When it came to fighting, the evolved sheep certainly wasn't as smart as Xia Qing, but its stamina and strength were unmatched.
When the evolved sheep got up and charged for the thirty-fifth time, Xia Qing, his arms aching, climbed onto a large rock and surrendered, "You're tough, you're the boss. Let's stop fighting, I have important business to attend to."
The evolved sheep stopped, looked up at Xia Qing for a moment, then collapsed to the ground with a thud, panting heavily.
It was tired too. Xia Qing slumped onto the rock and smiled.
After recovering, Xia Qing jumped off the rock, took out his water bottle, took a few sips, and asked the evolved sheep still lying beside it, "Boss sheep, want some water?"
The evolved sheep—now it should be called Boss sheep—still squinted at Xia Qing, arrogant and haughty despite being a sheep.
Xia Qing didn't bother arguing with it, poured the water into its bowl, and took two steps back.
The eldest sheep got up, drank half a bowl of water, then turned to look at the trampled toon tree branches, its eyes filled with hostility.
Is it… hungry?
Xia Qing put on her protective mask. "You rest first, I'll get some more toon sprouts."
Xia Qing grabbed her machete and basket and hadn't walked far when she heard a noise behind her. Turning around, she saw the eldest sheep chasing after her. "You're coming too?"
"Baa."
Considering its bleating sounded like a normal sheep, Xia Qing agreed, pulling out a collar. "Sure, want to wear this?"
Seeing the eldest sheep start pawing again, Xia Qing tactfully put the collar away. "If you don't want to wear it, then don't. Don't blame me if Captain Tan and his men catch you and eat you."
After the fight, Xia Qing felt a strange sense of camaraderie with the eldest sheep, and the eldest sheep's anger and wariness towards Xia Qing seemed to have lessened. A person and a sheep, one after the other, traversed the buffer zone and isolation area, entering the Evolution Forest.
Once inside, Xia Qing slowed down, and the alpha sheep overtook her.
Seeing its familiarity with the path, Xia Qing simply followed behind. Soon, the alpha sheep indeed led her onto a beast trail.
Xia Qing laughed, "Judging from the width of this trail and the hoofprints, did you make them? How did you avoid attacks from poisonous snakes and insects?"
The alpha sheep, of course, didn't answer. After walking a while, it stopped to eat a large, eerily purple-leaved grass.
This thing isn't poisonous?
Xia Qing plucked a leaf, squeezed out the purplish-red juice, and tested it with a high-tech testing device. Surprisingly, it showed that it was a safe food, only one-thousandth inferior in quality to toon sprouts.
If the alpha sheep hadn't been eating it, Xia Qing would never have tested this seemingly abnormal-looking grass.
Now, she had another vegetable to eat. Thank you, alpha sheep! The eldest sheep grazed, and Xia Qing cut grass. When the eldest stopped eating, the two companions climbed the hillside together. The eldest sheep looked up at the toon tree and stopped moving.
"Okay, I'll go pick some. You wait here."
Yesterday, Xia Qing had already picked all the buds within reach of the tree; today she had other plans.
Xia Qing cut a bamboo pole over four meters long, cleaned it, tied her gleaming sickle from her basket to the bamboo pole, and used the sickle to peel down the toon buds.
"Baa."
Seeing the clusters of toon buds falling, the eldest sheep bleated happily and bent down to eat.
Xia Qing peeled down all the toon buds she could reach, feeding the eldest sheep and still having a large bag full.
Xia Qing didn't want to run into the soldiers clearing the forest here. "Eldest sheep, shall we go back?"
The eldest sheep, lying on the ground, didn't move, showing no intention of leaving.
Xia Qing acted decisively, waving a bunch of toon sprouts in front of the sheep's nose before hoisting her day's harvest and heading down the mountain.
Soon, she heard heavy footsteps behind her. Xia Qing smiled silently.
On her way back, Xia Qing followed the sheep's trail, encountering no dangerous creatures, and quickly crossed the barrier back to her territory.
The sheep went to drink from the spring, and Xia Qing gave it some toon sprouts and half a basket of purple leaves, then began gathering the trees broken in their fight.
Although the large forest was destroyed, it would surely be lush and green again after three days of rain.
Xia Qing tied the cut tree trunks together with rope and carried them home, storing them in the storeroom of the east courtyard's shed. Then she began collecting dry wood from the village.
It was going to rain soon, so she needed to gather more firewood.
Cooking with firewood was never as convenient as using electricity or gas. Solar panels were not sold to individuals within the safe zone. Xia Qing pondered what resources she could use as leverage to exchange for two solar panels from Tan Junjie. It wasn't just for cooking; her phone couldn't always rely on the power bank she got from trading resources—it wasn't cost-effective.
It was going to rain the day after tomorrow, and Xia Qing had been incredibly busy these past two days. She needed to collect and properly store everything usable from the three abandoned villages to prevent damage from the evolved creatures that would swarm after the rain.
Collecting resources, of course, was dangerous.
When Zhong Tao came to deliver the land use certificate, he was startled by her appearance. "Girl, what happened to you?"
With her protective mask torn, half her face swollen, and covered in mud, Xia Qing briefly explained, "I encountered a nest of evolved venomous scorpions."
Evolved venomous scorpions were not easy to deal with; it could easily be fatal. Zhong Tao felt a chill run down his spine looking at Xia Qing's condition. This territory wasn't for just anyone to cultivate. "There's an antidote in the car, can I get you some? The forecast says it'll rain starting tomorrow, and we came out before the rain stopped, but we can't walk much anyway."
Xia Qing, who had already taken the antidote, handed over the leather bag. "Brother Tao, calculate how many points these scorpions are worth."
Looking at the wriggling, tightly closed canvas bag, Zhong Tao's scalp tingled. "Are they all alive?"
"Alive. Seventeen over ten centimeters, thirty-six between five and ten centimeters, and I didn't count the ones under five centimeters carefully, but there are definitely no fewer than a hundred."
Holy crap!
Zhong Tao swallowed hard. No wonder Xia Qing was bitten so badly after catching so many live scorpions. "According to the publicly listed exchange price for scorpions at our base, it's 820 points in total."
Scorpions can be used to make antidotes, so they're more expensive than other common poisonous insects. Xia Qing knew Zhong Tao hadn't skimped on the price. "I'll exchange them for a bottle of antidote, a bottle of insect repellent pills, a protective mask, and use the rest of the points to buy a rainproof tarpaulin for the roof."
Zhong Tao laughed. "Exchange so much? No wonder you can't save up points."
She had no family to take care of, so what was the point of saving points? Xia Qing smiled but didn't say anything.
Zhong Tao had also thought of this, scratched his head, and turned to get the supplies.
After seeing Zhong Tao off, Xia Qing went home, took a shower, and then stood in front of the half-finished mirror in the bathroom, applying ointment to the wounds on her face.
After washing away the dark red paint, the red and swollen scratches on her fair skin were particularly noticeable.
Her face wasn't stung by a scorpion; it was cut by steel bars from a floor slab that suddenly fell on her while she was catching a scorpion. Luckily, she was strong and dodged quickly, otherwise she would still be trapped under the slab.
Besides her face, Xia Qing had several other injuries, but none were broken, and thanks to her protective suit, none were broken skin, so no treatment was needed.
Bleeding, scarring, and disfigurement were minor issues; the important thing was that the wounds didn't get infected. With the evolution of bacteria and viruses, even a small wound could be fatal.