Chapter 383: Sea of Death

Lancheng's Sea of Death is one of the human forbidden zones on Blue Star after the Evolution. No one expected there really was a spring there, and beside the spring there was even spinach.

If that's the case, Yang Jin's plan does carry less risk than Xia Qing's.

Choosing this plan means earning far fewer points, but safety matters more than points.

Next year she won't need to plant spinach on a large scale, which will save several pieces of Use Yishi, sparing her the trouble of racking her brain to find handsome Wolf-brothers with broken waists to trade with.

Xia Qing nodded. "Your plan is better than mine."

Yang Jin bounced the winnowing basket again. "Let's finish collecting the spinach seeds first and see exactly how many we have."

The two chatted as they gathered the spinach seeds, and within half an hour they had picked them all up and counted them. They finished so quickly because Yang Jin's hand speed was extremely fast, and Xia Qing was once again consumed by envy, jealousy, and hatred.

"A total of 【number】 seeds." After learning the total, Yang Jin began to do the math. "We need to cultivate cordyceps fungus, so you need to set aside 2250…"

The premium nutrient solution produced from high-Yi-element spinach can rapidly replenish physical strength and has a certain restorative effect on physical injuries, but it cannot heal the damage inflicted on the body by Qiang elements.

The cordyceps fungus cultivated with pollution-free spring water and high-Yi-element spinach is the raw material specifically used for brewing remedies that treat Qiang-element damage.

After high-Yi-element spinach is promoted for cultivation, the pollution-free water needed to cultivate cordyceps fungus will still be a scarce resource, which also means cordyceps fungus cannot be cultivated in large quantities. Therefore, the price of cordyceps fungus will not drop, and cultivating it remains profitable.

"Captain Yang."

Xia Qing cut him off. "The spinach seeds used to cultivate cordyceps don't need to come from this batch. I also planted a patch of spinach in the cultivated field and harvested 8420 second-generation seeds. I gave Sange 2000, so 6420 remain."

A gleam flashed in Yang Jin's eyes. "Your caution is absolutely right. You previously gave Sange 400 first-generation seeds, and now another 2000 second-generation seeds. Second-generation seeds are a bit lower in quality than first-generation ones, so he'll assume the first-generation seeds were cultivable evolved seeds that popped out of last year's green-light spinach, and won't think in the direction that there's a spring or Use Yishi inside your territory."

Xia Qing didn't see it that way. "Sange should have already guessed I have Use Yishi or a spring, because the eggs my chickens lay in my territory are better than those from Territory Seven. But he didn't ask anything about it, just told me not to trade the native plants and chicken eggs from inside my territory with others."

"He doesn't know there's a spring inside your territory." Yang Jin was very certain about this point, but he should know you have Use Yishi, because you built a food storage room inside your territory.

"In late January this year, Zhang San sent his research assistant to this territory. After intensive sampling and soil testing, he chose Territory Seven. Brother Luo later asked him why he chose Territory Seven, and he said the area of soil rich in Yi and selenium inside Territory Seven was considerably larger than in the other territories. At that time, he definitely hadn't discovered the spring, otherwise he would never have given up on Territory Three."

Xia Qing hadn't known about this episode and listened attentively.

"Brother Luo asked him about the selenium and Yi element content in other areas, and he said a few areas were relatively high, but not large in area." Yang Jin speculated, "The Gao Yi-element soil area inside your territory should be these terraces. But because the area is small and on a hillside, Sange didn't choose this spot."

"So, the good quality of your chickens, Sange will assume it's because you grow vegetables in this high-quality soil area and feed the chickens vegetable leaves. The high-Yi-element soil in Territory Seven is all used to grow research plants or medicinal herbs; they can't bear to use it to feed chickens."

Hearing Yang Jin say this, Xia Qing felt both worried and relieved. "Lucky that when Sange sent people over to take samples, they didn't discover the spring."

Yang Jin was even more rigorous. "Maybe that time period happened to be the spring's dry season?"

"Very possible."

In late January the territory had already been cleared, and Xia Qing had returned to the safe zone, so she didn't know whether the spring was in its dry season.

Just to be safe, she decided to stockpile more spring water in December. After arranging how to handle the possible crisis, Xia Qing turned her attention to her idol's career. "Captain Yang, how much spring water can a big shot like Sange get in a month?"

Pollution-free spring water is mainly used for medical research, breeding, and medical rescue. Because spring water is a scarce resource, the amount distributed to base researchers is very limited, which is why Fire Phoenix can use spring water to recruit medical and plant research experts.

Yang Jin didn't know other people's allocations, but he knew Zhang San's. "Right now it's 250 liters. After Brother Luo was poisoned, Sange had just received that month's quota and gave me 200 liters directly."

"250 liters must be the largest allocation among our base's researchers." Her idol must have many research projects that need pollution-free spring water, so being able to give 200 liters to Yang Jin was already extremely generous.

"The spring water Zhang San uses for research isn't supplied by Hui Three Base." Seeing the proud-as-if-it-were-her-own-honor expression on Xia Qing's face, Yang Jin reminded her in passing, "250 liters should be enough for Sange to use. Don't spread the word about the spring water to him; there are many eyes and ears around him."

Xia Qing nodded. "I understand."

Ji Li and Yan Long and the others inside Territory Seven both protect the safety of big shot Zhang San and are responsible for monitoring his movements. They don't take orders entirely from Zhang San, which is why Zhang San kept it from these people when he traded the body-damage remedy to Xia Qing.

Yang Jin continued his calculations. "These terraces yielded a total of 【number】 seeds. Because spinach seeds have hard shells, we can't test which ones are accidental seeds, so we'll count them all as first-generation seeds. How many do you plan to set aside?"

Xia Qing answered, "600 seeds."

She still had the 600 seeds from her first planting, plus another 600 from the second planting—enough.

Yang Jin continued calculating. "Before you knew the quality of the seeds, you had already agreed to trade 6721 seeds with me. Based on the trading rules, this number cannot be changed. Do you have any objections?"

"No." These were the trading rules; Xia Qing had no objections.

"Good." Yang Jin looked up and smiled at Xia Qing, stuffed a bag of seeds into his protective suit pocket, then continued calculating. "The supplies you just traded with me come to a total of 1.46 million points. Because you planned to cooperate with me on spinach breeding, I temporarily calculated it at 100 points per seed and paid you 【number】 seeds."

"Because the breeding cooperation didn't work out, we can't trade at 100 points per seed, and the supplies can't be voided either." After saying this, Yang Jin took the seeds resting on the spinach seedling bag and put them back into the seed pile. "You owe me 1.46 million."

"Thank you." The Iron Rooster really does stick to trading rules; Xia Qing thanked him.

Yang Jin smiled again and confirmed with Xia Qing, "I'll take 【number】 first-generation seeds from here to discuss a trade with the Base Commander?"

After Xia Qing nodded, Yang Jin first handed her a packet of 600 seeds, then stuffed all the remaining seeds into his own pocket. "The transaction price for these seeds should be around 300 points each."

Xia Qing reminded him, "Even cheaper is acceptable. The best outcome would be getting the Base Commander to increase the patrol strength for our territory. Even if the number of personnel can't be increased, at least increase the number of Evolvers among the patrol troops or upgrade the equipment level of the inspection squad."