When it came to fighting, the Evolutionary Sheep was definitely not as smart as Xiaqing, but its endurance and strength were incredible.
When the Evolutionary Sheep got up and charged for the thirty-fifth time, Xiaqing, her arms aching, climbed onto a large rock and surrendered. "You win, you’re the boss. Let’s stop fighting. I’ve got real work to do."
The Evolutionary Sheep stopped, raised its head to stare at Xiaqing for a moment, then collapsed to the ground with a THUD. It lay there, mouth open, panting heavily.
’So it was tired too,’ Xiaqing thought, collapsing onto the rock with a laugh.
After catching her breath, Xiaqing jumped off the rock, took out her water bottle, and gulped down a few mouthfuls. She then asked the Evolutionary Sheep, still lying by the rock, "Sheep Leader, want some water?"
The Evolutionary Sheep—or Sheep Leader, as it should be called now—still watched Xiaqing with narrowed eyes. For a sheep, it was unbelievably arrogant.
Xiaqing didn’t hold it against the sheep. She poured water into its bowl and took two steps back.
The Sheep Leader got up, drank half the bowl of water, then turned to look at the Asparagus Chrysanthemum branches that had been trampled to a pulp. Its gaze was anything but friendly.
’Is it... hungry?’
Xiaqing put on her Protective Mask. "You rest here. I’ll go get some more Asparagus Chrysanthemum."
Xiaqing grabbed her machete and back-basket and had only taken a few steps when she heard a sound behind her. Turning around, she saw the Sheep Leader had followed. "You’re coming too?"
"Baa."
Seeing as it bleated like a normal sheep, Xiaqing agreed. She took out a collar. "Alright, then. How about you wear this?"
Seeing the Sheep Leader begin to paw at the ground again, Xiaqing tactfully put the collar away. "Fine, don’t wear it. But if Captain Tan’s team catches and eats you, don’t blame me for not warning you."
After their fight, a strange sense of camaraderie, born from conflict, had formed between Xiaqing and the Sheep Leader. The sheep’s anger and defensiveness toward Xiaqing also seemed to have lessened. The human and sheep, one in front of the other, crossed the Buffer Forest and the isolation zone, entering the Evolution Forest.
Once inside the Evolution Forest, Xiaqing slowed her pace, and the Sheep Leader moved past her.
Seeing its confident and familiar gait, Xiaqing decided to follow behind it. Before long, the Sheep Leader had indeed led her onto a Beast Path.
Xiaqing smiled. "Judging by the width of this path and the hoof prints, you made this, didn’t you? How do you avoid attacks from poisonous snakes and Poisonous Insects?"
The Sheep Leader, of course, didn’t answer. After walking a bit further, it stopped to eat a type of large-leafed grass that was a vibrant, almost garish, purple.
’This stuff isn’t poisonous?’
Xiaqing pinched off a leaf, squeezed out its purplish-red juice, and tested it with her High Level Detector. To her surprise, it was a safe food, its quality just a thousandth below that of Asparagus Chrysanthemum.
If the Sheep Leader hadn’t been eating it, Xiaqing would never have even thought to test such an unnatural-looking plant.
But now, she had a new vegetable. ’Thanks, boss!’
While the Sheep Leader ate, Xiaqing harvested the plants. When the sheep had its fill, the pair of partners climbed a slope together. The Sheep Leader raised its head, staring motionless at an Asparagus Tree.
"Alright, I’ll go get them. You wait here."
Yesterday, Xiaqing had already picked all the buds within easy reach. Today, she had another plan.
Xiaqing cut down a bamboo pole over four meters long, trimmed it clean, and tied the gleaming, sharpened sickle from her back-basket to the end. She then used the sickle to slice down clusters of Asparagus Chrysanthemum.
"Baa."
Seeing the Asparagus Chrysanthemum fall in clusters, the Sheep Leader let out a happy bleat and lowered its head to eat.
Xiaqing sliced down all the Asparagus Chrysanthemum she could reach. After the Sheep Leader had eaten its fill, she still had a large bag left over.
Xiaqing didn’t want to run into the warriors clearing the forest. "Sheep Leader, shall we head back?"
The Sheep Leader, lying on the ground, didn’t move an inch. It showed no intention of leaving.
