Chapter 73: Dangerous Growth and the Harvest Under Blood Rain

Sitting cross-legged on the ground, Xia Qing gently asked Boss Sheep, who was anxiously pawing at the earth between her and the pumpkin vine, “Boss, we really can’t touch this pumpkin vine, right?”

“Baa.” Boss Sheep let out a warning bleat and tried to nudge Xia Qing away again, clearly wary of this seemingly harmless Evolved Pumpkin Vine.

Xia Qing stood up and let Boss Sheep push her back a couple of steps. She patted his spiral horn and praised him, “Boss, you’re amazing. You saw right away something was off with that vine. If it weren’t for you, I’d have fallen for it today. Without you, this home of ours wouldn’t stand a chance.”

With all that praise, Boss Sheep’s mood visibly improved. His eyes narrowed in delight as he stood tall, waiting for Xia Qing to keep going.

Still complimenting her companion, Xia Qing traced the pumpkin vine along its leaves until she found its root. She hefted her shovel, ready to dig, and only started once Boss Sheep showed no objection.

Once she reached the root, Xia Qing finally discovered the vine’s evolved ability: this pumpkin vine had developed a powerful stickiness. The root clung stubbornly to the shovel, refusing to come off.

No wonder Boss Sheep didn’t want her touching it. If this stuff stuck to her protective suit, never mind if it’s corrosive or not—she’d definitely end up looking like the Hulk.

Thank goodness she’d already bundled up each pumpkin vine. Without that, every normal pumpkin vine around would be caught up in it and ruined.

With the shovel, Xia Qing twisted the sticky pumpkin vine—roots and all—into a tight bundle, forked it out from under the rain shelter, and stabbed it into the ground root-up. There was no way she was letting it touch soil and keep growing.

She did the same with the other Evolved Pumpkin Vine.

Then she pressed the button on her lord’s walkie-talkie, broadcasting to the others, “Heads up! We’ve got three Evolved Potatoes in Territory Three—they flower, then release C-grade poison gas! There are also two Evolved Pumpkins whose vines have turned super sticky—they’ll cling to shovels and wooden stakes. Everyone be careful.”

Qi Fu replied at once, “Got it. In Territory Six, we’ve come across an Evolved Eggplant—its sharp thorns can pierce through protective suits. Everyone, watch yourselves.”

Zhao Ze’s voice was on the verge of tears, “Two of my workers are hurt. Now I’m shorthanded and can only protect the fields with rain shelters. Can anybody send someone over to give me a hand?”

No one responded. With Xiang Rain falling, everyone had their hands full—it wasn’t the time to help out.

Then Zhang San’s voice came through the channel, “Save all those sticky pumpkin vines for me. I’ll exchange supplies for them.”

Xia Qing pressed the button, “Copy that. They’re all bundled up, staked into the farmland—they’re still alive.”

Kuang Qingwei asked, “Third Brother, how do we handle the trade for the Evolved Pumpkin field?”

Zhang San replied, “Fifty points per vine.”

That meant a hundred points for two vines—enough to buy five brand-new shovels. At least some of the losses could be recouped.

Feeling a bit better, Xia Qing left the sweet potato rain shelter. She popped open her umbrella, making sure both her and Boss Sheep stayed dry, and carefully scanned the Buffer Forest.

After confirming that none of the trees had undergone Xiang Evolution, she and Boss Sheep followed the muddy path of Xiang Grass toward the hillside.

It’d been over an hour since her last patrol, and tending to the vegetable seedlings was even more urgent than clearing the mutated weeds.

Between the hillside and farmland of Territory Three ran a river, flowing east to west. Xia Qing had modified the widest part into a narrow reservoir, while the narrowest point was just over three meters across. That’s where she built a stone bridge, raised a meter above the water.

Crossing that river in the middle of Xiang Rain was dangerous. The bridge had to be high enough out of the water so Xia Qing could control the situation if water creatures leaped up to attack.

After more than four hours of rain, the river had risen, but there was still eighty centimeters of clearance below the bridge. Crossing was still possible.

