Chapter 97: The New Lord of Territory Twelve

Yang Jin disagreed with Luo Pei's assessment of Xia Qing. "She hasn't gone through professional systematic training, true, but she's been in real combat since she was fifteen, and her body still hasn't taken any damage. She's a triple-system advanced Evolver, so of course her potential is greater than mine. But because her goals are different, she doesn't care at all about combat power rankings. Even if the base someday had a farming ranking, she still wouldn't care."

True enough. Luo Pei couldn't help laughing. "You think very highly of Xia Qing. But if she heard those words, her first reaction would definitely be to assume you're trying to drive down the price in a trade."

Yang Jin laughed too, in excellent spirits. "Brother Luo, I'm heading to Hui-1 for a while to go out to sea with the Blaze Squad. Communications will be cut off. I'm leaving the squad to you and Old Xie. I'll come back as soon as I can."

After Luo Pei was poisoned, Yang Jin led the team through one evolved forest after another to reach Fengshan at Hui-1 Base and struck a deal with the Blaze Squad's Fire Phoenix. One of the terms of that deal was that, after Luo Pei was cured, Yang Jin would accompany Fire Phoenix on one mission.

Because of Xia Qing's appearance, the Azure Dragon Squad only fetched water from Fengshan once, but Yang Jin still decided to go on the mission. First, because he had promised Fire Phoenix back then. Second, because Yang Jin was also very interested in the mission's content. As for the third reason, naturally it was that Yang Jin and Fire Phoenix had reached a new agreement: the gains from this mission would be split seventy-thirty. The Blaze Squad gets seven, the Azure Dragon Squad gets three.

The extra portion the Blaze Squad takes is Yang Jin's thanks to Fire Phoenix for being willing to come out with water to rescue Luo Pei when he was in danger.

Although Fire Phoenix's trade terms at the time were very harsh, the fact that she was willing to trade water was enough.

In the Year of Calamity, every meeting might be the last time you see someone in your life, and every farewell might be forever.

Luo Pei solemnly patted Yang Jin on the shoulder. "The sea is far more dangerous than the evolved forests. How about I get in touch with Yanlong and trade with her for a set of the latest diving combat gear?"

Yanlong's real name is Deng Yan. Her underwater combat ability is extremely outstanding; before the Calamity she served as the battalion commander of Hui City's military frogman special operations unit. The callsign Yanlong wasn't something she gave herself, but what the special-ops soldiers called her. She is the dragon of the water; in the water, no one can match her.

Yang Jin shook his head. "No need. The military won't put the latest gear up for trade. I've already contacted Old Wan."

Wan Ji is the biggest arms dealer at Hui-1 Base; he definitely has good stuff. Luo Pei nodded. "Once the mission's over, hurry back. Be careful of Fire Phoenix playing tricks. No matter how many supplies you bring back, your safety matters more."

Yang Jin acknowledged with a sound. "Brother Luo, do you remember Duan Shaoqing? He enrolled the same year I did."

A military academy has several thousand new students enrolling every year. Students remember teachers easily; teachers have a hard time remembering students. Luo Pei had no impression of that name. "What about him?"

"He's now by Fire Phoenix's side. After the Calamity began, he hung around with Xu Pin for half a year." Yang Jin explained.

Xu Pin's ability is definitely not just one endurance evolution; otherwise he couldn't have become vice-captain of the Su Xing Squad. The Azure Dragon Squad has been secretly investigating him, but with no progress. Perhaps Duan Shaoqing is a breakthrough, because at the start of the Calamity, humans who had just gained ability evolutions were in an excited phase and loved to show off.

Xu Pin very likely showed off or experimented with his abilities in front of Duan Shaoqing.

Luo Pei reminded Yang Jin, "If Duan Shaoqing knows Xu Pin's true abilities and is still alive today, that means he's no simple character either. You need to be careful."

"Understood." Yang Jin's expression grew solemn. He gave Luo Pei a military salute, turned, and left.

That brat who used to stand on the military academy training ground with a chuunibyou look on his face, looking like he needed to be taught a lesson, has really grown up. Luo Pei straightened his own cap. "Chengdong, what is the planting team busy with?"

Wei Chengdong answered, "Today they seem to be researching compost."

The first thing Luo Pei did after his comeback was not to clear Mountain Forty-Nine, but to transfer two planting squads from the Azure Dragon Squad's planting zone to Territory One to do farming.

This is also why Beard Feng would trade six bags of fungal spawn with Li Si. Because "soon, the cultivated land in Territory One will be planted full of crops."

