Chapter 130: Earth-raspberry Fruit

Chapter 130: Chapter 130: Earth-raspberry Fruit

Before the Natural Disaster, white egrets were a protected species, so Xiaqing had never eaten one. She didn’t know if heron meat had always been this delicious or if it had only become so after evolving. This stewed White Egret was far tastier than the stewed chicken she and Xu Juan had eaten at a restaurant in the Safe Zone.

Of course, it could also be because that had been a Yellow Light pheasant, while this was a Green Light Egret.

After drinking every last drop of the broth, Xiaqing slumped into her chair, utterly satisfied. "Your friends are really something," she said to the Sheep Leader.

The Sheep Leader, also full and satisfied, lay on the tatami mat, snoozing with its eyes half-closed.

’Why isn’t it squeezing in with the two wolves? Probably because it’s hot outside and cool in here,’ Xiaqing guessed.

After shaking off her food coma, Xiaqing sent a message to Hu Zifeng. She asked him to send someone over in half an hour to guard the Third Territory, warning them not to get too close to her yard because of the wolves.

Once she had cleaned the bowls and chopsticks, Xiaqing put on her Protective Suit, grabbed her weapons, and hurried to her private training ground. The Head Wolf was so powerful, yet the Wolf Group had still lost to the Snake Group and the Bear Group. Since Xiaqing lived here, it was only a matter of time before she encountered other animal packs. She had to intensify her training and improve her strength.

As she crossed the isolation belt, Xiaqing ran into a patrol team. She noticed that the entire team was on duty today; Tan Junjie’s daughter, Tan Qi, hadn’t tagged along.

’Normally, the patrol team wouldn’t be patrolling here at this hour. Luo Pei must have told Tan Junjie about the wolves entering the Third Territory last night, which is why they’ve stepped up their patrols.’

’I wonder if the patrol team’s Olfactory Evolutionary caught the scent of the three wolves carrying the White Egret earlier.’

Learning her lesson, Xiaqing had been meticulous this time, thoroughly rinsing her Protective Suit and spraying it with Deodorant before heading out. She didn’t smell like wolves at all, which put her mind at ease.

When the patrol team approached, Tan Junjie learned that Xiaqing had accepted the mission to clear Mountain No. 49 and was on her way to meet the team. "Nothing unusual in your territory, I hope?" he asked.

Unsure of what Luo Pei might have told Tan Junjie, Xiaqing kept her answer brief. "Everything’s normal."

After the patrol team left, Xiaqing listened quietly for a moment. Once she was sure Su Ming and the others were unaware of the Wolf Group’s presence, she crossed the isolation belt into Zone Three of Mountain 49. There, she began her training, clearing out aggressive Evolutionary Creatures as she went.

Two hours later, Xiaqing was resting under a tree, her gaze fixed on the lush green pine cones in the pines above.

Her private training ground had many pine trees that were now bearing cones. Xiaqing had already tested their Harmful Element levels, marking twenty-eight as Yellow Light and four as Green Light.

’Pine nuts ripen from November to December, so there’s no rush to collect the cones. But it’s time to harvest the wild fruits that are in season.’

BUZZ.

Hearing her phone vibrate, Xiaqing had her smart voice assistant read the message. When she heard Luo Pei was looking for her, she commanded, "Dopey, Dopey, send my location to Brother Luo."

"Okay," Dopey replied cheerfully in a sweet, childlike voice. "Master’s location has been sent to Brother Luo."

Xiaqing waited for less than ten minutes before Luo Pei arrived. He handed her a bag of materials for making Yi Stone Protection Shells. "I happened to have some of this in my territory’s warehouse, so I bagged it for you," he said. "I’ll send you the crafting instructions in a bit."

"Thank you, Brother Luo." Xiaqing accepted the thirty-plus-pound bag with both hands.

Luo Pei then handed her a smaller bag. "The team clearing the mountain today found these Green Light wild Earth-raspberries. They’re sweet and sour. I saw Chang Li and the other girls liked them, so I brought you some."

"Thank you, Brother Luo." Xiaqing accepted it without spoiling the mood by offering to pay with points.

Luo Pei shared his findings with Xiaqing. "That Speed Evolution Wolf came through the pass between Mountain No. 49 and Mountain No. 50, entering the Zone Three valley, and from there, it got into your territory."

Zone Three of Mountain 49 was Xiaqing’s private training ground. According to her original lease agreement with the Green Dragon Team, Zone 3 was not part of the leased area. Therefore, Xiaqing herself was responsible for clearing its Evolution Forest and managing its defense.

