Chapter 1116: Harvest X-3

While Huo Zhun and his two companions were driving Tang Huai's luxury car along the bumpy dirt road outside the safe zone, playing the fat sheep to rob the robbers, Xia Qing was inside Shed No. 2 of Territory No. 3, harvesting Gao Yi-element spinach.

To improve the spinach's quality as quickly as possible, Xia Qing had been planting a new crop every half month since March, constantly adjusting the fertilizer-to-water ratio and devoting herself to research.

Of course, because the Gao Yi-element soil in Territory No. 3 was limited, each crop consisted of only 100 plants, occupying about 6 square meters. To date, she had planted 13 crops of spinach, taking up one and a half terraced fields.

The climate at the turn of spring and summer in Hui San was ideal for spinach growth. The spinach Xia Qing planted in early March matured in late May. As temperatures rose, the time for spinach to set seed and mature grew longer. Today's harvest had been planted in late May, with a growing period of 115 days.

This crop had 66 spinach seeds germinate; 40 female plants and 23 male plants survived to maturity, 63 in total. Because they had been protected by Yi-stone the whole time, all the spinach was green-light quality, with a Yi-element content of 7.5–7.9?.

Because spinach naturally sprays its seeds in all directions when it matures, these three thousand-plus seeds were all mixed together, making it impossible to distinguish seed quality with the naked eye.

Although she lacked advanced instruments for screening optimized seeds, Xia Qing's seed-selection method was more cost-effective.

She pulled out No. 001 employee Little Feimao of Territory No. 3 from her pocket, placed it on the winnowing tray holding 3,824 seeds, and ordered it in a gentle voice, "Little Feimao, pick out the best seeds from this batch. When you're done, I'll reward you with Gao Yi-element spinach."

Surrounded by delicious food, Little Feimao's big tail swayed like seaweed. It grabbed one seed with its little claws to sniff, then another to smell, selecting the most delicious seeds and tucking them into Xia Qing's pocket.

These seeds were the optimized seeds with the highest Yi-element content from this batch just harvested.

Xia Qing took out the 12 seeds from her pocket full of anticipation, put them in a small breathable packaging bag, then pulled out a pen and wrote a line on the sticky note attached to the bag:

Calamity Year 11, 0523–0914, Feimao's Strictly Selected Spinach Seeds.

This line of numbers meant that inside were spinach seeds planted on May 23 and harvested on September 14 of Calamity Year 11, optimized seeds selected by Little Feimao.

The Yi-element content of these seeds should have reached 8 points. When she planted these spinach seeds next spring, she'd be one step closer to the breeding target her idol had set for her!

Xia Qing carefully put away these 12 seeds full of anticipation, then stored the remaining seeds, and took out a section of spinach root from a nearby bag as a reward for the little squirrel working off its debt. "Little Feimao, you're amazing! Truly worthy of being the top seed-selection expert on the pyramid of Blue Star. This spinach is your reward—eating it will make you even stronger than Qiangzai."

Thank heavens, Qiangzai had finally excreted the qiang grass seeds that had been piling up in its intestines today. It was currently squatting outside the greenhouse with its mother, wagging its tail and rubbing its little paws, waiting to freeload.

Little Feimao preferred spinach seeds hidden in Xia Qing's pocket over spinach stems. But as a squirrel with a strong sense of crisis, it had to stash any savable delicacies in its nest to eat later when food couldn't be found.

So it happily swayed its fluffy big tail, held the spinach stem Xia Qing had given it, and munched away in big bites.

"Meeee~~~"

"Aaa—"

Waiting outside the thorny fence, Sheep Boss and Does Daigua saw Little Feimao get a spinach stem and eagerly reminded Xia Qing that they hadn't eaten yet either.

Xia Qing turned to look at the two creatures with green still on their mouths, grabbed some spinach stems and leaves that had been smashed by the sprayed seeds, and placed them in front of them. "This is Gao Yi-element spinach—eating too much won't be absorbed anyway. This is the last bit for today."

After feeding her companions, Xia Qing sent her idol a message asking if he needed fresh, high-quality spinach plants and seeds.

