Tan Junjie stared at Xiaqing like he was looking at one of his disobedient soldiers. "Any evolutionary creature found outside a territory is not protected by the Territory Law."
"Not even if it has a collar."
"Yes, sir," Xiaqing responded loudly, then quietly asked, "Captain Tan, if I clear out that hillside, can I claim it as my territory?"
After the Natural Disasters, Hua Country was vast and sparsely populated. Nobody wanted land that was teeming with evolutionary creatures.
Tan Junjie stared at Xiaqing in silence for a few seconds. "What’s on the hillside?"
Xiaqing answered truthfully, "There’s an edible Asparagus Tree. My sheep is very fond of it."
Tan Junjie understood. He rubbed his brow and countered, "How many wild boars have you caught in total?"
"Well..."
Xiaqing hesitated for a moment. Knowing she couldn’t hide the truth for long, she decided to be honest. "Three. There’s one more in my territory."
"Alive, and edible?"
"...Yes."
Tan Junjie paused for a moment, then asked, "Male or female?"
This time, Xiaqing was embarrassed. "I didn’t check. I’ll text you once I’ve confirmed."
Tan Junjie laid out his terms. "Trade this little wild boar for that hillside and ’your’ sheep."
Xiaqing, who had planned on raising the little Gua Pi pig for a boatload of points, hesitated before making her own counteroffer. "Can you let me clear the hillside myself?"
’Does she really treasure that Asparagus Tree so much?’ Tan Junjie thought, looking at Xiaqing’s sun-darkened, gaunt face. He made a promise, "It’s too dangerous for you to go alone. We will only clear out the harmful creatures and won’t touch anything else on the hillside."
Xiaqing’s face immediately lit up. "Deal! Thank you, Captain Tan!"
After Xiaqing left with the grain, Tan Junjie took out his phone to report to his superiors. He then made a request, "I’m applying to immediately lead a team into the Evolution Forest to capture wild boars... Yes, I will ensure the mission is a success."
***
Back in Territory No. 3, Xiaqing stood guard over a large pile of rice and flour sealed in one-pound bags, her mouth watering. Back in the Safe Zone, she couldn’t even afford to eat staple foods once a week, and now she suddenly had sixty pounds of it!
She was going to treat herself to rice for dinner, but before nightfall, she had something important to do.
Xiaqing cut a piece of red cloth from an old garment and sewed it into a collar. After crookedly stitching the words "Territory No. 3, Xiaqing" onto it, she headed back into the Evolution Forest.
Even if she couldn’t lead the Evolutionary Sheep back to her territory today, she had to get the collar on it. Only then could she have some peace of mind.
This Evolutionary Sheep and that plot of land had been acquired in exchange for a pig worth over ten thousand points.
Xiaqing didn’t know if the sheep was edible, but she no longer wanted to eat it. She wanted to keep it for labor and also to keep the tree that provided an endless supply of Asparagus Chrysanthemum.
When Xiaqing reached the hillside, she found the Evolutionary Sheep just as she’d expected, lying under the tree and watching her with half-lidded eyes.
The girl and the sheep stared at each other for a moment before Xiaqing took the initiative, pouring half a canteen of water into the broken clay pot the sheep had licked clean.
The Evolutionary Sheep watched her with narrowed eyes, remaining motionless.
Xiaqing backed away three steps, took off her Protective Mask to take a sip of water, then shook her canteen. She began to tempt the sheep, "Come back with me and you can have as much of this water as you want. You can even bathe in spring water. Look at you, you’re as filthy as a lump of coal. You must be so itchy, right?"
The Evolutionary Sheep ignored her, got up, and began to drink.
Xiaqing snuck a step closer. The Evolutionary Sheep didn’t react. She took another. The moment she pulled out the collar, the sheep suddenly leaped up to headbutt her. Xiaqing hastily dodged.
And so they began, one chasing and one fleeing, circling the large Asparagus Tree more than a dozen times.
Xiaqing, growing dizzy, scrambled up the Asparagus Tree. The Evolutionary Sheep, its temper not yet cooled, started ramming the trunk. THUD! THUD! THUD!
Xiaqing didn’t know if its big, spiraled horns hurt from the impact, but she knew *she* was about to be shaken sick.
