The wicked female is extremely fierce, but she's pampered by her seven beast husbands.

Chapter 55 The Mysterious Poison Valley
Ling Chengen hadn't expected that a single lie would trigger the system's activation.

However, the result was better than she expected.

However, the combined planting of 20 acres of potatoes by the two tribes is far from enough to provide food for the nearly 1,000 people in the two tribes during the cold season.

And they also want to preserve the seed.

We still need to continue searching for potato seeds.

After inspecting the tilled land, Ling Chengen went to take a look at the naturally growing potato field.

The person leading the excavation was a blue crane beastman, who should be Bai Xi's older brother, Bai Xu.

Unlike the slender Bai Xi and Bai Qingyu, Bai Xu was much taller and larger than his two younger brothers, estimated to be over two meters tall. His appearance was not beautiful, but rather simple and kind.

Bai Xu hung a basket of potatoes on the feet of the beast-shaped tribesman, looked up and watched the blue crane fly away, then turned back to continue digging carefully. When he glanced at the damaged potatoes next to him, he frowned and said, "Be careful when digging. There aren't many seeds. If you damage them, you might not be able to plant them."

Ling Chengen picked up the damaged potato that had been placed aside and casually put it into the bamboo basket: "This damage won't affect planting; the sprouts are more important."

Bai Xu looked up and glanced at Ling Chengen: "Why did you come here?"

Ling Chengen: "I wanted to ask if you've seen this kind of potato anywhere else."

Bai Xu dug the potatoes out of the ground with his bare hands and recalled, "I used to dig these kinds of potatoes at the foot of the mountain behind the Hanshan tribe when I was a child, but that was many years ago, and I'm not sure if they still exist now."

"Can you take me to see it?"

Bai Xu looked up into her eyes, hesitated for two seconds, and said, "Go find Bai Xi. He knows where he is."

Ling Chengen stared at Bai Xu for a few seconds, then asked, "Did I offend you before?"

"I'm trying to avoid suspicion," Bai Xu said directly. "Like A Yu, I'm still in my breeding season and need to keep a certain distance from females."

Ling Chengen nodded and turned to find Bai Xi.

Upon hearing Ling Chengen's question, Bai Xi became very enthusiastic: "I'll take you there. However, the area at the foot of the back mountain of Hanshan was burned down long ago due to a previous wildfire. Don't have too high hopes."

After Bai Xi carried Ling Chengen into the sky, Chong Zhen, who was directing others to clear weeds and stones, suddenly looked up and glanced at them. He only looked away after the two figures disappeared from his sight.

Compared to Bai Qingyu, he still disliked Bai Xi more, who deviated from Qinghe's nature and seemed unconventional in every way.

……

Bai Xi led Ling Chengen in a circle in the air above the back mountain, and finally landed on a round, bulging mound of earth.

He had just transformed into human form when he turned around and saw the purple-haired youth emerging from the shadows of the trees.

"Why are you here?"

Bai Qingyu leaned against the tree trunk, her fair face expressionless: "Our goals should be the same."

Ling Chengen stepped out from behind Bai Xi and looked at the slender and upright Bai Qingyu: "How is your injury?"

"The recovery was very quick."

Bai Qingyu pushed aside the waist-high weeds in front of her and pointed to the right: "The place where we used to dig potatoes is up ahead. Follow me."

Ling Chengen followed closely behind him without hesitation.

Bai Xi, who was lagging behind, looked at her younger brother who had suddenly appeared out of nowhere, completely bewildered. She couldn't quite figure out what he was thinking, but she still followed him step by step.

As Ling Chengen walked forward, he didn't forget to use the bone blade in his hand to pry open the small snakes hidden in the grass ahead.

The vegetation here is very lush, and there are no signs of wildfire damage.

After walking two hundred meters forward, Bai Qingyu stopped in front of a stone cave, pushed aside the thick rock vines, bent down and crawled into the cave, which was only one and a half meters high.

"It's low here, be careful not to bump your head."

Bai Qingyu bent down, borrowed the bone blade from Ling Chengen, and cut down the wildly growing weeds in front of him. Stepping on the fallen branches and grass, he scouted ahead while whispering reminders to the two behind him to watch their step and the stones above their heads.

Ling Chengen asked curiously, "How did you discover this place before?"

Bai Qingyu pushed aside the boulder blocking the cave entrance, accidentally aggravating his injuries. He paused for a moment and gasped softly.

Ling Chengen grabbed his arm and pulled him behind her: "I'll do it."

Bai Qingyu didn't try to be brave and simply said, "When I was little, I couldn't fly yet, so my older brother and Bai Xi brought me here to practice. But I was young then and I was more playful. I would want to slack off after practicing for a while. I accidentally discovered this cave and started to slack off here."