Xiaqing asked, "Brother Luo, do you know which valley the wolf took?"

Luo Pei replied, "Valley No. 1."

There were two long, narrow valleys in Zone 3 that formed a ’Y’ shape, converging at the Wild Boar Breeding Center. From there, they extended south, passing between the Third Territory and Territory No. 4. The stream at the valley floor fed into the east-west river within Xiaqing’s territory. Xiaqing had named the valley running from northeast to southwest Valley No. 1, and the one from northwest to southeast No. 2 Valley.

’These two valleys provide a direct southern route into my territory. If wolves can get through, then other large Evolutionary Animals can too.’

Xiaqing quickly made a decision. "Once the wolf has recovered, I’ll dig some traps at the choke point where Valley No. 1 enters my territory," she said. "For the northern passage, I’ll have to ask for your help, Brother Luo."

After Luo Pei left, Xiaqing stored the bag of soil and gravel and opened the paper bag of Earth-raspberry Fruit. Her agreement with the Green Dragon Team stipulated that they had to notify her whenever they found Green Light plants on Mountain No. 49. That’s how she had received a picture from Luo Pei a few days prior, letting her know that this small, thorny wild fruit had an edible Green Light variety.

This small wild fruit also grew in the mountain forests of Zone 3 and in her own Buffer Forest. The plant itself was a small, creeping shrub. Xiaqing had noticed it when it bloomed a few months ago, thinking it was quite pretty. However, the fruit it produced was covered in thorns and didn’t look edible at all, so she had never tried picking it.

She never imagined it would ripen to a purplish-red and look so appetizing. Xiaqing tried one and found it was sweet and sour. Though not as delicious as Green Light Strawberries, it was certainly not bad. She put away the fruit, shouldered the bag of soil, and sprinted toward the area in Zone 3 where the Earth-raspberry plants were most concentrated. Upon arrival, she found that many of the fruits there had also turned purple and red.

The ripe fruits were dotted densely across the emerald-green leaves. It would have been a pleasant sight, if not for all the insects crawling over them and munching on the fruit.

’The insects are eating them, but the Earth-raspberry plants aren’t attacking. This must mean they haven’t evolved any animalistic traits yet.’

Still, Xiaqing didn’t let her guard down. Only after confirming the plants weren’t aggressive did she take out her Harmful Element Detector and begin measuring their Harmful Element content. The Earth-raspberry plants crept along the ground, with some branches growing over a foot long, making it very difficult to tell individual plants apart. The testing process took quite a while.

After testing the whole patch of Earth-raspberry plants, Xiaqing managed to find two Green Light and six Yellow Light specimens. Some of their fruits were ripe and still untouched by insects.

She marked the edible plants with cloth strips, picked the good fruit, sealed it in a container, and stuffed it into her backpack. Then she rushed to the next patch of Earth-raspberries in Zone 3 to continue testing and harvesting.

In over three hours, Xiaqing detected a total of six Green Light and twenty Yellow Light plants.

According to the laws of plant evolution, ninety-nine percent of the fruit on a Green Light plant would be Green Light, with the remaining one percent possibly being Yellow or Red Light. Similarly, ninety-nine percent of the fruit on a Yellow Light plant would be Yellow Light, with one percent being Green or Red Light. The same logic applied to Red Light plants. Therefore, when people found an edible plant, they would harvest all of its fruit. Even if they ate the less than one percent of Red Light fruit along with it, the small increase in Harmful Elements wouldn’t be a heavy burden on the body.

Xiaqing harvested over three pounds of fruit from the twenty-plus edible Earth-raspberry plants. Back home, she washed them and ate about half a pound. Then, she took the dried Green Light heron meat out of the dehydrator, cleaned the wire mesh trays, and arranged all the Earth-raspberry Fruits on them to dry.

’If I don’t dry them, these fruits will spoil overnight and be inedible.’

Later, when the Sheep Leader wandered over, Xiaqing offered it two fruits she’d saved for it. The Sheep Leader merely sniffed them, showing no interest in even trying a bite.

"You don’t know what’s good for you." Xiaqing flicked the Sheep Leader’s hard forehead. She considered giving the rejected fruit to the injured wolves, but then worried it might upset her distinguished guests’ stomachs, so she didn’t dare.

After sealing the dried heron meat, Xiaqing opened her food locker. She looked at her growing stockpile and thought about the potatoes soon to be harvested, the sweet potatoes in a few months, and all the wild fruit and pine cones on the mountain. ’I need to build a root cellar in the territory,’ she decided.