Once the windows were installed, the room was tightly sealed, making her sleep exceptionally sound.
After a good night’s sleep, Xia Qing dreamed that a high-level evolved ox ran into her territory and refused to leave. She hitched a plow to it, and it could till fifty mu of land in a single day.
When she woke up, Xia Qing couldn’t help but smile. If only she really had an ox. Oxen ate grass and didn’t burn fuel. Nowadays, diesel and gasoline were incredibly expensive—so expensive that ordinary people couldn’t afford them.
After washing up with spring water and eating a ration for breakfast, Xia Qing carried three drinking water buckets on her back and headed out to fetch water.
Yesterday, between drinking, cooking, and washing, she had used up a 20-liter bucket of spring water. The two extra buckets were ones she had found yesterday in a half-smashed kitchen cabinet in the village ahead. Their lids were screwed on tightly, and after a good scrub, they were perfectly usable.
After hacking three venomous snakes to death along the way, Xia Qing arrived at the stone cave, only to find that the rock she had used to block the entrance had actually been pushed aside.
She gripped her machete tightly, listening intently while carefully scanning her surroundings. Once she confirmed that there were no large animals within a fifty-meter radius besides herself, a few sparrows, and a few snakes, she finally relaxed a little.
Being able to observe everything within a fifty-meter radius was because Xia Qing was actually a Three-System Evolver.
In addition to her strength, her vision and hearing had also evolved. Although she hadn’t gone to a research lab to test and grade her abilities, by comparing herself to other evolved individuals, Xia Qing judged that both her evolved hearing and vision were at least Level 4. Furthermore, her strength was not the Level 4 she had reported, but actually Level 6.
Thus, Xia Qing was not a low-level evolver, but a Three-System Advanced Evolver.
Multi-system evolvers were extremely rare. Out of the two million people in the entire Hui San Base, there were only twelve dual-system evolvers, and only two Three-System Evolvers. Furthermore, the identities and evolution directions of these two Three-System Evolvers had never been made public. Xia Qing only knew that one of them held a position in the Military, while the other had gone to the Research Institute at Hui One Base.
After that, there was no more news of either of them. Rumors in the Safe Zone claimed they had been sliced up for research and were long dead.
After Xia Qing evolved her three systems, her father, fearing she would be captured for research, had only reported her strength evolution, which was the least conspicuous.
Her three-system evolution abilities were the reliance that had allowed Xia Qing to avoid danger time and time again, as well as the source of her confidence to venture out of the Safe Zone alone to farm.
Yesterday, at the cave entrance where Xia Qing had left her water buckets, three distinct types of animal tracks had been left behind: one from a bird, one from a weasel, and another from a sheep or a deer.
If even Xia Qing could find this spring, how could the animals in the mountains not know about it? Since the water in the reservoir at the foot of the mountain was polluted, it was only natural for the clever animals to run up here to drink the spring water.
Birds could be ignored, and since weasels were the natural enemies of rats, they had to be spared. As for the sheep or deer… she was their natural enemy, so she would take them!
Xia Qing’s eyes lit up as she scanned the area, and she quickly made a new discovery: hanging on a branch two meters away were a few strands of white fur.
Judging by the length, curliness, and toughness, combined with the hoofprints, it was undoubtedly a sheep. Xia Qing wished she could do nothing else today but stay here, waiting by the cave to catch the sheep.
She hadn’t eaten mutton in many, many years.
Inside the stone cave, not a single drop of spring water had accumulated in the pit Xia Qing had cleared out beneath the spring; it had all drained away through the crevices in the rock. This didn’t surprise Xia Qing at all. If the stone cave could hold water or if the spring water flowed outward, this place would have long been discovered and cordoned off by the search teams.
She placed a water bucket into the pit to collect the spring water, and then tested the meat quality of the three venomous snakes. To her pleasant surprise, one of the snakes actually registered as Green Light.
This made Xia Qing overjoyed, and she wanted to lie in wait for that drinking sheep even more.
However, having this snake was enough for today. While waiting for the water to fill, Xia Qing took the opportunity to select and test the wild vegetables she recognized.
By the time all three buckets were filled, she had only managed to find seven small wild vegetables. Although blanching them would only yield a single mouthful of food, Xia Qing was already extremely satisfied with this harvest.
