Chapter 620: Little Ghosts and King Yama

The blacksmith Watching Huo Zhun was an impatient sort, getting straight to business: "Xia Qing, have you heard about Lord Eleven being killed?"

Xia Qing nodded. "I have. Does Uncle Huo want the territory?"

"Right. I've long planned to give my foolish son a piece of land close to yours, so he can follow you around in the future. But territories 1 through 26 were all occupied, and now one has finally opened up." Lord Huo Lei explained why he was in such a rush to find Xia Qing. "Now that our base has the Gao Yi elemental spinach seeds, and your territory is going to be fenced in and blessed by the Divine Wolf, a lot of people want to take Lord Eleven's territory. My foolish boy has already approached his superior and asked Lord Seven for help, but I still don't feel confident. Do you have any connections that could help?"

Xia Qing had heard about the Divine Wolf's blessing on the Northern District One territory from Xu Juan.

The story of the Northern Wolf Pack standing up to howl at the Western Wolf Pack when it tried to invade this territory, driving the Western Wolf Pack away, was getting more and more outrageous as it spread through the Safe Zone.

The queen, currently in her den giving birth and sitting the month of confinement, had already been elevated to the ranks of the divine by the believers, becoming a Wolf God with wings on her back and four wind-fire wheels beneath her feet, enjoying incense offerings.

That divine statue was as flashy as could be, and as outrageous as could be.

Xia Qing certainly hoped the Huo family could become the new Lord Eleven. With Lord Huo Lei, a Level Four Strength Evolver who could forge weapons, and Watching Huo Zhun, a Level Five Elasticity Evolver and Level Seven Strength Evolver, joining the Lord Alliance, the alliance's combat power would jump up two whole tiers!

Watching Huo Zhun's superior and idol, Zhang San, was a high-up figure, equivalent to King Yama in rank. What the Huo family still lacked to get this done was a little ghost to run errands.

Although Xia Qing wasn't in the Safe Zone, she understood the situation in the Territory Management Department very well. Because every day, Xu Juan gathered all the news she had picked up in the Safe Zone related to territories and farming, compiled it, and sent it to Xia Qing.

From this news, Xia Qing quickly picked out a suitable little ghost. "Does Uncle Huo know Zhou Qianpeng from the Territory Management Department?"

Lord Huo Lei spoke honestly. "He used to be in the Commerce Department. I know him, but he doesn't know me."

It didn't matter whether they knew each other or not—as long as they hadn't offended Zhou Qianpeng, this matter was worth a try.

Xia Qing laid out the specifics. "Jiang Yansheng, the nephew of Jiang Quan, the head of the Territory Management Department, has been occupying other people's territories and maliciously competing for their worm-casting business. Someone reported him to the Red One Investigation Team. Jiang Quan is already a direct subordinate of Tang Zhengrong, so his dismissal is only a matter of time. That's why Jiang Quan has no mind for work these days—he's running around trying to pull strings and escape punishment. Everyone in the Territory Management Department is worried about their own safety. Zhou Qianpeng is a slippery eel; he definitely won't be held accountable. He's furiously scheming right now, looking for a chance to climb up."

"Uncle Huo, prepare a five-thousand-point point card tonight, and go wait near his house at seven-thirty tomorrow morning. After I call him, you sneak it to him. He needs points right now to grease the right palms."

Zhou Qianpeng was only a minor figure; he couldn't afford a house in the inner city of the Safe Zone, so he lived with his family in a building in the outer city. Of course, his residential area was close to the inner city, and the public order was much better than where Xia Qing had lived before.

Lord Huo Lei happily agreed. "Hey, I'll get it ready right away! Xia Qing, whether this works out or not, from now on, any farm tools and weapons you need, I'll forge them for you free."

Xia Qing smiled. "Then I won't stand on ceremony with you."

At seven o'clock the next morning, Xia Qing called Zhou Qianpeng. After a few polite words, she drew the line for Lord Huo Lei. As for whether the matter could be pulled off, Xia Qing couldn't control that—there were simply too many people who wanted the territory now.

