Chapter 273: Salute to the Lords

"Done!" Kuang Qingwei immediately requested instructions from Tan Junjie. "Captain Tan, look, all our territories need Brother San's special-effect herbs added. Can you talk it over with Captain Jiang who's handling the spraying? Ask her to add the potion into the pesticide when she lands at Territory Three to refill water?"

"Copy that."

Ten minutes later, Tan Junjie replied, "Already coordinated. Territories eleven through twenty-eight also need it; the helicopter spraying has been paused. Please ask Brother San to make the herbs into potion as soon as possible. I'll come pick it up."

Zhang San replied lazily, "Already made. Come get it."

After everyone thanked Tan Junjie and Zhang San, Qi Fu asked, "Captain Tan, what about the areas that have already been sprayed? Do we spray them ourselves or does the helicopter?"

In the lord channel, an unfamiliar voice sounded. "I'm Jiang Ting, the squad leader for today's spraying mission. The more than ten thousand mu already sprayed will be sprayed again after the potion is mixed in. Lord of Territory Seven, may I ask—can the pesticide with the new potion be sprayed at night?"

Zhang San answered, "As long as it doesn't rain."

"Copy that. The helicopter squad will operate day and night until the mission is complete."

Jiang Ting's answer put everyone at ease.

After the helicopters switched to the new potion, they sprayed all the greenhouses again.

Spray the bug-free greenhouses at Territory Three again? Yes. Because Territory Three had too few greenhouses; the effort of singling out those few would take more time than spraying them along with the rest.

"Half the curled-up thorn bugs here are dead!" Zhao Cheered half an hour after the greenhouses were sprayed the second time.

Shi Zhong followed up, "Same here. The stem borers are nearly dead too. Thanks, Brother San. Thanks, Captain Jiang."

Xia Qing added her thanks as well.

Zhang San had already gone offline, and Jiang Ting was busy spraying and didn't reply either.

At three o'clock the next afternoon, after the helicopter squad finished spraying Territories One through Twenty-Eight, they sprayed for over three more hours above the Evolution Forest near the territories. Then Jiang Ting announced over the lord channel:

"All lords, the spraying mission for the Northern Zone One territories of the Safe Zone is complete. The helicopter squad is standing down and returning to the Safe Zone."

Everyone hurried to express their thanks.

Jiang Ting replied, "The grain and vegetables you grow can help more people survive this cold winter. On behalf of the helicopter brigade, Jiang Ting salutes all the lords."

Jiang Ting's words echoed again and again in Xia Qing's heart. Watching the three helicopters fly farther and farther away in the sunset, a sense of pride in farming welled up inside her.

The lords risked danger to come out and farm so they could live better. But from a macro perspective, first of all they are citizens of Huaxia; by taking care of themselves and not claiming subsistence allowances that would compress everyone's rations, they save the country expense. Second, the grain, vegetables, and herbs they grow in their territories, once sold, can keep more people from going hungry. Right now what the country lacks is not points, but food.

The territories have become the third channel for providing food in the Safe Zone, alongside the Planting Center's cultivation and the squads' hunting and gathering in the Evolution Forest.

Their coming out to farm benefits themselves, others, and the country. As a lord, she is proud!

Just for Jiang Ting's words, Xia Qing decided to open one more mu of land when spring comes next year!

Because the spraying was timely, a plague of bugs that could have stripped the territories bare was extinguished. The lords, bathed in the afterglow of the setting sun, stepped on the carpet of small caterpillar corpses as they patrolled their territories.

The weed walls had been gnawed through to the light; the tree leaves were chewed ragged; the crops inside the greenhouses had been nibbled quite a bit too—but it didn't matter. The root systems and main stems of the crops were undamaged, so they'd recover quickly. But the mung bean flowers that had been eaten off would definitely not produce any mung beans.

Because they had seeds from the first harvest, every lord had planted several greenhouses of mung beans—some even a dozen or more. The reduced mung bean yield hit them hard.

Only Territory Three, which had been sprayed early, was affected the least.

Xia Qing patrolled her fields plot by plot. Some leaves of the cabbage, radish, and spinach had been chewed ragged too, but the loss wasn't great.

