Chapter 1052: Territory Losses

The screening team members and territory personnel standing on both sides of the barrier ditch were all stunned by the blood-red passage.

Standing high atop the iron tower, Xia Qing suppressed her surging excitement, took out her phone to check the messages, then pressed the walkie-talkie button. "All territories, screening teams, Ninth Center: thanks to everyone's full cooperation, we have successfully repelled the bird tide. The Azure Dragon Squad has successfully intercepted the beast tide in the western Evolution Forest. We've won this battle. The next Calamity Rain will begin in forty minutes. Please use this break to quickly clear the battlefield, rescue the wounded, and repair the greenhouses."

Within Xia Qing's line of sight, four wounded had been carried away, and five greenhouses had had their rainproof tarps torn open by the birds. Humanity had won, but at a great cost.

Xia Qing climbed down the iron tower and stood by the isolation ditch, quietly gazing at the over sixty-meter-wide wall of aggressive Calamity Grass and wild grass melted by the blood-red agent, as well as the large number of bird corpses lying on the blood-red agent, once again shaken by her idol's overwhelming, domineering combat power.

"Commander Xia..."

Still not recovered from his shock, Ceng Quan walked over to Xia Qing and pointed at the blood-red passage to ask, "Can these bird corpses be collected?"

Actually, Ceng Quan could have asked the big shot of Territory Seven directly on the channel, but he was afraid that one wrong word might anger the big shot.

Being angry and getting blacklisted by the big shot, he could still accept. But being put on the big shot's death list—his ending would surely be just like the Calamity Grass on this passage...

"Let me ask." Xia Qing pressed the walkie-talkie button and calmly asked, "Third Brother, you there?"

"Speak."

The crisis was over, and her idol's voice had gone listless again. As a die-hard, deep-pit fan, the commander instinctively rummaged through her mental stockpile of food while asking aloud, "Do the animal corpses that fell on the passage covered by the red agent need to be picked up and dealt with?"

Zhang San gave a clear answer. "The agent has strong viscosity and has already stuck the corpses down—no handling needed. When we recover the agent layer after this Calamity Rain ends, we'll recover the animal corpses along with it. Notify everyone not to step on the agent-covered area. Once the surface layer of the agent is damaged, the roots of the aggressive Calamity Grass will reabsorb Calamity Elements and regain activity."

"Copy that."

Actually, without Xia Qing's notification, personnel within the range of Northern Zone One territory could all hear Zhang San's words through the loudspeakers. But as the disaster relief commander, Xia Qing still repeated her idol's instructions and emphasized the serious consequences of damaging the agent belt.

After arranging personnel to keep round-the-clock strict watch over the red passage, Xia Qing obtained the consent of Territory Seventeen's lord Wen Nengjie and entered Territory Seventeen on the east side from Territory Sixteen.

The isolation belt was covered by the red liquid, so Xia Qing couldn't cross directly and could only take a detour back to her own territory.

When Xia Qing arrived, Wen Nengjie, who had long been waiting at the territory border, pointed at the horrifying blood-red passage and asked in a low voice, "Sister Qing, this agent isn't toxic to humans, right?"

That one didn't even need asking. Xia Qing nodded expressionlessly. "As long as you don't touch it, you won't be poisoned."

Wen Nengjie bowed and nodded. "Please rest assured. I can't control the other territories, but within Territory Seventeen, along the four-thousand-meter-long barrier ditch from north to south, absolutely no one will touch the agent. Whoever touches it, I'll kill them!"

After eagerly seeing Xia Qing off to the edge of Territory Eighteen, Wen Nengjie couldn't help asking again, "Sister Qing, Third Brother..."

When Xia Qing, who was carrying a sniper rifle and a heavy sniper crossbow on her back with a black blade at her waist, turned her head and the dark night-vision goggles behind her protective face shield turned toward him, Wen Nengjie, smiling like a flower, handed over a food box with both hands. "Sister Qing, you haven't eaten yet, have you? These are green-light cicada nymphs just stir-fried with green-light oil. Still warm. Take them back as an extra dish."