Although prices for seeds and plants had dropped a lot after X-2 was promoted, what Xia Qing's fields produced was no ordinary X-2, but X-3 with a Yi-element content of over 7 points.

On the market, Gao Yi-element spinach X-2 with a Yi-element content of 5–6? sold for 8 points per seed and 200 points per jin of spinach; Xia Qing's X-3 fetched 130 points per seed and 280 points per jin of spinach seedlings.

So today's spinach plants and seeds Xia Qing harvested were worth 277,000 points!

Now every month, Xia Qing could harvest two crops of spinach, selling for over 500,000 points. After deducting the cost of Yi-stone and premium fertilizer, her net profit was over 400,000.

Once her spinach quality reached a Yi-element content above 8?, the price would rise even more! The more Xia Qing calculated, the happier she felt, and she began humming a little tune.

Zhang San replied quickly: 30 jin of the best-quality spinach and 100 seeds; Zheng Chen would come pick them up in fifteen minutes.

Her idol still didn't want to see her. Xia Qing sighed and divided the spinach into three portions.

The best-quality spinach and seeds she kept for breeding and eating; the second-best went to Zheng Chen sent by her idol for research; the third batch was sold to the Azure Dragon Squad, to be cultivated or processed into premium nutrient solution by their relevant department for internal use within the Azure Dragon Squad, not for sale.

Because X-2 had only been on the market for half a year, the spinach's quality and stability were very high—there was no need to roll out X-3 so quickly and agitate the already very sensitive nerves of other bases and research institutes.

Xia Qing hummed her little tune all the way home. She had just stuffed the spinach plants into the double-door refrigerator and hadn't yet had time to spread the spinach seeds out to dry when the handsome giant wolf, unseen for days, swiped open the door and clip-clopped inside, planting itself in front of the first-floor bathroom door, demanding a medicinal bath.

Xia Qing went downstairs and saw it covered in filth, asking with concern, "Did Brother Giant Wolf fall into a mud pit, or did it get into a fight with someone?"

The handsome giant wolf stared at the bathroom door without moving.

The creature was terribly stubborn. Xia Qing led it straight into the bathroom to wash the rotten grass and mud off its fur, then grabbed its big paws and rinsed them clean before letting it into the tub, starting to fill it with warm water and add the medicinal solution.

The water rose little by little, and the giant wolf's thick silver fur spread out in the water, making the whole wolf look a size larger—devastatingly handsome.

Xia Qing sat beside the tub and briefed it. "Brother Giant Wolf, this is your last packet of medicinal solution. Once it's used up, there are no more."

When the pretending-dumb creature looked over, Xia Qing held the empty medicinal solution packet in front of its beautiful ice-blue eyes. "Gone. No. More."

Xia Qing had indeed traded fifteen packets of medicinal solution for the Yi-element magnetic-field-releasing creature she sent to her idol, but in the last ten days, aside from the day this fellow soaked in the same solution as Xia Qing, it came every day to soak, and the solution had zipped through its own share.

The handsome giant wolf glanced at the medicine packet once, then closed its eyes and sank even its head beneath the water.

No more solution? Don't care!

Xia Qing sighed. "Fine, I'll figure out a way to trade for more."

"Beep."

Xia Qing had just walked out of the bathroom and cleaned up the wolf paw prints on the floor when her phone in her pocket beeped once, then a second time, then a third.

After quite a while, an evolved wolf that had rinsed its paws clean in the water basin by the door appeared before Xia Qing.

Seeing what it was carrying in its mouth, Xia Qing beamed. "Handsome Wolf Brother, you got the Yi-stone back from the Western Wolf King's neck? You're amazing! Truly worthy of being the smartest wolf at the top of Blue Star's pyramid. Blue Star is more brilliant and colorful because of you!"

Broken-Waist Wolf took two steps back to avoid Xia Qing's outstretched paw, raised its big paw, and pointed at the automatic entry door.

Xia Qing nodded immediately. "The door has already been sent over. Tomorrow morning I'll go install it for you."

Only then did Broken-Waist Wolf hand the Yi-stone necklace to Xia Qing, revealing its snow-white, adorable little fang tips.