Chapter 243: Gathering Chestnuts

Chapter 243: Chapter 243: Gathering Chestnuts

Xiaqing wasn’t an Olfactory Evolutionary, but by using her phone, sight, and hearing, she could still track the Red Squirrel.

Although she couldn’t keep up with the Red Squirrel’s speed, the squirrel was running back and forth between the chestnut tree and its nest. All she had to do was follow its route, use her phone to lock onto the chestnut tree’s specific location, and slowly make her way there.

The vegetation in Valley No. 1 was dense, but the gravel by the creek was walkable. She just needed to fend off attacks from leeches and other aquatic creatures.

After walking for four minutes, Xiaqing noticed the red dot on her phone’s app had stopped about 2,800 meters to the northeast. At this, Xiaqing felt completely relieved. Two thousand eight hundred meters was still within Zone 3, meaning the chestnut tree was growing inside her territory!

Eight minutes later, her phone showed the Red Squirrel running back, so Xiaqing hid in the woods.

Soon, the Red Squirrel shot over like a streak of red light, landing on a maple tree not far from Xiaqing. The water droplets clinging to the maple leaves were shaken loose by the squirrel, falling like rain onto the dense grass below.

On the branch, the Red Squirrel held large chestnuts in its mouth and clutched more in its little paws. Xiaqing’s eyes lit up at the sight.

After the Red Squirrel had passed, she followed the creek for less than two hundred meters and discovered a large patch of wild chrysanthemums blooming with an unnerving beauty.

Xiaqing raised her arm to check the Air Poison Detection Instrument and found the area was filled with Level C toxic gas. The gas concentration would be even higher closer to the wild chrysanthemums, and the bees buzzing over them were another problem.

She would have to find a detour.

Xiaqing jumped to the other side of the creek and walked a dozen or so meters, only to find a large patch of low-growing, herbaceous Evolved Plants with long, needle-like leaves. The leaf-needles had impaled numerous insect corpses. They were clearly not to be trifled with.

She couldn’t pass through the wild chrysanthemums or the needle-leaf grass, and entering the dense woods on either side was too dangerous. If Xiaqing wanted to continue on this path, she would either have to leap through the trees like the squirrel or wade through the water.

After dodging the Red Squirrel once more, Xiaqing decided to abandon the valley floor and take a detour over the hillside instead. She had already roughly pinpointed the chestnut tree’s location. Once she was in the area, with her Level 9 Visual Evolution, she was confident she could find it as long as the chestnuts weren’t growing underground.

Xiaqing hacked her way up through Injurious Grass and shrubs, killing Evolutionary Worms as she climbed. But before she even reached the top of the slope, she saw the Red Squirrel running back again, clutching more chestnuts.

’Stuck in all this danger, I just want to turn back and raid its home—the squirrel’s home!’

When she finally reached the top of the slope, she found that while it was better than the valley floor, it was hardly a clear path. After evading attacks from three Evolution Tree vines and a large patch of explosive evolved caltrops, Xiaqing finally made her way around to the top of the slope above where the Red Squirrel was collecting chestnuts.

By this time, the Red Squirrel, having already made a dozen or so trips, was long since resting in its comfortable and safe nest.

Despite how long it took, Xiaqing was happy. Along the way, she had discovered that her indescribable "ability" to sense when something was wrong with a plant wasn’t limited to just sunflowers.

Within those two hours, Xiaqing had sensed something off about two saplings, a patch of grass, and a thicket of shrubs. She marked all four locations to investigate later when she had time.

Xiaqing stood at the top of the slope and looked down. She couldn’t see the chestnut tree from this position; she would have to go lower.

She estimated the drop from her position to the valley floor was about two hundred meters. The steep slope was covered with pine trees of various sizes. The shrubs and grass beneath them weren’t too dense, but the steep, damp ground made it easy to slip and lose one’s footing. If she were attacked by Evolutionary Animals or plants then, she would be at a great disadvantage and easily injured.

