Chapter 45: Harvest in the Evolver Forest

Because the Inspection Team regularly sprays Repellent along the Barrier, the first fifty meters inside the Evolver Forest are free of dangerous evolved creatures. But once they passed the fifty-meter mark, insect numbers noticeably increased, and the team’s pace slowed.

Even with the well-equipped Hu Zifeng’s Squad, it took them two hours to safely reach their target location—twice as long as it had taken Xia Qing to gather bamboo before the Xiang Rain.

Sure enough, bamboo shoots were poking up all over the bamboo grove floor. Xia Qing’s enthusiasm soared as she waited for Hu Zifeng’s orders.

Hu Zifeng carefully scouted the area before giving instructions. “When digging up shoots, lightly cut the tip first to check for danger. Watch out for evolved Bamboo Cattle or Night Moth larvae jumping out to attack—and keep an eye on the sky for bamboo leaf darts.”

Some dangerous evolved bamboos could launch bamboo leaf darts at anything that got close, turning their victims into living pincushions. Just because Xia Qing hadn’t encountered them on her three previous trips to cut bamboo didn’t mean they weren’t here. She’d always come before the Xiang Rain, during the late winter and early spring, when the Evolver Forest was in its relatively safe ‘dormant phase’. Now, after three days of Xiang Rain had awakened the entire forest, anything could happen.

Once he confirmed Xia Qing and the team were ready, Hu Zifeng led them into the bamboo grove to start searching for edible shoots.

Each time Xia Qing found a bamboo shoot, she would carefully slice off a small piece with her machete to test for threats. Not until she was sure nothing would attack did she squeeze out juice to check for safety. After twelve straight red indicators, she finally saw a yellow light.

She didn’t start digging right away. Instead, Xia Qing listened and observed attentively, making sure nothing dangerous lurked in the ground or nearby. Only then did she use her entrenching tool to quickly shovel away the dirt and jab the bamboo rhizome, checking it wouldn’t fire any leaf darts, before slicing through the base of the shoot and peeling it in a flash, stuffing it into her sack.

After coming all this way, they wanted to haul back as much as they could. Any inedible bits got cut off right away.

Even after peeling, this shoot still weighed six pounds. Xia Qing smiled and kept looking for more.

Hu Zifeng, quietly watching Xia Qing, nodded with approval. No wonder she was a Strength Evolver—this sort of strength and speed made her perfect for digging and hard labor.

After two hours of slow progress, Xia Qing had harvested seven yellow-light shoots, completely filling a sack. Slinging it over her shoulder, she heard a team member whisper excitedly over the walkie-talkie, “Green light!”

Finding one green-light shoot meant there was a good chance of discovering more by following the bamboo rhizomes. The squad closed in on the spot, and after confirming the soil was safe, they got right to digging.

Three shovelfuls in and they still hadn’t reached the base. Five more, and the shoot was already as long as an arm, but they still hadn’t found its root. Xia Qing’s eyes sparkled—she’d never seen a bamboo shoot this big and was itching to jump down there herself.

When they finally uncovered the root, it was even longer than a grown man’s leg. Everyone beamed with delight—even if this was their only haul of the day, it would be more than worth it.

After a careful look at the surrounding bamboo, Hu Zifeng made a decisive call. “Guan Tong, open the shield umbrella. Everyone under the umbrella and use your iron shields. Da Jiang, keep an eye on the ground.”

One teammate pulled a folded iron umbrella from his pack. It looked small at first, but when opened, it stretched more than two meters across—easily big enough for six people to huddle underneath. Xia Qing and Da Jiang stood at the center, surrounded by the others.

Hu Zifeng gave another order. “Miss Xia, cut the shoot clean in one go. Try not to cut through the bamboo rhizome, or you’ll overexcite the bamboo.”

“Got it.” Xia Qing brought her machete down right where the shoot joined the rhizome and split it clean with a single swing. For a Strength Evolver, this was a piece of cake.

That swing triggered the bamboo’s built-in defense mechanism. As the rhizome trembled, Hu Zifeng shouted, “Everyone down! Shields up!”

A whistling filled the air as countless bamboo leaf darts hammered the umbrella and the shields with a pounding racket.

