Chapter 73: Qiang Evolution Eggplant

Chapter 73: Chapter 73: Qiang Evolution Eggplant

Sitting on the ground, Xiaqing whispered to the agitated Sheep Leader, who was blocking her from the pumpkin vine and constantly pawing the ground with his front hooves, "Leader, I can’t touch this pumpkin vine, can I?"

"Baa." The Sheep Leader bleated and tried to nudge Xiaqing backward again. It was extremely wary of this Evolutionary Pumpkin Vine, which to Xiaqing, looked completely harmless.

Xiaqing stood up and allowed the Sheep Leader’s force to push her back two steps. She stroked its spiral horn and praised it, "You’re so amazing, Leader. You could tell something was wrong with the pumpkin vine at a glance. If it weren’t for you, I would’ve been in trouble today. This home of ours really can’t function without you."

The Sheep Leader’s mood clearly improved with the praise, and its eyes even squinted in pleasure. It stood to the side with its head held high and chest puffed out, signaling for Xiaqing to continue her compliments.

While continuing to praise the sheep, Xiaqing followed the pumpkin vine, which was pushing out leaf after leaf, and located its root. She picked up a shovel and made a gesture as if to dig, only starting to move after seeing the Sheep Leader didn’t object.

Once she dug down to the root, Xiaqing discovered the pumpkin vine’s evolved ability: it had undergone Qiang Evolution to become sticky, and its root system clung to the shovel, impossible to shake off.

No wonder the Sheep Leader hadn’t let her touch it. If this stuff got on her Protective Suit, she’d definitely turn green, not to mention whether it was corrosive or not.

Luckily, she had bundled up the pumpkin vines one by one. Otherwise, the normal vines would have gotten stuck to it and been completely ruined.

Xiaqing used the shovel to roll the pumpkin vine, roots and all, into a ball, then forked it out from under the rain shelter. She jammed it into the ground with the roots facing up, giving it no chance to touch the soil and continue growing.

Xiaqing dealt with the other pumpkin that had undergone Qiang Evolution in the same way.

Then, Xiaqing pressed the button on her Lord walkie-talkie to share the news with the other Lords. "Three potato plants in the Third Territory have undergone Qiang Evolution. They’re flowering and releasing Level C toxic gas. Two pumpkin vines also underwent Qiang Evolution and are now highly sticky, able to adhere to shovels and wooden sticks. Everyone, please be careful."

Qi Fu immediately replied, "Received. An eggplant in Territory No. 5 has undergone Qiang Evolution. The thorns it grew can pierce a Protective Suit. Everyone, please be careful."

Zhao Ze’s voice was tinged with tears. "Two of my workers are injured. I don’t have enough manpower now and can only defend the fields covered by rain shelters. Can any of you send someone to help me?"

No one responded. During the Harmful Rain, everyone had their hands full just looking after themselves; who had the energy to help others?

Zhang San’s voice came over the Lord channel. "Leave the sticky pumpkin vines for me. I’ll trade you supplies for them."

Xiaqing pressed the button. "Received. I’ve already rolled them into a ball and stuck them in the farmland with a stick. They’re still alive."

Kuang Qingwei asked about the price, "Brother San, what’s the exchange rate for the Evolutionary Pumpkin Vines?"

Zhang San replied, "Fifty points each."

’Two of them would be 100 points. That’s enough to buy five new shovels. At least I’ve recouped some of my losses.’

Xiaqing’s mood lifted a little. After leaving the sweet potato rain shelter, she opened an umbrella to cover both herself and the Sheep Leader and carefully observed the Buffer Forest.

After confirming that no large trees had undergone Qiang Evolution, Xiaqing led the Sheep Leader over a path littered with Injurious Grass that she hadn’t had time to clear, heading toward the hillside.

Over an hour had passed since her last patrol. The seedlings in the vegetable garden were more important than clearing the Injurious Grass.

A river flowing from east to west separated the hillside of the Third Territory from the farmland. The wider parts of the river had been modified and expanded into a long, narrow reservoir. The narrowest section was just over three meters wide, and it was here that Xiaqing had built a stone bridge, one meter above the water’s surface.

Crossing the river during the Harmful Rain was extremely dangerous. The stone bridge had to be elevated a fair distance above the water so Xiaqing could have the advantage if aquatic creatures leaped out to attack.

After more than four hours of rain, the river had risen slightly, but the water level was still eighty centimeters below the surface of the stone bridge. It was crossable.

