Chapter 1552: The Endless Possibilities of Crossbreeding!
Chapter 1552: The Endless Possibilities of Crossbreeding!
1552 The Endless Possibilities of Crossbreeding!
"Since your knowledge about natural treasures and materials is already great, we will start with crossbreeding." Lady Sphinx informed.
Usually, one would need to learn about plants and such before going into complex details, but Felix's knowledge was already at its peak.
He had studied and memorized all books handed to him by Lady Sphinx to assist with his potion-making.
Of course, those books were merely concentrated on natural treasures and their details, like grade, history, evolutionary tree, etc.
So, he was still quite ignorant about crossbreeding and other fields of botany.
Without wasting time, she began her explanation, by selecting two particularly unique plants for their lesson.
"Now, let's use these two remarkable plants."
Lady Sphinx gestured to a tall, slender flower with glossy, silver petals, which she called the Lunar Silkflower, and a low-lying bush with fiery red blossoms, known as the Phoenix Firebloom.
"These two are both B-graded natural treasures in their own right," she explained. "But imagine if we could combine their qualities into a single plant."
"How is that possible?" Felix's interest was piqued.
He was always fascinated by the biology of natural treasures with all the readings he had done on them.
Obiviously, he was referring mostly to plant-based natural treasures.
In this universe, anything could become a natural treasure as long as it held within it a decent amount of elemental energy.
For example, if a strong creature died and his corpse wasn't decomposed, standing strong against the power of time, it would start to absorb elemental energy slowly corresponding to the corpse's highest elemental affinity.
After centuries, millennials, or even millions of years, what remained of the corpse would be considered a natural treasure.
Its grade would be decided by the amount of elemental energy it held within it and its unique effects.
However, since those treasures were related to previous existing creatures of the past, Felix wasn't planning to focus on them in his studies.
After all, there was no way to figure out the SSS+ flesh-based natural treasures' location with his current method.
"Crossbreeding is the process of mating two different plants with desirable traits to create a new hybrid species. In this case, we aim to merge the Lunar Silkflower's hardiness and its ability to thrive in tough conditions with the Phoenix Firebloom's fire-resistant capabilities."
Lady Sphinx carefully plucked a blossom from the Phoenix Firebloom and gathered some of its pollen on a brush.
Moving to the Lunar Silkflower, she brushed the pollen onto the silver petals while explaining, "By pollinating the Lunar Silkflower with the Phoenix Firebloom's pollen, we encourage the Lunar Silkflower to inherit some of the Firebloom's traits."
"Since those two plants shared a similar environment, their compatibility is decent and it will help with the birth of new plants with the desired traits."
"What if they weren't compatible?" Felix inquired.
"If two plants weren't compatible at all, it doesn't mean that crossbreeding them will end up in failure, it just means that the failure percentage will be in the higher ends." Lady Sphinx shared, "However if a miracle occurred and against all odds, the crossbreeding succeeded, the new plant would be stronger than both plants combined."
"That's because it will inherit the strengths of its parent plants and since their environments were different, it will allow the new plant to survive tougher situations."
"In other words, the new plant will be given more time to evolve, and enhance its genetic pool, which will increase its grade slowly over time," Felix commented with a look of intrigue.
"Exactly, time and environmental hazards are the primary killers of natural treasures. However, if they survive and evolve, it's almost a guarantee to turn into a high-graded treasure." Lady Sphinx nodded.
"No wonder it's impossible to cultivate S-graded and above natural treasures even if the right environment was given."
Felix knew that there were many botanists in the alliance working on cultivating natural treasures either for research purposes or for sale...None of them had yet to cultivate an S-graded natural treasure in the real world.n/)01n
That's because for their evolution to happen, they require specific extremely harsh conditions plus a very, very long period.
No one would want to invest trillions of coins in such a project when even the end rewards might not come after thousands of years of struggle.
So, almost all botanists focus on cultivating A-graded natural treasures and below...Even those natural treasures weren't easy to get.
"Time is the biggest wall any botanist faces. Even I have managed to cultivate only four SS natural treasures, and one SSS natural treasure after countless trials and errors." Lady Sphinx shared.
"That's already too impressive." Felix raised an eyebrow in surprise.
Lady Sphinx didn't have any time manipulation abilities, so she had to wait for god knows how many years for each natural treasure to reach its peak evolution.
Such godly patience and resolve only true researchers possessed!
"With illusion domain, it will be a million times easier to run controlled simulations...For example," Lady Sphinx requested while pointing at the silkflower, "Speed up the time by a hundred and increase the richness of fire elemental energy around it."
Felix did as he was told and created a small invisible bubble around the flower filled with fire elemental energy...Then, he sped the time specifically inside the bubble.
With the time sped up by a hundred, Felix and the rest were able to watch with anticipation as the seeds began to sprout and grow at an astonishing rate.
Within moments, the slender shoots burst forth from the earth, their petals a rich, silvery green.
As they stretched toward the sky, the buds at their tips started to unfurl, revealing a new breed of flowers.
They bore the same fiery hue as the Phoenix Firebloom's blossoms but retained the unique shimmer of the Lunar Silkflower's petals!
Felix couldn't help but smile as he witnessed the birth of this extraordinary creation.
"Lunar Firebloom, high-quality B-graded natural treasure. If consumed raw, it gives the user a decent 1% to 3% fire affinity rating with a few stomach-related side effects. But the majority of people use it as the main ingredient to concoct rank three FireShell Potion." He shared, "It gives the user a temporary seven days peak resistance to fire, making it high in demand for anyone desiring to explore hot areas."
Lady Sphinx nodded. "It's a crossbreed that incorporates the best of both parent plants. It possesses the Lunar Silkflower's resilience and adaptability, while the fiery blossoms enhanced its absorption of fire elemental energy and heat resistance."
"Even though the grade remained the same, the treasure's quality and effects make it extremely desirable compared to its parents." Felix smiled, "Crossbreeding is truly a universe with endless possibilities."
"I have been giving books related to natural treasures and their details." Lady Sphinx manifested a mountain of books next to Felix and said, "Those are specific for crossbreeding, batonic genetics understanding, biochemistry, and more. Use your clones to read them and when you are done, we can start straightaway with crossbreeding some new variations."
"I understand," Felix replied while staring at the mountain of books. If they were organized into a library, it would fill up at least a hundred shelves!
Felix knew that even with his clones' assistance and wisdom eye, it would take him a week or less to integrate and condense such a heavy load of information in his brain.
Lady Sphinx wasn't going to let the week go to waste.
"For now, let's return to potion-making." Lady Sphinx said, "It's time you mastered some rank-six potions."
"I am more than ready," Felix replied with a hint of excitement as he had been waiting for this day for a long time now.
Who could blame him? Potions capable of affecting primogenitors were similar in rank to high-quality divine equipment!
In other words, Felix could use them in his battles!
"Let's start with God's Pillar Potion." Lady Sphinx uttered with a faint smile.