Chapter 299 - 131: Three Rewards, One Satisfaction_2
This suggests that it is highly likely to be a bag of conventional rural seed.
Nowadays, the hybrid seeds commonly found on the market, while high-yielding and disease-resistant, have a fatal flaw—they cannot be stored for replanting.
In the countryside, many elderly people, looking to save money and skeptical of the warnings on seed packaging, would dry and save seeds from the abundant and well-growing hybrid peppers they bought to use for their own planting.
The result is that the second year's plants are often vastly different from the first year's.
They vary in height, have vastly different maturity times, experience a severe drop in yield, and are more prone to diseases, as if they had suddenly transformed from the robust Lu Zhishen to the frail Lin Daiyu.
This is not due to unsuitable soil or some curse placed on the seeds by vendors, but is a natural drawback of hybrid seeds.
Chen Zhou, who had no interest in biology, had long since returned the knowledge he learned about hybrid seeds to his biology teacher.
He only knew that hybrid seeds needed to be bought and planted in the same year, and that storing them would significantly affect their yield and quality.
…
Last night, faced with five options, he was already very tired, his head dizzy, and forgot that choosing seeds might also encounter this drawback.
Looking back now, if he had chosen seeds at that time and ended up receiving a bag of hybrid seeds, he would have been at a loss—
What kind of seeds are those? They are basically a pack of "premium crop" experience cards that can last at most two years.
If unlucky, they might be uncultivable by the second generation.
…
And this plain and even somewhat rustic "three-no product" is a conventional seed widely circulated in rural areas.
Conventional seeds, as the name suggests, are ordinary, stable seeds that can be stored and re-cultivated.
Although they don't yield as much, taste as good, or look as nice as hybrid varieties, they're not all that different in other respects.
Before hybrid seeds, farmers for generations planted and consumed these, their stability having stood the test of time.
Furthermore, conventional seeds have an advantage over hybrid varieties in that they can be continuously cultivated, with harvests extending across generations.
Though the yield and quality of each generation of conventional seeds may vary, they will not plummet from the sky to the ground as with hybrid varieties.
Conservatively estimated, by the end of the challenge, when he leaves the island, the nature of these peppers should still remain stable enough to benefit any future participants arriving on the island without degrading to a completely inedible state.
…
Limited by his knowledge, after thinking of hybrid varieties, Chen Zhou treated these low-practicality seeds as a great threat—
He even thought that the "second generation degeneration" trait applied to all crops.
In reality, other than hybrid rice, hybrid corn, hybrid sorghum, cotton, rapeseed, tomatoes, eggplants, and peppers,
And some cucumbers, watermelons, Chinese cabbages, onions, and carrots, most crop seeds can actually be reserved for future planting.
In comparison, hybrid seeds actually form the smallest portion of seeds worldwide, so he need not worry about randomly ending up with hybrid seeds, as that possibility is extremely slim.
…
Cautiously placing the plastic bag with the pepper seeds into his hiking pack, just as he was about to open another reward, Chen Zhou suddenly discovered a small slip of paper at the bottom of the box.
Assuming it was another prank from the Space-Time Administration Bureau, he took out the slip only to realize it was actually a note about the seeds.
The slip of paper was slightly yellowed, and bore a faint scent of dried tobacco leaves.
The note written on it was very brief, the handwriting childlike, even mistakenly writing the "spicy" in "spicy pepper" and the "bear fruit" in "bear fruit"—
"These homemade chili seeds do not attract bugs or require pesticides, and bear fruit abundantly."
"Hope you didn't trick me; I'll be counting on your family's chili seeds for the next twenty years."
With a smile, Chen Zhou tucked the note into his hiking pack, walked over to the rectangular reward, and swiftly sliced open the soaked cardboard.
…
The corrugated cardboard, susceptible to water, did not deform despite being soaked by rainwater, not just because it was of good quality, but also because the cardboard had internal support that kept its shape intact.
After opening the cardboard, a long, dark brown wooden box appeared before Chen Zhou.
The wooden box was coated with a layer of clear varnish, the surface still had water stains, and it was secured with seven golden clasps from left to right.
Pulling the entire wooden box from the paper packaging, he also saw that the centerpiece of the box lid was imprinted with a gold symbol, seemingly the logo left by the producer of the contents inside.
The symbol contained both flame elements and a strong arm, its sharp lines exuding the sharpness of swords and knives, as if hinting to Chen Zhou—
The item inside the box was a handcrafted Cold Weapon.
"Wow, it's so long, is it a Fangtian Halberd or an Overlord Spear?
No wonder it feels so hefty in hand."
Having roughly surmised what was inside the box, Chen Zhou's anticipation was greatly reduced.
Without wasting words, he directly opened all the clasps in order to reveal its true appearance.
Sure enough, the box contained a Cold Weapon, and its design was extremely sharp.
The entire weapon was divided into two parts: the spearhead and the shaft.
The spearhead was about 70 cm long, while the shaft was around 150 cm.
The two were connected by threads, and when assembled, the total length was roughly 220 cm, living up to the concept of longer being stronger to the extreme.
A leather sheath covered the exterior of the spearhead, and upon removing it, one could see that this spearhead, more than half a meter long, was completely different from the common "Red Tassel Spear."
Its design was more akin to a Han Sword, overall slender, with a sharp point and edges on both sides, and a blood groove remaining in the middle.