Chapter 1059: The Second Day of Malrain

Although drinking the X nutrient solution can keep a person in peak physical condition for a long time, mental fatigue can only be recovered through sleep.

The rustle of rain, the whoosh of wind, the chirp of swallows, and Old Sheep's snoring wove together into Xia Qing's personal lullaby, letting her sleep straight through to six in the morning.

What woke her was a rooster's crow.

Listening to that clear, ringing sound, Xia Qing, who hadn't yet opened her eyes, slowly curved her lips into a smile. Because this was the Black Feather rooster's crow — the highest-quality adult rooster in her territory, who had survived last night's disaster triggered by the malevolution malgrass and lived on in good health.

Right after that, a flood of sounds from inside the house and outside rushed toward Xia Qing's eardrums:

The two squirrels in the cage downstairs were leaping and bouncing about; Old Sheep wasn't in the house — he must have gone out to graze; the swallow flock had also woken up and was chattering away about last night's catastrophe; outside there was no rustle of rain, meaning this was a lull between malrain showers; the malrain had been falling for nearly 20 hours now, and the sound of flowing water in the territory had grown louder; the waterway from the Wolf Valley pond to Territory Three had been clogged by fallen leaves, raising the water level on the north side, which flowed through Territory Three's northern iron-net wall into the territory, with a two-meter difference in water level between inside and outside…

Xia Qing opened her eyes, decided to wash her face, feed the chickens first, then clear the malgrass in the yard, then go clear the blocked waterway, cut the third batch of bamboo, and only then eat.

She put on her protective suit and glanced at her phone, discovering that Yang Jin had sent her a message at three in the morning. The Azure Dragon Squad had captured the intruder who triggered the evolved wolf collars in the Western Evolution Forest, and had already brought them back to the Hui-3 Base Safe Zone.

"Captured" meant they took the intruder alive. Once they pry open this intruder's mouth and the mouths of the five people including Peng Yuancai caught outside Hui-1 First Prison, even if they can't dig out the mastermind behind this beast tide, they can at least strip a layer of skin off Hui-1 or Liehuo.

Once that layer is stripped off, Liehuo will definitely be unstable. The Red Vein Sacred Stone Yang Jin sent to Hui-8 should also be taking effect by now, guiding the Hui-8 Doomsday Cult to attack Liehuo Volcano.

Xia Qing was in a great mood. Going downstairs, she found the freeloading red squirrel mother and her strong kit in the cage, their bellies still hugely distended.

After an entire night, the free food they'd eaten still hadn't been digested?

At this hour, Xia Qing didn't dare disturb her idol's rest, so she only added water for the two red squirrels, then mixed vegetable leaves with cornmeal into chicken feed, carried it to the chicken coop and poured it into the trough hanging outside the cages, then filled every bamboo tube hanging outside the cages with pollution-free spring water.

After last night's crisis, Xia Qing had 56 chickens left, including 32 hens — of which only 10 were currently laying; the rest were chicks hatched this spring. There were 24 roosters, and apart from the Black Feather rooster, the others were also all roosters hatched this spring.

Among this spring's hatched chicks, the offspring of the Black Feather rooster and White Feather hens accounted for 6 hens and 7 roosters, 13 in total. All 13 of these chickens had safely weathered last night's disaster caused by the aggressive malgrass. This showed that chickens with higher evolution levels had stronger resistance to sudden disasters, and were bolder too.

In another month, three of those six hens should start laying, so Xia Qing decided to upgrade her own diet — from now on, she'd only eat eggs laid by mid- to high-level evolved Green Lantern chickens!

After leaving the chicken coop in high spirits, Xia Qing efficiently pulled all the malgrass in the yard and tossed it onto the rack to dry, then hurried to the small hut by the farmland to meet up with Peng Jian and the other three. She checked the territory's overnight situation log, divided up the work for patrolling the territory, and began clearing malgrass from the greenhouses not protected by Yishi.

Taking advantage of the fact that the malrain had paused for now and the wind wasn't too strong either, Xia Qing also opened the rain covers of the greenhouses protected by Yishi, letting the crops inside get some air.

