Chapter 9: 9. Chapter 9: Evolved Sheep

Chapter 9: Evolved Sheep

Bartering was the primary method of commodity circulation after currency became obsolete. Tan Junjie did not refuse this time. "What do you want to trade for?"

Xia Qing asked tentatively, "Do you have sweet potato starts?"

Tan Junjie nodded. "Huzi, calculate it."

"Yes."

The young team member named Huzi immediately took out a detector and a scale. After testing and weighing the captured animals, he efficiently provided the points: "Five red-light snakes weigh five jin, 100 points; one evolved red-light snake weighs four jin, 120 points; one yellow-light snake weighs one and a half jin, 75 points; two medicinal-grade evolved poisonous centipedes weigh six jin, 300 points. That’s a total of 595 points."

The screening team used high-end detectors, which were much better than Xia Qing's standard model. The high-end detector was also palm-sized, but it could not only distinguish between edible and inedible organisms but also display the content of harmful substances, using green and yellow lights to indicate safe food and optional food.

Tan Junjie asked Xia Qing, who was staring at the detector, "The military's sweet potatoes are safe food. These points can be exchanged for two sweet potatoes or six sweet potato starts. Which do you choose?"

One hundred points for one safe sweet potato start was expensive, but it was worth the price. Xia Qing had never handled sweet potato propagation, so she simply chose the safer option. "I'll take the sweet potato starts. Captain Tan, if I hunt more animals, can I come to you to trade for more starts?"

Tan Junjie nodded and gave a warning: "Do not enter the area beyond the isolation zone."

"Yes!" Xia Qing answered loudly, though it was clear she wasn't really paying attention.

"Captain, the landlord of Plot 4 has been notified; we can enter." The team member who had gone to notify the landlord of Plot 4 ran back and reported to Tan Junjie.

After Tan Junjie led his team eastward into the Plot 4 buffer forest, Xia Qing walked south along the narrow valley that separated the two buffer forests, which also served as the boundary between the two plots.

Before long, she heard Su Ming ask in a low voice, "Captain, it’s so hard for Xia Qing to farm all by herself. Why don't we give her a few more sweet potato starts?"

Tan Junjie countered, "Are you going to trade them with your own points?"

After that, there was silence.

Xia Qing smiled. After walking out of the buffer forest along the valley, she took off her protective mask and headed straight for the four mu of land she had just plowed.

With six more sweet potato starts, she would have to plow another half mu of land!

Six sweet potato starts wouldn't take up much space, but if she caught that sheep, she could trade for even more. Even if she couldn't catch the sheep, once the six starts took root and began to vine, she could use the vines for cuttings and eventually have a whole field of sweet potatoes.

The more Xia Qing thought about it, the more energetic she felt. She plowed an entire mu in one go before stopping to go home and eat. She hadn't heard any loud commotions from Plot 4 while in the fields, which meant the screening team hadn't found the sheep in the Plot 4 buffer forest. She still had hope.

After a simple lunch at home, Xia Qing became like a tireless spinning top, setting out to tidy up the two abandoned courtyards to the west.

She gathered the bones into a pit and buried them, burned the weeds for potassium fertilizer, moved anything still usable into the east neighbor's warehouse, and piled the construction waste to one side.

Just like that, she had two vegetable gardens very close to home.

Once everything was tidy, Xia Qing went home and took a luxurious bath with spring water, washed her clothes with filtered water, hung them out to dry, and then put on her protective suit to fetch water from the mountain behind her house.

She didn't want anyone to know about the pollution-free spring within her territory, so she was very careful every time she fetched water, hiding the water bucket inside her backpack.

Upon reaching the mountain, Xia Qing was disappointed to find the stone slab still blocking the cave entrance; the sheep and the ferret hadn't come back to drink. After filling her buckets and returning home, she cooked dinner while listening to the 7:00 PM broadcast.

The 7:00 PM broadcast, as usual, began by relaying inspiring news from across China, followed by news and announcements from the Hui-3 Base. Xia Qing listened carefully.

The announcement mentioned that the temperature would rise by eight degrees over the next three days, followed by the first heavy rainfall of the year with high levels of "Qiang" elements—the "Qiang Rain." After the rain, it would be suitable for sowing spring wheat, so everyone was urged to seize the time and not miss the planting season.

