Chapter 322: Cornfield Defenders and the Mystery of the Fungal Corn

Just then, the Evolved Ribbon-Tailed Sea Eagle from Territory Nine took off.

Its massive form soared to three thousand meters while still above Territory Eight before heading off to its first destination—Territory Twelve.

When the Evolved Sea Eagle reached the skies over Territory Twelve, it dropped lower to chase and scatter the flocks of birds drawn there by the corn. Before long, Xia Qing saw a dark cloud of birds fleeing Territory Twelve in all directions. Judging by the sheer number, Territory Twelve’s corn harvest was at least ten times bigger than hers.

The spot where the birds launched from in Territory Twelve was about 1,500 meters from Xia Qing. Throughout the ordeal, the birds circling her own rooftop never took their eyes off the corn sheltered under the dome—none paid attention to the chaos in Territory Twelve. Clearly, this flock didn’t have any Brain Evolution birds; they weren’t organized enough for a coordinated attack.

There wasn’t much point in Xia Qing, a level-nine Vision Evolution sniper, dealing with birds like these herself. That would just be a waste of bullets and steel pellets.

Just as Xia Qing was about to call the Red Squirrel sneaking around nearby over to help, a swallow that had been busy building its nest under her eaves suddenly flew up and attacked the intruding birds swarming her rooftop.

A single swallow might be small and not all that strong, but when it comes to flying skills, they’re top notch. Over twenty swallows attacked a bird only a bit bigger than themselves from all sides—it didn’t stand a chance.

Soon, the birds on the rooftop, the Sheep Shed, and the Chicken House couldn’t hold their ground against the swallows and scattered in a panic. Er Gou and Old Goat seized the chance and leapt up to catch birds.

Old Goat came up empty, but Er Gou snagged two low-flying birds in his jaws and slapped down another with his paw. That finally sent the whole flock into a frenzy; most of them bolted, and the rest couldn’t pose a threat anymore.

Xia Qing took the birds Er Gou brought over and handed him a small chunk of Green Lantern dried meat as a reward. “You’re awesome, Er Gou! Keep at it! I’ll pluck these three birds and stew them up for you.”

Er Gou was much better now. He didn’t have to stick to just Green Lantern or Yellow Lantern meat—he could handle some Red Lantern now and then.

After praising Er Gou, Xia Qing turned to the swallows. “You swallows did great, too. Well done. Need more mud for your nests? Would you like me to get you a few more bundles? Or some dry grass?”

Only today did Xia Qing realize that swallows had a sense of territory too. If only these little guys had arrived a few months earlier, those two annoying egrets wouldn’t have dared leave splatters all over her windows.

After giving the swallows their praise, Xia Qing made sure to cheer up the brooding Old Goat. “Old Goat, I saw you jump up to chase the birds, too—all those birds were scared off by you. For a grass-eating evolved sheep, you’re far ahead of the rest on Blue Star. You’re the pride of the flock, a true trailblazer for evolved sheep history. Watching you work so hard really moves me…”

After she soothed Old Goat’s ruffled feelings, Xia Qing invited him downstairs. “Leave this to Er Gou. There’s something even more important for you to do, so let’s head down, alright?”

Once Old Goat went downstairs, Xia Qing finally let out the breath she’d been holding.

When Old Goat had jumped and butted at the birds earlier, Xia Qing could feel the entire frame of the building shake under his hooves. A few more tries like that and all her hard work fixing up the warehouse would be ruined with cracks. It wasn’t Old Goat’s fault though—she’d underestimated his strength letting him chase birds.

“Er Gou, watch over things here. I’m off to stew your birds, with your favorite cabbage leaves,” she said, handing him another piece of jerky as a treat, then giving a cheerful shout to the chittering swallows before heading down to arrange chores for Old Goat.

She brought him to the corn greenhouse. “Old Goat, we planted this corn together. The kernels will be our winter food, but do you like the leaves on the corn stalks? If you do, just gnaw as many as you want—the more you eat now, the more I’ll save for you and dry out for winter rations.”

Delighted, Old Goat charged into the toppled corn stalks and started ripping off the leaves.

If they were in the Safe Zone, they wouldn’t just use the corn leaves—even the stalks would be washed, crushed, and mixed with a bit of corn and additives to make compressed ration bars.

Corn-flavored ration bars from Territory Two were especially popular at the Base.

But since the Safe Zone paid so little for recycled corn stalks, Xia Qing didn’t plan to sell hers for pennies just to waste even more buying fertilizer. Instead, she figured she’d just turn the stalks into fertilizer herself. After all, the stalks from her own greenhouse were clean, free of pests and disease, and made for worry-free fertilizer.

Before smashing up the stalks, she let Old Goat go wild tearing off corn leaves. That way, he had something to do instead of wrecking the house, and it saved Xia Qing from having to collect grass for him—a win-win.

Back home, Xia Qing tidied up the half-filled sack of corn that hadn’t made it to the rooftop.

This whole bag of corn was from the ungrateful, useless crop. If it wasn’t like Old Goat’s cob—missing grains—then it was half-formed and shriveled up, just begging to get thrown out. And to make things worse, some cobs didn’t even grow kernels at all—just ugly fungal blisters!

In short, none of this corn was worth bringing up to the rooftop. She worried that if she mixed it with the decent corn, it might spoil the good ones.

Most of it was worthless, but the corn with the blisters was strange. She’d never heard about it on the farm broadcasts. Xia Qing decided to see if it was worth anything. “Third Brother, you there?”

Zhang San sounded listless. “Yeah, what is it?”

Xia Qing explained, “I was harvesting my early corn today and found some cobs with a lot of blisters. Is this stuff worth researching?”

Zhang San showed some interest. “Are the blister skins black or grayish white?”

So it might be useful, then? Xia Qing answered, “Some are black, some are grayish white.”

Zhang San replied, “That’s corn smut fungus. I haven’t found any in my territory yet—I’ll have Ji Li come over to collect some.”

“Third Brother, some of the corn in my territory has it too. Do you want those?” Shizhong chimed in, and then Tang Zhengbo said his territory had that corn as well.

Li Si appeared, “Third Brother, corn smut fungus is really valuable to study. Can you save me some, too?”

For once, Zhang San didn’t argue with Li Si. “The stuff from Territory Three and Ten is mine. The smut from Territory Twelve is yours.”

“Thanks, Third Brother,” Li Si replied. With all that corn, Territory Twelve definitely had the largest supply.

Xia Qing hadn’t expected that the blister-covered corn could be traded. She suddenly saw it in a better light than the other rejects. After packing away the rest, she picked up the little sack of fungus corn and headed toward the signpost.

Territory Ten was on the south side of the corridor, and since this exchange was happening on the lord’s channel, Ji Li would be picking up the goods at the signpost.

As she walked, Xia Qing listened to Zhao Ze’s mother chatter, “Those blisters on the corn are called ‘wu mi.’ When they’re young, you can eat them—raw, boiled, or roasted. My mom said that when she was a kid, they’d go into the corn and sorghum fields to pick wu mi as a snack. But these days, nobody dares eat it anymore.”