Chen Ming noticed that the way Ah Yin's leaves swayed—and the emotions they conveyed—were completely different from before.
Although she lacked a human face, the complex emotions radiating from her body could still be clearly sensed.
Strictly speaking, Blue Silver Grass belonged to a dual-attribute Spirit Beast.
More than 99.99% of all Blue Silver Grass were merely the lowest-grade weeds, not even qualifying as Spirit Beasts. Even ten-year, hundred-year, or thousand-year Blue Silver Grass only displayed life as their visible attribute, while their spiritual traits remained hidden as latent abilities.
Only after reaching the ten-thousand-year level could Blue Silver Grass truly begin displaying part of its spiritual characteristics.
The Blue Silver Grass clan's unique Blue Silver Network was built upon this principle.
"You have awakened? I will not lay a hand on you, but this Spirit Bone, I will not return it to you."
No matter how exceptional a ten-thousand-year Spirit Bone was, it could only compare to a hundred-thousand-year Spirit Bone.
And the Blue Silver Empress itself could truly be considered a top-tier plant-type Spirit Beast. The two abilities attached to its Spirit Bone—recovery and flight—were both extremely useful.
In the first part of Soul Land, flight abilities were still considered something noble and rare. It wasn't until the Unrivaled Tang Sect era that they gradually became more widespread.
By the later generations, with the rise of Battle Armor and all kinds of soul tools, flight gradually became a common ability across the continent.
Even so, Spirit Masters who naturally possessed flight abilities were still considered superior to those who relied on external methods to fly.
After all, the two methods didn't conflict.
In fact, they could stack together. Spirit Masters who already possessed flight abilities could fly even faster with external enhancements while also consuming less energy.
Absorbing a leg Spirit Bone like this wouldn't hinder Chen Ming in any way.
Although this Spirit Bone didn't come from a dragon-type Spirit Beast and lacked bloodline enhancement, the quality and traits of a hundred-thousand-year Spirit Bone alone were enough to tempt him.
Once he found a peaceful opportunity later on, Chen Ming absolutely intended to study it carefully before absorbing it.
Ah Yin's leaves swayed gently a few times, though it was impossible to tell what she meant.
Still, she showed no intention of trying to fight Chen Ming over the Spirit Bone.
After all, she clearly understood her current situation.
Right now, she was fish on the chopping board.
No matter what Chen Ming chose to do, she had absolutely no ability to refuse.
Under such circumstances, sparing her life was already an act of kindness.
If he actually gave her something like a Spirit Bone, a treasure of the Spirit Master world, Ah Yin would instead start to suspect that Chen Ming had ulterior motives.
Besides, in her current miserable state, the Spirit Bone might actually be the least important thing to her.
"If you cooperate with me, I can transplant you somewhere else and provide you with some assistance to help you recover quickly."
"I know your soul is still very complete. You simply can't display your true intelligence because your strength is too weak."
"But I imagine… you won't let this opportunity pass, right?"
Chen Ming gently stroked Ah Yin's leaves as he spoke warmly.
"What does this human need me to do?" Ah Yin's leaves swayed softly.
Even she herself couldn't understand what use remained for her now that she was nothing but a root system left behind.
"As the empress of the Blue Silver Grass clan, you should have the ability to influence the growth of Blue Silver Grass, right?"
"Well, I want to raise livestock like cattle and sheep, and for that I need high-quality pasture grass. But breeding it myself is troublesome, and the growth cycle is too long, so I wanted to ask for your help."
"If possible, could you make Blue Silver Grass more delicious, more nutritious, produce greater yields, and become more suitable as feed for livestock?"
"I can cultivate your Blue Silver Grass clan on a massive scale. After all, as long as the roots aren't destroyed, your Blue Silver Grass can continue growing endlessly, right?"
"If you refuse, then retract your leaves. If you agree, wrap your leaves around my finger."
Ah Yin thought quietly for a moment before extending her leaves and wrapping them around Chen Ming's finger.
If an empress among beast-type Spirit Beasts heard a human asking them to help domesticate their own race, then every single one of them would fight Chen Ming to the death as long as they still had one breath left.
But the problem was that plant-type Spirit Beasts had completely different values from beast-type Spirit Beasts.
Blue Silver Grass was an extremely common weed throughout the Douluo Continent.
The proportion of Spirit Beasts within the entire race was incredibly tiny. Their population relied purely on overwhelming numbers.
Their method of reproduction was simply surviving naturally, then using flowing winds and the droppings of birds and beasts to scatter their seeds everywhere so they could continue reproducing.
Occupying the very bottom tier of the food chain meant that the Blue Silver Grass clan actually held a completely indifferent attitude toward being eaten by Spirit Beasts.
If it were Blue Silver Grass that had become Spirit Beasts, then things were slightly different since those at least counted as individual beings.
But for ordinary members that didn't even qualify as Spirit Beasts, being eaten was simply part of the food chain.
After all, such Blue Silver Grass didn't even possess individual consciousness. It took massive groups gathered together before a faint collective awareness could form.
And for a collective consciousness, as long as the race could continue growing and expanding, the sacrifice of individuals simply didn't matter.
Unless under special circumstances, even if their leaves or stems were eaten by Spirit Beasts or wild animals, as long as seeds remained, Blue Silver Grass would once again cover the land the following year.
And honestly, just as Chen Ming said—
If humans could cultivate Blue Silver Grass on a massive scale, then it would only benefit the Blue Silver Grass clan without causing any harm.
Even if they became more tender, juicier, and more suitable for livestock tastes, that still didn't matter.
After all, in the wild, the Blue Silver Grass clan was already casually eaten by all kinds of beasts and Spirit Beasts anyway.
Fundamentally, there was no difference. Was there?
Seeing Ah Yin cooperatively wrapping around his finger, Chen Ming nodded.
If he wanted to push industrialization forward, then he first had to solve the issues of food and living conditions for the commoners under his rule.
And if he wanted to rapidly advance industrialization, then large-scale livestock breeding was also necessary.
Chickens, ducks, pigs, cattle, sheep—
Every domesticated livestock animal was valuable from head to toe.
Not only could they themselves become raw materials integrated into human life, but they could also be transformed into various industrial resources.
But if one relied purely on traditional grazing to raise livestock, the efficiency was simply far too low.
Not to mention whether converting fertile farmland back into grassland was even worth it in the first place.
Overgrazing itself would permanently drain soil fertility and completely destroy the environment.
The pasture grass humans used to feed livestock was specially cultivated high-yield breeds with greater efficiency and better fattening effects.
So if the common Blue Silver Grass found everywhere could be transformed into high-yield, high-quality pasture grass, it would save an unbelievable amount of trouble.
For Chen Ming, the easiest way to become a god and gather faith wasn't interfering in the lives of Spirit Masters.
Instead, it was directly improving matters related to ordinary civilians.
Improve crop strains and farming methods.
Improve the lives of the common people so they could eat their fill.
Naturally, that would earn their faith.
Even in this era, despite the existence of the Spirit Hall, Spirit Masters who awakened Martial Souls for nearly every household still remained only a tiny minority among humanity overall.
They were often one in a thousand.
Even if each common person could only provide one-tenth the faith power of a Spirit Master, once all the common people of the continent believed in Chen Ming, the faith power they generated would still far surpass that of Spirit Masters alone.
...
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