Chapter 28: Germination Rate

After the great biological evolution of Blue Star, animals generally evolved more times than humans, and many animals that had not originally threatened humans became very dangerous.

Therefore, during the chaotic period right after Blue Star's organisms evolved, many humans were attacked or accidentally injured by their domestic pets, which caused the relationship between humans and pets to become very tense, even hostile, and many pets were killed or abandoned.

Once humans discovered that evolved animals could become powerful combat forces and aids, reclaiming pets became extremely difficult.

First, after the great biological evolution of Blue Star, humans, who had once led the biological world by a wide margin, lost the means to control animals, especially highly evolved ones. Second, humans could no longer provide enough food and safe space to raise animals. Therefore, ten years into the apocalypse, very few people had the ability to keep pets.

Kept pets were roughly divided into two categories: ordinary pets that survived by depending on humans after ordinary evolution, and highly evolved pets.

The relationship between ordinary pets and their keepers was not much different from the human-pet relationship before the catastrophe. The relationship between highly evolved pets and their keepers depended on the keeper's strength. Either the keeper's strength could overwhelm the evolved animal and make it submit, or the human and animal reached some kind of deal or built an emotional bond, forming a partnership.

Xia Qing and Sheep Boss belonged to the partnership type, and she was also curious what relationship Zhang San had with his evolved cat.

Cats were different from dogs — they were an animal humans had kept for over three thousand years without fully domesticating.

It wasn't just Xia Qing; the other lords were also very curious and pricked up their ears.

Zhang San remained languid and unhurried, as if he were stroking his cat while talking, "What level it is has nothing to do with you, you stinky meat peddler. Return my antidote to me tomorrow, and I won't exchange any more supplies with Territory Two."

No matter how Tang Huai explained that the mutton was still fine when it left his hands, Zhang San didn't speak again — he must have gone offline.

Xia Qing had no time to stroke her sheep either. She took out the protective suit she had exchanged from Territory Two and carefully inspected it under the firelight, only relaxing after confirming there was no problem.

Three days later, when Hu Zi came to deliver sweet potato seedlings to Xia Qing, he proactively asked, "Sister Qing, have the mice in your territory been cleaned up?"

Xia Qing nodded, "Cleaned twice, should be clean. Haven't seen any mice digging up seeds these past two days."

"That's good." Seeing that Xia Qing only stared at the sweet potato seedlings, with no intention of looking at him or saying an extra word, Hu Zi could only leave, somewhat disappointed.

Xia Qing took the sweet potato vines and returned to her territory without looking back.

After all the back and forth, she had naturally noticed Hu Zi had some interest in her. She had no such feelings toward Hu Zi at all, so she handled it cleanly and decisively.

The sweet potato planting method Tan Junjie sent Xia Qing mentioned that sweet potatoes were best planted in sandy loam soil with good drainage and fertility. Xia Qing didn't know how to accurately judge soil fertility, so she chose a higher-lying patch of sandy soil near the reservoir.

Because the fibrous roots of the sweet potato seedlings carried no soil, Xia Qing first soaked the roots of the sweet potato seedlings in mountain spring water for half an hour before planting them in the field. After watering them thoroughly with mountain spring water, Xia Qing sat at the edge of the field gazing tenderly at the two short rows of sweet potato seedlings.

Sheep Boss, returning from grazing on the back hillside, walked over, lifted its nose to sniff, and opened its mouth to bite. Xia Qing grabbed its horn and sternly warned, "No, you absolutely cannot eat this."

Sheep Boss narrowed its eyes, shook its head hard to fling off Xia Qing's hand, pawed the ground a few steps backward with its hooves, and struck an attacking pose.

Xia Qing raised an eyebrow, "Want to fight? Fine!"

Taking advantage of the time it spent posturing, Xia Qing quickly sprayed the area within a few meters around the sweet potato seedlings with Three-Proof Juice — an odor-type evolved camphor-tree sap that repelled insects, birds, and sheep.

"Moo!" Sheep Boss was enraged, its hooves stamped the ground, and it accelerated toward Xia Qing.

Xia Qing turned and led Sheep Boss away from the farmland, then set down the sprayer and went to meet it.

"Bang!"

When the strength-evolved human and the strength-evolved sheep collided with full force, the shockwave made even the leaves tremble. Then, as expected, Xia Qing, whose strength was no match for the sheep's, was sent flying.

However, she did a clean midair turn and landed steadily on both feet. Then Xia Qing charged again, sidestepped the deadly horns, reached out and grabbed its spiral horn, "Take this!"

"Bang!"

Sheep Boss hadn't learned its lesson yet. After slamming hard into the ground, it rolled and scrambled back up, then collided again with the charging Xia Qing. Xia Qing flew again, landed and was thrown again, Sheep Boss flew.

Within a fifty-meter radius of where the human and sheep were fighting, the ground was a mess.

"Take this again!" Xia Qing had no idea how many times it was now, but she grabbed Sheep Boss's spiral horn again and suddenly exerted force — only this time, things didn't go as she intended.

When Sheep Boss had its horn grabbed, its hind hooves stomped hard on the ground to change the direction of its charge, and both front hooves kicked viciously at Xia Qing's chest and abdomen. Xia Qing immediately let go and dodged with all her might, but she was still kicked by its hooves and knocked to the ground.

Sheep Boss, already prepared to attack again, pulled back its hooves and raised its head, narrowing its eyes as it looked at Xia Qing on the ground.

Xia Qing, who actually didn't feel that much pain, sat on the ground, took off her protective mask and put on a mask of agony, "No more fighting, you're the boss, I surrender."

Sheep Boss was satisfied and turned to head up the mountain.

What for? Tired from fighting, going to drink water. Xia Qing followed behind it for the same purpose.

After the human and sheep had drunk their fill, they sat by a rock to rest. Sheep Boss narrowed its eyes, looking quite pleased. Xia Qing's smile never left her lips either — every few days she would go all-out fighting Sheep Boss, and not only was it exhilarating, she had also gotten stronger, and so had Sheep Boss.

Facing the evolved creatures of all Blue Star after the catastrophe, the stronger one became, the greater the chance of survival, and the more likely one could do what one wanted to do.

Xia Qing stood up, stretched, and looked down at her territory.

The more than two thousand mu of farmland that had been swallowed by weeds of various colors just a few days ago — the exhilaration in her heart was beyond words.

Wait!

Xia Qing stared at the field where she had planted seeds — green, unmistakably neat green — the mung beans had sprouted! She cried out and rushed down the slope.

Sheep Boss was startled by her jumpy movements and leapt up, but after seeing where she was headed, it lay back down and continued chewing its cud.

Of the three kinds of seeds — wheat, mung beans, and cotton — planted on the same day, the mung beans sprouted first. Xia Qing observed carefully and found that the germination rate of mung beans soaked in spring water was noticeably higher than those soaked in filtered water.

The tender yellow, delicate little bean sprouts breaking through the soil — no matter how one looked at them, they were a delight. Xia Qing truly wished she could squat in the field and keep watching.

After the mung beans sprouted, the wheat and cotton also successively broke through the soil surface. By the time no more seedlings emerged, Xia Qing carefully tallied them up and reached a conclusion: the germination rate of seeds soaked in spring water was indeed higher than those soaked in filtered water.

The germination rate of seeds soaked in filtered water was around 40%, consistent with what the broadcast had introduced. The germination rate of seeds soaked in spring water, however, was as high as 60%!