But the sheep wasn’t the only one with a temper—so did Xiaqing! She drew her machete and, with a *CRACK, CRACK*, hacked off a branch and threw it down. The Evolutionary Sheep immediately stopped ramming the tree and turned to nibble on the Asparagus Chrysanthemum at the end of the branch.
Xiaqing leaped down from the tree, kicked over the clay pot the sheep drank from, hoisted the branch onto her shoulder, and took off running. ’If I can’t get the collar on it, I’ll just lure it home.’
Sure enough, the Evolutionary Sheep took the bait and chased after Xiaqing, trying to get a bite of the Asparagus Chrysanthemum.
The two of them—one running, the other chasing and nibbling—fled the Evolution Forest. Once they were out, the sheep stopped.
To prevent evolutionary creatures from entering the Buffer Forest, the fifty-meter-wide quarantine strip had been sprayed with large amounts of a powder that they detested. Naturally, the Evolutionary Sheep didn’t like the smell either.
’But this must be the same sheep that came to my territory for spring water,’ she thought. ’With the double temptation of spring water and fresh asparagus sprouts, I don’t believe it can resist.’
Xiaqing shouldered the branch and crossed the quarantine strip into the Buffer Forest. Just as she’d predicted, the Evolutionary Sheep charged across the strip with a series of leaps and bounds to chase after her.
Su Ming, a Visual Evolver who had just entered the northern quarantine strip of Territory No. 4, rubbed his eyes in disbelief. "Captain Tan, Brother Jin, I just saw Sister Xiaqing carrying a tree branch out of the Evolution Forest. She had a sheep with her, and they just entered the Buffer Forest for Territory No. 3."
Tan Junjie turned and gave an enigmatic look to Yang Jin, who stood beside him in a camouflage Protective Suit.
Yang Jin grinned at Tan Junjie, then put on his Protective Mask and gave the order, "Move out."
"Yes, sir!" The twenty-odd members of the Green Dragon Team simultaneously donned their masks and followed Yang Jin into the Evolution Forest.
Su Ming was a bit bewildered. He grabbed his teammate, Cao Xianyun. "Did you see the look Brother Yang just gave me? I feel like he was sizing me up, calculating how many points my flesh is worth."
’For once, your gut is right,’ thought Cao Xianyun, a Level 4 Auditory Evolver, as he put on his Protective Mask. "Since when do you have a ’sister’?"
"Huh? What?"
Su Ming was even more baffled. "What are you talking about? Xiaqing! From Territory No. 3! We just met her yesterday..."
Tan Junjie glanced back and shot them a glare. "Check your gear! Maintain formation! Move out!"
"Yes, sir!" Su Ming snapped to attention, shouted his reply, and put on his Protective Mask.
Su Ming’s shout carried all the way to the Buffer Forest of Territory No. 3. Xiaqing, who was breaking off bits of Asparagus Chrysanthemum to feed the sheep, tilted her head and looked to the north.
*THUMP!*
Seeing that Xiaqing had frozen, the Evolutionary Sheep walked over to the cave entrance. It pawed away the stone blocking the opening, took a few sips of water, then walked back to lie down by the branch, chewing its cud with narrowed eyes.
It acted as if this patch of forest was its own territory.
’It might as well be,’ Xiaqing thought. ’Perhaps before this hillside was cleared out, it really *was* this sheep’s territory.’ She took off her mask and smiled. "There’s a big group of people, much stronger than me, who just entered the Evolution Forest to hunt wild boars. If you don’t want to die, you’d better stay put and not wander off."
The Evolutionary Sheep, its eyes narrowed to slits, ignored Xiaqing and continued chewing its cud.
Xiaqing abandoned her plan to collar the sheep. She casually plucked a cluster of Asparagus Chrysanthemum and tested it with the High Level Detector she had just acquired. The result shocked her.
A deep green reading—Harmful Element content less than one part per thousand. A superior-grade safe plant!
No wonder the sheep guarded that Asparagus Tree. Now even Xiaqing herself wanted to move in and live under it. She had traded one Green Light little wild boar for over 160 acres of hillside, a superior-grade safe plant, and an Evolutionary Sheep. Land might be worthless these days, but a superior-grade tree that could endlessly produce edible leaves was incredibly valuable!
Even without the Evolutionary Sheep thrown in as a bonus, she had made an absolute killing on this deal!
The Evolutionary Sheep, chewing its cud, watched Xiaqing grin like a fool. Its eyes narrowed until they were nothing but a thin line.