Chapter 451: Digging Up Seeds

At 11 a. m., the temperature rose and the wind dropped — perfect weather for a farmer to work the fields.

Xia Qing was in her territory's greenhouse, still able to hear the thudding from next door's Territory Four as someone tamped down the insulating ditch filler with a heavy weight. But when her idol, Third Brother, picked up the phone, he let out a huge yawn before even saying a word.

After a year of observation, Xia Qing had noticed that her idol was different from the farmers like them — he worked in the afternoon and the first half of the night, then slept through the second half of the night and the morning, while farmers sat at sunrise and rested at sunset.

"Xia Qing, is it about the evolved wolf?" Zhang San asked, then yawned again. "Shan Ying was urgently recalled to Liehuo Mountain, won't be back for two or three months. Territory Nine is left with only its original people — they won't pose much of a threat to your territory."

Her idol was sleepy, so Xia Qing kept it brief. "Hearing you say that puts my mind at ease. It's not just about the sick wolf. When Shan Ying came, she offered to trade the sick wolf for 100 green-light spinach seeds with a Yi element content of 5.3?, a Qiang element content of 4.8‰, and a germination rate of one-third — high-Yi-element green-light spinach seeds. I felt something was off about it. Third Brother, do you think I shouldn't plant high-Yi-element spinach seeds this winter?"

Hearing Xia Qing's words, Zhang San finally perked up a bit. "Repeat her exact words for me."

After Xia Qing repeated them, Zhang San gave a precise response. "Don't plant them this winter. Wait until next year, after the base promotes the spinach seeds, then plant them."

Xia Qing had thought the same thing. Getting her idol's confirmation, she felt reassured and continued asking, "Third Brother, I planted the spinach seeds the day before yesterday. Right now they're sprouting but haven't broken through the soil yet. If I dig them up, can I still switch them to hydroponics?"

Zhang San answered directly, "As long as they haven't rooted, yes."

About to dig up the seeds immediately, Xia Qing asked again, "Third Brother, I'm worried Shan Ying left behind some nasty agent, so that Territory Nine will attack my territory and forcibly take the sick wolf. Do you have any medicine that can boost security? I'd like to trade for some."

Zhang San snorted. From that snort, Xia Qing clearly heard his pride. "Of course I do."

Xia Qing felt even more reassured. She offered supplies to trade for the medicine and let Zhang San choose. "Thanks, Third Brother. Would you like green-light eggs or mountain walnuts?"

Zhang San chose neither. "I need three kinds of herbs. Tomorrow I'll have Ji Li send you the pictures. Just have your wolves fetch them — no time limit. By the way, Shan Ying wasn't wrong when she said that sick wolf can't recover to peak condition. Because the Qiang element content in its body has already risen to a high level, its resistance has dropped sharply. Relying on its own ability alone, it can't fully repair the damaged internal organs."

That, Xia Qing knew.

She had tested the Qiang element content in the sick wolf's body — it had already reached 25‰.

If it were a human, a Qiang element content over 20‰ would already be at a dangerous level. At that level, the body's resistance weakens and it can't handle heavy physical labor.

Once a human's Qiang element content exceeds 30‰, the brain can no longer direct the body's immune system to resist the Qiang element's damage. Once the Qiang element attacks key regions of the brain, that person will develop Qiang-evolution symptoms.

After the great biological evolution of Blue Star, although large animals including humans all evolved significantly, and in principle their lifespans increased, the reality was that the average lifespan of every kind of animal had dropped compared to before Blue Star's great evolution.

The main reason for the drop was that animals couldn't obtain enough low-Qiang-element food and could only eat high-Qiang-element red-light food, causing the Qiang element in their bodies to accumulate and rise.

Once the Qiang element in the body accumulated to a certain level, and then they encountered Qiang rain or Qiang snow with a sudden spike in atmospheric Qiang element content, these animals would lose their minds and go berserk.

When enough animals lost control and went berserk, it would trigger a beast tide. Although Xia Qing didn't know the critical point at which an evolved wolf would undergo Qiang evolution, a level of 25‰ was still very dangerous.

So Xia Qing had the sick wolf eat low-Qiang-element food along with her, and had it wear Yi stone long-term to curb the rate at which the Qiang element in its body rose. But to lower the Qiang element level in its body and repair the internal organ damage, she had to rely on the Qiang-Reduction Agent that Zhang San had newly developed.

So Xia Qing planned to wait until the first batch of cordyceps she and Yang Jin were co-cultivating was harvested and sent to Territory Seven to trade for the Qiang-Reduction Agent, then give the sick wolf one dose to bring the Qiang element content in its body below 15‰.

By then, even if the sick wolf couldn't recover to peak condition, eating raw meat would definitely be no problem.

Of course, Xia Qing herself would also take one dose.

Ram Boss didn't need one, because the Qiang element content in its body was extremely low — so low that Xia Qing couldn't help wanting to cut a few chunks off it and cook them in hot pot.

Unexpectedly, Zhang San brought up the Qiang-Reduction Agent himself. "You invested in the Green Dragon Squad's cordyceps fungus cultivation project too, didn't you?"

No need to hide this from her idol — Xia Qing admitted honestly, "I did invest."

As for what she invested with, since her idol didn't ask, Xia Qing didn't mention it.

"The Qiang-Reduction Agent works on animals too. Once the first batch of medicine is compounded, bring the sick wolf over. I'll give it a physical exam, determine the dosage, and bring the Qiang element content in its body below 10‰."

Zhang San's tone was quite cheerful.

He was happy because, after lowering the Qiang element level of that sickly wolf, he could restore it to peak condition and give Shan Ying a good slap in the face.

Xia Qing agreed immediately. Such a good deal — anyone who refused would be a fool.

After hanging up, Xia Qing contacted her partner, boss Yang Jin, and asked him to come to Territory Three.

When Yang Jin arrived, Xia Qing explained the reason clearly, then handed him the high-Yi-element green-light spinach seeds she had just dug out of the soil. "These were planted two days ago. Because the weather is cold now, the seeds have just begun to sprout but haven't rooted yet. Third Brother said seeds like these can be used as hydroponic seeds. Is the spring water on your side sufficient? Want to take some back?"

With more seeds for cultivating cordyceps fungus, the amount of spring water used would also increase.

"The spring water is sufficient." Yang Jin carefully took the seeds, which were laid on a damp cloth, and placed them into the cultivation box he had brought. "Has the germination rate of the seeds gone up?"

Xia Qing……

Are brain-domain evolvers really this amazing? They can tell at a glance that the seed germination rate has gone up?

The second crop of green-light spinach she planted in autumn had a germination rate of 66.67%. So when she introduced the seeds to Yang Jin, she had said the germination rate was two-thirds. The number of sprouting seeds in this crop did indeed exceed the germination rate of the last batch.

Still, Xia Qing answered cautiously, "I planted 400 spinach seeds. 295 have already sprouted — a sprouting rate of 73.75%. But I've never dug up previous spinach seeds before, so I don't know whether the sprouted seeds can all break through the soil and become seedlings."