Chapter 219: Heavy Losses

Before the hailstorm, Xia Qing had traded many times with Zhong Tao for evolved White-Haired Chicken-Dropping Vine. Number Three Territory had Chicken-Dropping Vine, everyone knew that. Xia Qing pressed the button to reply, "Yes, it's evolved White-Haired Chicken-Dropping Vine. Can this herb help treat Uncle Shi's illness?"

Zhang San replied, "Depends on the evolution level. After the Calamity Rain, send some of your Chicken-Dropping Vine over."

"Okay." After Xia Qing agreed, just as she was waiting for Li Si to speak up and trade Chicken-Dropping Vine with her, a curved bolt of lightning that pierced straight through heaven and earth suddenly lit up the sky, followed by rumbling thunder, and then a gale mixed with raindrops.

The third Calamity Rain of the tenth year of the catastrophe had begun.

Zhong Tao's judgment was accurate. The moment the Calamity Rain began, it came down extremely hard, pounding the rainproof cloth with a tremendous noise. Even though the protective mask dulled part of it, the sound that reached her ears was still unsettling.

Xia Qing braved the rain to inspect the drainage ditch, then returned to the small hut.

Beard Feng put away the detector, his face grave. "Orange level. The Calamity element density is still rising. Red Calamity Rain may arrive very soon."

When the Red Calamity Rain arrived, someone had to be inside each greenhouse. The rotation plan they'd drawn up before could no longer be carried out. Everyone on Beard Feng's squad looked toward Number Three Territory's lord, Xia Qing.

Xia Qing immediately produced a plan. "Seven greenhouses, one person assigned to watch each. I'll watch the corn greenhouse. Three people patrol outside, clearing dangerous Calamity-evolved creatures. No need to go to the village where I live. Sheep Boss and the three wolves are all in the village. They're all wearing protective masks and can hear our conversations. If there's danger, they'll sound the alarm."

"Good." Beard Feng immediately gave the order. "Dajiang, Chen Zheng, Eryong, you three patrol outside. I'll take the Gao Po greenhouse. The rest of you, one greenhouse each."

The Gao Po greenhouse had the spinach Luo Pei needed to eat every day. Only with Beard Feng personally watching it could he feel at ease.

Xia Qing gave a final reminder. "Watch out for the sunflowers. Safety first."

"Understood." Everyone put on their protective masks and rushed into the heavy rain.

Xia Qing hurried to the corn greenhouse and switched on the fifteen floodlights one by one. During the second Calamity Rain night patrol, she'd had to rely entirely on night-vision goggles and the floodlights on her head to check on the crops. The drawbacks were huge.

So Xia Qing had traded crops with Zhong Tao for a batch of floodlights. Each lamp came with a rechargeable battery; one charge provided ten hours of light. During Calamity Rain, insects' movement was restricted, and the rainproof cloth wasn't very transparent, so turning on the lights wouldn't attract large numbers of insect-type insects.

With the floodlights, Xia Qing could see every corner of the greenhouse and every stalk of corn.

"Level has risen to red." Beard Feng's voice came through the earpiece-style walkie-talkie.

"All lords, we are now entering the Red Calamity Rain period. Please stay alert. If any dangerous situation arises that you cannot handle, report it in the group immediately." Lord Tan Junjie's grave announcement came through the lord walkie-talkie.

At this tense moment, even Zhao Ze, who loved to complain the most, didn't pipe up. Every lord stared fixedly at the crops in their own territory, silently praying the Red Calamity Rain would end soon.

Ten minutes, twenty minutes, thirty minutes…

The violent Red-level Calamity Rain, carried by the gale, slammed against the ground. The Calamity element content in the air and in the rain-soaked soil climbed rapidly. Although the territory's crops were protected by the rainproof cloth from being directly washed by the Calamity Rain, the abnormally active excess Calamity elements in the air seeped through every gap into the greenhouses. The Calamity element content of the air inside the greenhouses kept rising, gradually matching the outside.

In the microscopic world invisible to humans, the fierce battle between the plants and the Calamity elements had already begun.

The first to report a Calamity evolution was the team member guarding the vegetable greenhouse. "Two white radishes in the cultivated-field vegetable greenhouse have undergone Calamity evolution, rapidly growing larger. Already cleared."

