“The territories outside the Safety Zone with higher safety ratings, other than those surrounding the Safety Zone, are: 2, 15, 68, 113, and 166. The Tang family intends to claim three of them.”
Since Xia Qing had been keeping a close eye on information regarding the territories, she knew that the five territories listed in this text message indeed had higher safety ratings, flat arable land, and deep soil layers. The credibility of this message was extremely high.
Xia Qing had always been secretly watching the Tang family and knew they were eyeing the territories. That was why she had gone to queue up at the Mission Hall early in the morning, waiting for their arrival.
To increase the utilization rate of the arable land surrounding the Safety Zone and resolve the food shortage as quickly as possible, the nation’s highest departments had ordered the military and government of every base, large and small, to work together to push forward the territory pilot program.
Under the supervision of the Hui San Base military, the Tang family did not dare to blatantly seize the best lands. They had to put up a convincing front.
No matter how convincing, every front had its loopholes. Xia Qing’s goal was to exploit these loopholes and seize the opportunity to claim Territory No. 3. This was because that plot of land contained an important resource she needed for survival.
Shortly after sending the message to the number she publicly used within the Safety Zone, this person had used a communication satellite to send the exact same text to a number she hadn’t used in seven years. Unfortunately, Xia Qing had kept that phone turned off, so she hadn’t noticed it.
It could be said that Xia Qing’s successful acquisition of Territory No. 3 was, to some extent, thanks to the person who sent this text message. As for who this person was, and whether they had sent it out of goodwill or with ulterior motives, there was too little information for Xia Qing to tell.
Xia Qing deleted the text message once again, yawned, and crawled into her sleeping bag. She needed to recharge her energy to start her new life.
***
The next morning, Xia Qing woke up early. After clearing the weeds and shrubs in the courtyard, she walked out of the village with a piece of ration in her mouth. She headed north, passing through a vast expanse of scorched farmland, skirting a long, narrow reservoir, and climbing up a hillside.
To ensure that the territories would not be invaded or destroyed by evolved creatures, the base had sent people to clear an isolation belt at least fifty meters wide. This served as a transition zone between the uncleared Evolution Forest and the territories.
Patrols were scheduled regularly along the isolation belt, and insect repellent was sprayed periodically to prevent evolved insects and beasts from the Evolution Forest from entering the territory.
To protect the safety of the territories and their lords, there was also a section of wooded area between the isolation belt of the mountain-adjacent territories and the farmlands, known as the Buffer Forest.
The three thousand mu of mountain forest on the northwest side of Territory No. 3, which had been partially cleared, belonged to this buffer zone. This buffer zone was also included within the boundaries of Territory No. 3.
Combined with the more than two thousand mu of arable land inside the territory, the total area of Territory No. 3 reached an astonishing five thousand five hundred mu. This was far larger than the territories that did not border the mountains and lacked a Buffer Forest. This method of division was also designed to boost the enthusiasm of settlers in the peripheral territories.
Only the harmful evolved creatures had been cleared from the Buffer Forest. The trees and plants inside remained lush and dense, forming a stark contrast to the black, scorched farmland that had been completely cleared and burned.
Leaving her home, Xia Qing used a wooden stick to push aside the shrubs and wild grass in the Buffer Forest as she climbed. She soon reached her destination: a small stone cave with a natural spring inside the northern Buffer Forest.
This spring was something Xia Qing had accidentally discovered last winter when she accompanied her battle team to clear the territory. The spring water seeped slowly from the inner wall of a small stone cave that was half a meter deep and thirty centimeters high, trickling into the rock crevices and disappearing silently underground.
If a speed-evolved Red Squirrel hadn’t suddenly darted out of the cave back then, Xia Qing would never have noticed this spring.
To solve the drinking water issue, Hui San Base had dug three deep wells within the Safety Zone. However, the water drawn from them was contaminated and had to be purified before it was safe to drink.
Because the cost of purifying contaminated water was extremely high, the base’s mission board constantly featured quests to find uncontaminated water sources. No matter what mission a battle team took when leaving the Safety Zone, they would always search for uncontaminated water along the way.
Over the past ten years, the four uncontaminated water sources found within the vicinity of Hui San Base were all mountain springs, without exception. However, because the flow rate was too small, they could only supply the hospital, research institute, planting center, and a few key figures.
