Chapter 10: Wild Boar

Under Xia Qing's gaze, the evolved sheep walked to a small Chinese toon tree, raised its head, and with a crisp snap bit off the tender sprout that had just grown from the treetop and ate it.

Xia Qing glanced at the Chinese toon tree with a section of branch bitten off, then widened her eyes and looked at the mouth of this sheep with a very punchable expression as it kept chewing.

Could this sheep be... a teeth-evolved one?

The small-tailed sheep swallowed the Chinese toon sprout, then raised its head toward Xia Qing. Seeing Xia Qing standing motionless, its eyes narrowed even further, it backed up a few steps and pawed the ground with its front hooves, then... suddenly charged at the big Chinese toon tree.

Boom!

Xia Qing hugged the violently shaking trunk, and her heart gave a fierce jolt along with it.

No need to guess—this is a strength-evolved sheep! What is it ramming the trunk for, trying to shake itself down?

It was her first time encountering an evolved sheep; does this thing eat meat after evolving?

Boom!

The evolved sheep rammed the trunk hard once more, and seeing Xia Qing still hugging the trunk without moving, the fellow suddenly turned around, aiming its spiral horns at the back basket Xia Qing had placed under the tree.

Xia Qing was scared out of her wits and shouted, "No!"

Seeing the sheep stand still without moving, Xia Qing immediately followed up, "Big brother, we can talk things over, don't ram."

The sheep didn't ram, but it began pawing its hooves in preparation. Xia Qing immediately broke off two clusters of Chinese toon sprouts and tossed them over, "Big brother, eat Chinese toon sprouts, this stuff tastes way better than ginger and garlic."

The evolved sheep withdrew its hooves, lowered its head, picked up the two clusters of Chinese toon sprouts in its mouth, and ate them.

Seeing the sheep loved eating Chinese toon sprouts, Xia Qing immediately broke off a few more clusters and tossed them down, luring it away from her precious back basket.

Xia Qing didn't know how much the sheep could eat, but this evolved sheep ate a full hundred-plus clusters of Chinese toon sprouts before it contentedly lay down on the ground, no longer ramming the tree or eyeing Xia Qing's back basket.

Evolved animals come in two types: one is the Qiang-evolved animals, which absorb more Qiang elements than Yi elements and become irritable and highly aggressive; the other is the Yi-evolved animals, which absorb more Yi elements than Qiang elements and retain their original habits. This sheep stopped causing trouble once it was full, so it should be a Yi-evolved one.

Xia Qing felt a bit more at ease. After breaking off a full back basket of Chinese toon sprouts, she jumped down from the tree, picked up her back basket, and continued exploring. The evolved sheep lying under the Chinese toon tree glanced at Xia Qing, then continued resting with half-closed eyes.

There were five households on this hillside in total. After Xia Qing finished visiting all five, she had no new gains, so she returned to the big Chinese toon tree, dug up a few Chinese toon saplings that had sprouted, planning to transplant them into her own territory.

"Baa."

Seeing Xia Qing about to leave, the evolved sheep suddenly called out.

Xia Qing turned her head, saw the sheep staring at her backpack, and was instantly speechless, "Still want to eat Chinese toon sprouts."

"Baa."

"Didn't you just eat your fill?"

"Baa."

"I'm leaving, next time we meet I'll break some off for you." After Xia Qing finished speaking and started to walk, who would have known this sheep actually stood up, pawed the ground with its hooves, and aimed its spiral horns at Xia Qing.

Damn!

Xia Qing also got fired up, set her back basket and Chinese toon saplings aside, and struck a pose, "Come on, let's see which of us is stronger!"

The evolved sheep charged fiercely at Xia Qing, raised its front hooves and lowered its head, using its pair of spiral horns to ram Xia Qing hard.

Xia Qing raised her hands to block and shouted, "Open!"

Then, the sheep wasn't pushed back by her, but she was knocked back by the sheep.