Being extra careful, Xia Qing picked up a fist-sized stone and tossed it to the far bank. When no water creatures jumped up to attack, she crossed the bridge with Boss Sheep.

But just as they reached the center of the bridge, two red shadows shot up from the water, aiming right at Boss Sheep!

No matter how fast the river monsters attacked, they couldn’t escape Xia Qing’s eagle-eyed gaze as a Vision Evolver, her vision nine times sharper. “Boss, run for it!”

As she shouted her order, Xia Qing used her umbrella to block the two red streaks.

Thud! Thud! The river creatures slammed into the metal surface of her umbrella. Xia Qing quickly swatted them onto the riverbank with her machete. “Boss, go claim your prize!”

Boss Sheep charged over, delivering a pair of precise kicks that sent the two desperate creatures even further from the water. Xia Qing rushed up, landed two heavy blows with her machete, flattening their heads, then stuffed them into a sack and sealed it up tight.

It turned out they were two fish—each thirty centimeters long. Grandma! She didn’t care why such big fish lived in that river. Either way, she’d hit the jackpot.

After tucking the bagged fish into her backpack, Xia Qing gave Boss Sheep’s spiral horn a hearty pat and praised him softly, “Boss, you’re at the top of Blue Star’s food chain. You’re opening a new era for Evolved Sheep everywhere! We get to eat fish tonight!”

Boss Sheep, who never ate fish, simply stared blankly.

The woods under Xiang Rain were several times more dangerous than usual. Heading into the Buffer Forest during a red-level Xiang Rain was suicide.

But Xia Qing had already cleared all trees within twenty meters around her planting zones, so although these two patches were up on the hillside, they no longer counted as forest—fewer dangerous Evolved Creatures could lurk nearby.

The highland planting zone’s rain shelter stretched from a towering toon tree down to the evolved perilla. It was about five meters wide and a hundred twenty meters long, covering twelve terraced fields on a steep slope. The lower slope’s shelter ran from the spring down to the spinach field, also five meters wide but a hundred thirty meters long, covering thirteen more terraces on a gentler slope.

To save on materials and boost drainage, Xia Qing didn’t build a separate rain shelter for each terrace. Instead, each planting zone had a single shelter stretching from top to bottom, covering all ten-plus terraces.

Because these planting zones weren’t straight up and down, her construction skills had to be even better. Luckily, Xia Qing was a pro at building rain shelters—this was nothing she couldn’t handle.

From the foot of the hill, the two shelters looked like a pair of white snakes slumped across the slope. Outsiders might find it creepy, but in Xia Qing’s eyes it was all accomplishment and peace of mind.

Those white rain shelters protected her vegetables from the deadly Xiang Rain.

Xia Qing led Boss Sheep into the rain shelter on the lower slope first, starting her patrol with the spinach on the bottommost terrace.

Spinach, peppers, beans, tomatoes, cucumbers—not a single one had mutated under Xiang Evolution. Xia Qing gave special attention to the eggplants, but no long-thorn evolution like Qi Fu reported had happened there.

Climbing higher, she entered the sweet potato vine field where she’d planted a hundred cuttings. The ten vines closest to the edges of the shelter had grown over a meter overnight, sprouting a dozen new leaves.

The transplanted sweet potato vines had undergone Xiang Evolution during the red Xiang Rain.

When Xia Qing dug the mutated vines out, she saw that after just two days of transplanting, the buried section pointing outside the shelter had already grown a thick tangle of roots—over thirty centimeters long.

The soil here was already dampened by Xiang Rain outside the shelter. Her terrace drainage channels weren’t good enough yet—they needed improvement.

After clearing out the mutated sweet potato vines, Xia Qing pressed on, passing two grapevines and a spring. She and Boss Sheep crawled out of the first vegetable rain shelter, crossed the barrier, and entered the second.

But once inside the second shelter, Boss Sheep wouldn’t budge. Since the evolved perilla was now under the highland rain shelter too, Boss Sheep just wanted one thing—to eat.