Chapter 494: Is Two Mu of Land a Lot?

Hui-3 Base, Mountain No. 50 — it's very large.

"Mountain No. 50 is 16 kilometers east-west and 12 kilometers north-south, with a flat area of about 192 square kilometers. It has four peaks in total, and the tallest, the Third Peak, is indeed a good bit higher than the highest peak of Mountain No. 49." The reason Xia Qing could answer so accurately was that her idol had signed an employment contract with her yesterday — she was now the manager of this mountain.

Not only that, she had also been granted the right of first refusal to purchase the mountain.

"192 square kilometers is…" Kuang Qingwei was stunned, his brain unable to process it for the moment. He pulled out his battered phone and started calculating how many mu that was.

Zhao Ze, who worked in engineering, had already worked it out. "That's 288,000 mu, and that's only the flat area. If you calculate by the mountain's surface area, it'll at least double!"

Good lord…

Kuang Qingwei and Zhao Ze were dumbfounded; Yue Haiying looked thoughtful.

Because Tang Huai kept harping on the lord channel every day about how much blame the Azure Dragon Squad would bear if they failed to hold Mountain No. 49 and let large evolved animals into human territory, Shi Chong's first reaction on hearing about a mountain of such vast area was pressure. "Qing'er, if fierce beasts run from Mountain No. 50 into the territory and hurt people, the Management Department won't make you take responsibility, will they?"

Xia Qing explained, "As long as I don't deliberately drive evolved animals from Mountain No. 50 to attack the territory, I don't have to bear responsibility."

Shi Chong was relieved. "That's good then. Third Brother is different from those people in Territory No. 9 — he probably wouldn't do anything harmful to the territory."

Yue Haiying nodded along. Zhang San was a technical expert that the Hui-3 Base Commander had invited over to Hui-1 Base after several requests. Zhang San wanted to use Mountain No. 50 as an experimental zone, and the base would certainly agree — but he hadn't expected Zhang San to hand the management rights of the experimental zone to Xia Qing.

Looking at it this way, Xia Qing's relationship with Territory No. 7 was even closer than he had guessed. This was a good thing — it meant the Lords Alliance was growing stronger and stronger.

Xia Qing continued, "Six large machines can be transported to Mountain No. 50 tomorrow to start digging trees and building firebreak isolation belts. This mission needs to recruit fifty people, will last 15 to 20 days, will be led by Captain Yang of Azure Dragon, and security will be provided by the Azure Dragon Squad and the Inspection Team. The requirements for participants are…"

After Xia Qing finished explaining the mission details, participation requirements, and pay, the members of the Lords Alliance were all tempted.

Zhao Ze was very tempted and asked first, "Isn't the beast tide about to arrive? Doesn't Captain Yang need to return to the Safe Zone?"

"The danger rating of the Mountain No. 50 disaster-clearing mission is higher than that of a medium beast tide. Yang Jin has already been conscripted by Zhang San, so if the commander defending against the beast tide wants to conscript Yang Jin, he needs Zhang San's approval. Xie Yu and part of the main force of the Azure Dragon Squad are still in the Safe Zone, so in principle the Safe Zone commander won't conscript Yang Jin."

After the experienced Yue Haiying answered Zhao Ze's question, he asked Alliance Leader Xia Qing:

"The animals in the disaster area of Mountain No. 50 have already been cleared out by poison gas bombs, so the mission to clear the firebreak isolation belt should be rated C-grade. Why would the base offer such high pay? Is there a chance the participants could be infected with the super evolution fungus?"

Hearing Yue Haiying's words, everyone felt a jolt and turned to look at Xia Qing at the same time.

Xia Qing explained, "The cost of this mission is paid entirely by the Blaze Squad, which caused the disaster, so the pay is higher than missions of the same grade. I've already discussed it with Captain Yang — we'll first recruit personnel from our own territories. Everyone go back and discuss how many people each territory wants to send, then report it to Brother Qi. After we tally the total by 12 noon today, I'll report it to Captain Yang."

