Chapter 399: How She Survived

An air filtration system costing over two hundred thousand per set is indeed not cheap, but the price the squad pays to send a team into the mysterious and unpredictable Divine Herb Shelf Forest Area, into the territory of the evolved monkey troop to search for Yi Stones, is even higher.

Although Tang Zhengsu is reckless, he's no fool — he must have his reasons for doing this.

Tang Huai yawned again. "I overheard all of this. Just listen, don't spread it around. I'm dead tired, I'm going back to sleep."

When Xia Qing saw Tang Huai off at the North Gate, Tang Huai suddenly thought of something. "You guys hardly ever talk in the Lord Channel anymore — did you make a new channel and deliberately leave me out?"

Xia Qing shook her head. "No."

No new channel was made — everyone just moved from online to offline.

Tang Huai snorted indignantly, then told Xia Qing another piece of news. "Tomorrow, the refugees in my territory are going to team up and enter Mountain Fifty. No matter what happens, you stay put in your territory and absolutely don't show your face."

"Understood."

Tang Huai being able to restrain those people and keep them from going to Mountain Fifty to cause trouble during the days she was collecting soil was already more than enough for Xia Qing.

After putting on his clothes, Tang Huai suddenly grew solemn. "You might not believe it when I say this, but these past few days are the first time in the ten years since the catastrophe that I've had direct contact with refugees. I used to live in the inner city — when I saw these people, it was always through a screen, like watching a movie. Only now do I realize that the pitiable ones are truly pitiable, and the wicked ones are truly wicked."

"The pitiable ones can't survive without aid, and if no one kills the wicked ones, they'll keep doing evil…" Tang Huai let out a long breath and turned to look at Xia Qing.

"All these years you've been living outside the safe zone — how did you survive until now?"

How did she survive? Xia Qing replied calmly, "One day at a time."

Tang Huai nodded. "A woman like you, surviving like this on your own strength — I really admire you. It's just that… your taste in men is terrible!"

Having said what he wanted to say, Tang Huai didn't wait for Xia Qing to respond — he turned and ran.

Xia Qing had no time to argue with such an idiot. She returned to her territory and called her two companions home.

Seeing that Ram Boss and Sick Wolf still seemed unhappy about Tang Huai's visit, Xia Qing, holding the worm tray, asked cheerfully, "Boss, do you like catching bugs?"

Ram Boss narrowed his eyes, his expression stiff.

"What about you, Lao Er? Do you like catching bugs?"

Sick Wolf stuck out his tongue, hahaha — he didn't look like he disliked it.

"That guy from earlier knows how to raise bugs. See this tray of worms? Just let him take one look at you two, and we can trade for a tray of green-light worms. Once I raise these worms and breed more of them, Boss won't have to catch bugs every day to feed the chickens and fish, and Lao Er can have tastier green-light chicken eggs to eat. This deal — we're not losing out."

Although Tang Huai repeatedly emphasized that raising green-light yellow mealworms wasn't easy and the cost was high, Xia Qing found it effortless.

Green-light vegetables? She not only had them — she had ones rich in Yi elements.

A cultivation environment free of harmful elements? Although she didn't have an air filtration system, she had Yi Stones with the same effect.

Suitable temperature and humidity? Her greenhouse would be built very soon.

In other words, once Xia Qing finished building the greenhouse, she could place the worm-rearing tray fitted with Yi Stones inside, and just toss in some green-light spinach leaves regularly.

A small tray forty centimeters long and wide wouldn't need a very large Use Yishi at all.

After returning home, Xia Qing first took out the treasure box where she stored her Yi Stones, picked through the protective cases, and selected a Use Yishi no bigger than a soybean to install on the worm-rearing tray.

A few minutes later, Xia Qing used an air quality detector to check the harmful-element content near the tray and found it had approached zero.

A well-ventilated, breathable cultivation environment free of harmful elements — easily achieved!

In her wonderful mood, Xia Qing even found the chirping of the little swallows pleasant to the ear. She lifted the worm tray up to show the little swallows. "These are green-light worms with an excellent taste. Once these hundred worms breed, you'll be in for a treat."

Of course, the ones with the best treat were the green-light chickens she raised.

Xia Qing placed the worms on the second-floor balcony to grow alongside the green-light strawberries and mint, basking in the sun. Once the greenhouse was built, all of these would be moved into the greenhouse — an environment more suitable for their growth.

Then Xia Qing took her newly woven small basket and went to the chicken coop to collect eggs.

The chicken coop now had ten hens at peak laying, nine hens in their second or third year, and three roosters. Every day, Xia Qing could collect six or seven eggs — enough to warrant a basket.

To keep the hardworking hens from queuing up to lay, Xia Qing added another row of nests inside the coop, ensuring one nest per hen. But after building them, she found the hens still preferred to crowd into the original few nests, piling together to lay.

At first, Xia Qing had worried that the high-level evolved white hen might lay her eggs mixed in with the others, making them impossible to distinguish — but now she no longer worried about that.

Because white-feathered hens laid white-shelled eggs, while reddish-brown-feathered hens laid red- or pink-shelled eggs, and she had only one white-feathered hen, making them easy to tell apart.

The hens only laid five eggs today — this was because the weather was getting colder, so the greenhouse needed to be built as soon as possible and the flock moved inside.

After collecting the eggs, Xia Qing also cleaned up the chicken droppings in the coop. More chickens meant more droppings. Once the droppings were fully fermented, they could be used to grow high-quality green-light vegetables. Then the high-quality green-light vegetables grown from them would be used to feed the chickens, so the chickens would lay higher-quality eggs and hatch more high-quality chicks. This formed a perfect cycle.

A very critical link in this closed loop was the two evolved chickens in the coop — one black, one white.

At this moment, the two were lying in the same dirt nest, dozing in the sun. Both chickens wore a small necklace strung with a Use Yishi around their necks, though it was hidden beneath their thick feathers and couldn't be seen.

The high-level evolved chicken obtained from Territory Seven in an exchange was Xia Qing's treasure — fitting it with a Use Yishi to ensure it didn't lose its grade was only right.

The black-feathered rooster, on the other hand, only got a small piece thanks to the white-feathered hen. Because only when both of them were high-quality could the eggs from their mating be high-quality.

What about the other two roosters?

Heh, sorry — they weren't qualified to wear Yi Stones. Because they weren't as strong as the black-feathered rooster and couldn't compete for mating rights at all; drinking pollution-free spring water was enough for them.

After collecting the eggs, Xia Qing first sent a message to Qi Fu, asking him to notify the territory alliance members that the refugees from Territory Two would be out and about tomorrow, and to tell them not to leave their territories.

Then Xia Qing contacted Hu Zifeng, asking him to send over the second-hand steel pipes she'd traded with Yang Jin — she was going to start welding the pipes and installing the greenhouse's steel frame.

Seeing Guan Tong come in carrying a long box, Xia Qing asked, "What's inside?"

Guan Tong replied, "Accessories for installing the greenhouse steel frame."

Accessories?!

When she opened it, Xia Qing broke into a delighted smile.