Chapter 14: Xia Qing is Injured

Chapter 14: Xia Qing is Injured

When it came to fighting, the Evolved Sheep certainly lacked Xia Qing's brains, but it possessed incredible endurance and immense strength.

When the Evolved Sheep stood up for the thirty-fifth time to charge at her, a sore-armed Xia Qing scrambled onto a large rock to surrender. "You win, you're the boss. I'm done fighting; I have real business to attend to."

The Evolved Sheep stopped, stared at Xia Qing for a moment, and then collapsed onto the ground with a heavy thud, panting heavily with its mouth wide open.

It turned out it was exhausted too. Xia Qing slumped onto the rock and laughed.

After catching her breath, Xia Qing jumped down from the rock, took a few gulps from her water flask, and asked the sheep, which was still lying by the rock, "Boss Sheep, want some water?"

The Evolved Sheep—who should now be called Boss Sheep—continued to squint at Xia Qing. Despite being a mere sheep, it carried itself with an incomparable, haughty pride.

Xia Qing didn't bother arguing with it. She poured water into its bowl and took two steps back.

Boss Sheep scrambled up, drank half a bowl of water, and then turned to look at the trampled, mangled Chinese Toona branches with a very unfriendly gaze.

Was it... hungry?

Xia Qing put on her protective mask. "You rest for a bit. I'll go get some more Toona sprouts."

Xia Qing had only walked a few steps with her machete and basket when she heard movement behind her. Turning around, she found Boss Sheep had caught up. "You're coming too?"

"Baa."

Since it sounded like a normal sheep, Xia Qing agreed and pulled out a collar. "Fine, but will you wear this?"

Seeing Boss Sheep start to dig at the ground with its hooves again, Xia Qing tactfully tucked the collar away. "Fine, no collar then. Don't blame me if Captain Tan and the others catch you and eat you."

After their fight, Xia Qing felt a sense of "enemies-to-friends" kinship with Boss Sheep, and the sheep's anger and defensiveness toward her seemed to have diminished. One person and one sheep, one following the other, passed through the buffer forest and the isolation zone into the Evolved Forest.

Once inside the Evolved Forest, Xia Qing slowed down, and Boss Sheep overtook her.

Seeing how familiar the terrain seemed to the sheep, Xia Qing simply followed behind it. Before long, Boss Sheep actually led her onto a beast path.

Xia Qing smiled. "Looking at the width of this path and the hoofprints, did you make this? How did you avoid attacks from venomous snakes and insects?"

Boss Sheep, of course, did not answer. After walking a distance, it stopped to eat a type of large-leaved grass that was a garish shade of purple.

*Is this thing non-toxic?*

Xia Qing plucked a leaf, squeezed out the purplish-red juice, and tested it with her high-grade detector. To her surprise, it showed as a safe food source, with a quality only a thousandth less than Toona sprouts.

If Boss Sheep hadn't been munching on it, Xia Qing would never have tested such an unnaturally looking plant.

Now, she had a new vegetable. Thanks, Boss!

As the sheep ate grass, Xia Qing harvested it. When the sheep finished, the pair climbed up a hillside together. Boss Sheep raised its head and stared motionless at a Toona tree.

"Fine, I'll go pick them. You wait here."

Yesterday, Xia Qing had already picked all the sprouts within arm's reach of the tree, but today she had a different plan.

Xia Qing cut a bamboo pole over four meters long and cleaned it. She tied her shiny, well-worn sickle to the end of the pole and used it to scrape the Toona sprouts downward.

"Baa."

Seeing the clusters of Toona sprouts falling, Boss Sheep let out a happy bleat and lowered its head to feast.

Xia Qing scraped down all the reachable sprouts. After feeding Boss Sheep, she still had a large bag left.

Xia Qing didn't want to run into the forest-clearing soldiers here. "Boss Sheep, shall we head back?"

Lying on the ground, Boss Sheep remained motionless, showing no intention of moving.

