After returning home, Xia Qing went to check on her precious small wild boar first. Finding it still curled up in the corner, refusing to eat or drink, she immediately replaced its water with fresh spring water and toon sprouts. She absolutely could not let anything happen to it under her care.
After heading inside for a shower and eating a filling meal of rice mixed with spicy toon sprouts, Xia Qing lay down comfortably on her bed. She absolutely loved this free and easy, solitary life.
While she was lying down to sleep, the small valley north of Territory No. 4 was brightly lit. Several people wearing camouflage protective suits stood around eleven anesthetized wild boars—three adults and eight piglets—conducting tests.
Su Ming ran over to the two captains to report the exciting test results. “Out of the three adults—one male and two females—the nursing sow’s blood test came back green light! Among the seven piglets, one showed green light and another yellow light. Including the one that was taken away, that makes a total of three edible piglets!”
The green-light sow giving birth to two green-light piglets with a red-light boar showed that the sow had highly stable Yi elements, making her very suitable for breeding.
Tan Junjie was about to order the boars to be taken back, but Yang Jin beat him to it. “This place has mountains, water, and forests with plenty of food. It’s perfect for keeping wild boars in an enclosure. As far as I know, the wild boar breeding project at the research center isn’t going very well. If we send these boars there, they might not survive more than a few months. How about Teacher Tan asks for instructions?”
Su Ming immediately agreed, “That’s right, Captain. This place is so close to our camp. Keeping them in a pen won’t be any trouble at all.”
It would also make eating pork much more convenient.
Tan Junjie also thought it was feasible. He made a call to ask for instructions and indeed received support from his superiors. “We will fence off this entire area to raise the boars. The clearing machines will arrive in two hours. Yunzi and Mingzi, stay behind to watch over the wild boars. The rest of you, rest here for half an hour, then follow me to meet up with the machinery.”
“Yes, sir!” over twenty soldiers answered in high spirits.
Tan Junjie then turned to Yang Jin. “What are your plans?”
Yang Jin flicked away a leech clinging to his protective suit. “I’ll follow your arrangements. Just looking to secure a long-term source of meat.”
“As if a kid like you is short on meat,” Tan Junjie said with a meaningful smile.
Yang Jin smiled and changed the subject. “Are the orders from above just to clear this valley, or to clear the entire area north of Territories Three, Four, and Five?”
Since Yang Jin didn’t want to elaborate, Tan Junjie didn’t press further. “We’re clearing it all. The area north of Territory No. 3 will be incorporated into Territory No. 3, while this side will become the wild boar breeding center. Tonight, we’ll coordinate with the machines to establish the isolation belt first. Once dawn breaks, we’ll start clearing out dangerous organisms. It must be completed before the rain starts.”
With four forest isolation belt clearing vehicles and over forty people, they easily cleared a new, fifty-meter-wide isolation belt overnight across the rolling slopes north of Territories Three, Four, and Five.
The next morning, when Xia Qing went to the northern slope to draw water, she saw smoke rising from the evolution forest to the north.
*Did Captain Tan and his team already catch the wild boars and start clearing the evolution forest?* Before Xia Qing could go check, she received a call from Tan Junjie, who wanted to send someone over to collect the piglet.
Xia Qing asked first, “Captain Tan, when can I get the land-use permit for the new plot of land approved for me?”
Since it was a transaction, everything had to be laid out clearly beforehand.
Tan Junjie answered readily, “It has already been submitted. Zhong Tao will deliver it to you within two days.”
“Thank you, Captain Tan.”
After hanging up, Xia Qing immediately went back to catch the lively little wild boar. She brought it to the isolation belt north of the buffer forest and handed it over to Su Ming, who was waiting with his neck craned.
Su Ming pricked the piglet’s skin to take a few drops of blood for testing. He grinned from ear to ear and said, “As expected of a green-light pig, it’s really energetic!”
*Are those two things even related?* Xia Qing asked, “Are you clearing out the wild boar valley as well? I saw smoke over there.”
Su Ming replied cheerfully, “The base plans to build a wild boar breeding center here. The northern isolation belt is already done. Once we fence off the area north of Territories Four and Five, we’ll head over to clear the small slope north of Territory No. 3.”
