Chapter 259: Into the Evolved Forest: Pine Cones and Peril

These Scourge Grasses may be rooted on Hill Fifty, but their seeds often get swept up by strong winds and carried into human territory—areas that were painstakingly cleared. Once the next Scourge Rain falls, those seeds sprout and take root, growing fast and seizing any space they can.

After the Great Evolution on Blue Star, Scourge Grass became Xia Qing’s most despised evolved plant.

When the Scourge Rain ends and the amount of Scourge Elements in the air drops, the Scourge Grass slows down. Normal plants, if they haven’t lost their space to Scourge Grass, resume growing. But any plant overtaken by that weed gets suffocated—no sunlight, no nutrients, left to slowly wither away.

Herbivores that survived the biological evolution couldn’t develop iron stomachs and refused to eat Scourge Grass with its dangerously high Scourge Element content. If left unchecked, Scourge Grass would wipe out almost all other plant life on Blue Star, shattering the entire ecosystem.

Once the dangers of Scourge Grass became clear, Huaguo brought together the nation’s brightest research teams. After three years, they managed to create a relatively safe Scourge Grass Inhibitor and named it Scourgebane.

After Scourge Grass absorbs Scourgebane, its seed-head yield drops to less than ten percent of what it was, slowing its rampant expansion.

It’s only ‘relatively safe’ because spraying Scourgebane on crops increases the chance those crops undergo Scourge Evolution themselves.

Even in the Evolution Forest, you have to monitor how much Scourgebane you use—a little does nothing, too much and you risk harming every other plant around.

To make matters worse, Scourge Grass keeps evolving, forcing the scientists to work around the clock, always racing to improve Scourgebane. Xia Qing, with little access to news, had no idea which side was winning.

Because Hill Fifty and Hill Forty-Nine border cropland, planes and drones aren’t allowed to spray Scourgebane. So ever since Xia Qing moved here half a year ago, every Scourge Rain has meant combatting Scourge Grass by hand.

Aside from Scourgebane to slow the weed, the base issued a long-term mission: collect Scourge Grass seed-heads. Bring them to the Administration Hall, and you could swap them for points by the kilogram—a lifeline for ordinary folks at the bottom just trying to put food on the table.

Now Xia Qing’s team isn’t out here for points, just making the rounds and getting rid of threats along the way.

They pushed through the outer edges of the Evolution Forest and hit denser woods where the Scourge Grass thinned out. Xia Qing’s team stopped gathering seed-heads and picked up the pace.

Deeper in the forest, it felt like a world apart.

In the shadowy corners untouched by sunlight, colorful fungi and mosses thrived. Don’t let their small size fool you—they were deadly.

Back before protective suits were common, spores from fungi or moss killed over a hundred million in Huaguo alone.

When someone was taken over by moss or fungus infestations, their body wasted away to skin and bone. Their skin turned unnatural shades, hauntingly similar to the zombies you’d see in end-of-the-world movies.

That’s why many people started calling these disasters ‘the apocalypse’—humanity’s own doomsday. Those horrifying scenes became the nightmares that survivors relived at midnight. In the early years, Xia Qing woke up countless times after dreaming her own body was smothered in moss.

Walking in this kind of dense forest, even inside a level-three protective suit, sandwiched between Jing Kuan and Hu Zifeng, Xia Qing still slowed her breath and kept her guard up.

An hour later, Xia Qing suggested switching spots. “Captain Hu, let me take point.”

Today she wasn’t here as just some protected support staff. She was a core member, so she couldn’t stay sheltered in the middle. Swapping positions with her teammates, she stepped up to lead.

Once Xia Qing took the lead, she gripped a long blade in each hand—cutting through whatever blocked the way. If something proved too tough, she just found another path.

“Twenty meters straight ahead, there’s a patch of glowing purple moss. Let’s circle left.”

“Copy that,” Hu Zifeng and Jing Kuan replied in unison, following Xia Qing as she led the detour.

They cautiously sidestepped the glowing moss and pressed on for another thirty minutes. Xia Qing came to a sudden stop. “Three meters ahead, something big’s been through. Judging by the tracks, it was a bear.”

“Let me see.” Hu Zifeng moved up to inspect the deep, broad paw prints in the soft mud. “Yep, a bear. If I go by the size, depth, and stride, I’d say at least three and a half meters tall and over a ton in weight.”

Jing Kuan tightened his grip on his gun. “An evolved bear.”

“Exactly,” Hu Zifeng drew a long breath. “Heading a different way, though, so we shouldn’t run into it. Do we keep going?”

“Yeah, keep moving.” Xia Qing’s twin blades flashed as she cleared the way forward.

By 9:30 that morning, the team reached the mid-slope of the second highest peak on Hill Fifty. Using Tiger’s description, they found two Evolutionary Green Lantern Pines towering over forty meters each.

Staring up at the trees, all Xia Qing could think was, wow—these are something else.

Qi Fu had said this year was a bad one for pine cones, and that Hill Forty-Nine Section Three barely had any. Xia Qing trusted Qi Fu’s word.

But after seeing these two giants loaded with pine cones, she couldn’t help questioning that. If these were a bad year, what did a good year look like?

They’d underestimated these pines; with so few people, there was no way they could haul all the cones out today. Xia Qing asked her teammates, “How about we just pick the left one for now?”

Hu Zifeng and Jing Kuan both agreed, sharing in the excitement.

Hu Zifeng checked with Xia Qing, “Tiger said the pine nuts on these trees have about three parts per thousand Scourge Elements, and they taste great?”

“Yeah, he said they’re even better than the ones on Hill Forty-Nine.” Xia Qing replied.

Tiger’s unit used to be stationed in a mountain hollow west of Hill Forty-Nine, where the pine trees heavy with cones stood out. Before the land got claimed, they’d already harvested all the edible pine nuts from the hills nearby.

“If we bring back enough, we can trade pine nuts with Zhang San for top-grade medicine,” Jing Kuan grinned, “and have Er Yong make us pine nut corn.”

“Count me in for the pine nut corn. I’m stocked up on medicine, you two trade with Brother San—I’ll sit that out.” As Xia Qing spoke, she studied the evolution-crossbilled magpies nesting on the big pines.

These birds had beaks that crossed at the tips—guess that’s where the name comes from. She wondered if that trait came from evolution or if they were always like this.

After watching for a moment, Xia Qing discussed how to harvest the pine cones. “I’m not just worried about their claws—their beaks look fierce too. Captain Hu, should the three of us climb up together?”

Hu Zifeng nodded. “Let’s take a half-hour break, then all go up. Two protect, one knocks down cones.”

After resting and watching the crossbilled magpies for thirty minutes, Xia Qing spoke up again, “Their flight’s not fast. I don’t think they’ll give us too much trouble.”

Jing Kuan thought to himself: if snagging the pine cones here was actually that dangerous, Tiger wouldn’t have invited you to join the team.

The three gathered at the base of the thick trunks, strapped on their climbing spurs, and started up.

With the spur hooks biting into the bark, Xia Qing realized this pine had evolved for hardness. She quickly consulted with her teammates, “This tree’s been through Hardness Evolution. We’ll need the sickle to cut these cones. You two cover me—I’ll snip the cones from bottom to top, and if it gets too high or unstable, we’ll switch to using the slingshot.”