Chapter 222: Sunflower Machine Gun

Xia Qing thought about it and understood a little.

In Broken-Waist Wolf's understanding, Sheep Boss and the other two wolves were different. Those two wolves wanted jerky, and it could help, but if Sheep Boss wanted to eat, it depended on whether Xia Qing agreed.

The time Xia Qing and the wolf pack clashed over exchanging medicinal juice, Broken-Waist Wolf directing Sheep Boss out of the house to fetch a snake had greatly enraged Xia Qing. Perhaps because of that incident, Broken-Waist Wolf had become cautious?

Xia Qing walked over, took off her gloves, pulled a ration from Sheep Boss's hanging pack, tore open the sealed bag and stuffed it into its mouth, then rubbed its head. "Eat."

The compressed rations were very dry, so Xia Qing filled the water basins for the three wolves and one sheep with spring water before continuing to clear the noxious weeds and poisonous insects.

After the noxious weeds in the yard were pulled out by Xia Qing and tossed onto the bamboo rack, lifted off the ground, with only the little soil clinging to their roots, even if they were alive they couldn't cause much trouble. Once the noxious rain passed and they were sun-dried and burned, they would be completely eliminated.

After cleaning the yard, Xia Qing opened the garage, installed the rain cover and weeding wheels on the micro-tiller, and started it up.

Hearing the micro-tiller's sound, Sheep Boss, who had finished the compressed ration, rushed over, jumped onto its dedicated seat and sat properly. Xia Qing put the protective mask on it, then fastened the rain cover, and began using the micro-tiller to clear the road swallowed by noxious weeds.

Wherever the micro-tiller passed, the evolved poisonous insects and venomous snakes hiding in the noxious weeds scattered in all directions, and the bold ones leapt up to attack Xia Qing and Sheep Boss, but were all blocked by the rain cover.

After Xia Qing cleared the main passages within her territory, she began circling to clear the noxious weeds beside the several greenhouses in the farmland. Once noxious weeds grow tall, they don't just obstruct the line of sight—the evolved insects and snakes hiding inside also pose considerable safety hazards.

Especially during red-level array rain, noxious weeds grow extremely fast. If she waited until the third noxious rain ended to clear them, their root systems might have already spread into the greenhouses. So, once Beard Feng's squad had rested, they had been continuously clearing the noxious weeds beside the greenhouses.

The noxious weeds within two meters of the greenhouses had already been pulled out by them; for places slightly farther away, they used the micro-tiller to cut them down first, planning to till and burn the roots after the noxious rain ended.

The machine was highly efficient—Xia Qing went ratta-tat-tat back and forth, and a large swath of area was cleared.

Endurance evolver Xiao Jiang watched enviously. "The micro-tiller's cover must have been made by Sister Qing—the craftsmanship is really good."

Guan Tong, who had learned blacksmithing from Xia Qing a few times, watched with shining eyes. "When I go back I'll weld one onto our territory's micro-tiller too."

When the micro-tiller passed the pasture shed, Sheep Boss nudged Xia Qing with its head, indicating it wanted her to graze. Xia Qing stopped, saw the air toxin detector was normal, then took off its protective mask and let it down to graze.

Seeing Sheep Boss finally get off, Xiao Jiang immediately ran over. "Sister Qing, take a rest—I'll go cut the rest of the grass."

"Don't go to low-lying areas, there's standing water." Xia Qing reminded him, then handed the micro-tiller to Xiao Jiang. Holding an umbrella and carrying a basket, she went to the cabin; the moment she took off her protective mask, she smelled a rich fragrance that made her mouth water.

Xia Qing hadn't expected that Er Yong, who had previously kept a low profile, actually had such good cooking skills.

Wearing an apron and holding a wok spatula, Er Yong greeted Xia Qing. "Sister Qing, sit for a bit—just two more dishes and we can eat."

"There's jerky, flour, cucumbers, tomatoes, and chili peppers inside—figure out what to do with them. I'm going to inspect the greenhouses." Xia Qing set the basket beside Er Yong, put on her protective mask, and left the cabin.

