Chapter 30: Elm Seed Wotou

Chapter 30: Chapter 30: Elm Seed Wotou

After completing a patrol, Tan Junjie had his team members head back to camp while he carried a vegetable basket into Territory One. A member of the Green Dragon Team hidden in the trees jumped down and saluted. "Mr. Tan."

The Green Dragon Team was formed by students from Military Academy A. Before the Natural Disaster, Tan Junjie had been an instructor at the academy, and the core members of the Green Dragon Team were all students he had taught (and trained).

"Some vegetables." Following the Green Dragon Team’s protocol, Tan Junjie handed the basket over for the team member to inspect carefully before going to find his old comrade-in-arms, Luo Pei.

Luo Pei and his team had only been in Territory One for two days, but the yard was already completely different from when the previous Lord was here. The clutter had been cleared out, and there wasn’t a single sprout on the ground. The whole place looked open and tidy.

Luo Pei, sunbathing on a lounge chair with his eyes wrapped in gauze, heard the footsteps and slowly sat up. "Finished your rounds already?"

"There are only ten territories." Tan Junjie placed the basket next to Luo Pei and sat on a chair that a team member had brought out.

Tan Junjie and Luo Pei were comrades from the same training class. After the great biological evolution on Blue Star, Tan Junjie developed a Level 4 Speed ability, while Luo Pei gained a Level 10 Visual ability. As the gap in their strength widened, their paths diverged, but the camaraderie they had forged through hardship remained unchanged for ten years.

Luo Pei was injured but putting on a brave face. Tan Junjie didn’t let any of his own distress show. "This is some Evolved Perilla and Asparagus Chrysanthemum from Xiaqing in the Third Territory. The Evolved Perilla has a Harmful Element content of 1.3 percent. The Asparagus Chrysanthemum’s is probably even lower."

Luo Pei fumbled with the lid of the basket. Catching the scent of the Asparagus Chrysanthemum, he sighed. "When we cleared this section of the Evolution Forest, there’s no way we would have missed an edible plant with such a low Harmful Element content. Is this a new growth from this year?"

Tan Junjie explained, "It’s not from the area you cleared. It grew on a slope further up the North Hillside of the Third Territory. I traded that plot of land to Xiaqing for a Green Light Wild Boar. Hasn’t Yang Jin mentioned it to you?"

Luo Pei lay back down. "The man’s a silent workaholic. You’ll never get a word of idle chat out of him."

It seemed Yang Jin hadn’t told Luo Pei about Xiaqing. Tan Junjie didn’t press the issue. He took out his High Level Detector to test the Asparagus Chrysanthemum and was overjoyed. "The Harmful Element content in the Asparagus Chrysanthemum is only 0.025 percent! Eat up, it’s good for you."

Luo Pei smiled. "Take it back for Qiqi. I’ll trade with Xiaqing for more later. I remember that young woman; she’s a good kid."

Tan Junjie’s daughter, Tan Qi, had currently only tested at Level 3 for her Speed evolution. Since she was young, she still had the potential to evolve further, and eating safe food would be beneficial for her growth and development.

Tan Junjie put the detector away. "I’ll trade supplies with Xiaqing for Qiqi’s share. She hasn’t traded Asparagus Chrysanthemum with any other Lords, so don’t mention it in the private Lord channel."

Luo Pei snorted. "Think I’m a gossip like you? Anyway, if she wants something you don’t have, just let me know."

To trade with Xiaqing for Asparagus Chrysanthemum for his daughter, Tan Junjie certainly couldn’t use military supplies. Although Luo Pei was outside the Safe Zone, he was still a core member of the Green Dragon Team and had an easier time acquiring supplies than Tan Junjie.

Tan Junjie didn’t stand on ceremony with Luo Pei. "Who else would I tell? By the way, has the Tang Family in Territory Two to your east made any moves in the last couple of days?"

"They haven’t, and they wouldn’t dare. Even though I’m going blind, I still have enough strength to crush a few ants."

