Chapter 19: Beat You to Death

The noise on the phone grew quieter—Zhong Tao had clearly moved away from the crying and commotion, because Xia Qing could hear his heavy footsteps. Those footsteps were noticeably heavier than usual, and he was dragging his legs as he walked. Xia Qing's initial assessment was that Zhong Tao was extremely exhausted right now.

Sure enough, his voice was hoarse. "Qing girl, can you hear me?"

"Yes, Brother Tao, go ahead." Xia Qing replied.

Zhong Tao continued asking, "How's the situation over there? Any dangerous evolved creatures you can't handle? Don't try to show off—if you can't handle it, tell your brother. Even though I can't come over, I can find someone to go."

Xia Qing knew the person Zhong Tao was looking for was Captain Tan, stationed at the old regimental headquarters, and she also knew why he was making this call. So she answered calmly, "I haven't found anything dangerous yet. If anything comes up, I'll tell Brother Tao right away."

Confirming Xia Qing was still alive, and having conveniently bought a good one, Zhong Tao hurriedly responded, then couldn't help complaining to Xia Qing. "You have no idea—the safe zone is in total chaos. Over six thousand people are already dead…"

Xia Qing quietly listened to him finish before hanging up, then thought again about the person who had sent her the text. Since that person could get internal information, they must be doing well in the safe zone and probably wouldn't run into trouble.

Putting away her phone, Xia Qing pulled weeds and exterminated bugs at the same time—snakes fast as thieves, palm-sized spiders, finger-long scorpions, face-sized fluttering moths…

Staying in this endless grass taller than a person's head, with dangers lurking everywhere, sounds like something that would drive a person crazy, but Xia Qing felt very happy. Because in the face of the heavenly tribulation, a danger like this didn't even count as a drizzle.

After pulling the last few meters of weeds, she walked out of the village and reached the edge of the cultivated land. Xia Qing's view suddenly opened up bright. The various grass seeds hidden in the thoroughly cleared and burned farmland soil were far fewer than those in the village, so the weeds here were more than half as sparse as those in the village. And because plant ash had a certain suppressive effect on harmful evolved organisms, the harmful evolved grass here hadn't grown taller than Xia Qing, making it relatively easy to clear.

Xia Qing's vision expanded outward, looking toward the buffer forest where the vegetation was clearly much denser. She had no idea how many of the newly sprouted plants in the buffer forest were dangerous evolved plants, nor how many kinds of dangerous evolved animals were hiding among them.

The current buffer forest was several times more dangerous than before the rain.

Xia Qing's scrutinizing gaze fixed on a tree, her brow furrowing. If it weren't for her evolved vision, and if she didn't regularly observe the trees within her territory, she might not have discovered that there was a mature-stage large tree in the western buffer forest that was actually growing explosively again in the harmful rain.

Generally speaking, plants in the seed and juvenile stages had the highest probability of rapid harmful-evolution growth when encountering harmful rain, because seeds or seedlings at this stage couldn't shield against the all-directional harmful-element attacks in the air, water, and soil; by contrast, mature-stage plants had stable life indicators, and the vast majority could resist harmful-element attacks; plants in the overall aging stage, upon encountering harmful rain, would experience accelerated aging and death.

Animals had similar characteristics, which was why among the current evolved humans, those under 35 made up the overwhelming majority. Because during the Great Evolution of Blue Star's organisms, adults over 25 at that time had already passed the developmental stage, their bodily functions were stable, and the probability of multi-fold evolution was far lower than that of adolescents under 25.

Humans in adulthood who could still undergo multi-fold evolution must have some bodily function that was exceptionally outstanding. The mature-stage large tree in the distance undergoing evolution again followed the same principle. This kind of evolution was especially dangerous.

In the sixth year of the heavenly tribulation, when Xia Qing followed the Liang Qing Squad into the Evolution Forest for hunting, they suddenly encountered harmful rain. A mature-stage large tree underwent evolution again, and the scent it emitted had a highly hallucinogenic effect, with a coverage diameter reaching four kilometers. Animals entering its domain were affected by the hallucinations and killed each other.

Even more terrifying was that the scent could actually penetrate the filter cartridges of the protective masks humans used at the time, affecting the human brain.

In that crisis, twenty-six people died, including the Liang Qing Squad's captain and vice-captain, rendering the Liang Qing Squad a name without substance. The squad's third-in-command, Chen Dongyang, rallied the outstanding evolved persons of the Liang Qing Squad and established the Dongyang Squad, now ranked tenth in the base. The Liang Qing Squad fell to become a small squad that couldn't squeeze into the top thirty.

In that crisis, Xia Qing, a strength-evolved person responsible for carrying work, was at the very back of the team and didn't enter the large tree's domain. Braving danger, she used a rope to rescue Xu Juan, who had fallen into hallucinations. For a long time after that, Xia Qing didn't dare enter the depths of the Evolution Forest again.

Now, Xia Qing stood far away, and was perfectly clear-headed that the large tree in the buffer forest was not something she alone could handle. She was even so afraid of entering that large tree's ability domain that she didn't dare take one more step forward.

Swinging her blade to cut a toad that was sticking out its tongue and lunging at her clean in half, stuffing it into her leather pouch, Xia Qing retreated back along the same route to her house, quickly climbed up to the attic, and confirmed that the large tree was still there—it wasn't a hallucination she had produced—then decisively took out her phone.

Before she could call Zhong Tao, Captain Tan's call came through. His speech was still serious and concise. "Xia Qing, are there any abnormalities at Site Three?"

Xia Qing answered immediately, "Yes. A mature-stage large tree in the western buffer inner forest of Site Three has evolved again. It's grown at least five meters taller, and the canopy has expanded at least twofold."

Captain Tan immediately pressed, "Where are you? Are you okay?"

Xia Qing answered, "I'm fine. I'm standing at the village entrance, looking through binoculars."

"Good." Captain Tan's voice grew even more serious, and he spoke in a commanding tone. "Hold your position. I'll immediately bring people to clear it. You are not to apply to join."

The words she hadn't yet spoken were cut off. Xia Qing hung up the phone before she could even collect her thoughts when she heard a "bang"—a tremendous crash from downstairs—and her building shuddered along with it.

Xia Qing immediately shut the windows tight and ran downstairs, discovering that Old Goat had actually knocked her double-leaf anti-theft front door flat onto the ground.

That wasn't all—damn it, that crazy goat that deserved to be sliced up and thrown into the pot had actually stepped on her door and was standing on top of it!

Even more outrageous, it was also goddamn narrowing its eyes and staring at Xia Qing, as if Xia Qing had committed some great treasonous act of betrayal against it!

I goddamn…

Xia Qing took a deep breath to suppress her fury, cautiously probing Old Goat's current state, afraid that it had undergone harmful evolution due to excess harmful elements in its body, or had been controlled by that suddenly evolved large tree. "Old Goat?"

"Moo!" Old Goat bellowed in rage, its hoof giving a vicious scrape across the tall, fancy door handle on the front door—"clang"—scrapping one more.

Xia Qing's temper flared up. Grinding her teeth, she pulled a compressed ration from her pocket. "Want to eat?"

Old Goat's eyes immediately flew open. "Baa."

Hearing Old Goat's coquettish voice, Xia Qing instantly blew her top. She slammed the ration onto the ground and charged forward with a roar.

"Damn it! If I don't beat you to death today, I won't be surnamed Xia!"