"Later, out of curiosity about how deep the cave was, I went a little further in and found that after passing through the cave, there was a valley that was isolated from the outside world."

Just as he finished speaking, Ling Chengen had already pushed the obstructing boulder away completely.

The hazy view suddenly cleared up in that instant.

The three of them walked out of the cave one after another, and stared at the valley with a light white mist drifting in the air. They were speechless for a few seconds.

Ling Chengen took the bone blade from Bai Qingyu's hand and was the first to come to his senses, asking, "Is there a hot spring here?"

"Hot spring?" Bai Qingyu asked in confusion for a few seconds before realizing, "You mean a hot spring pool, right?"

Bai Qingyu pointed straight ahead: "To the due south, near the mountain, there are six large hot springs, as well as countless smaller hot springs."

"However, there are many poisonous insects and snakes in this valley, and many poisonous plants and flowers grow near the rocks. If you want to go and take a look, you'd better be careful."

Ling Chengen nodded and asked, "Let's find potatoes first!"

Bai Qingyu pointed to the right: "Go that way, along the mountain wall, there is a giant locust tree that was burned by lightning. The place where we dug up potatoes before is just a little in front of the giant locust tree."

With a clear direction, Ling Chengen didn't hesitate much and prepared to walk in front.

Bai Xi quickly grabbed her arm and said helplessly, "I'll walk in front. You're very likely to be bitten by a poisonous snake if you walk like this."

The snakes, insects, rats, and ants in Poison Valley are very bold; they might suddenly emerge from a treacherous spot and bite you.

Without an antidote, it would be difficult for an ordinary orc to leave this valley.

“We are orcs of the Crane Clan, naturally able to subdue snakes. Let Bai Xi go first,” Bai Qingyu chimed in.

Ling Chengen watched as Bai Xi transformed into a blue crane on the spot, jumped onto his back, and was just about to reach out to pull Bai Qingyu up when he jumped up himself.

Their arms brushed against each other lightly, and Bai Qingyu subconsciously tensed up, subtly moving back a little distance to avoid physical contact with her.

Ling Chengen saw everything and found his self-deceptive behavior somewhat amusing, but he didn't deliberately expose him.

If he really didn't want to have any contact with her, he should have stayed home and recovered.

Instead of rushing over after discovering that she and Bai Xi were in the back mountain, he pretended to be calm and appeared in front of them.

He's a truly contradictory and complex man.

There are indeed many venomous snakes in Poison Valley. Within a distance of only a hundred meters or so, from the branches and leaves below, the gaps in the vines hanging from the cliffs, and the cracks in the rocky cliffs, triangular-headed silver-ringed black snakes would suddenly attack Bai Xi, who was flying low overhead.

However, most of them were dealt with on the spot by Bai Xi using his claws, beak, and wings. The few snakes and insects that landed on his back were directly cut in two by the quick-thinking Ling Chengen with his bone blade.

After Bai Xi flew over the giant, burned locust tree, she swept a large patch of low shrubs with the tip of her wing, allowing Ling Chengen and Bai Qingyu to land on the ground.

Bai Qingyu looked at the sparse grass stems and squatted down to dig them up.

The three of them buried themselves in digging until, after a few minutes, Bai Xi spoke up: "There's one here!"

Ling Chengen peeked inside and, after confirming it was a potato, his confidence soared, and his men quickened their pace.

Soon, she and Bai Qingyu both dug up a bag of potatoes.

The potatoes here are smaller than the ones she dug near the river. It's clear that there are too many weeds and not enough sunlight, so the potatoes are smaller.

After the system's detection function was activated, it exclaimed with delight, "This area is full of potatoes, three times the quantity of the batch you found before." "Moreover, there are not only giant mutants here, but also functional mutants."

Ling Chengen asked, completely bewildered, "Can potatoes mutate in a few more directions?"

"It's actually similar to the mutated plants in the apocalypse; it's the same plant, just mutated in different ways."

The system carefully explained to her: "In the apocalypse, external factors affected the genes of organisms, resulting in a short-term, all-encompassing mutation of everything from plants to animals."

"However, this kind of high-intensity mutation in a short period of time will lead to instability in the biological mutation structure. This is also the fundamental reason why zombies, zombie beasts, and some plants suddenly become aggressive."

"The plants and animals in the current animal world are organisms that have been selected through natural selection."

"Even more so for mutant organisms."

"The biological structure of the beast world is currently relatively stable."

"And mutated plants and animals represent the mainstream direction of biological evolution in this world."

In other words, if there are no natural disasters or calamities, the mutated creatures in the beast world will live longer than ordinary plants and animals.

Ling Chengen thought it was a bit far-fetched, but it seemed to make some sense. However, she wasn't an expert in this field, and she only cared about one question: "What direction is the functional variation of this potato heading?"

