Chapter 395: The Lord Alliance's First Outing Mission Successfully Completed

Kuang Qingwei's expression was a little hard to describe. "Ren Jie wants to cooperate with us like Territory Fifteen does. I turned him down flat. The only reason I brought Yue-ge and the others along was because we were short-handed, and now we have enough people. Besides..."

Kuang Qingwei lowered his voice. "Zhao Ze told me about you running into Ren Jie and his bunch this morning. If you hadn't been holding the line, that tiller would've been snatched for sure."

Xia Qing nodded. "Qing-ge did the right thing — we don't need to work with them right now. But if Wen Nengjie comes back, don't shut the door on him completely. There might be a chance to cooperate later."

"Got it." Kuang Qingwei checked his protective mask. "You rest a bit, I'll get to work."

Thornwood is extremely hard — even a chainsaw struggles with it, let alone muscle power. But when tools are short, you have to brute-force it by hand.

But Shi Mu, Yuan Yan, Kuang Qingwei, and the others were all in the Evolution Forest on a mission for the first time. Forget working — just standing in this thornwood forest that blotted out the sky, they kept feeling that something that could kill them at any moment was hiding behind the wild grass, and even breathing became difficult.

In fact, that was exactly the case.

Xia Qing, who was resting on a rock, suddenly raised her gun and dropped a red-eyed lizard over half a meter long that had just darted out of the grass. The direction the lizard had lunged was straight at an ordinary person from Territory Four who had his back turned, bent over chopping wood.

If the lizard had latched on, injury was certain. But before the man even noticed the danger, its source was eliminated by a single shot from Xia Qing.

After Xia Qing and the guards covering three different positions had taken out several threats, the woodcutters sped up.

Xia Qing understood their mindset perfectly. Because when she went on missions outside the Safe Zone as an unofficial logistics member, she had felt exactly the same.

The difference was that Xia Qing was now actively protecting them, whereas when she herself ran into danger in the Evolution Forest, she had to actively seek someone else's protection.

Now she had gone from the protected to the protector.

She didn't need to speak — just eliminating threats shot by shot, steel pellet by steel pellet, letting the protected build up confidence, and they would throw themselves into their task with everything they had, hoping to walk out of the Evolution Forest alive.

On the morning of the first day, Xia Qing and Territory Four finished transporting the yellow clay needed for the greenhouse earthen walls.

On the afternoon of the first day, the yellow clay for Territories Five and Six was transported.

On the morning of the second day, the soil needed for Territories Fifteen and Ten was transported.

On the afternoon of the second day, five transport trucks and four excavators gathered in the thornwood forest and began hauling out the thornwood.

On the morning of the third day, the trucks rented from Territory Eight expired, leaving only two transport trucks and one excavator. Qi Fu and over twenty others stayed inside the territory to begin building the greenhouse, while Xia Qing and Yue Haiying led the team to continue felling trees.

On the morning of the fifth day, the two transport trucks that had hauled enough thornwood for the perimeter wall began transporting yellow clay to the various territories again. Zhao Ze pulled in more people to help Xia Qing build the greenhouse earthen walls.

At six in the afternoon of the fifth day, the three work vehicles' rental period ended, and they headed off to Territory Fifteen.

The territory alliance's first collective mission was successfully completed.

The people set down by the transport trucks on the East Buffer Zone felt not exhaustion but excitement. Because they had gone to work in the Evolution Forest — not only earning points and broadening their horizons, but also making it out alive.

Zhu Li, who had entered the Evolution Forest for the first time today, excitedly told Xia Qing, "I'm going to trade for a set of Grade-Two field protective gear as soon as I get back. Xia Qing, can you take me along next time you form a team? I feel like I've toughened up a lot in the past half year or so out here."

"Right, if there's any heavy work like this again, just give us a shout, Qing." Shi Mu had worked days one, three, and five, and was brimming with confidence now.

Yuan Yan, who had also worked three days, was relatively calm. "Xia Qing, what danger level would you call this tree-felling and soil-digging mission?"

Xia Qing replied, "Low risk. Same level as the Evolution Forest clearing missions the combat teams ran last autumn and winter."

From now until the end of January next year, apart from the heavy-snow period, is when the Evolution Forest's danger level is at its lowest — suitable for humans who don't hibernate to explore and expand their territory's range.

Hearing it was low risk, the group wasn't disappointed at all, still chattering and laughing as they walked back.

Passing Territory Fifteen, Yue Haiying's bunch said goodbye to everyone and returned to their territory through the north gate. Then Territory Ten, Territory Six, Territory Five, Territory Four — in the end, only Xia Qing was left, walking toward her own territory.

"Xia Qing, you've been pretty busy lately." Tang Huai, whom she hadn't seen in a long time, stood with arms folded, huffily leaning against the Territory Two bus stop sign. "Today is the fifteenth!"

The fifteenth was the day Xia Qing had set for handing over the thirty green-light eggs to Tang Huai in exchange for three sets of dog protective gear.

Xia Qing nodded, held up a seven with her hand, and signaled with her eyes for Tang Huai to meet her at Territory Three's north gate later. Then she took out her key, unlocked the big lock on the south gate, went back into her territory, and locked the big lock behind her again.

It wasn't dark yet. Qi Fu was still leading over twenty people inside Territory Three building the greenhouse earthen walls. At this pace, the walls would be done in another two days — much faster than Xia Qing had expected.

Back home, Xia Qing received an enthusiastic welcome from Ram Boss and Sick Wolf, because for the past few days she had been leaving early and coming back late, and after patrolling the territory and eating, she fell right asleep — barely spending any time interacting with her two companions.

Xia Qing pressed down hard on Ram Boss's spiral horn with her left hand and scratched Sick Wolf under the chin with her right, then went to fetch the eggs to trade to Tang Huai.

As dusk fell, Qi Fu called out a greeting to Xia Qing and led his team out of Territory Three through the south gate. After they left, Jing Kuan and Chen Zheng, who had come over to handle security, also left Territory Three through the north gate. Inside Territory Three, only one person, one ram, and one wolf remained.

Xia Qing carried the green-light eggs to the north gate to wait for Tang Huai. Ram Boss and Sick Wolf, not knowing what Xia Qing was up to, habitually trailed behind her.

The dog protective gear Tang Huai had traded for the eggs had been delivered long ago. Xia Qing had already given it to Head Wolf and Broken-Waist Wolf, and had mended the protective gear they had damaged fighting the python and the bear, storing it in the warehouse for emergencies.

After mending them, Xia Qing had originally intended for the two wolves to keep wearing the repaired gear and save the new ones for backup, but the two wolves refused. Those two characters both love the new and hate the old.

Today was the day to hand over the green-light eggs. Last night, she had already traded for the eggs with Territory Seven. If she hadn't had something to ask Tang Huai, she would have had Chen Zheng deliver the eggs to Tang Huai during the day.

Tang Huai walked along Territory Three's newly built perimeter wall to the north gate. Seeing that the north gate was actually an automatic revolving gate with facial recognition, he couldn't help complaining, "The south gate is the main entrance, and you put some crappy lock on it; how many people even see the north gate? You..."

Halfway through his complaint, Tang Huai suddenly had a revelation. He stared wide-eyed and pointed at Xia Qing, as if she were a heartless scoundrel of a woman. "This north gate of yours isn't for people — it's specifically for your ram to use? That's just too..."

Seeing Xia Qing's eyelids flick up, Tang Huai immediately backed down and changed his tune. "That's just too reasonable!"