His old friend’s voice was calm, but Tan Junjie could still hear the anger beneath it. "Yang Jin and Xie Yu are definitely trying to find a solution everywhere. You won’t go blind. When you have free time, you should study the Territory Law. The files on those seven people in Territory Two say they’re ordinary, but there’s bound to be an eavesdropping expert hidden among them. Be careful you don’t fall into their trap."

Luo Pei nodded. "You don’t need to worry about me."

Trying to lighten the mood, Tan Junjie smiled. "You could get to know Xiaqing better. She’s raising a Strength Evolution Sheep called Sheep Leader. It’s got a bad temper and a real personality, pretty interesting."

When he was with his old comrades, Tan Junjie was no less talkative than Su Ming.

Luo Pei let out a laugh. "Sheep Leader. That’s a good name."

Luo Pei didn’t go to bother Xiaqing, instead continuing to recuperate quietly in his own territory. Xiaqing, likewise, remained busy in hers.

「Five days later.」

The temperature climbed again, and the eyes on the evolved potatoes finally became prominent. Xiaqing cut the potatoes into chunks, making sure each piece had an eye. She rolled them in wood ash to coat the cut surfaces, let them air-dry for half a day, and then planted them in the ground.

Potatoes had the same soil requirements as sweet potatoes, so Xiaqing planted them in the patch next to her sweet potato crop.

After planting the potatoes, the elm pods in Territory Six were ready to be harvested. Xiaqing traded one jin of Evolved Perilla for three jin of elm pods, and a test confirmed they were Yellow Light food. She mixed the elm pods with cornmeal and white flour and made a batch of misshapen steamed buns. They were so delicious that she almost swallowed her own tongue. She even got into a fight with Sheep Leader to protect them, knocking over a section of the newly-built yard wall in the process.

The steamed buns were just too good. Xiaqing stopped clearing Injurious Grass and tidying the yard, instead coaxing the huffing and puffing Sheep Leader to go find more elm trees.

There were, in fact, a few elm trees within her territory.

First, they went to the west hillside. Xiaqing snapped off an elm branch covered in pods and held it out to Sheep Leader. "Boss, want to try this?"

When Sheep Leader disdainfully turned its head away, Xiaqing knew without even needing to test them that the pods from this tree weren’t edible.

She tossed it aside. On to the next one.

After searching for over an hour, Xiaqing went from the West Hillside to the North Hillside, and then over to the High Slope on her new territory, snapping off more than a dozen elm branches.

All of the elm trees in her territory were inedible. The glare from Sheep Leader’s eyes grew more and more unpleasant.

Xiaqing wasn’t too disappointed, because this was the norm. If edible plants were that easy to find, so many people wouldn’t have starved to death. 𝘧𝓇ℯℴ𝓂

Xiaqing picked some Asparagus Chrysanthemum for Sheep Leader and let it chow down under a tree while she went to the vegetable patch in the abandoned yard on the High Slope to check on the scallion seedlings.

Since this area was now her territory, Xiaqing didn’t risk transplanting the scallion seedlings. Instead, she cleared out the vegetable patch, fenced it off, and let them continue growing in their original spot.

Sure enough, her two patches of Yellow Light scallions had sprouted many more new shoots, each as thin as a needle. Xiaqing squatted gleefully in the garden, pulling weeds while counting her new seedlings.

As she counted, she began to feel that something wasn’t right.

’How come these scallion seedlings look exactly like the chive seedlings Qi Fu traded me?’

Relying on her excellent Visual Evolution, Xiaqing carefully examined the "scallion seedlings" in both patches. After picking one and tasting it, she finally confirmed that the two garden patches on the High Slope didn’t just contain scallions—they contained both scallions and chives.

A pleasant surprise, indeed. With a scallion leaf dangling from her lips, Xiaqing hummed a little tune as she watered the seedlings with spring water.

As she hummed, she heard footsteps approaching from the direction of the Wild Boar Breeding Center.