Firing bamboo leaf darts was this evolved bamboo’s stress response. Luckily, its evolution level was low, so it couldn’t target individual threats. After a wild, indiscriminate volley, it ran out of ammo.

With just a few seconds to spare, Xia Qing had already peeled, sliced, and stuffed the green-light shoot into the sack. She shared her excitement with the others. “We’re looking at at least forty pounds here! We’re eating well tonight.”

“Stir-fried bamboo shoots and pork is on the menu tonight!” Hu Zifeng, always gruff, was beaming too. “Miss Xia, do you need canned meat?”

Canned meat was expensive and Xia Qing never had much stock. “Would you be up for a trade?”

“Of course. One 340-gram can of pork for two pounds of Evolved Perilla?”

“Deal!” Xia Qing replied, happy with the fair trade.

Hu Zifeng’s grin grew wider—Zhang San and Tang Huai had raved about the Evolved Perilla so much that he couldn’t resist any longer.

After putting away the iron umbrella, Xia Qing glanced at the deep green leaves embedded in the ground and on the bamboo stalks. A chill ran down her spine. She was lucky she’d only cut bamboo before the Xiang Rain—if she’d tackled this evolved bamboo back then, she would’ve been seriously hurt.

Xia Qing was curious how Hu Zifeng had identified this bamboo as being aggressive, but since they didn’t know each other well, and he wasn’t offering, she didn’t press the question.

After confirming this evolved bamboo was a green-light plant, the group followed its rhizome and uncovered another thirteen green-light shoots, though none were as big as that first giant.

When Xia Qing looked up after digging up the last shoot, she noticed the mature bamboo was nearly stripped bare of leaves from firing its defenses…

Luckily, they hadn’t damaged the bamboo’s roots. With just a few days or a good rain, its strength would bounce right back. Anyone trying to take its shoots or roots would be peppered with darts.

Maybe that’s why no animals dared munch on these bamboo shoots.

With their haul packed, the digging team was just about to leave when Xia Qing heard a steady rustle all around them. Animals were coming—and not just a few! Whatever they were, they weren’t pandas.

She had just straightened up when Hu Zifeng barked, “Enemy presence! Form up!”

Xia Qing was surprised. Did Hu Zifeng have both enhanced hearing and vision?

Four squad members quickly created a defensive ring, with Hu Zifeng shielding Xia Qing in the middle. Xia Qing gripped her machete in one hand and her gun in the other, standing at the center, eyes locked ahead.

It didn’t take long for the noisy intruders to appear. A whole swarm of evolved bamboo rats came into view! Clearly, they’d had their eyes on those green-light shoots but had always been too scared of the evolved bamboo to risk a bite. Now, with the shoots dug up and ready to leave, the critters had lost their patience.

Don’t be fooled by their round bodies and short legs—these evolved rats were lightning quick. Xia Qing knew her aim wasn’t good enough to hit them with the gun so she dropped it, gripping her machete with both hands.

Hu Zifeng, whose five-level evolved vision had already scoped out the field, reported, “Two hundred meters out, twelve o’clock—thirty evolved bamboo rats, at least ten with speed evolution. Miss Xia, guard the shoots. Da Jiang, watch for movement underfoot. I’ll take the Speed Evolvers, the rest of you handle the regular rodents.”

With an audible click, Hu Zifeng’s sniper rifle fired the first round. Xia Qing saw a speed-evolved bamboo rat, darting between the bamboo fifty meters away, collapse after being hit.

The other squad members opened fire as well. The bamboo rats were fast but kept dropping one after another, never getting close. Xia Qing felt relieved and focused on watching the ground with Da Jiang.

Bamboo rats could tunnel and launch surprise attacks from underground.

In a situation that chaotic, it was tough to pick out a single threat by sound alone, but Xia Qing had honed this as her survival ace-in-the-hole. When she heard something digging from ten meters northwest, she sneaked a glance—Da Jiang, the Hearing Evolver, hadn’t noticed. Evidently, her own senses were sharper. Quietly gripping her machete, she waited for the evolved rat to enter Da Jiang’s range.

When the digging rat got within four meters, Da Jiang finally spoke up. “Eleven o’clock, four meters, twenty centimeters underground.”

A squad member quickly aimed his gun down at the spot. One shot rang out, and everything went quiet underground.