Xia Qing didn't take it. "Dinner's already prepared on my side. Brother Jie, keep it for yourself. After eating, repair the damaged greenhouses as soon as possible."

Within the range Xia Qing could see, three greenhouses in Territory Seventeen had been destroyed by the birds.

"Alright, alright." Wen Nengjie immediately tucked the food box away. "My losses here aren't too bad. Sister Qing, hurry back and check your own territory too. Territory Eighteen should be coming up. Brother Yong—"

Wen Nengjie shouted eastward through a megaphone.

"I'm here!" Territory Eighteen's lord Zhang Genyong stood inside his own territory and eagerly invited Xia Qing. "Commander Xia, the ground's all mud. Be careful not to slip."

Xia Qing followed the outer edge of the barrier ditch from Territory Seventeen into Territory Eighteen. After answering Zhang Genyong's questions about the blood-red agent, she left Territory Eighteen, entered the eastern isolation belt, and got into the screening team's patrol vehicle.

The driver, Su Ming, was still in an excited state. "Sister Qing, Third Brother is awesome, totally awesome!"

Xia Qing nodded calmly. If Third Brother isn't awesome, who is?

The patrol vehicle rolled over Calamity Grass, turning from the eastern isolation belt into the northern one. As they neared the north gate of Territory Seven, Yuan Rui, usually a man of few words, couldn't help speaking up. "From Third Brother's tone just now, he sounded angry. Sister Qing, maybe you should go in and check?"

When it came to coaxing the big shot into a good mood, no one in this stretch of territory had more experience than Xia Qing.

Xia Qing shook her head. "Third Brother's been busy until now and still hasn't had dinner. It's not a good time for me to go over and disturb him. Besides, one of my greenhouses got pecked open by the birds. I need to go back and replace the rainproof tarp."

Yuan Rui...

Su Ming...

Cao Xianyun...

After returning to her own territory, Xia Qing stood on Gao Po and first took a look at the red-leaf bamboo, which had shot up to 8 meters in the red-grade Calamity Rain, then looked toward the six people installing the tarp-pressing lines on the new rainproof tarp of Greenhouse Eleven. Her heart settled a little.

Greenhouses 11, 12, and 15 are the three southernmost greenhouses in Territory Three. Greenhouse 11 grows green-light sweet potatoes and green-light rice, Greenhouse 12 grows green-light mung beans, and Greenhouse 15 is Boss Sheep's pasture shed, planted with over a dozen kinds of green-light grass that Boss Sheep loves. The rainproof tarp of Greenhouse 11 had been torn open by the birds, so of course Xia Qing felt the pinch—but if Greenhouse 15 had been torn open, Xia Qing would feel more than just a pinch.

Xia Qing didn't rush over. She first inspected the green-light orchard, then checked the breeding Greenhouses 1 and 2. She leapt over the river channel, where the rising water had submerged the stone slabs, and inspected the planting and breeding greenhouse. After confirming that her green-light mealworms and flowering plants were all fine, she entered Greenhouse 5, which wasn't protected by Yishi and was planted with green-light mung beans.

The 25-minute red-grade Calamity Rain had pushed the atmospheric Calamity Element concentration to a terrifying level. Fortunately, the drainage ditches had been repaired in advance and the rainproof tarps covered, so the soil Calamity Elements inside the greenhouses rose slowly. Thus, although Calamity Grass had grown inside the greenhouse, its height was only level with the mung beans. If the Calamity Grass was pulled out quickly, the mung beans might still yield one more harvest.

The situation in the other greenhouses not protected by Yishi was about the same as in Greenhouse 5.

When Xia Qing entered Greenhouse 11, she found that the rainproof tarp above the red-core sweet potatoes was damaged, but no Yishi was missing, and the Calamity Element concentration inside the greenhouse was still so low it was almost negligible. Her suspended heart finally settled.

Apart from those two patches of over 100 sweet potato plants that had been drenched by the red Calamity Rain, the quality of the other crops in this greenhouse would not decline.