Chapter 27: Evolutionary Rat

Chapter 27: Chapter 27: Evolutionary Rat

"Sister Xiaqing, the people from Territory Number Two asked us to bring this to you." Getting closer, Su Ming took off his Protective Mask, flashing a wide grin as he handed a bag containing a Protective Suit to Xiaqing.

With Sheep Leader there, Su Ming tactfully didn’t step into Xiaqing’s territory, afraid of being knocked over by a sheep and losing face.

It was uncanny. That brutish sheep with its punchable face could actually recognize the borders of Xiaqing’s territory.

Xiaqing calmed Sheep Leader, stepped forward to take the Protective Suit, and handed over a basket. "Sorry to trouble you."

"It’s no trouble. Protecting the Lords is our mission." Su Ming noticed four portions of plants in the basket, each resting on a piece of tree bark carved with a number, making it clear who they were for. "You’re clever as always, Sister Xiaqing. I’ll bring the basket over to you under the road sign in a bit."

The patrol team circled the Lords’ territories. They were passing from the north now and would return from the south later.

Xiaqing led Sheep Leader back to her territory. She picked some newly grown Asparagus Chrysanthemum, and when she passed the spring, she filled a bucket with water and carried it on her back as she headed home.

As they passed the farmland, Sheep Leader, disliking the smell of camphor juice from the fields, kept its distance. Xiaqing ambled over with a smile, but it instantly vanished, replaced by a murderous expression.

She put down her back basket, grabbed her machete, and went forward, confirming that a two-square-meter patch of the cotton field had been dug up.

Judging by the marks, it was the work of rats. ’Damn it!’

Xiaqing closed her eyes and listened intently. After confirming a rustling sound from more than two meters underground, she ran home to get her sharpest, largest shovel.

’Time to raid their home and wipe out the whole family!’

For a Strength Evolver like Xiaqing, digging a small pit over two meters deep along the rat hole only took two or three minutes. When she shoveled away the last bit of dirt and saw a family of rats, young and old, and a pile of chewed-up cotton seeds in their burrow, she was so angry she felt like her lungs would explode.

Two large rats, twice the size of normal ones, also exploded with anger, baring their two-centimeter-long teeth and lunging at Xiaqing.

With a single slash of her machete, the two leaping rats fell to the ground in four pieces. Then, with a backhanded swing of her shovel, Xiaqing annihilated the entire nest of baby rats, scooping them out and flinging them onto the dirt.

The large Magpies circling in the air immediately swooped down and carried away the rat corpses.

Xiaqing shoveled out the cotton seeds, and after checking, found three that weren’t damaged. She filled in the rat hole, replanted them, and only then hurried to the road sign at the southernmost edge of her territory.

She had cleared a small patch of Injurious Grass when the patrol team came around. Just after Su Ming cheerfully handed the basket to Xiaqing, a team member suddenly spoke up. "There’s the smell of an Evolutionary Rat."

No need to ask; this person was an Olfactory Evolutionary. Xiaqing took the initiative to explain, "I found a nest of rats in my farmland—two large and six small, eight in total. I’ve already eliminated them."

Evolutionary Rats are very dangerous. Tan Junjie asked, "What type of evolution?"

Xiaqing shook her head. "I can’t be sure. They were twice the size of normal rats with long teeth, but their Strength and Speed were average. They were digging up cotton seeds to feed their young."

’If their teeth were that large, it was probably a bite force evolution, but they were killed before they could use it.’ Tan Junjie asked, "Do you need any help?"

The patrol team’s duty was to eliminate Evolutionary Biology that Lords couldn’t handle. For things Xiaqing could do herself, she didn’t want to bother them. "Thank you, Captain Tan. If I can’t handle it, I’ll contact you."

"The sixteen sweet potato seedlings will be delivered in three days. Prepare the field for them in advance. You must kill all the rats."

Xiaqing immediately stood at attention. "Yes, sir. Thank you, Captain Tan."

Xiaqing checked the items she got back in the basket. The packaging for the Level 1 Antidote was the same as the ones from the Safe Zone; Zhang San hadn’t tried to pull a fast one.

Zhao Ze from Territory Number Four and Qi Fu from Territory Number Five were both honest. The chive seedlings and tiger ginger were delivered with their native soil, so the roots weren’t damaged. Of course, the Perilla seedlings Xiaqing had sent over were the same.

