Chapter 6: Evolution’s Gamble: The Price of Survival

Driven by the combined influence of Xiang (Life Drain Element) and Yi (Vitality Element) in the atmosphere, an unexplained phenomenon has emerged during the overall evolution of Earth’s lifeforms:

The lower on the evolutionary ladder a creature is, the more advanced its evolution seems.

While humans have generally doubled their evolutionary rate—just over two times on average—a host of simple invertebrates have reached eight times the usual rate, vastly outpacing people. That’s why, after the Cataclysm, Blue Star is several times more perilous for humans than it was before.

While Blue Star’s evolved creatures pose deadly threats to humanity, they also offer new chances for survival: there are certain living things with trace amounts of radioactive elements and Xiang content no higher than 0.5%. These can be safely eaten by humans.

Researchers have dubbed these “Safe Foods.”

Currently, studies have confirmed three facts: First, the lower the levels of these two elements, the better they are for humans. Second, the higher your Safe Food intake, the stronger your resistance to environmental toxins becomes. Third, Safe Foods that have undergone multiple times evolution boost human resilience far more than regular Safe Foods.

Since Safe Foods alone can’t feed the entire nation, the Hua Nation has designated other eatable creatures—those with minimal or no harmful radioactive elements and with Xiang element levels between 0.5% and 1.5%—as ‘Optional Foods.’

Both Safe Foods and Optional Foods test green using a regular Portable Tester. That evolved catfish Xia Qing killed? If she brought it to the Safe Zone, she could trade it for three months’ worth of rations.

After gorging herself for so long on rough compressed rations, all Xia Qing wants now is some real meat.

With practiced hands, she cleaned and chopped the catfish, tossed the pieces in a pot with mountain spring water, and set it boiling.

Seasonings? Only salt and chili powder.

Veggies? None.

Wait, she did have a stash—six jin of evolved potato seeds.

But Xia Qing couldn’t bring herself to eat them. According to the Complete Cultivation Encyclopedia, these are Safe Foods with only 0.25% harmful elements, but with a low sprouting rate of just 30% to 35%.

With only six jin of seed potatoes, there’s no telling how many will sprout or how many pounds she might eventually harvest. She just couldn’t bear to eat any now.

Soon, mouthwatering aromas wafted from the kettle. Xia Qing took a deep whiff and was sure her catfish stew outclassed anything on offer at the Safe Zone cafeteria. There was hardly any muddy taste, either.

This catfish was probably Safe Food material.

Her appetite may have doubled since evolving, but even so, Xia Qing couldn’t finish even half the ten-plus pound catfish. Luckily, it’s only February—no risk of the leftover fish going bad by evening.

Food stores will only grow, so she needs to sort out solar panels and a fridge soon. But before that, she has to patch up the windows with glass, or else risk attacks from evolved bugs, snakes, or other pests.

Grabbing her big canvas bag and toolkit, Xia Qing set out to patrol the abandoned village and make the most of the afternoon.

Plot Three contains three villages arranged in a triangular pattern, separated by sprawling farmland. Xia Qing lived in the northernmost, nearest the mountain, with two other deserted villages to her left front and right front.

Plants had swallowed the abandoned villages. Pushing through tangled weeds, Xia Qing came across heaps of clean-picked human and livestock bones.

Scenes like this—she’d seen so many over the years, numbness was all that remained.

After scouring all three villages, Xia Qing carried whatever usable glass she found back home. She picked out tempered laminated sheets, wiped them down, cut them to size with a glass cutter, then sealed them in place with glass glue and sealing strips.

By the tenth year after the Cataclysm, building materials from before the disaster had long since expired and gone bad. Everything she used today, she had managed to bring out from the Safe Zone herself.

The Cataclysm destroyed Blue Star’s industrial system. Everyday supplies that were once a tap away on any phone had become rare commodities, nearly impossible to find.

Even these sealing strips and tubes of glass glue—Xia Qing only got them thanks to her connections as a construction team leader.

After her father’s death, Xia Qing—beautiful, alone, and unsupported—knew that to survive in the Safe Zone with comfort and dignity, she had only three options: become strong, lean on a fierce team she could trust, or trade her body for day-to-day security.

Xia Qing had neither overwhelming strength nor true allies, and she refused to sell herself. So she chopped off her hair, smeared her face with dirt, and blended in with the construction team.

Earning points was only a side goal. Her true aim was to stay hidden, learn building skills, and stash away the kinds of tools and materials you can’t buy on the market—getting ready to survive on her own once she left the Safe Zone.

Of course, there were people on the crew who tried to come after her, but after experiencing the brute force she could unleash, not a soul dared touch her.

With crisp, clean glass windows finally in place, Xia Qing let out a long breath. At last, her home felt secure. With daylight left, she grabbed a shovel and headed to the neighboring courtyard, where she dug graves for an adult, a child, and a dog—just bones now, hidden under wild grass.

Those two people and their dog had been killed by evolved mistletoe. From the look of things, that dog had tried its best to save its owners until the very end.

Evolved mistletoe seeds don’t just settle on trees—they can latch onto animals and humans. If the host doesn’t spot and remove them quickly, they’ll be sucked dry in no time. Xia Qing still remembered the horror the first time she saw someone killed like that, their corpse sprouting chains of bright red mistletoe berries—that was her earliest nightmare after the Cataclysm.

But year after year of new horrors had shown her there was no such thing as “the worst.” There was always worse out there. Thankfully, humans now have protective gear and other defense strategies. As long as you don’t barge into untamed, evolved forests, you won’t face swarms of evolved monsters.

Once Xia Qing finished burying the small family, she cleared away the wild grass and tidied up what remained of their house.

They’d been building a home—the two-story steel-and-concrete frame was just done when acid rain and the Great Evolution struck. Windows and finishing touches were left undone, but all the materials had already been brought in and were piled up upstairs. Luckily, the roof was resin-tiled and the owner had done all they could to shield it, or else months of acid rain would have eaten away not only the concrete but even the steel.

With just herself to look after, Xia Qing decided the two-story building was perfect for storage. She could use it as a warehouse for big but non-essential items like farm tools, old furniture, and lumber.

With everything squared away and another sweep of the area, Xia Qing felt a surge of satisfaction—but she also realized she needed an evolved animal to guard the place. Preferably one with some brains.

A highly evolved dog or goose would work—ideally a goose, since they’re plant eaters.

But that was just wishful thinking. It was nearly impossible to find an advanced evolved animal that could still be tamed by humans. Xia Qing doubted she’d get lucky enough to stumble upon one on her land. For now, planting her crops came first.