Actually, there was another piece of land in Northern District One that was essentially empty: Territory Nine.

Lord Nine, Li Si, had been taken to Red Eleven Base for questioning due to her involvement in a case. Once the case was concluded, she probably wouldn't be able to keep her territory either.

When that time came, it would certainly trigger a round of fierce competition. But precisely because Territory Nine was there as a fallback, the competition for the suddenly vacated Territory Eleven wouldn't reach a white-hot level, leaving room for "little ghosts" like Zhou Qianpeng to operate behind the scenes.

After doing everything she could think of and was able to do, Xia Qing stopped dwelling on the matter and threw herself wholeheartedly into the great enterprise of farming.

Today, she and Boss Goat had to water the overwintering crops on two mu of yellow-light wheat, half a mu of green-light wheat, and one mu of yellow-light rapeseed.

Returning-green water plays an important role for overwintering crops: it promotes their greening and growth, and at the same time improves their cold resistance. Whether the returning-green water is applied well will directly affect the crops' yield, so it must be taken seriously.

Xia Qing hauled the water-drawing bicycle out of the warehouse, set it up by the reservoir and adjusted it. Without even needing to be called, Boss Goat stepped right onto it.

Xia Qing smiled. "Boss, pedal gently. We only have this one water-drawing bicycle."

Tiger Cub had already sacrificed himself. If the water-drawing bicycle broke down, Xia Qing would have to trade parts with Zhong Tao to fix it herself, or trade for another broken bicycle and modify it herself.

Boss Goat squinted sideways at Xia Qing, looking very displeased.

Xia Qing, feeling a little sentimental, smiled and rubbed its head, apologizing softly. "It's my fault. Boss is so amazing—how could you possibly break a bicycle? Even if it broke, it would be the bicycle's fault, not Boss's."

Boss Goat was satisfied, and began to face the wind and sun, wildly kicking the pedal with its hooves.

The river water drawn up flowed along the irrigation ditch, gurgling toward the greenhouses planted with wheat and rapeseed. Xia Qing rushed ahead of the water and scattered fertilizer over the fields.

Although Wen Nengjie was in the Lord Channel every day playing the victim, saying he had to work to earn points to buy fertilizer, in fact, for this spring plowing, the lords weren't as short on fertilizer as they had been during last autumn's plowing.

That was because Territory Eight's compost bacterial powder had achieved mass production back in autumn of last year. Over the course of that winter, the lords had done their utmost to collect feces, leaves, and crop straw to ferment into fertilizer.

Unless a major natural disaster struck, the crops planted in the spring of Year Eleven of the Calamity would definitely grow better than those planted in the spring of Year Ten.

Territory Three had the fewest people and not much farmland, but the quantity and variety of manure it possessed were richer than most territories, and the quality was better too.

Her territory raised over a dozen green-light chickens and one green-light goat. Boss Goat in particular, who could eat a lot and poop a lot, was a manure-producing champion. The manure fermented from their droppings was, of course, all premium green-light manure, usable for green-light crops.

Sick Wolf was a red-light creature; its droppings were mixed by Xia Qing with the wild boar dung collected from Area Three of Mountain Forty-Nine, and fermented together. She had also teamed up with alliance members to collect quite a bit of bird droppings. These manures were used for yellow-light crops.

Besides these, Xia Qing had also fermented a good amount of crop straw and leaf fertilizer. Combined with her stockpile of worm castings and crab shell fertilizer, she had more than enough for her spring plowing.

According to the Farming Knowledge Broadcast, when applying returning-green water, it was best to supplement the crops with some nitrogen fertilizer.

Among the fertilizers Xia Qing possessed, the organic fertilizer with the highest nitrogen content was green-light goat manure, followed by green-light chicken manure.

She decided to apply two bags of goat manure and one bag of chicken manure to the half mu of green-light wheat, and bird droppings to the yellow-light wheat and rapeseed.

After watering all the overwintering crops, Xia Qing began to tidy up the Gao Yi elemental soil planting area—the terraced fields on the high slope and the low slope.

During the long winter, Xia Qing had long since planned out the use of each terraced field once spring arrived.