Chapter 1440: Territory No. 5 Plans for the Future

Yuan Yan worked briskly to finish tidying the two-fen plot that Territory No. 5 had been allocated in the valley, confirmed that Zhang Xun's side didn't need extra hands, and came over to help Xia Qing weed.

When farmers gather, of course they talk about crops.

Yuan Yan spoke first. "After the air vent on the edge was sealed off with tempered glass, the seedlings around here really grow visibly. As long as the fertilizer and water can keep up, I think this one-mu plot of oil sunflowers should yield four or five hundred jin."

Four or five hundred jin of oil sunflowers can press out a hundred-plus jin of edible oil—just hearing that made Xia Qing, who had known hunger, feel steadied at heart. She didn't mention that the 124 oil sunflower plants on the edge belonged to Zhang Shi and Ye Yiyi, and answered in agreement, "About right. The eight plants tied with red string are breedable optimized seeds; the harmful element content has dropped to around 3.5. Next spring I plan to plant one mu in the territory."

The germination rate of this oil sunflower bred at Hui-3 Base reaches as high as 80%, and the seeds from four oil sunflower heads are enough to plant one mu, so Xia Qing still had surplus quality seeds. Yuan Yan proposed a trade: "Would it work if I trade you 100 pea seeds with a harmful element content of 4.6 for 100 oil sunflower seeds at 3.5?"

Both Xia Qing and Boss Yang like to eat pea shoots. The over a thousand yellow-light peas Xia Qing planted last season only produced 17 green-light breedable optimized plants—not enough for this year's planting—so she naturally agreed to the trade. "Oil sunflower seeds aren't that precious; I'll give you 150, Sister Yan."

Xia Qing proposed 150 seeds because pea seeds with a harmful element content of 4.6 are even more precious than oil sunflower seeds with a content of 3.5.

What the lords of the territories in the northern first district plant are yellow-light peas that Kuang Qingwei obtained from Hui-9 Base. Hui-9's yellow-light peas have four-generation stability and are decent yellow-light crop seeds, but breeding superior varieties is very difficult.

Xia Qing could breed green-light quality ones because she used pollution-free spring water to stabilize the quality of the breedable optimizations that popped out. The breedable optimized seeds that popped out in other territories saw their harmful element content slowly climb during growth, with final quality mostly holding at around 6‰.

Without pollution-free spring water, but with the richest and most diligent farming experience, Territory No. 5 was able to breed green-light peas—something that made Xia Qing admire them, though she didn't find it unexpected.

"Good." After becoming a top sniper, Xia Qing still followed the rules set by the territory alliance when trading supplies with her allies, which made Yuan Yan feel very reassured at heart. She smiled and agreed.

These two years in the territory, especially with improved food conditions this year, Yuan Yan's dual-system hidden evolutionary ability had manifested. On top of that, she had used scar-removal cream produced by Hui-3 Pharmaceutical Factory to fade the scars on her face caused by acid rain burns, so when she smiled there was no longer a fierce look, but a few more degrees of warmth and gentleness.

Seeing Xia Qing was in a good mood, she seized the chance to ask her in a low voice, "Tang Huai said everyone should get together for some fun at New Year's, and Third Brother might join too. I want to take advantage of when Third Brother is in a good mood and ask him to take a look at me and prescribe some medicine to condition my body. But I don't have any green-light food Third Brother would fancy on my side. Qing, what do you think—how many points should I prepare? If the amount is too large, I'll save up enough points before talking to Third Brother."

Xia Qing, who now counted as half a doctor, asked in a low voice, "Where do you feel unwell, Sister Yan?"

Yuan Yan lowered her head to look at the oil sunflower buds and answered softly, "It's not any big problem. I've been eating and drinking well in the territory for over a year now, but my period still only comes once every few months, and the color isn't normal either. I was thinking, if I could get my body conditioned, I'd have another child."

In the first year of the catastrophe, Yuan Yan and Qi Fu's child, not yet two years old, died from an infection of the evolution bacteria—half the lives of the couple went with the child. In the difficult years afterward in the safe zone, the couple never thought to improve their living conditions by having children to claim welfare benefits.

