Chapter 817: Spinach Seeds Skyrocket – The Lords’ Chatroom Frenzy

“Did you all hear the news?!” Tang Huai exploded with excitement in the Lords’ channel. “The price of x-2 seeds just rose to 8 credits each!”

Zhao Ze was first to jump online. “Eight credits? You’re kidding me!”

Kuang Qingwei logged in next. “Brother Huai, is that the buyout price from Hui One’s Wantong Company?”

Tang Huai replied, “Yeah, they’re only buying x-2 seeds with evolution element content above 5.7 and devastation element below 4.1 per mille. Poor quality seeds don’t count!”

Qi Fu was just as excited. “We have to thank Senior Fu for developing that new medicine. The price of x-2 seeds just shot up four times over!”

The stability of Hui Three’s x-2 high-evolution spinach seeds had already been proven during the last few months of broad cultivation and Devastation Rain.

Even so, the buyout price for x-2 seeds on the cusp of harvest was only 1 credit per seed.

The reason was simple: the iron law of the market—scarcity drives value.

Last year when Xia Qing and the others first arrived in the territory, green lantern vegetable seeds sold for 20 credits each. But by this spring, with lords growing green lantern seeds like cucumbers and tomatoes in bulk, the price dropped to 1 credit for 5 to 10 seeds.

Back in February when the base gave away x-2 seeds for free, they were so rare and precious that, even though trading was strictly forbidden, people still secretly bought them for several hundred credits apiece.

According to the official notice at the time, each female x-2 spinach plant could produce 900 to 1,000 seeds. Everyone knew that by late May, once the first crop matured, these seeds would flood the market and prices would plunge. So quite a few people secretly sold their free seeds at high prices to get urgently needed supplies.

Yan Meng from Territory Fourteen did exactly that.

But who could’ve guessed that right before the spinach seeds hit the market, Hui Three Pharmaceutical would drop a bomb—Senior Fu’s game-changing new medicine, Nutrient Source—which sent the price of x-2 seeds soaring eightfold!

That kinda price was enough to drive every Hui Three Base resident with female green lantern spinach plants totally mad.

“Thank you, Senior Fu.” Huo Lei chimed in straightaway. He couldn’t shout out his thanks to Third Brother directly, but he wanted to make sure Third Brother felt how grateful he was.

“Thank you, Senior Fu.” Xia Qing, the die-hard fan, echoed.

Everyone started piling on thanks, but Wen Nengjie was the most worked up. Choking back tears after expressing his gratitude, he said, “Once I sell these spinach seeds, maybe I can finally catch my breath.”

This February, after Hui Three Base announced they’d bred stable high-quality x-2 spinach seeds, every Safe Zone resident got five x-2 seeds for free, each lord got a hundred, and lords who stayed through last winter to farm got an extra fifty.

Nobody had ever openly talked in the chat about exactly how many spinach plants they managed to grow, but everyone had an idea. The base’s farming knowledge broadcast gave real-time x-2 data nearly every day, plus tips based on the forecast for managing x-2 in the coming days.

Everyone followed those farming instructions to the letter, sowing the seeds in the best fields, using the finest fertilizer and filtered water, treating them like precious ancestors. So all the spinach seeds in their fields should meet Wantong’s quality standards.

According to the broadcasts, x-2’s germination rate was 55%, with a female-to-male ratio of 1:1.

In the Section One of the North’s 1-10 chat group, every lord except for Huo Lei, who only joined this spring, received 150 seeds. That meant each lord had roughly 40 female spinach plants, and at 950 seeds per plant, each could harvest a massive pile of seeds.

With Wantong paying 8 credits per seed now, those seeds growing in the lords’ fields were suddenly worth thousands of credits!

For last year’s lords, who broke their backs farming just to break even, that number was enough to make them lose their minds.

After thanking Senior Fu, Shi Du teased Wen Nengjie. “Wow, Jie, that’s one hell of a sigh of relief.”

A single sigh worth thirty thousand credits.

Still sniffling, Wen Nengjie added, “I’m not much of a farmer. Barely any of my spinach plants formed seeds—hardly any meet the standard. So I won’t make a lot. I’ll have to study with everyone else next season—getting rich and marrying an evolved wife, it all depends on x-2.”

Wen Nengjie’s modesty was a bit much, but no one would call him out. Everyone knew not to flaunt their wealth, so after thanking the big boss, people started complaining about their own failures and missed chances, acting like the seeds the base forced on them were a wasted fortune.

Even Tang Huai, who’d finally clawed his way back into the black by raising evolved insects and high-evolution spinach, couldn’t hide his glee. He couldn’t say how much he’d earned, but he could gloat. “Those folks who sold their spinach seeds early must be kicking themselves now! Hahaha!”

Of course, everyone knew he meant Yan Meng from Territory Fourteen. Even though they’d switched to an encrypted channel, ordinary lords didn’t dare publicly mock an evolved lord nearby. Yue Haiying chimed in, “Everyone, harvesting’s just around the corner—make sure to patrol more often and don’t let anything go wrong at the last moment.”

“Right!” Qi Fu vowed. “Since the Devastation Rain, I’ve been sleeping right at the edge of my field, hugging my gun every night.”

“Me too,” Shi Du agreed. If anyone tried to steal his spinach seeds, he’d fight them to the end.

Kuang Qingwei asked, “Xia Qing, are the seeds you get from explosion-triggered spinach leaves the same quality as the naturally matured ones?”

The farming broadcasts said if you snip a leaf and it explodes, that means the seeds are ripe. Still, the lords wanted Xia Qing’s opinion—she was the first to grow green lantern spinach, and she had the most experience.

Xia Qing pressed her walkie-talkie. “I don’t have detailed comparison data, but I plan to harvest all my spinach seeds today, just to be safe.”

On paper, the Planting Center grew the most x-2 in Hui Three Base, followed by Section One of the North.

Since the most lords who stayed to farm last winter were in Section One of the North, they also got the largest batch of x-2 seeds in February. Their fields hadn’t suffered any devastation explosion attacks during the second Devastation Rain, and their greenhouses were mostly intact.

With spinach seed prices soaring, of course someone would get greedy. Compared to the heavily guarded Safe Zone Planting Center, Section One of the North—with just a single iron mesh wall and fifty Inspection Team members as guards—was a much easier target.

So, getting the spinach seeds harvested before would-be thieves showed up made perfect sense.

After hearing Xia Qing, Zhao Ze jumped right in. “Yeah, I’m harvesting now too!”

Everyone echoed him, and the channel went quiet as people scattered to collect their spinach seeds. No one spoke of it aloud, but the lords in the alliance understood: in the Hidden Valley, the spinach seeds would be allowed to fully ripen naturally.

That valley was secure—and hidden enough to stay safe.

Tan Junjie posted an announcement in the Lords’ channel: “When harvesting, make sure to wear full protection to avoid getting injured by explosions. If there’s any emergency, contact the Inspection Team immediately.”

Right after he finished, Azure Dragon Squad captain Yang Jin came online. “Lords, this is Yang Jin from Azure Dragon Squad. I’m here representing the Squad Alliance to announce the alliance’s buyout price for x-2 seeds.”

“Seeds that meet Wantong’s standard are high-quality—we’ll buy those at 8 credits each. If your seeds don’t meet that grade but are still high-evolution green lantern x-2, that counts as medium quality—4 credits a seed. High-quality spinach plants with roots, 200 credits per half kilo. Medium quality, 100 credits per half kilo. If you’re interested, contact Hu Zifeng for on-site collection and instant payment. If you don’t want credits, you can also trade for goods from the Squad Alliance’s item list.”