When it came to fighting, the evolved sheep certainly didn’t have as many brains as Xia Qing, but it possessed incredible stamina and immense strength.
When the evolved sheep stood up and charged for the thirty-fifth time, Xia Qing, whose arms were aching and sore, climbed onto a large boulder and threw in the towel. “You’re awesome, you’re the boss. Let’s stop fighting, I still have actual business to do.”
The evolved sheep stopped, raised its head to stare at Xia Qing for a moment, and then collapsed onto the ground with a thud, panting heavily with its mouth wide open.
So it was tired too. Xia Qing collapsed onto the boulder and laughed.
Once she caught her breath, Xia Qing jumped down from the boulder, took out her water bottle, and gulped down a few mouthfuls of water. She asked the evolved sheep, which was still resting by the boulder, “Boss Sheep, want some water?”
The evolved sheep—who should now be called Boss Sheep—still squinted its eyes at Xia Qing. It was clearly just a sheep, yet it carried itself with an insufferable arrogance.
Xia Qing didn’t lower herself to its level. She poured some water into its bowl and took two steps back.
Boss Sheep scrambled up, drank half a bowl of water, and then turned its head to look at the Chinese toon branches that had been trampled to a pulp. Its gaze was highly unfriendly.
Is it… hungry?
Xia Qing put on her protective mask. “You rest first. I’ll go get some more toon sprouts.”
Xia Qing grabbed her machete and backpack, taking only a few steps before hearing movement behind her. Turning around, she saw Boss Sheep following her. “You’re coming too?”
“Baa.”
Since it actually sounded like a normal sheep for once, Xia Qing agreed. She pulled out a collar. “Alright, how about putting this on?”
Seeing Boss Sheep starting to scrape its hooves again, Xia Qing tactfully put the collar away. “Fine, don’t wear it then. But if Captain Tan’s team catches you and eats you, don’t blame me for not warning you.”
After their fight, Xia Qing felt a sense of camaraderie with Boss Sheep, born from their clash. Boss Sheep’s anger and wariness toward her also seemed to have lessened. Together, one human and one sheep, one leading and one following, they crossed the buffer forest and the isolation belt to enter the evolution forest.
Once inside the evolution forest, Xia Qing slowed her pace, and Boss Sheep overtook her.
Seeing how familiar it was with the area, Xia Qing simply followed behind. Sure enough, before long, Boss Sheep led her onto a game trail.
Xia Qing smiled. “Judging by the width of this path and the hoofprints, did you trample this out yourself? How did you avoid being attacked by venomous snakes and insects?”
Boss Sheep obviously didn’t answer. After walking forward a bit, it stopped to munch on a large-leaved grass that was a flamboyantly vibrant purple.
This thing isn’t toxic?
Xia Qing pinched a leaf, squeezed out some purplish-red juice, and tested it with her high-grade detector. To her surprise, it showed that the grass was safe to eat, with a quality only one-thousandth lower than that of the toon sprouts.
If Boss Sheep hadn’t been eating it, Xia Qing would never have tested a grass that looked so bizarre.
But now, she had another vegetable to add to her diet. Thanks, Boss!
Boss Sheep ate the grass while Xia Qing harvested it. Once Boss Sheep was full, the two companions climbed up a hillside together. Boss Sheep raised its head, staring fixedly at a Chinese toon tree, and refused to budge.
“Alright, I’ll go pick them. You wait here.”
Yesterday, Xia Qing had already plucked all the sprouts she could reach by climbing the tree. Today, she had other plans.
Xia Qing cut a bamboo pole over four meters long and trimmed it clean. She tied the gleaming sickle from her backpack to the end of the pole and used it to slice down the toon sprouts.
“Baa.”
Seeing clusters of toon sprouts raining down, Boss Sheep let out a joyful bleat and lowered its head to feast.
Xia Qing sliced down all the toon sprouts within reach. After feeding Boss Sheep its fill, she still had a large bagful left over.
Xia Qing didn’t want to run into the soldiers clearing the forest here. “Boss Sheep, shall we head back?”
Boss Sheep lay on the ground, completely motionless, with no intention of leaving.
