Chapter 12: Massive Profits

Chapter 12: A Massive Profit

Tan Junjie stared at Xia Qing as if looking at a disobedient soldier under his command. "Any evolved biological appearing outside of a territory is not protected by the 'Territory Law'."

Even those wearing collars are not protected.

"Yes," Xia Qing responded loudly, then asked in a low voice, "Captain Tan, if I clear out that hillside, can it be counted as part of my territory?"

After the Cataclysm, China was vast and sparsely populated; no one wanted land covered in evolved biologicals.

Tan Junjie stared at Xia Qing in silence for a few seconds. "What is on that hillside?"

Xia Qing answered truthfully, "There is an edible Chinese toon tree. My sheep loves to eat it."

Tan Junjie understood. Pressing his brow, he asked back, "How many wild boars have you caught in total?"

This...

Xia Qing hesitated, knowing she couldn't hide this for long, so she simply answered truthfully, "Three. There is also one more in my territory."

"Live? Edible?"

"...Yes."

Tan Junjie fell silent for a moment, then asked, "Male or female?"

This time, Xia Qing was embarrassed. "I didn't notice. I'll text you once I confirm."

Tan Junjie laid out the terms: "Trade that little piglet for that hillside and 'your' sheep."

Xia Qing, who had planned to raise the little piglet to trade for a massive amount of points, hesitated before proposing her own condition: "Can I clear the hillside myself?"

*Does she really treat that toon tree like a treasure?* Looking at Xia Qing's dark, thin, and haggard face, Tan Junjie promised, "It's too dangerous for you to go alone. We will only clear out harmful organisms and won't touch anything on that hillside."

Xia Qing immediately beamed with joy. "Deal! Thank you, Captain Tan!"

After Xia Qing left carrying her grain, Tan Junjie took out his phone to report the situation upward, then requested, "I am applying to lead a team into the Evolved Forest immediately to catch wild boars... Yes, I will ensure the mission is completed."

***

Inside Territory No. 3, Xia Qing stared at a large pile of rice and flour sealed in one-jin bags, her mouth watering. Back in the Safe Zone, she wouldn't have dared to eat staples even once a week, but now she suddenly had sixty jin!

She wanted to reward herself with rice tonight, but before dark, she had to accomplish a major task.

Xia Qing cut a piece of red cloth from some old clothes and sewed a collar. After clumsily stitching the words "Xia Qing, Territory No. 3" onto it, she re-entered the Evolved Forest.

Even if she couldn't bring the evolved sheep back to her territory today, she had to get the collar on it so she could feel at ease.

This evolved sheep and that patch of land were things she had traded for with a pig worth over ten thousand points.

Xia Qing didn't know if this sheep was an edible animal. She didn't want to eat it; she wanted to keep it as labor, and she also wanted to keep that tree that provided a continuous supply of toon sprouts.

When Xia Qing reached the hillside, she indeed saw the evolved sheep lying under the tree, watching her with half-closed eyes.

After the human and the sheep stared at each other for a while, Xia Qing took the initiative to pour half a pot of water into the broken clay jar that had been licked clean by the sheep.

The evolved sheep watched her with squinted eyes, remaining motionless.

Xia Qing took three steps back, removed her protective mask to take a sip of water, shook the flask, and began to lure the sheep. "Come back with me, and you can drink as much water like this as you want. You can even bathe in spring water. Look at you, you're almost as dirty as a lump of coal; you must be really itchy, right?"

The evolved sheep ignored her and stood up to drink the water.

Xia Qing crept a step closer; the sheep didn't react. She took another step. Just as she pulled out the collar, the evolved sheep suddenly jumped up to butt her, and Xia Qing hurriedly dodged.

One human and one sheep—one chasing and one running—circled the large toon tree over a dozen times.

By the time Xia Qing, nearly dizzy from circling, climbed the toon tree, the evolved sheep's temper hadn't subsided; it was slamming its head against the tree trunk with loud *thuds*.

Xia Qing didn't know if its large spiral horns hurt, but she was personally feeling nauseous from the shaking.

