Chapter 294: Cold-Resistant Barley

This was the barley seed that Gao De discovered on the Dandong Snow Peak, together with "Mandella's Tears" from the cave of the Snow-Spotted Leopard.

The extreme cold weather in the northern realm did not make this barley seed lose its vitality.

If you look carefully, you can see a tiny bit of green under its pitch-black shell, which is its vigorous vitality.

According to Fu Luo La, this is a cold-resistant barley seed, and an environment of minus 60 degrees or even lower is the most suitable growth environment for it.

Such barley seeds can be said to be unheard of.

But the adaptation and evolution ability of all things in nature is so magical: maybe one day, a tiny mutation occurred in a gene, and a door to a new world was opened because of it.

There is no doubt that this barley seed was born for the northern realm.

The permafrost tundra, which has been barren and barren for so many years, should also welcome its own unique crops.

Perhaps a long time ago, such barley seeds had appeared, but no one found them until this time when they were noticed by Gao De.

Just like planting trees, Gao De used the Mage Hand to dig open the thick snow, and then used Earth Shaping to dig a 20-30 cm seed pit.

At the same time, with the change of Gao De's heart, the soil was kneaded like soft pottery clay.

This is to improve the soil structure, make the hard soil soft and layered, and increase air permeability.

After doing these, Fu Luo La put this cold-resistant barley seed into the seed pit.

Gao De used Earth Shaping to cover it with a 3-4 cm thick soil layer and level the land.

According to common sense, the next step is to wait quietly for the wheat seeds to sprout.

Under normal circumstances, it takes 3-7 days for barley to sprout from sowing.

But Gao De already has "abnormal" abilities.

He took a step forward and performed the "Art of Nature" from the Green Wood Longevity Scripture.

A natural and affinity fluctuation burst out from his palm and was injected directly into the place where the seeds were buried.

The next moment, the level soil layer suddenly had movement.

A tender green sprout broke through the soil, curled at first, then quickly unfolded, and grew rapidly at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Time seemed to be compressed to the extreme at this moment, and the whole scene was somewhat like a fast-forward plant documentary.

The sprout climbed continuously, the leaves unfolded rapidly, the stem gradually thickened, and side branches began to form. All this was completed in a very short time.

Just a few minutes later, a sturdy wheat seedling had stood up on the originally empty land, swaying in the wind.

The price was that the liquid mana in Gao De's body was consumed rapidly, and it had already lost a small half.

But this was not enough, because at this time, this wheat seedling had just passed the germination and seedling stage and was in the tillering stage.

This process, if grown naturally, takes about 15-20 days.

That is to say, it can be understood as: with Gao De's current mage rank, consuming one drop of liquid mana can help ordinary plants skip about two days of growth progress.

Gao De continued to cast the Art of Nature.

As the Art of Nature continued, the cold-resistant barley plant continued to increase new leaves and tillers, and at the same time, the root system was constantly expanding. Until it grew to 20 cm high, the first internode at the base of the plant began to stretch significantly.

The elongation of the basal internode is the main physical indicator of the beginning of the jointing stage of barley.

Its stem is no longer close to the ground but begins to stretch upward.

And shortly after jointing, barley will enter the booting stage.

From tillering to jointing, it takes about 20 days of natural growth time.

Shortly after entering jointing, according to natural laws, barley will enter the booting stage, and the ears inside will begin to develop.

Subsequently, the top of the barley plant will gradually extend the ears. This process is the heading stage, and it is also the last stage before barley is about to enter reproductive growth.

Just to this step, Gao De did not continue to perform the "Art of Nature" and stopped—because his mana had been exhausted.

In addition, the barley plant has a relatively large demand for nutrients during the jointing stage and needs appropriate topdressing.

However, Gao De does not need to do this.

Elder Grant had already prepared fish meal for topdressing Jin Hui Wheat under his instructions.

The so-called fish meal is actually taking the remaining parts of fish after removing the edible parts, including internal organs, heads, bones, and scales, then naturally air-drying them on a sunny day, and then manually grinding them into powder, which is fish meal.

According to the experience of the Enduring Zhenbing Tribe, the powder made in this way can be directly spread on the farmland to promote the growth of Jin Hui Wheat.