Xiaqing planted all the seedlings in her home vegetable garden. Just like with ginger, she broke the whole piece of tiger ginger apart by its buds, separating it into five plants. After planting them, she watered them once with mountain spring water and then sprayed camphor leaf juice around them to keep the sheep away.

After planting the vegetables, Xiaqing abandoned her plan to clear the Injurious Grass. Shouldering her shovel, she began a grid search to clear out the rats.

With the boost from her Visual and Auditory Evolution, her efforts were twice as effective. In one day, she covered five hundred mu of farmland and actually dug up thirteen nests of rats—some normal, some evolved.

The task of clearing the remaining nineteen hundred-plus mu of land covered in Injurious Grass had to be done immediately. Injurious Grass was a general term for herbaceous plants with extremely high internal Harmful Element content that grew at a visible rate during the Rainy Season.

The Life Force of Injurious Grass was much stronger than that of normal plants. If not cleared in time, and if they were allowed to grow wild and go to seed, then after a few Harmful Rains, all the normal plants in the area would be swallowed by the Injurious Grass, dying when their leaves could no longer photosynthesize and their roots could no longer absorb nutrients.

Even though she had been killing rats all day, Xiaqing’s appetite that evening was not affected in the slightest. If something like this could affect her mood for eating, she wouldn’t have survived this long.

Turning on the radio, Xiaqing ate her rations with Sheep Leader and listened to the broadcast.

Unexpectedly, the broadcast didn’t mention anything about Lords exterminating rats. ’Could it be that my territory is the only one where rats are stealing seeds?’ 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ

Xiaqing turned on her walkie-talkie, wanting to hear about the situation in the nearby territories.

As soon as she turned it on, the rough cursing of Kuang Qingwei from Territory Number Six came through. "Son of a bitch! They stole wheat seeds from two-tenths of a mu of my land in one night! It’s breaking my damn heart. I didn’t get a damn thing done today, just dug up dirt and caught rats."

"They stole my cotton seeds, a huge patch of them," Zhao Ze also complained bitterly. "And one of my brother’s Protective Suits got chewed through by a rat."

Zhang San drawled, "Thankfully, I haven’t planted anything yet."

Tang Huai followed up, "Me neither. Been too busy to get around to it."

Those two...

The channel went quiet for a moment before Kuang Qingwei asked, "Old Qi, Xiaqing, how are things on your end?"

Xiaqing replied, "I lost some cotton seeds."

Qi Fu from Territory Number Five answered honestly, "We stayed up all night without blinking and managed to defend against them."

Listening closely, Xiaqing could even hear the sound of wind and footsteps in the background of Qi Fu’s reply, which meant he was still out patrolling his fields at this very moment.

’To patrol at night, you either have an Auditory or Olfactory Evolver in your territory, or you have night-vision goggles.’ Xiaqing judged it was the latter. This was because Auditory and Olfactory Evolvers could find good jobs within the Safe Zone and wouldn’t risk coming out here to farm.

Qi Fu was the most serious farmer among them.

Zhao Ze suggested, "The rats are stealing seeds and ruining crops. The Evolutionary Rats can also injure people and destroy the wires on our solar panels. We have to wipe them out completely."

"Right. We have to exterminate these things together. But even if we work together, it won’t be easy to get rid of them all." Kuang Qingwei was getting frustrated. "Brother Zhang, you got any rat poison?"

Zhang San’s tone was still lazy, but it was laced with killing intent. "I don’t. And if any of you dares use a poison that causes secondary poisoning to kill rats, I won’t mind using poison to wipe you all out."

The channel fell silent for a good while. Then Zhang San suddenly spoke to Xiaqing in a congenial, business-like tone. "Xiaqing, I have an Evolution Cat that specializes in killing rats. I can have someone bring it to your territory to get rid of them. Your next two weeks of Perilla as payment will be fine."

Everyone...

’The cat can come, but the person can’t.’ Xiaqing refused, "I’m strong. Clearing out rats isn’t too much trouble for me."

Kuang Qingwei quickly tried to bargain with Zhang San. "Brother Zhang, let the cat come to my place! When my elm tree grows samaras, I’ll give you ten jin."

"Deal," Zhang San said cheerfully.

Tang Huai was also curious about Zhang San’s Evolution Cat. "Brother Zhang, what ability did your cat evolve, and what level is it?"