Now life was getting better day by day. Qi Fu had sustained injuries during the catastrophe that triggered a strength-type evolutionary ability, and Yuan Yan was a dual-system evolver. They had also allied with a national-treasure-level medical expert and Hui-3's top sniper, and this territory was protected by the wolf pack. So the couple believed that as long as they worked hard to improve their strength and diligently farmed to accumulate points, they could raise a child safely.

Hearing it was about conditioning in this area, Xia Qing really couldn't easily estimate the price.

In late October this year, she and Fourth had dug out supplies that a Blaze team member had hidden in the giant tree hollow of Hui-1 No. 28 Mountain, and obtained three kinds of precious medicines.

The first kind, used to detoxify Luo Pei, was appraised by the Azure Dragon Battle Team at 1.9 million points; the second kind, a recovery medicine for treating severe skin and muscle damage caused by poisoning, was taken by Zhang San and traded with a researcher in Guicheng for a batch of scarce experimental materials, valued at 2 million points; the third kind of medicine was compounded by her idol into a prescription to treat Xia Qing's endocrine imbalance and amenorrhea.

Judging by the value of the first two medicines, the third medicine should also be worth around two million points.

All three medicines were ones Fire Phoenix had used to condition her own body, which was why the Blaze Battle Team went madly tearing through the southern wolf pack's territory and poisoning the southern wolf pack after losing them. And precisely because she lost these three medicines, Fire Phoenix's physical condition became unstable, and she could only hole up in her office and not go out—otherwise Blaze would never be as passive as they were now.

Following her idol's style, Xia Qing gave a conservative estimate: "If you want to be conditioned to optimal condition, I'd guess it'd take at least several hundred thousand. Sister Yan should first see Doctor Wang of the Azure Dragon Battle Team, and if that doesn't work, then look for Third Brother."

The two team doctors who followed Luo Pei in the Azure Dragon Battle Team—Wang Shunhong handled internal medicine and Chang Li handled surgery—both had high skill levels. Xia Qing didn't suggest Yuan Yan go to the safe zone hospital because the last time Yuan Yan went to the safe zone to buy scar-removal cream, she happened to run into people in the safe zone setting traps to hunt magnetoceptive evolvers. She had been badly frightened, and unless absolutely necessary, she never wanted to set foot in the safe zone again in her life.

"You're right. I'll see Doctor Wang first, and if that doesn't work, then look for Third Brother." Yuan Yan, who after two busy years had only saved up a little over twenty thousand points, wasn't frightened off by the figure Xia Qing mentioned.

Evolvers' lifespans had been extended to over a hundred years. She was only thirty-four this year, and she owned 3,800 mu of territory. As long as no world-shattering catastrophe occurred, she could save up points every year. If two years wasn't enough, then ten years—as long as the couple was willing to work, they would sooner or later save up enough points to ask Third Brother to compound medicine for her.

"Buzz—"

From the other end of the valley came the sound of machinery operating. Xia Qing and Yuan Yan turned their heads and saw Zhang Xun, Qi Fu, and Zhao Ze had finished assembling the water quality treatment system and water circulation system needed for growing river moss grass. Zhao Ze called the allies over to move stones and build the planting beds for the river moss grass.

River moss grass is a rare aquatic plant with extremely demanding ecological requirements—it can only grow on stones in clear, swift streams—so the planting beds had to be built with stones that met the requirements.

This was the pilot stage, so Zhang Xun had only selected an open area near the springhead and built a fifty-square-meter planting bed. After the pilot succeeded, the planting area would be expanded to one mu, meaning the area where Xia Qing currently grew oil sunflowers would be converted into river moss grass fields.

Next spring, after the territory alliance uses the remaining two mu of area to raise rice seedlings, the planting zones of each core alliance member in the valley would be redivided. By then, Xia Qing's planting area would shrink from the current 1 mu to 0.65 mu, and the allies' would shrink from the current 0.2 mu to 0.16 mu.

Xia Qing, as the manager of Mountain No. 50 and the alliance leader of the territory alliance, had the largest reduction in high-quality farmland free from harmful element intrusion!

The spy special forces soldier Xiao Peng, standing not far away, heard this news and, using his peripheral vision, studied Xia Qing's expressionless face, feeling he had gained another important piece of intelligence.

Staying in the valley, sooner or later he could pry open the mouths of those three immobilized veterans next door—by then there would surely be even bigger gains!