Chapter 138: Making the Use Yishi Protective Shell

The first step in making a Use Yishi protective shell is to cast a mold.

The technical requirements were too high, and Xia Qing truly didn't know how to do it, so she called Uncle Huo, who ran a blacksmith shop in the safe zone.

After being scolded until his ears buzzed, Uncle Huo agreed to forge two spherical molds for her, one large and one small. The large one was about the size of an egg, the small one about the size of a walnut.

Actually, they could have been even smaller, but smaller molds demanded finer craftsmanship, and Uncle Huo's price was higher. Xia Qing didn't have enough points in her account, and there were few supplies in her territory that she could put up for public trade, so she couldn't afford it.

Of course, Xia Qing didn't say that the molds were for housing Yi Stones — she only said they were for raising evolved crickets.

Evolved crickets had razor-sharp teeth; wooden or bamboo-woven cages simply couldn't hold them.

Following the protective shell instructions Luo Pei had given her, and using the molds Uncle Huo had forged, Xia Qing worked hard for two days and finally produced fifteen large and fifteen small Use Yishi protective shells.

Although the shells she made were far rougher than the one Luo Pei wore, Xia Qing was still overjoyed.

She placed three Yi Stones into the large shells and shared her joy with Boss Sheep. "Boss, look, this is good stuff. When the acid rain comes later, just hang one on, and you won't need to wear a protective mask."

Boss Sheep, lying on the tatami, glanced at the black lumps in Xia Qing's hand, then continued chewing his cud with a blank expression.

"You don't know good stuff." Xia Qing played with her creations one by one. "This one's good — the thickness is even. After polishing, I'll use it myself."

Xia Qing really wanted a companion to share her joy. Boss Sheep didn't appreciate it, so she went to the side of the sheep pen to show off to that very clever wolf?

"Buzz—"

Before she could go out, Xia Qing's phone rang. It was a message from Yang Jin, the boss of the Azure Dragon Squad — he wanted to meet her to discuss a trade.

When did this guy get back? Xia Qing replied simply with two words: Sure.

Yang Jin replied quickly: Are you in your territory now? I'll come over in half an hour?

……

In such a hurry?

Fine.

Xia Qing replied: Sure. 4:10, at the small hut beside the rain shelter south of Reservoir Three in Territory Three.

Upon receiving the message, Yang Jin stared at the location for a few seconds before replying with a single "Okay."

Negotiating trades with a miser was a real brain-burner. Xia Qing pulled out paper and pen, listed the supplies she needed and the supplies she could offer in exchange, and noted the bottom price for each item, before packing up and heading to the negotiation site.

As the territory's owner, she arrived five minutes early, tidied up the small hut a bit, and arranged the teapot, fresh ground-ginger berries, and ground-bubble berries she had brought on the little wooden table.

Just as she had tidied the hut up to look somewhat like a reception room, Xia Qing heard footsteps. She turned to look north and saw Yang Jin approaching in a camouflage protective suit and protective mask.

When Yang Jin entered the hut and took off his mask, Xia Qing noticed that, after more than two months apart, he had actually tanned two shades darker.

It seemed his trip this time had taken him either up the mountains or down to the sea, because only the UV up in the mountains or by the coast could be that fierce.

Yang Jin surveyed the hut and smiled. "You've built this hut solid and practical."

After tanning, Yang Jin's smile made his neat white teeth especially striking — looking bright and sunny, enough to make anyone dizzy.

Xia Qing replied modestly, "I just threw it up to make it easier to tend the crops. It does the job. Please sit down, Captain Yang."

Yang Jin sat down, looked at the fruit and teapot on the table, and replied in all seriousness, "It's already very good."

Good? Compared to what?

Xia Qing racked her brain for a moment, then suddenly realized what Yang Jin was using as a reference for his assessment: the broken-down supplies at the wasteland village where they had first traded.

Compared to that shabby place, this was indeed much better. Still, why did she feel there was something just a little off about Yang Jin's tone?

Xia Qing poured Yang Jin a cup of hot tea and explained, "There's a wolf recuperating in my yard. I was afraid the pack would react too violently if you went there, so I asked you to come here instead. I can hear your throat isn't feeling well — have some tea to soothe it."

"Thank you."

Yang Jin, who had just rushed back from the coast, had a slightly hoarse voice and red bloodshot in his eyes. But in the age of catastrophes, not suffering serious injury, poisoning, or infection by a lethal evolved fungus didn't count as anything serious.

