Chapter 665: The Day of Sprouts and Secrets

Storming over to scold her little brother, Old Goat paused and sniffed the air. Suddenly her eyes went wide. “Baa~~~”

“That’s right! I found some delicious Green Lantern celtuce!” Xia Qing, who’d braced herself for a few headbutts, secretly breathed a sigh of relief. She tore off a leaf and offered it over. “Boss, give it a try—it’s extra fresh.”

Old Goat grabbed the celtuce leaf and started chomping. All the while, her eyes never left the big head of celtuce in Xia Qing’s hands.

“You can have all the leaves from this big head—I’ll just eat the stalk! Come on, let’s eat at home. I’ve been busy night and day and I’m wiped out. Boss, did you feed the fish and chickens—” Xia Qing waved to Guan Tong, perched on a distant tree, as she talked.

No need to ask. Obviously, Old Goat was throwing a tantrum after a fight with Guan Tong.

Watching Xia Qing use a veggie to coax the feisty, troublemaking Old Goat home, Guan Tong—aching all over—finally relaxed.

After settling Old Goat, Xia Qing greeted the weasel family in the sheep shed, then began her rounds through her house and the abandoned village. Only after checking everywhere for Devastation Snakes did she enjoy a thorough shower, change into cool clothes, and pull on her Level-3 Wild Protection Suit to patrol her territory.

As Xia Qing headed out, Old Goat, munching on a leaf, immediately followed.

“Chen Zheng and Chen Cheng make a patrol every two hours—no Devastation Snakes found, and the water tests came back normal,” Guan Tong reported the state of the territory. Noticing Old Goat squinting at him, he tactfully left out how he’d just been chased and thrashed by her. “Sister Qing, how many Devastation Snakes have you and the boss caught so far?”

Xia Qing replied, “Besides that nest we found on Hill Forty-Nine, we caught five on Hill Fifty and twenty-six on Hill Fifty-Five. Have you found any more Devastation Snakes on Hill Forty-Nine since?”

“No.” Guan Tong shook his head. “But why’d so many suddenly show up? Is this another disaster incoming? If it goes on, humanity might really go extinct.”

No one had an answer for that.

Last year, Hui Three avoided any major disasters, but the population still dropped by ninety thousand. If the number of Devastation Snakes keeps climbing, even more people will be lost.

With the snake surge, it’s not just the bites or tainted water—every ripple has a price. Animals that prey on snakes are dying off from poisoning, so humans can’t reach deep enough into the Evolved Forest to find food.

Xia Qing handed the ribs meant for Luo Pei to Guan Tong. After seeing him out of Section Three, she and Old Goat sat quietly at the edge of the high terrace, looking out over the fields. The seeds Xia Qing planted just seven days ago had already sprouted and poked through the soil, their fresh energy making the world feel brighter.

If every creature on Blue Star would just stop evolving like mad and keep things like they are now, life would be pretty good.

But it’s not her call.

So Xia Qing could only adapt—growing stronger in body and mind to survive whatever came next.

The snakes might be everywhere, but she’d evolved to sense Devastation Snakes—so it barely touched her day to day.

Xia Qing ruffled Old Goat’s fluffy hair and stood to make her rounds. Old Goat hauled herself up and followed at her side.

Xia Qing hadn’t come home last night, and Old Goat didn’t sleep well either. Still, sticking close to her little brother mattered more to Old Goat than sleep.

After all, if Xia Qing slipped away again for a whole night, the territory would be left with just one lone sheep.

“Baa—!” Old Goat halted at the edge of a terrace, refusing to go any further.

Up ahead, Xia Qing stopped too and, following Old Goat’s line of sight, guessed her intent. “That’s peas—you want to taste them, Boss?”

The peas had come from an exchange with Zhong Tao and Zheng Kui. Old Goat had never laid eyes on this kind of plant before.

“Baa~”

“Alright, I’ll pick some leaves for you to try.” Xia Qing unhooked the thorny fence that kept sheep out, strolled in, and plucked a few tender leaves from the fastest-growing pea shoots.

