Chapter 420

Being able to ignore external growing environments and other disruptive factors, with a growth rate five times that of ordinary grain seeds—this was the true auspicious sign. In the heart of Emperor Chongning, its importance outweighed any true qi or any practitioner; it weighed more than a thousand catties. Take rice seeds as an example. Taking the longest growth cycle in the northern part of the Shun Dynasty as a baseline, calculated at one hundred and eighty days, a fivefold growth rate meant thirty-six days. It would take only thirty-six days to grow a season of rice in the cold northern soil, and the entire process from sowing to harvesting would not exceed forty-five days. Given northern conditions, sowing in April or May would allow for a harvest by late June or early July. Immediately after the harvest, the next season's seeds could be sown. Even when accounting for soil fertility and a one-month fallow period, sowing could still take place in August or September, with harvesting from late October to early November.