Chapter 987: High-Risk Plant

The rain grew heavier and heavier, the stream swelled higher and higher, the current faster and faster. Bathed by the rain, that aggressive, mutilated-evolution plant's magnetic field was growing stronger and stronger.

This meant it was a water-loving plant; rainy days were its main battlefield. It had now surpassed the birds and become the greatest threat to Xia Qing harvesting the soybeans.

If you can't afford to provoke it, dodge it.

Xia Qing carefully used three twigs to prop up this red root tendril—only three millimeters thick and covered in fine hairs—and slowly pulled her foot out, afraid that an accidental snap of the root would trigger the plant's attack.

After pulling her foot free, Xia Qing decisively stood up under the shrub shell, and under the gaze of a tree full of birds, snip snip snip went the soybean stalks. Xia Qing wasn't afraid of them now—the heavy rain and the shrub shell were her umbrella against the birds.

What she needed to be ten thousand times careful of were the red root tendrils spreading through the stream at a speed visible to the naked eye, and the red vines creeping outward ahead of her.

From experience and from the sharp magnetic field stabbing toward her skull, Xia Qing knew that once this thing went wild, even if she was lucky enough not to die, she'd be seriously injured.

She had already soaked in five medicinal baths; if she got hurt again and had to start a new course of treatment, her idol would flay her alive.

Xia Qing sped up, and in less than two minutes had cut all the harvestable soybean stalks and stuffed them into her bag. She then decisively abandoned the twenty-plus soybean stalks ahead already wrapped up by the red vines, pulled out her rope gun and shot a big tree on the cliff with fewer bird nests, gripped the rope tight, and swiftly escaped the red roots and vines closing in on her.

Of all the rotten luck, the big tree Xia Qing had shot was exactly the territory of that brain-domain-evolved big black bird!

Below, the eerie red vines spreading everywhere; above, the black bird and its hundreds of squawking bird subordinates watching hungrily. Unable to go up or down, Xia Qing decisively pulled out her second rope gun, shot a crack in the rocks thirty meters away, switched routes, and kept running.

She was a strength evolver, and always carried a large amount of gear on her person. Where others prepared one set, she prepared two or even three—this was the key to her surviving by the skin of her teeth time after time.

After a quick climb through the heavy rain, the violent magnetic field stabbing toward Xia Qing's brow finally vanished. She clung to the cliff wall and stopped, pulled five processed green-light dried figs from her protective suit's pocket, set them on a rock ledge, and thanked that big bird that had been watching her the whole time—it didn't look stupid—for not flying out to attack her.

Xia Qing waved at the big black bird, pointed at the dried figs, then retracted the rope anchored to the big tree on the cliff. She glanced down at the eerie plant spreading through the valley like blood vessels, quickly climbed out of the valley, ran several hundred meters through the rain, took shelter under an overhanging rock, and called her companion.

"Big Wolf Bro, where are you? I'm done picking the beans, we can head back."

Luckily she'd used her pack to keep Handsome Giant Wolf with her; otherwise in weather like this she'd have had no choice but to call for a helicopter.

Because this was the Western Evolution Forest, outside the patrol range of the Northern District One helicopters. And the green-light plants in this valley were something Zhang Shi had told her about. Xia Qing guessed Zhang Shi might have a hiding place nearby, which was why she'd said every nice thing she could to team up with Handsome Giant Wolf and come harvest soybeans.

Luckily she'd come early today; if she'd come after the rain, she'd have had nothing to do but stand on the cliff and drool.

"Big Wolf Bro…"

"Big Wolf Bro…"

"Aoo."

After Xia Qing called out a few times, the walkie-talkie actually returned the howl of the Broken-Waist Wolf.

Xia Qing was surprised. "Broken-Waist, you've got my pack?"

"Aoo." Broken-Waist Wolf howled again, and even through the crackling rain, Xia Qing could tell it was in a very good mood.

So Xia Qing began to make her request. "Broken-Waist, can you bring my pack over to me? I want to head back."

"Aoo." Broken-Waist Wolf agreed, and in not too long arrived beneath the big rock where Xia Qing was sheltering, shaking its rain-soaked fur.

Xia Qing asked, "Broken-Waist, where's my pack?"

Broken-Waist Wolf turned and walked forward, signaling Xia Qing to follow.

Xia Qing followed Broken-Waist Wolf through the rain for over ten minutes, entered a dense stretch of evolution forest, and crawled into a dim tree hollow. She switched on her flashlight and saw her brand-new pack—exchanged with Ji Li only last year—lying alone and filthy inside the hollow, with one of its straps bitten clean through.

One look at the break and she knew it had been bitten by a wolf.

Xia Qing first pulled a rain sheet from her pack, blocked the tree hollow's entrance to keep the rain out, then pointed at the strap and asked Broken-Waist Wolf, who was shaking water droplets off itself, "Broken-Waist, did you bite through my pack strap?"

Broken-Waist Wolf immediately closed its mouth.

"Was it Handsome Giant Wolf who bit it?"

Broken-Waist Wolf opened its mouth, its cute little fang tips glinting in the light.

Xia Qing…

Why? Why on earth? Handsome Giant Wolf had eaten that huge bowl of green-light freeze-dried food yesterday and promised so nicely—how could it suddenly lose its temper and bail?

The unreliable one had run off, so the one in front of her absolutely had to be kept. Xia Qing pulled an absorbent towel from her pack, first wiped her own protective visor, then began grooming this vain wolf's coat. "Broken-Waist, let's wait until the rain stops before we go. I'll get your fur cleaned up first."

After drying the rain off it and combing its fur smooth with a brush, Xia Qing dripped a few drops of insect repellent onto its neck. "There, this side's dry. You rest here for a bit while I sort the beans."

She didn't want to lug a huge bundle of soybean stalks through fifty li of evolution forest, so she used the rainy interval to first strip the pods off, reducing the weight and bulk of what she had to carry.

Xia Qing took out her mutilated-element detector and set it beside her, picked up a soybean stalk, squeezed out the juice and dripped it into the testing slot. Broken-Waist Wolf immediately leaned in to watch.

When the result came out, Xia Qing asked, "Mutilated-element content 3.1‰—that's green-light, right?"

Broken-Waist Wolf bared its little fang tips in approval.

Xia Qing rubbed its head, cut the pods off the stalk, peeled out a green-light soybean that had already turned yellow, and with a slight squeeze snapped it in two.

Excellent! This was a normal soybean, not the iron soybean that grew on her territory last year—impossible to bite through, impossible to soften by boiling!

Xia Qing happily stripped all the pods from this stalk, put them into the bag for green-light pods, then picked up the second stalk—still testing the quality first before stripping the pods.

After watching Xia Qing harvest a few stalks, Broken-Waist Wolf's novelty wore off and it lay down beside her dozing. Outside the tree hollow, a big black bird standing under an umbrella of dense leaves was preening its rain-soaked wings.

While harvesting beans, Xia Qing chatted with her companion. "I found a high-risk plant in Bird Valley—really powerful. Do you know what that plant's attack method is?"

After a glance at Broken-Waist Wolf, which showed no reaction, Xia Qing knew it had never seen that high-risk plant in Bird Valley. That was normal, because this was the Western Wolf Pack's territory.

Xia Qing picked up another soybean stalk. "That plant's roots and vines grow rapidly when they meet water, and its combat power skyrockets. It's extremely strong—don't go provoke it."

Magnetic-sense judgment doesn't lie. If that thing ate meat, Xia Qing was certain that once it went wild, it could wipe out every reptile in the valley.