Chapter 385: Trading for Green-Light Chickens

After chatting with Yang Jin, Xia Qing finally learned that her idol had attributed the good quality of the plants and animals in Territory Three to the soil.

In that case, she could offer up the last type of green-light plant. "I still have dried Chinese toon buds, and there's a green-light toon tree in my territory with a Harmful Element content of 2.4‰ and a Beneficial Element content of 1?. Soak them in water and stir-fry with eggs—it's really tasty. Want me to send the eggs over along with them?"

Zhang San still sounded listless. "I can't stand the smell of toon buds. Do you have any more green-light chestnuts?"

……

As expected of her idol—truly picky.

Green-light chestnuts have low activity and can't be used to breed chestnut saplings, so in Xia Qing's hands they only had the one value left: food. But in her idol's hands, they were certainly worth more than that.

Because Xia Qing had harvested a total of 332 jin of green-light chestnuts this year, and her idol had traded away 292 jin two months ago—there was no way he'd finished them that quickly.

No matter what her idol used the green-light chestnuts for, since he'd opened his mouth, Xia Qing immediately reported the real number. "I still have 24 jin. Shall I send them all over to you?"

Zhang San's voice sounded very affable. "No need. Just give me ten jin. You catch the chickens too—I'll send Ji Li over to pick them up."

Her idol wanted to eat chestnut chicken. The chestnuts were no problem, but the chickens were a bit of a difficulty.

Xia Qing negotiated with Zhang San. "Brother San, I only have three roosters left in my territory. If I lose another one, I'm afraid the egg fertilization rate won't be enough to hatch them. Can I use my green-light rooster to trade for one from your territory?"

Zhang San asked, "Don't you only have ten hens?"

"Not ten. Four died during the ultrasonic bird deterrent, so six are left. They're all in their peak laying period right now, producing three or four eggs a day." So she couldn't slaughter them to eat—she could only eat the roosters.

Xia Qing asked, "Brother San, how do you raise chickens over there in winter? I want to build a greenhouse to raise chickens so they can still lay eggs in winter."

With delicious food on the table, Zhang San was very easy to talk to. "I haven't paid attention to the chicken-raising stuff. Let Daya come over and talk to you about it."

When Daya appeared outside the north gate of Territory Three carrying a large cage holding fifteen chickens, Xia Qing was utterly stunned by Brother San's grand gesture.

She'd guessed Daya would bring chickens over, but she hadn't expected this many. Was Brother San trying to trade for all of her chickens?

Daya handed the heavy chicken cage to Xia Qing, looked over the newly built walls and iron gate of Territory Three, and said, "Your wire-mesh wall is tall and dense enough—chickens can be free-range just fine. The gate is wide enough too, so you don't need to pull the chickens out of the cage. Just carry the whole thing in."

Carrying the chicken cage, Xia Qing used her face to unlock the north gate, invited Daya into Territory Three, and asked curiously, "Brother Ya, how many chickens do you raise in your territory?"

Daya replied cheerfully, "Over a hundred. Our territory has a lot of people, so fewer wouldn't be enough to eat. Eight of the hens in the cage were hatched last year and the year before; they still lay an egg every two or three days now, and those eggs are yours—Brother San only wants the meat. The three roosters were all hatched this spring, and they're for trading for your roosters. When Brother San wants to eat chicken, I'll come over and catch one."

"There are also three pullets hatched this spring. Brother San is using these three chickens as payment for you helping him raise chickens."

"Look at that pure-white pullet in the cage—that's a high-grade evolved green-light chicken hatched this spring. Her bones have been strengthened, and her beak and claws are very powerful. Brother San says he'll use this chicken to trade for 10 jin of chestnuts. Does that work for you?"

Four pullets in their peak laying period, and one of them was a high-grade evolved green-light chicken?!

Meat from animals with high-grade Beneficial Element evolution promotes body evolution even better than green-light plants do.

A newly hatched green-light pullet is worth two thousand points on its own, so this high-grade evolved green-light hen currently laying eggs must be worth well over four thousand—trading her for ten jin of chestnuts was more than enough.

"Of course." Xia Qing beamed. "It wasn't easy raising this chicken to adulthood, was it, Brother Ya?"

"It really wasn't easy. She was hatched in an experimental shed isolated from Harmful Elements and only released after she grew up." Daya also felt his Brother San was being overly generous this time. "Honestly, when Brother San told me to catch this chicken, I thought my ears had evolved the ability to hallucinate sounds."

Although her idol hadn't said it outright, Xia Qing was very clear on why he'd done this. Having Daya send over fifteen chickens, including a high-grade evolved hen, was a reward for Xia Qing's willingness to promote the high-quality spinach seeds.

But since Brother San didn't mention it, Xia Qing wouldn't bring it up either. She'd treat it as just an ordinary transaction.

Arriving at the chicken coop, Xia Qing pointed at the black-feathered rooster inside and discussed with Daya, "Brother Ya, look at this black rooster—its evolution level is a bit higher than ordinary chickens. Can I give you two roosters and one hen and keep this rooster?"

Daya stared at the black-feathered rooster with great interest. "When this batch of green-light chicks hatched in spring, we tested each one and thought only three had evolved. We didn't expect to have missed one. How's its combat ability?"

The black-feathered rooster in the coop, unaware its life hung by a thread, puffed up its feathers and screeched fiercely at the chicken cage Xia Qing had brought back—more precisely, at the three roosters inside the cage.

Xia Qing replied, "This one's the fiercest of all the roosters I have. Even the red-light black-maned goose I used to keep couldn't beat it. How about we put these three roosters in and test it out?"

The three roosters Daya brought had bright, glossy feathers and were larger than the ones Xia Qing raised.

After being put into the coop, the three roosters quickly started fighting with Xia Qing's three. Feathers flew everywhere in the coop, and the screeching never stopped.

Sheep Boss heard the noise, walked out of the yard, and squinted malevolently at Daya.

Daya was so stared at he was about to bristle too. Xia Qing rubbed Sheep Boss's head and said softly, "Boss, look, we have fifteen more chickens now—all sent over by Brother Ya. These chickens will lay eggs, and we can make all kinds of food with them."

Sheep Boss, who didn't eat eggs, stopped looking at that short, weak-looking human and turned its big head to watch the roosters fighting in the coop.

Soon, the black-feathered rooster had defeated all three newly entered roosters, flapped its wings, held its head high, and haughtily proclaimed its victory.

Daya understood. "Although this black rooster's combat ability hasn't reached the high-grade evolution level, it is indeed a bit higher than ordinary chickens. Keep this one. I'll take the other two first. I won't take your hens since they're all laying—you owe Brother San one rooster."

"Thanks, Brother Ya. After the chicks hatch next year, I'll return two roosters to Brother San." Being able to keep the black-feathered rooster made Xia Qing very happy.

She grabbed a handful of underdeveloped, shriveled corn kernels and scattered them into the feeding trough. Then, while the flock pecked at the food, she caught the two roosters she'd raised for half a year and handed them to Daya.

Then, Xia Qing released the twelve hens from the cage into the coop.

The moment the high-grade evolved white-feathered hen came out of the cage, she darted over and rapidly pecked up the corn kernels on the ground—her speed was indeed much faster than the black-feathered rooster's.