heard of… We really don’t understand it!"

"Why don't you teach us instead, Master?"

"……"

Zhenren Qian's expression slowly stiffened.

That disciple looked at him, and a trace of realization appeared on his face.

"Master, you…"

"……"

"If you ask me, there's no point in reading those books… We've been farming spirit fields our whole lives, and we still don’t get those books—who knows if they’re even right?"

One disciple suddenly said, his tone a little resentful.

"Shut up!"

"Master… those disciples of Jiushan Sect, have they ever really treated us as their own?"

The disciple continued.

Zhenren Qian opened his mouth, looking at the other disciples, and saw that they all seemed slightly indignant.

He shook his head.

He knew in his heart—they were outsiders, after all. While the Jiushan Sect disciples didn’t exactly reject them, they rarely interacted either.

After entering the Jiushan Realm, he and his disciples had formed their own little faction, and there was always a subtle distance from the rest of the sect…

"At least Zhenren Zheng treats us like his own…"

"Isn’t that just because of our secret techniques… and because he wants us to teach everything we learned in Qianhe Sect to the people of Jiushan Sect…"

That disciple said again.

"……"

"Master, if they learn everything we know and one day turn against us and kick us out, what then? Shouldn’t we… hold something back?"

Zhenren Qian said nothing, but his expression looked faintly conflicted.

……

"Zhenren Qian, did you understand the books I gave you before?"

Zheng Fa asked the moment he saw Zhenren Qian.

Right now, the Jiushan Realm was being rebuilt from the ground up, and agriculture was the most fundamental industry. Zheng Fa placed great importance on Zhenren Qian and his disciples.

Behind Zhenren Qian, the disciples' eyes darted about—they finally understood why their master cared so much about their studies…

"I understood…"

"Really?"

Zheng Fa looked at his face and suddenly asked.

"……"

Zhenren Qian’s face stiffened. In a low voice, he said, "Ashamed…"

"Why be ashamed?" To his surprise, Zheng Fa said, "Zhenren Qian, if you already understood everything, what would be the point of reading books?"

"…Huh?"

"If there’s something you don’t understand, ask me. If I don’t understand, I’ll go ask someone else… That’s all it is. What’s there to be ashamed of?"

As Zheng Fa said this, he looked at the disciples standing behind him.

He thought for a moment, realizing these were the future agriculture teachers, and that this involved education.

So he decided to say a bit more.

"Everyone, when you become teachers and start instructing students, please remember this—learning is always a process of not understanding to understanding."

"Students need to have questions. That's why your role even matters."

"Never crush the students’ thirst for knowledge."

Zhenren Qian’s disciples were silent for a moment. They looked at their master, whose face was slightly flushed, and realized he too was thinking about what he'd said earlier.

Their expressions varied, but all of them replied, "Yes…"

……

Zheng Fa didn’t say more. After all, education was a profound field, and he wasn’t an expert.

He led them toward the Medicine Garden.

Senior Sister Zhang was waiting there with Senior Sister Yuan.

"Senior Sister Zhang?"

"It’s been planted."

Zheng Fa looked into the Medicine Garden.

In one corner of the garden, various rice varieties that Zheng Fa had collected from the mortal world had already been planted.

These rice types were virtually undomesticated.

Their taste and yield fell far short of being suitable staple crops.

Zheng Fa’s goal this time was to use these rice varieties to cultivate a type suited for the Jiushan Realm.

He glanced at the Sun and Moon Bell and took out his Golden Seal.

The Heavenly Merit points—or incense power—he had accumulated over the past few days poured into the Sun and Moon Bell.

Fed by this power, the Sun and Moon Bell flew into the air, and time accelerated rapidly over the planted area.

These rice plants weren’t spiritual plants, so they consumed very little incense power.

The number of Heavenly Merit points didn’t even change.

The rice rapidly grew, producing clusters of inconspicuous, densely packed flowers.

"Senior Sister!"

Zheng Fa suddenly called out.

Senior Sister Zhang was well prepared—her life-bound treasure, the Flying Immortal Brush, appeared in front of her chest and, in the blink of an eye, multiplied into countless copies, descending into the rice field.

The tips of the Flying Immortal Brushes lightly touched the stamens of each rice flower, collecting pollen, and then gently brushed it onto the pistils of different plants.

Zheng Fa nodded.

The sun and moon on the Sun and Moon Bell began to revolve once more.

In the blink of an eye, a year had passed in the rice fields.

The rice in the field matured, and Senior Sister Zhang collected the seeds from these rice plants again and replanted them in the fields.

In the Medicine Garden, the expressions of Zhenren Qian and the others looked a bit dazed.

It seemed they had realized what Zheng Fa and the others were doing.

This breeding experiment, in fact, wasn’t much different from modern methods.

They first used various collected wild rice as parent plants to crossbreed, producing the first generation of offspring.

Starting from the first generation, they selected those with plumper grains and higher yields, then continued with generations of self-pollination, backcrossing, and selection.

Until they identified the most stable and suitable rice strain for cultivation in the Jiushan Realm.

Compared to the modern era, the principles were no different.

But with the Sun and Moon Bell, everything became far more convenient.

You have to understand, in the modern day, developing a new rice strain might take decades.

