Chapter 56: Earthworm Castings

Chapter 56: Worm Castings

"Sister Qing!" Sun Zhe's voice instantly regained its vitality. He shouted once before lowering his voice, "Sister Qing, you're back too?!"

"No, I'm still in my territory," Xia Qing replied, not questioning his use of the word "too." She continued, "Are you free right now? I have something I want to discuss with you."

"I'm free, of course I'm free."

Xia Qing heard Sun Zhe walking quickly away from his original location, and the noisy background sounds on the phone grew quieter. "Sister Qing, tell me. No one can hear you there. You can make calls in your territory—did you switch to a satellite phone?"

"Yeah. For convenience, I exchanged some points for one after a few missions with the squad. The reason I'm looking for you is..." Xia Qing explained the need for organic fertilizer for farming in her territory to Sun Zhe. "Qi Fu said your dad knows how to make worm castings, so I wanted to let you know. Of course, whether you do it or not depends on your own plans."

Sun Zhe's breathing became heavy and excited against the phone's receiver, which Xia Qing could hear clearly. "Sister Qing, are there really people who will buy worm castings?"

"I can only contact three lords, and they all have a demand for organic fertilizer, including Qi Fu. I can't guarantee anything about others, but I personally need to buy at least a thousand pounds." Xia Qing only mentioned the three nearby lords who were actually farming; she had excluded Lords One, Two, and Seven.

Sun Zhe controlled his excitement and answered briskly, "Thank you, Sister. I'll go tell my dad right away. The planting center in our Safe Zone raises worms for castings; my dad applied for a job there once, but he wasn't hired because he's disabled. Sister, do you think it's better to make worm castings in the Safe Zone or outside the territory?"

Xia Qing was surprised. "Haven't all the lands been claimed? Has the base cleared out new territory?"

Sun Zhe realized that Xia Qing's information was outdated and quickly explained, "No new territory has been developed; it's still the same two hundred plots from the beginning of the year. However, some lords have died and others have fled back. Now there are over thirty empty plots that no one dares to claim. My dad wants to claim one, but my mom won't agree."

Xia Qing answered seriously, "Raising worms creates a strong odor, which will definitely attract carnivorous evolved animals. Therefore, raising them in the Safe Zone is less dangerous than in a territory, but conversely, you can raise more in a territory, and the yield will be higher than in the Safe Zone. It's up to you to decide. If you do come out of your territory, it's best to choose a plot close to the Safe Zone; the closer, the safer."

Sun Zhe's family were ordinary people, and the risk of leaving the Safe Zone was high, but raising worms for castings might be the only lifeline their family currently had. Sun Zhe thanked her sincerely, "I understand. Thank you so much, Sister. If you ever need extra hands for work, just call me. I'll be there whenever you need me. Everyone misses you too."

*If you can produce worm castings, you'll be doing me a huge favor,* Xia Qing thought. She instructed Sun Zhe, "I can still manage on my own for now. Don't tell anyone that I contacted you."

After hanging up, Xia Qing took a deep breath of the air scented with grass and soil, then lay on the grass gazing at the azure sky.

The familiar, noisy background sounds from the phone had instantly pulled Xia Qing back into the suffocatingly crowded Safe Zone. She didn't care what others thought; she had no intention of giving up her territory to go back.

"Mee—"

"Thump, thump, thump!"

Xia Qing heard Boss Sheep's anxious bleating and the sound of running. Turning to see it charging toward her, she quickly jumped up to prove she was fine. "Boss, don't panic! I'm not poisoned or injured. I'm perfectly fine, I was just lying down to rest. See? I'm up, I can even jump!"

Seeing that Xia Qing was unharmed, Boss Sheep grew angry. It took a few steps back, bared its spiral horns, and let out a smoky-voiced roar: "Mooo!"

Xia Qing sighed. "Boss, aren't you tired of stepping on the waterwheel all this time?"

Boss Sheep charged forward regardless. Xia Qing turned and ran. "Come on, let's go to the open field. I'll wrestle with you as much as you want."

The person and the sheep ran to an empty patch of land where nothing was planted. Xia Qing didn't use any tricks; she simply went head-to-head with Boss Sheep to test her strength. Naturally, she was flipped over by the sheep.