In Gao De's eyes, it is actually one sentence: it is rich in nitrogen and phosphorus, which are essential nutritional elements for plant growth.

In short, Elder Grant took out the fish meal and was spreading it evenly in the soil of the cold-resistant barley.

It cannot be too much, nor too little. To be honest, grasping the amount of fertilizer is not simple, not to mention that this is a crop that Elder Grant is completely unfamiliar with.

But in front of the real big expert Fu Luo La, this is not a problem at all.

So Gao De was very relieved and took out a purple fruit he carried with him.

This is a magical plant picked by the Enduring Zhenbing Tribe on the snowfield. Its effect after taking it is somewhat similar to a mana recovery potion, which can help mages recover mana quickly.

After eating the fruit, Gao De took the opportunity to start operating the 【Green Wood Longevity Scripture】 and began to recover the exhausted mana, completely unaffected by the external environment.

After evolving the 【Body of Dharma Endurance】, he was able to do what senior high-rank mages could do: enter the cultivation state quickly anytime, anywhere.

In less than half an hour, with the help of the purple fruit, Gao De recovered his mana, and the topdressing work on the other side had long been completed.

"Continue." He stood up and performed "infusion" again on this barley plant that had skipped nearly two months of growth progress with the help of the "Art of Nature."

With the infusion of the power of the Art of Nature, the top of the barley began to show vigorous vitality, first heading, and then entering the flowering stage.

The tender green spikelets opened one by one, emitting a faint fragrance.

And to this step, Gao De stopped again.

Because during the flowering stage, barley has another very important job to do—pollination.

If he continued to use the "Art of Nature" to catalyze barley and push the growth progress, it would cause this cold-resistant barley to fail to pollinate in time, pass the flowering stage, and finally fail to bear wheat grains.

There is only one such cold-resistant barley seed, and not a single mistake can be made.

It was still Elder Grant who "operated the knife."

Although there is only this one cold-resistant barley seedling in the whole world, it is a single seedling.

But fortunately, barley is a self-pollinating crop. The flowers it opens are bisexual flowers, that is, the same flower contains both stamens and pistils, so it has the ability to self-pollinate, so there is no need to worry about the "offspring" problem. Elder Grant took out the fine hair brush made of the soft hair of the inner layer of the snow wolf that had been prepared long ago, and under the command of Fu Luo La, found the opened stamens, gently brushed the yellow anthers on the stamens with the fine hair brush, and carefully collected the pollen into a small bottle.

After collecting the pollen on all the stamens, he turned to dip the fine hair brush with pollen and gently applied it to the stigma of the pistil.

In order to improve the pollination success rate, this process needs to be repeated many times.

And while Elder Grant was busy, Gao De ate another purple fruit and began to recover the mana that had been exhausted by more than half again.

To be honest, before obtaining the "Art of Nature," Gao De was very worried about the fault tolerance rate.

Because with only one cold-resistant barley seed, the entire planting process could not have any mistakes, and it takes about four months for barley to mature from seed.

Four months of time need careful care, and any small mistake may lead to failure.

Even with Fu Luo La's help, this pressure is still very great.

But now with the "Art of Nature" ability granted by the *Green Wood Longevity Scripture*, the four-month growth period of this barley seed can be compressed to half a day, plus Fu Luo La's assistance, under these conditions, it is actually difficult to have problems.

When Gao De's mana was full to the peak again, Elder Grant on this side also completed the pollination work.

So, the catalysis continued.

In the version without any mistakes!

The pollinated barley, the small flowers opened gradually lost their vitality and the brightness of the past, replaced by the gradually expanding green seeds, which means that the barley has entered the final grain filling stage.

With the development of the grain filling process, the dry matter in the seeds gradually accumulated, the starch solidified, the water content decreased, the seeds became harder and harder, and the color began to change from green to light yellow, until it was fixed as a dazzling golden color.

Finally, a mature barley plant with golden ears stood proudly before Gao De.

He glanced at it and quickly calculated the yield of this cold-resistant barley.

37 mature seeds.

To be honest, this yield is not high.

But this is not the point.

The point is, this is barley grown on the snowfield, grown in an extremely cold environment!

The "Art of Nature" can only catalyze and fast-forward the natural growth process of a plant, and cannot make plants that cannot grow grow smoothly.

That is to say, even without the "Art of Nature," this barley could grow to its current appearance after four months.