Xia Qing did a backward roll and jumped up, then behaved herself, "Want to eat Chinese toon sprouts?"

"Baa."

"Fine." Xia Qing poured all the Chinese toon sprouts from her backpack onto the ground, "Eat up."

The sheep gave Xia Qing a contemptuous glance, lay down guarding the Chinese toon sprouts, and slowly chewed its cud.

Xia Qing, who couldn't out-muscle the sheep, climbed the tree again, picked half a basket of Chinese toon sprouts before coming down.

Seeing the evolved sheep stand up again and stare at her, Xia Qing poured some spring water into a broken clay pot nearby and held it out to the evolved sheep, "Tired from eating? Have some water."

The evolved sheep lowered its head to sniff, then began drinking water.

Xia Qing took the chance to grab the Chinese toon saplings and back basket, ran down the hillside without looking back, passed through the isolation belt, and returned to her buffer forest. Looking back and seeing the sheep hadn't chased her, she couldn't help bursting into laughter.

It had really been a long, long time since she had felt this carefree.

Although she couldn't out-muscle the evolved sheep, Xia Qing had weapons, so she was fairly confident she could kill it. But this sheep was very clever and also quite strong; Xia Qing didn't want to kill it—she wanted to raise it.

If she encountered it again in the afternoon, she'd use Chinese toon sprouts and spring water to lure it back to her territory.

Because she ran too fast, the soil on the roots of the Chinese toon saplings had been shaken off, and she didn't know if they could still be successfully transplanted. Xia Qing planted two Chinese toon saplings by the spring, and five along the edge of her courtyard, watering them thoroughly with spring water.

If this still didn't work, she could just go back to the evolved forest to break off more Chinese toon sprouts whenever she wanted to eat them. Anyway, based on her observation, that hillside had no traces of other large animals active there besides that sheep.

After planting the Chinese toon trees, Xia Qing went back inside, first looked through books to check the planting techniques for ginger and garlic, then broke the ginger into seven pieces by the buds, and separated the whole head of garlic into individual cloves, wrapping them in the original soil as much as possible before planting them in the vegetable garden she had cleared in the west courtyard, watering them thoroughly with spring water.

After planting the vegetables, Xia Qing took the Chinese toon sprouts that had been soaking in salt water, blanched them in boiling water, chopped them up, added salt and chili powder, mixed well, then packed them into glass jars that had been sterilized with hot water and sealed them up.

These two jars of Chinese toon chili would be enough to last her a month.

With a bountiful harvest this morning, Xia Qing indulged herself for once, poured out some oil and stir-fried a big plate of Chinese toon, ate her fill along with compressed rations, then sprawled out in a chair.

This life was really too comfortable.

To keep living this comfortably, she had to work hard. After cleaning up the kitchen, Xia Qing locked the door, carried two water buckets straight to the back mountain, placed the buckets under the spring eye and blocked the spring eye with stones. Then Xia Qing passed through the isolation belt again, put on a protective mask, and entered the evolved forest.

To avoid that greedy sheep guarding the Chinese toon tree, Xia Qing explored the evolved forest on the north side of Plot Four.

Being even more careful this time, after climbing over a hillside over three hundred meters high, Xia Qing discovered a valley. The valley had dense trees, and she could faintly make out terraced fields on the hillside, a pond in the valley, and dilapidated houses.

A valley with a pond and dense forest was several times more dangerous than a hillside. Just as Xia Qing was deciding to give up, she faintly heard the grunting of little wild boars by the pond.

Wild boar, meat!

Little wild boars—meat she could catch!

The meat-craving Xia Qing gritted her teeth, picked up her machete, and carefully made her way down the mountain. The wild boars' sounds grew louder, and a brown-black mother wild boar appeared by the pond, weighing a good three hundred jin by its size, its body covered in thick mud.

A wild boar of this size couldn't be pierced even by hunting rifle bullets, let alone the machete in her hand. But her target wasn't this big one—Xia Qing's gaze shifted to the few little wild boars playing beside the big boar.