Fearsome Farmer - Chapter 55

Chapter 55: There Are Poisonous Insects?

Li Siwen left the treehouse around 3 or 4 AM, relying on the faint skylight to collect morning dew from the leaves. This should have been a very boring task, but he did it seriously.

When the Sun came out, he had collected four water gourds of dew, slightly more than yesterday.

After sending the precious water back to the treehouse, Li Siwen carried a back basket and did his patrol, checking that no beasts had come near. Also, he was thinking of finding a spot in his territory to dig a well.

It was a major thing, not having water. It affected not only his daily life, but also affected the development of his territory, so it was very important.

Firstly, he went to the flooded valley in the north and walked along the edge of the valley upwards. If he saw good-quality anti-inflammatory grass and blood stopping grass, he would even ripen them. Also, he picked some mushrooms that didn’t seem poisonous to dry them for later use.

If he could make a pottery pot next, these mushrooms would come in handy.

As for now, he didn’t plan on eating large numbers of raw mushrooms. He would rather eat things like grasshoppers, which were high in protein instead.

After walking up for about one mile, Li Siwen changed to the southwards direction. This time, he would patrol for about one kilometer. The forest in this area was still very dense and obscured the sky, but Li Siwen was very familiar with this place from catching pastry rats and killing mosquitoes here. He could walk back from here even with his eyes closed.

Therefore, normally, he only needed one look to see if there were any changes in details here.

Everything in this direction was still normal.

Until a patch of empty land about a few hundred square meters abruptly appeared in front. This was a low stone cliff with no grass growing on it. Li Siwen named it Bald Heights. This was a, well, a very famous landmark reference in his territory.

Walking along Blad Heights for one round and also relieving his bladder, he then strolled towards the west direction.

For the west side, the land would gradually slope downwards. The trees here weren’t too dense and the weeds here grew vigorously. This was an important wild plant area in Li Siwen’s territory. It had the most anti-inflammatory grass and blood stopping grass. There was also a tree similar to a mulberry tree, but there was no legendary mulberry on it.

This place was named the South Slope of Weeds by Li Siwen, and it was also the area where he considered digging the well. When he built the wooden wall next to the treehouse previously, he dug down a full five meters deep, but no water came out.

Although there would eventually be water if he continued digging deeper, in terms of work efficiency, it wasn’t suitable. Also, he had to consider watering the farmlands too.

This place was quite good for digging as well. The location here was low, with a height difference of about two meters compared to the location of the treehouse.

Also, there were lesser trees here. With fewer tree roots, it would be easier to dig too.

Just that he needed to consider the problem of water backflowing.

The backflow of water from two nights ago had flooded this place too.

“Let’s look first. If there is water here just a few meters deep down, it will be quite good too.”

If he could cultivate more farmlands, this spot would be quite advantageous.

He was walking while thinking and examining the surroundings, not letting off any detail.

“Hm?”

Suddenly, Li Siwen stopped, his eyes fixed on a bush.

At the end of the line of sight, a stiff corpse of a pastry rat lay there, its limbs stretched straight, its eyes widened, and he could faintly see black mucus oozing out.

“It’s poisoned?”

Frowning, a warning sounded loudly in Li Siwen’s heart. This was the first time seeing such a thing in the past seven to eight days. Even when this area was dominated by the Iron Ring Black Snake, these pastry rats were also living comfortably. At most, they would be eaten, but not dying in such a tragic way, right?

Li Siwen didn’t get close to the corpse. He cut off a branch from a tree and held it in one hand. Then, holding his breath, squinting his eyes, he was about to flip the rat from a meter apart with the branch. But he felt that it wasn’t safe enough, so he retreated 10 steps back, picked up a stone weighing a few kilograms, then held his breath again, covered his face with one hand, and threw the stone at the rat. With a swoosh sound, the stone accurately hit the corpse.

Practically at the same moment, the blackened body of this rat seemed to become inflated with air and burst apart. The black mucus inside was like countless small snakes, instantly enveloping the area within a five-meter radius of the corpse!

By now, Li Siwen had already retreated an entire 30 meters, hiding quickly behind a tree, only exposing one eye.

Sigh, he had accidentally exposed his king-like mannerism. What an embarrassment!

“This is suspicious. Why did the corpse explode? Looks like it had only died after during the night yesterday. After all, I had patrolled this area during the evening yesterday.”

Feeling suspicious, Li Siwen didn’t rush to check the situation but waited quietly for 10 minutes before walking up three steps, seeing every detail in his eye.

That black mucus wasn’t some living thing, but something jelly-like, elastic, and shaking under the sunlight.

Also, the organs and bones of the rat were missing, only a black-colored skin was left. It was really strange.

As for the smell, it was a really horrible smell. But he didn’t know if it was poisonous or not. After all, he was quite a distance away from it.

There was definitely toxicity in it, and it was probably harmful to the human body.

As for the impact on the environment, he noticed nothing for the time being. The weeds and other things were still living very well at this moment.

Slightly considering, Li Siwen walked around the explosion area with the branch, drawing a circle with a radius of 50 meters, then plugged the branch into the ground, marking this area as a temporarily restricted area.

“Looks like this place isn’t suitable for digging a well. It will be too disgusting if a few poisoned rats constantly jump into the well to suicide!”

Li Siwen quickly changed his mind after some quick thought. Well digging, an important project related to the security strategy of the territory, couldn’t just consider one aspect.

“It’s better to place the well between the treehouse and the farmlands. Some things must be prevented. Wild beasts who are as kind as I am and won’t poison the well water are very rare now.”

Next, Li Siwen continued his patrol of the territory, being even more vigilant now.

Then, he suddenly thought of how the rat might have been killed by a poisonous insect. This insect wouldn’t be too big, so it would be hard to notice beforehand. If it suddenly bit him when he wasn’t aware, he might become a black jelly too.

The rest of the patrol was normal. He discovered nothing strange.

Returning to the treehouse, Li Siwen carefully checked all the pork and fish meat. He picked a few that weren’t dried very well and roasted them with some mushrooms. Then, he added an unknown fruit jam and unknown wild vegetable to it. This was his breakfast.

After resting for a short while, he checked the condition of the water tank. It was doing great. There wasn’t even a single small crack. After it was completely dry, it should be able to be heated.

But before that, he needed to make a simple furnace.

“Let it dry for another day today. Those bricks can be used by tomorrow. No matter what their quality is, it’s enough as long as I can make a furnace. I just need to put in the firewood, seal off the furnace door, and leave the rest to luck.”

“Of course, if I purely depend on luck, it also means that I am about to die. For anything I do, even if I can’t plan it perfectly, I need to prepare backup plans for it. For example, if my skill at heating mud is lousy, I can just practice and learn from experience. But to do that, I need more mud, meaning I need more water to make mud. Therefore, I must give priority to digging a well first.”

Li Siwen pondered for a while and dug a well first.