"Brother Zhao," Xia Qing asked Zhao Ze specifically, "I told Captain Yang about your engineering command ability. Captain Yang said if you join this mission, your points will be calculated at 50 per day. Discuss it with your wife and decide whether to go."

Zhao Ze, hearing that his pay was more than three times that of ordinary participants, was overjoyed. "I'll join, I'll definitely join. Thanks a lot, sis."

Qi Fu and Yuan Yan exchanged a glance, a smile in both their eyes. The two of them were definitely going to join — not just for the points, but also to accumulate experience for going into the Evolution Forest.

Next came the main event.

Xia Qing used her phone to show everyone photos of a hidden valley. "This valley is inside Mountain No. 50, about two mu in area, and there's a hot spring inside. When I went over the day before the Calamity Snow, the temperature on the mountain was -15°C, but inside the valley it was 25°C. This used to be a crack in the mountain. In the second year of the Catastrophe, a group of people blew up the mountain…"

After Xia Qing finished her introduction, everyone looked at the five tombstones in the photos and sighed with emotion.

Kuang Qingwei pulled himself together. "Their luck wasn't that bad either — at least the whole family kept their bodies intact and were buried together. Sis, you just said you want to make use of the valley — for raising seedlings?"

"Captain Yang has already conducted preliminary negotiations with the Blaze Squad. The compensation the Blaze Squad pays us will definitely include yellow-light rice seeds with stable performance for two generations. The exact amount of compensation hasn't been decided yet."

After introducing the seed situation, Xia Qing began explaining why seedlings had to be raised inside the hidden valley. "Raising seedlings in a constant-temperature valley means that after next year's first Calamity Rain, we can transplant the seedlings in our territories. By the time the second Calamity Rain arrives, the rice we've planted will already be past the seedling and early growth stages, so the Calamity Evolution rate should drop quite a bit."

Hearing that they could get rice seeds, the lords were all excited.

Yue Haiying, whose farming knowledge was lacking, humbly asked, "Two mu isn't a lot — how many seedlings can it raise?"

Everyone looked at Qi Fu and his wife. Yuan Yan answered, "Before the Catastrophe, when we grew rice here, the ratio of seedling bed to paddy field was 1:80 to 100 — meaning the seedlings raised on one mu of land could plant 80 to 100 mu. If we have plenty of rice seedlings, we can use vertical planting — put up racks and raise seedlings in layers, just add a few more supplemental lights. I can't guarantee more, but 600 【mu】 is definitely no problem."

"I didn't expect two mu put to good use could raise so many seedlings. That valley will definitely be enough for our needs over the next two years." Yue Haiying, who had led troops against the Catastrophe for many years, thought about problems very comprehensively. Now that he was starting to farm, he also asked whenever he didn't understand, striving to be a qualified farmer. "There's one more thing I don't understand: we've all built greenhouses in our territories — why not raise the seedlings inside the greenhouses?"

Qi Fu explained in detail, "The seedling-raising period for evolved rice is very long — 25 to 35 days. So if we want to transplant in mid-March, we have to start preparing the seedlings in early February, and that's still winter."

"After the Catastrophe, winter temperatures here dropped by ten or even twenty-some degrees. By late February, within two or three days the temperature will rise to around 10 degrees. Our greenhouses don't have sufficient temperature control. Rice seeds have fairly high requirements for temperature and humidity from germination through sprouting and seedling emergence. If temperature and humidity aren't controlled well, the seedlings raised will be weak. That's why the Territory Management Department won't sell us rice seeds — they only sell seedlings in July."

Yue Haiying suddenly understood and sincerely thanked him. "I get it now, thanks Brother Qi. If that's the case, this valley that can raise seedlings is of great significance to our alliance."

Only with good seedlings can one grow good crops.