Chapter 710: Setting Out

Seeing Xin Yu noticed something off about Xia Qing and asked, "You want to team up with me to go into the Evolution Forest for a mission?"

Xia Qing nodded. "During the last Corrosive Rain, an abnormally large number of aggressive Corrosive-evolved wild paulownias burrowed up in our territory. There should be one—or a large one—growing in a nearby Evolution Forest. I've already spent the past two months checking Mountains 49 and 50 and found nothing, so I want to team up with you to head east to Mountain 51 for a look."

Seeing Xin Yu had long wanted to team up with Xia Qing for a trip into the Evolution Forest and agreed readily. "I'll bring Molly and Owl Owl; they can move together. When do we set out?"

Owl Owl was the eared owl Seeing Xin Yu kept. Last time, Molly and Owl Owl had worked together to bomb to death Vice Captain Xu Pin of the Sufeng Squad—quite a fearsome display of combat power. Xia Qing discussed with Seeing Xin Yu, "The sooner the better on this. How long do you need to prepare? If you can make it, shall we go the day after tomorrow?"

"The day after tomorrow, then." Seeing Xin Yu discussed with Xia Qing how many grams of explosives to bring while searching for the raven's figure using the tracker on its body.

After she found the raven, she couldn't help blinking. "Xia Qing, look—is Molly pecking at Chinese toon leaves?!"

Xia Qing, whose eyesight and hearing were both excellent, looked up at the raven that was holding a tender Chinese toon sprout in its beak and answered, "Yes, looks like it really likes them. This tree is edible, so eating a few leaves shouldn't be a problem, right?"

Xia Qing had once given Seeing Xin Yu Chinese toon sprouts, so Seeing Xin Yu knew this was a green-light plant with very low Yi-element content and also extremely low Corrosive-element content. But this was the first time she had seen Molly eating Chinese toon leaves, and she found it astonishing. "Ravens are omnivores like humans, but this is the first time I've seen one take an interest in tree leaves."

Xia Qing wasn't all that surprised, because this was no ordinary green-light toon tree. It could produce and release Yi-synthesis gas, making it a Yi-evolved tree. Many species of birds and insects come to eat the Chinese toon leaves. If too many birds or insects show up, Boss Sheep gets anxious and rams the tree—or rams Xia Qing—asking her to come drive off the insects and chase away the birds.

Xia deeply suspected that Boss Sheep's ability to maintain such excellent meat quality was also related to this tree.

Seeing Xin Yu noticed several small Chinese toon saplings surrounded by thorny rings around the big toon tree and sent Xia Qing a trade offer. "Can I trade for one small Chinese toon sapling? I'll give you two yellow-light figs. I had Uncle Ping find a few fig trees from Base 2, but unfortunately they're all yellow-grade. They'll be delivered in a few days."

Xia Qing had asked Seeing Xin Yu last time—because birds don't like eating fig fruit, there were no figs in Territory 8. So the reason she had Zhou Zhaoping look for figs was because Xia Qing was interested in this kind of tree. What a great friend—Xia Qing was touched. "Yellow-light is already excellent!"

Touched as she was, the trade couldn't be completed. "All these little saplings have already been traded away. When new ones burrow up next year, I'll reserve two for you? Guaranteed green-light."

"Deal. I'll give you two yellow-light fig saplings as a deposit first, and give you two more when we trade next year." Trading yellow-light saplings for green-light saplings—of course both sides give two.

Xia Qing happily agreed and led Seeing Xin Yu to admire the apple trees blooming in her green-light orchard. This year's apple trees were doing wonderfully, covered in blossoms from top to bottom—come autumn, Xia Qing would definitely get to eat apples.

Once Molly had eaten its fill and flown back down onto Seeing Xin Yu's shoulder, the two walked down along the path beside the terraced fields.

Seeing Xin Yu wasn't interested in crops, so she followed Xia Qing to the livestock greenhouse. Xia Qing went first to the planting greenhouse, said hello to Boss Sheep who was eating grass, and came back to find Seeing Xin Yu counting the chicks.

Seeing Xia Qing come over, quite a few chicks chirped and ran in her direction. Seeing Xin Yu couldn't finish counting them and asked directly, "How did you hatch so many chicks? There must be sixty or seventy of them."

Because last year her idol had set a trade condition, asking her to raise fifty chickens to meet its food needs.

Xia Qing explained, "I hatched 92 in total, but 16 have already died, leaving 76. Because Third Brother likes eating green-light food, I hatched a few extra. Once they're grown, I'll use them to trade for supplies with him."

This year, nine hens in Territory 3 went broody. Xia Qing tucked 20 eggs under each, so the hatching success rate was 51%, and the current chick survival rate is 82%.

The reason such a high survival rate could be maintained was that Xia Qing had traded with Territory 7 for vaccine specifically for chicks, preventing common diseases like chicken plague and bacterial infections.

After hatching this batch of chicks this year, Xia Qing gained a fresh understanding of the price of green-light chickens.

Last year when Xia Qing traded with her idol, green-light young hens sold for 2,000 points each and young roosters for 1,000 points each. Xia Qing had only felt that green-light chickens were precious, which was why they sold for so much.

After raising chickens and breeding chicks, she understood that to guarantee the quality of green-light chickens, one not only needed to feed them with good water and good feed, but also had to vaccinate the chicks regularly, and isolate them from Corrosive elements during Corrosive Rain periods—otherwise the meat quality would drop. All of this costs points, and when you add it all up, you realize that a price of over a thousand points for green-light breeding chickens is actually quite reasonable.

Xia Qing carefully tended this flock of chicks every day, hoping that more than fifty of them would survive to adulthood, so that after she fulfilled the trade condition with her idol, she'd still have a few chickens left to eat herself.

After looking at the chicks, Xia Qing gave Molly a few mealworms before taking Seeing Xin Yu home.

Seeing Xin Yu knew that red squirrels were raising young in the sheep shed, so she moved very carefully, kept her voice low, and put Molly into the bird pouch at her waist.

Because the flock of little swallows in Xia Qing's territory was very hostile toward any other flying creatures entering their territory. Their territory was Xia Qing's courtyard.

Now, even the evolved great magpie didn't dare approach Xia Qing's courtyard. One swallow it could handle, but when twenty-plus swallows ganged up on it, it chickened out.

After discovering this flock of swallows' fierce combat power, Xia Qing had been hoping that last year's egrets and night herons would move back into her territory, so she could sneak an egg and see if they still dared to smear bird droppings on her window.

Unfortunately, just like last year, not a single wild bird built a nest in Territory 3 this year. Xia Qing guessed that the egrets and night herons that had moved away must have told nearby birds bad things about her—and exaggerated them greatly. That was why no egrets landed to nest by the reservoir in her territory this year.

The next morning at six-thirty, Xia Qing pretended to patrol the Mountain 50 test area, flew on a personal flight device to Mountain 50's Third Peak, and reached the designated spot to rendezvous with Seeing Xin Yu, who was carrying two birds and a pack of explosives on her back.

To avoid being spotted by the eyes and ears the Yu family had left behind entering the Evolution Forest, Seeing Xin Yu had secretly left the safe zone the night before and entered a cave on Mountain 51's Second Peak.

This cave had been discovered by Seeing Xin Yu through reconnaissance with her trained birds.

After rendezvousing with Xia Qing, Seeing Xin Yu had her four bodyguards stay in the cave. She herself carried her pack and stepped into the vast, colorful sea of forest together with Xia Qing.