One other thing was unusual: there were very few insects here. The period after a Harmful Rain was when insects were at their most rampant. There was likely something nearby that could eliminate or repel them.

This meant that if she went down, she might find other rewards, but it also meant she would face greater risks.

"If only I had a Reconnaissance bird," Xiaqing muttered, then began looking for a way down the slope.

Soon, she found a Beast Path trodden out by wild animals. Following the path halfway down the mountainside, Xiaqing discovered the tracks of a wild boar and a wolf, as well as signs of a struggle and drag marks.

The boar that weighed over forty pounds, the one the Head Wolf had carried to the Third Territory, was probably caught here. ’To be able to carry a boar and still cross the treacherous valley... the Head Wolf’s abilities are no joke,’ Xiaqing thought, impressed.

Continuing down the Beast Path, Xiaqing found the hoofprints of an even larger boar. But she was here to pick chestnuts and didn’t have time to follow the tracks.

After reaching the bottom of the valley, Xiaqing quickly found the chestnut tree. And it wasn’t just one tree—it was a grove of more than twenty, large and small!

Most of the chestnut trees were laden with prickly burrs encasing the chestnuts!

’I’ve struck it rich! I’ve struck it rich!’

After seeing the chestnut trees, Xiaqing also understood why there were so few insects in this area.

If not for the fist-sized, prickly burrs on the trees across the creek—some of which had already split open to reveal the chestnut fruit inside—Xiaqing wouldn’t have believed they were chestnut trees.

The leaves and burrs of these Evolved chestnut trees were covered in insects of all sizes, stuck fast. Xiaqing could see mosquitoes, lacewings, caterpillars, flies, grasshoppers, and longhorn beetles unable to escape, their limbs gnawed and mangled, still struggling in despair.

Unlike the peanuts in her territory, the ones devouring the Evolved Insects stuck to the leaves here weren’t the chestnut trees themselves, but the Evolved Bees buzzing around them, each longer than a human finger.

The Evolved Bees had sharp, potent stingers, and when they attacked, they released a scent that was very difficult to remove. Once an intruder was marked with this scent, other Evolved Bees would relentlessly pursue and attack them in waves until the intruder was torn to shreds and devoured.

"Weak" humans were also among their targets.

Because the bees didn’t produce honey, there was no point in capturing them. That was why teams on missions always gave large swarms of them a wide berth.

It wasn’t that they couldn’t be beaten; it was just unnecessary to provoke these lunatics.

Today, however, Xiaqing couldn’t just walk around them. Although her field-issue Level 3 protective suit was sturdy, if hundreds or thousands of bees surrounded her, using her as a pincushion for their stingers, who could guarantee the suit wouldn’t be pierced?

Therefore, relying on the protective suit to brute-force her way through the bees to get the chestnuts was not a viable option.

’So how did the Red Squirrel manage to get the chestnuts?’

After watching for a while, Xiaqing understood. The chestnuts the Red Squirrel carried back were picked up from under the trees. As soon as a chestnut fell, several small squirrels would rush out, snatch it, and run.

The squirrels were very fast, so they could escape the bees’ attacks.

She wasn’t as fast as a squirrel, and she wasn’t just looking to pick up scraps. She wanted to take it all—not just for this year, but for next year, too.

To ensure she would have chestnuts to eat next year, Xiaqing couldn’t eliminate this swarm of bees. It was obvious that the chestnut trees and the bee swarm had formed a symbiotic relationship. Without the bees to eat the insects stuck to the leaves, the chestnut trees wouldn’t survive for long.

Smoking them out was also not an option. The chestnut grove was too large, and if she accidentally set the trees on fire, it would be a disaster.

If she didn’t want to go home empty-handed today, her only option was to try the potion she had just traded for with Zhang San yesterday—the one that was supposed to prevent attacks from Evolved Insects.