Chapter 68: Trading Worm Castings

Chapter 68: Chapter 68: Trading Worm Castings

After passing through the Third Territory’s original Northern Isolation Zone, Xiaqing entered the High Slope.

After the High Slope area was incorporated into Xiaqing’s territory, the patrol teams inspecting the territory’s perimeter no longer passed through this old isolation zone, which was now part of her land.

If Xiaqing hadn’t regularly sprayed the isolation zone with Insect Repellent and weeded it, the fifty-meter-wide strip would have long been overgrown.

Xiaqing kept it to prevent insect plagues. The zone could block pests coming down from No. 49, acting as a partial defensive wall for her territory.

The other half of the wall was, of course, Xiaqing herself. Even if an army of evolved locusts were to attack, they couldn’t dream of breaking through the barrier she had established.

Passing through the old isolation zone, Xiaqing entered the High Slope’s cultivation area. The first thing she came to was the Evolved Perilla. To ensure the Sheep Leader could eat it, Xiaqing hadn’t enclosed it within the insect-proof netting.

After crushing an evolved mantis that was raising its scythes to attack her from atop an Evolved Perilla plant, Xiaqing entered the vegetable garden area covered by the insect-proof netting. The first terrace inside the netting was planted with Green Light Alfalfa. Of the twenty alfalfa plants Zhao Ze had given her as compensation, only two had died. The rest were thriving. Xiaqing had once pinched off and eaten some tender shoots, and surprisingly, they tasted even better than the Perilla.

Of course, that might have been because she had eaten Evolved Perilla so many times that she was simply sick of it.

The pumpkins on the next terrace up were a real headache for Xiaqing. If she hadn’t tested them repeatedly, she would have suspected that these pumpkin vines, which grew like crazy but never produced a single flower, had undergone a Qiang Evolution.

The five Green Light Pumpkin vines had not only filled the entire fifty-square-meter terrace but had also encroached on half of the Green Light Alfalfa terrace below. The fifteen Yellow Light Pumpkin plants near the sweet potato field at the bottom of the slope were just as troublesome.

If the pumpkin vines didn’t blossom by next month, Xiaqing was going to cut them down and feed them to the sheep.

Further up were the scallion, ginger, garlic, and chive fields, in that order. For easier management, Xiaqing had transplanted all the vegetable seedlings she had found in the abandoned courtyard on the High Slope here.

Even higher were three terraces of peanuts, followed by empty terraces she had prepared for planting sweet potatoes. Xiaqing slipped out from under the insect-proof netting and continued upward, arriving at two apple trees that had been pruned of their fruit and two Green Light Jujube Trees that had not only sprouted but also blossomed.

The small, yellowish-green flowers blooming on the jujube trees were both beautiful and fragrant.

Xiaqing wasn’t worried about insects eating the blossoms at all, because these two Green Light Jujube Trees could actually kill them!

The branches and the undersides of the evolved jujube trees’ leaves were covered in a dense layer of sharp thorns. Any insect that dared to bother the trees would be impaled and slowly turn into a dried-out husk. This made Xiaqing suspect that the Green Light Dates she would harvest in the future might taste like meat.

Finally, Xiaqing reached the flatter area at the top of the High Slope and broke off a good number of Chuntun leaves from the Big Chuntun Tree for the Sheep Leader. Humans could no longer eat Asparagus Chrysanthemum in the summer, but the Chuntun leaves were still food for the Sheep Leader.

Returning to the reservoir, Xiaqing called the Sheep Leader, who was treading the waterwheel, down to eat. She then squatted by the fishpond to feed the fish.

She tossed in dozens of freshly killed insects of all sizes, and the fishpond immediately erupted into a frenzy. By the time the water’s surface was calm again, not even an insect wing could be seen.

This was the new world of Blue Star, where the weak were prey for the strong. Creatures that weren’t strong and couldn’t endure would die without a trace.

Xiaqing, who was both strong and able to endure, stood up, dusted off her hands, said a quick word to the Sheep Leader, and went to check on her sweet potato vines, weeding as she went.

