Chapter 256: Green Lantern Pinecones and the Secrets of Mountain Fifty

After sealing the chestnut deal, Xia Qing moved on to her next evolutionary project: harvesting Green Lantern pinecones from Mountain Fifty.

Mountain Fifty sat just east of Mountain Forty-Nine.

In the years after the catastrophe began, frequent tectonic shifts ravaged Blue Star. The mountain ranges north of Huìsan Base rose up and destroyed three nearby cities, leaving behind vast stretches of forest, lakes, and swamps.

As humanity slowly recovered from the disaster, they realized home had changed beyond recognition. Old names for mountains and cities no longer fit, so Huaguo divided its restructured lands into new bases and numbered natural features to match the altered landscape.

This way was not only easier to remember but also a way for people to move on from the past and start anew.

Around Huìsan Base, the Evolution Forest earned its name and numbers based on ridges and lakes. So ‘Mountain Forty-Nine’ wasn’t just a single peak, but a region of three connected summits. Mountain Fifty covered even more ground, with four interconnected peaks of varying heights.

Unlike Mountain Forty-Nine, which the Qinglong Squad had thoroughly cleared, Mountain Fifty remained wild and untouched—a true Evolution Forest.

The two Green Lantern pine trees Huzifeng mentioned grew on the southern slope of Mountain Fifty’s second tallest peak. Surrounded by a pine forest more than two thousand meters above sea level, they stood tall against the wind.

Though these trees hadn’t developed any offensive abilities, danger still lurked above. Hundreds of evolved Crosstalk Magpies lived in their branches, feasting on pine nuts. Their sharp talons and beaks could tear right through an advanced field protection suit—humans’ biggest barrier to the harvest.

Xia Qing arranged a trade with the Qinglong Squad, swapping for a level-three field protection suit and a matching face shield, a deal worth 4,900 points. She didn’t mind staining the suit with bits of chestnut leaves and bug carcasses, but if a Crosstalk Magpie slashed it up or poked holes in it, she’d be absolutely heartbroken.

Traveling from Territory Three to the pine trees would take at least three hours. Tiger had assured her there were no aggressive plants or large beasts along the way, but Xia Qing still couldn’t go alone. She needed teammates—someone fast, with sharp eyesight and a steady aim.

It didn’t take Xia Qing long to pick her harvesting squad: Huzifeng, a level-five visual evolution user; Jing Kuan, a level-five speed evolver; and herself, a level-six in Power Evolution.

Just three members made the cut. Even at their best, those two evolutionary pine trees would only yield five hundred catties of cones, tops. With one Power Evolution user in the party, they’d have no trouble hauling it all out.

Any more people and there wouldn’t be enough nuts to go around.

With Huzifeng on board, Xia Qing quickly finalized their plans. Collection day was set for the day after tomorrow. Before that, she decided to harvest all the edible pinecones she could from the pines of District Three on Mountain Forty-Nine.

District Three of Mountain Forty-Nine sprawled over thirteen thousand mu, packed with more pines than you could count. Testing each one was simply impossible.

So Xia Qing only checked the trees sporting heavy clusters of cones. In the end, she found just four Green Lanterns and eight Yellow Lanterns—a terribly low ratio.

Unlike the Green Lantern plants in her own territory, these twelve pine trees weren’t clustered in neat rows.

After claiming District Three, Xia Qing would check the slope-grown pines whenever she had time, always hoping to find a stretch watered by pure, uncontaminated springs—a hidden evolutionary planting band in this part of the forest.

But after her tests, she found no signs of low-contamination flora clustering anywhere in District Three’s wilds. No planting band existed there.

That actually made sense.

If a big patch of low-contamination plants did exist, her territory’s spring would’ve been discovered by now. There was no way it could stay hidden this long.

Once Xia Qing realized this, she felt even luckier to have the spring emerge on her terraced fields. Since humans have always sought out edible plants in terraced farms, seeing crops growing there didn’t raise any flags or attract special attention.

After a half-hour break for lunch, Xia Qing grabbed her gear and headed toward District Three. To keep Red Squirrel from mooching again, she called for backup. “Hey, Number Two, want to come earn your keep for half a day?”

Sick Wolf pricked its ears at Xia Qing’s call, then stood right up. No diarrhea today—its strength had clearly returned and it could handle a longer walk.

After giving Boss Sheep and Broken-Back Wolf their orders to watch the house, Xia Qing led her wolfdog, Number Two, straight for the marked Green Lantern pine in District Three.

Reaching the tree, Xia Qing looked up at the towering pine—over twenty meters tall and too thick for one person to wrap their arms around. She tightened her grip on her protective gloves and pulled her tree-climbing tool—tree claws—from her pack.

These tree claws were made of iron, five sharp hooks under each sole—three up front, two at the heel, curved like cat claws. That’s why people called them cat-paw shoes. With a pair on, anyone could climb trees in no time.

Until now Xia Qing had survived by relying on her Power Evolution, always a non-combat support on missions, cleaning up after the main team and hauling supplies.

But this time she, Huzifeng and Jing Kuan were front-line squad members which meant even Xia Qing needed to climb. She would have to practice moving fast in the tree claws before the trip.

Once she’d strapped on the tree claws, Xia Qing stuffed a piece of jerky into Sick Wolf’s bag and assigned its role. “Number Two, keep watch down here. I’ll be knocking down pinecones—don’t let squirrels or other critters snatch them.”

Especially that freeloading Red Squirrel.

Sick Wolf wagged its tail. Xia Qing started climbing.

Even though she’d thoroughly tested the Green Lantern and Yellow Lantern pines to confirm none had developed attack mutations, Xia Qing still climbed slowly, taking no chances.

Once she reached fifteen meters and confirmed that neither the branches nor needles would attack—and found herself quickly adapting to the cat-paw shoes—she picked up the pace and swiftly reached the treetop.

The view was breathtaking.

From up here, Xia Qing could see her own territory and those of Zhao Ze and Qi Fu. The open, orderly fields in Territory One. The barren wastes of Territory Two. The uniform greenhouses of Territory Nine, and over in Territory Eight…

Xia Qing blinked, stunned. She actually shut her eyes and opened them again, just to be sure she wasn’t dreaming—right there in Territory Eight sat a gleaming three-story villa.

The place gleamed white, and its windows were even smaller than pre-catastrophe models. You could tell at a glance it was brand new.

It couldn’t be more different from the shipping-container homes in Territories One, Seven, and Nine. Somehow, Xin Yu had built a straight-up mansion inside her own territory!

With the hills and scattered trees all around, Xin Yu wouldn’t even need to leave her plot to gather firewood—she could just live off her own land.

There was no underestimating the lord of Territory Eight.

Shaking her head, Xia Qing refocused on the tree beneath her feet. Most people would freeze on a 20-meter pine swaying in the wind, but Xia Qing had only climbed this high once before—when the Windcloud Squad mission forced her up a tree to escape a wolf pack. She needed to get comfortable with this height, the treetop view, and the rhythm of the swaying branches.

After all, in two days, she’d have to harvest pinecones and fend off evolved Crosstalk Magpies at the same time up here.

Standing firm with her left claw anchored to the trunk, right leg and left arm wrapped securely around a sturdy branch, Xia Qing steadied herself. Only then did she pull out the extendable pole and begin knocking at the pinecones.

Sure enough, it was a Green Lantern pine, but the cones up here were disappointingly sparse. She swung the pole—branches quivered, but not a single cone fell.

Turned out this Green Lantern pine had evolved for extra hardness.