Chapter 274: Chapter 274: Four Extra Ribs
The Goddess of Agriculture waved Her hand, and suddenly a pig’s phantom appeared before them. However, it had some differences from the pigs Roster knew.
Its biggest characteristic was that it seemed... longer.
"This is?"
Though he had some vague guesses in his heart, Viscount Roster still asked.
"A new breed of pig we cultivated."
The Goddess of Agriculture had no habit of keeping people in suspense and spoke directly. "According to our observations, this new breed of pig grows rapidly. It only needs 180 days to grow over 200 pounds. For every pound gained, feed consumption is around 3 pounds. After slaughter, about 70% is edible."
"Additionally, each litter can produce 11 to 13 piglets. Environmental requirements aren’t very high either—cold-resistant and heat-tolerant, basically eats anything..."
"Aside from the body being longer, which resulted in four extra ribs compared to ordinary pigs, we haven’t discovered any obvious drawbacks."
"Whoa—"
Viscount Roster’s expression as he looked at this pig became incredibly intense.
Very early on, he’d been paying attention to his territory’s agricultural situation. The noble on the entire continent most knowledgeable about this should be him.
As the main meat source for commoners, he knew pigs inside and out.
But precisely because he understood, he found this terrifying!
The traditional black-haired pigs currently being raised could also reach around 200 pounds, but they needed about 300 to 400 days—over double this new breed. Yet they ate no less, needing over 5 pounds of food daily.
Calculated out, it took about 10 pounds of feed to gain 1 pound of meat...
Just this comparison alone made the terrifying difference even more obvious. Only needing one-third the feed and half the time to harvest the same weight of meat.
The key was, according to the Goddess of Agriculture, this pig was also perfectly suited for their concentrated feeding method...
As for the only so-called drawback of having four extra ribs—what kind of drawback was that?
Who cared about a few extra ribs?!
These days, many minor nobles couldn’t manage to eat meat every day, never mind ordinary people. Being able to eat meat was what mattered most.
Just be careful when butchering!
Once this spread, this would be the real pig. What were those things with fewer ribs?
"I wonder how many breeding pigs you’ve cultivated? Do we need to pray to you in the mortal realm to bestow these divine pigs?"
Taking a deep breath and trying his best to calm down, Viscount Roster asked.
"We’ve already cultivated 1,000 breeding pigs. If nothing unexpected happens, after sending them to the mortal realm, they’ll increase to 10,000 in a short time. I plan to have the Church of Agriculture directly receive this batch of breeding pigs."
"Then why did you call me here?"
Though Roster vaguely had a guess, he didn’t say it directly.
"You’re a smart man. You’ve already thought of it." The Goddess of Agriculture said with a smile.
"You want the Church of Agriculture to use this new breeding stock to invest in our livestock farms?" Viscount Roster had clearly figured it out but still spoke to confirm.
"Yes."
The Goddess of Agriculture nodded slightly. "We still know something about recent changes in the mortal realm. The Church of Agriculture isn’t very popular in this version. I have to help them establish themselves as much as possible in this new era. I believe you can understand."
Never mind anything else—just take the recent Magic Net Videos and Magic Net Video Classroom. Other churches could promote their divine arts’ special characteristics and teach people how to receive divine power and become the lowest level of cleric. But what about the Church of Agriculture?
Their low-level divine arts were mainly for watering and farming, with absolutely no appeal.
As time passed, this gap would grow larger and larger.
Agriculture—something almost no one in this world could escape. To live, you had to have agriculture.
But those engaged in agriculture mostly weren’t respected, unless they became a super-large lord in the agricultural field. But such lords almost never converted to faith.
Against this backdrop, the Goddess of Agriculture felt increasingly urgent. Even though because of the seeds, there might be an ultra-large-scale prayer ceremony every year in the future, it wasn’t enough to dilute Her worry.
Watching other deities’ faith power continuously surge, watching other deities’ believers grab hold of the Magic Net’s changes—that envy and urgency was just too oppressive, pressing so hard She could barely breathe.
The new pig breed made Her feel—the opportunity had come!
As long as they held in their hands the possibility of almost everyone in the world eating meat, then the situation would definitely improve.
After pondering briefly, Viscount Roster finally spoke. "I plan to use Dawn Southern Development Company’s name to gradually establish ten large-scale livestock farms in the Southern Territory. Through these large farms, we’ll satisfy the Southern Territory population’s meat-eating needs."
"Besides that, these large livestock farms will have another function—cultivating enough breeding pigs. Once numbers go up, we’ll export young pigs of this breed. Whether nobles elsewhere want to raise them and how many—that’s not for us to decide."
"This is good." The Goddess of Agriculture nodded slightly. "I only have one additional requirement: let everyone know these pigs come from the Goddess of Agriculture."
"Of course."
Viscount Roster didn’t hesitate at all.
Based on people’s current understanding, if these pigs with four extra ribs weren’t bestowed by a deity, then they’d be demons’ incarnations and cause problems. Even if the Goddess of Agriculture didn’t say so, he’d definitely let people know this. He’d even have clerics from the Church of Agriculture cooperate with promotion.
But wait—didn’t this have anything to do with the God of Nature? Why didn’t they need to promote that the God of Nature was also involved?
If it had nothing to do with Him, why would He appear here?
"Of course it relates to me."
The God of Nature smiled at Viscount Roster. "I developed this pig together with the Goddess of Agriculture. But I don’t care about the pig itself, because I developed this..."
A tiny blue bottle of potion appeared before Viscount Roster. This bottle was only about one-tenth the size of the previous plant potions, not even enough for an ordinary person to take one gulp.
Viscount Roster immediately had a bad feeling. "This is?"
"Nature Animal No. 1."
"...Just as I thought." Viscount Roster was somewhat helpless. All these Nature No. 1s—promoting them was really going to be tough on him.
"This Animal No. 1 is different. It’s for animals to consume—just one bottle per animal is enough." The God of Nature said with a smile.
"Newborn young ones who drink it will have their mortality rate greatly reduced. They’ll be almost impossible to kill through external environmental interference. Additionally, it provides some basic nutritional substances to ensure healthier growth... The cost is only 3 to 5 copper coins."
The God of Nature basically dropped a bombshell. In just one sentence, he shocked Viscount Roster so much that for a moment, he didn’t know what to say.