Chapter 777: The Unusual Soybean Seedling and the Brave Kit

Moving further ahead, Xia Qing accurately captured the plant with abnormal magnetic sense — a green-light soybean seedling that looked completely unchanged.

But the dozen-or-so needle-like violent magnetic sensations felt at her brow told Xia Qing that this soybean seedling was not in the brewing stage of aggressive Shang evolution, but had already entered the aggressive Shang evolution stage.

What were its attack methods?

Xia Qing first glanced at the air toxin detector on her arm, which showed a green light — no toxins in the air, ruling out poisonous gas attacks.

She then took a long wooden stick and poked the seedling: it trembled normally, didn't dance or lash out, didn't fire toxic needles or grow toxic thorns, and the soybean roots didn't leap out of the soil to cause trouble — physical attack methods ruled out.

Xia Qing put on antibacterial gloves, plucked off a leaf, squeezed out the juice, and tested it, confirming the seedling's Shang element content was 8.5‰, its quality downgraded from green light to yellow light.

"Sister Qing, what's wrong?" Peng Jian, who was pulling out Shang-evolved wheat, patrolled over to this side. Seeing Xia Qing standing motionless, he called out to ask.

Xia Qing pointed at the few soybean plants in front of her. "Look, has the color of their leaves changed?"

Peng Jian, a visual evolver, stared for a few seconds, then scratched his head with an embarrassed chuckle. "I forgot what color these few seedlings used to be... You think the color changed, Sister Qing? It's normal if it did — they probably absorbed too much Shang element and their quality dropped."

They had now been in the Shang Rain Period for over eight hours. The Shang element content in the atmosphere exceeded the standard, and the plant leaves absorbed excessive Shang element, disrupting the balance of Shang and Yi elements within their bodies, causing plant quality to decline. At this time, the content and proportion of various pigments in the leaves would also change, causing the leaves to discolor.

This was the main reason the Evolution Forest had become colorful, unlike the green forests before the catastrophe.

"The quality has dropped. I just tested and found it's already downgraded to yellow light. Keep an eye on these seedlings, and pull out any that show signs of Shang evolution immediately." After instructing Peng Jian, Xia Qing plucked a few soybean leaves to take home and test with the Yi element detector.

The Yi element detector was more precise and needed at least twenty minutes to produce results.

Taking advantage of this time, Xia Qing prepared concentrated feed for Boss Sheep and the chickens, then patrolled the area. After confirming nothing was amiss at home, she took the remaining dozen or so mealworms, a small half-section of green-light cucumber, and a bottle of pollution-free spring water to feed the freeloading red squirrel family.

Although she always called her red squirrel neighbor a "freeloader," in reality, Xia Qing was very tolerant of it.

Because the red squirrel had led her to the green-light peanuts and green-light chestnut trees, filling up her storage room. So the red squirrel's winter food last year and its postpartum meal package this spring were all provided free by Xia Qing. Now the red squirrel had brought its young back to the sheep shed to shelter from the Shang Rain. Considering it needed to nurse its young, Xia Qing prepared nutrient-rich green-light food and spring water for it as well.

When she reached the sheep shed door, she heard rustling sounds of running and small animals burrowing into the haystack inside. When she opened the door and walked in, there wasn't a single squirrel in the sheep shed — only the spring water in the basin was a little lower. Xia Qing refilled the water and placed the mealworms and cucumber beside the basin.

After squatting down, Xia Qing felt her legs sore and swollen, so she simply leaned back against the haystack, stretched her legs out straight, closed her eyes, and rested.

This was only the first day of the second Shang Rain, and she still had to fight for two days and nights — she had to seize every opportunity to recover her stamina and energy.

Boss Sheep, who had finished eating, noticed Xia Qing had entered the sheep shed without eating, and came in looking for her. Seeing Xia Qing lying against the haystack with her eyes closed and not moving, Boss Sheep immediately walked over and nudged her with its big head sporting spiral horns.

Without opening her eyes, Xia Qing raised her hand and skillfully stroked the curly hair on top of her companion's head, her voice carrying fatigue. "Don't worry, Boss. I'm fine, just tired and want to rest a bit."

After confirming Xia Qing was alright, Boss Sheep lay down beside her and started chewing cud. The rhythmic, familiar sound was very soporific, and Xia Qing's body relaxed as she fell asleep with peace of mind.

A few minutes later, she used her hearing to catch sounds from the haystack and identified them as the red squirrel family. Without opening her eyes, Xia Qing continued sleeping.