Xia Qing acted decisively. She took out a cluster of toon sprouts, waved it in front of Boss Sheep’s nose, and then shouldered today’s harvest to head down the mountain.
Before long, the thudding sound of footsteps echoed behind her. Xia Qing curled her lips into a silent smile.
On the way back, Xia Qing took Boss Sheep’s game trail. Encountering no dangerous creatures, they quickly crossed the isolation belt and returned to her territory.
Boss Sheep went to drink spring water, while Xia Qing set aside some toon sprouts and half a basket of purple-leaved grass for it. Then, she began to clear the trees they had snapped during their fight.
Although this large stretch of woods was ruined, grass and saplings would surely sprout after the rain, covering the land once more.
Xia Qing used a rope to bundle the chopped logs, carried them back to her house, and stored them in the warehouse of the shelf building in the eastern courtyard. Then, she began gathering dry wood from around the village.
It was going to rain soon; she needed to prepare plenty of firewood.
Cooking with firewood was never as convenient as using electricity or gas. However, the safe zone did not sell solar panels to individuals. Xia Qing pondered what supplies she could use as leverage to trade with Tan Junjie for two solar panels. It wasn’t just for cooking—she couldn’t keep relying on traded power banks to charge her phone either; it wasn’t cost-effective.
The rain was coming the day after tomorrow, and Xia Qing was incredibly busy these two days. She needed to salvage everything useful from the three abandoned villages and store them properly to prevent the supplies from being ruined by the post-rain surge of evolved creatures.
Salvaging supplies was, of course, dangerous.
When Zhong Tao came to deliver her land use rights certificate, he was startled by her appearance. “Sis, what happened to you?”
With a cracked protective mask, half her face swollen, and covered in dirt, Xia Qing explained briefly, “Ran into a nest of evolved venomous scorpions.”
Evolved venomous scorpions were not to be trifled with; one wrong move could cost a life. Looking at Xia Qing, Zhong Tao felt a wave of lingering fear. This territory really wasn’t something just anyone could farm. “I have some antidote in the car, should I grab some for you? The forecast says it’ll start raining tomorrow. We won’t be coming out again until the rain stops—even if we wanted to, the roads will be impassable.”
Xia Qing, who had already taken some antidote, handed over a leather pouch first. “Tao Ge, calculate how many points these scorpions are worth.”
Looking at the writhing, tightly tied canvas bag, Zhong Tao’s scalp went numb. “They’re all alive?”
“Alive. Seventeen of them 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.”
Good grief!
Zhong Tao swallowed hard. Catching so many live scorpions, no wonder Xia Qing got stung like this. “According to our base’s public exchange rate for venomous scorpions, they are worth a total of 820 points.”
Venomous scorpions could be used to make antidotes, so they were slightly more expensive than other common toxic insects. Xia Qing knew Zhong Tao had given her a generous valuation. “I’ll trade for a bottle of antidote, a bottle of insect repellent pills, and a protective mask. Use the remaining points to get me waterproof cloth to cover the roof.”
Zhong Tao smiled. “Trading for so much? No wonder you can’t save up any points.”
She had no family to look after, so what was the point of hoarding points? Xia Qing smiled but said nothing.
Zhong Tao realized this as well. Scratching his head, he turned to retrieve the supplies.
After seeing Zhong Tao off, Xia Qing went home and took a shower first. Then, standing in front of the half-broken mirror in the bathroom, she began applying ointment to the wounds on her face.
Once the dark red paint was washed off, the swollen scratches on her fair skin became glaringly obvious.
The injury on her face wasn’t actually from a scorpion sting. It had been scratched by a steel rebar from a concrete slab that had suddenly collapsed while she was catching the scorpions. Fortunately, she was strong and quick to react; otherwise, she would still be pinned under that slab right now.
Aside from her face, Xia Qing had sustained quite a few bruises on her body. However, nothing was broken, and thanks to the protection of her protective suit, her skin hadn’t ruptured, so they didn’t require treatment.
Bleeding, scarring, and disfigurement were minor issues. The crucial thing was to prevent the wounds from getting infected. Since bacteria and viruses had evolved, even a tiny cut could prove fatal.
Banxia Novel, a lot of happiness.