Two months ago, when Xia Qing came with the War Team to clear the Third Territory, she had already thoroughly explored this area. The Third Territory, totaling 5,580 mu, was the third largest among the two hundred territories that had already been cleared.
To completely eliminate evolved harmful organisms, the arable land within the territory was cleared and burned once, and the three Huang Villages within the territory were sprayed twice with powerful insecticides and repellents.
Xia Qing participated in the disinfection of the villages throughout the process, so even though dusk had fallen and she was the only one within several thousand mu, Xia Qing walked into the Huang Village, where the grass was taller than a person, without worrying about being attacked by evolved creatures.
Because there were no large, aggressive creatures left here.
Passing through the tall grass, which was more than a person’s height, and entering the most well-preserved two-story self-built house in the Huang Village, Xia Qing placed her bag in the living room on the first floor, went out to find some deadwood, closed the door, lit a bonfire, and then began to inspect the supplies she had received from the hall.
One primary purification filter, capable of purifying 200 liters of low-level contaminated fresh water. The water in the Reservoir was low-level contaminated, which was one of the reasons Xia Qing favored this place.
Thirty catties of compressed rations; although her appetite had increased after evolution, it would be enough to last her four months if she conserved it.
Six catties each of evolved wheat, green beans, cotton, and small potatoes, and one packet each of evolved pumpkin, cucumber, tomato, and eggplant seeds. If these seeds could be successfully planted, Xia Qing would have food to cook in four months, and vegetables even sooner.
To Xia Qing’s regret, she did not receive any evolved red sweet potato. Last year, when following the Qinglong Squad on a mission, Xia Qing had been given a small piece of evolved red sweet potato, and its wonderful taste remained unforgettable to her.
Since rations and seeds were distributed by the bag, Xia Qing could not be sure whether all the lords received the same types of seeds, so she needed to find a way to inquire about this. If they were different, they could exchange with each other to grow more varieties of crops.
After putting away the seeds, Xia Qing took out the old mobile phone she had just received. After turning it on, she found two green vertical lines on the screen, which also flickered. This was normal; in the tenth year of the apocalypse, any mobile phone that could still be turned on and used was a good mobile phone.
On the phone’s desktop, there was a Word document named “planting encyclopedia,” which introduced more than thirty types of safe and optional crops with illustrations, including red sweet potato.
Xia Qing didn’t have time to look closely now, so she put the phone aside and took out the equally “quite good” small radio that the base had given to the lord.
After the natural disaster caused the collapse of the vast and efficient modern communication system built by humans, using simple radios and receivers to send and receive information has become the main way for humans to communicate over long distances.
Currently, signal coverage has been restored within the Hui Three Base Safe Zone, but the communication quality is far from the pre-disaster level. Within the Safe Zone, mobile phones can only use communication, SMS, and the Hui Three Base Mission Platform APP. The signal towers outside the Safe Zone have not yet been repaired, so Xia Qing’s territory has no mobile phone signal, and it can only be used as an e-book and a clock.
After placing the mobile phone and radio from the base together with the mobile phone she was currently using, Xia Qing took out the land use right certificate. After carefully examining the text on the back of the certificate, her eyes gradually lit up.
The broadcast repeatedly stated that the rights of the lords would definitely be protected, but it did not mention specific protective measures.
During the natural disaster, the attacks of evolved animals and plants in nature were indeed terrifying to humans, but what was even more despair-inducing was the slaughter, plunder, and bullying from their own kind.
At least thirty percent of the deaths among the population who survived the first three years of the natural disaster were caused by their own kind.
Xia Qing’s father was “accidentally killed” by an advanced evolved human when ferocious beasts attacked the Safe Zone.
Xia Qing witnessed that scene with her own eyes, but because she was not strong enough, she still could not avenge her father.
In the current situation of food and material shortages, lords who leave the control range of the Safe Zone, possess food, and are alone will naturally become tempting targets in the eyes of many.
