Chapter 342: Grain Thieves

After Zhao Mother traded two lemons for corn, the various lords, Xia Qing included, also traded a few each before getting back to the main topic.

Zhao Mother told Xia Qing, "Qing, you must wear a protective mask and gloves when harvesting alfalfa. The moment you strip the alfalfa seeds off the stalk, they release a stench dozens of times worse than the rotting smell of a corpse. Several of my people threw up, and some even fainted from the smell. That stench is uncanny — it sticks to your skin and you can't wash it off."

The rotting stench of biological corpses was everyone's nightmare in the first year of the natural disaster. That smell was so awful that later, when people wanted to describe how bad a stench was, they used the rotting smell of corpses as the benchmark.

Hearing Zhao Mother's comparison, Xia Qing immediately understood how terrifying the alfalfa's stench was. If ordinary people could faint from it, an olfactory evolver who smelled it would probably want to die.

After Xia Qing thanked her, she heard Qi Fu say, "I discovered that the stench of alfalfa seeds can drive away most birds."

Li Si gave a professional assessment, "Birds are animals with poor olfactory sensitivity, and the olfactory centers of evolved birds haven't evolved significantly either. The olfactory bulbs of Piciformes, Psittaciformes, and Passeriformes birds that like to eat grain are the smallest. If alfalfa seeds can drive even them away, it's worth researching. Auntie Zhao, can I trade for some alfalfa seeds?"

"Sure." Zhao Mother quickly reached a deal with Li Si — one seed for 20 points, traded for compost fungus powder at a discounted price of 30 points per bag.

Once they finished trading, the lords began chattering away, discussing what uses these stench-seeds that could drive away birds might have.

They wouldn't need it for drying corn, because the birds attracted when drying corn on this territory were driven away by the evolved cats from Territory Seven and the evolved sea eagles from Territory Eight — free of charge.

Xia Qing of Territory Three, who couldn't use sea eagles or cats, also wouldn't dry the stench-seeds together with her corn on the rooftop — she was afraid the stench would make it impossible to go home.

It's incredible that Green Lantern alfalfa could evolve such a self-protection method.

But no matter how bad it stank, she still had to harvest the alfalfa seeds.

Xia Qing checked her protective mask, confirmed it was fine, then pulled up all 18 alfalfa plants from her field and laid them out to dry on the empty ground inside the greenhouse.

This was the experience Zhong had just taught her — harvest the whole alfalfa plant and dry it together, so it won't release a stench during the drying process. As for whether there'd be a stench when stripping the seeds after drying, she'd deal with that when the time came. The current goal was to clear the field first so she could fertilize, till, and plant the next crop.

After finishing with the alfalfa, Xia Qing was done with her work for the day. To reward herself for a whole day of hard work, Xia Qing decided to dig up a Green Lantern sweet potato to eat.

Before Xia Qing had decided which sweet potato to dig up, she heard the patrol team passing by the North Barrier, and the walkie-talkie Tan Junjie carried went off.

"Captain Tan, invaders stealing grain have appeared in the outer territories west of the Safe Zone. Please notify the lords and step up patrols. In half an hour, three reinforced squads will arrive at Territories One through Ten within an hour to provide reinforcement. A total of eight additional reinforced squads have been added to Northern Zone One, under Captain Tan's unified command."

"Copy." Tan Junjie asked calmly, "Are the invaders human or animal? Have they been caught?"

"Human. A special ops team has been dispatched to pursue."

Hearing this news, Tan Junjie's entire squad fell silent, and Xia Qing, holding the incredibly stinky alfalfa seeds, wore a grave expression.

The patrol squad responsible for Territories One through Ten had seven people total. One reinforced squad had at least 10 people, so three reinforced squads meant at least 30 people. To protect the territories, the military had dispatched four times the force.

What did this mean?

It meant the human team invading the territories to steal grain this time was very formidable, and there were quite a few of them.

Xia Qing had no time to dig up sweet potatoes. She hurried home, took out enough grenades and bullets from the underground storage room, armed herself fully, and went to protect her territory.

Passing by the sheep pen, Xia Qing noticed that the head wolf and the broken-legged wolf's sister had both raised their heads, and knew the anesthetic on them had worn off.

She turned back to the house, took a vial of antidote for the synthetic venom from the fridge, poured it into a clean basin, and carried it to the head wolf. "Queen, drink this medicine. It's the antidote for the python venom."

The head wolf lowered her head and drank the medicine. Xia Qing then poured some pollution-free spring water, added anti-inflammatory medicine, pointed at the snarling, growling broken-legged wolf's sister, and told the head wolf, "This is that wolf's medicine. The Queen wants her to drink it."

After setting down the water basin, Xia Qing told her companions, "There may be invaders coming to steal the territory's grain. I'm going to patrol and protect our greenhouse. Boss, Wolf Lao Er, don't leave home. Protect the Queen and Broken-Leg Sister. Don't worry — there's surveillance at home. If anything happens, I'll rush back immediately."

When Xia Qing returned to Gao Po, she heard Tan Junjie make an announcement on the lord channel: "We are now in the crop ripening period. Please keep your walkie-talkies open 24 hours a day on each territory, and speed up harvesting your crops. Each lord, please respond upon receipt."

"Territory One, copy." Luo Pei's gentle voice sounded.

"Territory Two, copy." Tang Huai followed.

Xia Qing followed, "Territory Three, copy."

After Territories One through Ten responded in order, Tang Huai immediately pressed, "Captain Tan, I heard that the lords of Territories 158 and 159 in the west and the patrol squad were killed and their grain was stolen. Is that true? Where did the invaders come from?"

Hearing Tang Huai's words, the lord channel exploded.

Xia Qing clenched her fists, fury surging. As a lord, she understood most deeply how hard farming was, and also best understood the joy of harvesting grain.

At this moment of abundance, invaders had broken in, killed people, and stolen their grain!

If they dared come to her territory, Xia Qing would absolutely not let them die comfortably or quickly. In the years of natural disaster, humans who killed innocent fellow humans were scum that had to be eliminated.

Tan Junjie answered Tang Huai's question seriously and calmly, "I haven't received specific notice, so I don't know whether there were casualties in the western territories. Please rest assured, lords. The full Sixth Hazard Elimination Squad and the reinforcement troops about to arrive will do everything in their power to ensure the safety of the territories. Please do not leave your territories. Contact us promptly if anything happens."

Luo Pei's gentle voice sounded, "Captain Tan, the Azure Dragon Squad requests to defend the North Barrier adjacent to Mountain Forty-Nine. We guarantee we won't let anyone pass through Mountain Forty-Nine into the territories."

"Copy. Thank you, Azure Dragon Squad, for the assistance."

Hearing Tan Junjie's response, Xia Qing's heavy heart felt a little better. Because tonight wolves would definitely come to bring prey for the head wolf and the broken-legged wolf's sister. If the North Barrier was full of people and the prey couldn't be brought in, she'd have to use her stored meat to feed the wolves.

Hearing that the Azure Dragon Squad was assisting with defense, the lords adjacent to Mountain Forty-Nine all felt a bit more at ease.

Zhao Ze asked painfully, "Invaders who can kill people from two territories and the patrol squad must be very capable. Why don't people like that use points to trade for grain instead of killing? How much suffering have we all endured just to survive to the tenth year of the natural disaster."