Chapter 1439: Blood for Water

"This guy is really talented!"

Hearing what the Broken-Waist Wolf had done, Yang Jin couldn't help laughing. "No wonder it ran faster than a rabbit the moment you shouted."

"Depends on what level of rabbit!" Xia Qing's face was expressionless. "The monk can run away, but the temple can't. Once I'm done, I'll take the stuff to Mountain No. 55 and corner it!"

If it didn't compensate with Yishi, she would channel all the power surging through her into tearing down the temple!

"No need for that trouble." Yang Jin had a better idea. "How about Sister Qing sells me the recording of the Broken-Waist Wolf's work and the production process? These two wolves from the northern pack will be famous across the world sooner or later. When that happens, this piece will definitely fetch a good price."

Xia Qing...

You really are the Broken-Waist Wolf's true disciple!

Yang Jin truly intended to collect it. "Whatever points Sister Qing wants the Broken-Waist Wolf to pay in compensation, I'll pay the same amount to add it to my collection."

"Not selling."

"I'll pay 1.5 times?"

Xia Qing set down her bowl. "It used my bedsheet to paste the mirror."

Huh? Huh...

"Then it really can't be sold..." But he still wanted to collect it. However, Xia Qing would definitely refuse. Yang Jin regretfully picked up his bowl and took a few sips of soup, then changed the subject. "The western wasteland grass wall of Territory No. 4 has been thoroughly investigated. No surveillance or listening devices were found."

Xia Qing nodded. While tucking the peeled pickled egg into the large steamed bun she'd brought back from Territory No. 7, she said, "When I head to Territory No. 7 later, I'll bring the stuff over and hand it to Daya. Once the results are out, I'll notify the inspection team."

"To improve territory security, from now on we need to have the inspection team and every territory strictly check personnel entering and leaving Northern Zone One, to eliminate any future trouble." Yang Jin also copied Xia Qing's way of eating, tucking an egg into his bun before continuing. "The two people bribed in Territory No. 4 were Zhao Ze's relatives. Can Sister Qing guess what conditions the other party used to bribe them?"

Xia Qing guessed, "Something that can trigger evolution abilities, or a formal job in the safe zone's inner city?"

"The latter. What the other party promised was that as long as they installed the equipment as required, they'd be arranged to work as sanitation workers in the safe zone's inner city." Yang Jin sneered. "Anyone with half a brain would know a job like that wouldn't fall to them."

Working and living in the clean, safe inner city was the dream of the vast majority of humans during the Calamity years. Even a janitor's position could cause people to fight to the death for it.

But once you actually got into the inner city, you'd find that the dead-wage jobs at the bottom weren't easy at all. After paying rent and buying necessities, the food you could afford might be reduced to compressed rations.

Relying on having saved the chief physician of the safe zone's inner city during the violence, Xu Juan had gotten a job with the inner city hospital's rescue team. Besides working, she also helped Xia Qing and others gather information for extra cash, but her days were still much more strained than when she was with the Dongyang Squad.

Of course, they were also much more stable and secure.

"Zhao Ze spent 3000 points to buy a set of detection equipment from the Qinglong Squad. From now on, the territory will be carefully scanned every day." After finishing the matter of Territory No. 4, Yang Jin brought up newly received news.

"Just past five this morning, two modified humans from the Liehuo Squad died due to insufficient supply of uncontaminated spring water. Morale inside Liehuo is in shambles. Fire Phoenix has already agreed to trade her blood for Crazy Sand's uncontaminated spring water. The first batch of spring water will be loaded onto the aircraft this morning. Once she goes down this path, Fire Phoenix won't be able to hold out much longer. You're leading the team to Mountain No. 50 today?"

Xia Qing, who had finished her bun and tea soup, nodded. "Right, installing equipment. When you leave, have Captain Hu and Er Yong come over to guard the territory. Old Fourth trusts the two of them a bit more. By the way, how much for a pair of Bluetooth earphones?"