An hour later, Xia Qing lay exhausted on the ground, panting heavily. "Boss, I suspect you are a dual-attribute Strength and Endurance evolved sheep."

Endurance evolution meant having stamina several times higher than an ordinary person (or sheep). For example, an ordinary person might tire after running at full speed for five minutes, but a Level 2 endurance evolver would last ten minutes, and a Level 5 would last thirty-five. If someone with high physical fitness also had endurance evolution, they would be very difficult to deal with. Xue Jinchang, a core member of the Dongyang Squad, was a Level 5 endurance evolver, and his strength was undeniably formidable.

Boss Sheep's endurance was also very strong.

After teaching Xia Qing a lesson, Boss Sheep got hungry and shook the dirt off its body to eat grass. Xia Qing also brushed off the dirt and stood up, following behind Boss Sheep. "Boss, how did you survive alone in the Evolution Forest before?"

The longer they spent together, the more Xia Qing realized that Boss Sheep feared loneliness. Therefore, it must have had companions before meeting her. "Are your companions still around? Bring them all back to the territory. We have water, grass, and it's safe here. You can't enjoy being a lone sheep and forget your friends."

Thinking about the prospect of owning a flock of sheep made Xia Qing salivate. *No, I need to hurry up and prepare the cumin for when the flock arrives.*

In Territory No. 3, besides the evolved perilla on the high slope and the patch of mixed green and yellow light grass by the spring, there were three other patches of mixed yellow and green light grass. Xia Qing had tasted every type of grass she planted and found the flavors were all terrible, so these three patches had become Boss Sheep's exclusive pasture.

However, that was no longer the case because Xia Qing was raising fish. She would cut the grass, scald it, chop it up, and feed it to the fish. As for whether the fish liked it or not was completely outside her considerations. If they liked it, they ate; if not, they went hungry, and eventually, they would eat.

Five days later, the first flower bloomed on Xia Qing's cucumbers. She could no longer continue spraying camphor sap to repel insects, so she built fine, sturdy insect nets over the vegetable gardens on the hillside. The protective nets could keep out many evolved pests with weak biting capabilities, such as cabbage worms, diamondback moths, cabbage moths, aphids, and leafminers.

By cutting off the breeding routes of pests in the plants and shallow soil, she no longer needed to spray crops frequently; she only needed to periodically spray the nets to repel rodent-like evolved insects.

To cover the vegetables with nets, she first built greenhouse frames and then draped and secured the insect netting tightly over them. Xia Qing had never seen this planting technique even in the Safe Zone. If Qi Fu hadn't told her about it, she never would have thought of it.

As for why such a useful thing wasn't used by the planting center in the Safe Zone, Xia Qing felt it was because there were fewer pests there. The pests in her territory were more than double what the planting center dealt with.

After covering the vegetables with protective nets, Xia Qing only needed to conduct regular patrols to eliminate any rodent-like insects near the nets, preventing them from having a chance to bite through. Fortunately, most rodent-like insects were active during the day. Xia Qing wasn't the only one doing the patrol work; the birds in her territory also liked to perch on the large trees and rocks near the vegetable nets, waiting to catch insects to eat.

Because they were attracted to the vegetables, the density of various insects outside the nets was higher than elsewhere.

Since setting up the insect nets, Xia Qing noticed more birds in her territory. In addition to the original four black-and-white evolved magpies and a few crows, there was now a flock of sparrows, several beautiful long-tailed paradise flycatchers, and several types of small birds with beautiful songs and colors that Xia Qing couldn't name. With them, Xia Qing truly experienced the meaning of "birds singing and flowers blooming."

Unfortunately, except for the four black-and-white evolved magpies, none of the other birds built nests in Territory No. 3; otherwise, Xia Qing would have been eating bird eggs by now.

While Xia Qing was wandering the hillside to exterminate insects, Luo Pei sent her a message saying that the mountain's purchase agreement and lease contract had been drafted, and asked her to come over to see if anything needed modification.

Xia Qing had been tossing and turning for several days, considering buying the mountain, leasing the mountain, and hiring people to guard it, and she had finally sorted out her thoughts. She also felt that holding Mountain No. 49 in her own hands would be more beneficial to her than leaving it in the hands of the Azure Dragon Squad.