Chapter 256: Hardness-Evolved Pine Tree

Chapter 256: Chapter 256: Hardness-Evolved Pine Tree

After settling the Chestnut business, Xiaqing put another plan on her agenda: harvesting the Green Light Pinecones on Mountain No. 50.

Mountain No. 50 was to the east of Mountain No. 49.

In the first few years after the Natural Disaster began, Blue Star’s crust was highly active. The mountain ranges that buckled upward completely destroyed three cities in the northern part of Hui San Base, forming vast mountain forests, lakes, and swamps.

When humanity recovered from the Natural Disaster, they discovered their homeland had been completely transformed. It was impossible to use old place names and mountain names for navigation. Thus, Hua Country adopted a system of dividing regions by bases and renamed Blue Star’s drastically altered mountains and rivers using landform types plus numbers.

This was not only simple and easy to remember but also a way to leave behind the sorrow and start anew.

The Evolution Forests near Hui San Base were named by sorting mountain ridges and lakes according to their geographical features. A "Mountain No. X" didn’t necessarily refer to a single peak but rather a mountain range encompassing several connected peaks. For example, Hui San Base’s Mountain No. 49 included three connected peaks, while the larger Mountain No. 50 included four peaks of varying heights.

Unlike Mountain No. 49, which had been repeatedly cleared by the Green Dragon Team, Mountain No. 50 was an uncleared, pure Evolution Forest.

The two Green Light Pine Trees Hu Zi had mentioned grew on the southern side of Mountain No. 50’s second-highest peak, within a pine forest at an altitude of over two thousand meters.

Although those two pine trees hadn’t evolved any offensive capabilities, they were home to over a hundred evolved Cross-beaked Magpies. These birds fed on pine nuts, and their sharp claws and beaks could tear through a Level 3 Wild Protection Suit, making them the greatest obstacle for humans harvesting the pine cones.

Xiaqing had traded for the Level 3 Wild Protection Suit and its matching Protective Mask from the Green Dragon Team, a set worth four thousand nine hundred points. Ye Xiaqing wouldn’t mind getting it stained with crushed leaves and insect corpses from the Evolutionary Chestnut Tree, but if the Cross-beaked Magpies clawed it up or pecked a few holes in it, she’d be heartbroken.

It would take at least three hours to get from the Third Territory to the Green Light Pine Trees. Although Hu Zi had said there were no high-risk aggressive plants or large beasts along the way, there was no way Xiaqing could go alone. She needed to team up with people who were fast, had good eyesight, and were skilled marksmen.

Xiaqing quickly selected her team for the pine cone harvesting mission: Hu Zifeng, a Level 5 Visual Evolver; Jing Kuan, a Level 5 Speed Evolver; and a Level 6 Strength Evolver—herself.

The team only had three members because no matter how productive the two evolved pine trees were, they would yield five hundred jin of pine cones at most. A single Strength Evolver on the team would be enough to haul them all out.

With more people, there wouldn’t be enough pine nuts to go around after shelling.

Xiaqing contacted Hu Zifeng, and they quickly finalized the mission. The trip to Mountain No. 50 to collect pine cones was set for the day after tomorrow. Before then, Xiaqing decided to first harvest the edible pine cones from the pine trees in Zone Three of Mountain 49.

Within the thirteen-thousand-mu Zone Three of Mountain 49, countless pine trees of all sizes grew. It was impossible to test every single one.

Therefore, Xiaqing only tested the pine trees that had a relatively large number of pine cones, discovering a total of four Green Light and eight Yellow Light trees. This was a very low ratio.

These twelve pine trees were not distributed in a band-like pattern like the Green Light plants in Xiaqing’s territory.

After taking control of Zone Three of Mountain 49, Xiaqing would take any spare moment to test the area uphill from the High Slope’s planting zone, hoping to find a planting belt within the Evolution Forest that was nourished by Pollution-free Spring Water.

However, her tests revealed that there was no cluster of low-Harmful Element plants in the Evolution Forest of Zone 3, meaning no such planting belt existed.

This situation was also quite reasonable.

If such a large-scale planting zone of low-Harmful Element plants really existed, the spring in her territory would have been discovered by the teams long ago. It never could have remained hidden until now.