Still, the fact that Xia Qing could tell his throat was uncomfortable made Yang Jin very happy.

Last time he came, she had been afraid of startling her sheep, and had taken him to a shabby room; this time he came, she was afraid of startling the recuperating wolf, and had taken him to this little hut.

Next time he came, what would be used to keep him out the door?

Yang Jin began to look forward to their next meeting. "I heard from Brother Luo that one of those two wolves is a brain-evolved type, with a waist injury?"

"Mm, the one that raided the wild boar breeding center the second time. It's very close to the wolf that came the first time. Lord Seven performed the surgery personally — give it some time and it'll recover."

After saying this, Xia Qing invited Yang Jin to try the fruit. "Captain Yang, try the wild fruit from my territory. The purple-red ones are green-light ground-ginger berries; the black ones are ground-bubble berries, yellow-light."

Yang Jin picked up a few ground-bubble berries and ate them — his expression alone showed he liked them very much. "I ate these when I went up the mountains as a kid. We called them wild grapes back home. If the yellow-light ones taste this good, the green-light ones must be even better."

Xia Qing also believed the green-light ones would taste better, but, "If they were green-light, Captain Yang wouldn't be eating them today, because green-light ones can be traded for chicks."

"You asked Zhang San to operate on the evolved wolf — that must have cost quite a few points, right?" Yang Jin looked at Xia Qing's noticeably improved complexion and smiled warmly.

Yang Jin's smile was very infectious — it could pull a person right back to the days before the catastrophes, that dearly missed era of quiet, peaceful years.

But Xia Qing felt no quiet peace at all — she only felt that this miser hadn't even started negotiating yet and was already using his honey trap.

No matter how handsome the smile, this girl doesn't fall for it!

Xia Qing lowered her head and took a sip of tea to calm her nerves before speaking. "Mm, 150,000."

Yang Jin, who was very fond of the ground-bubble berries, took another small bunch and ate them slowly. "Brother Luo said you didn't tell Zhang San about the Yi Stones, so you paid with spinach seeds?"

Xia Qing nodded and stated her bottom price. "Yes. One spinach seed, 100 points."

No matter how handsome your smile, you can't go below this price.

Yang Jin understood, and his smile grew even more dazzling. "Green-light spinach seeds with a Yi element content of six ten-thousandths — 100 points per seed is very reasonable. Can the Azure Dragon Squad trade with you at the same price?"

Now you're talking!

Xia Qing nodded solemnly. "Sure. But I've already planted all my spinach seeds now, so we'll have to wait three months before we can trade. How many does Captain Yang want?"

Yang Jin answered with great boldness, "However many you can offer, I'll take that many."

Xia Qing nodded again and stated her exchange conditions. "I want gasoline, diesel, bullets, grenades, and a diesel generator."

These supplies couldn't be obtained through outside trade, or even if they could, none matched the Azure Dragon Squad's quality — which was why Xia Qing chose to trade with the Azure Dragon Squad.

The hidden-poison incident at Site Nine and the refugees pouring in from the south both made Xia Qing uneasy; she wanted to have more weapons.

Yang Jin was also very straightforward. "Sure. How many of each?"

Xia Qing reported the numbers she had already planned, "Four barrels of gasoline, four barrels of diesel, one generator, one thousand rounds of submachine gun ammo, five hundred rounds of sniper rifle ammo, twenty grenades?"

Back in March this year, Xia Qing had traded spring water with Yang Jin for three guns and nine hundred rounds of ammo. At the time she'd thought nine hundred rounds was an astronomical number, but she hadn't expected that after just over two months of target practice, she'd nearly used up all the ammo.

Xia Qing had once asked Luo Pei how many rounds she'd need to fire to become proficient.

Luo Pei said that before the disasters, the military needed three years and fifty to ninety thousand rounds of ammo to train a sharpshooter with decent aptitude. But Xia Qing was a three-ability high-tier evolved human, so her natural aptitude was far stronger than pre-disaster humans — as long as she was willing to put in the hard work, one year and ten thousand rounds should be enough to get her there.

Ten thousand rounds — if Xia Qing didn't have high-value supplies on hand — pollution-free spring water and green-light spinach with a yi-element content of six ten-thousandths — hearing that number would have made her give up on the spot.