Xiaqing was decisive. She took out a cluster of Asparagus Chrysanthemum, dangled it in front of the Sheep Leader’s nose, then shouldered today’s harvest and started down the mountain.
A moment later, she heard the THUMP THUMP THUMP of footsteps behind her. The corners of Xiaqing’s mouth curled up in a silent smile.
On the way back, Xiaqing followed the Sheep Leader’s Beast Path. They encountered no dangerous creatures and quickly passed through the isolation zone back to her own territory.
The Sheep Leader went to drink from the spring, while Xiaqing left it some Asparagus Chrysanthemum and half a basket of the purple-leafed plant. Then, she began to clean up the trees that had been broken during their fight.
Although this large patch of forest was ruined, she was sure that new grass and saplings would sprout after the rain and cover the land once more.
Xiaqing used a rope to bundle the sectioned tree trunks, carried them home, and placed them in the storage building in the east courtyard. Then, she began collecting dry wood from the village.
It was going to rain soon, so she needed to prepare more firewood.
Cooking with firewood was much less convenient than using electricity or gas. The Safe Zone didn’t sell solar panels to individuals. Xiaqing mulled over what resources she could use as a bargaining chip to get a couple of solar panels from Tan Junjie. It wasn’t just for cooking; she couldn’t keep relying on traded power banks to charge her phone. It just wasn’t cost-effective.
With rain forecast for the day after tomorrow, Xiaqing was so busy she barely had a moment’s rest. She had to gather everything useful from the three Deserted Villages and store it properly, lest the materials be damaged by the influx of Evolutionary Creatures that would come after the rain.
Scavenging for supplies was, of course, dangerous.
When Zhong Tao came to deliver her land-use certificate, he was shocked by her appearance. "What in the world happened to you?"
Her Protective Mask was cracked, half her face was swollen, and she was covered in mud. Xiaqing explained briefly, "Ran into a nest of evolutionary poisonous scorpions."
Evolutionary poisonous scorpions were no easy foe; a single mistake could be fatal. A wave of fear washed over Zhong Tao as he looked at her. ’This territory really isn’t a place just anyone can farm.’ "I’ve got an antidote in the vehicle, want me to get you some? The forecast says it’s going to start raining tomorrow. We won’t be heading out again until it stops. The roads will be impassable anyway."
Xiaqing, who had already taken an antidote, handed him a leather sack first. "Brother Tao, could you calculate how many points these scorpions are worth?"
Staring at the squirming, tightly-cinched canvas bag, Zhong Tao felt his scalp tingle. "They’re all alive?"
"They’re alive. Seventeen are over ten centimeters, thirty-six are between five and ten centimeters, and I didn’t count the ones under five centimeters carefully, but there are definitely no less than a hundred."
’Holy crap!’
Zhong Tao swallowed hard. ’No wonder she’s in this state, catching this many live scorpions.’ "According to our base’s public exchange rate for poisonous scorpions, that’s 820 points in total."
Poisonous scorpions could be used to make antidotes, so their price was a bit higher than other common poisonous insects. Xiaqing knew Zhong Tao hadn’t shorted her on the price. "I’ll trade for a bottle of antidote, a bottle of insect-repellent pills, one Protective Mask, and put the remaining points toward rainproof cloth. It’s for covering the roof."
Zhong Tao laughed. "Trading for so much? No wonder you can never save up any points."
’I don’t have any family to take care of, so what’s the point of saving them?’ Xiaqing just smiled and said nothing.
Zhong Tao seemed to realize this as well. He scratched his head and turned to get the supplies.
After seeing Zhong Tao off, Xiaqing went home and took a shower. Then she stood before the half-shattered mirror in her bathroom, applying medicine to the wound on her face.
Once the dark red paint was washed away, the swollen red scrape on her skin stood out in sharp relief.
Her face hadn’t been stung by a scorpion. She’d been scraped by a piece of rebar from a floor slab that had suddenly collapsed while she was catching them. Luckily, she was strong and dodged quickly. Otherwise, she’d still be pinned under it.
Besides her face, Xiaqing had numerous bruises on her body, but no broken bones. Thanks to the protection of her Protective Suit, her skin wasn’t even broken, so they didn’t require any treatment.
Bleeding, scarring, even disfigurement—those were all minor issues. The most important thing was to prevent infection. With how bacteria and viruses had evolved, even a tiny wound could be a death sentence.