Chapter 1044: Tiger Fur and Little Feimao

Xia Qing excitedly shook the water off the grass root and handed it to the companion beside her who had long been waiting to eat. "Boss, try it quick! This kind of grass root is sweet—Third Brother loves eating them!"

Sheep Boss, who had been waiting impatiently for ages, chewed on the grass root and immediately fixed her big Bambi eyes on the bunch in Xia Qing's hand. Xia Qing put all the grass roots into Sheep Boss's food bowl. "These are all yours, Boss, take your time eating. I'm going out to deliver something, I'll come back for you later, and we'll go cut bamboo together."

Sheep Boss held the grass root in her mouth and stared at the bowl, having no time at all to pay attention to Xia Qing.

Little Feimao, hiding in the luxurious wooden nest hanging on the wall, poked out her fuzzy little head and looked at Xia Qing with shiny black eyes.

Xia Qing broke off a piece of evolved white-fur grass root and handed it over. "Little Feimao, try it too, it's sweet. I went out on a mission today and shaved off quite a lot of tiger fur. Once it's disinfected and washed clean, you can use it to line your nest."

Little Feimao, who loved arming herself with the fur of the strong, couldn't really understand what Xia Qing was saying—her attention was entirely on the grass root in her little paw.

Xia Qing patted her little head, then ran with an umbrella up onto the house ruins and handed a washed grass root to Old Wolf in the shed. "Fourth Brother, this is some quality food I picked up on this trip—see if you like it."

Old Wolf glared viciously at Xia Qing and growled in displeasure.

"I know this is your territory, but it's raining right now, and food doesn't taste good once it gets soaked." Xia Qing cheerfully placed the grass root in a food bowl filled with freeze-dried food, then took the antelope and the samples, drove the micro-tiller to the small hut by the farmland, picked up those two bags of wriggling worms, and handed them all together to Zheng Chen, who was waiting outside the North Gate.

When she came back, Xia Qing had an extra large black packaging bag in her hand.

Before she could speak, Dajiang, brimming with energy, urged her to go back and rest. "Sister Qing, go back and rest first. We've got the greenhouses and the climate-controlled rooms covered."

"Alright." Xia Qing didn't stand on ceremony with them. She only checked a few important greenhouses along the way, and after confirming through eight screens in the monitoring room by the farmland that everything in the territory was normal, she drove the micro-tiller home.

Why were Dajiang and the others so full of energy?

Well, of course it was because of the roast lamb that Territory Seven was sending over later! Someone as picky as Third Brother would only hire a top-tier chef.

To match this main course, Eryong had already grabbed a basket and run off to Greenhouse One to pick side dishes. The crops in Greenhouses One and Two, used by Territory Three for breeding, were never traded with outsiders—but Xia Qing wasn't stingy.

The Beard Feng Squad watched Territory Three for her, and when mealtime came and Xia Qing still hadn't returned, she would always tell them they could pick and eat the vegetables in the greenhouses, as long as they didn't pick the seed-marked crops she had tagged for saving.

However, the Beard Feng Squad also knew their limits—Xia Qing had already paid them for guarding the territory. When they stayed in Territory Three, they generally ate food they brought themselves. But today was different—today Xia Qing was eating with them, and it was a feast!

After Xia Qing got home, she didn't rush to take stock of the supplies she'd brought back. Instead, she carried them up to the second floor along with the spoils captured today and put them in the storage room.

Although her house had never been locked because of her animal companions, she wasn't worried anyone would break in. First, her territory was fully covered by surveillance—any unfamiliar active creature entering the territory would be locked onto by the monitors and trigger a warning. Second, on the ruins to the south of her yard lay a fierce, silent, and responsible Old Wolf. Having agreed to watch the house for her, he wouldn't let any anomaly near the home slip by.

After putting things away, showering, and changing into a protective suit, Xia Qing and Sheep Boss each held an iron umbrella over their heads and walked out the door into the rain.

The red-leaf bamboo in the northwest corner of the territory had grown to 18 meters tall and was ready to be cut.

The bamboo roots planted before the last Catastrophe Rain had their Catastrophe-evolution level raised again. Now, when attacked, the roots could burrow out of the ground like the vines of a wild paulownia, waving their steel-needle-like root hairs in every direction for indiscriminate attacks.

This level-raised red-leaf bamboo was far too dangerous. So after the second Catastrophe Rain ended, Xia Qing dug up all the bamboo roots and planted them in the bamboo-friendly areas of Mountain Fifty. The bamboo roots in her territory were ones she had transplanted back from Mountain Fifty.

Before the second Catastrophe Rain, Xia Qing, Qi Fu, and Yuan Yan had brought Catastrophe-evolved bamboo roots out of Mountain Fifty-Two. Part was planted in the territory, part on Mountain Fifty. During the second Catastrophe Rain, the Catastrophe-evolved bamboo on Mountain Fifty grew wildly. After the rain, not only did Xia Qing transplant some, but allies in the territory alliance and Territory Seventeen also transplanted some.

All in the northern District One territories, having weathered over six hours of Catastrophe Rain together—when the red-leaf bamboo in Xia Qing's territory was ready to harvest, the red-leaf bamboo in her allies' territories was naturally ready too. The lords, who had drunk the X Nutrient Solution, each grabbed a machete and, with their territory brothers or the temporary workers hired during the Catastrophe Rain, charged toward the Catastrophe-evolved bamboo groves.

In Territory Fifteen, seeing her daughter flip on the headlamp on her protective mask and head out with an umbrella and a stove, Mother Jiang walked over, worried. "Yingzi, I'll carry it over with you."

Jiang Ying had just shaken her head when Mother Jiang forcefully cut her off. "Mine is a Field Grade-Three protective suit too—I won't be afraid if we run into an attack. Let's go."

Jiang Ying, who had earned several thousand points thanks to a few farming tools she co-developed with Lord Huo Lei and Shi Chong, asked Zheng Kui to deliver a five-thousand-point point card to the Safe Zone and give it to her mother to keep for her.

Through her son's comrade's connections, the mother spent 4,900 points to buy her daughter a Field Grade-Three protective suit, which she brought to Territory Fifteen before this round of Catastrophe Rain and handed to her daughter.

What no one expected was that Jiang Ying also used her remaining points to buy her mother a Field Grade-Three protective suit, while she herself still wore a Grade-Two.

Mother and daughter took out the new protective suits they had each prepared, and laughed until they cried.

With a higher-grade protective suit, Mother Jiang naturally wouldn't let her daughter go risk herself alone. Mother and daughter walked out of the yard, met up with Tan Qi, who was already carrying a machete on her back, and headed for the Catastrophe-evolved bamboo grove.

Little Shiyi, lying in the second-floor bedroom, watched them walk far away, then drew the blackout curtains, shut the bedroom door tight, and after once more using her magnetic sense to confirm there were no large animals or humans around, she couldn't wait to take out her phone-watch and tap on her mom's profile picture.

Once the call connected and she saw her mom—whom she hadn't seen in ages and ages—on the tiny phone-watch screen, Little Shiyi's tears instantly spilled down.

Tan Qi, following behind the Jiang mother and daughter, asked curiously, "Sister Yingzi, are you carrying those fire tongs you made a few days ago?"

Jiang Ying, who was currently learning blacksmithing from Lord Huo Lei, nodded. "Mm, let's see if we can use them later."

If they worked, it would drastically cut the time and effort needed to chop down the red-leaf bamboo.