After washing the wild vegetables clean with spring water, she chose a larger rock to block the cave entrance. Xia Qing took her things back home, then grabbed a shovel to go clear the fields.
If she could level four mu of land, she would be able to plant all the seeds distributed by the base. Xia Qing selected a plot of land just one hundred meters away from the reservoir’s flood wall. Irrigation would be convenient here, and with the flood wall in place, she wouldn’t have to worry about the river flooding her crops.
The first step in leveling the land was to till the soil, picking out the large stones, tree roots, weed roots, and any visible pests. Xia Qing pressed down her straw hat and got to work.
You wouldn’t know until you tilled, but once you did, it was quite a shock.
The soil, which had been covered by a thick layer of plant ash, was already sprouting quite a few tender shoots. Xia Qing couldn’t tell what kind of sprouts they were, but after testing them and finding they were all Red Light, she treated them all as weeds.
Without machinery or draft oxen, relying purely on manual labor, the advantages of a strength evolver became fully apparent. Xia Qing wore out four shovels over the course of the morning, but she managed to clear two mu of land.
At this rate, she would be able to clear all four mu of land today. Xia Qing felt a profound sense of achievement.
“Sister Xia Qing, Sister Xia Qing.”
Hearing Zhong Tao’s voice amplified by a megaphone, Xia Qing wiped the sweat from her face with a towel, went home to grab the edible venomous snake, and then rushed over to the road sign.
Seeing Xia Qing arrive, Zhong Tao jumped down from the vehicle and waved at her. Adhering to the rules, he stood outside and did not step into Xia Qing’s territory. “Sis!”
Xia Qing approached with a smile. “Brother Tao, are you out on patrol?”
Looking at Xia Qing, who appeared much cleaner and refreshed, Zhong Tao smiled and said, “Yeah, I checked a few plots nearby yesterday, and today I’m making rounds down here by the mountain. How is everything? Any trouble?”
“No trouble at all.” Xia Qing handed over the woven grass bag containing the snake. “I got lucky. While clearing the hillside this morning, I caught a snake. Take it back to add to your dinner, Brother Tao.”
Zhong Tao quickly waved his hands. “No, no, snake meat is good stuff. You should keep it for yourself.”
Xia Qing firmly pushed it forward. “I don’t eat snake meat.”
Seeing that she wasn’t just being polite, Zhong Tao finally took the grass bag and passed it to Zheng Kui, who was dangling a cigarette from his mouth. “I remember this mountain was cleared pretty thoroughly,” Zhong Tao said with concern. “Are there a lot of snakes? If so, I can report it and have them send some people over to clear it again.”
“Not many, no need to send anyone.” Xia Qing declined directly, then handed a slip of paper with her phone number to Zhong Tao. “This is my phone number. What’s yours, Brother Tao?”
As a squad leader of the convoy, Zhong Tao was equipped with a satellite phone. He recited his number and lowered his voice to ask, “Sis, you have a satellite phone?”
Seeing Xia Qing nod, he immediately grinned. “That makes things much easier. Call me if anything comes up, Sis. Also, there are two things I need to make clear to you. First, make sure to listen to the base broadcast every night from seven to eight. Second, the military will send troops to regularly patrol the isolation belt and buffer forest on the mountain. They will greet you when they arrive, and they will only enter your land with your permission.”
Xia Qing followed up, “Is it the patrol from the troops stationed at the regiment headquarters?”
“Yes. Wait…” Zhong Tao realized he had accidentally let slip a secret he shouldn’t have. He looked around guiltily and asked in a hushed voice, “Sis, how did you know there were still people at the regiment headquarters?”
Xia Qing shook her head with a serious expression. “I guessed. I don’t know anything.”
Zhong Tao scratched his head and laughed. “Well, it’s fine if you know, just don’t spread it around. How about I give your number to the patrol team? It’ll be easier for them to contact you when they come by.”
“Sure.” In the ten years of the cataclysm, the military had made immense sacrifices to protect the people, making them the most trustworthy group of all. Xia Qing added, “Just don’t tell anyone in the Safe Zone that I have a phone.”
“Understood.” Just as Zhong Tao was about to bid farewell, he saw someone sprinting over from the east. He immediately raised his gun, shielding Xia Qing behind him. “Stop right there! Take another step and I’ll shoot!”