Chapter 191: Level 2 Speed Evolution

Xia Qing set up the greenhouse for two reasons: one, to have fresh vegetables to eat; two, to have Green Lantern spinach on hand. As long as she could grow spinach year-round, she wouldn't run out of premium nutrient solution.

The premium nutrient solution wasn't just needed by her and Big Sheep — it was also a "medicine" the evolved wolves loved, and could be used to trade with the wolf pack for yi stones and Green Lantern prey.

Qi Fu agreed immediately. "Bro, I've been waiting for you to say that. Don't worry, your brother and your sister-in-law will never hold you back. When we go to the Evolution Forest, whatever you say goes."

Xia Qing asked, "Brother Qi, is your wife also a strength evolver?"

Qi Fu answered, "Back in the safe zone she was a 1.8x strength evolver. In the half-year since we left the territory, she's gotten stronger too — she's definitely hit Level 2. If we're going somewhere dangerous, just you and I will go. If it's not dangerous, the three of us will go together. Let your sister-in-law come along to haul stuff and broaden her horizons."

Well then, both husband and wife were strength evolvers — any kids they had in the future would definitely be strength evolvers too. Xia Qing figured that once this couple's life got a little better, they'd definitely start thinking about having children.

Xia Qing shared her joy with Big Sheep. "Boss, we've got more people to cooperate with."

Unlike the Beard Feng squad from Territory One, Qi Fu and his wife shared Xia Qing's goal — they both wanted to farm properly. Qi Fu had rich farming knowledge and knew many plants. Teaming up with him to explore the outer edges of the Evolution Forest would definitely yield more than going alone.

If Shi Du also didn't return to the safe zone for the winter, she could ask Shi Du to team up as well. The greenhouse project could also be discussed jointly with Territory Five and Territory Ten.

The more she thought about it, the more Xia Qing looked forward to this winter.

A squad of three or four strength evolvers had strong carrying capacity but poor risk resistance. Even exploring just a few kilometers into the outer Evolution Forest, they had to be fully prepared.

Xia Qing wasn't short on equipment for exploring the Evolution Forest — her main task now was to improve her own abilities.

During this period, no matter how busy she was each day, Xia Qing always set aside enough time for training in physical fitness, accuracy, reaction speed, and precise sound-based positioning. Every time she trained until utterly exhausted, Xia Qing would grit her teeth and push on for at least another half hour, until she collapsed and couldn't get up.

After half a month of high-intensity training, Xia Qing's progress was obvious: she used to need fifteen minutes to run a lap around her territory, but now she only needed twelve.

Territory Three had a perimeter of nine kilometers. Running a lap in twelve minutes meant she'd already reached the level of a Level 2 speed evolver. Although she was still a long way from the Level 4 speed evolution Luo Pei had mentioned, any progress was worth celebrating.

Xia Qing lay exhausted on the ground, grinned up at the blue sky, and said, "Boss, I'm amazing, right?"

Big Sheep, who had been running laps with Xia Qing, lay beside her panting. It was a strength evolution sheep, not a speed evolution sheep — running like this was a challenge for it too.

Xia Qing didn't know what it was thinking, but even though Big Sheep was always dog-tired afterward, it still kept running. However long Xia Qing ran, it ran; however fast Xia Qing ran, it ran.

Not only Big Sheep — the sick wolf also followed along. But its body was weak and it couldn't keep up with Xia Qing and Big Sheep's pace. It could only amble slowly along the hillsides, flat ground, and valleys they had passed through, and by now it had wandered off to who-knows-where.

"Xia Qing, finished running?" On the lord channel, Tang Huai asked in a perfectly polite tone. "Once you're done, I'm heading to the northern wasteland grass wall of Territory Two to dig for bugs?"

Xia Qing running laps around her territory every day didn't affect her eastern neighbor Zhao Ze much, but it seriously affected her southern neighbor in Territory Two — the hearing evolver Tang Huai.

After getting scolded by his father, Tang Huai didn't dare howl and curse at anyone outside Territory One on the lord channel anymore, and switched to passive-aggressive remarks instead.

Xia Qing was in a good mood, pressed the walkie-talkie, and replied, "Finished."

Not expecting Xia Qing to actually reply, Tang Huai couldn't help pressing further. "Xia Qing, what on earth are you pushing yourself like this for?"

Xia Qing answered seriously, "So that next time we're attacked, I can better protect my territory."

Tang Huai scoffed, dripping with sarcasm. "Just because you can run fast, you can protect your territory? Are you faster than the evolved beasts that run on the ground, or faster than the evolved raptors that fly in the sky?"

Before Xia Qing could reply, Beard Feng came online and started firing back. "Xia Qing doesn't need to compare herself with evolved beasts that are good at running or flying. When a natural disaster strikes, she only needs to outrun most people to survive. And you — you're part of that 'most people.'"

Damn it!

Just as Tang Huai was about to press the walkie-talkie button and curse back, he heard his father speak up. "Captain Hu is right."

Tang Huai……

His old man — this life was unbearable!

Although Beard Feng argued with Tang Huai every day, he was still very polite to Tang Zhengpo. "Director Tang, has the Sufeng Squad found their pangolins yet?"

Hearing Beard Feng bring up the pangolins on his own, everyone with their walkie-talkies on pricked up their ears and listened carefully — even Xia Qing sat up.

After sending Zhang Yong and Xu Juan to test Xia Qing and confirming the pangolins weren't in Territory Three, the Sufeng Squad had focused their main forces on searching the Evolution Forest, especially the swamp area in the northern part of Mountain 49.

Over seven days, the Sufeng Squad had cleaned out the swamp completely, but hadn't found a single new scale. Tang Zhengsu, who'd never suffered such a big loss before, went ballistic. He slammed the two scale pieces they'd previously found on Hui Three Base Commander's desk and demanded the Azure Dragon Squad compensate them for their losses.

Asking the miserly Azure Dragon Squad — a bunch of iron roosters who never plucked a single feather — to pay up? That was utterly wishful thinking.

The result of Tang Zhengsu's rampage: Yang Jin produced evidence on the spot that Sufeng Squad members had sneaked into Mountain 49. With ironclad proof impossible to refute, the Sufeng Squad could only grit their teeth and swallow it, paying the Azure Dragon Squad 300,000 points in compensation.

"You should be glad the pangolin died outside Mountain 49. If it had died three li further south, what you'd owe me wouldn't be just 300,000."

When Chen Cheng vividly mimicked Yang Jin holding a gun and confronting Tang Zhengsu, Xia Qing laughed until her stomach hurt, yet couldn't help admiring Yang Jin's shrewdness.

The Sufeng Squad had lost two pangolins bought at auction for a huge price, hadn't found a single yi stone, and still had to pay the Azure Dragon Squad 300,000.

300,000 — exactly the number of points Luo Pei had traded with Xia Qing for the two pangolins. Perhaps when Xia Qing had called, Yang Jin and Xie Yu had already figured out their counter-strategy.

Now Beard Feng was bringing up the pangolins on his own — was Territory One planning something again, or had the Sufeng Squad made another move that Territory One had picked up on? Xia Qing leaned against Big Sheep and listened with great interest.

Tang Zhengpo answered unhurriedly, "This morning, Ah Huai received a squad notice requiring him to continue cooperating with the squad in tracking down the pangolins."

Still looking?

Could it be that the two pangolins the wolf pack had captured weren't the Sufeng Squad's two?

Beard Feng directly voiced Xia Qing's doubt. "The two scale pieces you found — weren't they from your missing pangolins?"