Building a breeding center meant her own territory would be much safer. Xia Qing was very pleased. “If you guys are short-handed, I can clear that plot of land myself.”
“We have enough hands. We’ll definitely finish the task within two days,” Su Ming said. Then, he curiously asked her, “Sister Xia Qing, are you close with Captain Yang of the Azure Dragon Team?”
Yang Jin, the captain of the Azure Dragon Team—which ranked second in comprehensive combat power at Hui San Base—was a prominent figure at the base. He was a level seven speed evolver, young, and very easy on the eyes. An evolver like him would be pursued by anyone, regardless of gender.
This was because partnering with a high-level evolver meant that if their offspring were tested to have evolutionary potential, the family could move into the safe zone’s inner city. They would also be assigned easy and decent jobs. Relying on the base’s welfare benefits and work compensation, they could live an enviable life.
Xia Qing had never thought of taking this path, so she wanted nothing more than to stay as far away from Yang Jin as possible. Yang Jin was Tang Lu’s target of pursuit, and any woman who got close to him would be viewed by Tang Lu as a thorn in her side.
Although Tang Lu was Tang Zhengsu’s daughter and lived in the inner city, it didn’t change the fact that she was just an ordinary person. Naturally, she wanted to marry a high-level evolver and give birth to offspring with evolutionary abilities, securing the rest of her life.
Thus, Su Ming’s sudden question immediately put Xia Qing on high alert. “I don’t know him, and I’ve never interacted with him. Why do you ask?”
“It’s nothing, just asking.” Su Ming scratched his head, picked up the little wild boar, and walked away.
Although the top two teams at Hui San Base were nominally neutral, their actual allegiances were very clear. The Su Feng Team, led by Tang Zhengsu, naturally answered to Vice Base Commander Tang Zhengrong. Meanwhile, the Azure Dragon Team, led by Yang Jin, was much closer to the military leader, Base Commander Qi Zhongye.
Because Yang Jin and most of his team members had been military academy students before the disaster, under his leadership, the Azure Dragon Team operated much more cleanly than the Su Feng Team. They enjoyed a high reputation at the base, and everyone liked to team up with them for missions. Xia Qing had also gone on missions with the Azure Dragon Team, though she only participated in those led by core members of the team.
She stayed far away from any mission personally led by Yang Jin.
*Why did Su Ming think she was close to Yang Jin?* Xia Qing narrowed her eyes as she watched Su Ming enter the evolution forest, only returning to her territory after he was out of sight.
Before she could make heads or tails of it, she heard a loud thumping sound of running footsteps approaching from the distance. Xia Qing immediately dropped her back basket and assumed a defensive stance.
An evolved sheep with large spiral horns leapt out from the woods, charging fiercely at Xia Qing. Xia Qing braced herself, meeting it with 120% of her strength.
*Bang!*
Xia Qing lost the clash, stumbling back three steps and slamming hard against a tree. If her body hadn’t evolved to become much stronger, that impact would have definitely injured her.
Just as Xia Qing stood up, she saw the evolved sheep take a few steps back and charge at her again. Her stubborn streak flared up, and she decided to go head-to-head with this sheep.
“Today, I’ll let you know who’s the boss of Territory No. 3!”
She didn’t have as much strength as the sheep, but she had a brain. As the sheep charged again, Xia Qing dodged to the side, grabbed its horns with both hands, and shouted, “Get lost!”
The evolved sheep was flung sideways by Xia Qing’s powerful throw, crashing into a boulder with a loud thud. Dazed for a couple of seconds, it widened its eyes, let out a loud bleat, and leapt at Xia Qing once more.
It was the first time Xia Qing had heard a sheep make such an angry sound, but she didn’t show any mercy. “Get lost!”
*Crack!*
Flung out by Xia Qing again, the evolved sheep crashed into a tree as thick as a human thigh, snapping the trunk right in half.
“Baa!” The evolved sheep stood up, shook its head, and charged at Xia Qing again with heavy thuds.
“Get lost!”
*Bang!*
“Away you go!”
*Bang!*
“Go!”
*Bang!*
…
Banxia Novel, so much joy.