Chapter 70: Seed Improvement and Selection
The Starry Principality has seven major provinces.
The Golden Rock Province is located at the northernmost part of the principality, bordering the Hulan Province to the southwest, and beyond that lies the Frostflower Province.
"What kind of plague is it?" Sunan asked.
Key said nothing more and handed over the parchment.
Sunan took it, and his brow furrowed upon reading.
It turned out that a month ago, a strange illness suddenly emerged in Silver Ridge City of the Frostflower Province. Infected individuals would gradually develop beast-like fur, claws, and sharp teeth, along with other animalistic traits, and they would attack others in a frenzy, displaying an intense craving for flesh.
Initially, the lord of Silver Ridge City did not take it seriously, sending soldiers to kill the infected and hastily bury them.
However, the situation did not end there, as more infected individuals soon appeared within the city.
In just a month, the number of infections in Silver Ridge City surpassed five hundred, and it was rapidly increasing.
With the situation escalating, the local military could no longer handle it alone.
Reluctantly, the lord of Silver Ridge City had to seek help from the Marquis of Frostflower.
The Marquis has already dispatched troops to suppress the frenzied infected individuals.
After reading the contents of the parchment, Sunan couldn't help but grimace in pain.
This was nothing but Beastization Syndrome!
Beastization Syndrome, rather than being a simple disease, was more akin to a reversion phenomenon.
Those infected with Beastization Syndrome would have their beastization factors activated completely, leading their bodies to manifest various animal traits, losing their rationality and becoming bloodthirsty beasts.
However, the only way to spread Beastization Syndrome was through the original beastized humans.
Original beastized humans refer to the first generation of beastized humans and the next generations that descended from them.
For instance, the beastized guard Ota next to Mu Zhu of the Fire Fox Trading Company was clearly an ordinary beastized human.
In ancient times, original beastized humans caused the "Beastization Disaster," leading to massive casualties until they were ultimately suppressed by the wizards.
Since then, the wizards recognized the threat posed by original beastized humans and eliminated them all.
Logically, there should have been no original beastized humans left on Starlight Continent; so how could there be an outbreak of Beastization Syndrome?
Sunan pondered this in confusion.
"This is Beastization Syndrome." Sunan returned the parchment.
Seeing Key's puzzled expression, he had to explain in detail what Beastization Syndrome was.
Upon hearing this, Key's expression grew particularly solemn.
"Are the infected individuals difficult to deal with?"
"It depends on the physical condition of the infected. If they are just ordinary people, then after infection, they might only reach the level of a squire at most. However, if they are squires or knights, it becomes much more troublesome."
"Beastization Syndrome can be severe or mild. If the source of infection can be found quickly to control the spread, and all the infected individuals are cleared, the situation can be resolved swiftly. But if it's not managed well, it could lead to disaster," Sunan shook his head.
Key furrowed his brow even tighter, sighing, "I hope the Frostflower Province can gain control of the situation quickly."
Sunan pursed his lips, not overly worried.
The Frostflower Province was separated from the Shimmering Territory by the Hulan Province; even if a full-blown Beastization disaster occurred there, it would primarily be a headache for the Marquis of Frostflower and the nearby marquises—not for him to worry about.
Time passed quickly, and it was now the month of Summer Grove.
The Fire Fox Trading Company had finally delivered the seeds for Silver Moon Flowers and Red Vein Fruits.
The construction of the magical plant garden could finally proceed.
However, before planting, Sunan needed to improve the seeds of the Silver Moon Flowers and Red Vein Fruits.
The former was relatively simple—synthesis!
Using the basic Silver Moon Flower seeds, he aimed to produce a more improved variety.
Of course, synthesis wasn't limitless.
While theoretically, as long as there were enough Silver Moon Flower seeds, Sunan could continually upgrade them.
The problem was that the better the variety, the more demanding the growth environment.
If the synthesized Silver Moon Flowers were too superior, even with the energy particle concentration from the magical plant garden, it might not meet their growth requirements.
Thus, Sunan's task was to find a version of the seeds that perfectly matched the energy particle concentration of the magical plant garden.
This process was not too difficult—it involved planting different synthesized seeds and comparing their growth performance to select the best one.
After approximately two months, Sunan finally selected the most suitable superior variety.
The improvement process for the Red Vein Fruit was much more complicated and lengthy.
It required first merging the Red Vein Fruit seeds with Dragonkin blood, then planting them to obtain improved Red Vein Fruit seeds before synthesis could take place.
Otherwise, merging seeds one by one would exhaust Sunan.
Even with the energy-gathering formations improving the growth environment, the growth cycle of Red Vein Fruits still took three months.
Adding the time spent researching the fusion, it took Sunan four months to harvest the first batch of seeds, naming them Dragon Blood Fruits.
Next was the repetitive selection process for the final chosen Dragon Blood Fruit seeds.
When Sunan finally planted the selected Dragon Blood Fruit seeds, it was already nearing the end of the year in the month of Autumn Veil.
The weather had turned cold.
Fortunately, the magical plant garden had a constant temperature formation, so there was no need to worry about climate effects.
Looking at the densely planted Silver Moon Flowers and Dragon Blood Fruit seedlings in the magical plant garden, Sunan let out a sigh of relief, feeling a sense of accomplishment.
From now on, he wouldn't need to spend large amounts of gold coins purchasing Silver Moon Flowers; the material issue for super potions was temporarily resolved.
The same went for the substitutes for lower-tier Dragon Blood potions.
Once the first batch of Dragon Blood Fruits was harvested, he could address the potion supply shortage.
Stretching his limbs, Sunan turned to leave the magical plant garden.
The base was quiet.
Since Sunan was the only one present, it remained calm most of the time.
Occasionally, the dull footsteps of clay golems could be heard as they cleaned the base.
Since Sherman and the others were not yet capable of handling things on their own, Sunan took it upon himself to oversee the planting and cultivation of the Silver Moon Flowers.
As a result, he had become even busier over the past few months.
He hadn't yet managed to forge the steel golem; the Blackstone Iron delivered from Shimmering City was still piled up in the warehouse.
However, Sunan had not neglected meditation and spell training for a single day.
He had successfully constructed the seventh star ring, taking another step closer to advancing to a level 3 wizard apprentice.
His mental strength had also increased to 22.12.
However, the proficiency for the 8th-level Star Ring Meditation Method had spiked to 130,000 points.
He still needed over 20,000 proficiency points to upgrade again.
"More than 20,000 proficiency points should take about a month."
"However, given this trend, the proficiency for the 9th-level Star Ring Meditation Method may reach 200,000, which means it would take at least seven to eight months to upgrade."
Sunan estimated the time, finding it was roughly in line with his previous predictions.
If all went well, by the end of next summer or the beginning of the month of Fire Flow, he would be able to construct the ninth star ring.
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