Chapter 179: A Bountiful Harvest in Sight

Chapter 179: Chapter 179: A Bountiful Harvest in Sight

After releasing the chickens and geese, Xiaqing thanked Hu Zifeng and his two team members and saw them out of the Third Territory. Then, she heard the Su Feng Team member monitoring her report over the walkie-talkie:

"Hu Zifeng and his two team members have left the Third Territory. Correct. Lord No.3 is now alone in the territory. Yes, copy that."

Xiaqing calmly returned home, hoisted the water bicycle out of the garage, and said, "Sheep Leader, let’s go. Time to get to work?"

Although it had rained a few days prior, she had covered the greenhouses in time. The crops inside hadn’t been watered by the rain, so she needed to draw water from the reservoir for irrigation.

Lying next to the Sick Wolf, the Sheep Leader showed no intention of moving. It seemed this Sick Wolf was more important to the Sheep Leader than its favorite activity—pedaling the water bicycle.

Xiaqing smiled and headed out, carrying the bicycle.

She hadn’t really intended to make the Sheep Leader pedal the water bicycle anyway. The Su Feng Team’s lookouts were hidden in the quarantine zones to the north, south, and west of the Third Territory, and Xiaqing didn’t want the Sheep Leader, which was feigning madness, to expose its skill of pumping water by pedaling a bicycle.

After skillfully setting up the water bicycle and opening the irrigation channel, Xiaqing raised the bicycle seat, sat down, and began pedaling furiously.

Water gushed from the three-way pipe into the channel, flowing toward the long, rectangular plots of farmland covered by the greenhouses. Gazing at the lush green rice seedlings in the distance, Xiaqing felt a deep sense of contentment.

Unfortunately, her contentment didn’t even last half an hour. The Sheep Leader, having eaten its fill of pasture, came over, stood beside Xiaqing, and let out a dissatisfied "BAA."

’This toy is mine.’

Xiaqing tried to reason with the Sheep Leader. "You go take care of your sick friend, and I’ll play with this for a while."

The Sheep Leader narrowed its eyes and pawed the ground, ready for a fight. Paired with the scabbed-over wounds on its face, it looked anything but normal.

Just as Xiaqing was about to try and placate the Sheep Leader again, Hu Zifeng called. "The people watching the Third, Seventh, and No. 9 Territories have all pulled back. You can move freely now."

Xiaqing was surprised. "They left so soon?"

"Mhm," Hu Zifeng’s voice was laced with amusement. "Yesterday, they found a few pieces of Pangolin scale armor in the swamp north of Mountain No. 49. Today, they’ve deployed everyone to search the marshland."

She didn’t have to ask; the scale armor was definitely planted by the Green Dragon Team. For the Su Feng Team to search for a Pangolin in the swamp, they would first have to clear out the dangerous evolved creatures.

Yang Jin was truly an Iron Rooster; he never forgot to set a trap even while creating a diversion.

However, this meant that the edible water caltrops and the Green Light Geese that might still be in that swamp were now out of her reach.

Xiaqing hopped off the water bicycle and adjusted the seat to the Sheep Leader’s preferred height. "You can play now. I’m going to patrol the territory and catch insects to feed the fish."

The Sheep Leader preferred pedaling the water bicycle to catching insects for fish. It jumped on happily and started pedaling furiously.

After checking the irrigation channel one more time, Xiaqing went to inspect the crops in her fields.

The corn was growing at a speed that was almost visible to the naked eye. The corn stalks in the plot planted a month and a half ago had grown eight leaves and were seventy centimeters tall. The corn seeds she had traded for in the Safe Zone, planted only twenty-two days ago, had already reached a height of forty centimeters.

’If only my Green Light Spinach could grow this fast and tall.’

Half a month ago, Xiaqing had planted three patches of spinach in total. One patch was in the terraced fields on the High Slope, which had yielded 612 plants. The other two were in the vegetable greenhouses below the slope, south of the reservoir. One of these patches held 200 plants grown from the ordinary Green Light Spinach Seeds given to her by Zhang San, and the other had 200 plants grown from 300 spinach seeds that she was obligated to return to Zhang San.

