Chapter 651: Disaster Strikes

"Eat up. This is green-light wild boar meat and green-light eggs — very nutritious."

After dawn, Xia Qing, who had just received a new piece of yi-stone, set the small food bowl on the ground of the sheep shed, looked up, and spoke kindly to the round little white head poking out from the haystack, "Little Bai Mao, I promised the Queen my lord that I would take good care of you."

After saying that, Xia Qing didn't linger — for the tiny weasel, she was simply too big, and weasels would instinctively be afraid of her.

She hadn't expected that the moment she stepped out of the sheep shed, Little Bai Mao would come down from the haystack to eat. The corners of Xia Qing's mouth curved up slightly. Sure enough, it hadn't been her imagination just now — after the pack leader's visit last night, this albino weasel's guard toward her had dropped a huge notch; it even dared to eat in front of her.

The soft, delicate squeaks of the weasel kits on the haystack made Xia Qing's palms itch. She was sure that before long, she'd be able to pet this beautiful snow-white weasel and its kits.

Stinky?

How could it be! If it were stinky, would the Queen my lord have licked it?

Xia Qing hummed a little tune back to the house, picked up a small basket, and went to patrol the territory, catching bugs to feed the fish along the way. The fish in the tank had been spoiled by Wolf Lao Er — they refused to eat grass and would only eat meat. Because of the bug-catching business, after Sheep Boss had thrown a few tantrums with Xia Qing, she stopped making things hard for it and started catching bugs herself.

Wolf Lao Er wasn't in the territory, and Xia Qing felt unsafe everywhere, so she patrolled especially carefully. After one full circuit, she hadn't only caught a small basket of insects — she'd also caught two evolved rats!

The appearance of these things inside the territory meant that the repellent she'd sprayed along the iron-net fence to drive away small reptiles wasn't working as well as last year.

Animals were constantly evolving, and their resistance was constantly rising. This year the Territory Management Department had already upgraded the insect repellent two generations — Zhang Shiyi's formula needed an upgrade too.

After dumping the insects to the spring-water fish and the green-light chickens, Xia Qing went into the breeding greenhouse and held up the evolved rat, which was as long as her forearm, in front of Sheep Boss, who was eating grass. "Boss! Bad news! Rats have gotten into our territory!"

Sheep Boss squinted at the rat in Xia Qing's hand, then slowly chewed up the grass blade it had been holding. Sheep Boss didn't like rats either, but not to Xia Qing's degree — rats didn't compete with it for food.

"Wolf Lao Er isn't home, so it's up to the two of us to clear the rats out of the territory. Your nose is better than mine — how about we go catch rats together? You find them, I catch them." Xia Qing pulled a compressed ration from her pocket. "This is a new ration I just traded for. Want some?"

Sheep Boss's eyes instantly lit up, and it let out a clipped bleat, "Maa~~"

"You lead me to the rats, and I'll give you the new ration." Xia Qing tucked the ration back into her pocket, signaling Sheep Boss to take her rat-catching.

Xia Qing's sense of smell hadn't evolved, so relying only on sight and hearing to search for evolved rats across more than seven thousand mu of territory took a huge amount of time. With Sheep Boss's help it was a different story — that thing's nose was excellent.

Spurred on by the ration, Sheep Boss didn't even bother with fresh perilla and headed out of the greenhouse. Xia Qing first sealed up the two evolved rats she'd caught, then went after Sheep Boss. She hadn't expected that, after leading her on a loop around the territory, Sheep Boss would actually head toward home.

Xia Qing's heart leapt into her throat. "Boss — the rats have come into the village?"

Sheep Boss marched ahead with its head Gao Ang high, walking with the most righteous air imaginable. Although she hadn't heard the home surveillance cameras sound an alarm, Xia Qing still trusted her companion's nose. The thought that rats might have already chewed through the window screens and gotten into the house sent her fury skyrocketing — she drew her pistol and gripped it in her hand.

Sure enough, there was an evolved rat at home — but it was already dead, lying stiff on the grass mat in front of her door. No wonder the surveillance cameras hadn't alarmed: they only triggered on moving, living things. This one must have been carried in.

Pistol in hand, Xia Qing walked up to the sheep shed and thanked Little Bai Mao, who was nursing her kits inside. "Little Bai Mao, thank you for catching this rat and ridding the house of a pest."

How did Xia Qing know Little Bai Mao had caught this evolved rat? First, because a few snow-white hairs clung to the drab gray rat's body; second, because the evolved rat's whiskers were still attached. If a hair-plucking weasel had caught it, it would have pulled the whiskers out before presenting it to Xia Qing.

The fact that it could catch an evolved rat this big meant Little Bai Mao's combat ability absolutely surpassed that of an ordinary weasel.

Such a big rat, and Little Bai Mao hadn't taken a single bite — proof that it had already eaten its fill. Hair-plucking weasels went out to hunt and always brought food back, so this evolved rat belonged to Xia Qing too.

After Xia Qing tested the evolved rat and confirmed it carried no toxins and was red-light, she chopped it into chunks with a cleaver and tossed them into the snake tank to feed the snakes — at which point that little emerald-green snake darted out of the tank again. This time the little snake's goal wasn't to bite her, but to escape.

However, its escape plan failed once more — Xia Qing caught it with one hand. After lifting the little snake up, her eyes went wide.

A bump the size of a peanut had risen on this little snake's forehead. Could this change mean it was a qiang-snake of a different species from the fire-red qiang-snakes in the lake north of Mountain 60?!

Xia Qing immediately pinched the little snake's head and sent a photo to her idol. If this little snake really was a qiang-snake, it couldn't go back into the snake tank — and the dozen or so snakes already in the tank could no longer be eaten either.

Xia Qing had no time to feel sorry about the food now; what mattered was how to handle this crisis. Qiang-synthesized venom caused severe and hard-to-treat damage to the human body. So any creature capable of synthesizing its own toxins with qiang elements into natural qiang-synthesized venom was classified as a high-danger organism.

After she stuffed the little emerald-green snake into the pouch at her waist, the phone rang.

Zhang San's voice carried no morning grumpiness — it was utterly calm. "Xia Qing, where was this snake caught?"

Xia Qing answered immediately. "I caught it on Mountain 49 last year. I thought it was pretty, and its attack moves were pretty fierce, so I assumed it was a brain-domain evolved snake and brought it back to keep in the snake tank. I only just noticed the bump on its head when I was feeding the snakes. Third Brother, is this a qiang-snake?"

Zhang San's voice stayed calm. "I'll send Ji Li over to collect the snake — hand over the snake tank to him as well. If this snake is confirmed to be a qiang-snake, we'll immediately activate the disaster-eradication protocol. Notify Hu Zifeng first and have Territory One and Mountain 49 prepare in advance."

Since her idol said to prepare in advance, that meant he was already ninety percent sure it was a qiang-snake. Xia Qing felt the pouch at her waist grow heavy, and she answered at once, "Understood. Third Brother, send an extra strength evolver — the snake tank weighs more than three hundred jin."

Ji Li was a high-level speed evolver; hauling supplies like this still needed a strength evolver.

A tank for keeping a dozen or so snakes — why on earth did she make it weigh more than three hundred jin? Zhang San was speechless for a few seconds. "I'll send Watching Huo Zhun over. Be careful — don't get bitten."