Being decisive, Xia Qing held a cluster of Toona sprouts in front of Boss Sheep's nose, waved it around, and then shouldered her day's harvest to head down the mountain.

Before long, the sound of thumping footsteps came from behind. The corners of Xia Qing's mouth curled up in a silent smile.

On the way back, Xia Qing took the beast path used by Boss Sheep. Without encountering any dangerous creatures, she quickly crossed the isolation zone and returned to her territory.

Boss Sheep went to drink spring water, while Xia Qing set aside some Toona sprouts and half a basket of purple-leaved grass for it before she began cleaning up the broken trees from their fight.

Although this large patch of forest was ruined, small grass or saplings would surely sprout after the rain and cover the land again.

Xia Qing used ropes to bundle the cut logs and carried them home, placing them in the rack-style warehouse of her east courtyard. Then, she began collecting dry wood from the village.

It was about to rain, and she needed to prepare more firewood.

Cooking with firewood was never as convenient as using electricity or gas. Solar panels were not sold to individuals within the safe zone. Xia Qing pondered what supplies she could use as bargaining chips to trade two solar panels from Tan Junjie. It wasn't just for cooking; she couldn't rely solely on power banks bought with supplies to charge her phone—it wasn't cost-effective.

With rain expected the day after tomorrow, Xia Qing had been working non-stop for the past two days. She needed to collect and properly store everything useful from the three abandoned villages to prevent these supplies from being damaged by the surge of evolved creatures after the rain.

Collecting supplies was, of course, dangerous.

When Zhong Tao came to deliver her land-use certificate, he was startled by her appearance. "Sister, what happened to you?"

With a cracked protective mask, half her face swollen, and her body covered in mud, Xia Qing explained briefly, "I ran into a nest of evolved venomous scorpions."

Evolved venomous scorpions were not easy to deal with; one wrong move could be fatal. Looking at Xia Qing, Zhong Tao felt a wave of lingering fear. This territory really wasn't something just anyone could farm. "I have antivenom in the car, should I bring you some? The forecast says it starts raining tomorrow. We won't be coming out until the rain stops; even if we do, we won't be able to move much."

Having already taken antivenom, Xia Qing handed him a leather bag first. "Brother Tao, calculate how many points these scorpions are worth."

Looking at the wriggling, tightly closed canvas bag, Zhong Tao's scalp tingled. "They're all alive?"

"Alive. Seventeen over ten centimeters, thirty-six between five and ten centimeters, and I didn't count the ones under five centimeters carefully, but there are definitely no fewer than a hundred."

*Good heavens!*

Zhong Tao swallowed hard. No wonder Xia Qing had been bitten like this after catching so many live scorpions. "According to the base's public exchange rate for venomous scorpions, it's a total of 820 points."

Venomous scorpions could be used to make antivenom, so their price was higher than other common venomous insects. Xia Qing knew Zhong Tao wasn't shortchanging her. "I'll exchange one bottle of antivenom, one bottle of insect repellent, and one protective mask. Use the remaining points to exchange for waterproof tarps to cover the roof."

Zhong Tao laughed. "Exchanging this much? No wonder you can't save any points."

*She has no relatives to take care of; what's the point of saving points?* Xia Qing smiled but said nothing.

Zhong Tao realized this too, scratched his head, and turned to fetch the supplies.

After seeing Zhong Tao off, Xia Qing went home to take a shower. She stood before the half-broken bathroom mirror and applied medicine to the wounds on her face.

After washing away the dark red paint, the red, swollen abrasions on her natural skin became glaringly obvious.

Her face hadn't been stung by scorpions; she had been slashed by a piece of rebar from a falling floor slab while catching them. Fortunately, she was strong and moved quickly, otherwise, she would still be pinned under that slab.

Aside from her face, Xia Qing had several blunt force injuries on her body, but no fractures. Since her protective suit had prevented any skin from breaking, they didn't require treatment.

Bleeding, scarring, and disfigurement were minor issues; the important thing was to prevent infection. Once bacteria and viruses evolved, even a tiny wound could take a person's life.