Chapter 239: Tensions and Secrets Beneath the Surface

Damn this woman!

Tang Huai sounded annoyed. “The greenhouse plastic sheeting will be delivered tomorrow morning. Can we make the exchange at the signpost around eleven?”

Xia Qing replied, “That works.”

She had a mission tomorrow, but Hu Zifeng’s squad would stay behind to guard the territory.

“It’s settled then. I want ten strong, sturdy plants,” Tang Huai reminded, sounding careful. He asked, “Were there any mushrooms growing on your hillside? Mind if I come by and pick some? Or you could collect them yourself. If they’re edible, I’ll trade points for them.”

After four days of Xiang Rain, how could mushrooms not pop up? But even if the mushrooms glowed yellow, nobody dared eat them after the Xiang Rain.

Actually, even mushrooms that grew after a regular rain were off-limits. Ever since the great biological evolution, fungi had been abandoned as food by humans.

They really had no choice—the risks of eating mushrooms were just too high now. Even if every test said they were toxin-free, people might still end up lying stiff on a slab.

Xia Qing pressed the button and bluntly refused. “No mushrooms.”

Tang Huai…

Damn it!

Kuang Qingwei replied, “Huai, I’ve got a bunch of mushrooms growing over here. Want some? Are greenlight or yellowlight types okay?”

“Yes,” Tang Huai confirmed. “And not just mushrooms—give me any soil or wood that’s been used to grow edible mushrooms. The more, the better.”

“Got it, right away! I’ll go pick some now.”

After Kuang Qingwei’s message, Zhao Ze and Qi Fu both piped up too, then they all went out mushroom hunting.

Suddenly, Li Si asked, “Tang Huai, are you guys planning to cultivate mushrooms?”

Tang Huai immediately explained, “Yes, Fourth Sister. After coming to the territory, I found the Termite Mushrooms here could be eaten with no problems, and they tasted great. I’m planning to try cultivating some mycelium.”

Li Si pressed, “Did only you eat them and were fine, or did a lot of people try them with no issues?”

Tang Huai chuckled, “Just me. Everyone else was too scared to try. Oh right, Third Brother traded Termite Mushrooms with me when I first got here—he ate some too.”

Zhang San lazily replied, “I was too chicken, so I gave them to someone else to try.”

Everyone else…

Li Si offered a trade. “Tang Huai, if you find edible fungi in Territories Four, Five, or Six, can you share some of each type with me? Do you still have any of those spring Termite Mushrooms? I’d like to trade for them.”

Tang Huai answered right away, “Fourth Sister, I only ever found Termite Mushrooms that one time. For mushrooms from other territories, you can pick first—take as many as you want.”

Li Si asked again, “Do you remember where you found those Termite Mushrooms? Can you trade me the soil from that spot?”

Before Tang Huai could answer, Zhang San spoke up. “I’ve got that mycelium soil. Not trading it.”

Over in Territory Two, Tang Huai was confused. “Third Brother never asked me for soil.”

Tang Heng furrowed his brow and silently signaled his brother to let it drop.

Li Si asked Zhang San, “When did you start researching fungi, Third Brother?”

Zhang San replied lazily, “None of your business.”

The Lord’s Channel fell silent. Xia Qing stroked the fur of the wolf lying beside her, thinking today’s exchange felt unusual. She quickly called Qi Fu and asked if Zhang San had ever traded Termite Mushroom soil with Tang Huai on the Lord’s Channel.

Qi Fu, who was basically online all the time except when he was injured, answered, “No, and honestly, I doubt Third Brother would ever trade with Territory Two in secret.”

Xia Qing agreed. “With Third Brother’s temper, he definitely wouldn’t. Qi, unless it’s already been openly traded, don’t give any good territory resources to Li Si. She’s with the Blazing Fire Unit at Hui One Base. If Third Brother’s guarding things from her, he’s got his reasons.”

Between Zhang San and Li Si, Xia Qing sided with Zhang San without hesitation.

Qi Fu replied instantly, “I’ve been keeping my guard up against her. Sis, you better be careful. She’s most interested in stuff from your territory. I’m not going mushroom picking either. I’ll tell her they’re all redlight types.”

After hanging up, Xia Qing grabbed a bamboo basket and started picking rocks out of the fields, all the while pondering why Zhang San stopped the trade between Tang Huai and Li Si.

Back when Tang Huai traded Greenlight bugs with Li Si, Zhang San hadn’t intervened. The only explanations were that Zhang San was in a bad mood today, or maybe he was worried because this time the trade involved fungi and mycelium soil.

But Zhang San definitely wasn’t after Termite Mushrooms or the soil. After Tang Huai traded him the mushrooms, he never brought it up again. So what was it really about?

Trusting her instincts, Xia Qing figured this was important and messaged Luo Pei about it.

Luo Pei replied quickly:

“Zhang San might be trying to protect Tang Huai—or maybe he’s just increasing his own bargaining power. Delete this after reading.”

In Territory Twelve, Tang Zhengbo hung up the phone and methodically explained things to his two sons. “If your parents or children have become Lords, you can’t claim a new territory. Huai, you’re coming with me to the Safe Zone tomorrow to take care of the territory handover. Heng, you stay and keep expanding the land.”

“No way,” Tang Huai protested. “You’re the one who needs the Lord’s Law the most in our family. I just ate a couple mushrooms and didn’t die—it’s really not a big deal…”

Tang Zhengbo raised a hand, cutting his son off. “It’s not nothing, but it’s not the end of the world either. I never told you both about Zhang San and Li Si’s backgrounds because there were some things I was worried about.”

Tang Huai interjected, “Dad, we already know. Zhang San’s some top herbal medicine researcher from the Institute, and Li Si’s with the Blazing Fire Unit.”

“Before she joined the Blazing Fire Unit, Li Si was actually a researcher at the Hui One Main Institute.” Tang Zhengbo only continued after seeing his sons listening closely. “Back in the sixth year after the calamity, I went to Hui One Base to take care of some business.”

Tang Heng replied, “If I had to guess, Dad, you went for Cousin Feng. Otherwise you wouldn’t have stayed gone so long.”

Tang Feng was Tang Zhengbo’s niece—a dual-type Evolver with both speed and vision. She had massive potential and was the top ability user in Sufeng Squad after Tang Sufeng, and the reason for the ‘Feng’ in Sufeng Squad.

In the fourth year after the disaster, Vice Captain Tang Feng of the Sufeng Squad disappeared during a mission outside the Safe Zone.

Tang Zhengbo nodded. “I got confirmation and went to Hui One Base to try to pull some strings, hoping to get Feng out of the research institute. But it was too late. By the time I saw her, she’d already been tortured beyond recognition.”

Tang Huai’s eyes widened. “How could they dare? Cousin Feng was one of the rare dual-type Evolvers!”

“She was poisoned before she was sent there. Her eyes were destroyed. Without her sight, her speed evolution was useless.”

Tang Zhengbo paused, skipping over the worst details. “The research institute secretly conducted a lot of prohibited experiments. Since the labs were underground, everyone called them the ‘underground experiments.’ Even the younger brother of Shen Yongdong—the triple-element Evolver from our base—died on one of their operating tables.”