The reason she planted this high Yi Element spinach, from which she was to provide seeds and leaves to Zhang San, in the greenhouse on the farmland was that she worried planting it on the terraces again would expose the secret of her territory’s Pollution-free Spring Water.

Her idol was important, but not more important than the most critical survival resource in her territory.

Xiaqing was a person of her word. She had promised to give Zhang San half of the spinach leaves from this patch, so even though Zhang San wasn’t in the territory right now, she hadn’t touched these one hundred spinach plants.

As for the remaining seven hundred-plus plants, she had already plucked at least two leaves from each one and really couldn’t take any more. This was also why Xiaqing hadn’t agreed to the Head Wolf’s trade the night before last.

If she didn’t have the Yi Stone, Xiaqing would never have dared to pluck them so aggressively. Otherwise, if a Harmful Rain fell before the spinach plants could recover, at least half of them would undergo Qiang Evolution.

More than two months had passed since the second Harmful Rain, and the third was already on its way. Even with the Yi Stone, Xiaqing had to let the spinach recover to strengthen the plants’ resistance.

Aside from the pitiful state of the spinach, the crops in the farmland and on the terraces were doing well.

The three grain crops—rice, mung beans, and corn—were all lush and green. The pods on the Yellow Light Soybean plants had turned from fuzzy and light green to smooth and brownish-yellow, nearly ready for harvest. The soil around the bases of the Green Light and Yellow Light Sweet Potatoes was starting to bulge, indicating the tubers were growing. The dozen or so Green Light Pumpkins on the terraces were already larger than her fist.

The battered Yellow Light Pumpkins in the farmland had also recovered and were now blooming with golden-yellow flowers. The tiger ginger plants had surpassed two meters in height, producing small yellow flowers like tiny sunflowers. For these six tiger ginger plants, Xiaqing had been forced to raise the height of their greenhouse by one section.

The ginger was also blooming with pale yellow flowers tinged with purple, which were surprisingly pretty. The foul-smelling Green Light Perilla and Green Light Alfalfa seeds were almost ready to be harvested. Her Yellow Light and Green Light chives had grown scapes and were about to flower. The pegs of the Yellow Light and Green Light Peanuts that had burrowed into the soil had thickened, meaning the peanuts underground were definitely large.

The second crop of cucumbers, peppers, tomatoes, and green beans was ready to be eaten. Radishes, onions, sunflowers, cabbages, and more were all thriving under Xiaqing’s care. She had made two types of pickles: pickled cucumbers and chili oil long beans. The pickling jars were stored with grains like potatoes and wheat, protected by the Yi Stone, and hadn’t spoiled at all.

After surveying the grains and vegetables she had grown, Xiaqing tossed a few Evolved Insects to the Green Light Peanuts, her heart filled with joy.

The terraced fields also needed watering. Due to the terrain, they couldn’t be irrigated using the water bicycle and required Xiaqing and the Sheep Leader to carry water up. Moreover, the precious Green Light plants on the terraces had to be watered with filtered water, or filtered water mixed with spring water. It was too much for today. The earliest she could do it was tomorrow, after her hand had healed a bit more, and then she and the Sheep Leader could haul water to the fields together.

Harvested crops needed proper storage. She had to get the cellar for storing grains and vegetables ready as soon as possible.

After watching the Green Light Peanuts use their leaf-vein needles to suck the Evolved Insects dry, Xiaqing left the greenhouse on the High Slope to break off some Chuntun leaves for the Sheep Leader.

The Sheep Leader had worked hard pedaling the water bicycle this morning and deserved a delicious reward.

Before Xiaqing even reached the Big Chuntun Tree, she saw a flash of red light dart past. It was the little thief, the Red Squirrel that stole her tobacco shreds and green jujubes. Even with her Level 9 Visual Evolution, her eyes couldn’t make out whether the Red Squirrel was hiding anything in its paws or mouth.