Chapter 244: Evolved Hornets

After confirming that not a single inch of her skin was exposed, Xia Qing circled around to the other side of the stream and hid behind a large tree. She dug a hole in the ground big enough to conceal herself, then sprayed half a bottle of potion over her body. Taking a deep breath, she walked toward the chestnut tree.

If she couldn't hold them off, she'd jump into the hole and block the entrance with her backpack, then escape once the hornets dispersed.

The evolved hornets quickly spotted Xia Qing and came swarming in with a buzz, but when they got within two meters of her, they refused to come any closer, just circling around her and buzzing.

Idol-supplied goods — they must be top quality!

Reassured, Xia Qing sprinted to the base of the chestnut tree. After confirming the trunk had no stickiness and wouldn't launch any physical attacks, she first snipped off a branch to test it.

Her luck today was off the charts — the very first tree was a yellow light! Xia Qing immediately climbed up, swung the long-handled pruner, and started snipping away. Crack, crack, crack.

Branches laden with chestnuts quickly piled up on the ground in a layer, but the little squirrels watching from a distance could only fret helplessly. With the hornets' nest blown, they couldn't get close.

Surrounded by the cursing hornets, Xia Qing stood atop the chestnut tree wielding a pole pruner four and a half meters long, snipping every chestnut within reach. Just as she was about to climb higher, she spotted an extra-large hornet bigger than a palm emerging from within the swarm, buzzing as it charged straight at her.

Advanced evolved hornet!

Unsure whether Zhang San's potion could hold off an advanced evolved hornet, Xia Qing quickly drew her gun and blew its head clean off. She then sprayed another layer of potion over herself, guarding against advanced evolved hornets while climbing to a higher fork to snip chestnuts. Only after she'd finished the entire tree did she climb down to gather them.

During this process, Xia Qing shot down four advanced evolved hornets and confirmed that the potion only worked against ordinary evolved hornets.

After gathering the chestnuts, Xia Qing snipped one branch from each of the other chestnut trees and stuffed them separately into a small pouch before retreating with her big pack on her back. The swarm chased her up the slope before finally withdrawing.

Xia Qing braced herself against a large pine tree and let out a long sigh of relief.

The potion could indeed fend off ordinary evolved hornets, but her head was nearly splitting from their buzzing. The attack power of these creatures' cries was almost on par with ultrasound.

The return trip along the same route was much faster, and Xia Qing made it back to her territory by noon. Liangzi, who had come to keep watch over the territory, saw Xia Qing plastered with filthy bits of leaf and trudging back with a big pack. He didn't ask any questions — at this time of day, anything could happen in the evolved forest. Dirty but uninjured counted as impressive. "Sister Qing, Territory Two delivered the plastic film. I put it in the cabin."

Xia Qing had arranged that morning to trade greenhouse plastic film with Territory Two, and asked whoever came to guard the territory to dig up ten plants from the westernmost spinach plot in the greenhouse and hand them to Tang Huai.

After Liangzi headed back to Territory One, Xia Qing carried the chestnuts home.

The head wolf wasn't home, but the broken-legged wolf had come over. Three wolves and one sheep were resting in the clean, comfortable sheep pen. Xia Qing called out a greeting, then hurried inside to wash up — only to discover, to her dismay, that the chestnut tree leaves stuck to her protective suit wouldn't wash off. No wonder evolved insects that got stuck couldn't escape.

Xia Qing changed into a clean shirt and pants, then put the battered-looking protective suit back on, and went to check on the spring-water fish in her room. Since one of the fish ponds had been washed out and the spring-water fish were doing just fine in the tank, she simply didn't release them into the pond and kept raising them in the tank.

There were no fallen evolved insect corpses outside the tank or beside the chicken coop, which meant Wolfdog Lao Er had helped Sheep Boss with the cleanup. Xia Qing happily let the chickens into the coop, then sat in the yard and started shelling chestnuts.

