Chapter 253: A Day’s Work in Territory Three

After applying the fertilizer, the field needed a thorough watering. Boss Sheep used the sheep-powered waterwheel to draw water for the farmland while Xia Qing and Boss Sheep carried buckets up to irrigate the terraced plot.

With the water pedal-bike all set up, Hu Zifeng’s Squad hadn’t even shown up yet, but Boss Sheep couldn’t wait and started pedaling right away.

Since fertilizer hadn’t been spread yet, Xia Qing hadn’t opened the irrigation channels. So, all the water Boss Sheep worked hard to pump just flowed right back from the channel into the reservoir. Even doing pointless work, Boss Sheep had a blast, squinting happily as he played.

Xia Qing gave his head a gentle rub, then quickly went to spread fertilizer in the Yellowlight Mung Bean Field. After the third Xiang Rain, there were a lot fewer seedlings in the field, so fertilizing was done in no time.

But that kind of speed was the last thing any real farmer would want.

Once the waterway to the Yellowlight Mung Bean Field was open, Xia Qing let Boss Sheep’s hard-earned water flow through. She casually handed him a chunk of compressed rations and praised him with a soft smile, “Good job, Boss. You’re the best. Without you working that waterwheel, our crops would’ve dried up by now.”

Getting food and a compliment made Boss Sheep brim with confidence. He pedaled so hard his hooves nearly sparked. The Sick Wolf sat by the waterwheel, quietly watching Boss Sheep, as if seriously trying to learn from him.

When Guan Tong, Da Jiang, and Xiao Jiang arrived and saw all this, they didn’t even know what to say.

The Sick Wolf noticed strangers, stood up, spun around, and flashed them the same fierce look as the Wolf with the Broken Leg.

It was the first time Xia Qing ever saw such raw wildness in Number Two the wolfdog.

Xia Qing waved to Guan Tong and the others, then spoke softly to Number Two, “I’m about to leave the territory for a bit. Guan Tong and the others are here to help keep watch. We’ve got meat at home, so we need a strong wolf on guard before I can head out with peace of mind. Come on, Number Two, let’s go home. Boss Sheep needs to pump water, and you need to guard the house.”

The Sick Wolf calmed down and followed her back. Xia Qing had arranged her two helpers in the territory perfectly.

After its last bout of diarrhea, the Sick Wolf was clearly doing better—eating more, walking faster. Maybe that’s why it finally dared to bare its teeth at these ‘intruders’ in Territory Three.

Xia Qing grinned, “Number Two, were you here last year when we fought the Fengyun Unit? What kind of ability did you evolve?”

Of course, the Sick Wolf couldn’t answer directly. It just meandered home at its own pace.

Back at the tidied-up sheep shed, the Wolf with the Spinal Injury was fussing with the ointment patch stuck to its back.

It seemed way more bothered by the missing patch of fur than Xia Qing would’ve thought. She offered some comfort in a gentle voice, “Don’t lick it, Broken-Back. As soon as that ointment does its job and the wound’s healed, your fur will grow back. By winter, you’ll be looking sharp, even Your Majesty will have to admit it.”

The Wolf with the Spinal Injury stopped licking and gazed calmly at Xia Qing.

Xia Qing grinned, “I’m heading into the Evolver Forest to dig up a seedling. Broken-Back and Number Two, guard the house. If it’s not you, Boss Sheep, or me, nobody’s allowed in, got it?”

With everything sorted, Xia Qing grabbed her tools and returned to the farmland. She used some fresh greenhouse veggies to recruit Guan Tong and the others, putting them in charge of fertilizing, weeding, and watching the water.

Turns out, not just the animals—everyone in the territory had been neatly organized by Xia Qing.

Traveling light and with a practiced pace, Xia Qing reached the chestnut grove in no time and sprayed it with bug repellent.

When the evolved hornets saw her again, their buzzing grew louder. Still, no high-level evolved hornets dared lead an attack.

That was because all the dumb high-level hornets had been wiped out, and the smart ones knew better than to mess with humans.

Instead of digging for seedlings right away, Xia Qing first checked the air quality in the chestnut grove. She found the amount of Xiang element in the air matched everywhere else.

That meant there wasn’t any Yi Stone underground here; so her first theory about the chestnut grove was out.

Next, she tested the creek flowing through the area, the grass under the chestnut trees, and nearby plants. They didn’t show signs of contamination-free spring water leaking out or attracting low-Xiang element life. That ruled out her second guess too.

But Xia Qing had expected this. Yang Jin and his crew had roamed these hills for days—he would’ve absolutely found a source of clean water if there was one.

If it’s not the Yi Stone, and not a pure spring, then what made the Xiang element so low in these chestnut trees?

Xia Qing’s head throbbed from all the hornet noise so she stopped trying to puzzle it out. Grabbing her long-handled shears, she circled four Greenlight chestnut trees in search of any spiky burrs she might have missed yesterday.

After half an hour, Xia Qing snipped over twenty spiky chestnut burrs from the four Greenlight trees. The sense of accomplishment was real. If only she weren’t surrounded by thousands of buzzing hornets, she would’ve found the hunt for chestnut burrs among the leaves to be genuinely fun—like searching for treasure.

There were definitely some missed burrs on the Yellowlight chestnut trees, but Xia Qing had no plans to keep hunting today. Instead, she started checking the saplings in the grove.

In total, there were twenty-three chestnut trees over a year old, plus eight saplings that had just broken ground this year.

Big or small, Xia Qing inspected all eight saplings. To her surprise, not all of them were Greenlight or Yellowlight—three were actually Redlight saplings.

A closer look at those Redlight saplings made it clear why this grove was full of edible chestnut trees.

The Redlight saplings hadn’t evolved sticky leaves, so their foliage had all been chewed up by bugs. The trees could never grow big. Only the Greenlight and Yellowlight trees, which had evolved sticky leaves, could thrive here and form a symbiotic relationship with the evolved hornets.

Once she figured this out, even trees full of insect bites seemed adorable to Xia Qing.

This type of chestnut tree is worth spreading! The chestnuts in the storage room would fetch an even better price.

Very carefully, Xia Qing dug up the strongest Greenlight sapling. She wrapped grass rope around the root ball to keep it together, then put it in her basket and started heading back.

As soon as she left the grove, she spotted the Evolved Squirrel crouched on a pine branch, rubbing its little paws and waving its bushy tail as it stared at her. Its eyes were practically dripping with longing.

Xia Qing couldn’t bring herself to give up the Greenlight chestnuts, so she used the shears to snip a burr off a Yellowlight chestnut tree instead. She split it open, placed two Yellowlight chestnuts at the base of the pine, and said, “These are yours. Any missed burrs up there are yours too. Thank you.”

After leaving the chestnuts, Xia Qing hurried up the hillside. Once the swarm of hornets retreated, she finally let out a sigh of relief—her head felt like it might explode from all that buzzing.

Retracing her path for less than ten minutes, Xia Qing glimpsed the Evolved Squirrel on a red-leafed tree not far ahead. Its fur matched the leaves perfectly. The little creature squatted on a branch, rubbing its paws and wagging its big tail, gazing at Xia Qing with pleading eyes.

Already? Did it deliver both chestnuts to its nest that fast?

She had to give it credit.

Since the squirrel was just too adorable, Xia Qing fished two more Yellowlight chestnuts from her pocket and set them on the ground. “It’s not easy picking these, you know—my head’s still buzzing and my clothes are filthy. These are the last two.”

Once Xia Qing walked away, the Evolved Squirrel snatched up the chestnuts and disappeared in a flash of red.