Chapter 986: Gathering the Golden Soybeans in Bird Valley

The terrain in Bird Valley on Hill Forty-Five was strikingly similar to Valley One in Section Three of Hill Forty-Nine, where the pigs were raised. Steep cliffs flanked both sides, with a winding creek running below, and thick clusters of herbaceous plants crowding the banks. However, the cliffs here were even steeper than those on Hill Forty-Nine, leaving only sparse vegetation on the rocky face. Down below where Xia Qing hid, just six massive trees—each over thirty meters tall—clung to the cliffs. Countless birds had built their nests in these trees. Beneath them, only a few tufts of grass and a handful of tangled vines and shrubs broke up the otherwise bare ground.

From Xia Qing’s experience, she knew the dense growth and bushes below teemed with hidden dangers. Yet, from her current hiding spot, this was clearly the shortest and safest path to reach the soybeans.

How does one get down an almost vertical rock wall? Easy—you roll down.

Xia Qing first crept over to a loose boulder and pried it free with her crowbar. Then, she gathered sturdy vines and wove them together with a climbing rope to create a vine rope over forty meters long, securing it tightly into a mountain fissure. To complete the disguise, she made the rope look like it was just another vine growing out of the crack.

After briefing Handsome Huge Wolf on their plan, Xia Qing ducked into her green turtle-shell hideout and lowered her voice over the walkie-talkie. “Big Wolf, didn’t you feel like you had boundless strength after last night’s bath? Come over and see if you can kick this boulder off the cliff!”

After Xia Qing had pestered him several times, Handsome Huge Wolf came bursting out of the Evolved Forest with his backpack, stomped hard on the loosened boulder at the edge of the cliff and launched it more than ten meters away.

The massive rock, long since loosened by Xia Qing, hurtled down the cliff, thundering like distant thunder. Dust flew everywhere, birds escaped in all directions and feathers rained from the sky.

A bush growing beside the boulder toppled along with the tumbling rock. The vines entwined around the bush snapped taut, causing the bush to come loose and tumble forward more than ten meters, finally landing beside the soybean plants.

Amid all the chaos, that bush—defying gravity and common sense—successfully slipped in without attracting attention from the bird colony.

Inside the bushy hideout, Xia Qing pressed the walkie-talkie and lowered her voice to report in. “Big Wolf, you did awesome! You’re definitely the strongest in the Wolf Pack! I’ve reached the target location successfully. Go find a sunny spot and relax. Once I finish picking the beans, I’ll come back up to you.”

Handsome Huge Wolf shook himself vigorously, but couldn’t get the backpack with the walkie-talkie off his back. Frustrated, he threw back his head and howled, “Awooo—woo—awooo—woo—”

Even though Xia Qing couldn’t make out his wolfish words, she could hear his annoyance loud and clear. The wolf was obviously upset about having his time wasted.

Alpha knew he’d been brought out to help gather plant seeds today, so there shouldn’t have been any mission assigned to him at all. He’d already eaten his fill, so what else was there to do?

Xia Qing kept quiet, focusing all her attention on the soybeans.

High on the opposite side of Bird Valley, Crippled Wolf blinked as he realized what Xia Qing was up to, abandoning a half-finished yawn and suddenly springing to his feet to stare at Handsome Huge Wolf, who was barreling in with his pack.

Amidst the chirping of birds filling the valley, Xia Qing stayed hunkered down inside the bushy cover. She waited until the dung beetle with its spiny, bristly hind legs finished rolling its huge ball away before inching forward, finally getting up close to the soybean plants.

But taking just that tiny step put Xia Qing on high alert. She gritted her teeth through the familiar, needle-like headache, carefully studying the plants ahead.

Wild Green Lantern Plants always had a personality, and Xia Qing came prepared. But the sharp, stabbing magnetic field here was unique—a telltale sign of an aggressive Devastation Evolution plant. The fact that such a strong pulse hit so close meant there was a powerful, hostile plant right in front of her.

She still couldn’t tell if it was the soybean, some weeds or one of the vines that had evolved. After making sure the air was free of toxins, Xia Qing studied the nearby soybean stalks, the leaves nibbled ragged by bugs. Once she was certain they weren’t the magnetic culprit, she carefully clipped off a leaf, squeezed out its sap and dripped it into the Devastation Element Detector.

When the Green Lantern light and a reading of 3.1‰ appeared on the display, Xia Qing’s eyes lit up behind her protective mask.

No matter what the other stalks were like, at least this one was a high-quality Green Lantern Soybean—and, best of all, it wasn’t aggressive!

It was a shame, though, that the two pods at the top had already burst open. She really should have come a few days earlier.

Xia Qing pulled out a heavy-duty small bag to harvest the soybeans.

Why use a heavy-duty bag? Because the yellowed soybean pods were bristling with needles, and a thinner bag could easily get punctured.

Just as Xia Qing reached out to pick the pods, a large bird flapped down and landed on her bushy cover.

Xia Qing froze. She held her breath and silently prayed this wasn’t an Evolved Bird with Brain Evolution.

The long-legged bird perched above didn’t seem to notice anything odd about its bushy roost. After grooming itself for a few moments, it began to beat its wings and sing out, clearly trying to attract a mate. Xia Qing hunched motionless inside the bush for over twenty minutes until finally, the hungry bird began pecking at the soybeans right in front of her.

With its beak, over twenty centimeters long, it cracked open the spiked pods and gulped down three golden soybeans. As it reached for the second pod, Xia Qing discreetly lifted her scissors and gave its golden toe a gentle poke.

Those were high-grade Green Lantern Soybean seeds—every one it ate was one less for her!

“Caw!”

Startled, the bird flapped away in a rush. Xia Qing, relieved and about to start picking beans, suddenly spotted a huge bird with glossy black feathers landing on a tree branch ten meters away, cocking its head and peering at her bush cover with sharp, intelligent eyes.

Damn! An Evolved Bird with Brain Evolution!

Spraying herself with scent-blocker, Xia Qing hunkered deeper amid the leafy bush and emptied her mind, pretending she was just another blade of grass, eyes fixed on the damp soil speckled with pebbles.

One minute. Two minutes…five…ten…

“Rumble—rumble—”

Just as the bird was about to swoop over, thunder rolled in from the west.

Rain was coming. Xia Qing let out a quiet sigh of relief. No matter how fierce the bird, it would lose much of its advantage in a downpour and would soon go looking for shelter.

Sure enough, just a few seconds before big, fat raindrops began to fall, the bird on the branch swept back to its nest. After confirming she was safe, Xia Qing took advantage of the rain and quickly harvested all the pods from the Green Lantern Soybean plant in front of her.

Then she inched over to the second soybean stalk. No more scanning for Devastation Element Content—she just started picking pods as fast as she could.

By the time Xia Qing reached the fifth plant, rain had intensified and the creek was rising, water lapping at her feet.

Suddenly a mysterious red root twined around her ankle. Magnetic Sense pulsed a crystal-clear warning: this was the root of that aggressive Devastation Evolution plant hiding among the soybeans.