"Sister Qing!" Sun Zhe's voice immediately brightened, calling out before lowering his voice, "Sister Qing, you're back too?!"
"No, I'm still in the territory." Xia Qing didn't ask why he used the word "too," and continued, "Are you free now? I have something I want to talk to you about."
"Yes, of course I'm free."
Xia Qing heard Sun Zhe quickly leave the spot, and the previously noisy background noise on the phone quieted down a bit. "Sister Qing, you said no one can hear you here, yet you can make calls in the territory. Did you get a satellite phone?"
"Yes, for easier communication, I went on a few missions with the team and exchanged some points for one. The reason I'm talking to you is this..." Xia Qing told Sun Zhe about needing organic fertilizer for farming in the territory, "Qi Fu said your dad knows how to make earthworm castings, so I'm letting you know. Of course, whether you do it or not is up to you."
Sun Zhe's excited breathing pattered against the phone receiver, which Xia Qing heard clearly. "Sister Qing, do people really buy earthworm castings?" "I can only contact three lords, and they all need organic fertilizer, including Qi Fu. I can't guarantee anything for others, but I myself need to buy at least a thousand jin." Xia Qing only mentioned the three lords in the vicinity who actually farm; she directly excluded lords number one, two, and seven.
Sun Zhe controlled his excitement and answered crisply, "Thank you, sister. I'll go back and talk to my dad right away. Our planting center in the safe zone raises earthworms and produces manure. My dad applied for a job there, but he wasn't hired because he's disabled. Sister, do you think it's more suitable for us to raise earthworm manure in the safe zone, or to raise it outside our territory?"
Xia Qing was surprised, "Didn't we already claim all the land? Has our base cleared out new territory?"
Sun Zhe then realized that Xia Qing wasn't well-informed while in the territory and quickly explained, "We haven't developed any new territory; it's still the same two hundred plots from the beginning of the year. However, some lords have died, and some have returned. Now there are over thirty plots empty that no one dares to claim. My dad wants to claim them, but my mom disagrees."
Xia Qing answered seriously, "Raising too many earthworms will create a strong odor, which will definitely attract carnivorous evolved animals. So raising them in the safe zone is less dangerous than raising them outside the territory, but relatively speaking, more can be raised in the territory, and the yield is higher. It's up to you to decide. If you're going to leave your territory, it's best to choose one closer to the safe zone; the closer, the safer." The Sun family were ordinary people; leaving their safe zone territory was extremely risky, but raising earthworms and collecting their manure might be their only means of survival. Sun Zhe sincerely thanked her, "I understand, thank you so much, sister. If you need help, just let me know. I'll be there anytime. Everyone misses you."
"Your ability to collect earthworm manure is a huge help to me." Xia Qing instructed Sun Zhe, "I'm managing for now, don't tell anyone I contacted you."
After hanging up, Xia Qing took a deep breath of the air, which smelled of grass and earth, and lay down on the grass, gazing at the azure sky.
The familiar yet noisy background noise on the other end of the phone instantly pulled Xia Qing back to the suffocatingly crowded safe zone. She didn't care what others thought; she was definitely not going to abandon her territory and go back.
"Baa—"
"Thump thump thump!"
Xia Qing heard the anxious bleating and running sound of the eldest sheep. Turning around, she saw it charging towards her and quickly jumped up to prove she was alright. "Don't panic, boss! I'm not poisoned or injured, I'm fine. I just needed to rest for a bit. See, I'm up, I can still jump!"
The eldest sheep, seeing Xia Qing was alright, became enraged. It took a few steps back, revealing its spiral horns, and let out a loud, smoky roar, "Moo!"
Xia Qing sighed, "Boss, aren't you tired after pedaling the waterwheel for so long?"
The eldest sheep charged forward relentlessly. Xia Qing turned and ran, "Come on, let's go to the open space, I'll fight you to your heart's content."
The two of them ran to an empty field where nothing was planted. Xia Qing didn't use any tricks, just went head-to-head with the eldest sheep, trying to outmuscle it. Then, predictably, she was overturned by the eldest sheep.