Old Goat munched away but clearly wasn’t satisfied, still staring at the seedlings in the field. Apparently, the Yellow Lantern pea sprouts were a hit.

“These seedlings just sprouted—pluck any more and they’ll go bald. Give it half a month, I’ll pick you some more then.” Xia Qing rubbed the little curl on her companion’s head.

With Xia Qing refusing to offer more, Old Goat accepted it, trailing along without protest.

When they reached the spinach terraces, Xia Qing set to weeding the field.

The tiny spinach shoots—light purple stems and two long green leaves—were easy to mistake for weeds. Just a year ago, Xia Qing hadn’t dared weed at this stage for fear of pulling up the wrong plants. But this year, she could chat with Old Goat while working, confident in her eye.

“It’s dangerous out there, Boss. Nowhere’s safer than home.”

“Baa.” Old Goat sprawled out just outside the thorn fence, eyes half-closed, grunting in reply.

“I saw four giant pythons on Hill Fifty-Five. The biggest had to be fifteen meters long. Still, I finished my mission and brought back the herbs.”

“Baa.”

“You did great too, Boss. While I was gone, you guarded the territory, fed the fish and chickens, took care of everything.”

“Baa…” Old Goat let out a soft sound, tucked in her head and drifted off to sleep.

Right now, only 150 regular spinach seeds and 150 High-Evolution spinach seeds were planted on the spinach terraces. To get the most out of the Yi Stone, Xia Qing planted five Green Lantern purple sweet potatoes and fifteen Green Lantern sweet potatoes around the High-Evolution spinach beds for seedling cultivation.

Yesterday, while checking the Hidden Valley, Xia Qing found the sweet potatoes there had started to sprout, but in the terraces, both the sweet potatoes and purple sweet potatoes hadn’t broken the surface yet.

The soil here was rich enough. Probably, the temperature just wasn’t right.

“Baa.” After a quick nap, Old Goat blinked awake to find Xia Qing standing stock-still in place and called out.

“It’s nothing,” Xia Qing brushed dirt off her gloves and straightened up. “I was just thinking about whether to dig up the sweet potatoes to check why they haven’t sprouted.”

She realized she was being impatient again.

The pair continued through the old barrier, into the lower terrace. Xia Qing listened hard and glanced at the sky, making sure there were no surveillance birds or human eyes above or outside the territory. Then she told Old Goat to rest easy and nap here while she ducked into the spring cave, turned on her flashlight, and carefully checked on the Devastationweed.

With more Devastation Snakes showing up, Devastationweed—main ingredient in the antidote to Synthetic Toxin—was now even more important.

The Devastationweed that hadn’t had its leaves cut had sent up flower stalks last winter, bloomed with over fourteen tiny flowers in January, and managed to set seed.

Now it was early March. The flower stalks were still green, and the seeds clung to them, not yet shed.

According to the ‘Devastationweed Growing Manual’ from Zhang San, the seeds are only ripe once they fall off naturally. So Xia Qing left them untouched, checking on them twice a day, waiting patiently.

She moved her flashlight to another Devastationweed. This one had lost seven leaves to harvesting and hadn’t put out a flower stalk.

Wait a second!

Xia Qing closed her eyes for a few seconds, then opened them as wide as possible.

This plant is totally colorless and transparent—so even with her Level 9 Vision Evolution, Xia Qing could hardly believe what she was seeing.

But at the leaf axil of this Devastationweed—the same spot called the ‘leaf axil’ in the Growing Manual—was something that looked like a tiny new bud.

She pulled out her phone and snapped over a dozen photos from every angle. then climbed out of the cave to zoom in on the pictures. Sure enough—inside the leaf axil, side buds were starting to grow on that Devastationweed.

And not just one—there was more than one new bud!

The Growing Manual from Third Brother had said Devastationweed only grew terminal buds, never side buds. So what was going on with this plant in her territory?