Chapter 1577: Harvesting Spinach Seeds with a Yi-Element Content of 8.1‰

"1146… 1147…"

After the spinach explosion ended, ninety-nine percent of the spinach seeds had broken free from the mother plant and bounced off in every direction. Xia Qing opened the glass compartment and checked the seeds one by one. She turned over all the soil, but she was still one seed short.

Although the spinach had evolved, the spinach seeds didn't grow legs, so they had to be in here. If not in the soil, then in…

Xia Qing's gaze turned to the thirty spinach plants she had pulled out. The Green Lantern spinach's evolution skill was practically zero damage to enemies and one hundred percent self-harm—most of the main stems of the plants had been pierced through by the exploding spinach seeds. The missing seed had to be hiding inside one of the plants.

Xia Qing checked plant after plant, and finally, at the junction where the spinach's main stem met the root, she found this last seed! After putting this "cunning" seed into her pouch, Xia Qing finally felt complete.

She took a half-yellowed leaf that had been blown to bits into the testing room, placed it into the Yi-element detector, then returned to the artificial climate cultivation room to clean up the mess.

She peeled off the anti-collision film stuck to the glass, carefully cleaned every nook and cranny inside this glass unit cell, then wiped it dry with a rag. After sterilization and disinfection, she added fertile soil to the cultivation frame and transplanted twenty tomato plants that were at the seedling stage from the adjacent unit cell.

At this season, there were no fresh fruits in Xia Qing's own territory, so she treated cucumbers and tomatoes as fruit. Sheep Boss liked them very much too.

Watching the glass unit cell being filled again with lush green plants, Xia Qing's eyes were full of joy. She turned on the drip irrigation system, left the artificial climate cultivation room, and entered the testing room.

The test results for the spinach plants were already out: Qiang-element content 2.3‰, Yi-element content 8.1‰.

The combined Qiang-Yi two-element content was the same as before entering the mature period. According to Blue Star's rule that 1% of plant seeds mutate after evolution, among the 103 seeds produced by this plant, there should be one seed whose Qiang-Yi two-element content differed from the mother plant.

Xia Qing naturally hoped this seed was a cultivable optimized seed. She had promised her idol two years ago that she would use three years to raise the spinach's Yi-element content above 9‰. This year was the second year, which meant she might achieve this KPI ahead of schedule by a year and a half, possibly as early as May this year!

As for whether there was a cultivable optimized seed among this batch, she just needed to find her excellent employee—No. 001 Little Feimao—to run a test, and she'd know.

With spinach seeds tucked in her pocket and a bag of spinach plants in her hand, Xia Qing left the laboratory in high spirits. By then, the sky had gone completely dark, and her companions were still waiting outside the laboratory for her.

Boss and Little Huang Niu were lying back-to-back, chewing their cud. Wolf Lao Er was pouncing on and biting snow-jumping insects nearby for fun. Xia Qing rarely saw Wolf Lao Er this lively—it seemed that her staying in the territory instead of going out made it feel very safe and very happy.

Hearing the door open and seeing Xia Qing come out, Sheep Boss, who hadn't had dinner yet, was about to jump up and lecture her, when it caught a whiff of an extremely delicious scent.

"Baa~~~"

Sheep Boss leaped up and rushed to Xia Qing's side, carefully sniffing her protective suit. With wide Kazilan big sheep eyes, it let out a coquettish squeaky voice, signaling Xia Qing to quickly give it the food in the bag.

Xia Qing laughed happily. "The spinach in our territory has ripened, so of course the Boss who diligently generates electricity gets some. Wolf Lao Er worked hard protecting the territory, so it must also eat the most delicious and most nutritious food. Boss, lead Little Huang Niu, let's go home!"

"Baa~~~"

When there's delicious food, that's when Sheep Boss is at its smartest. It turned around and ran back to Little Huang Niu, gripped the ground stake tethering the ox with its teeth and yanked it upward, then led Little Huang Niu home.

