Chapter 262: Brain Domain Evolutionary Bears

Chapter 262: Chapter 262: Brain Domain Evolutionary Bears

Work for free?

"I don’t need that." Xiaqing flatly refused and turned back toward her territory. While Tang Huai wasn’t a bad person, he was quite annoying. The Su Feng Team made Xiaqing even more wary, so she had no intention of getting too involved with the Tang Family.

After Xiaqing passed through the Wild Grass Wall and was some distance away, Tang Huai, who had been leaning against a road sign, started cursing. "Damn it, that woman just won’t budge!"

Hu Zifeng emerged from the Wild Grass Wall of No.1 Territory, his face dark as he strode menacingly toward Tang Huai. "Tang, stay away from Xiaqing, or I’ll kill you!"

Publicly, Hu Zifeng was Xiaqing’s suitor. Since Tang Huai had designs on her, it was only natural for him to feign outrage.

Tang Huai immediately leaped back inside the Second Territory, beat his chest, and taunted, "Come on! If you’ve got the guts, take a shot at me right here."

He was the agent for the Second Territory. As long as he was inside it, he was protected by the Lord Law.

Hu Zifeng’s face remained dark as he retorted, "If you have the guts, come out. Don’t be a coward hiding in your territory."

"You come in, if you’ve got the guts!"

"You come out!"

"You come in!"

As the two began a shouting match, Xiaqing lost interest in listening. She returned to the spot in the Deserted Village where she stored her building materials and began loading bricks and stones onto her vehicle with Sheep Leader.

Xiaqing’s building materials had all been salvaged from the ruins of houses in the three deserted villages within her territory. They included hollow bricks, perforated bricks, and red bricks.

Although Hua Country had strictly restricted the production and use of red bricks for twenty years before the Natural Disaster due to environmental and sustainability concerns, most of the old houses in the three deserted villages on Xiaqing’s land had been built with them. Consequently, red bricks were the most abundant material she salvaged, and she even kept the ones that had broken in half.

She had also dug out and neatly stacked the foundation stones from the old houses. These were already cut and polished, making them uniform and flat—even better for building than bricks.

Early the next morning, while patrolling her territory with Sheep Leader and Wolf Dog Second, Xiaqing discovered small, insect-bitten holes in the sweet potato leaves on her vegetable terraces.

She immediately leaned in to inspect them and quickly found the culprits: newly hatched, fleshy worms no more than three millimeters long.

Xiaqing inspected the insect netting daily, regularly sprayed Insect Repellent, and was extremely careful when entering or exiting the greenhouses to avoid bringing in germs, insect eggs, or moths. Under these layers of protection, there were indeed far fewer pests inside the greenhouses than outside.

But no matter how careful she was, it was impossible to be completely insect-free. When pests appeared, you just had to get rid of them. Killing insects, pulling weeds, fertilizing, and watering—this was the daily grind of farming.

Xiaqing immediately contacted Territory Land No. 7. After having her idol there identify the insect species, she traded for the correct insecticide, diluted it with water, and meticulously sprayed every single greenhouse.

When she returned home after spraying, the sheep and wolves, disgusted by the smell on her, all kept their distance.

After the great evolution of Blue Star’s lifeforms, all insecticides were biological agents, with each one designed to counter a specific pest. An insecticide effective against insects wouldn’t have much impact on a sheep, but its pungent odor was still unpleasant to Sheep Leader and the others.

Xiaqing, however, found the smell quite pleasant. Once diluted, it reminded her of Mint.

Mischievously, Xiaqing chased after Sheep Leader, aggravating him to the point where he looked ready to fight. After rinsing and disinfecting her Protective Suit, Xiaqing ate breakfast and went back to building the chicken coop.

Xiaqing worked all day, clearing the ground for the chicken coop, then digging and tamping down the foundation. As she was laying the foundation stones, Hu Zifeng arrived with forty-four pounds of pine cones. "We had more people today, so we managed to knock down the ones we missed on the first tree. That’s why it’s a bit more than yesterday."

The more they collected, the larger Xiaqing’s share was. She thanked him and took the sack, asking, "You didn’t run into any Evolution Bears, did you?"

"We almost ran into them on our way there, but we have Evolvers with enhanced smell and hearing, so we managed to avoid them in time." Hu Zifeng sighed. "I hope those two bears are just passing through."