An hour later, Xia Qing collapsed to the ground, panting heavily, and asked, "Boss, I suspect you're a sheep with dual strength and endurance evolution."
Endurance evolution means an evolution where one's stamina is several times greater than that of an ordinary person (sheep). For example, an ordinary person gets tired after running at full speed for five minutes, a level two endurance evolver would get tired after ten minutes, and a level five endurance evolver would get tired after thirty-five minutes. If someone with strong physical abilities is further enhanced by endurance evolution, they become very difficult to deal with. Xue Jinchang, a core member of the Dongyang team, is a level five endurance evolver, and his strength is truly formidable.
Boss Sheep's endurance is also very strong.
After teaching Xia Qing a lesson, Boss Sheep was hungry, shook off the dirt, and went to eat grass. Xia Qing dusted herself off and stood up, following behind the sheep leader. "Boss, how did you manage when you were all alone in the Evolution Forest?"
The longer they spent together, the more Xia Qing realized the sheep leader was afraid of loneliness. So, before meeting her, it must have had companions. "Are your companions still around? Bring them all back to the territory. We have water, grass, and it's safe here. You can't just enjoy yourself and forget your brothers."
Thinking of herself with a flock of sheep, Xia Qing's mouth watered. No, she had to quickly prepare the cumin to welcome the flock.
In Territory Three, besides the evolved perilla on the high slope and a patch of grass with alternating green and yellow lights near the spring, there were three patches of grass with alternating yellow and green lights. Xia Qing tasted each type of grass and found them all to be unpalatable, so these three patches became the sheep leader's exclusive pasture.
But not anymore, because Xia Qing raises fish. She cuts the grass, scalds it, chops it up, and feeds it to the fish. Whether the fish like it or not is completely irrelevant to her. Eat if you want, go hungry if you don't; eventually, you'll eat.
Five days later, Xia Qing's cucumbers produced their first flower. She could no longer spray camphor sap to repel pests. Xia Qing erected a fine, sturdy insect-proof net in the vegetable garden on the hillside. The netting kept out some weak-biting pests like cabbage worms, cabbage moths, diamondback moths, aphids, and leaf miners.
By cutting off the pests' breeding pathways in the plants and shallow soil, frequent pesticide spraying was no longer necessary; only periodic spraying of the netting was needed to repel rodents.
Covering the netting involved first constructing the greenhouse structure, then folding the net over the support frame and securing it tightly. Xia Qing had never seen this planting technique in the safe zone. If Qi Fu hadn't explained it, she would never have thought of it.
As for why such a useful tool wasn't used in the safe zone's planting center, Xia Qing figured it was because there were fewer pests there. The number of pests in her territory was more than double that of the planting center.
After covering the vegetables with protective netting, Xia Qing only needed to patrol regularly each day, eliminating rodents that approached the netting to prevent them from chewing through it. Fortunately, most rodents are active during the day, so Xia Qing wasn't the only one patrolling and cleaning them; the birds in her territory also liked to perch on the trees and rocks near the vegetable netting, waiting to catch insects.
Attracted by the vegetables, the density of various insects outside the netting was higher than elsewhere.
Since setting up the netting, Xia Qing noticed an increase in birds in her territory. Besides the original four black and white evolved magpies and several crows, there was now a flock of sparrows, several particularly beautiful long-tailed red-billed blue magpies, and several other small birds of various colors with melodious calls that Xia Qing couldn't name. With them, Xia Qing truly experienced what it meant to have birdsong and fragrant flowers.
Unfortunately, apart from the four black and white evolved magpies, none of the other birds built nests in Territory Number Three; otherwise, Xia Qing would have been eating their eggs long ago.
While Xia Qing was wandering around the hillside exterminating insects, Luo Pei messaged her saying that the purchase agreement and lease contract for the mountain had been drafted and asked Xia Qing to come over and see if there were any modifications needed.
Xia Qing had been pondering the matter of buying, leasing, and hiring people to guard the mountain for the past few days, and now she had a clear idea of what to do. She also felt that having Mountain Number Forty-Nine in her own hands was more advantageous to her than having it in the hands of the Azure Dragon Team.