Chapter 379: Cordyceps Fungus

The meat of red-tier animals has its nutritional content and texture already destroyed by the malic element; after safe-zone processing plants remove the malic element, they still need to add various nutritional elements to produce ordinary food that can only placate the stomach and cannot promote evolution.

The carnivorous beasts in the Evolution Forest, having long preyed on herbivores with high malic-element content, will lose their rationality once the malic element in their bodies surges past a certain threshold, becoming violently frenzied, turning into machines that only know to hunt and kill everywhere, until they lose combat ability and are torn apart and devoured by other animals.

This is the main cause of the beast tides on Blue Star.

Therefore, quickly screening and cultivating stable Yi-evolution flora and fauna from the post-evolution frenzied Blue Star creatures, and planting and raising them in large numbers to establish a stable food chain—this is the urgent challenge humanity faces.

Xia Qing sighed, "This is far too difficult."

"The difficulty is indeed very great. But our Huaguo is full of talent—as long as we find the right direction and work together with one heart, we will overcome the challenges sooner or later. Your territory has grown so many edible plants, which means we've already taken a big step toward success." Yang Jin smiled and held up the small packet of seeds in his hand. "These are 6,271 seeds. Would you like to count them again?"

6,271—that was the number of spinach seeds Xia Qing owed the Azure Dragon Squad. Chatting idly while quickly picking up spinach seeds was one thing, but he could actually count exactly how many he'd picked?!

Truly worthy of a dual-path evolver in speed and mental domain. Xia Qing was impressed. "No need to count. Please put them away."

Yang Jin put away the spinach seeds, took out another small packet and continued working, then told Xia Qing some bad news. "I had someone test the viability of the green-tier chestnuts, and it's confirmed that chestnuts can't be used to propagate chestnut saplings for sale."

Huh? Xia Qing was only stunned for one second before regaining her composure. "It seems that chestnut grove relies on root propagation."

"Most likely. The evolved plants nowadays are all manner of strange things; relying on root propagation is already within the normal range for plants. Even though it's slower, its stability is very high, and the fruit yield isn't low either, so you can raise the price of the saplings."

Yang Jin noticed that his beloved Miss was disappointed at being unable to mass-propagate green-tier chestnut saplings, so he immediately changed the subject, bringing up something that would make her happy. "Do you know how cordyceps on the plateau reproduce now?"

Xia Qing really didn't know this one, so she could only guess. "Parasitism?"

After the Great Evolution of Blue Star, once altitude exceeds 3,500 meters, the malic-element content in the atmosphere surges dramatically. So the plateau is indeed no longer suitable for human habitation, and the surviving plateau residents have already relocated to lower-altitude areas.

The plateau, covered by vast stretches of polluted snow, has become a forbidden zone for Yi-evolution creatures. So Xia Qing really had no idea what the situation was with cordyceps on the plateau.

Yang Jin told her. "Cordyceps originally belongs to the fungi-algae category of organisms; its 'worm' is actually the larva of the bat moth. The cordyceps fungus invades the body of the bat moth larva and continuously reproduces, filling the larva's body with mycelia. The following summer, a yellow or light-brown fungal stroma grows from the head of the infected larva, emerging above the ground like a grass stalk—this is the 'grass' of cordyceps."

What an eye-opener!

Xia Qing was surprised. "This is the reproduction method of many parasitic plants after evolution. After cordyceps evolved, it didn't switch to no longer needing an animal host to reproduce, did it?"

How could she be this smart, and how could her wide-eyed look be this cute…

Yang Jin lowered his head, quickly picking up spinach seeds to calm his heartbeat. "You guessed half right. The cordyceps fungus can now reproduce not only via insect larvae, but also via plants. Researchers have made a new discovery: the grass buds of cordyceps fungus propagated through plants help boost human immunity."

"There's also another very important recent discovery," Yang Jin raised his head and smiled. "Cordyceps fungus propagated using pollution-free spring water to hydroponically grow high-Yi-element vegetables performs exceptionally well in repairing bodily damage caused by the malic element."

This was a huge piece of good news! Long live the researchers!

For Xia Qing, this was also a huge piece of good news. "Has the Blaze Squad raised the price of their pollution-free spring water?"

Yang Jin laughed out loud. "Fire Phoenix is planning to visit Zhang San soon—the idea is to cooperate with him on researching cordyceps-fungus medicine. If the cooperation falls through, the Blaze Squad's spring water will definitely go up in price, and yours should be raised too. Considering our long-term stable cooperative relationship, can the Azure Dragon Squad, as the sole purchaser of spring water from Territory Three, still enjoy a twenty-percent discount?"

Truly a steel rooster—not even this small an advantage would he let slip.

"Sure." Xia Qing asked, "Why is Fire Phoenix cooperating with Third Brother? Did he develop this new type of cordyceps fungus?"

"He's the lead researcher, with other participants as well. I just got word myself."

Wow! Wow!! Wow!!!

If Yang Jin weren't here, Xia Qing would definitely have shouted it out: See that? That's my idol, Blue Star's quality idol!

Die-hard fan Xia Qing's fan-pit dug straight through Blue Star—she wished she could immediately skewer Blue Star on a stick, wrap it in a thick layer of sugar, and deliver it to her idol, letting her idol casually crunch Blue Star like a candied hawthorn!

Seeing her barely holding it in, Yang Jin took the initiative to speak. "In terms of medicine research, Zhang San is extremely capable."

Xia Qing nodded vigorously. "Right! The medicine from Territory Seven are all very effective. Humanity desperately needs medicine that can repair malic damage."

Yang Jin pulled the conversation back on track. "Only when this medicine can be mass-produced will it truly benefit the public. Unfortunately, at present, only cordyceps fungus cultivated with pollution-free spring water and high-Yi-element vegetables is effective."

Xia Qing understood what Yang Jin meant. "Is it difficult for you to cultivate cordyceps fungus?"

"Yes. The likelihood of Third Brother cooperating with Fire Phoenix isn't high, so the cordyceps fungus we produce together can be supplied directly to Third Brother." Yang Jin, whose smile was a feast for the eyes, proposed a new cooperative project.

"Inhaling cordyceps spores will also parasitize the human body, so cultivating cordyceps fungus with plants requires a high-standard cultivation room and professional technical staff. The Azure Dragon Squad provides the site, builds the cultivation room, purchases the hydroponic nutrient solution, and covers labor and security. You provide the spring water. For the spinach seeds, we each cover half. Profits split sixty-forty—you get four, I get six. How about it?"

"Fifty-fifty." Xia Qing straightened her back and began to haggle.

"Your investment sounds like a lot, but one of the key inputs for cultivating cordyceps fungus—the spring water—has to be supplied by me; the second—high-Yi-element spinach seeds—also originally comes from my own territory. The spinach seeds in your hands may decline in Yi-element content after several generations of cultivation, at which point I'll be the sole supplier of spinach; the third—technical staff—will be provided by your squad. So fifty-fifty is my bottom line."

The girl he liked had become more confident than before. The way she haggled seriously was dazzling, and everything she said hit the mark. But she didn't bargain hard enough—she should have driven it down to sixty-forty or seventy-thirty to be appropriate.

Yang Jin, who couldn't bring himself to bargain her down further, nodded. "Your reasoning is solid. Then fifty-fifty it is."