Chapter 500: Chapter 500

Meanwhile, Jing Shu was also perfecting the unforeseen aspects of her previous plans. For instance, item five concerned the Seeds and rare ores. Originally, she had planned to discuss terms with Jin Tianci, but that changed to waiting for news. If there was ultimately no news, she, Yang Yang, and a few others, along with Hao Yunlai, would go to the seaport there to find the supplies.

It was said that the supplies were already nearby. However, after the territorial changes, they couldn’t be accessed directly. In this regard, Jing Shu was rather experienced; getting the Seeds was a matter full of twists and turns that had to be settled.

Another example was the remodeling of the villa’s backyard. After another month, the villa’s backyard was completely sealed off. The massive 300-square-meter area now wholly belonged to Jingshu’s house. Not only that, but a very high wall was also built around it. Right at the main backyard entrance stood that huge, V-shaped tombstone, which made Mrs. Jing think she had entered the wrong house when she came back from work.

To maintain the pretense, Jing Shu could only have someone inscribe an article on the tombstone, something resembling a compassionate Buddhist scripture. Jing Shu said that she had been dreaming of disasters lately, and in her dream, the Buddha advised her that doing this would turn misfortune into a blessing.

"Daughter, Dad knew there was a reason you suddenly set up such a big thing. Our girl never does anything pointless."

Grandma Jing’s eyes crinkled as she laughed. "Follow me, follow me! Whatever the Buddha says, we’ll do."

Mr. Jing puffed on his dry tobacco pipe. "Why doesn’t the Buddha appear in the dreams of those of us who believe in him..." He seemed somewhat disgruntled and a bit saddened. But before he could finish, Grandma Jing was chasing him with a broom, shouting, "You old rascal! Facing a problem and begging every kind of god there is, and you still have the nerve to say that..."

Mr. Jing was also quick on his feet, darting off to the backyard to continue moving bricks. The backyard was sealed off, making the villa safer than before. But the backyard was so large that he still had to replan it. He especially needed to designate an area for the Domestic Poultry he planned to raise. He also needed to allocate another plot of land to plant more vegetables. Given his age and seasoned outlook, he suspected that these tough times were far from over, and stockpiling food was essential. "We still need to plant more corn," he thought. "It’s high-yielding, and the feed for the Domestic Poultry is almost exhausted."

Since so many tasks were scheduled for the backyard, heating was naturally essential. Mr. Jing also took charge of installing circulating hot water pipes, arranged in coils around the yard—this was the most primitive form of "floor heating." Unlike typical underfloor heating, which would be covered with floor tiles, now, in the apocalypse with its limited resources, he simply had to open the valves on these pipes. As long as hot water flowed through them, the yard enclosed by the pipes would stay warm.

The boiler room at the back of the villa was in operation every day anyway. To save natural gas, they had recently been burning the several tons of coal purchased before the apocalypse. With the relentless burning at Jingshu’s house, it would all be used up in two or three years. But there was no choice; the weather in Wu City was dropping to below minus ten degrees Celsius, which was unbearable for both humans and Domestic Poultry. They had to use the coal, and once it ran out, switch to natural gas. At least, as far as Jing Shu knew, even with energy shortages, she had never seen Su Malie lack these essentials.

Right, then there was item thirteen: the experiment with the Blood-colored Spiritual Spring. This topic was quite broad, covering too much ground.

For instance, oranges were initially planted, but eventually, grapefruits and tangerines were harvested. Jing Shu made some honey grapefruit tea from the grapefruits and distributed it among the family. As for the tangerines, she canned their flesh, taking some out every few days to supplement the family’s fruit intake. The dried tangerine peel also had various benefits.

It was as if Jing Shu had discovered a new continent. Perhaps in the future, she could offer canned fruit instead of fresh? That seemed a bit easier to pass off.

As for the Dinosaur Chicken produced by the Blood-colored Spiritual Spring, Jing Shu was quite dismayed.

After the fat chicken and the Dinosaur Chicken bred, they laid many Dinosaur Eggs, each more than twice the size of a normal egg. At first, the fat chicken incubated them daily like a normal hen. But after a month, the Dinosaur Eggs in the space had piled up into a mountain, and not a single one had hatched! Later, Qi Wei, the fat chicken, clucked a few times and then stopped incubating those Dinosaur Eggs altogether.

Jing Shu researched for a long time but couldn’t figure it out. Only after looking up information online did she understand that this might be due to ecological or species isolation, which involved many technical terms.

The gist was: the fat chicken’s genes were too powerful, causing it to diverge from the chicken species; it was almost classifiable as an intelligent species. The Dinosaur Chicken’s genes were also very strong, causing it to diverge from the chicken species as well.

Since they were two different species, they naturally couldn’t reproduce, so the eggs didn’t hatch. However, there was still a minuscule chance—one in a thousand or one in ten thousand—but overall, the probability was very low.

But this absolutely didn’t affect the relationship between the fat chicken and the Dinosaur Chicken. These two now cuddled affectionately daily in the space and then managed the chicken flock to display their status.

Never one to give up, Jing Shu conducted more frantic experiments during this time. She paired the fat chicken with a normal rooster, but still, no eggs hatched. She then paired the Dinosaur Chicken with a normal hen. Over half a month passed—which, considering the space’s environment and feed, should have been enough time to hatch a batch of eggs—but still, none hatched.

Because of this, Jing Shu fed several more hens with the Blood-colored Spiritual Spring. These hens didn’t turn into Dinosaur Chickens, but they grew much larger and became far more formidable.

When these new hens bred with Dinosaur Chickens, one out of ten eggs actually hatched something, which excited Jing Shu tremendously!

The hatchlings could still be called chickens, sort of, but they weren’t ordinary ones. Jing Shu named them Mutant Chickens.

After another month, she raised this batch of Mutant Chickens to maturity and discovered their phenomenal abilities. For more chapters visıt 𝙣𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙡•𝙛𝙞𝙧𝙚⚫𝙣𝙚𝙩

These chickens were huge from the start, about the size of a medium-sized dog and quite fierce. They inherited some Dinosaur Chicken traits, including a tendency to stand somewhat upright like a dinosaur. Their hind legs and claws were particularly powerful, and they had a terrifying appetite, able to eat and digest anything.

These Mutant Chickens also had another mutation: once a chick was raised and bonded with, it would recognize its owner! What did this mean? It meant that in the future, Mutant Chickens could guard the house like dogs and also lay eggs. Plus, their feathers could be collected annually to make down jackets. Most crucially, their droppings weren’t waste; they could be used as fertilizer! In the apocalypse, this Mutant Chicken was definitely the Rolls-Royce of its kind, incredibly resilient and long-lasting!

Female Mutant Chickens could lay more than two eggs a day, with the eggs still larger than a fist.

Most importantly, these Mutant Chickens were like an invasive species, immune to all rotten corpse insects and various insects carrying zombie viruses!

I’m going to get rich! was Jing Shu’s first thought. Was she going to make her fortune from chickens?

It’s important to note that the most significant reason for the 90% reduction in the chicken population was, first, the extreme heat killing a large number, and second, the majority of Domestic Poultry becoming infected with the Zombie virus, an incurable condition once contracted.