Although Little Huang Niu hadn't undergone brain-region evolution, it could still remember where its home was, and it would head home when it got dark. But today it wasn't in a hurry to head back—instead, it walked toward Xia Qing.

Clearly, it had also caught the scent of delicious food.

"Moo!" Sheep Boss got angry, turned around, and pawed the ground, ready to send Little Huang Niu flying with a headbutt.

Xia Qing was shocked. She grabbed the bag and rushed forward, blocking the aggressively charging Sheep Boss, and sternly reprimanded, "Boss! Stop!"

Little Huang Niu wasn't an evolver. If Sheep Boss headbutted it, Xia Qing might be eating beef that very evening. What she needed now was milk, not Green Lantern meat!

"Baa~~~" Sheep Boss immediately stopped, let out a winding, twisting squeaky voice, and even came over to nuzzle Xia Qing with its neck, urging her to hurry home.

The wolf dog Wolf Lao Er also noticed that Xia Qing was truly angry, and came over to nuzzle her in appeasement. Little Huang Niu, unaware it had just narrowly escaped a disaster, followed along trying to gnaw the bag in Xia Qing's hand.

Xia Qing pushed away Little Huang Niu's head, gave Sheep Boss a stern warning to make it understand the consequences of hurting Little Huang Niu, and only then led her companions home.

Xia Qing used a ragged spinach stalk to mix Sheep Boss's fodder. She and Wolf Lao Er also ate rice mixed with half-yellowed spinach leaves. Even Little Feimao got a small piece of very juicy spinach root, and even Little Huang Niu in the sheep pen got a handful of dried, withered spinach leaves.

This batch of spinach plants was clearly much more yellowed and withered than the previous few crops.

Because the previous crops of spinach had all ripened in the greenhouses of the North Buffer Forest. Spinach plants entering the mature period would sway left and right in the natural breeze, and once any seed's pod scratched open a spinach leaf, the spinach plant would explode.

This crop of spinach ripened inside the artificial climate cultivation room. Because Xia Qing controlled the ventilation wind speed inside the unit cell, the plants swayed very slightly, so the explosion didn't happen until the first seed naturally fell off.

The withered leaves and stems didn't taste good at all, but Sheep Boss and Little Feimao both ate with great satisfaction and wanted more after finishing.

Xia Qing left one plant for Sheep Boss, then took a photo and sent it to Yang Jin.

Yang Jin called back very quickly. "Sister Qing, has the quality of this batch of spinach changed in its later stage?"

Having harvested high-quality crop seeds, Xia Qing was in an exceptionally bright mood, and her voice was much gentler. "It hasn't dropped."

Yang Jin's mood brightened along with hers. "No drop is good news. Should I have Er Yong come over now to pick up the plants?"

"Okay." Her idol currently had many important research projects and couldn't spare the time to process the spinach plants into nutrient solution, so Xia Qing had entrusted the Green Dragon Squad to help with the processing.

Apart from the two vials she had promised to sell to Yang Jin, Xia Qing wouldn't sell a single vial of the remaining nutrient solution—she was keeping it all for her own use. Because this was nutrient solution with a Yi-element content as high as 7.5‰ or above, its effects were far better than the X-brand nutrient solution on the market!

Yang Jin didn't hang up right away and continued chatting casually with Xia Qing. "What did Sister Qing eat tonight?"

Xia Qing pushed away Little Feimao, who had jumped onto her and was being rowdy, and answered gently, "Spinach noodles. What about you?"

"Nutrient solution. Too much going on, no time to eat." Yang Jin approved an application form in the OA system, opened the second one, and chatted with Xia Qing with a divided mind. "The supplies under Mountain No. 33 have been packed up. I'm planning to transport the supplies to the North Evolution Forest of Hui Base 8 the day after tomorrow. Sister Qing, help me ask and see if Lao Si has picked the location yet?"

Xia Qing raised an eyebrow. What a coincidence—she had called for the same reason.