Chapter 162: Clean Ups and Complications

Xia Qing had killed two Evolved Birds herself—one crashed through the compost shed, the other splattered blood all over her attic and roof. Over twenty roof tiles were shattered, and two panes of her attic window were smashed.

The losses weren’t major but cleaning up this mess was a real headache.

First, Xia Qing shoveled up the soil stained with bird’s blood into a pile, threw in some branches, and set it alight to disinfect it. After that she got to work repairing the busted greenhouse supports and mending the insect net, then sprayed fungicide, pesticide, and deodorizer.

Three seedling patches in the fields had been flattened by falling Evolved Bird corpses, but Xia Qing couldn’t worry about those yet. Getting the house repaired and properly cleaned up came first.

Back home, she found Boss Sheep lying on its favorite spot, looking listless. The two wolves were still sprawled motionless on the floor. All three Evolved Animals stared at her as she came in, their gazes trailing after her like she was their only lifeline. Even the Wolf with the Broken Leg looked pathetic.

“I’m back. Let’s put the chickens and goslings in their pen first, then I’ll clean the attic,” Xia Qing called out, fighting off the headache and tightness in her chest, before hauling the chicken cage, goose cage, and basket outside.

Four hens and two roosters from the Greenlight Chickens were dead. Among the goslings, one Greenlight and one Yellowlight were gone too. The ones that survived looked limp and spiritless.

Ultrasonic attacks hit poultry hard, especially the chicks. Xia Qing figured things wouldn’t look much better for Zhao Ze and Qi Fu’s chicks either, but her own head was pounding too much to bother checking the walkie-talkie for updates from the other territories.

She put the survivors in the pen, topped up their water, scattered wheat bran and grass, then started boiling water to pluck the chicks and goslings. Food you can eat should never go to waste.

Right now though, Xia Qing really missed that fur-plucking Yellow Weasel. She wondered where the wolf pack and Yellow Weasel had gone during the battle between humans and the bird flock, or how the little Evolved Squirrel hiding in the tree hole was faring.

She hoped all of them had managed to survive the ultrasonic attack.

Once the chicks and goslings were cleaned, Xia Qing threw them straight into the big pot with mountain spring water and some spices to stew. Except for one Yellowlight gosling, the rest were Greenlight grade birds, but there was no time or energy for fancy cooking—and she definitely couldn’t trade them for anything now.

Why not trade? Because she’d gotten her Greenlight Chickens from a swap with Zhang San. Now that she’d let the chickens die, Xia Qing was too embarrassed to ask Territory Seven if they wanted the meat.

If not Territory Seven, then only the Tang family duo and Plot One had the cash for Greenlight Chickens, maybe even Plot Eight with their gold watch could afford it.

But the Inspection Team was too busy clearing bird carcasses from their jurisdiction to relay messages or help with supply runs. The Lord of Plot Eight would be tied up tending the wounded Evolved Sea Eagle in her own territory, not in the mood for trades.

And Plot One’s people had just finished guarding her territory—some even got hurt—so it really wasn’t fair to ask for more. As for the Tang family, Xia Qing really didn’t want to trade with them either. In the end, she just tossed everything into one big stew.

Once the meat was simmering, she split the organs of the birds and goslings into three portions—one for the edible snakes in their box, one tossed into the Fish Pond for the fish, and one saved for the two injured wolves.

When Xia Qing went to feed the snakes, she noticed they seemed lively enough—didn’t look like the ultrasonic attack bothered them at all. Apparently, snake hearing didn’t pick up on whatever frequency the attack used.

Snakes weren’t bothered. Fish were.

In the Fish Pond, she counted three belly-up Yellowlight fish, two Greenlight fish, plus a number of smaller ones. Lucky for them, the ultrasonic blast had scared off all the birds in the area—otherwise, these dead fish would’ve become free dinner for scavenging waterfowl.

The little fish were dead as a doornail but the bigger ones still had a faint heartbeat, probably knocked out cold by the ultrasound. Maybe they’d come around. Xia Qing scooped up the big fish, soaked them in a bucket of spring water, and brought them home.

If the fish made it, they’d live on. If not, they’d be dinner too.

Back inside, she greeted the pitiful pair of wolves and the sheep and wasted no time gathering her tools to tackle the attic cleanup.

Her building had a sharply pointed roof, with a narrow attic on the second floor mostly used for storage. But since there were plenty of rooms and not much in the way of supplies, the only thing she kept up there was a solar battery.

Good thing she hadn’t used the attic for storage—or else the losses would’ve been much worse this time.

The resin roof tiles had been ripped off in a massive chunk by the Evolved Bird, the attic window shattered and even the window frame twisted out of shape. Boss Sheep had rammed the floor so hard with its head that there were five or six cracks, but the boards were thick enough to keep the blood from leaking to the floor below.

Even with her protective mask on, Xia Qing could tell the attic stank to high heaven. During the ultrasonic attack, all three Evolved Animals had thrown up in there. She strongly suspected whatever produced that ultrasonic wave was set up right near her territory. Otherwise, what could’ve packed such a punch against three evolved animals all wearing protective masks?

Pushing herself to keep going, she tackled the outside repairs first. She washed away bird’s blood from the rooftop and outer walls, then swapped out broken resin tiles, installed a new window frame and glass pulled from storage.

With the outside sorted, she moved inside: scraped the blood-soaked plaster off the walls, swept up the grime, mopped the floor as clean as she could, then sprayed everything down with bug repellent and deodorizer.

As for the cracked floorboards and scraped walls, those would have to wait until she had more time.

Xia Qing had worked construction for years—patching up houses after battles was her specialty. Still, by the time she finished, she was so exhausted that she didn’t want to move another inch.

After a good soak in the shower downstairs and a change of clothes, Xia Qing slumped into a chair, took a deep breath, then carefully peeled off her right glove. When she’d wrestled with the descending Evolved Bird, her right palm had split open—removing the glove revealed her entire hand bloody, the gash deep enough that she could see the soft tissue nearly to the bone.

Good thing her gloves were top quality—otherwise, that wound would’ve been exposed to bird’s blood and she’d be laid out just like Qi Fu right now.

She’d had injuries like this before and knew what to do: wash and disinfect it, apply some hemostatic medicine, bind it up with bandages, mission accomplished.

While Xia Qing tended her wound, the two wolves and Boss Sheep watched her closely. Boss Sheep even managed to drag itself over, looking uncomfortable but determined.

“It’s nothing, just a scratch,” she said—not just to comfort Boss Sheep but herself too. As a senior Evolver, her body was tough. As long as the injury didn’t pick up any Evolving Bacteria, she’d heal within a week. That’s why she hadn’t bandaged it right away—it was pointless to waste medicine if she’d just have to get dirty again before long.

Once she finished, Xia Qing noticed the two wolves could already move their front legs and heads—the anesthetic was wearing off.

These two were both wild wolves raised in the Evolver Forest. Even though they were wounded, having wild wolves inside the house still made Xia Qing uneasy.

So she turned to Boss Sheep and said, “Boss, can you help your pals get out to the courtyard? I’m beat. I can’t move anymore.”