Human effort was a remarkable thing, especially when backed against the edge of extinction.
Construction sites everywhere across the Mingfa Camp. Stone hauled from ruins throughout the district, cement found in the rubble of a cement plant, mixed and mortared into rough, massive structures that rose across the landscape. Against evolved beast threats — particularly airborne ones — the new architecture prioritized thickness over height: stone walls, stone floors, stone ceilings, built heavy.
The logging teams were bringing in evolved trees from the surrounding area. The wood was something genuinely new — not just bark showing metallic gradation but the internal grain as well, the entire structural matrix shifting, hardness approaching ironwood standards. These timbers were going into the load-bearing columns.
The Research Institute had made an optimistic projection: within perhaps a year, evolved tree lumber might be substituting for structural steel.
But the buildings couldn’t go up. They had to go down. Air threats remained unmanageable — the Pox Fly swarm at Xinqiao Airport; the Dragon Hornets and Bloodthirsty Mosquito colony from the Huoshan Oasis direction, both capable of ranging this far. Individual large-bird evolved beasts passing through occasionally. Human capability against airborne threats was still defensive only.
Leadership meetings proliferated alongside the construction.
Shen Cong attended none of them.
The decision to leave had been made. Forcing himself to integrate was pointless. The leadership had tried summoning him several times and received no response, and had gradually stopped trying. Unless there was a direct threat requiring response, he didn’t enter the camp anymore.
When he did go in, it was to the Research Institute — checking for new technical developments, commissioning work he needed done. The Swiftclaw Leopard hide was in the hands of a skilled leatherworker for curing.
He also visited the sweet potato fields, the soybean plots, and the peach orchard regularly. The Activity Peach seedlings wouldn’t fruit for at least half a year — too young. What he was waiting for was the current sweet potato and Life-Saving Yellow Soybean crop to mature. Both stored well, and both could be cultivated in Great Vajra’s greenhouse.
He intended to take a significant quantity with him.
“These three Activity-rich varieties make heavy demands on soil Activity content,” Yu Fucheng explained, walking the field beside him. “To maintain fertility, we grind metal waste into powder and work it into the soil. The crops respond dramatically — no nutrient deficiency symptoms.”
The director of the Sweet Potato Research Lab had been working with Shen Cong long enough that the explanation came comfortably, without formality. He was describing the camp’s proprietary fertilizer. The name they’d given it internally was Jin Ke La.
Its development hadn’t required a breakthrough discovery. The Research Institute had established early that metal corrosion was probably a form of Activity dispersal — mass leaving the metal and entering the surrounding environment as ambient Activity. That mechanism implied that metal powder introduced to soil would feed Activity into the root zone of Activity-intensive crops. Testing had confirmed it worked.
“What’s the application frequency?” Shen Cong asked.
“Every three days for the sweet potatoes, otherwise growth rate drops significantly. We’ve been supplementing with Dafangyong Reservoir sediment — good results. Soybeans need it slightly less often, about every five days.”
He left the fields and went to the Bee Treasure Lab’s apiary.
The larvae he’d provided had been successfully raised — one queen cell larva had matured into a queen, and the pupal workers had emerged and were functioning in the artificial hive. Numbers were small.
“At minimum three months before the colony population is large enough for stable Bee Treasure production,” Vice Director Xu Changde said, watching a worker bee pack pollen into a cell. “Right now we’re relying on the Life-Saving Yellow Soybean flowers as the pollen source — not many flowering Activity trees near the camp. Once this batch of pollen is worked through, we’re planning to relocate the colony to Shushan. There are Activity fruit trees near the summit that flower continuously.”
The Bee Treasure Lab’s bees weren’t gentle toward humans — they stung people on occasion, though the venom at Grassweight tier was nearly harmless. But stinging cost the bee its life, and the colony couldn’t afford the losses. The Shushan shelter, currently unoccupied, was a practical solution.
Back in Great Vajra, Shen Cong checked on his own Treasure Bee queen.
The larva he’d subjected to systematic starvation and Activity infusion sessions had finally matured — into a queen that he’d ultimately failed to link perceptually. The process had been too far advanced.
Perceptual links have to be established from the egg stage. Larvae are already too developed.
What the experience had produced, unexpectedly, was something like a behavioral bond anyway. The queen had developed an approach tendency toward him — not fear-response, not neutral, but something that resembled familiarity. Whether that was a stress-bonding artifact from the infusion sessions or a product of long Activity-frequency exposure, he couldn’t determine.
The workers were a different matter. They fled from him. Every Treasure Bee in his colony that hadn’t been raised through the traumatic larval process kept maximum distance, buzzing in agitated patterns when he came near the hive.
His pressure aura, presumably. Low Activity-Value evolved organisms now showed consistent avoidance behavior in his presence. Even Blackhead had gone through a period of visible unease when he’d first crossed 1.946H, taking time before returning to her normal relationship with him.
He watched his bees from a distance, keeping himself back.
The greenhouse’s Life-Saving Yellow Soybean plants were flowering — small yellow blooms across several pots. The Treasure Bees worked them steadily, packing pollen.
What he needed from the colony was modest: five small vials of Bee Treasure per day, half a vial of Royal Treasure Jelly. He’d tasted the Royal Treasure Jelly by now. The flavor was extraordinary. The effect was more so — direct physical enhancement that surpassed Bee Treasure’s direct effect, and as a catalyst alongside Activity fruit, it drew out enhancement potential that the fruit alone couldn’t access.
Small colony. Specific production target. Worth maintaining aboard.
The Mechanical Vine was exactly the same as it had always been.
All day, every day: comfortable, not comfortable. Murmuring to itself in its perpetual half-dream, growing at a pace that required a ruler and patience to detect. He’d applied Jin Ke La fertilizer, which had produced a brief burst of eating eating eating so comfortable before settling back to baseline. Starting height at planting: thirty centimeters. Current height: thirty-five centimeters. Five centimeters of growth, total, over an extended period.
Meanwhile the Activity sweet potato pot had cracked from the pressure of expanding tubers pushing outward, the Life-Saving Yellow Soybeans were flowering and nearly ready to set fruit, and the Activity Peach seedling had reached forty-four centimeters.
He looked at the Mechanical Vine.
“If you don’t start growing faster, I’m cutting you down.” He transmitted the threat through the perceptual link with the full weight of genuine intent behind it.
The Mechanical Vine responded with a vague, content emotional signal.
Full. So full. Comfortable.
(End of Chapter 193)