Chapter 1061: Green Apple

The eleventh year of the Calamity, the third Calamity Rain — the sixth Calamity Rain the lords have experienced since moving into their territories.

After a year and a half of repeated clearing, no large numbers of aggressively Calamity-evolved snakes, bugs, rats, or ants would burrow out from within the territory. Even if fast-growing Calamity-evolved plants sprouted, the lords, now well-experienced, would no longer panic like before.

So, after the tunnel Calamity-grass crisis was resolved, even though another red Calamity Rain had fallen in the morning for thirty-five minutes, and even though this rain would continue to drizzle for over thirty more hours, the lords' mood had already relaxed considerably.

Of course, this relaxation also came from the sense of security Zhang San, Xia Qing, and the magnetoception evolvers brought everyone.

Oil sunflowers in the greenhouse with a certain rate of aggressive Calamity evolution? The magnetoception evolvers had already cleared the potentially aggressive plants.

A big tree in the territory suddenly undergoing aggressive Calamity evolution? If the inspection team can't handle it, just call Sister Qing!

Insect plagues, bird swarms, beast tides, injuries, poisoning? Brother San's got it covered!

The more one thinks about it, the more reassured one feels.

While methodically patrolling the territory and clearing Calamity grass, everyone chatted in the lord channel about the losses in their respective territories, and looked forward to the autumn harvest after the Calamity Rain ended, and the plans after the harvest.

At noon, after a busy morning, Xia Qing picked a basket of vegetable leaves, chopped them up, mixed them with special feed, and carried them into Greenhouse No. 13 — the breeding greenhouse — to sprinkle feed over twelve trays of mealworms. Then, holding an umbrella, she went to Greenhouse No. 15, planted with all kinds of forage grass, picked up her companion, and headed home to eat and rest.

If no emergency arose, Xia Qing could rest at home for six hours, then guard the territory together with Peng Jian and the others from six in the afternoon until the early hours of the morning.

Returning home, Xia Qing noticed the two red squirrels in the cage, which hadn't eaten for half a day, still had big bellies.

After finishing lunch, Xia Qing pressed the walkie-talkie button. "Brother San, are you there?"

Hearing Xia Qing call the big shot, the lords on the No. 1–10 lord channel all stopped what they were doing or set down their chopsticks and listened carefully.

After a full minute, Zhang San's listless voice finally came through the walkie-talkie. "Speak."

Xia Qing asked, "Brother San, the two red squirrels I keep — last night they were lured by a scent onto the tunnel. When I caught them back, their spirits seemed fine, but their bellies have been swollen the whole time, and they still haven't defecated. Do you think they need medicine?"

Everyone...

Zhang San flew into a rage. "I'm not a vet! Go find Zhang Song!"

"Alright, thanks, Brother San." Xia Qing was just about to carry the cage with the squirrels to Territory No. 7 when she received a call from Xin Yu.

The free-range eagle in Territory No. 8 had also overeaten last night. Xin Yu asked Xia Qing to bring it along so "vet" Zhang Song could check it too.

So Xia Qing carried two cages into Territory No. 7 — one cage held the two big-bellied red squirrels, the other held a big-bellied evolved eagle with a drooping right wing.

She didn't dare hand the cages to Zhang Song directly; she carried them into his lab and only let go after setting them on the testing platform.

Zhang Song smiled warmly. "Sister Qing should go find Brother San. Just leave these three animals to me."

"I'll stay here and learn from Song Ge how to examine animals." Her idol was in a bad mood; Xia Qing didn't want to go over and get scolded.

Zhang Song explained, "The mild toxicity of this aggressive Calamity grass causes animals that peck at the flower buds and the seeds inside to become constipated. The balled-up feces provide ample nutrients for Calamity grass seeds to sprout. Those two bags of purple-black bugs Sister Qing brought back from Mountain No. 37 feed on this kind of Calamity grass, which is why they grew so thick and strong."

The reason those purple-black bugs were so thick and strong was because they were stuffed full of fecal balls? Xia Qing fell silent.

Zhang Song urged again, "Sister Qing should go find Brother San for a while. He paid a heavy price to move the lab here. We've been under high-pressure working conditions for over a year, and just one week of relief and this happens. Brother San has been in the lab from last night until now. If you hadn't just called him on the lord channel, Zheng Chen couldn't have knocked open the lab door either."

Xia Qing was surprised. "Brother San didn't eat breakfast or lunch?"

Zhang Song shook his head. "He probably drank nutrient solution. He's been busy the whole time."

After leaving Zhang Song's lab, Xia Qing first returned to her own territory, then came back to knock on her idol's door.

She closed the door with a grin, sat down in front of her idol's desk — he was slumped in the chair with dark circles under his eyes, thin as a stick — pulled the seized broad-bean-sized high-grade Yishi from her pocket, and handed it over. "Brother San, keep this high-grade Yishi on you. It repels Calamity elements better than a mid-grade one."

Zhang San, sprawled in the chair, was no different from before. "What do you want to trade for it?"

Xia Qing had just opened her mouth when Zhang San added, "Last night's potion can't be traded."

Xia Qing...

Alright then.

"Brother San, the giant bees in the chestnut grove are still alive, right?"

Zhang San gave Xia Qing an annoyed look, too lazy to deal with her.

Xia Qing continued, "Giant hornets have appeared in the chestnut grove. We can't pick the chestnuts the way we did last year. I have two plans: the first is for me to lead a team there before dawn and block the rock crevice where the hornet nest is, then open it back up after we've finished picking; the second is to borrow the equipment from your territory and set up mechanical arms for picking chestnuts in the chestnut grove in the dark, then operate them remotely to pick the chestnuts. Which plan do you think works?"

Zhang San said listlessly, "The second one. It disturbs the hornets less. After the Calamity Rain, take Da Ya over. Let him handle the design, and you two build it together."

"Alright." After agreeing, Xia Qing pulled out the grass roots from her pocket and handed them over, asking, "Brother San, these are the two most water-rich evolved Bai Mao grass roots I found in a seized backpack. Do you think we can use them to propagate Bai Mao grass?"

Zhang San glanced at them. "Give them to Zhang Tao to try. Shouldn't be a problem."

"Alright, thanks, Brother San." Xia Qing set the Bai Mao grass aside, pulled a fruit box from her backpack, opened it, and handed it over. "Brother San, these are fruits I just picked. Try them?"

In the fruit box Xia Qing brought, besides a few purple-red grapes, a handful of purple-black ground berries and red ground-rence fruits, there was also a fist-sized green apple.

Zhang San finally sat up straight. "This is a fruit from a tree in your territory?"

"Yes. Last year's apples were all smashed by hail. This year the tree grew 24 apples. I smelled the fruit fragrance a couple of days ago. Try one and see how it tastes?"

Actually, it was the sheep leader who smelled the fruit fragrance and pestered Xia Qing to pick an apple for it to eat, but Xia Qing couldn't bear to. Because the cultivation guide Yang Jin gave her stated that although this variety was an early-ripening one, it wouldn't mature until early September.

Today was August 27th.

Die-hard fan Xia Qing, wanting her idol who had no appetite to eat something, brought over the biggest apple on the tree.