The cornfield had hardly any chewed leaves, but the paddy had more. Clearly, this stem borer—scientifically known as the Evolution Striped Stem Borer—preferred rice seedlings.

Still, the rice seedlings' main stems hadn't been bitten through, so there shouldn't be too great a loss.

The ninety-five Green-Light plants had to be kept for seed; every single one was precious. These past few days Xia Qing had been checking them one by one, listening, making sure no bugs were gnawing the rice seedlings from inside.

Of the four hundred rice seedlings she had brought back from the Safe Zone, two hundred and eighty remained after the third Calamity Rain. After the rain, Xia Qing tested the Calamity-element content of the Yellow-Light seedlings and pulled out all those above fifteen parts per thousand. Grain with Calamity-element content above fifteen parts per thousand is already inedible; keeping them was useless and an eyesore.

The remaining two hundred and sixty had Calamity-element content between nine and fourteen parts per thousand—within the edible range. With the rice seed D-21, exchanged from Zhang San for chestnuts, having a Calamity-element content of six parts per thousand, Xia Qing didn't plan to keep these high-Calamity Yellow-Light rice plants for seed.

Once these rice plants are harvested, she wants to send them to Uncle Huo at the Huo Family Smithy. When she bought the knife, she'd promised him she'd bring him rice once she grew some.

Don't be fooled by these rice grains' high Calamity-element content—they're still hot commodities. Ordinary folks can't get them even if they want to. Using this rice as a gift would make it easier for Xia Qing to ask Uncle Huo to forge her a set of armor suitable for an Advanced Strength Evolver.

Thinking of Uncle Huo made Xia Qing think again of that kind person who'd sent her a message. She wondered whether he'd safely weathered the third Calamity Rain, and whether he'd been affected by this bug plague.

That person was very mysterious, and Xia Qing didn't feel right messaging to ask. She sighed and went to patrol Area Three of Mountain Forty-Nine. The broken-legged wolf and the red squirrels, afraid of the spraying, had retreated deep into the mountain forest and weren't in their dens or nests. The bug density in Area Three of Mountain Forty-Nine was lower than in the territory, and Jiang Ting's helicopter squad had sprayed a few passes here as well. Though they'd used pesticide without the Advanced Evolution herbs added, it had some effect, but not much.

But plenty of bugs in the Evolution Forest was no problem. Unlike human-cleared territories, the Evolution Forest had plenty of bug-eating animals, forming a closed-loop food chain. No matter how many bugs there were, they'd be wiped out.

Bug-eating animals would attract small carnivores, then large predatory beasts. Mountain Fifty didn't need worrying about, but Mountain Forty-Nine belonged to the Qinglong Base's field training grounds. If large predatory beasts came down the mountain and caused damage in the territories, the Qinglong Squad would bear the corresponding responsibility.

So Xia Qing called Hu Zi Feng to ask whether Mountain Forty-Nine needed pest extermination.

Hu Zi Feng replied, "No extermination. Captain Xie says to use these bugs as bait for hunting."

Xie Yu really was treating Mountain Forty-Nine as a training ground. Xia Qing knew Yang Jin was away and hadn't returned, but she hadn't expected Xie Yu to be the one making decisions for Territory One now. Hu Zi Feng came every day to pick up Green-Light vegetables, which meant Luo Pei was in the territory.

What did that indicate? It indicated that Luo Pei's physical condition was very poor.

Xia Qing asked softly, "Is Brother Luo doing okay?"

"Still holding on. Our boss has already gathered the last herb and is on his way back. Once the medicine is used, Brother Luo will make a full recovery." A note of relief came through in Hu Zi Feng's voice.

Luo Pei had been tormented by the poison for over half a year and was finally going to recover. Xia Qing was overjoyed. Humming a little tune, she went to search the red squirrels' home, caught a few Evolution giant lizards along the way, and then returned to Territory Three.

Just as she was about to cross the North Isolation Belt, she spotted the plucked weasel hiding behind a large boulder nearby, poking its head out furtively, as if it had something to say to her.