Chapter 387: Lord Fifteen

Even if she could afford it, Xia Qing wouldn't buy it. The reason was that the mung bean cultivation guide in her hands had been bought from Territory Nine. Although it was somewhat useful, the cultivation conditions it required were very demanding, so it didn't help much with increasing yield.

So at the Lords Alliance meeting, everyone had already decided that unless the price dropped to within 100 points, they would no longer purchase Territory Nine's "Guide."

The lords of the Lords Alliance wouldn't buy it, but lords who weren't short on points would still get a copy.

Tang Zhengpo came online. Xia Qing heard that his voice had a bit more strength than the past few days. "Assistant Liu, Territory Twelve is purchasing one copy."

Hu Zifeng also came online. "Assistant Liu, Territory One is purchasing one copy."

Assistant Xiao Liu was very happy. "Understood, I'll have someone deliver it to the road sign in twenty minutes. Please check and receive it, lords."

Assistant Zhou Zhaoping from Territory Eight also came online. "Assistant Liu, Territory Eight is purchasing one copy."

Assistant Xiao Liu immediately responded, "Understood, I'll have it delivered to the road sign for you in twenty minutes. Assistant Zhou, may I ask if your territory's compost fungus powder can be delivered on schedule?"

Zhou Zhaoping responded unhurriedly, "Four days from now, that is, November 15th at 10 a. m., the delivery truck will begin delivering."

Xia Qing paused. Territory Eight actually had a dedicated delivery truck now—she didn't know whether it was fuel-powered or electric.

"Ah, ah—"

From Territory Two suddenly came a beast-like roar of a human losing control. Xia Qing immediately stood up. Sick Wolf Lao Er, who had been digging a pit with his claws, and Sheep Lao Da, who had been lying down chewing cud, also stood up and looked south together.

"Territory Two, what's the situation?" Tan Junjie asked over the walkie-talkie.

Tang Huai answered in exasperation, "Someone in the territory lost emotional control and went berserk. We're injecting a soothing agent."

The soothing agent took effect very quickly. Two minutes later, the roaring stopped.

Tan Junjie continued to ask, "Territory Two, is anyone injured?"

"Only one person lost control. No one is injured."

"Received. Report immediately if there's any situation."

Hu Zifeng started running his mouth. "Territory Two, don't push it. If you really can't handle it, hurry up and let the refugees leave. Give them a way to survive."

The refugees had been in the territory for over ten days now. During this short period, there had been no Calamity Rain, and the atmospheric Calamity elements hadn't risen noticeably. Yet there were still refugees losing control and going berserk. This could only mean that the refugees in Territory Two had been in a state of extreme tension, causing their physical resistance to drop and the Calamity elements in their bodies to spike.

Tang Huai actually didn't quarrel with Hu Zifeng. "You're right. If I can't scrape together enough food, I'll apply to reduce the number of refugees Territory Two employs."

Tang Huai wasn't arguing or cursing. Everyone was unused to it, and Hu Zifeng was even more unused to it. None of them knew how to pick up the conversation and continue.

Xia Qing listened attentively to the intermittent noise and crying from inside Territory Two, her brow slightly furrowed.

The Dawn Wind Squad had let Tang Huai take in over a hundred refugees without providing food. What bad scheme were they cooking up? Could it be that they wanted Tang Zhengpo to provide food to raise the refugees?

Tang Huai asked on the lord channel, "Captain Tan, can I take the evolved refugees in the territory and form a team to go into the Evolution Forest to look for food?"

Tan Junjie solemnly warned, "You need to make it clear to the refugees in the territory that once they step out of Territory Two, they will no longer be protected by the Lord Law. Before you step out of the territory, the inspection team needs to confirm face-to-face that the refugees are doing so voluntarily, not under coercion."

Tang Huai responded, "Understood."

The refugees of Territory Two were about to step out of the territory.

Xia Qing immediately called Qi Fu and asked him to notify everyone that an emergency lords' meeting would be held at 6 p. m. inside Territory Five.

These past two days, the engineering vehicles hired by the territory alliance had been digging up thorn wood from Mountain Fifty and transporting it to the territories cartload by cartload. The south walls of Territories Four, Five, and Six, and the west wall of Territory Ten had already been built. Coupled with the inspection team's diligent and responsible patrols, the unease the lords had felt because of the refugees' arrival had dropped considerably.

Zhao Ze didn't feel comfortable letting his mother cross the North Isolation Belt alone. He waited until Xia Qing arrived before letting his mother go over together with Xia Qing.

In the eyes of the Zhao mother and son, Xia Qing was an extremely, extremely capable person. So seeing that Xia Qing wasn't flustered at all, Zhao's mother felt reassured too. The two chatted about farming and building greenhouses as they walked toward Territory Five together.

After the meeting began, convener Xia Qing spoke first. "The reason I've called everyone here today is, first, to see how much longer it will take to harvest the thorn wood; second, to discuss how to deal with the refugee crisis; and third, to talk with everyone about getting soil from outside the territory to build greenhouses."

After saying that, Xia Qing looked at Zhang Shiyi. "Uncle Zhang, how many more days will the thorn wood need to be hauled?"

Unlike Territories Four, Five, and Six, which only needed walls on the north and south sides, Territory Ten, which needed walls on all four sides, required a very large amount of timber.

So most of the timber recently hauled out of the thorn wood forest on Mountain Fifty had been sent into Territory Ten. The person keeping watch at the Evolution Forest on Mountain Fifty these past two days had been Zhang Shiyi's son.

Zhang Shiyi answered, "If we don't add vehicles and only rely on the few we have now, it will still take five days to finish digging out the thorn wood forest on Mountain Fifty. This afternoon, people from Territory Seventeen went to Mountain Fifty to look for timber and also took a liking to that patch of forest. From the looks of it, they'll start on it tomorrow. Little Du says those people looked like fierce demons—very hard to mess with."

They weren't the only ones who thought of using thorn wood to build walls. The Evolution Forest belonged to unclaimed territory, and anyone could go cut there.

Qi Fu asked the well-informed Kuang Qingwei, "Who is the lord of Territory Seventeen?"

Kuang Qingwei actually knew. "The first lord of Territory Seventeen died in the second Calamity Rain. The current lord is called Wen Nengjie, an ordinary person. I dealt with him back when I was running a shop in the Safe Zone."

"Before the Catastrophe, Wen Nengjie raised pigs and ran a slaughterhouse. After the Catastrophe, he led the people from the factory into the Safe Zone and took on the job of collecting and cremating corpses in the West District of the outer city. Everyone who tried to compete with him for that business was killed by him. So people in the West District all call him 'Dead Man Jie'—he's absolutely ruthless. But as long as you don't clash with him, the man is fairly reasonable. He used to come to my shop to buy things often."

Before Xia Qing could speak, Qi Fu's phone rang. He took out his phone and saw it was Tan Junjie. He immediately answered, "Captain Tan?"

Tan Junjie asked, "Qi Fu, is the lord of Territory Ten in your territory?"

Qi Fu immediately nodded. "Yes, Brother Zhang is here with me. Are you looking for him?"

Tan Junjie was silent for two seconds, then asked, "Are you discussing the matter of building thorn walls? I'd like to send the agent from Territory Fifteen over for a bit. Would that be convenient?"

Qi Fu gestured for everyone to be quiet, then turned on his phone's speaker function before asking, "Captain Tan, you said to have someone from Territory Fifteen come over to discuss building thorn walls?"

"Correct." Tan Junjie explained, "The lord of Territory Fifteen is my daughter Tan Qi. The territory is currently being managed by my retired comrade Yue Haiying as agent."