Chapter 319: Tire Worms and Heart Engines

After the kid shouted “Get out,” Chen Ye still argued with him for at least five more minutes.

During those five minutes, Chen Ye stubbornly demanded a single potato in exchange.

And he even wanted two of them back!

At most he’d teach the buyer how to plant them.

It was outright outrageous!

This shameless attitude thoroughly enraged the young man across from him.

By the end he almost drew his toy knife, and only then did Chen Ye leave in a huff.

Not that Chen Ye was afraid of the kid.

If he were still a Sequence 3 Smoke Apostle, Chen Ye might have been a bit cautious.

But now he had changed professions.

With his current sequence, smashing the other guy wasn’t completely impossible.

“Fine, don’t trade then. What are you snarling at?” Chen Ye muttered as he walked away.

Chen Ye left for a good distance, while the kid still panted angrily, but when he looked at the meatworms in front of him, he felt a twinge of pity.

He had been vending here all day. Many people had asked, but few were willing to give anything real in exchange.

The Wonders people brought in were mostly ranked only around four thousand or so.

Only one person had been able to produce Ideal Grain Seeds.

But to ask for two meatworms in exchange for a single potato—what a pipe dream.

Were meatworms really worth so little?

There had been no prior meatworm marketplace, so the boy had no reference price; his expectations of getting something valuable for meatworms had simply been lowered.

Chen Ye grumbled and kept walking.

As he left, he glanced back toward the gate of March Street but didn’t see any familiar figures.

So Chu Che and the others hadn’t arrived yet.

He’d let the seeds he’d given them ferment a bit longer.

Chen Ye wasn’t in a hurry and continued browsing.

He actually saw quite a few interesting things.

Not long after, he noticed a kind of insect.

This insect was unusual, kept by the vendor in a small earthen pot.

Behind the stall sat a person wrapped in a black robe, face and age obscured, as if shrouded in mist.

The vendor pointed to a cardboard sign.

Chen Ye looked down and read the words on the cardboard: “Tire Worm.”

“Tire worm? What’s that?” a voice from nearby asked, someone Chen Ye didn’t recognize.

The black-robed person didn’t answer. Instead, he lifted a hand and a worm flew out of the earthen pot.

He lightly tapped the worm twice.

Then the worm’s body began to swell.

It was a bit like a pufferfish inflating in fright.

But this worm was far stranger than a pufferfish.

Within seconds, the worm had expanded into the shape of a tire, ready to be mounted on a wheel hub.

Chen Ye and the other onlookers gaped.

“No way, it actually does that?”

The black-robed man’s hoarse voice continued, “Tire Worm, my newly bred insect. It can replace conventional tires.”

“You only need to feed it once a year. It eats only the freshest tender leaves, so feeding is a bit troublesome, but only once a year.”

“It’s more wear-resistant than your current tires, impact-resistant, puncture-proof, and the tire body has its own anti-slip tread.”

“If damaged, the worm secretes repair protein and can heal itself.”

“It also has a day-night function, activating luminescent proteins automatically at night.”

“One Tire Worm can live at least five to ten years.”

The black-robed man’s voice was unpleasant, but everyone widened their eyes at the idea.

A tire blowout is a nightmare during migration.

For example, Chen Ye himself had experienced multiple blowouts.

Luckily the convoy had tools, and on-site repairs weren’t impossible.

In migration life, vehicles are the convoy’s lifeblood.

They also kept spare tires.

The Monster Pickup’s four tires had all been repaired before.

But tires eventually reach the point where they cannot be fixed and must be discarded.

If the Monster Pickup could use these Tire Worms, that would be a permanent solution.

Even if, as the man said, feeding was a hassle, it was only once a year.

For a migrating convoy, these worms would be immensely useful.

“How much to trade?” Chen Ye asked directly.

“Heh heh… twenty kilograms of rice or flour for one! Must not be older than six months,” the vendor replied.

“Too expensive!” someone nearby blurted out before Chen Ye could speak.

“This Tire Worm is great, but twenty kilos of rice or flour is way too much. We can’t afford that!”

Chen Ye also thought it was pricey.

Twenty kilograms per worm.

Four tires would cost eighty kilograms of rice.

Hearing that, Chen Ye decided the Monster Pickup didn’t need new tires right now.

He started to get up and leave.

The black-robed man didn’t stop him, only sitting quietly behind the stall.

Suddenly someone asked in a puzzled tone, “Are you… an Insect Breeder sequence?”

The black-robed man chuckled, and his hoarse, grating voice answered, “You figured it out. Being an Insect Breeder is nothing surprising.”

When the man admitted he was an Insect Breeder, many people stepped back.

An Insect Breeder!

This sequence had been mentioned by Chu Che.

It was one of the most terrifying and eerie sequences. Rumor had it that people of this sequence used their bodies as insect hives, raising all manner of bizarre creatures inside themselves.

Just hearing about it made the scalp crawl.

Chen Ye moved back to the edge of the crowd.

Several nearby stall owners, upon learning the man was an Insect Breeder, also awkwardly moved their wares further away.

The black-robed man let out a few chilling chuckles and made no further moves.

Chen Ye stole a long look at the Insect Breeder hidden beneath the robe and felt as if countless insects were writhing underneath.

Leaving the breeder’s stall, Chen Ye pressed on.

This March Street market certainly sparked his interest.

Not only the earlier meatworms, even the Tire Worm alone was eye-opening.

A few steps further, he saw another crowd gathering.

He edged closer.

This stall was very interesting.

Two engines sat on the table.

No—these weren’t engines!

These things in front of him were utterly bizarre.

They resembled the Monster Pickup’s engine somewhat, but were also very different.

These two objects looked like a fusion of an engine and a kind of heart.

A perfect blend of machinery and biology.

“Heart engine, heh heh…”

“Everyone, this is the latest work from a mechanic and a physician sequence.”

“You might have realized the difficulty of acquiring gasoline and other fuels. Without gasoline, migration is a pipe dream.”

“But this heart engine completely frees you from gasoline dependence!”

The vendor was a burly man in a blood- and grease-stained white coat. He had a thick beard, wild eyes, and a fanatical look.

“Wait, you don’t use gasoline—do you drink blood?” someone asked incredulously.

The bearded man grinned and replied without hesitation, “Heh heh, you guessed right. You can pump blood into it!”

“One liter of fresh blood lets it run five hundred kilometers, heh heh…”

“The fresher the better!”

“The heart engine rivals a V8; the power is more than enough! Soon we’ll have unlimited races. Don’t you want to install one on your vehicle?”

“How about it? Very cheap—one unit in exchange for one hundred kilograms of rice or flour.”