Realizing this, Xiaqing once again felt fortunate that the spring had appeared in the terraced fields on the slope. Because terraced fields, which had been cleared and cultivated by humans for many years, were already places where one would expect to find edible vegetables, the edible plants growing in the terraces of the Third Territory didn’t attract any special attention.

After a half-hour rest at noon, Xiaqing grabbed her tools and headed for Zone 3 of No. 49. To prevent the Red Squirrel from freeloading, Xiaqing called for a helper. "Second, how about coming out with me to work for half a day?"

Hearing Xiaqing call, the Sick Wolf immediately stood up. It hadn’t had diarrhea today, and its stamina was clearly much better. It could travel a bit farther now.

Xiaqing instructed the Sheep Leader and Broken Waist Wolf to look after the home, then led Wolf Dog Second straight to the Green Light Pine Trees she had marked in Zone Three of Mountain 49.

Arriving under the pine tree, Xiaqing looked up at the massive tree, which was wider than a person’s girth and over twenty meters tall. She tightened her protective gloves and pulled a special tool for climbing trees from her backpack—climbing spurs.

The climbing spurs were made of iron. The sole had five sharp iron hooks—three at the front and two at the back. The curve of the hooks was modeled after a cat’s claws, which is why they were also called Cat Claw Shoes. Humans could climb trees very quickly wearing these iron shoes.

Xiaqing had always survived as a Strength Evolver. When on missions, she was considered a non-combat support team member, only able to follow the main force to pick up supplies, pack, and carry them.

But in this new team, Xiaqing, Hu Zifeng, and Jing Kuan were all main members, and she would have to climb trees too. Therefore, before they set out, Xiaqing needed to practice wearing the climbing spurs and moving quickly in the trees.

After strapping on the climbing spurs, Xiaqing stuffed a piece of jerky into the Sick Wolf’s saddlebag and gave it its mission. "Second, you stand guard under the tree. I’m going up to knock down pine cones. Don’t let squirrels or other small animals steal our cones. ’Especially that one that loves to freeload.’"

After the Sick Wolf wagged its tail, Xiaqing began to climb the tree.

Although she had repeatedly tested these Green and Yellow Light pine trees and confirmed they hadn’t undergone any aggressive evolution, Xiaqing still didn’t dare to be careless, and her pace was slow.

After climbing fifteen meters high, confirming that neither the pine branches nor the needles would attack, and also getting used to the Cat Claw Shoes, Xiaqing sped up and soon reached the top of the tree.

The higher one climbs, the farther one can see.

From this position, Xiaqing could not only see her own territory and those of Zhao Ze and Qi Fu, but also the neat plots of farmland cleared in the No.1 Territory, the vast desolation within the Second Territory, the standardized greenhouses in the No. 9 Territory, and in the No. 8 Territory...

Xiaqing closed her eyes and opened them again in disbelief, staring at the three-story villa in the No. 8 Territory.

The villa was pure white, with windows smaller than those from before the Natural Disaster. It was obviously newly built.

Unlike the container-style houses in the No.1, No. 7, and No. 9 Territories, Xin Yu had actually built a beautiful villa in her territory!

Moreover, there were plenty of trees of various heights growing within the No. 8 Territory. Xin Yu didn’t even need to leave her territory to cut firewood in the Evolution Forest.

The Lord of No.8 was definitely not to be underestimated.

Xiaqing shook her head, forcing her attention back to the pine tree. Standing on a massive tree over twenty meters high, constantly swaying in the wind, most people would be too terrified to even move. Other than the one time she scrambled up a tree to escape a Wolf Group while on a mission with the Wind and Cloud Team, Xiaqing had never climbed a tree this high. She needed to get used to this height and field of view, and to this swaying frequency.

The day after tomorrow, she would have to knock down pine cones in this kind of environment while fending off attacks from the evolved Cross-beaked Magpies.

Xiaqing’s left foot, shod in its climbing spur, gripped the trunk firmly. She hooked her right leg and left arm around pine branches to stabilize herself. After acclimatizing for a moment, she finally took out the retractable pole with her right hand and began to knock down pine cones.

This tree was indeed a Green Light, but it didn’t have many pine cones. Xiaqing swung the pole, the pine branch trembled, but the pine cone didn’t fall.

It turned out this Green Light Pine Tree had evolved for hardness.