Chapter 56: Worm Castings

Chapter 56: Chapter 56: Worm Castings

"Sister Qing!" Sun Zhe’s voice immediately regained its energy. He shouted her name before lowering his voice, "Sister Qing, you’re back too?!"

"No, I’m still in my territory." Xiaqing didn’t ask him about the "too," and continued, "Are you free right now? There’s something I need to talk to you about."

"I am, of course I am."

Xiaqing heard Sun Zhe quickly walk away from where he was. The originally noisy background on the call grew a bit quieter. "Go ahead, Sister Qing. No one can hear us here. You can make calls from your territory—did you get a satellite phone?"

"Yeah. For easier communication, I went on a few missions with the team and used the points to get one. Here’s why I’m calling..." Xiaqing explained to Sun Zhe about the need for organic fertilizer for farming in the territory. "Qi Fu said your dad knows how to produce earthworm castings, so I thought I’d let you know. Of course, whether you do it or not is up to you."

Sun Zhe was so excited his breathing hitched against the phone’s receiver, and Xiaqing heard it clearly. "Sister Qing, will people really buy earthworm castings?"

"I can only contact three Lords, and they all need organic fertilizer, including Qi Fu. I can’t guarantee anyone else, but I’ll need to buy at least a thousand jin myself." Xiaqing only mentioned the three nearby Lords who were actually farming; she completely left out Lords One, Two, and Seven.

Sun Zhe reined in his excitement and replied crisply, "Thanks, Sis. I’ll go tell my dad right away. The Planting Center in our Safe Zone raises earthworms for their castings. My dad applied for a job there but was rejected because he’s disabled. Sis, do you think it’s better for us to produce the castings in the Safe Zone, or out in a territory?"

Xiaqing was surprised. "Weren’t all the territories claimed? Has our base cleared out new ones?"

Sun Zhe then realized that Xiaqing was out of the loop in her territory and quickly explained, "No new territories have been developed. It’s still the same two hundred plots from the beginning of the year. But some Lords have died, and others have fled back, so now there are over thirty empty plots that no one dares to claim. My dad wants to claim one, but my mom won’t let him."

Xiaqing answered seriously, "Raising a lot of earthworms creates a strong smell, which will definitely attract carnivorous Evolutionary Animals. So, raising them in the Safe Zone is less dangerous than in a territory. However, you can raise more in a territory and the yield will be higher than in the Safe Zone. That’s a decision you’ll have to make yourselves. If you do claim a territory, it’s best to choose one close to the Safe Zone. The closer, the safer."

Sun Zhe’s family were all ordinary people, so claiming a territory outside the Safe Zone was a huge risk. But producing earthworm castings might be the only lifeline they could grasp right now. Sun Zhe thanked her sincerely, "I understand. Thanks so much, Sis. If you ever need a hand over there, just give me a call. I’m available anytime. Everyone misses you a lot, too."

’If you can produce the earthworm castings, that would be a huge help to me.’ Xiaqing instructed Sun Zhe, "I can still manage for now. Don’t tell anyone about me contacting you."

After hanging up, Xiaqing took a deep breath of the grassy, earthy air and lay down on the lawn, gazing up at the azure sky.

The familiar, noisy background from the call had instantly pulled Xiaqing back to the suffocatingly crowded Safe Zone. She didn’t care what others thought; there was no way she would ever give up her territory and go back.

"BAA—"

"THUMP THUMP THUMP!"

Hearing the Sheep Leader’s anxious bleating and the sound of its running, Xiaqing turned to see it charging toward her. She quickly jumped up to show she was fine. "Don’t panic, Leader! I’m not poisoned or injured. I’m perfectly fine, just resting for a bit. See? I’m up. I can even jump."

When the Sheep Leader saw that Xiaqing was okay, it got angry. It backed up a few steps, brandished its spiral horns, and let out a roar with its smoky voice, "MOO!"

Xiaqing sighed. "Leader, you’ve been treading the waterwheel for so long. Aren’t you tired?"

The Sheep Leader ignored her and charged. Xiaqing turned and ran. "Let’s go! We’ll head to the open ground, and I’ll fight you as much as you want."

The human and the sheep ran to a patch of empty ground where nothing was planted. Xiaqing didn’t use any clever techniques, just went head-to-head with the Sheep Leader in a contest of pure strength. Then, as expected, she was flipped over by the Sheep Leader.

