Under Xia Qing's gaze, the Evolved Sheep walked to a small chun tree, raised its head, and with a crunch, bit off and ate the tender buds that had just sprouted at the top of the tree.
Xia Qing glanced at the small chun tree with a section of its branch bitten off, then widened her eyes to look at the continuously chewing mouth of the sheep, whose expression was quite punchable.
Could it be that this sheep had… Tooth Evolution?
After swallowing the chun cai buds, the small tailed sheep looked up at Xia Qing again. Seeing Xia Qing motionless, its eyes narrowed further, and it took a few steps back, pawing at its front hooves, and then… it suddenly charged towards the Da Chun Tree.
Bang!
Xia Qing hugged the violently shaking tree trunk, her heart also trembling fiercely.
No need to guess, this was a Strength Evolution sheep! Why was it ramming the tree? Did it want to shake her down?
It was her first time encountering an Evolved Sheep. Did this thing eat meat after evolving?
Bang!
The Evolved Sheep rammed the tree trunk fiercely again. Seeing Xia Qing still clinging to the trunk without moving, the creature suddenly turned around, its spiral horns aimed at the basket Xia Qing had placed at the base of the tree.
Xia Qing was scared stiff and shouted, “Don’t!”
Seeing the sheep stop moving, Xia Qing immediately continued to shout, “Brother, let’s talk this over, don’t ram it.”
The sheep didn't ram, but it started pawing its hooves, getting ready. Xia Qing immediately broke off two clumps of chun cai buds and threw them over, “Brother, eat chun cai buds, these taste much better than ginger and garlic.”
The Evolved Sheep stopped pawing, lowered its head, picked up the two clumps of chun cai buds in its mouth, and ate them.
Seeing that the sheep liked eating chun cai buds, Xia Qing immediately broke off a few more clumps and threw them down, luring it away from her precious basket.
Xia Qing didn't know how much the sheep could eat, but this Evolved Sheep ate hundreds of clumps of chun cai buds before it finally lay down contentedly on the ground, no longer ramming the tree or eyeing Xia Qing's basket.
Evolved animals are divided into two types: one absorbs more qiang element than yi element, becoming irritable and aggressive, known as qiang evolution animals; the other absorbs more yi element than qiang element, maintaining their original habits, known as yi element evolved animals. This sheep stopped bothering her after eating its fill, so it should be yi element evolved.
Xia Qing felt a bit relieved. After breaking off a full backpack of chun cai buds, she jumped down from the tree and continued her exploration, carrying her basket. The Evolved Sheep, lying under the chun tree, glanced at Xia Qing and continued to rest with half-closed eyes.
There were a total of five households on this hillside. Xia Qing visited all five but found no new harvests. She returned to the Da Chun Tree, dug up a few sprouted chun tree saplings, planning to transplant them to her own No. 4 Territory.
“Baa.”
The Evolved Sheep suddenly bleated when it saw Xia Qing about to leave.
Xia Qing turned around and saw the sheep staring at her backpack, immediately feeling speechless, “Still want chun cai buds.”
“Baa.”
“Weren’t you just full?”
“Baa.”
“I’m leaving, I’ll break some for you next time we meet.” Xia Qing said and walked away, but to her surprise, this sheep actually stood up, pawed its hooves, and aimed its spiral horns at Xia Qing.
Damn it!
Xia Qing also got annoyed. She put her basket and chun tree saplings aside, took a stance, “Come on, I want to see who’s stronger!”
The Evolved Sheep charged fiercely in front of Xia Qing, raised its front hooves, craned its neck, and rammed Xia Qing hard with its pair of spiral horns.
Xia Qing raised her hand to block and shouted, “Open!”
Then, the sheep wasn't pushed away by her, but she was knocked away by the sheep.
Xia Qing did a back roll and jumped up, becoming well-behaved, “Do you want to eat chun cai buds?”
“Baa.”
“Okay.” Xia Qing poured all the chun cai buds from her backpack onto the ground, “Eat.”
The sheep looked at Xia Qing with disdain, then lay down guarding the chun cai buds, slowly ruminating.
Xia Qing, who was not as strong as the other, climbed back up the tree and picked half a basket of chun cai buds before coming down.
Seeing the Evolved Sheep stand up again and stare at her, Xia Qing poured some water into a broken pottery jar nearby and offered it to the Evolved Sheep, “Tired of eating? Have some water.”
The Evolved Sheep lowered its head, sniffed, and began to drink water.
Xia Qing seized the opportunity to grab the chun tree saplings and her basket, and ran down the hillside without looking back, crossing the isolation zone and returning to her Buffer Forest. Looking back and seeing that the sheep hadn't chased her, she couldn't help but laugh out loud.
She hadn't felt this exhilarated in a very, very long time.
Although she wasn't as strong as the Evolved Sheep, Xia Qing had weapons and a certain degree of confidence in killing it. But this sheep was very smart and had a lot of strength, so Xia Qing didn't want to kill it; she wanted to raise it.
If she encountered it again in the afternoon, she would just lure it back to her No. 4 Territory with chun cai buds and water.
Because she ran too fast, the soil around the roots of the chun tree saplings was shaken off, and she didn't know if they would successfully transplant. Xia Qing planted two chun saplings by the Spring and five by her yard, watering them thoroughly with water.
If this still didn't work, she would just go to the Evolution Forest to break some when she wanted to eat chun cai, anyway, after her observation, that hillside had no traces of other large animals besides that sheep.
After planting the chun trees, Xia Qing returned to her house, first looked up planting techniques for ginger and garlic in a book, then broke the ginger into seven pieces according to its sprouts, and separated the whole head of garlic into cloves. She tried to plant them wrapped in their original soil in the vegetable garden she had opened up in the west yard, watering them thoroughly with water.
After planting the vegetables, Xia Qing scooped out the chun cai buds that had been soaking in saltwater, blanched them with boiling water, chopped them, added salt and chili powder, stirred them evenly, and then sealed them in glass jars that had been sterilized with hot water.
These two jars of spicy chun cai would be enough for her to eat for a month.
This morning's harvest was abundant, so Xia Qing indulged herself for once, pouring a little oil to stir-fry a large plate of chun cai, eating it with compressed rations until she was full, then sprawling on a chair.
This life was truly too comfortable.
To keep living so comfortably, she had to work hard. After cleaning the kitchen, Xia Qing locked the door and headed straight for the back mountain with two water buckets. After putting the buckets under the Spring and blocking the Spring with stones, Xia Qing crossed the isolation zone again, put on her protective mask, and entered the Evolution Forest.
To avoid the greedy sheep guarding the chun trees, Xia Qing explored the Evolution Forest north of No. 4 Territory.
This time, she was even more careful. After crossing a hillside over three hundred meters high, Xia Qing discovered a valley. The valley was densely wooded, and she could vaguely make out terraced fields on the hillside, a pond in the valley, and dilapidated houses.
A valley with a pond and dense forest was several times more dangerous than a hillside. Just as Xia Qing decided to give up, she faintly heard the grunting of small wild boars by the pond.
Wild boars, meat!
Small wild boars, meat she could catch!
Xia Qing, craving meat, gritted her teeth and cautiously descended the mountain with her machete. The wild boars' movements grew louder, and a brown-black sow appeared by the pond, looking to be over three hundred catties in size, covered in thick mud.
A wild boar of this size couldn't even be penetrated by rifle bullets, and her machete was even less reliable. However, her target wasn't this big one; Xia Qing's gaze shifted to the several small wild boars playing around the large sow.