Chapter 30: Sunlight, Seeds, and Secrets in the Territory

After a full patrol, Tan Junjie told his team to head back to camp while he carried a basket of vegetables into Plot One. A member of Azure Dragon Unit jumped down from a tree and saluted. “Instructor Tan.”

The Azure Dragon Unit was formed by students from Military Academy A. Before the disaster, Tan Junjie had been an instructor there. Every core member of the squad had once trained under him.

“Just some vegetables.” Tan Junjie followed Azure Dragon Unit’s procedure, handing over the basket for inspection before heading off to find his old comrade, Luo Pei.

Luo Pei and his team had only arrived at Plot One two days ago, but the courtyard already looked nothing like when the previous lord was around. Every scrap of junk had been cleared out, not even a stray weed on the ground. The place looked bright and open.

Luo Pei was lounging in the sun on a chair, his eyes bandaged. When he heard footsteps, he slowly sat up. “Already finished your round?”

“There are only ten plots.” Tan Junjie set the basket down beside Luo Pei, then sat in a chair one of the team members had brought over.

Tan Junjie and Luo Pei had been classmates and comrades. After the great evolution of Blue Star’s wildlife, Tan Junjie gained a Level 4 speed ability, while Luo Pei developed a Level 10 visual ability. Their destinies had split as their strengths diverged, but the bond they forged in battle hadn’t changed in a decade.

Even as Luo Pei forced himself to stay strong through his injuries, Tan Junjie didn’t let on how much it bothered him. “I brought you some Evolved Perilla and Chinese Toon Shoots from Xia Qing in Plot Three. The perilla has a Xiang element content of about 1.3, though the toon shoots are even lower.”

Carefully, Luo Pei lifted the basket lid and inhaled the scent of Chinese toon. He sighed. “When we cleared out that Evolver Forest, there was no way any edible plant with such low element content was left behind. Are these from this year’s new growth?”

Tan Junjie explained, “Not from your cleared zone. These grew up the hillside, even further north of Territory Three. I traded a Green Light wild piglet to Xia Qing for them. Didn’t Yang Jin mention it to you?”

Luo Pei lay back again. “Yang Jin? He’s a workaholic and a vault. You’ll never get small talk out of him.”

Clearly, Yang Jin hadn’t filled Luo Pei in about Xia Qing. Tan Junjie didn’t press further and instead pulled out the Advanced Portable Tester to scan the toon shoots, eyes lighting up in surprise. “The Chinese Toon Shoots are only 0.25 per mille in Xiang element! You should eat more, it’s great for recovery.”

Luo Pei just smiled. “Give them to Qiqi when you go back. I’ll trade with Xia Qing for more next time. That girl’s worth getting along with.”

Tan Junjie’s daughter, Tan Qi, currently had only triple speed evolution on record. She was still young, with a lot of potential ahead. Safe foods would help her growth.

Tan Junjie packed up the tester. “I’ll use supplies to trade with Xia Qing for Qiqi’s share. Since she didn’t offer the Chinese Toon Shoots to any other lord, don’t mention a word about it in the private lord channel.”

Luo Pei snorted. “You think I’m as loose-lipped as you? Listen, if she asks for something you don’t have, just let me know.”

Since he was trading for his daughter, Tan Junjie had to use personal supplies rather than military resources. Luo Pei, even out of the Safe Zone, was still a core Azure Dragon Unit member and had far easier access to supplies.

Tan Junjie didn’t stand on ceremony. “If I can’t ask you, who can I ask? By the way, any news from the Tang family in Plot Two these last couple of days?”

“None, and they wouldn’t dare. Even if I’m going blind, it’s still easy for me to deal with a few ants.”

His old friend’s voice sounded calm but Tan Junjie picked up on the suppressed anger. “Yang Jin and Xie Yu are definitely searching everywhere for solutions. There’s no way you’ll stay blind. Study the Territory Law when you have time. Those seven folks registered for Plot Two are listed as ordinary people, but I’d bet good money there’s a bugging expert hiding among them. Be careful, don’t play into their trap.”

Luo Pei nodded. “No need for you to worry about me.”

Wanting to lighten the mood, Tan Junjie chuckled. “You ought to spend more time with Xia Qing. She’s got a strength-evolved sheep named Boss Sheep. That temper’s something else but he’s got a real personality, you’d get a kick out of it.”

When Tan Junjie was with his old teammates, he was every bit as talkative as Su Ming.

Luo Pei burst out laughing. “Boss Sheep—now that’s a name!”

But Luo Pei didn’t bother Xia Qing. He quietly stayed in his territory to heal up, while Xia Qing kept busy in hers.

Five days later, the temperature climbed again, and the eyes on Xia Qing’s potato sprouts finally started to show. She cut the potatoes along the eyes, rolled the new pieces in ashy gray soil, let the cut edges dry for half a day, and then planted them in the dirt.

Potatoes need the same kind of soil as sweet potatoes, so Xia Qing put them right next to each other.

After planting the potatoes, the elm seeds from Plot Six were finally ready to eat. Xia Qing had traded a pound of Evolved Perilla for three pounds of elm coin. Testing proved it was indeed a Yellow Light food. She mixed elm coin with cornmeal and white flour to cook a pot of lumpy elm dumplings. They tasted so good she nearly swallowed her tongue, and then had to fend off Boss Sheep to keep the dumplings safe, which ended up smashing her newly built courtyard wall.

The dumplings were just too delicious. Instead of weeding, Xia Qing started tidying up her yard, trying to coax a still-grunting Boss Sheep to go look for some elm trees.

There were still a few elm trees left in her territory.

First, she checked the western hill. Xia Qing snapped off a branch thick with elm coin and held it out to Boss Sheep. “Try this, Boss?”

Boss Sheep turned up his nose, head turned away. Xia Qing didn’t even need to test it; she knew the elm coin from this tree was inedible.

She tossed it out and moved on to the next one.

After more than an hour, Xia Qing wandered from the western slope to the northern hill, and finally up to the highland of the new territory, breaking off more than a dozen branches along the way.

But every elm tree in her territory was inedible. Boss Sheep’s beady eyes kept narrowing.

Still, Xia Qing wasn’t disappointed. This was exactly how things should be. If edible plants were easy to find, not so many people would die from hunger.

She picked some Chinese toon shoots for Boss Sheep so he could snack under the tree, then went back to her vegetable patch in the deserted garden on the hill to check on her chive sprouts.

Now that the land was hers, Xia Qing didn’t risk transplanting the tender shoots. Instead, she cleared out the vegetable patch and fenced it in, letting the sprouts keep growing in place.

Sure enough, her two yellow-light plots of onion sprouts sprouted a good number of new shoots, thin as needles. Grinning, Xia Qing crouched in the vegetable patch, weeding and counting seedlings.

But as she counted, something started to feel off.

Why did these green onion shoots look exactly like the chive sprouts she got from Qi Fu?

Thanks to her exceptional evolved eyesight, Xia Qing carefully inspected both vegetable patches. After tasting a few, she finally figured it out—the hilltop beds didn’t contain just green onions, but both green onions and chives.

A lucky surprise, and a welcome one. With a green onion leaf in her mouth, Xia Qing happily watered the seedlings and hummed a little tune.

Partway through her humming, Xia Qing heard footsteps coming from the direction of the wild boar Breeding Center.