Having heard so many other lords chat these past few months, Luo Pei had gradually grown interested in farming too. Farming—watching seedlings grow little by little—is really quite stress-relieving.

Whether it's stress-relieving depends on the person.

In the lord channel, Zhao Ze was fretting. "I'm out of nails and glue. Does anyone know how to make a wooden box that doesn't leak?"

Kuang Qingwei came online immediately. "I have nails and glue. How many boxes are you planning to make, and how much will you trade?"

Zhao Ze didn't want to trade. "Brother Wei, my supplies really are running out. Is there a way to make a leak-proof wooden box without nails and glue?"

Hearing Zhao Ze wouldn't trade, Kuang Qingwei's interest dropped sharply. "I don't know about that. Find someone who knows carpentry and ask them."

Zhao Ze specified who he was asking for help. "Brother Qi, Brother Shi, how do you make your wooden boxes? Teach me, will you?"

Shi Zhong said cheerfully, "I still have nails and glue."

Qi Fu answered, "I didn't use nails. I used mortise-and-tenon joinery plus a tiny bit of glue, but that's not something that can be explained in a sentence or two."

Luo Pei spoke up gently. "Brother Qi, whenever you have time, may I send a couple of people over to learn box-making from you?"

Qi Fu was flattered. "Of course. There's no heavy work lately. They can come over anytime."

After Luo Pei "came back," he drew closer to the surrounding territories and signed purchase contracts with them. Whatever amount of agricultural products the surrounding territories produced, the Azure Dragon Squad would buy them all at the publicly listed market price. Luo Pei's reasoning was that Territory One's population was growing, food demand was high, and he didn't want to go far afield to ship supplies in from the safe zone.

Of course, the top-grade ingredients from the surrounding territories were picked over first by Zhang San and Li Si; only what Zhang San and Li Si didn't want did Luo Pei take.

Territory Eight was also outside the scope of trade, because the owner of Territory Eight never responded to anyone.

Territory Two and Territory Twelve were also excluded by Luo Pei from the scope of trade. The reason was simple: after Luo Pei returned from being poisoned, he no longer trusted any member of the Tang family or the Su Xing Squad. The new lord of Territory Twelve, Tang Zhengpo, is the father of Tang Huai and Tang Heng—Tang Zhengpo, the chairman of Hui City's largest hotel chain before the Calamity.

After Qi Fu finished speaking, Tang Zhengpo spoke up too. His voice was neither servile nor overbearing, his pace neither hurried nor slow, his diction very clear, making anyone who heard it feel this was a very cultured elder. "Qi Fu, may I come over and learn box-making from you?"

Strictly speaking, the lord of Territory Twelve shouldn't have appeared in the chat channel for lords One through Ten, but Tang Zhengpo had joined on the grounds that everyone here was an acquaintance and a person rich in farming experience.

The people in the group really were all Tang Zhengpo's acquaintances: in Territory Two were his two sons; Qi Fu of Territory Five used to be the truck driver who delivered goods for him; Kuang Qingwei of Territory Six used to rent his shop to run a business; the urban park built by Zhao Ze of Territory Four was funded by his donation. If not for the Calamity's arrival, Tang Zhengpo was someone these people couldn't have reached even on tiptoe.

After the Calamity, human society was reshuffled according to ability, and Tang Zhengpo, chairman of Hui City's largest hotel chain, came out to farm a territory too.

Qi Fu was now close to the Azure Dragon Squad, and of course didn't want to get involved with the Tang family. But Tang Zhengpo had spoken, and Qi Fu didn't dare refuse. "Chairman Tang, whenever you want to come, you can come anytime."

Qi Fu very much wanted to say his carpentry wasn't even as good as Xia Qing's, and couldn't the people from Azure Dragon and Su Xing go learn from Xia Qing instead—but he didn't dare.

Now, Qi Fu, Zhao Ze, and Kuang Qingwei could almost every day hear Xia Qing on Mountain Forty-Nine above the buffer forest, bang bang bang clearing the evolved forest, and their awe of her grew day by day.

The Azure Dragon Squad had officially begun clearing Mountain Forty-Nine; both Xia Qing and Shi Du took part in the clearing operation. But the two weren't in the same squad. Xia Qing was participating in the clearing mission for the evolved forest north of Territories One, Three, and Four. After taking on the "mission," Xia Qing could legitimately enter and leave her private training ground every day to carry out clearing and real-combat training.

The current Xia Qing was busy and fulfilled.

Hearing the lord channel had gone silent, Xia Qing, who was picking green beans, spoke up to ask, "Brother Qi, after picking the green beans, how many days do they need to dry? Do you shell out the beans and dry them, or dry them with the pods on?"