Xia Qing gently persuaded, "It's raining the most dangerous red rain right now, so all the plants are capable of aggressive evolution. We can't take off our protective masks. Let's eat after the rain stops, okay?"
After saying that, Xia Qing took out a small piece of compressed rations to distract the sheep.
The sheep immediately abandoned its evolutionary perilla and waddled over to Xia Qing, "Baa—"
The sheep's annoying bleating echoed in Xia Qing's ears through the earpiece. Xia Qing suppressed the urge to slap the fat sheep, stuffed the compressed rations into the sheep's protective suit pocket, and continued uphill with it.
After passing alfalfa, the sheep wanted to stop again, but Xia Qing became impatient, grabbed its horns, and forcibly pulled it uphill, entering the terraced field of green-light pumpkins.
Fortunately, the five pumpkins hadn't been harmed; further up were fields of scallions, ginger, garlic, and chives, which also remained unharmed—again, thankfully; and then up more were three peanut terraces, still unharmed—thankfully, thankfully.
Then, Xia Qing returned to the terraces below the three peanut fields, where another hundred sweet potato vines were being propagated. He removed twelve of the harmed sweet potato seedlings; again, the ones near the edges of the shed had been harmed.
After reinforcing the drainage ditch outside the shed, Xia Qing took the sheep back to the hut.
After closing the doors and windows tightly and confirming there was no toxic gas indoors with an air quality detector, Xia Qing removed his and the sheep's protective masks, praised the sheep profusely, and then took a small piece of rations from its protective suit pocket, crushed it, and mixed it into its hay.
While the sheep ate the hay, Xia Qing ate his own compressed rations to stave off hunger, while replying to messages from Luo Pei, Hu Zifeng, and Sun Zhe, letting them know he was safe. It was a little past 3 PM, and the red-level storm had stopped.
Xia Qing set her alarm for half an hour, making the most of the time to rest and conserve her energy for the next storm.
The walkie-talkie was silent; Lords Three, Four, and Five were also taking a break, just like her.
Xia Qing instructed the eldest sheep, "Eldest, I'm tired, I need to sleep. Keep an eye on the window, and wake me if you see anything amiss."
Based on the eldest sheep's behavior when facing the evolved pumpkin vines, Xia Qing was certain that this gluttonous sheep had a way of determining the danger level of evolved plants.
No wonder it, a sheep, could survive in the Evolution Forest.
After finishing its fodder, the eldest sheep, engrossed in grazing, trotted to the bedside and watched Xia Qing for a while before turning back to stare out the window, chewing its fodder.
When Xia Qing was woken by the alarm, the eldest sheep was still in the position of monitoring the outside world. Xia Qing rubbed its head. "Thanks, boss. I'm rested. I'll continue patrolling the rain shelter. Do you want to come?"
Boss Sheep could sense the danger of the evolved plants. Having it with Xia Qing was like having a danger detector.
Boss Sheep turned its head towards the protective mask, its meaning clear: it wanted to go too. Because patrolling the rain shelter would bring good food.
The two, dressed in their protective gear, cleared over twenty evolved crops during their second patrol.
Then came the third and fourth patrols.
The rain stopped in the evening. A ray of light appeared in the west; the sun, which had been hiding all day, made its appearance, setting off right on time.
With the sun out, it shouldn't rain for at least two hours.
Taking advantage of this last bit of light, Xia Qing climbed onto the roof of the small house, activating both his sight and hearing to scan the buffer forest within Territory Number Three. Only after finding no obviously evolved trees did he take Boss Sheep home.
The path home was covered with knee-high weeds, but much sparser than those that had sprouted after the first rain two months ago. This was normal, as Xia Qing had already cleared away the remaining roots and seeds in the soil, reducing their number.
Xia Qing put on thick gloves made of waterproof cloth and pulled up the weeds as she walked, stuffing them into the two large baskets carried by Yang Laoda. She stopped only near two small rain shelters.
There were two small patches of red-light peanuts there. Although the fruits of the red-light plant are inedible, Xia Qing still wanted to see if they would flower and bear fruit, so she had built two small shelters of about five or six square meters for them.