Who can say it is not a miracle? Gao De sighed in his heart.

He was about to order something to Elder Grant behind him, but after calling several times, he didn't get a response.

He turned his head in surprise, only to find that Elder Grant's face was already flushed red.

"He will bring spring and bring vitality to the permafrost tundra."

"He will make the Ice-Born children no longer suffer from hunger."

Elder Grant's heart echoed Su Nai's soft chanting at the Ancient Frost Pass.

Although it had been determined that Gao De was the new king, the person of the prophecy, when he really saw the things mentioned in the prophecy appear before his eyes, he still felt dry-mouthed, almost unable to stand, and his heart was beating violently.

All the blood in his body had surged to his head, making him feel a little dizzy.

He stared at the barley plant with mature wheat, unable to believe everything he saw.

"Is this... wheat?!!" Elder Grant's voice was trembling slightly.

Elder Grant is responsible for the planting of Jin Hui Wheat in the Enduring Zhenbing Tribe.

And although Jin Hui Wheat and cold-resistant barley are not the same wheat species, they are both barley after all, and there are many similarities in appearance, so he should not have such an unseemly performance for a barley plant.

But the problem is, this is not barley grown on volcanic land, but grown on the snowfield! In the northern realm, such snowfields are everywhere!

What does this represent? Not only the voice, but Elder Grant's figure also began to tremble slightly.

"Yes, Elder Grant, collect these wheat grains as the first generation of seeds." Gao De ordered.

With a bang.

The next moment, Elder Grant had already knelt before this barley plant, kneeling with the most pious posture.

"Miracle, this is a miracle. We will never have tribesmen die of hunger again!" He reached out his trembling hand and gently touched the wheat grains on the barley plant, as if touching some rare treasure.

If you are not a person of the northern realm, you simply cannot fully understand the spiritual shock that such a barley plant can bring to the people of the northern realm.

Even an old man like Elder Grant, a senior Ice-Born mage, is now completely unable to control his emotions.

"Elder Grant, this is just the beginning. The high-yield potential of cold-resistant barley is still worrying, its reproductive ability and seed vitality have not been investigated, and it does not have the cold-repelling characteristics of Jin Hui Wheat."

Gao De helped up the unseemly Elder Grant and said softly: "After obtaining enough original seeds, we must carry out cross-breeding and cultivation, constantly optimize, and cultivate barley seeds that are truly suitable for the northern realm."

Cold-resistant barley is the name Gao De gave to this kind of barley, which is easy to understand.

Elder Grant could not understand what Gao De said because it was too advanced, but he could at least understand what Gao De meant.

At this moment, Gao De was the person who created miracles in his eyes.

If his obedience and awe for Gao De before came from "prophecy," then now, it comes from the heart.

Elder Grant carefully collected the 37 cold-resistant barley seeds as if treating his own newborn children, for fear that a hand tremor would destroy even one grain of wheat.

Fu Luo La collected these 37 cold-resistant barley seeds into her small space.

"My King, how should this barley be handled?" Elder Grant pointed to the bare cold-resistant barley plant and asked.

"Dig it up, and then I have to trouble Elder Grant to seize the time to help reclaim a piece of land today. The style should be according to what was done before, as for the interval..." Gao De paused, Fu Luo La immediately understood, and had already begun to gesture on the land.

To be honest, not only in the northern realm, the planting technology of this world is still at a relatively low level, and the most distinctive feature is that there is no clear standard.

Everyone farms their own land according to their own experience. Some people sow densely, some people sow shallowly, some people fertilize more, and some people fertilize less. Naturally, the yield also fluctuates randomly.

And every crop should have the most suitable method, but wanting to find the most suitable one requires not only this consciousness but also scientific experimentation and summary.

There is no doubt that this is a troublesome and time-consuming thing.

But this world has "metaphysics."

Therefore, things that should have taken a lot of effort can be completed in an instant by Fu Luo La with her talent, and the quality is so high that no flaws can be picked out.

"Tomorrow, I will continue to plant this first batch of barley seeds to obtain more cold-resistant barley seeds."

"As for this land, it will be reclaimed as a pollen field in the future. Later, I will ask Su Nai to select a group of people to be responsible for the guarding and protection work of this pollen field."

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 295 =====