"Sister Qing, you there?"

Zhao Ze from the neighboring territory called out to his good neighbor, full of energy.

Xia Qing pressed the walkie-talkie button. "Here."

"In twenty minutes, the Magnetic Perception Evolver squad will finish patrolling my territory and head to your territory's north gate."

According to the policy set by the Territory Management Department, during malrain, Magnetic Perception Evolvers patrol the farmland within the territory once a day.

Today was the second day of the malrain, and the Ninth Center's Magnetic Perception Evolver group had started patrolling early.

Xia Qing pressed the walkie-talkie button. "Copy that. The river channel blocked by silt at our territory's north wall — was that you who brought people to clear it?"

Zhao Ze answered, "Yes. I found the blockage during patrol, so I brought people out to clear it."

"Good, this morning I'll have my side clear the north river channel." Xia Qing asked, "The rabbits in your territory weren't affected last night, right?"

Strictly speaking, rabbits also eat insects, so they might have been affected.

"They were affected and jumped around for a bit, but they all pulled through. But one of our hens died, and my mom was so heartbroken she cried." Zhao Ze mentioned the dead Yellow Lantern chicken, his tone also showing the pain of the loss.

This spring, Territory Four had exchanged five Yellow Lantern chickens with Territory Seven; one died of illness in May, and now another had been scared to death, leaving two roosters and one hen — three in total.

Zhu Li also came online. "One of my roosters was scared to death. Sister Qing, how about yours?"

"Eight died." Xia Qing's voice was calm.

Eight! The lords listening all felt the loss for Xia Qing. Yuan Yan came online. "This kind of problem malgrass only grows in the corridors — it's obvious someone entered our territory area to cause trouble and secretly scattered the grass seeds."

Tan Qi also came online. "Right, definitely! We have to catch the bad guys and make them compensate for our losses. My Yellow Lantern hen with a malelement content of 6.7‰ died."

The little hen she'd raised like a treasure had died, and the young girl's voice was on the verge of tears.

The next stretch of time turned into a lords' grievance session. Xia Qing silently listened while patrolling the territory.

Soon, the Ninth Center Security Team One and Inspection Squad Six, escorting Magnetic Perception Evolvers Wu Xinlian and Lyu Ziqiang, entered Territory Three and began patrolling the farmland, screening for hidden aggressively malevolved crops.

The hidden aggressively malevolved crops in the territory now were mainly oil sunflowers. The oil sunflowers in Xia Qing's territory were planted in the terraced fields of Greenhouse One; the two of them patrolled once and found no dangerous plants.

Wu Xinlian said with a smile, "There are no dangerous oil sunflowers on the director's side."

Xia Qing nodded. "Last night two oil sunflowers underwent aggressive malevolution, and they've already been cleared."

Lyu Ziqiang quickly asked, "No one got hurt, right?"

When oil sunflowers undergo aggressive malevolution, the sunflower seeds just sprouted on the flower disk rapidly swell up, then shoot out like bullets — their attack power is not low.

Xia Qing shook her head. "There were steel plates blocking them, and the patrol team spotted them in time, so no one was hurt."

Even with Yishi installed, Xia Qing, like the other territories, had set up steel plates along the edges of the sunflower fields and pulled out two Yellow Lantern sunflowers with relatively high malelement content — all to deal with the Magnetic Perception Evolvers' inspection.

There were only a dozen or so greenhouses in Territory Three, so the two Magnetic Perception Evolvers finished patrolling quickly and left Territory Three under the protection of the security and inspection teams.

Tan Junjie walked behind and discussed with Xia Qing. "Northern District Three just called again, asking us to send Magnetic Perception Evolvers over to patrol the farmland in Northern District Three's territory. If we refuse, they'll call the Territory Management Department."

Hearing Tan Junjie's words, the expressions on Wu Xinlian and Lyu Ziqiang's faces both changed.

Xia Qing's face was expressionless. "An intruder was found in the Western Evolution Forest. Unless the Safe Zone sends a special-ops squad by helicopter to escort them, the Ninth Center's Magnetic Perception Evolver employees will not leave Northern District One to carry out outside missions."