The ever-cautious Xiaqing picked up a fist-sized rock and threw it to the opposite bank. Only after confirming that no aquatic creatures leaped up to attack did she lead the Sheep Leader onto the stone bridge.

But just as the human and sheep reached the middle of the bridge, two red shadows suddenly shot out from the water, lunging for the Sheep Leader!

But no matter how fast the aquatic creatures attacked, they couldn’t escape the notice of Xiaqing, a human with Level 9 Visual Evolution. "Leader, run for it!"

As she shouted the command, Xiaqing used her umbrella to block the two red shadows.

BANG! BANG! After the attacking aquatic creatures slammed into the umbrella’s iron-plated surface, Xiaqing used her machete to smack them onto the bank. "Leader, time to collect!"

The Sheep Leader charged forward and, with a couple of quick kicks, sent the two creatures that were trying to jump back into the water even farther from the river’s edge. Xiaqing rushed over and, with two more smacks of her machete, flattened the creatures’ heads before quickly bagging and sealing them.

’They’re actually two thirty-centimeter-long fish! Damn, no matter why there are fish this big in the river, I’ve hit the jackpot!’

After stowing the bag of fish in her backpack, Xiaqing gave the Sheep Leader’s spiral horn a firm pat and praised him softly, "Leader, you’re the sheep standing at the apex of the Blue Star Pyramid! The sheep heralding a new era in the history of Evolutionary Sheep! We have fish to eat!"

The Sheep Leader, who did not eat fish, remained expressionless.

The woods were several times more dangerous than usual during the Harmful Rain. Entering the Buffer Forest during a red-level Harmful Rain was tantamount to suicide.

But Xiaqing had long ago cleared all the trees within a twenty-meter radius of her planting zones. So, even though these two zones were on the hillside, they were no longer considered part of the woods, meaning there were few places for dangerous and aggressive Qiang Evolved Animals to hide.

The rain shelter for the planting zone on the High Slope stretched from the Big Chuntun Tree to the Evolved Perilla. It was about five meters wide and one hundred twenty meters long, covering a total of twelve steep, terraced fields. The rain shelter on the lower slope ran from the spring down to the spinach field. It was also about five meters wide, but one hundred thirty meters long, covering thirteen terraced fields on a gentler incline.

To save materials and also to improve the drainage ditches’ capacity, Xiaqing hadn’t built a separate rain shelter for each terraced field. Instead, she had constructed one large shelter for each planting zone, covering all dozen or so terraces from top to bottom.

Because the planting zones weren’t perfectly vertical, the construction required a higher level of quality. Fortunately, Xiaqing was an expert at building rain shelters, so this didn’t pose a problem for her at all.

Looking up from the bottom of the slope, the two rain shelters resembled two long, white worms sprawled across the hillside. An outsider might have found the sight unsettling, but to Xiaqing, it was a view filled with a sense of accomplishment and security.

’These white rain shelters are protecting my vegetables from the Harmful Rain.’

Xiaqing led the Sheep Leader into the rain shelter on the lower slope first, beginning her inspection with the spinach on the bottommost terraced field.

The spinach, chili peppers, green beans, tomatoes, and cucumbers—not a single plant had undergone Qiang Evolution. Xiaqing paid special attention to the eggplants, but she didn’t see the thorny Qiang Evolution that Qi Fu had mentioned.

Continuing upward, she entered the field of one hundred sweet potato vine cuttings. Xiaqing discovered that ten of the vines near the sides of the rain shelter had shot up by more than a meter, sprouting over a dozen new leaves.

’The sweet potato vine cuttings have undergone Qiang Evolution in the red Harmful Rain.’

Xiaqing shoveled out the sweet potato vine and discovered that even though it had only been planted two days ago, the buried section of the vine closer to the outside of the shelter had grown a dense root system more than thirty centimeters long.

’This patch of soil has been dampened by the Harmful Rain from outside the shelter. My terraced drainage ditches aren’t good enough; they need to be improved.’

After removing the sweet potato vine that had undergone Qiang Evolution, Xiaqing continued upward. Passing two grapevines and the spring, she led the Sheep Leader out of the first vegetable rain shelter, crossed an isolation strip, and ducked into the second one.

Upon entering the second rain shelter, the Sheep Leader refused to move. The Evolved Perilla was also enclosed within the High Slope’s vegetable shelter, and the Sheep Leader wanted to eat it.