Chapter 1217: Hail

After Xia Qing quickly assigned specific people to handle spraying fungicide on the potato fields, emergency-harvesting the rice, and reinforcing the rain-proof covers over the vegetable plots in Territory Nine, she turned and stepped onto her single-person flight device.

After the single-person flight device lifted into the air, she saw that the entire territory was lit up—without exception, every lord was rushing to harvest their grain.

In the face of natural disaster, only by keeping the grain firmly in hand could everyone feel at ease.

"Sister Qing, we're almost done cutting the rice." Seeing Xia Qing return, Xiao Jiang in Greenhouse 11 straightened up and, waving his sickle, called out to her in a loud voice.

Xia Qing had called Er Yong back when she was at Mountain Fifty, telling them to cut the rice immediately.

With speed-evolver Er Yong and Jing Kuan, strength-evolver Guan Tong, and stamina-evolver Xiao Jiang, four people harvesting half an acre of rice was extremely fast.

Xia Qing picked up her single-person flight device, rubbed the head of Wolf Lao Er who had come running over, and through the insect-proof netting of Greenhouse 11—crawling with all manner of insects—glanced at the rice piled on the bamboo racks after cutting, then nodded. "Good work. Xiao Jiang, keep harvesting the rice; the rest of you, come with me to reinforce the other greenhouses."

What Xia Qing was in a hurry to get back for was not this half acre of rice, but rather the two breeding greenhouses, the beekeeping greenhouse, the forage shed, and Greenhouse 3 with its green-light fig cuttings inside the Northern Buffer Forest, as well as the two yellow-light fig trees, two green-light orange trees, and three jujube saplings she had planted in her courtyard.

Her beekeeping greenhouse and aquaculture greenhouse had steel-frame structures; lowering the rolled-up cold-proof curtains would allow them to withstand hail and gale winds—these two were the simplest.

The other greenhouses were framed with arches of hardness-evolved Red Leaf Bamboo, which also had a certain disaster-resistance capacity, but to be safe, Xia Qing wanted to add another layer of rain-proof cover to prevent the single layer from being punched through by hail.

The lords were all busy harvesting grain and reinforcing their greenhouses; the lord channel was quiet, but Xia Qing could hear Zhao Mu and Tang Huai's shouts directing the rush-harvest in Territory Four and Territory Two.

Zhao Mu was a teacher and knew how to use her voice—it sounded calm and practiced. Tang Huai shouted and cursed at the same time, and his voice had already cracked.

Fifty minutes after Northern Zone One entered rush-harvest mode, Tan Junjie's serious broadcast voice came through the loudspeaker: "Attention all lords, attention all lords. Now broadcasting an urgent notice just issued by the Territory Management Department: According to a document from our superiors, based on high-altitude cloud detection, within two hours Hui-Three Base may experience natural disasters of hail and strong wind. All lords are requested to urgently deploy disaster-prevention measures. Attention all lords…"

Hearing Tan Junjie's voice, the lords who were rushing to harvest grain felt both relieved and an even greater sense of urgency.

Hearing Zhu Li pressed the intercom button. "Has everyone finished harvesting their grain? I'm short-handed here and urgently need support. I'll pay five points per hour."

After the incident in Territory Six this spring where hired workers betrayed them and tried to kill the two lords, Kuang Qingwei and Hearing Zhu Li had become extremely cautious about hiring, reducing the number of permanent employees in their territory and hiring short-term workers during busy farming seasons. That was why, when harvesting grain in the middle of the night, they ran into an emergency shortage of hands.

Tang Huai also came online in a hoarse voice. "Brothers and sisters, Territory Two and Territory Twelve urgently need help. Pay is the same as Territory Six."

Yin Jie, agent of Territory One, came online. "Territory One urgently needs help."

Wen Nengjie, lord of Territory Seventeen, came online. "Territory Seventeen also needs help. I'm begging everyone."

Shi Du's voice came over the intercom. "I'm done here. I can provide help."

Tan Qi came online. "I can send four people from my side."

Lord Huo Lei came online. "Territory Eleven can send two people."

Zhou Zhaoping also came online. "Territory Eight can send five people."

