Chapter 249: A Very Expensive Potion

"Third Brother, I'm a strength evolver. Carrying or hauling a few hundred jin of supplies is routine, which has caused muscle strain in my shoulders, legs, and waist. When I overexert, the Hukou tears too—it's become a chronic injury. Third Brother, do you have medicine that treats my kind of condition?"

After suffering successive devastation from violent crustal movements, nuclear radiation, and cosmic gamma-ray bursts, Blue Star entered the Calamity Phase. Under the sudden appearance of the two elements Shang and Yi, all living beings on Blue Star underwent a great evolution in a short time.

But humans, sitting at the apex of Blue Star's Jin Zita, evolved the slowest and most unevenly. So Blue Star's food chain has been reshuffled again and again, and humanity can no longer hold its place at the top of the Jin Zita.

The broadcast gave a vivid metaphor for this uneven evolution of humanity: a wooden bucket.

After the great evolution of Blue Star's lifeforms, every bodily function of humans generally doubled. This is like every plank of a wooden bucket being lengthened by one fold, so the bucket's capacity doubles—evolution of this degree is balanced.

About one-point-five per thousand humans gained more energy during evolution, and on top of the across-the-board doubling of bodily functions, theirs continued to grow. But the continued growth shows up as one or two abilities—very rarely three—increasing in speed noticeably faster than that individual's other abilities.

This is like only one or two planks of the bucket being lengthened. On the surface the bucket looks very different, but its actual water storage hasn't increased much.

For example, after Xia Qing's strength evolution, she can haul six or seven hundred jin over long distances, but she can't freely use explosive force. Because her bones, muscles, and skin tissue didn't evolve at the same rate, they can't withstand the backlash of tremendous explosive force, causing bodily damage. So Xia Qing often uses her strength-evolution ability, but rarely uses explosive force.

Another example is Yang Jin, a top-tier speed evolver. At full sprint, he runs a hundred meters in just three seconds. Before the great biological evolution, that was cheetah speed—human anatomy simply couldn't reach it. But because of the limits of uneven evolution, when a speed evolver sprints at full speed for too long, it also causes bodily damage.

Mysticism or religion calls humanity's uneven evolution Blue Star's severe punishment of humans—Blue Star has utterly lost faith in humanity and so intends to exterminate it.

Scientific researchers call this uneven evolution "incomplete evolution." As for why evolution is incomplete and how to make it complete, researchers still haven't figured it out.

As a high-level strength evolver, Xia Qing has felt deeply the damage this incomplete evolution has done to her body. And among everyone she knows, if anyone could treat or relieve such damage, it could only be Zhang San.

Now that Xia Qing has basically solved the various urgent problems of survival, only after acquiring over a thousand jin of high-quality edible chestnuts does she have some confidence to propose a trade to the picky Zhang San to resolve her bodily damage.

Zhang San did not answer immediately.

Xia Qing heard his voice grow deep and slow. A few seconds later, footsteps came through the phone, echoing in the long, narrow corridor. Xia Qing's heart trembled in time with his walking rhythm.

Intuition told Xia Qing that her trade request this time made Zhang San feel it was a bit difficult to handle, so she immediately began to backpedal. She had to backpedal—her idol was a big shot, and she was counting on continuing to trade with him for premium medicine in the future.

"Third Brother, if you don't have medicine for that, I'll switch to wound medicine, anti-inflammatory medicine, deworming medicine, and the kind of potion you mix with spinach juice."

After Zhang San walked for half a minute, Xia Qing heard a "beep" from the other end of the phone, then the sound of a door opening and closing, and after the door shut, a mechanical sound—presumably the lock engaging. Then Xia Qing, relying on her keen hearing, made a judgment: Zhang San had entered an extremely quiet room, and she instinctively softened her own breathing.

After entering the highest-security research lab that only he could enter, Zhang San finally spoke lazily, "The potion you want is very expensive. Are you sure you want to trade?"

The fact that the generous Zhang San would say "very expensive" shows this medicine can't be settled for a hundred or two hundred thousand. But Xia Qing's resolve to trade for the medicine did not waver in the slightest.

In the ten years of the Calamity, although she hadn't suffered serious external injuries, the long-term overload use of her strength meant the hidden damage to her joints and muscles couldn't be recovered just by eating nutritious food now.

Now that she had the chance, of course she had to bring her body to its best condition, so that when she faced the brink of death again, her chances of survival would rise.

"I'm sure. Third Brother, tell me—how many jin of Green-Light chestnuts does the medicine cost?"

Zhang San answered with the same rigor as Li Si, "I have to examine the strain on your muscles, skin, and joints first before I can determine the herb ratio and price. Minimum two thousand jin."

Based on the price Zhang San just gave for Green-Light chestnuts, two thousand jin of Green-Light chestnuts converts to 800,000 points. In other words, treating her bodily damage would cost the points needed to buy Mountain No. 49!

It sounds exaggerated, but change the reference point and it's just one month's output of pollution-free spring water from her territory, four hundred vials of special-effect nutrient solution, or four pigeon-egg-sized Yi stones.

That's all.

Xia Qing, full of confidence, said, "Third Brother, I need this potion, but I don't have that many Green-Light chestnuts this year—only 290 jin. Could I pay the remaining points with Green-Light spinach seeds, or other Green-Light plants, or game?"

Zhang San reminded her listlessly, "Xia Qing, the spinach I cultivate from the Green-Light spinach seeds I traded with you is better quality than what you grow."

Understood. In her idol's eyes, her spinach was no longer worth much, and he wasn't very interested in Green-Light game either. In her idol's eyes now, only Green-Light chestnuts mattered.

Xia Qing pulled out her trump card, "If you only want Green-Light chestnuts, around this time next year I should be able to give you about three hundred jin more. To boost my combat power, I discussed it with Yang Jin and contracted a patch of evolution forest on Mountain No. 49 close to my territory. These Green-Light chestnuts were found in the evolution forest I contracted—this year I harvested a total of 330 jin of Green-Light chestnuts and 1,200 jin of Yellow-Light chestnuts. Do you want the Yellow-Light ones? If you don't want Yellow-Light, can I owe you the rest and keep paying with Green-Light chestnuts the year after next?"

Two thousand jin—she could definitely pay it off in six years.

Xia Qing shrank her neck, not daring to finish the thought. It's only been ten years since the Calamity began, and Blue Star's population of over eight billion has been wiped down by 6.4 billion. Let alone six years from now—even at this time next year, how many people could be sure they'd still be alive?

Xia Qing's answer piqued Zhang San's interest. "You mean these chestnut trees all grow in the same patch of evolution forest?"

Xia Qing's eyes lit up as she caught on. "Yes, they grow together. The chestnut tree leaves evolved stickiness—they can stick evolved insects, and formed a symbiotic relationship with evolved hornets. The stickiness of the leaves is even stronger than Shang-evolved pumpkin; once it sticks to a protective suit, you can't wash it off."