Chapter 312: Chapter 197: Discovered a Spirit Stone Mine?! Where’s the Second Battalion Commander—Bring Out the Italian Cannon! [Part 3]

"This is not difficult to understand, let’s use an analogy. Before entering the industrial era, petroleum was something dispensable to mankind, even considered useless, and could be abandoned without regret. But as human civilization marched into the industrial age, with the help of the internal combustion engine, petroleum directly soared to become a great contributor to modern civilization. What we are doing now is similar to petroleum, finding the correct usage of this Spiritual Qi."

Elder Shi paused and then continued, "In general, our science and technology are very advanced now. Whatever resource it may be, we can find ways to utilize it to the utmost extent, even down to particle collisions in the microscopic world. But this concept of Spiritual Qi has exceeded the scope of materialism. Our instruments encounter setbacks everywhere and can only play a supporting role elsewhere."

Ning An was thoughtful: "So the whole plan is to use instruments to categorize tangible entities that can be manifested, making full use of these things."

Elder Shi nodded and then shook his head: "Yes and no. Fully utilizing these things is just a small part of our plan."

"A small part?"

"Correct. What do you think is the most important aspect of utilizing an area?" Elder Shi said with a smile.

"Naturally, it’s things like wood, minerals, oil, medicinal materials. Anything humans can use falls within the scope of utilization."

"That’s a very good thought, but you missed one point—environment and soil."

Elder Shi exclaimed: "What we are doing is not about exhausting the resources, but about establishing an everlasting foundation for future generations. Just take the soil you tested earlier, its Spiritual Qi concentration is 0.6, far exceeding that of our farmland.

If we cultivate farmland on this land, planting crops like wheat, rice, corn, will they not undergo mutations like the other plants and contain Spiritual Qi? How many of these mutant crops are suitable for ordinary people to eat, and how many are not? Can genetic editing and hybridization still be used? If one year doesn’t work, then we’ll try for two or three years, gaining experience from this process. In terms of individual life span, it might be a massive project, but from the perspective of human society, it’s worth it."

"Damn?!"

Ning An’s mind buzzed, and he instinctively blurted out a curse.

Ning An was stunned, realizing that he hadn’t thought of the latter half of what Elder Shi said.

This isn’t because he’s foolish, but because an individual is ultimately limited, so are the perspectives and levels at which problems are viewed.

People like Elder Shi, who are representative, stand from the perspective of society and the nation, speaking and acting based on the interests of all people, with the populace as the foundation.

Toward Ning An, Elder Shi is candid, speaking freely about what should and shouldn’t be said.

After all, many things now rely on Ning An to accomplish.

The most important thing is, Ning An at this stage clearly has irreplaceable functions, yet he does not flaunt his talents or show arrogance.

An equal and sincere attitude is what the nation values.

As Ning An slightly recovers his senses, Elder Shi continues, "This is just about crops; there are many other aspects to consider. For example, today’s strange snakes are just the tip of the biological iceberg; do you know how many species are there?

As far as humans know now, there are over two million species. Every year, species are being discovered, evolving, or becoming extinct.

Like a chicken, could it revert to its ancestral form and become a tyrannosaurus?

Could a pet dog revert to an ancestral form and turn into a ferocious wolf?

Even as humans, could someone possibly revert to an ancestral form and grow a tail?

Everything is unknown!

The non-toxic grass whistle, can it be artificially cultivated to maintain the Spiritual Qi content and density, while also being available for us to use?

And this already mutated tree, as long as it can bear fruit, can multiple methods like grafting greatly increase its fruit-bearing capacity, while ensuring the Spiritual Qi content of the fruit and possibly improving its taste at the same time?" 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

Seeing the confused Ning An, Elder Shi looked up and sighed deeply: "What we are doing is not just developing and utilizing an area, nor merely opening a path for Dragon Country."

"What we are doing is setting the tone for an era."