Chapter 322: Umi

Chapter 322: Chapter 322: Umi

Just then, the Evolved Jade Belt Sea Eagle from No. 8 Territory took off.

Its enormous figure ascended to three thousand meters within No. 8 Territory before leaving to head for its destination. The first stop on its mission—Territory No. 12.

The Evolved Sea Eagle reached the airspace above Territory No. 12 and descended to capture and drive away the flock of birds drawn by the corn. Soon, Xiaqing saw a dense, dark cloud of birds take off from Territory No. 12, scattering in all directions. Judging by the number of birds, Territory No. 12 had harvested at least ten times more corn than she had.

The birds in Territory No. 12 took off from a location about 1,500 meters away from Xiaqing. Throughout the entire process, the birds circling the roof of Xiaqing’s house kept their eyes fixed on the corn under the cover, not a single one paying attention to the disturbance in Territory No. 12. ’It seems there are no Brain Domain Evolvers in this flock, so they won’t form an effective coordinated attack.’

Birds like these were no longer worthy of the Level 9 Visual Evolution Sniper Xiaqing taking action herself. Otherwise, it would be a pure waste of bullets and steel balls.

Just as Xiaqing was about to call over the Red Squirrel, which was peeking out from a distance, to help, the swallows busy building their nests under her eaves suddenly flew up to the roof and attacked the flock that had abruptly invaded their territory.

An individual swallow is small and weak, but when it comes to flying skill, they are top-tier. Twenty-some little swallows attacking a bird not much larger than themselves from different directions was enough to take its life.

The birds on the roof, the sheep pen, and the chicken coop were soon thrown into chaos by the flock of swallows and could no longer perch, flying about in disarray. Sick Wolf and Sheep Leader seized the opportunity to leap up and catch them.

Sheep Leader came up empty-handed, but Sick Wolf snatched two low-flying birds in his mouth and swatted another one down with his paw. At this, the entire flock erupted into a panic. More than half of them fled in alarm, and the remaining ones posed no threat.

Xiaqing took the birds from Sick Wolf and handed him a small piece of Green Light Dried Meat as a reward. "Second, you’re amazing! Keep it up! I’ll pluck these three birds and stew them for you."

Sick Wolf’s health had improved greatly, so he didn’t have to eat only Green Light or Yellow Light meat. He could occasionally eat Red Light meat as well.

After praising Sick Wolf, Xiaqing also praised the little swallows. "Swallows, you’re amazing too! Great job! Do you have enough mud for your nests? I can get you a few more clumps. Need any dry grass?"

This was the first time Xiaqing realized that swallows were territorial. If this group of little guys had arrived a few months earlier, those two damn White Egrets wouldn’t have dared to smear droppings all over her window.

After praising the little swallows, Xiaqing turned her focus to praising the pouting Sheep Leader. "Leader, I saw you jump up to chase the birds too. This whole huge flock was scared off by you! As a grass-eating Evolutionary Sheep, to have accomplished this much puts you ahead of every other sheep on the entire Blue Star. You are the pride of all sheep, a pioneer forging the history of Blue Star’s Evolutionary Sheep! Your hardworking figure has deeply moved me..."

After smoothing Sheep Leader’s ruffled fur—and ego—Xiaqing invited him downstairs. "We can leave this to Second. There’s a more important task that needs Leader to do it. Shall we go downstairs?"

Once Sheep Leader went downstairs, Xiaqing finally breathed a sigh of relief.

When Sheep Leader had jumped up to headbutt the birds just now, Xiaqing had clearly felt the stilt house tremble from the impact of his landing. A few more jumps like that, and the warehouse she had worked so hard to repair would definitely crack. This wasn’t Sheep Leader’s fault; Xiaqing had underestimated his strength when she asked him to chase the birds.