’Why not kill them?’ Xiaqing asked, "Are there Brain Domain Evolutionary Bears nearby?"

Bears are normally solitary. No matter how formidable an Evolution Bear was, one or two of the Green Dragon Team’s main squads could take it down with their equipment.

But if a Brain Domain Evolutionary Bear was involved, things weren’t nearly so simple.

Bears are already among the more intelligent wild animals, and a Brain Domain Evolutionary Bear’s intelligence is no lower than that of a Brain Domain Evolution Wolf. What’s even more terrifying is that a Brain Domain Evolutionary Bear can gather other, normally solitary bears and command them to fight cooperatively.

A dozen or so evolved brown bears, commanded by a Brain Domain Evolutionary Bear, possess enough terrifying power to wipe out a small human settlement.

This wasn’t just a scare tactic; it was based on a real and vicious incident.

In the fourth year of the Natural Disaster, humans who had gathered for survival had not yet adopted the current model of having a single large Safe Zone within each base. Many groups, confident in their own strength, were unwilling to abandon the small settlements they had spent years painstakingly building.

That year, in a settlement of over ten thousand people within the White Four Base, someone out foraging for food killed an adult mother bear and captured her two cubs.

The mother bear was skinned and eaten, while the two cubs were kept to be tamed, in the hopes they would become allies for humanity in the fight against Evolutionary Biology.

Half a month later, on a cold night during the Harmful Rain, sixteen evolved brown bears suddenly appeared outside the settlement. They tore down the walls, rescued the two cubs, and flattened every house inside.

The combination of the Harmful Rain and the Evolution Bear attack resulted in over three thousand deaths. The survivors who braved the rain to flee toward the Safe Zone were attacked several more times by the bears. By the time they arrived, only a few hundred people were left.

The incident shocked the entire country.

After the Harmful Rain passed, Hua Country had to deploy bombers to finally exterminate those two Brain Domain Evolutionary Bears.

Xiaqing had heard of several similar incidents. And while humanity always managed to exterminate the Evolutionary Animals in the end, it was always at a tremendous cost.

For the humans who had survived ten years of the Natural Disaster, any arrogant sense of superiority over wild animals had been completely worn away. Unless absolutely necessary, people would not provoke High Level Evolved Fierce Beasts, especially not those with brain domain evolution.

Hu Zifeng nodded. "Mountain No. 61 is home to two Brain Domain Evolutionary Bears. Our territories don’t have walls as sturdy as a Safe Zone’s, so it’s best not to get into a conflict with Evolution Bears. If it turns out these two are connected to the Brain Domain ones, we’ll be in serious trouble."

Xiaqing completely agreed. "Captain Hu, have you reported the Evolution Bears to Captain Tan?"

"I have. Captain Tan has already reported it, and the military will be closely monitoring the Evolution Bears’ movements. If they start to pose a threat to the territories, they will immediately figure out a way to drive them off."

Even the military was reluctant to clash with Brain Domain Evolutionary Bears. If the creatures could be driven away, they wouldn’t opt for extermination.

After Hu Zifeng left, Xiaqing carried the bag home, spread the pine cones out on her roof to dry, and then resumed work on the chicken coop.

The Broken Waist Wolf came over, squatted down nearby, and watched her.

Xiaqing began talking to it about the Evolution Bears. "Broken Waist, those Evolution Bears roaring yesterday, are they your rivals or your allies?"

"Yesterday, the Queen went to Mountain No. 50 to watch the two bears roaring at each other. Did she say anything to you when she got back? Once your back is healed, you guys aren’t planning to pick a fight with those bears, are you?" Xiaqing shoveled a bucketful of high-strength concrete, then straightened up to issue a stern warning.

"Broken Waist, I don’t care who you fight, but you can’t do it anywhere near my territory. Otherwise, Sheep Leader and I will definitely get caught in the crossfire."

After staring into the Broken Waist Wolf’s calm eyes for a few seconds, Xiaqing sighed. The wolf had an expression that suggested it understood everything perfectly, but she always felt they weren’t on the same wavelength.

’If we had a few more months together, my communication with it would be much smoother.’ But the wolf would be finishing its treatment soon and returning to the Evolution Forest.

Xiaqing gave up on communicating, picked up her wooden bucket, and went back to laying the wall.