Xia Qing, who survived by selling her physical labor, was naturally not among those few key figures.
Of course, not all mountain springs were uncontaminated. That was why, when Xia Qing used her portable detector and saw the Green Light flash, she immediately made this plot of land her top choice.
Uncontaminated water was the true source of life.
Now, this spring of directly drinkable water finally belonged to her alone. Xia Qing scooped up half a bowl of water and gulped it down. Slogans from pre-disaster bottled water commercials echoed in her mind.
It felt absolutely amazing!
With spring water this clean, she could drink as much as she wanted.
Not only could she drink it, but she could also use it to wash her face. Talk about luxury!
Washing her face clean, Xia Qing grinned like an idiot as she cleared and expanded the stone cave. Having lived for nearly ten years with her nerves constantly on edge in the overcrowded, dog-eat-dog Safety Zone, Xia Qing had forgotten how to smile properly. Her expression at this moment looked somewhat terrifying.
But this was her territory. She didn’t have to stay tense anymore. She could speak, laugh, shout, or jump whenever she wanted. The feeling was incredibly liberating.
Clearing a stone cave was a piece of cake for a strength evolver.
The sound of the spring water trickling along a clean piece of bamboo and into her water bucket was like heavenly music to her ears.
Since collecting the water took time, Xia Qing stood up and looked down over her territory.
During the ten years of natural disasters, no volcanoes had erupted here, nor had there been any major earthquakes. As a result, the landscape was not much different from how it had been before the disaster. Even so, the dense mountain forests and wild grass still concealed many evolved creatures that could easily take a human life.
Just three months ago, Xia Qing’s mountain forests and farmlands had been occupied by them. The several-meter-deep craters left in the ground were the scars of the fierce battles humans had fought against these evolved creatures to reclaim this land.
Once the two 20-liter drinking water buckets were full, Xia Qing tightened the caps, stuffed them into her extra-large backpack to hide them, and blocked the small stone cave with rocks and branches to prevent anyone else from finding it.
After taking the water back home, Xia Qing headed to the small shop in the desolate village. She dug through the ruins, which reeked of decay, and pulled out a dented stainless steel vertical solar-powered water storage tank.
This was something Xia Qing had found while clearing the village with her battle team. Instead of taking it back to the Safety Zone, she had buried it directly in the territory to keep as part of her reserve supplies.
After restoring the water tank to its original shape, Xia Qing carried it to the reservoir to fetch water.
Just as she reached the edge of the reservoir, a dark shadow suddenly burst from the water, lunging straight for her face. Wearing her protective mask, Xia Qing slapped it away with a single hand, sending it flying five meters before it slammed into the rocks by the reservoir.
When the dark shadow rolled a few times and stopped moving, Xia Qing smiled. The creature that had ambushed her was an evolved catfish, thicker than her arm.
Like many carnivorous evolved creatures, evolved catfish had added humans to their diet and would actively attack any human who came close. If Xia Qing had been bitten by its evolved, file-like teeth just now, she definitely would have lost a chunk of flesh.
But now…
Xia Qing sliced off a small piece of fish meat with her knife and placed it into her portable Qiang Element Detector. The Green Light lit up almost immediately.
This evolved catfish was edible!
Xia Qing quickly stuffed the catfish into a water basin to hide it, preventing any evolved raptors flying overhead from swooping down to steal it.
After carefully filling the water tank, Xia Qing shouldered the four-hundred-jin tank and carried it home. She used fine sand, small stones, and several layers of gauze to make a simple filtration device for a primary purification, then fitted the Primary Purification Filter Cartridge provided by the base to give the water a secondary purification.
While the water slowly filtered, Xia Qing found some handy tools and scraped away all the moldy, yellowed, and peeling paint from the walls of the two-story building. She also swept the floors clean, reducing the pollutants and bacteria inside the house.
Next, she scrubbed the rusty iron pot in her kitchen clean, heated some of the filtered water, and took a long, relaxing hot bath.
After gulping down a cup of spring water, Xia Qing, whose stomach was growling with hunger, grabbed her knife and headed straight for the Big Catfish.
For her first proper meal in her new territory, she was going to eat meat.
Banxia Novel, brings so much joy.