Her land had been plowed too early.

Xia Qing, already lying in bed, smiled indifferently. She decided to plow another patch of land for wheat after the rain. The land she had already plowed wouldn't go to waste; she would plant it sooner or later.

Xia Qing planned to explore the evolved forest north of Plot 3 during the three days before the Qiang Rain.

Last winter, the Hui-3 Base had pushed the isolation zone outside the safe zone out by seventy kilometers. No one had entered the evolved forest beyond this range since the catastrophe.

The evolved forest, untouched by humans, was full of both danger and temptation. Xia Qing was currently short on food and could least afford to resist temptation.

The buffer forest and village within her territory had already been combed through by humans; all animals had been exterminated, and the plants had been screened and checked. There was no possibility of any more surprising discoveries there.

Action followed thought.

The next morning, Xia Qing packed her gear, crossed the buffer forest and the isolation zone, and entered the dense, grassy evolved forest.

Since the catastrophe, the temperature difference between the four seasons on Blue Star had widened by at least fifteen degrees, but the cold resistance of evolved plants had also improved; by mid-February, everything was already lush and green. However, most animals still maintained their original habits, hibernating and resting during the winter, only coming out to move and breed when the temperature rose and the rain was plentiful.

These three days were much safer than usual.

Still, Xia Qing kept her eyes and ears wide open, holding her machete as she cautiously explored inward.

She discovered that this evolved forest had also been within the range of human activity before the catastrophe. There were terraces on the hillsides and collapsed houses on the flat, open mountaintops.

In such areas, the probability of finding edible plants was higher than in wild forests that humans had never cultivated. Eighty percent of the safe food found by exploration teams was discovered in such areas.

An hour and a half later, Xia Qing had her first harvest.

She found a few finger-high green sprouts that showed a green light on her detector. After carefully brushing away the soil around the sprouts, her eyes lit up.

Ginger!

A sprouted piece of ginger!

Take it!

Because evolved plants might mutate if they left their original growth environment, Xia Qing dug it up along with the soil it was growing in, wrapped it up, and placed it in her basket, ensuring the growth environment remained as unchanged as possible.

After climbing three more terraces, catching two snakes, scaring away a group of rats and squirrels, and crushing several insects that tried to bite her, Xia Qing finally had her second harvest.

A cluster of garlic sprouts that showed a green light.

Scallions, ginger, and garlic were essential for cooking; now she was only missing one. But for the next hour, Xia Qing searched from the terraces to the collapsed courtyards without finding a single scallion sprout.

Could it be that the scallions hadn't sprouted yet?

Xia Qing continued her exploration and discovered a tall Chinese toon tree outside a collapsed courtyard wall, which she preliminarily determined to be an edible plant.

This was because the buds on the toon seedlings sprouting around the tree had been nibbled away by some animal.

After carefully checking that there were no snakes or insects hiding in the tree, Xia Qing climbed up and picked a cluster of deep red toon buds. She squeezed the juice into the detector port, and ten seconds later, it lit up green as expected.

Such a large, edible Chinese toon tree!

It was a constant stream of surprises. Xia Qing twitched the corners of her mouth into a stiff smile; she had only been in her territory for five days, and she had smiled more than she had in the past half-year.

Just as she picked a few more clusters of toon buds, she heard the sound of a large animal moving about thirty meters away.

It was too late to run. Xia Qing leaned against the tree trunk and held her breath, observing.

The sound grew closer, and a dirty, fat white sheep emerged from the green grass.

The sheep was quite large; it must be an evolved sheep. Xia Qing looked at its hooves and was eighty percent sure this was the same guy who had come to her territory to pry open the stones and drink from her spring.

So, the sheep she hadn't been able to wait for at the cave had come to the tree to find her?

Xia Qing gripped her machete, preparing to attack (ambush).

The sheep that walked out raised its head and looked accurately at Xia Qing, who was hiding in the tree, its sheep eyes narrowing slightly.

To her surprise, Xia Qing saw a clear look of contempt in the eyes of a sheep.

Damn it!

Could this sheep be one of the rarest brain-domain evolved creatures among evolved organisms?

(End of chapter)