"Two cabbage stalks Calamity-evolved. Already cleared."

Beard Feng immediately ordered, "Eryong, reinforce the cultivated-field vegetable greenhouse at once."

"Copy that." The speed-evolver Eryong, who was patrolling outside, rushed quickly toward the vegetable greenhouse.

When the Red Calamity Rain had lasted fifty minutes, every greenhouse was reporting Calamity evolutions.

"Two corn stalks Calamity-evolved. Already cleared."

Inside the corn greenhouse, Xia Qing, who had just dug out the twentieth rapidly shooting-up corn stalk, couldn't spare any attention for the Calamity grass sprouting at her feet. She quickly returned to the half-meter-high field ridge, looked left and right, and spotted two corn stalks—one twenty meters to her east, one forty meters to her west—both shooting up at the same time!

She sprinted east, cut down the Calamity-evolved corn and tossed it onto the high ridge, then ran quickly west and uprooted the Calamity-evolved corn that had already grown to two and a half meters. Then, running east while doing so, she snapped the still-growing Calamity-evolved corn in her hands into several sections, stuffed them into a sealed bag, sealed it, tossed it onto the high ridge, and hurried to dig out the roots of the Calamity-evolved corn stalk to the east.

The corn roots whose stalks she'd cut off a few seconds earlier had already sprouted three palm-high yellow shoots. She cleared the shoots along with the roots, stuffed them into a sealed bag, and Xia Qing quickly returned to the high ridge, only to find three more corn stalks in different directions had undergone Calamity evolution!

She ran toward the nearest one. "Calamity-evolved plants in the corn greenhouse are increasing. Need reinforcements urgently."

Corn was different from other short-stalk crops. Once it shot up a meter, it could touch the rainproof cloth at the top of the greenhouse. Once its upward growth was blocked, the Calamity-evolved corn could only grow sideways, very likely causing the plants around it to Calamity-evolve as well.

Chen Zheng immediately replied, "On my way."

"Baa!" Sheep Boss and Chen Zheng responded at the same time.

Beard Feng's squad, busy on their respective battlefields, heard Sheep Boss's voice, paused in unison, then continued working.

Xia Qing worked while gently replying to Sheep Boss, "Boss, you don't need to help in the field. You watch the house and take care of Wolf Lao Er and your friends."

"Baa—" Sheep Boss responded. Xia Qing had lived with it for half a year and understood it was telling her not to panic, that it was coming to reinforce her right away.

Xia Qing had given Sheep Boss the title of boss of Number Three Territory on a whim, but Sheep Boss had taken it seriously and shouldered the responsibility of a leader. When a danger arose in the territory that could be handled, it charged forward; when the danger couldn't be handled, it fled with Xia Qing.

Soon, Dajiang, who was patrolling the territory, called out, "Sister Qing, Sheep Boss has run out of the village and is heading toward the corn greenhouse."

"Copy that."

While rapidly digging out corn roots, Xia Qing called out to Sheep Boss, "Boss, watch your step, don't fall. Wolf Lao Er, don't follow the boss out. Stay home and wait. Broken-Back, don't let the wolves out of the sheep pen."

"Smack!"

Dajiang, who had just cut a half-meter-long evolved centipede in two, was so startled by Xia Qing's words that his foot slipped and he face-planted, smashing the two pieces of centipede into flat strips.

The night-vision goggles made up for Sheep Boss's poor night vision, and its hard training in running had boosted its speed. It swiftly leapt over Dajiang, who was sprawled on the ground, and raced toward the corn greenhouse.

Chen Zheng, who was clearing Calamity-evolved corn, asked, "Sister Qing, can the Boss tell which corn stalks have Calamity-evolved?"

"No, but it can carry all the Calamity-evolved corn out in its mouth."

Clearing Calamity-evolved crops required getting their roots away from the native soil as quickly as possible, to avoid affecting other crops. Corn had a very well-developed root system; once dug up, the roots would cling to a large clump of soil and keep growing. Faced with this situation, one either had to quickly toss the Calamity-evolved corn out of the greenhouse, or seal it off from Calamity elements.

Now that more and more corn was Calamity-evolving, neither method was as efficient as having Sheep Boss help.