Four territories needed help, and the Alliance members who could provide it numbered only twelve—clearly not enough.

Xia Qing, who knew the rice-planting area of each territory, came online. "Shi Du, Tan Qi, you go to Territory Six; Uncle Huo, Uncle Ping, you go to support Territory Two. I'm heading back to Center Nine right now to gather people. All territories needing support, report the number of people you need to finish rush-harvesting within one hour."

Center Nine did indeed have a hundred acres of rice needing rush-harvesting, plus vegetables in fifty brick-wall sunlit greenhouses and fourteen wood-frame greenhouses needing protection. But Center Nine had eight small harvesters and over 560 employees, so after one hour of rush-harvesting, it could already spare some employees to go out and help.

"Copy that!"

"Copy that!"

"Thanks, Sister Qing. Territory Two needs fifteen people."

"Sister Qing, Territory Twelve needs twenty-eight people."

"Sister Qing, Territory One needs forty people."

"Territory Seventeen needs six people."

"……"

Amid the lords' continuous reports, Xia Qing landed her single-person flight device inside Center Nine.

Five minutes later, over 150 employees from Center Nine who could be spared, carrying harvesting tools, ran toward the territories that needed help.

Xia Qing personally led forty people, hurrying to support Territory One.

Every territory in Northern Zone One was bustling with activity—so much so that no one even spared a glance at the layer of blight grass poking up from the ground.

In the Northern Evolution Forest, on the Third Peak of Mountain Fifty, Yang Jin and Zhao Ze had already directed the mountain personnel to lay down rain-proof covers and were going all-out to reinforce the drainage ditches and reservoirs; in the hidden valley of Mountain Fifty, Li Kai and Zhang Shi were inspecting the drainage pipes; the weasel family, keenly sensing the changes in soil and air, burrowed from their den into the hidden valley and hid in the stone nest Xia Qing had built for them.

On Mountain Fifty-Five, the lead wolf stood on the snow-covered peak, gazing solemnly at the sky. Down the mountain, Broken-Waist Wolf, having received Xia Qing's notice, was carrying a thickly leafed tree branch in its mouth and laying it over the Bai Mao grass it had planted.

On the snow-capped peak of Mountain Sixty, Handsome Giant Wolf keenly sensed the change in the air, raised its head, and let out a long wolf howl.

Inside Xiong Dong on Mountain Sixty-One, Xiong Wang opened its eyes. The sleeping Xiong Qun members twitched their ears or shook their paws, then turned over and went back to sleep.

On Mountain Twenty-Two in the south, the old wolf, having received the same notice, stood on the cliff edge, gazed at the ever-thickening clouds, and let out a long wolf howl.

On Hui-One Mountain Twenty-Seven, Lord Cui Yan also began to howl.

Hearing their leaders' howls, the southern wolf pack members quickly gathered toward Hui-Three Mountain Twenty-Two and Hui-One Mountain Twenty-Seven.

After detecting that the wolves had left, three hidden human squads immediately revealed themselves and sped toward their respective search areas on Mountain Twenty-Eight.

The anaerobic bacteria in the soil continued to evolve rapidly; the clouds in the sky grew thicker; the temperature began to drop; the wind gradually picked up.

Thirty minutes later, the loudspeakers across Northern Zone One's territories once again broadcast Tan Junjie's serious report: "All territories, atmospheric blight-element concentration has risen to 19‰. The cloud layer is thickening, and the core temperature of the clouds is extremely low. Blue-grade blight rain is forecast to fall within half an hour, accompanied by strong winds and hail. Please take protective measures."

After Tan Junjie's words fell, wails and cries for help rang out across the lord channels for Territories 11–18 and 19–26. The lords, wishing they could evolve eight hands, exerted all their strength to rush-harvest grain, and the inspection squads all entered the territories to help the lords harvest.

Center Nine dispatched three batches totaling over 260 employees to support the various territories.

Even so, the blue-grade blight rain carrying hail still came crashing down before the lords had finished harvesting their grain.

Northern Zones Two and Three, the southern territories, the eastern territories—everywhere was filled with weeping and wailing.