An hour later, Xiaqing was collapsed on the ground, panting heavily. "Leader," she asked, "I suspect you’re a Strength and Endurance Dual System Evolutionary Sheep."

Endurance evolution meant having several times the stamina of an ordinary person (or sheep). For example, an ordinary person would be tired after sprinting for five minutes, a Level 2 Endurance Evolver would tire after ten minutes, and a Level 5 Endurance Evolver would only tire after thirty-five minutes. If a person with a strong physique also had the boost of an Endurance evolution, they would be very difficult to deal with. Xue Jinchang, a core member of the Dongyang Team, was a Level 5 Endurance Evolver, and his power was undeniably formidable.

The Sheep Leader’s Endurance was also very strong.

After teaching Xiaqing a lesson, the Sheep Leader was hungry. It shook the dirt off its coat and went to eat some grass. Xiaqing also patted the dirt off herself, stood up, and followed behind it. "Leader, back when you were alone in the Evolution Forest, how did you survive?"

The longer they spent together, the more Xiaqing realized the Sheep Leader was afraid of being lonely. So, before it met her, it must have had companions. "Are your companions still around? Bring them all back to the territory. We have water, grass, and it’s safe here. You can’t just enjoy all this by yourself and forget your brothers."

’The thought of having her own flock of sheep made Xiaqing’s mouth water. Nope, I need to get the cumin ready to welcome the flock.’

In the Third Territory, besides the Evolved Perilla on the High Slope and a patch of mixed Green and Yellow Light grass by the spring, there were three other patches of mixed Yellow and Green Light grass. Xiaqing had tasted each type of grass and found them all to be terrible, so these three patches became the Sheep Leader’s exclusive pasture.

But not anymore. Now that Xiaqing was raising fish, she would cut the grass, blanch it, chop it up, and feed it to them. As for whether the fish liked it or not, that was completely outside her consideration. If they wanted to eat, they’d eat. If not, they could starve. After starving long enough, they’d eat it eventually.

「Five days later.」

Xiaqing’s cucumbers produced their first flower, which meant she could no longer spray camphor tree juice to repel pests. She set up a fine, sturdy pest-control net over her vegetable garden on the slope’s planting area. The net could keep out some Evolved Insects with weak biting power, like cabbage worms, cabbage webworms, diamondback moths, aphids, and leafminers.

By cutting off the pests’ reproductive pathways on the plants and in the shallow soil this way, she no longer needed to spray her crops frequently. She only had to periodically spray the netting itself to drive away rodent-like Evolved Insects.

Covering with a pest-control net involved first building a greenhouse-like frame, then stretching the net over it and securing it tightly. Xiaqing had never seen this farming technique in the Safe Zone. If Qi Fu hadn’t told her about it, she never would have thought of it.

As for why the Planting Center in the Safe Zone didn’t use something so effective, Xiaqing figured it was because there were fewer pests there. The number of pests in her territory was more than just double or triple that of the Planting Center.

After covering the vegetables with the protective net, Xiaqing only needed to patrol daily to eliminate any rodent-like insects that got close, preventing them from getting a chance to chew through it. Fortunately, most of these rodent-like insects were active during the day. The task of patrolling and clearing them out didn’t fall to Xiaqing alone; the birds in her territory also liked to perch on the large trees and rocks near the vegetable netting, waiting to catch and eat insects.

Attracted by the vegetables, the density of various insects outside the netting was higher than elsewhere.

Since putting up the pest-control net, Xiaqing noticed more birds in her territory. In addition to the original four black-and-white Evolutionary Magpies and a few crows, a flock of sparrows had appeared, along with several especially beautiful long-tailed, red-billed blue magpies, and a few other types of small, colorful birds with lovely songs that Xiaqing couldn’t name. With them around, she truly understood what it meant to be surrounded by the songs of birds and the fragrance of flowers.

Unfortunately, other than the four black-and-white Evolutionary Magpies, none of the other birds had built nests in the Third Territory. Otherwise, Xiaqing would have been eating bird eggs long ago.

While Xiaqing was wandering the slope exterminating pests, Luo Pei sent her a message. He said that the purchase agreement and lease contract for the mountain had been drafted and asked her to come over to see if any revisions were needed.

Over the past few days, Xiaqing had been mulling over the matter of buying the mountain, leasing the mountain, and hiring people to guard it, and she had finally sorted out her thoughts. She also felt that having Mountain No. 49 in her own hands, rather than in the hands of the Green Dragon Team, was more advantageous for her.