This was a novelty, and all three wolves and the sheep came out to watch.

Sheep Boss sniffed the leaves caked with insects and dirt, immediately showed a look of distaste, and retreated several steps. Broken-Back Wolf and Sick Wolf watched Xia Qing's movements quietly. Broken-Leg Wolf leaped about wildly, going crazy around the pile of chestnuts.

Half a month ago, Xia Qing would definitely have been startled by this one and raised her gun to aim at it. But the current Xia Qing was used to it, working while muttering, "See that? One hand on each pair of pliers, pull them apart, and the chestnut pops right out. Easy as pie. But you lot don't have hands, so you can't do this work."

The chestnuts from this evolved chestnut tree were twice the size of the ones from before, with four or five big chestnuts in each burr. Shelling them was incredibly satisfying.

"Woo—"

Broken-Leg Wolf suddenly slapped the ground with its paw and let out excited whines. Xia Qing looked over and burst out laughing too.

When she'd gathered the chestnuts, she hadn't noticed she'd picked up a fist-sized hedgehog along with a chestnut burr. Xia Qing pulled the chestnut burr off its back and set the little hedgehog aside.

Broken-Leg Wolf leaped excitedly around the little spiky ball, pawing at it a few times, then jumping again. Broken-Back Wolf and Sick Wolf weren't interested, but Sheep Boss thought it was great fun and joined Broken-Leg Wolf in jumping around the little hedgehog.

Xia Qing filmed a video of the two crazy creatures for over ten seconds, then went back to shelling chestnuts. From a single tree, she'd actually harvested a hundred jin of chestnuts!

And her harvest was certainly far more than that — the chestnut grove had twenty-three trees in total, six of which bore no chestnuts. Xia Qing had only harvested one today, with sixteen still to go.

Now it was time to test the quality of the remaining sixteen chestnut trees. Xia Qing pulled out the small pouch, took out a little twig, broke off a section, squeezed out the sap to test it — yellow light!

Another branch — yellow light!

Third branch — green light!

Fourth branch…

All sixteen trees were edible, and four of them were green lights!

In the tenth year of the catastrophe, this was the first time Xia Qing had come across such a considerate evolved forest!

"We're rich! Boss, Lao Er, Broken-Back, Broken-Leg, we're rich!" She jumped up in excitement, leaping higher than the wolf and sheep going crazy around the hedgehog.

Once the excitement passed, Xia Qing began planning how to harvest all the chestnuts as quickly as possible. If it were only one or two trees, she could have handled it alone by tomorrow, but this many meant she'd need to form a team.

Xia Qing first contacted Hu Zifeng, then switched on the walkie-talkie to reach Shi Du. "Territory Ten, Shi Du, you there?"

The chestnut-harvesting team could be split into three task types: picking chestnuts, transporting chestnuts, and killing advanced evolved hornets.

In other words, the task squad needed two kinds of people: good shots and strength evolvers.

Shi Du replied quickly, "Sister Qing, I'm here."

Xia Qing asked directly, "Are you free to take on a task tomorrow?"

"Yes! Thanks so much, Sister Qing." Territory Ten had suffered heavy losses during the Deadly Rain, and Shi Mu had been injured too — Shi Du urgently needed to recoup. Xia Qing had such a good relationship with Territory One, and was even willing to bring him along on tasks; Shi Du was deeply grateful.

"Good, six tomorrow morning, we'll meet at the northern quarantine belt of Territory Three."

After Xia Qing and Shi Du set the time, she heard Tang Huai ask, "Xia Qing, what task are you doing? Can you take me along?"

Xia Qing asked, "Are you a level-four or above strength evolver?"

Tang Huai replied immediately, "I'm not, but I'm still pretty strong. Plus I'm a hearing evolver — level five!"

Xia Qing replied calmly, "There's extreme noise interference at that location. A hearing evolver wouldn't be suitable."

Tang Huai…