"Second, I’ll leave you to guard this place. I’m going to stew the birds for you and add some cabbage leaves, just how you like them." After speaking, Xiaqing stuffed another piece of dried meat into Sick Wolf’s mouth as a reward, called out a greeting to the chattering flock of swallows on the roof, and then went down from the stilt house to give Sheep Leader a job.

Xiaqing led him back to the corn shed. "Leader, we grew this corn together. We’ll save the kernels for ourselves to eat this winter. How about these leaves on the stalks? Do you like them? If you do, you can strip them off. However many you strip, I’ll save them for you. We’ll dry them and keep them as your winter rations."

Sheep Leader was happy now. He charged into the pile of felled corn stalks and began to tear off the leaves with a CRUNCH, CRUNCH.

In the Safe Zone, not only the corn leaves but even the stalks would be washed, ground into a pulp, and then mixed with a small amount of corn and various additives to make compressed rations.

The corn-flavored Ration No. 2 was very popular at the base.

Because the price offered by the Safe Zone for recycling corn stalks was too low, Xiaqing didn’t plan to turn them in only to buy back expensive fertilizer. Instead, she planned to turn the stalks directly into fertilizer herself. Since the stalks from her own shed were clean and free of insect eggs and pathogens, the resulting fertilizer would naturally be safe to use.

Before grinding up the stalks, letting Sheep Leader have his fun stripping the leaves here not only gave him a job to do so he wouldn’t start dismantling the house, but also saved Xiaqing the trouble of gathering grass for him. It was killing two birds with one stone.

Xiaqing returned home and dealt with the large half-bag of corn that hadn’t been taken up to the roof.

This bag was full of good-for-nothing, underdeveloped corn. Some cobs, like the one Sheep Leader had shucked, had only a few kernels. Others had grown a fair number of kernels, but they had withered before maturing, looking like they deserved a good smack. And then there was the even more outrageous kind: it was a corn cob, but instead of growing kernels, it grew pustules!

In short, none of the corn in this bag was worth taking up to the roof. If she put them together with the proper corn, Xiaqing was afraid the good ones might learn bad habits.

The others were worthless, but the ones with pustules were strange; the farming knowledge broadcast had never mentioned them. Xiaqing decided to see if they had any market value. "Brother San, are you there?"

Zhang San replied listlessly, "Speak."

Xiaqing asked, "I was harvesting my early shucked corn today and found that some of the cobs have a lot of pustules on them. Is this stuff of any research value?"

Zhang San’s interest was piqued. "Are the pustules black-skinned or grayish-white?"

’It’s actually useful?’ Xiaqing replied, "Some are black, and some are grayish-white."

Zhang San replied, "That’s corn smut. I haven’t found any in my territory. I’ll have Ji Li come and get it."

"Brother San, the corn in my territory also has corn smut. Do you want it?" Shi Zhong asked. Then Tang Zhengpo said his territory had this kind of corn as well.

Li Si came online. "Brother San, this corn smut has great research value. Can you leave some for me?"

For once, Zhang San didn’t argue with Li Si. "The ones in the Third and Tenth Territories are mine. The ones in Territory No. 12 are yours."

"Many thanks, Brother San," Li Si said. The corn grown in the Third and Tenth Territories combined was definitely less than the amount grown in Territory No. 12.

Never having expected that the pustule-covered corn could be traded, Xiaqing immediately found it much more pleasing to the eye than the other corn. After putting the other corn back in her pouch, Xiaqing carried the small bag of pustule-covered corn and walked toward the road sign.

The Tenth Territory was south of the passageway. Since this exchange was arranged in the Lord channel, Ji Li would definitely pick up the goods from under the signpost.

As she walked, Xiaqing listened to Mrs. Zhao’s voice rambling on, "The pustules on corn are called Umi. You can eat them when they’re young—raw, steamed, boiled, or roasted. My mom said that when she was a kid, she and her friends would sneak into corn and sorghum fields to find Umi to eat as a snack. But nowadays, no one dares to eat Umi anymore."