It wasn't just the sheep that had a temper; Xia Qing did too! She pulled out her machete, hacked off a tree branch with two sharp cracks, and threw it down. The evolved sheep immediately stopped hitting the tree and turned to eat the toon sprouts at the tip of the branch.

Xia Qing jumped down from the tree, kicked over the sheep's water jar, and ran off while carrying the branch. If she couldn't put the collar on, she would just take the sheep back.

The evolved sheep fell for it and chased after Xia Qing to gnaw on the toon sprouts.

One human and one sheep—one running and one chasing to eat—ran out of the Evolved Forest, and then the sheep stopped.

To prevent evolved biologicals from entering the buffer zone, a large amount of powder that evolved biologicals hated had been sprayed in the fifty-meter-wide isolation belt. Naturally, the evolved sheep disliked the smell too.

However, this sheep was likely the one that came to her territory to drink spring water. Under the double temptation of spring water and toon sprouts, she didn't believe the sheep could resist.

After Xia Qing carried the branch through the isolation belt and into the buffer zone, the evolved sheep indeed leaped and bounded through the isolation belt to chase after her.

Su Ming, a visual evolver stationed at the northern isolation belt of Territory No. 4, rubbed his eyes in disbelief. "Captain Tan, Brother Jin, I just saw Sister Xia Qing carrying a branch, leading a sheep out of the Evolved Forest and into the No. 3 buffer zone."

Tan Junjie turned and looked at Yang Jin, who was wearing camouflage protective gear, with an unreadable expression.

Yang Jin gave Tan Junjie a smile, then put on his protective mask and ordered, "Move out."

"Yes!" More than twenty members of the Azure Dragon Squad put on their masks simultaneously and followed Yang Jin into the Evolved Forest.

Su Ming was a bit confused and pulled his teammate, Cao Xianyun, aside. "Did you see the way Brother Yang just looked at me? I feel like he was calculating how many points my flesh is worth."

*You actually got it right for once.* Cao Xianyun, a level-four auditory evolver, put on his protective mask. "Since when do you have a 'Sister'?"

*Huh? What?*

Su Ming was even more bewildered. "No! I mean Xia Qing, from Territory No. 3, we just met her yesterday..."

Tan Junjie turned back and glared. "Check your gear, maintain formation, move out."

"Yes!" Su Ming immediately stood straight and let out a loud shout as he put on his mask.

Su Ming's shout traveled far into the No. 3 buffer zone. Xia Qing, who was snapping off toon sprouts to feed the sheep, turned her head toward the north.

*Thud!*

Seeing that Xia Qing had stopped moving, the evolved sheep turned, walked to the edge of a cave, used a hoof to dig away the stone blocking the entrance, took a few gulps of water, and then walked back to lie by the tree branch, squinting its eyes to ruminate.

The posture made it look as if this entire forest was its territory.

Then again, maybe it was. Perhaps before this hillside was cleared, it really was this sheep's territory. Xia Qing took off her mask and smiled. "Now there's a large group of people more powerful than me entering the Evolved Forest to catch wild boars. If you don't want to die, stay here and don't run around."

The evolved sheep squinted its eyes, ignoring Xia Qing, and continued to ruminate.

Xia Qing abandoned her plan to collar it. She casually plucked a cluster of toon sprouts and tested them with her newly acquired high-grade detector. She was shocked.

A deep green color with less than one-thousandth of the toxin element—a top-tier safe plant!

No wonder this sheep was guarding that toon tree. Now even Xia Qing wanted to move under the tree. Trading one "green-light" little wild pig for over a thousand acres of hillside, a top-tier safe plant, and an evolved sheep... although land wasn't worth much right now, a top-tier tree that continuously grew leaves was incredibly valuable!

Even without counting the evolved sheep as a bonus, she had made a massive profit!

Seeing Xia Qing smiling like an idiot, the evolved sheep, which was pushing half-digested food back into its mouth to chew again, squinted its eyes until they were nothing but thin lines.