Chapter 382: Worth the Sacrifice

Xia Qing had already made up her mind. “Giving up is worth it.” Auctioning off the spinach seeds may mean less profit in the short run, but it’s better for the long haul.

She never cared for grand ambitions—she just wanted to survive. But no matter how strong one person is, they’re nothing on this crazed, evolved Blue Star. Only if humanity thrives can individuals truly hope to live better lives.

That’s why Xia Qing hopes the nation grows strong, society remains stable, more people survive, and humanity won’t get wiped out by the rapidly evolving creatures of Blue Star.

The premium nutrient shake made from her territory’s native high-elevation Green Lantern Spinach can literally save lives in a crisis.

Even if it’s not processed into a nutrient shake, just eating this spinach can boost immunity, speed up healing, and encourage evolution. In other words, regular folks and average evolvers who can’t afford the nutrient shakes can still benefit by growing and eating this spinach, giving them a chance to evolve.

So selling off a huge batch of spinach seeds at once won’t just make Xia Qing a tidy profit and cut off Blazing Fire Squad’s income, forcing them to behave—it’ll benefit everyone in the long run.

Besides, it’s not like she’s giving them away for free. She’ll earn tens of millions of credits from selling the seeds, more than enough to last her a good while.

And even if spreading the seeds makes spinach and seedlings cheaper, the first-generation seeds she cultivates will always fetch higher prices than ordinary Green Lantern Seeds.

And if some research institute or squad uses a high-evolution environment to breed even better, more stable seeds, and those outshine hers? So what? It’s not the end of the world.

After all, she’s the lord of a territory with pure spring water and seven thousand acres at her disposal. There are plenty of ways for her to earn whatever she needs to survive.

Yang Jin saw she’d thought it through and stopped beating around the bush. He asked, “So how do you want to work together this time?”

Xia Qing already understood how to negotiate with a penny-pincher and didn’t come in with her rock-bottom price. “You give me back the seeds you took. I’ll use my spring water and Yi Stone from my territory to plant them in these two fields. You handle the sales, make sure Blazing Fire Squad doesn’t put the blame on me, and provide the manpower and equipment to keep my territory safe while I plant massive amounts of spinach in secret. Once it’s all harvested, we split the profit eighty-twenty—you get twenty, I take eighty. Deal?”

Yang Jin chuckled to himself, shook his head, and bargained, “Make it forty-sixty. I get forty, you get sixty. Selling over a million spinach seeds without anyone tracing where they came from is risky and takes a lot out of me. Plus, even if your growing conditions are unique, I have to make sure that for over three months, two acres of spinach don’t get spotted—not by scouts, drones, or even satellites. Any slip-up and once a huge batch of seeds hits the market, Blazing Fire and Su Feng squads will connect the dots to your lands.”

Xia Qing knew just how risky it was to mass-produce spinach. Trying to keep that secret by herself was impossible. That’s why she was ready to give up millions in profit and let Yang Jin handle it.

Yang Jin got that too, which is why he wanted forty percent.

Xia Qing came back with her lowest offer. “Thirty-five percent for you, sixty-five for me. That’s as low as I’ll go. Growing all this spinach means that for the next three months I’ll use up ninety-five percent of my spring water, Green Lantern fertilizer, and Yi Stone.”

Yang Jin didn’t say yes or no right away. He began working out the math. “One point two million seeds, selling at thirty credits each, brings in thirty-six million. Spring water, fertilizer, Yi Stone, sales connections, manpower and equipment to protect the spinach fields—I’d be investing about nine million credits. If everything goes well and we use your split, you’d earn seventeen point five million. That’s a big payoff, but we’ll spend three months of serious effort making it happen.”

He paused a few seconds. When the girl across from him stayed utterly calm, he took the initiative and asked, “If you want over seventeen million in profit, why don’t we just sell these twenty thousand or so seeds at a high price this year and skip the work of a whole growing cycle? The income wouldn’t be too shabby.”

Xia Qing had thought of that, but replied, “Selling twenty thousand seeds all at once might just let a few squads or organizations snap them up, produce premium nutrient shakes for profit, and that defeats the point of spreading out the planting.”

So that’s what she’s worried about. Yang Jin smiled. “We could just hand the seeds to someone trustworthy—someone who won’t hog the profit—and avoid all the risks. Everyone wins.”

Xia Qing had considered that too, but someone like that had to be a big shot. It would mean Yang Jin had to meet them himself, risking their secrets coming out.

Still, since he brought it up, he must have someone in mind and a way to keep the spring secret. Xia Qing asked, “So, who do you want to trade with?”

“The director at Hui Three Base, Qi Zhongye.” Yang Jin explained why. “This batch of seeds is important. Whoever discovers and spreads them will get serious credit. Neither of us can afford to take that credit, so we’ll give it to the base director instead. He won’t hoard the benefit. He’ll promote spinach planting as soon as he can.”

“With these seeds, his standing in Hui Three Base will soar. That means he’ll have more say even at the main bases like Hui One or Red City. The stronger he gets, the weaker Deputy Director Tang Zhengrong becomes, and Su Feng Squad will get knocked down a peg too.”

Yang Jin went on, pointing out the benefits for Xia Qing. “It’s good for Azure Dragon Squad and it’ll bring peace to Territory Two. Your lands will be safer, too. What do you think?”

Being able to weaken Tang Zhengrong and Su Feng Squad was a dream for Xia Qing. Compared to Blazing Fire Squad, she’d much rather see Su Feng Squad lose power. But she still asked, “How will you explain where these seeds came from to the base director?”

Luo Pei answered, “The same place the pure spring water came from when Brother Luo got his antidote—that’s where the spinach seeds came from too.”

Xia Qing raised her eyebrows. “The Death Sea in Lan City? There’s really untouched spring water there?”

“Yes. But collecting the spring water is incredibly dangerous and its quality isn’t as high as what you have. I went to the Death Sea this May and found evolved spinach there—just regular Green Lantern quality, though. But I can say I discovered high-elevation Green Lantern Spinach in the Death Sea.”

Yang Jin balanced the seed basket in his hands and kept going. “After I found it, I brought back the seeds, grew them, made sure they were solid, and only then started thinking about how to share and promote them.”

When he finished, Yang Jin grabbed a few spinach seeds from the basket. “If you’re on board with this, I’ll send someone to the Death Sea to bury some seeds near the spring, then head to the Safe Zone to find the base director and negotiate.”