The sweet potato vines were also growing quickly, just not as frighteningly fast as the pumpkin vines.

As Xiaqing weeded, she inspected the vines and discovered they had grown tiny red bumps. In a few more days, these bumps would sprout roots and dig into the soil, meaning she could take cuttings from the vines for planting.

To plant the sweet potato cuttings, she needed to fertilize the prepared terraces.

Xiaqing took out her phone and called Sun Zhe.

The call connected quickly, and Sun Zhe’s energetic voice came through. "Sister Qing."

Instead of the noisy clamor of a construction team in the background, she could hear birds chirping. Xiaqing deduced that Sun Zhe wasn’t with the construction crew and got straight to the point. "Have you guys produced any worm castings? If so, I’d like to buy a few bags."

Sun Zhe’s voice was cheerful. "We have! My family partnered up with someone to claim No. 48 Territory to raise earthworms for castings. How many catties do you want, Sister Qing?"

A smile crept into Xiaqing’s voice. "How many catties do you have available for trade right now?"

Sun Zhe gave her the numbers directly. "Four hundred catties at most. Two catties for one point. Is that acceptable, Sister Qing? Any cheaper and we wouldn’t even cover our labor costs."

Xiaqing hadn’t expected Sun Zhe to have produced so many worm castings already. She was decisive. "Deal. Can you sell it all to me? Do you want to trade for goods or take points?"

Because they had started late and missed the optimal planting season, and also because No. 48 Territory was close to the Safe Zone and had been scoured by humans countless times, they hadn’t found any edible plants within their territory. So, Sun Zhe wanted to trade for edible vegetables or seeds. "Sister Qing, do you have any edible plants? It would be even better if you have edible plant seeds for trade."

Xiaqing stated her prices directly. "I have one hundred and fifty Yellow Light Scallion Seeds, two seeds for one point. And twenty catties of dried and sealed Yellow Light Bamboo Shoots, twenty points per catty."

After settling on the amount of scallion seeds and Yellow Light Bamboo Shoots to trade, Sun Zhe happily told Xiaqing, "I’ll have Captain Zhong Tao deliver them to you tomorrow, Sister. My family partnered with his cousin, Zhong He, to claim the territory. It’s close to the Safe Zone, so it’s much safer. The part of the territory nearest to the Safe Zone is even within signal range, so we can use regular phones."

After hanging up, Xiaqing leveled the ground next to the sweet potato field, marveling at Sun Zhe’s excellent judge of character.

Although Zhong Tao was an ordinary person, he was very sociable. He was also the small team captain in charge of transporting supplies for the fifty territories north of the Safe Zone, so he was very familiar with the situation in each of them. With his help, the worm castings produced by Sun Zhe and Zhong He’s partnership could be traded with Lords who needed them without any advertising, and the transactions would be much more secure.

On the third day, Zhong Tao delivered four large bags of worm castings to Xiaqing. She gave him the dried bamboo shoots and scallion seeds, and also traded fifty catties of dried Evolutionary White-haired Chicken Shit Vine for soy sauce, salt, and vinegar. She also gave Zhong Tao and Zheng Kui fifty scallion seeds and two catties of pickled bamboo shoots.

Scallions and chives look very similar as seedlings, but they’re different once they mature. Xiaqing had sixty scallion plants, eight of which had flowered and produced seeds. She used more than half of these seeds to trade for supplies. Her trading partners included Zhong Tao, Zheng Kui, Sun Zhe, and the Lords of territories five and six, but the most surprising one was Tang Huai from Territory No. 2.

This month, Tang Huai’s interest in farming had suddenly increased. He even occasionally participated in pest control discussions on the Lord channel, so Territory No. 2 wasn’t a complete waste on him after all.

If it weren’t for the spring in the Third Territory, the flatter Territory No. 2 with its thicker soil layer would have been among Xiaqing’s top choices.

The Yellow Light pickled bamboo shoots Xiaqing had made last month hadn’t spoiled. While the taste couldn’t be called good, it was still edible. Thus, her menu now included stir-fried bamboo rat with pickled bamboo shoots, and pickled bamboo shoot soup.