"Besides the areas surrounding the safe zone, the following territories have relatively high security levels: 2, 15, 68, 113, and 166. The Tang family intends to claim three of these."
Because Xia Qing had been closely monitoring territory information, she knew that the five territories listed in this message were indeed of high security, making the message highly credible.
Xia Qing had been secretly observing the Tang family and knew they were eyeing the territories, which was why she arrived early at the mission hall to queue and wait for their arrival.
To accelerate the utilization of arable land outside the safe zone and quickly resolve the food shortage problem, the highest national authorities required all bases, large and small, to work together with the military and government to expedite the pilot program for territory acquisition.
Under the supervision of the Hui San Base military, the Tang family dared not openly seize good land; they had to maintain appearances.
No matter how well they maintained appearances, there were loopholes. Xia Qing wanted to seize these loopholes and take advantage of the opportunity to claim plot number three. Because this plot contained vital resources necessary for her survival.
After sending a text message to her publicly used number within the safe zone, this person quickly sent the same message again via satellite to a number she hadn't used for seven years. Unfortunately, Xia Qing had kept her phone off and didn't notice.
Xia Qing was able to successfully obtain plot number three thanks to this text message. As for who this person was, whether the message was out of goodwill or ulterior motives, the truth would come out sooner or later; there was no need to rush.
Xia Qing deleted the message again, yawned, and crawled into her sleeping bag. She needed to be well-rested to start her new life.
***
The next morning, after clearing the weeds and bushes from the yard, Xia Qing grabbed a piece of rations and left the village, heading north through large scorched fields, around a narrow reservoir, and up a hillside.
The farmland here was surrounded by mountains on its northwest and southwest sides. To ensure the farmland wasn't disturbed or damaged by evolved creatures, the base had cleared a buffer zone at least fifty meters wide as a transitional area between the remaining evolved forest and the farmland. The isolation zone is regularly sprayed with insect repellent to prevent evolved insects from the evolutionary forest from crossing it into the territory.
To protect the farmland and the lord's safety, a buffer zone exists between the isolation zone and the farmland. The more than 3,000 acres of forest cleared on the northwest and southwest sides of Plot 3 belong to this buffer zone, which is also included within the Plot 3 area, hence its astonishing 6,000 acres.
Only harmful evolved organisms were cleared from the buffer forest; the vegetation remains lush, a stark contrast to the scorched farmland below.
Xia Qing used a stick to push through the undergrowth, taking twenty minutes to reach his destination—a small stone cave with a spring.
This spring was discovered by Xia Qing during the forest clearing operation. The spring water seeped slowly from the narrow stone cave, half a meter deep and thirty centimeters high, then seeped into the ground through the cracks, silently.
If a speed-evolving squirrel hadn't suddenly darted out of the cave, Xia Qing wouldn't have discovered the spring.
To solve the drinking water problem, the Hui San base drilled three deep wells within the safe zone. The water from these wells was contaminated and needed purification before it could be consumed.
Because purifying the contaminated water was costly, the base's mission board constantly displayed tasks to find uncontaminated water sources. Every team, regardless of their mission, would search for water sources when leaving the safe zone.
Over the past ten years, four uncontaminated water sources have been found within the Hui San base area, all springs flowing from the mountains. However, due to the small flow rate, only enough water could supply a small number of people.
Xia Qing, who survived by selling her labor, was naturally among those few.
Of course, not all mountain springs are uncontaminated. So when Xia Qing used her portable detector to check the spring water and found it showed a green light, she immediately made this location her first choice.
Water is the source of life.
Now, this spring water was finally hers alone. After Xia Qing filled half a bowl and drank it all, the advertising slogans of a certain water brand echoed repeatedly in her mind.
This is so refreshing! She could drink as much of this pristine spring water as she wanted.
Not only did she drink it, but she also used it to wash her face—that's how extravagant she was!
After washing her face, Xia Qing grinned foolishly as she cleaned and enlarged the stone cave. For a power-evolved human, this was a piece of cake.
The sound of the spring water flowing through the bamboo strips into the bucket was heavenly music to Xia Qing's ears.
Filling the water would take time, so Xia Qing stood up and surveyed her territory.
There were no volcanoes or major earthquakes within the Hui San Base area, so the terrain was largely unchanged from before the disaster. However, the dense forests harbored many evolved creatures capable of easily killing humans.
The forests and farmland within Xia Qing's territory had been occupied by these creatures three months ago. The numerous craters, several meters deep, remaining on the ground were the marks of the fierce battles between humans and these evolved creatures as they fought for this land.
After filling two 20-liter buckets, Xia Qing stuffed them into her oversized backpack and hid them, then covered the small stone cave with stones and branches to prevent it from being discovered.
After returning home from the dredging, Xia Qing went to the small shop in the deserted village. Digging through the decaying ruins, she retrieved a crushed stainless steel solar water tank. After restoring it to its original shape, she used it to fetch water from the reservoir.
Just as she reached the reservoir, a dark shadow suddenly leaped from the water, lunging straight at Xia Qing's face. Xia Qing slapped it, sending it flying five meters away, crashing into a rock on the reservoir's edge.
The shadow rolled a few times before becoming still, and Xia Qing laughed.
The attacker was an evolved catfish, thicker than her arm. Like many carnivorous creatures after evolution, the evolved catfish had included humans in its diet and would actively attack them. If Xia Qing had been bitten by its evolved, file-like teeth, a large chunk of flesh would have been torn off.
Now…
Xia Qing cut off a small piece of fish meat and placed it into her portable multi-functional detector. A green light illuminated.
This evolved catfish is edible! Xia Qing immediately hid the catfish in the water basin to prevent the evolved birds of prey from swooping down and stealing it.
After carefully filling the basin with water, Xia Qing carried the 400-pound water tank back home. She used fine sand, pebbles, and several layers of gauze to create a simple filter for the initial purification of the water, then installed the base-issued primary purification filter for a second purification.
While the water was slowly filtering, Xia Qing found some suitable tools and scraped away all the moldy, yellowed, and mottled walls of the two-story house. Then she cleaned the large iron pot, boiled the filtered water, and took a long, hot bath.
After drinking a cup of spring water with each meal, Xia Qing, her stomach growling with hunger, grabbed her knife and headed straight for the large catfish.
For her first proper meal after taking over the territory, she wanted meat.