From the haystack over a meter high against the wall, the red squirrel's little head with two small ears poked out first, followed by three even smaller heads — a family of four peered down in unison. After gauging the distance, the red squirrel jumped to the ground, grabbed the cucumber in its mouth, and darted back up to the haystack at top speed.

Boss Sheep's rectangular pupils lifted upward briefly then returned to their original position, continuing to chew cud.

Although the two-month-old red squirrel kits weren't weaned yet, they could already eat some solid food. Seeing their mother gnawing on cucumber, the kits also crowded around to gnaw.

Unlike their mother who had eaten cucumber many times, the moment the kits bit off a bit of cucumber, their eyes instantly went wide, their fur stood on end, and after a 0.1-second pause, the three kits switched into food-grabbing mode.

The crunching and chewing sounds reached Xia Qing's ears. The corners of her mouth lifted slightly, and she continued sleeping.

After the half cucumber was gnawed down to nothing, the red squirrel mother began carrying green-light mealworms up to feed her children.

After feeding them, the red squirrel mother squatted on the haystack and began grooming her fluffy big tail. Two kits climbed all over their mother playing and tussling, while one kit clung to the haystack, peering down with a pair of small, round black eyes.

After watching for a while, this kit finally mustered the courage to climb down. The red squirrel mother glanced at it, then continued grooming her big tail.

The red squirrel kit carefully climbed to the food dish, quickly ate up the food scraps inside, then scurried to the other side and stared at the two giant animals in front of it for a few seconds. Mustering courage again, it crawled forward a few steps, clung to the edge of the water basin, poked its little head in, and drank a few sips of water.

Then it hid behind the water basin with its two small ears perked up, using its small round black eyes to gaze at the two giant animals.

Boss Sheep wasn't interested in the weak little red squirrel kit and continued chewing cud. Xia Qing didn't even open her eyes, relaxing and resting.

After a long period of observation, this red squirrel kit finally took a brave step forward.

It puffed up all its fur to make itself look big and fierce, then after several tentative attempts, carefully made its way to Xia Qing's side and ate a small, tender cucumber seed stuck to her glove.

After eating, the kit that was about to flee twitched its nose to sniff, changed its mind, and after several more tentative attempts, began carefully climbing up along Xia Qing's arm.

The moment this little fellow touched her, Xia Qing was completely awake. If she weren't wearing a protective mask, she would have immediately driven away this speed-evolved kit, not giving it a chance to scratch her facial skin. But with the protective mask on, Xia Qing wanted to see what the little fellow was going to do, so she continued to lie back relaxed.

After the bold kit climbed onto Xia Qing's shoulder, it squatted down. Xia Qing opened her eyes and slowly rolled her eyeballs to look at the little fellow squatting on her right shoulder.

If it weren't for the long, fluffy big tail, the first reaction of any farmer seeing it would definitely be to swat it dead.

But with that big tail, the feeling was different.

This kit's fur was reddish-brown all over, with the belly fur presumably white. One thing different from its mother — on the tips of this little fellow's two small ears, there grew a small tuft of fur longer than the ears themselves. From a distance these strands weren't noticeable, but up close, the two small tufts of fluff seemed to echo its big tail quite charmingly.

Did every red squirrel have this when young, and what was the use of this long fur?

Before Xia Qing could figure it out, she heard a "ding" from the Yi element detector in the second-floor living room — the soybean leaf test results were out.

She slowly moved her shoulder a bit, and the alert little fellow on her shoulder immediately used all four limbs, puffed up its big tail, and scurried back to the haystack. Only then did Xia Qing stretch out her limbs and stand up, letting out a big stretch. Boss Sheep also stood up, shaking its big head.

Xia Qing took out the Yi stone protective case from her pocket, removed a soybean-sized Yi stone strung on a sturdy cord — a Yi stone chain — and hung it on the haystack. This chain was prepared for the offspring of Black Feather the rooster and Bai Yu the hen, but now the chickens were all in the coop, so it could be temporarily used by the red squirrel.

That little fellow in the haystack with two tufts of fluff standing on its ears was the first kit besides the baby chicks in the territory to voluntarily approach her.

It had stayed on Xia Qing's shoulder near the Yi stone. Whether intentional or not, Xia Qing was willing to offer a small Yi stone to help it safely weather the Shang Rain Period.

Not long after Xia Qing left the sheep shed with Boss Sheep, that brave red squirrel kit was the first to poke its head out of the haystack, sniff around, crawl over to the Yi stone chain, and begin grooming its not-yet-thick-enough fur.