Lords without sufficient strength would, at best, have their hard-grown food stolen, and at worst, lose their lives. This is the main reason why many people still dare not leave the Safe Zone to farm, even though they know that advanced evolved beasts have been driven out hundreds of miles away.
To enable the lords to farm with peace of mind, the base drew each territory very large, maintaining distance between lords, and promised to send troops to patrol 24 hours a day without interruption, in addition to granting the lords an important right:
The land use right certificate specifies that all resources within the marked scope belong to the lord. Anyone who trespasses on the territory without the lord's permission constitutes the crime of illegal intrusion into the territory and shall be severely punished according to law; actions taken to stop unlawful infringement in order to protect the personal, property, and other rights of the lord from ongoing unlawful infringement, which result in harm or even death to the unlawful infringer, are considered legitimate self-defense.
Simply put: killing someone who trespasses on the territory is not a crime!
Her chance to avenge her father, wasn't it here now?
Xia Qing picked up a thigh-thick branch nearby, easily broke it, threw it into the bonfire, then stretched a big yawn, and pulled her enormous canvas bag closer.
This 200-catty canvas bag contained all of Xia Qing’s belongings: a set of bedding, a sleeping bag, a simple bag of kitchenware and seasonings, a large bag of carpentry and electrical tools, two large bags of building materials, six knives, a small radio used for many years, a powerful slingshot, and one hundred and fifty books.
These books included gardening, planting, breeding, carpentry, electrical work, house renovation, etc., all skills necessary for survival within the territory.
After her mother passed away, planning and preparing for a new life after the natural disaster was what Xia Qing and her father loved to do most in their leisure time. After her father died, this became the main motivation supporting Xia Qing to continue living.
In the tenth year of the natural disaster, she finally left the Safe Zone and began a new life.
Xia Qing put the books one by one into waterproof and moisture-proof storage bags, opened her clothing bag, and took out a mobile phone hidden inside.
The mobile phone issued by the base to the lord could not communicate with the outside world within the territory, but her mobile phone could.
Strictly speaking, this mobile phone was called a “satellite communication terminal,” and it was a graduation gift her parents gave her in the year the natural disaster occurred.
After China’s sole global satellite communication system resumed use in the third year of the natural disaster, satellite communication terminal devices became highly sought-after resources. In the Hui San Safety Zone, some people exchanged satellite phones for life-saving food and medicine, while many others lost their lives because of them.
After her father was killed, Xia Qing had to move into the evolved human dormitory, sharing a room with outsiders. She then hid this mobile phone and only turned it on when she was sure it was safe, to watch old videos and photos, and to receive public satellite messages sent by the state and the Hui One Base headquarters, to get news beyond what was on the radio.
Now that she was in her own territory, Xia Qing could use her mobile phone with peace of mind. The last time she opened this mobile phone was on New Year's Eve, exactly sixteen days ago.
After turning it on and connecting to the communication satellite, the mobile phone quickly received hundreds of disaster warnings, news, and announcements.
Xia Qing read them one by one. Like the content she had received before, the information mentioned in the SMS and short reports she had already obtained through the radio, with only one exception.
An unknown number had sent her a text message fifteen days ago, on the morning of the first day of the Lunar New Year. This unknown number and the content of the text message were deeply etched in her mind.
Because on the same day, three minutes before receiving this message, the mobile phone she used in the Safe Zone also received a text message with the same content from this phone number.
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Dear readers, the author here provides a clarification on the naming conventions for creatures in this book: (Since it's not yet on shelves, it's included directly in the main text)
All creatures on Blue Star evolve into two types: ordinary level evolution and supra-ordinary level evolution. For ease of reading, when creature names are mentioned later in the text, creatures with ordinary level evolution will be referred to directly by their original names, while creatures with supra-ordinary level evolution will have the prefix “evolved” added to their names, such as evolved potato, evolved snake, etc.
By analogy, advanced evolved creatures that exceed the ordinary evolution of that species by five times or more will have the four characters “advanced evolved” added to their names, such as advanced evolved potato, advanced evolved snake, etc.