"It will make you feel fuller," the system replied.

Ling Chengen looked at the land before him and asked, "Are all these potatoes functionally mutated?"

"No, there is also a direction towards gigantification."

"The ratio of the two is approximately 2:1."

Ling Chengen turned to Bai Xi and said, "Go and tell Bai Xu and the others to come and help out here after they've finished digging up the potatoes in that field."

Bai Xi nodded, and before leaving, she looked at her younger brother who was squatting on the ground digging potatoes and Ling Chengen who was wandering around nearby, and said with some concern, "Ayu, are you two really okay staying here?"

"It's alright, my injury is fine now."

Bai Xi couldn't help but grin: "You're just being stubborn. I don't know what you're after."

With that, he shook his head helplessly and left.

Only after Bai Xi's figure disappeared from the spot did Bai Qingyu stop her busy work and couldn't help but turn around to look at Ling Chengen standing under the dead giant locust tree.

He was actually a little confused about his own thoughts.

It was probably the first time he had such close contact with a female as an adult, and some memories he couldn't simply forget.

Especially during such an ambiguous period as the breeding season.

After returning to the tribe, he could almost smell Ling Chengen's scent as soon as he closed his eyes. Her presence seemed to be imprinted in his mind, which made him inexplicably restless and uneasy.

Once his mind was a jumbled mess of thoughts, he was completely wide awake.

The only thing I could do was sit at the cave entrance late at night, letting the cold wind blow on me, to calm myself down completely.

After calming down, he began to question himself.

Was it because she was used to Ling Chengen's pursuit that she felt uncomfortable with his sudden departure when he chose to give up?

Or perhaps he had unknowingly developed feelings for her.

This initial attraction, fueled by the intense emotional fluctuations during the breeding season, continued to grow and erode his will.

As a result, he became lost and desperately longed for the comfort of a familiar and age-appropriate female.

This self-examination remains unanswered to this day.

There is no answer.

He had no experience in this area and dared not mention it to the people around him.

After all, he had firmly rejected her multiple times and vowed that he would not fall for her.

They're just reaping what they sowed.

But he was unwilling to sit idly by and wait for the answer to emerge.

Bai Qingyu's gaze at Ling Chengen's retreating figure was deep and complex. Before she turned around, she withdrew her gaze and continued to dig up the potatoes hidden deep underground.

……

Ling Chengen observed the valley and found that there were an unusually large number of poisonous things.

But there are hot springs here, and during the cold season, you can actually grow some things here.

In addition, the area is surrounded by mountains with steep cliffs, making it suitable for raising animals.

The prerequisite is that all the poisonous plants and animals here must be removed first.

Ling Chengen walked up to Bai Qingyu and asked, "I plan to take a walk around the valley and observe the environment. Do you want to stay here, or come with me?"

Bai Qingyu stood up and said, "I'll go with you."

Ling Chengen nodded and continued forward along the cliff face, while Bai Qingyu remained vigilant, watching out for any poisonous creatures that might suddenly appear from the surroundings.

Because of the white fog in the valley, the visibility was not high, and they could only see about 10 or 20 meters ahead. When they reached a small hot spring pool, Ling Chengen suddenly stopped.

"There should be a very large snake here. Be careful and keep an eye on your surroundings."

Bai Qingyu also saw the two huge red horned deer carcasses ahead.

Red elk are giant deer; adult males can reach four meters in height, and with their enormous antlers resembling Venus flytraps, they can even reach six meters. If Ling Chengen doesn't retaliate in her beast form, a red elk could seriously injure her on the spot, or even kill her.

The only entrance is only about 1.5 meters high, which is too much for these two to fit through.

Bai Qingyu looked up at the cliff next to her. There were some protruding rocks on the cliff face, and several unique trees were growing on the cliff above.

Several trees growing on the cliff showed signs of broken branches.

There were even several broken, thick branches near the hot spring pool.

It appears that two male deer were fighting on the mountain when they accidentally lost their footing and, because their antlers got caught on each other, both fell into the valley.

It was stopped a few times by tree branches, so it didn't die instantly after falling.

But the two unfortunate red elk still did not survive.

Because both deer had two deep, bloody holes in their necks.

The deer's carcass was already stiff, and its skin had an abnormal dark purple color.

This is a symptom of poisoning.

Bai Qingyu gestured to the bloody hole in the deer's neck, his expression grave. "It must have been a giant snake. Judging from the hole left by its fangs, it must have lived for more than ten years..."

When Ling Chengen turned to speak, his pupils suddenly contracted.

"Bai Qingyu, don't move," she whispered.

Bai Qingyu's body suddenly stiffened.

Without Ling Chengen needing to explain further, he already felt something cool and silky gently brushing against his waist.

(End of this chapter)