Chapter 32: Human-Powered Water Bicycle

Chapter 32: Human-Powered Water Bicycle

Waking up early the next day, Xia Qing munched on two pieces of ration as breakfast before heading straight to the potato and sweet potato fields. Squatting by the edge of the field, she listened for a while, and after accurately judging the location of the pests in the soil, she raised her small iron shovel and struck. With one thrust, she unearthed the pest that caused the most damage to plant root systems—the Evolved Grubs.

Xia Qing used her shovel to scoop up the evolved grub, which was desperately trying to burrow back into the earth, and flung it into the air.

Four evolved magpies circling in the sky drew four black streaks as they rushed over to fight for the insect. A few feathers drifted down, landing at Xia Qing's feet. These four magpies were the overlords of the birds within Xia Qing's territory. Fortunately, their diet had not changed after evolution, so they did not turn their sharp beaks and claws toward Xia Qing, allowing her to live in peace with them.

Grubs are the larvae of scarab beetles. The more beautiful the colors of an evolved scarab beetle became, the stronger its biting power would be. A Level 3 biting-power evolved scarab beetle could bite through a wire or plastic tube as thick as a finger in a single snap. If the main root of a plant seedling was bitten by its evolved grub, it was a death sentence.

The evolved grubs had developed resistance to the insect repellents and pesticides Xia Qing received, so they had to be eliminated manually. Therefore, after hearing the broadcast, Xia Qing's daily routine gained a new task: grub removal.

Every sweet potato seedling and every sprouting potato in the field was Xia Qing's treasure, so this was her first stop for pest control every day. If a grub dared to target her treasures, she would take its life.

While the evolved grubs' biting power had increased, their movement speed in the soil was not fast. After Xia Qing finished clearing a hundred square meters around the sweet potato and potato fields—ensuring they were digging hard enough that they wouldn't reach the sweet potato seedlings before tomorrow morning—she moved on to clear the grain fields.

By the time she finished cleaning, the four evolved magpies had eaten their fill and flown away, leaving only two great egrets waiting for insects. These two egrets had flown into her territory a few days ago and settled in a small grove of dawn redwoods near the reservoir.

When clearing the Evolved Forest last winter, the tallest dawn redwood in that grove had evolved a terrifying offensive capability; if stimulated, it would spray highly hardened leaf needles in all directions. If Luo Pei hadn't noticed something wrong with that redwood in time, Xia Qing would have turned into a hedgehog. If those two great egrets had come last winter, there certainly wouldn't have been even bones left of them.

After completing a round of the cultivated land, Xia Qing began testing the toxin element content of the seedlings in her farm. She discovered that among seedlings grown in fields using filtered water, those irrigated with mountain spring water had a toxin element content over a thousandth lower than those irrigated with reservoir water.

The lower the toxin element content in a plant's body, the lower the possibility of toxification occurring during toxic rain. With a lower toxification rate, she could harvest more food!

The fact that mountain spring water could potentially lower the toxin element content in seeds and seedlings was a pleasant surprise to Xia Qing. Unfortunately, her spring was too small to irrigate the entire farm.

Xia Qing strolled to the northern slope of the reservoir to check on her newly discovered soybean, garlic, and spinach seedlings. Soybean and garlic seedlings were not edible, but spinach leaves could be plucked and eaten.

Any plant marked with a green light for edibility would be targeted by Boss Sheep. After coaxing Boss Sheep to the northern slope to eat perilla, Xia Qing sprayed evolved camphor leaf water around the spinach and began testing the toxin element content of this patch of plants.

The weeds around the soybean and garlic seedlings mostly showed yellow lights; the weeds around the spinach seedlings were mostly green.

Xia Qing used sticks of varying lengths to mark the ground, then proceeded to test upward along the slope, sparing nothing from tiny weeds a few centimeters tall to trees over ten meters high.

Hard work pays off. After a carpet-style inspection, she actually discovered a gentle sloping strip over five meters wide and 130 meters long that curved upward toward the spring. Although most of the plants in this zone were not part of the human diet, many showed yellow lights, and the toxin element content of the red-light plants in the zone was not very high, generally between 0.015% and 0.025%. If there were no other food options, these plants could be eaten as a substitute and would not kill anyone in the short term.

The number of green-light plants increased significantly near the spring, which was why Boss Sheep liked grazing in that area. However, the area above the spring did not follow the zone's characteristics; it was filled with high-toxin red-light plants. Passing through the buffer zone between the old and new territories, the steeper slope measuring over five meters wide and 120 meters long—extending from the evolved perilla patch up to the Chinese arborvitae on the high ridge—actually consisted mostly of yellow-light plants, followed by red-light plants, with green-light plants being the rarest.

Testing the plants took two days, and the results made Xia Qing so excited she felt like she could float away like seaweed: she possessed two sloping strips with a total area of nearly two mu. Xia Qing named them "Planting Zones."

After clearing all inedible plants from the two planting zones, she intended to develop the entire area into terraced fields. The vegetable seedlings currently being raised, the vegetable seedlings she would trade back for, and the sweet potato vines that could be propagated in the future would all be planted within these two zones.

Beyond this, Xia Qing's gaze turned toward the sweet potato and potato fields.

She really wanted to dig up all the sweet potatoes and potatoes and transplant them here...

But they say "moving a person brings life, moving a tree brings death." What if she dug them up to rearrange them and the sweet potato seedlings died, or the potatoes got angry and refused to sprout?

Lacking sufficient planting experience, Xia Qing did not dare to act rashly. She abandoned the idea of transplanting the sweet potatoes and potatoes and began joyfully clearing the planting zones.

Toxic weeds? Pull them up, dry them, and burn them.

Red-light shrubs? Chop them down, dig up the roots, dry them, and burn them.

Red-light trees? Saw them down, dig up the roots, dry them, and burn them.

Various harmful evolved insects? Exterminated.

Evolved snakes, evolved frogs, evolved centipedes? Catch them alive. Once Zhong Tao arrived, she would trade them for testing reagent; she had run out of the reagent in her tester.

After clearing away large and small stones, what if the soil layer wasn't thick enough for planting? Dig more soil to supplement it.

While Xia Qing was working feverishly within her territory, she received a call from Zhong Tao. "Hey girl, you there? Hu Zi and I are coming over to install a water wheel for you."

"I'm here." Xia Qing nodded. Hu Zi, an evolved strength user, didn't just know how to install solar panels; he also knew how to install water wheels. He was the technician, while she was the manual laborer.

Xia Qing poured the soil from her basket into the newly cleared terraces in the planting zone. Not long after she took the captured evolved animals to the edge of the reservoir, Hu Zi and Zhong Tao arrived.

When Xia Qing saw the old bicycle Hu Zi was carrying, she froze.

So, the "human-powered water wheel" Tan Junjie mentioned was a modified bicycle? How could those two things be connected? Was she supposed to pedal a bicycle by the reservoir?

The risk coefficient near the reservoir was low, so no one was wearing protective masks. Consequently, the shock on Xia Qing's face was clearly seen by Zhong Tao and Hu Zi, and both couldn't help but laugh.

Zhong Tao asked with a chuckle, "Can't figure out what the water wheel looks like, girl?"

Unlike her usual calm and sharp self, Xia Qing was truly bewildered. "I really can't."