But now, Zheng Fa had only used a little over ten Heavenly Merit Points to complete this breeding.

In the rice field, only one rice variety remained.

The heavy rice panicles even bent the stalks and leaves.

Zhenren Qian stared blankly at the scene, rubbing his eyes.

He glanced at Zheng Fa and seemed unable to resist walking toward the field.

Zheng Fa didn’t stop him—this was not only a breeding project but also a lesson for Zhenren Qian and the others—at the very least, to help them understand the value of those agricultural books.

"This..." Zhenren Qian pinched the plump grains of rice, as if trying to determine whether what he saw was real.

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You have to know, he had actually checked the Qianhe Sect’s records on breeding.

Cultivators lived long lives and often witnessed the emergence of new strains—but almost no one ever thought about the fundamental principles behind it all.

So Zhenren Qian understood the implications even more clearly—this kind of stable method for cultivating new strains had always been a secret technique that the Qianhe Sect could only dream of!

What Zheng Fa had accomplished was almost unprecedented in the Xuanyi Realm...

And most importantly...

"This easy?"

Recalling the earlier process carried out by Zheng Fa and Zhang Wuyi, he seemed to understand, yet found it hard to believe.

"Zhenren Qian, if you can understand those books, some things won’t be that hard,"

Zheng Fa said softly.

"Those books?"

Zhenren Qian paused, looking into Zheng Fa’s eyes.

Zheng Fa smiled and said, "Of course, this is just the simplest application of the knowledge in those books... if we dive deeper, we’ll naturally be able to do much more."

Cultivating this rice strain really was just the foundation.

Zheng Fa’s next goal was to cultivate spiritual grains suited to the Jiushan Realm...

"More..."

Zhenren Qian repeated dazedly.

...

On the way back, Zhenren Qian didn’t speak for a long while.

He seemed to be deep in thought.

The disciples were silent too.

Finally, Zhenren Qian spoke: "If any of you want to leave the Jiushan Realm, tell me. I’ll ask Zhenren Zheng on your behalf."

"...Master?"

"But for those who remain in the Jiushan Realm, don’t bring up talk of insiders and outsiders anymore, and don’t think about holding back," Zhenren Qian looked at his disciples and said, "As Zhenren Zheng said, today was just a small test of the knowledge in those books."

"Ask yourselves honestly—back in the Qianhe Sect, would anyone have taught you this kind of method so easily?"

"..."

"In the face of this method, what am I, what are you? What even is the Qianhe Sect?" Zhenren Qian’s tone grew more serious, "I know you’ve all felt wronged. If you have grievances, tell me. I’ll speak to Zhenren Zheng."

The disciple who had earlier suggested holding back mumbled, "Master..."

"I’m not forcing you..." Zhenren Qian saw his disciples looking uneasy and continued, "Zhenren Zheng asked us to pass on agricultural knowledge to the disciples, but what he’s given us is far more advanced than what the Qianhe Sect ever had."

"Is he trying to steal our secret methods?"

"..."

"He’s giving us an opportunity! We’ve become the teachers of those disciples—would they still see us as outsiders?"

"If you’re staying, then don’t keep anything to yourself anymore..."

Seeing they seemed to understand, Zhenren Qian finally nodded and said, "Go back and read those books more carefully. If you don’t understand something, come find me. If I don’t understand it, I’ll ask Zhenren Zheng..."

Seeing their master say this, all the disciples responded affirmatively.

After they left Zhenren Qian’s residence, they quietly discussed among themselves:

"This... why do I feel like our master has changed?"

"Exactly, before our master had schemes running through his entire body—when did he become this selfless? It’s not like him."

"..." one of the female disciples said, "I think our master now is more like Zhenren Zheng."

Hearing that, everyone started recalling and couldn’t help but nod.

...

Looking at the rice field in front of them, both Zheng Fa and Senior Sister Zhang had smiles on their faces.

"The Sect Master sent word that the number of mortals preparing to move into the Jiushan Realm has reached over three hundred thousand..." Senior Sister Zhang said, "I was worried before about how we’d feed them."

"Three hundred thousand isn’t that many," Zheng Fa thought aloud, "Based on the previous population under Jiushan Sect’s rule, the mortals willing to enter the Jiushan Realm probably don’t even make up one percent..."

The Jiushan Realm governed a vast area.

And although agriculture was relatively backward in the Xuanyi Realm, the presence of spiritual energy meant grain yields weren’t that low.

Jiushan Sect had ruled over a population of around twenty to thirty million in the past...

Roughly equal to the total current mortal population within the Jiushan Realm.

So to say, those willing to migrate with Jiushan Sect were really quite few—

But this didn’t surprise Zheng Fa. After all, Jiushan Sect had never been known for good governance...

Not to mention the infamous reputation of the Great Freedom Demonic Sect, which actually only circulated among Immortal Sects:

Before Zheng Fa entered the Immortal Sects, he’d never even heard the name.

And in agrarian society, people were even more attached to their land...

By Zheng Fa’s estimation, these three hundred thousand people were probably all somehow connected to Jiushan Sect disciples over the generations.

"Junior Brother, I think you only care about two of them..."

Senior Sister Zhang suddenly said.

Zheng Fa smiled, his expression filled with anticipation—his mother and sister were coming.