The noise on the phone died down, a clear sign that Zhong Tao had moved away from the crying and clamoring, as Xia Qing could hear his heavy footsteps. These footsteps were noticeably louder than usual, and he was dragging his feet. Xia Qing preliminarily judged that Zhong Tao was currently extremely exhausted.
Sure enough, his voice was hoarse. “Sister Qing, can you hear me?”
“Yes, Brother Tao. Go ahead,” Xia Qing replied.
Zhong Tao continued, “How is the situation on your end? Any dangerous evolved creatures you can’t handle? Don’t try to be a hero. If you can’t deal with it, tell me. Even though I can’t make it over, I can find someone who can.”
Xia Qing knew the person Zhong Tao was referring to was Captain Tan, who was stationed at the old regiment headquarters, and she also knew why he was making this call. So she replied calmly, “I haven’t encountered any danger so far. If anything happens, I’ll definitely let you know right away, Brother Tao.”
Confirming that Xia Qing was still alive and having successfully done her a favor in passing, Zhong Tao quickly agreed. Then, he couldn’t help but complain, “You have no idea. The safe zone is in utter chaos. Over six thousand people have died already…”
Xia Qing listened quietly until he finished before hanging up. She then thought of the person who had sent her the text message. Since that person could get inside information, they must be doing pretty well in the safe zone and probably wouldn’t run into any trouble.
Putting her phone away, Xia Qing weeded while exterminating insects—incredibly fast snakes, spiders the size of a palm, scorpions as long as a finger, and moths as large as a face…
Staying in this endless, head-high grassland where danger lurked at every turn sounded like something that could easily drive someone mad, but Xia Qing felt incredibly happy. Compared to the catastrophes of the natural disasters, this level of danger was nothing more than a drizzle.
After weeding the last few meters of grass and leaving the village to reach the edge of the cultivated land, Xia Qing’s view suddenly opened up. The soil of the cultivated land, which had been thoroughly cleared and burned, contained far fewer weed seeds than the village, so the grass here was less than half as dense as in the village. Furthermore, because plant ash had a certain inhibitory effect on Qiang-evolved organisms, the Qiang-evolved grass here hadn’t even grown taller than Xia Qing, making it much easier to clear.
Xia Qing’s gaze extended outward toward the buffer forest, where the vegetation was noticeably much denser. There was no telling how many of the newly sprouted plants in the buffer forest were dangerous evolved plants, nor how many kinds of dangerous evolved animals were hidden among them.
The current buffer forest was several times more dangerous than it had been before the rain.
Xia Qing’s analytical gaze locked onto a certain tree, her brow furrowing. If it weren’t for her evolved vision and her habit of frequently observing the trees in her territory, she might not have noticed that a mature tree in the western buffer forest had actually experienced another massive growth spurt during the Spear Rain.
Generally speaking, plants in their seed or seedling stages had the highest probability of undergoing Qiang evolution and rapid growth when exposed to Spear Rain. This was because seeds or seedlings at this stage could not shield themselves from the all-around assault of Qiang elements in the air, water, and soil. In contrast, mature plants had stable life indicators, and the vast majority could resist the attacks of Qiang elements. Plants in a state of overall senescence, however, would have their aging and death accelerated when hit by Spear Rain.
Animals exhibited similar traits, which was why the vast majority of current evolved humans were under thirty-five. When the great biological evolution of Blue Star occurred, adults over twenty-five had already passed their developmental stage. With stable bodily functions, their probability of undergoing multiple evolutions was far lower than that of teenagers and young adults under twenty-five.
Any human who could still undergo multiple evolutions during adulthood must have had some exceptionally prominent physical function, and the same logic applied to that distant mature tree undergoing secondary evolution. This kind of evolution was particularly dangerous.
In the sixth year of the natural disaster, Xia Qing had been hunting in the evolution forest with the Liangqing Team when they were caught in a sudden Spear Rain. A mature tree had undergone secondary evolution, and the scent it emitted was highly hallucinogenic, covering a diameter of four kilometers. Animals entering its domain slaughtered each other under the influence of the hallucinations.
Even more terrifyingly, that scent could actually penetrate the filter cores of the protective masks humans used back then, affecting their brains.
In that crisis, twenty-six people died, including the captain and vice-captain of the Liangqing Team, leaving the team existing in name only. Chen Dongyang, the number three figure of the team, recruited the outstanding evolved members of the Liangqing Team to establish the Dongyang Team, which currently ranked tenth in the base. Meanwhile, the Liangqing Team was reduced to a minor team that couldn’t even break into the top thirty.
During that crisis, Xia Qing, a strength evolver responsible for transport duties, had been at the very back of the group and did not enter the tree’s domain. Risking her life, she used a rope to rescue Xu Juan, who was trapped in a hallucination. For a long time after that, Xia Qing did not dare venture deep into the evolution forest again.
Now, even standing far away, Xia Qing knew with absolute clarity that the giant tree in the buffer forest was not something she could handle alone. She was so afraid of entering the tree’s domain of influence that she didn’t dare take another step forward.
Swinging her blade, she sliced a toad that leaped at her with its tongue out in half, stuffed it into her leather pouch, and retreated back home the way she came. She quickly climbed up to the attic. Seeing that the giant tree was still there and that it wasn’t a hallucination, she decisively pulled out her phone.
Before she could call Zhong Tao, Captain Tan’s call came through. His voice was as stern and concise as ever. “Xia Qing, is there any anomaly in Territory No. 3?”
Xia Qing immediately replied, “Yes. A mature tree in the buffer forest to the west of Territory No. 3 has undergone secondary evolution. It has grown at least five meters taller, and its canopy has at least doubled in size.”
Captain Tan pressed, “Where are you? Are you alright?”
“I’m fine,” Xia Qing replied. “I spotted it from the entrance of the village using binoculars.”
“That’s good.” Captain Tan’s voice grew even more solemn as he commanded, “Stand by where you are. I’ll bring people to clear it immediately. You are not allowed to apply to participate.”
Her unspoken words were instantly cut off. Before Xia Qing could even process the call, a loud “bang” echoed from downstairs, making her entire building shudder.
Xia Qing quickly shut the window tight and ran downstairs, only to find that Boss Sheep had actually knocked her double-leaf security front door flat onto the ground.
As if that wasn’t enough, that throwing-a-fit sheep—which deserved to be sliced up and thrown into a cooking pot—was actually trampling her door under its hooves!
Even worse, the damn thing was squinting at Xia Qing as if she had committed some treasonous act of betrayal against it!
What the hell…
Xia Qing took a deep breath to suppress her fury, trying to gauge Boss Sheep’s current state. She was deeply afraid that an excess of Qiang elements in its body had triggered a Qiang evolution, or that it had been controlled by that suddenly evolved giant tree. “Boss Sheep?”
“Moo!” Boss Sheep bellowed in anger. With a fierce scrape of its hoof, it sent one of the high-end handles on the front door clattering to the floor, completely ruined.
Xia Qing’s temper flared. Gritting her teeth, she pulled a piece of compressed rations from her pocket. “Do you want to eat this?”
Boss Sheep’s eyes instantly popped open. “Baa.”
Hearing Boss Sheep’s high-pitched, cutesy bleat, Xia Qing completely snapped. She slammed the rations onto the ground and charged forward with a roar.
“Dammit! If I don’t beat you to death today, my last name isn’t Xia!”
Banxia Novel, so much joy.