Yang Jin took off his own Bluetooth earphones and handed them to Xia Qing. "999 points. Hall-grade sound quality, with insect-repelling effect. The ear hooks are made of a new elastic material, so they won't fall off even during tumbling and fighting."

"Buying two pairs, can't you give a discount?"

Xia Qing had decided to give up on buying the moment Yang Jin quoted the price, but after hearing that last sentence, she gritted her teeth and decided to buy. Because the Bluetooth earphones she was currently using were semi-in-ear style; any large movement would cause them to loosen or even fall off, and once they dropped and got stuck in her protective mask, it really got in the way.

Yang Jin beamed. "That's the group-buy price. If Sister Qing is tight on points, you can pay me after harvesting the spinach seeds."

"No need, I still have enough points." The seeds from that spinach plant in the cultivation chamber—Xia Qing's face was expressionless; she wouldn't sell a single one, wanting to use them all to cultivate higher-quality spinach.

After the meal, Xia Qing first went to the Ninth Center to pick up a box truck, drove to Territory No. 7, handed the listening devices found in Territory No. 4 to Daya, then called on her strength-evolution allies from the territory alliance to transport the equipment for cultivating the evolved Chuanqi grass to the hidden valley.

The idol's team had already confirmed that the hot spring water in the hidden valley, once filtered, could be used to cultivate the Chuanqi grass rich in Yi-12 that Xia Qing had discovered on Mountain No. 22.

This evolved grass was one of the main raw materials for the new drug codenamed "41-RHN" currently being developed by Territory No. 7. So Zhang San dispatched Zhang Xun from the Zhang Tao research group to stay in the hidden valley, specifically in charge of cultivating the Chuanqi grass.

Zhang Xun, a brain-domain evolver only 33 years old this year, came from Red One Research Institute and was also a protected, well-known researcher. Zhang San dispatched four special forces soldiers to stay in the hidden valley, responsible for protecting Zhang Xun and the precious herbs inside.

By rights, such precious herbs should be cultivated within the heavily guarded Territory No. 7, but Territory No. 7's research funding was tight, so they could only switch to the hidden valley, which had constant temperature year-round and lower cultivation costs.

Xia Qing led her strength-evolution allies to carry the equipment from the parking lot at the foot of the mountain into the valley. Under Zhang Xun's guidance, Zhao Ze and Qi Fu installed and debugged the equipment. Yu Shou went to catch up with comrades recuperating in the valley, while everyone else went to check on the crops they had planted in the valley, or the chickens, rabbits, and mealworms they had sent over before the Calamity Snow period to be sheltered in the valley from the disasters.

Xia Qing also went to check on her one mu of green-light dwarf-strain oil sunflowers.

When she attended the agricultural products trade fair held by the safe zone last July, Xia Qing had bought 150 yellow-light oil sunflower seeds. After two seasons of cultivation last autumn and this spring, she had obtained green-light oil sunflower seeds with a Calamity element content of about 4.2‰.

After harvesting one mu of green-light peanuts planted in the valley in mid-October this year, Xia Qing tilled and fertilized the soil, then planted the oil sunflower seeds. Having grown for fifty days, the oil sunflowers were already half a meter tall, with flower buds sprouting at the tops of the plants, lifting anyone's spirits at the sight.

Xia Qing took off her winter-style protective suit, removed her protective mask, picked up a hoe, and began loosening the soil and weeding around the oil sunflowers.

Although one of her ears was wearing the newly exchanged hall-grade sound quality Bluetooth earphones, Xia Qing didn't play any music. To her ears, the sound of the hoe loosening the soil and severing grass roots was the most wonderful music of all.

A lord weeding her own farmland was the most normal thing in the world, but to Xiao Peng, the spy special forces soldier in Territory No. 7, Xia Qing must certainly be harboring negative emotions.

Otherwise, why wasn't she helping Zhang Xun install the equipment?