Chapter 617: Symbiosis

Looking at this fist-sized little bird with its feathers plucked all over the place, no telling what breed, and the weasel beside it holding an unplucked bird in its mouth, gazing at her with shiny black eyes, Xia Qing's first thought was:

No wonder your plucking job is about to be lost — your work really isn't up to much.

Her second thought was: How can I make this weasel understand that when I agreed to let the broken-back wolf and the broken-leg wolf stay in the territory to recover, it wasn't because the alpha wolf brought me prey, but because I'd already accepted the Use Yishi as a "consulting fee."

At the time, this weasel, brought over by the wolf pack, had only seen the wolves deliver prey to Xia Qing, not the Use Yishi they delivered. So, staying in Xia Qing's territory to raise its young, and following the wolves' example by bringing her the prey it caught — was there anything wrong with that?

No.

A two- to three-hundred-jin evolved wolf brings Xia Qing a few jin of unplucked wild chicken; a tiny weasel weighing less than three jin brings Xia Qing a few liang of plucked little bird — is there a problem?

No. It must think it does a better job than the wolf pack.

Xia Qing laughed, bent down and picked up the blood-streaked plucked little bird from the ground, and in a gentle, sincere voice thanked the plucking weasel. "Thanks for the bird, plucking one. You're a very particular wolf indeed. If you can find the two kinds of herbs I showed you, you'll surely climb to the top of Jin Zita and become the most outstanding weasel on Blue Star."

The plucking weasel watched Xia Qing accept its prey, listened solemnly to her words, then without any reaction picked up the bird in its mouth and burrowed into the wild grass, disappearing.

Xia Qing pulled out the Qi Element Detector, found it was a red-light little bird, and put it in a small basket to hand to the sick wolf. "Wolf Lao Er, this bird is red-light, neither of us can eat it — take it to feed the fish."

The sick wolf happily took the basket in its mouth and ran off to the breeding greenhouse.

After clearing the weeds and stones from the five mu of wasteland before noon, Xia Qing looked from afar toward the big toon tree on Gao Po. The spray's effect was still holding; no borer moths had been drawn by the scent, and the toon buds bagged in their pouches looked about the same as that morning, no longer growing wildly like yesterday.

Xia Qing estimated that the big toon tree had passed its most dangerous period, and the amount of Yi synthetic element it released was much less than yesterday.

She and the sick wolf herded the chickens back to the greenhouse, picked some green-light vegetables, collected three eggs, and went home to cook. Sheep Boss refused to come home and ran off to guard under the big toon tree again. Xia Qing let it be, because she'd already sprayed the big toon tree again and wasn't afraid of it releasing gas.

Moreover, to protect any tender shoots that might sprout under the big toon tree, Xia Qing had already circled it with thorns to keep Sheep Boss away. After a year of forceful communication, Sheep Boss understood that plants circled by thorns couldn't be eaten directly — it had to wait for Xia Qing to pick them off before eating.

Sheep Boss had no objection to Xia Qing's approach, because even the toon buds it could reach by jumping up were less than a fifth of the whole tree; the upper toon buds had always required Xia Qing to pick them for it.

After the one person, one sheep, and one wolf left the newly cleared wasteland, quite a few birds landed to scratch for food. The plucking weasel seized the chance again and caught two birds, feeding its mate full and itself full.

Xia Qing made a hearty lunch before opening the back window to call Sheep Boss back to eat.

After the meal, she took the sheep plow out of the rack-building warehouse, carried it to the edge of the newly cleared field, fitted the harness onto Sheep Boss, and hung a cluster of freshly picked, bagged toon buds in front of it. Then Sheep Boss got to work enthusiastically, so fast that Xia Qing holding the plow had to jog to keep up.

This plowing was for airing the soil, picking out stones and grass roots, and removing insects. After the greenhouse was up and the Qi Rain passed, she'd spread fertilizer and plow once more before sowing — this was a new method introduced in the Farming Knowledge Broadcast.

Before the sun set, the five mu were already plowed. Sheep Boss felt it hadn't had enough and insisted on continuing.

Xia Qing had no choice but to haul a leveling rake from home, let Sheep Boss pull it along with her, and rake the freshly plowed field flat twice more, raking out the grass roots too — saving her quite a bit of work.

Sheep Boss burned off its excess energy and settled down, drinking water under the tree shade, half-closing its eyes as it listened to Xia Qing praise it for being capable.

After coaxing Sheep Boss into a good mood, Xia Qing took her back basket and went to pick stones from the field. The farmland at the foot of the mountain had lots of stones, so picking stones was an indispensable part of farming. Removing stones improved soil conditions, letting sown seeds take root and sprout better.

The Farming Knowledge Broadcast had introduced a land-clearing machine that used high-strength steel blades to crush stones and vegetation into stone powder and wood chips. But that thing burned fuel and had very high energy consumption — far less economical than manual labor.

In Xia Qing's territory, even manual labor was just supplementary; the main force was sheep labor. Five mu consumed one basin of water and one cluster of toon buds — far lower energy use than any machine or human worker.

After dark, when Yan Long delivered Zhang He to Territory Three. Xia Qing saw that although she wasn't wearing a sealed protective suit, she was wearing a breathing mask connected to an oxygen tank, and knew this kind of gas affected her too.

Xia Qing really wanted to ask Yan Long and Zhang He whether they'd dreamed last night, but she didn't dare.

First, because she was wearing a sealed protective suit and it was inconvenient to talk. The main reason was that Xia Qing feared Yan Long was in an irritable state and would drag her into a sparring session. Xia Qing had been busy these days clearing land and building greenhouses — getting beaten up badly would affect her work efficiency.

Zhang He, in the sealed protective suit, carefully broke off a cluster of bagged toon buds, tightened the opening and put them into a large bag, then took out an air toxin detector and tested for a while near the branch where the buds had been broken off. After confirming the break wasn't releasing Yi synthetic element outward, he began collecting the other bags.

The bagged toon buds in higher spots required a stepladder to reach. Xia Qing didn't let Zhang He go up; she climbed the stepladder herself.

With Xia Qing's help, 150 clusters of bagged toon buds were quickly broken off and properly stored. Zhang He handed Xia Qing a new detector, then took out his phone and showed her a line of text on the screen:

This is a Yi synthetic element detector. Third Brother said to use it to trade for your toon buds.

Xia Qing immediately nodded and took it. She'd been planning to go to the Evolution Forest to look for Yi-evolved plants, and was in need of exactly this kind of instrument.

After Yan Long and Zhang He left, just as Xia Qing finished her night run, she received a call from her idol. "Once this gas reaches a certain concentration, its effect on strength evolvers is quite pronounced. You could say the toon tree and strength-evolved animals have a symbiotic relationship."

The big toon tree relies on strength-evolved animals charging at it to drive away evolved borer moths, preventing them from laying eggs on its branches. Strength-evolved animals gain energy by gnawing on high-quality green-light toon buds. But this symbiotic relationship does more harm than good for both sides.

Standing in the evening breeze, Xia Qing asked softly, "Third Brother, why doesn't it attract birds?"

Zhang San replied calmly, "Just as people can't control the direction of their own evolution, plants can't either. That it survived is a miracle. Your stupid sheep attacking you during last year's first Qi Rain wasn't because excess Qi elements attacked its brain and caused it to lose control — it was because it had taken in too much toon-tree gas and was in an irritable state, and the excess Qi elements in the Qi Rain intensified that state."

Xia Qing understood. "So Sheep Boss should have been born after the first Qi Rain the year before last."