Chapter 674: A New Seed of Hope

Xia Qing stood up from the lush Spinach Terraces and headed down to collect her 150 seeds. She wasn’t overly excited—just curious about how the base-grown seeds differed from those first-generation seeds she had in her own territory.

Qi Fu glanced at Captain Tan. “Captain, what’s the Yi and Devastation Element content in x-2? Are we supposed to plant them the way that farming segment in the broadcast explained?”

This was the biggest question—every lord held their breath, ears straining for an answer.

They’d heard all about the quality of the high-evolution spinach seeds, discussed it a thousand times, and yet it still felt unbelievable that such precious seeds would be handed out for free. Everyone waited, nerves stretched tight.

Tan Junjie made the official announcement. “Just as in the notice and the radio introduction, the x-2 seeds we’re giving to the lords have about 3.9‰ Devastation Element and around 6.0 Yi Element. They have fifth-generation Devastation Element stability and fourth-generation Yi Element stability. These seeds are hard to come by, so take good care of them—put your heart into growing them.”

Hearing those numbers—engraved in everyone’s memory now—many couldn’t help but break down in tears, choked up beyond words.

Wen Nengjie, shovel slung over his shoulder, sniffed as he glared around. “Anyone heading to Eleven to work, listen up—keep your hands clean. If I catch anyone messing around, they’re out, no spinach for them—not even a bite of high-evolution spinach!”

“Here’s 150 x-2 spinach seeds, Sister Qing, check them over.” Su Ming spoke with gravity, handing Xia Qing a clear little pouch full of spinach seeds. “If there’s no problem, just sign here.”

“Alright.”

Xia Qing carefully counted out each seed, making sure the number was right and none were damaged. Satisfied, she signed her name neatly on Su Ming’s seed collection sheet.

After a year of farming, Xia Qing was already used to this supply pick-up routine. But today the sheet wasn’t the usual yellowed scrap—it was crisp white, brand new, and two armed guards stood nearby, rifles in hand.

Every detail screamed just how seriously the base took these seeds.

When Su Ming took his crew to deliver seeds to Section Four, Tang Huai stopped Xia Qing under the Territory Two sign. “Xia Qing, do you know why they’re called x-2 seeds?”

Xia Qing paused and turned back.

Tang Huai, who never could stand straight for five minutes, was now solemn, posture perfect. “X stands for ‘new’. These are second-generation seeds cultivated from our base’s precious first-generation high-evolution stock. They’re our base’s new hope. We might rank third at Huicheng Base, but we’ve never managed to build a specialty industry. Last year, the Safe Zone lost 91,000 people—over 80 percent to hunger and malnutrition. If we can’t find a new path, in under ten years our population will drop below a million—there won’t be enough people to keep things running. But these new seeds? They can make premium nutrient shakes, boost the immune system—this is the hope that’ll keep Hui Three growing strong!”

Everything Tang Huai said was true. Hui One got national funding. Hui Two had the Chonglian Group and its big machinery manufacturing supporting it. Hui Three had people and land, but nothing they could really be proud of.

Last July, Huaguo rolled out a new high-tech material. One factory per region. Hui Three fought tooth and nail for it, but in the end, the spot went to Hui Four. Hui Three came up empty.

If these high-evolution spinach seeds could be widely grown, one thing’s for sure—they’d lose a lot less people to starvation.

Calling them a new hope wasn’t an exaggeration.

Still, Xia Qing stayed silent. Tang Huai always opened big—he obviously had something up his sleeve. And sure enough, he switched gears:

“You heard the broadcast, right? If we want to keep the x-2 seeds stable, we can’t use too much pesticide or fungicide. But if you don’t use any, there’s bound to be pests in the soil. Bad for the spinach—bad for our hope, really.”

“How about I come by and help you pick bugs regularly? Promise I’ll clear them out without damaging the roots. I don’t want credits—just let me pet your sheep. Deal? Pretty fair, right?”

Xia Qing was quiet a moment, then asked the question she’d had for ages. “With your resources, getting a sheep for yourself shouldn’t be hard. Why not just raise one?”

Tang Huai kicked a pebble at his feet. “Fifth year into the catastrophe, my dog got killed for meat. I swore then—I’d never keep another pet until I was strong enough to protect it.”

Looking back, Tang Huai realized that winter, fifth year after the disaster, was the hardest time his family had ever endured.

His dad left for Hui One on business and was gone for over two months—just like his cousin Tang Feng, vanished into thin air, nobody knew if he was alive or dead. By the end of the year, his dad still hadn’t returned and his grandmother finally collapsed and ended up hospitalized.

His mom and brother tended to his grandmother, while Tang Huai and his sister managed the family business and kept asking around for help finding their father.

Tang Zhengrong, all fake friendliness, said nice things but never really helped—he just wanted a chunk of their assets. Tang Zhengsu, with both his own father and cousin out of the picture, took advantage of his sister’s exhaustion to swallow up more of their business and edge their allied Evolved fighters out of the Sufeng Squad.

His sister was at her limit. Tang Huai, seeing he couldn’t help much, exposed his Evolved Hearing just to join Sufeng and draw the heat away from her.

When Tang Lu found out Tang Huai was an Evolved fighter, she lost it—she even talked Tang Rui into killing the family dog Tang Huai had raised for seven years, trying to push him over the edge.

If his family hadn’t needed him, Tang Huai might really have snapped.

So instead, he played along—pretended to break down in public, gathered his close friends, and got into a huge street fight with Tang Rui. Right there, he exposed just how Tang Zhengrong and Tang Zhengsu had betrayed the family.

Tang Zhengrong, desperate to maintain his ‘good mayor’ reputation, finally agreed to the miracle medicine for Tang Huai’s grandmother and told Tang Zhengsu to tone it down—at least on the surface.

Tang Zhengsu pretended to listen, but kept tormenting Tang Huai in secret. Tang Huai endured it all in silence. It wasn’t until next spring—sixth year after the disaster—his father finally stumbled back from Hui One, haggard, smiling and asking if Tang Huai hadn’t been eating well, why he looked so thin. At that, Tang Huai finally broke down and cried in his arms.

He only found out last year his dad had never gone to do business—he’d gone to rescue cousin Tang Feng. That explained everything.

Just like that, six years had almost flown by…

Tang Huai snapped back to the moment, looking at the stern-faced woman not far away, the one raising sheep and wolves, and grinned. “So, what do you say? Ready to trade?”

“It’s not that I don’t want to trade. My sheep just has a nasty temper—doesn’t let anyone else touch it.”

But Xia Qing hadn’t said ‘no’ outright, and Tang Huai’s eyes lit up. “Then…”

“It’s been gone for eight days now.”

Tang Huai just stood there, watching as Xia Qing locked her big door and disappeared beyond the Wild Grass Wall, muttering to himself, “After spending all that money and effort raising it for a year, she just lets it go like that? Will it really have as good a life out there as it did here? Silly dog.”