Xia Qing lifted the shelter cloth and found that nearly a quarter of the red-light peanuts had been damaged. Unfortunately, the damage only resulted in excessive leaf growth; they hadn't flowered. Xia Qing carefully touched them, and finding no danger, removed them, stuffed them into Yang Laoda's basket, and continued towards home.
When she and Boss Sheep returned to their home, which was overgrown with weeds, her mood immediately relaxed.
"Damn it!"
Xia Qing hadn't even finished feeling touched when she cursed aloud. She discovered four evolved rats on the roof, gnawing on the tarpaulin covering her solar panels!
Upon discovering humans, the evolved rats didn't flee; instead, they bared their gleaming white front teeth in a defiant manner.
"Dare to destroy my home? I'll kill you all!"
Xia Qing deftly drew her pistol and aimed at the largest and most arrogant evolved rat, bigger than a goose.
"Thud!"
The silenced pistol wasn't loud, but it still managed to smash the evolved rat's head!
Before the dead evolved rat could even roll off the solar panels, Xia Qing fired her second and third shots. With each shot, a rat fell.
Attack the enormous evolved rats at close range; Xia Qing, with her nine times the vision, didn't waste a single bullet. Seeing its companion dead, the last evolved rat immediately darted north.
North was the direction of the farmland!
"Boss, hold the base! I'm going to hunt the rats!" Xia Qing immediately chased after the fleeing rat. She was indeed slower than the rat, but no matter how fast it was, it couldn't escape Xia Qing's line of sight in a few seconds. If she couldn't catch it, she'd use her gun.
"Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang!"
After five shots from an unsilenced submachine gun, Xia Qing, brimming with murderous intent, stuffed the last evolved rat, which she had wasted four bullets on, into a sealed bag, masking the bloody smell on the ground, and quickly returned home.
Without even checking the solar panels, Xia Qing immediately cleaned up the battlefield and sprayed deodorizer to prevent the bloody smell from attracting other evolved creatures.
After cleaning up, Xia Qing finally checked her solar panels. Four panels had been chewed in half by the rats, exposing the electrical wires that were encased in steel pipes underneath.
Luckily, she returned in time; otherwise, the rats would have entered the room through the electrical holes. Xia Qing went inside and carefully inspected the house.
The house had been renovated and was very clean and tidy. After confirming there were no signs of rats entering, Xia Qing pressed the walkie-talkie button. "Attention everyone, four rodent-like evolved rats have entered Territory Three. They're about the size of adult geese and have chewed up half a solar panel."
Just as Xia Qing finished speaking, a burst of static came through the walkie-talkie. Tang Huai from Territory Two was cursing, "At least fifty of these evolved rats have appeared in Territory Two!"
Zhao Ze panicked upon hearing this. "Xia Qing, where were your evolved rats found? Are they near Territory Four?"
Xia Qing pressed the button. "In the village, about one kilometer from Territory Four."
One kilometer was very close. Zhao Ze said frantically, "I'll send people to patrol immediately."
Tan Junjie also spoke up, "Rodent-like evolved rats are extremely dangerous and must be eliminated as soon as possible. The search team requests permission to enter Territories Two and Three to clear the evolved rats."
Tang Huai objected, "Territory Two can be cleared; no help is needed."
Xia Qing granted permission. "Territory Three is also permitted."
Zhao Ze then spoke up, "Team Leader Tan, could you also check if any evolved rats have entered Territory Four?"
"Roger that. We'll go to Territory Three first, where evolved rats have already been discovered, then to Territory Four. If Territory Two cannot be completely cleared of evolved rats within half an hour, the investigation team will, in accordance with Article 13 of the Territory Law, apply to the territory management department for forced entry to remove the danger." After Tan Junjie calmly replied, the lord channel fell into a deathly silence.
Hu Zifeng from Territory One spoke up, "A large number of rats have run from Territory Two into Territory One. Territory One is currently exterminating them. Tang Huai, don't let me see you!"