She finally understood why there wasn't a single person in the cabin—with a smell like this, anyone inside couldn't resist the urge to sneak a few bites early.

Xia Qing inspected the greenhouses one by one. Reaching Gao Po, she saw Beard Feng pulling noxious weeds on the slopes on both sides of the greenhouse, so she cleared them together with him. Using the private chat channel, Beard Feng first told Xia Qing about Zhang San and Li Si, then asked in an extremely low voice, "During the noxious rain, can we still get spinach juice for Brother Luo?"

Xia Qing knew what Beard Feng was worried about—he was afraid that pinching off the spinach juice would cause the spinach plants to lose balance during the noxious rain and undergo harmful evolution. The spinach terraces were protected by Yi Stones, so even if the spinach was pinched bald, the chance of harmful evolution was very small. "We can. There are several hundred spinach plants in the terraces—even if half of them undergo harmful evolution, the rest are still enough to eat."

Brother Luo's body really couldn't take any more strain. Beard Feng nodded, firmly etched Xia Qing's kindness into his heart, and pulled weeds with renewed vigor.

A heavenly voice came through the walkie-talkie. "Sister Qing, brothers, food's ready."

Braised pork head meat, red-braised pork knuckle, stewed pig trotter soup, stir-fried cabbage leaves, jerky stir-fried with bamboo shoots, tomatoes with sugar, smashed cucumbers... every dish was so delicious it made Xia Qing want to cry.

Damn—compared to Er Yong's cooking, what she made herself was basically garbage.

If Er Yong weren't a main evolver on one of Blue Dragon's top ten squads, Xia Qing would definitely negotiate a deal with Yang Jin to hire Er Yong exclusively to cook for her.

After the meal, Beard Feng and the other five who hadn't rested since last night went into the rest room to catch up on sleep, while Xia Qing and the other five inspected the farmland. The pattering noxious rain fell until midnight, and at the time when everyone was most drowsy and exhausted, Lord Tan Jiejie's calm, serious voice sounded on the lord channel. "The second array of red-level noxious rain has begun. All lords, please heighten your vigilance."

Every territory mobilized in full force to combat the second array of red-level noxious rain.

Fortunately, this array of noxious rain only lasted forty minutes. Just as Xia Qing breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing Tan Jiejie's announcement that the red-level noxious rain had ended, she heard Zhao Ze's flustered plea for help. "Captain Tan, Territory Four's sunflowers are undergoing dangerous harmful evolution—two people injured, need support."

"Copy that. Arriving in three minutes." Tan Jiejie replied calmly.

Kuang Qingwei burst out cursing. "My two sunflowers underwent dangerous harmful evolution—they're shooting out sunflower seeds like goddamn machine guns, and they goddamn riddled the rain shelter with holes—half the shelter is done for!"

Tan Jiejie sternly warned, "Territory Six lord Kuang Qingwei, control your emotions. Does Territory Six need support?"

Kuang Qingwei paused for a few seconds, barely suppressing his irritable, breaking-down mood. "Territory Six has no casualties, no support needed."

After responding to Tan Jiejie, perhaps to relieve his irritation, Kuang Qingwei asked on the lord channel, "That's on me too—I shouldn't have put most of the manpower in the cornfield. How are everyone's territories holding up?"

The corn seeds Luo Pei provided, combined with the corn seeds exchanged from the safe zone—territories Three, Four, Five, and Six, which all had buffer forests, had each planted a large cornfield, and their inspection focus was also on the cornfields.

Qi Fu was probably busy and couldn't spare words to speak. Shi Du replied, "We also have two sunflowers undergoing dangerous harmful evolution here, but because we encircled the sunflowers with iron plates in advance, no one was hurt."

Xia Qing also pressed the button. "I also put up iron plates, and cleared out the sunflowers with high noxious element content in advance—no dangerous harmful evolution occurred."