Chapter 627: Mutation

Although her eyes could not detect any difference between this shrub and the ones beside it, Xia Qing could sense that the shrub before her, called Small Nane, was about to undergo an aggressive Qi-deviant evolution.

She drew her long blade and held it in her hand. Before Small Nane's dangerous Qi-deviant evolution had even begun, she heard Zhao Ze announce over the Lord's walkie-talkie, "Two rapeseed plants on my side have started growing thorns on their leaves."

Growing thorns meant the rapeseed had undergone an aggressive Qi-deviant evolution.

"I've got several rapeseed plants shooting up like crazy here too, flower buds already coming out." Kuang Qingwei sighed. "There weren't many rapeseed left to begin with…"

If things kept going on like this, even if they managed to trade for bees this year, there wouldn't be much honey to gather.

"Sister Qing, the rapeseed leaves in the shed are starting to grow thorns too." Chen Zheng's voice came through the earpiece-style walkie-talkie.

"You guys clear them first, I'll head over later." After replying to Chen Zheng, Xia Qing kept her eyes locked on the shrub before her.

Guan Tong, who was patrolling throughout the territory, saw Xia Qing standing motionless beneath the northern buffer forest and pressed his earpiece-style walkie-talkie to ask, "Sister Qing?"

"There's a shrub sprouting fast. I can handle it." After replying, Xia Qing continued gripping her long blade and staring at the shrub before her.

"Copy that." It had been more than a year now, and Xia Qing's combat ability far surpassed his. Reassured, Guan Tong stepped through the Qi-grass and continued his patrol.

When the bare branches of the shrub sprouted tiny purple-red leaves at a speed visible to the naked eye, the magnetic field fluctuations grew stronger and stronger.

Xia Qing kept holding her blade and waiting. She was waiting for this shrub's attack method to appear.

Boom!

This was not a sound the ears could catch, but a magnetic-sense perception.

In Xia Qing's perception, the magnetic field of the Small Nane before her suddenly intensified. To put it crudely and vividly, before it had felt like two needles aimed at the space between her brows, then with a boom it became ten.

But the sense of danger those ten needles brought Xia Qing was still far less than that of the dangerous Qi-deviant evolved tree whose corrosive sap had eaten through Kuang Qingwei's protective suit.

Under Xia Qing's gaze, thornless vines slowly emerged from the thorn-bearing branches of the Small Nane. This was the mutation—its attack method.

The color of these vines and the shape of their leaves…

Xia Qing's eyes narrowed slightly. Wasn't this exactly the kind of vine from Valley One of District Three, not far from the green-light Chinese Torreya on the slope, that would trigger a binding ability upon contact? So that vine had been formed by the Qi-deviant evolution of the Purple-Leaf Small Nane!

Xia Qing slowly retreated. After confirming that the distance at which she could sense this plant's magnetic field anomaly was three meters, she used her blade to chop off everything above the root of the Purple-Leaf Small Nane, then stared at the cut.

The bio-electric current at the root of the Small Nane was still surging with change—it was working hard to nurture new buds. But Xia Qing didn't wait for it to sprout again. She reached out, grabbed its main root, and pulled it straight out.

Pulling up such a small clump was child's play for a strength-evolver; she didn't need a shovel at all. Xia Qing stuffed the soil-covered main root and branches together into a thickened packaging bag, sealed it, and placed it in her back basket.

After sensing its magnetic field anomaly gradually weaken and vanish, Xia Qing let out a breath of relief. As long as the thing hadn't evolved to the point of absorbing Qi elements directly from the air, it wouldn't pose too great a threat.

She pressed the walkie-talkie button and announced on the Lord's channel, "A low-risk aggressive Qi-deviant evolved Small Nane appeared in the buffer forest of Territory Three. Its attack ability is growing moving thin vines. It has been cleared."

"Copy that." Tan Junjie reminded Xia Qing, "Don't enter the buffer forest during the Qi-rain period."

Xia Qing replied, "Understood. I spotted it while patrolling the terraced fields."

Xia Qing circled the buffer forest, and after the first wave of Qi-rain stopped, she still hadn't found a second aggressive Qi-deviant evolved plant. She went to the planting greenhouse first and cleared several Qi-deviant evolved vegetables. Just as she was about to head to the yellow-light rapeseed shed, she received a call from Yue Haiying.

"Xia Qing, after the hail melted, a large number of bright red Qi-grass sprouted in the high-danger zone. Species unknown, danger level unknown."

The soil in the high-danger zone, polluted by the Fierce Fire team's toxic gas shells, had been disinfected several times and then burned once more, but harmful substances were certain to remain. The Qi-grass seeds that had fallen with the wind into the danger zone must have come into contact with some kind of harmful substance and undergone a mutation.

"Copy that. You guys stay inside Xiong Dong and don't come out. I'll report it immediately." After hanging up on Yue Haiying, Xia Qing immediately contacted Zhang San to report the dangerous situation.

Zhang San had also received a report from the monitoring room of Territory Seven and was checking the surveillance. He asked Xia Qing, "Is your personal aircraft still usable?"

The evolved forest during the Qi-rain period was fraught with danger, and flying over in a personal aircraft carried the lowest risk of encountering hazards. Xia Qing answered immediately, "It's usable."

"Get over there and take samples right away. I'll contact Tan Junjie's side. Stay safe."

"Understood!" While running home, Xia Qing informed Guan Tong, Chen Zheng, Yang Laoda, and Sick Wolf in the territory of the situation, then notified Yue Haiying.

After retrieving the personal aircraft and fuel from the underground storage room, Xia Qing ran all the way out of the village so as not to disturb the weasel family in the sheep shed, then stepped on it, started the aircraft, lifted off directly, and flew north over District Three of Mountain Forty-Nine, heading straight for the Third Peak of Mountain Fifty.

"Xia Qing!"

Tang Huai in Territory Two heard the sound, ran out, and looked north. Seeing Xia Qing's cool, flashy back as she rode the aircraft, he got so excited his scalp nearly burst open. "Holy crap! So cool!"

At the door of the battered shipping-container house in Territory Fourteen, the hunched-over Yan Meng raised his head, his cloudy eyes staring fixedly at Xia Qing in the air.

The allies of the Territory Alliance heard the sound and came out of their greenhouses or rooms. Those who didn't see Xia Qing fly away also learned about it through Tang Huai's howling on the Lord's channel. Everyone's hearts clenched: Xia Qing was rushing north so urgently—could something have gone wrong at the Hidden Valley?

Tan Junjie sternly announced on the Lord's channel, "All lords and agents: the Lord of Territory Seven has sent someone to the experimental zone to take samples. Please do not panic, and continue protecting the farmland in your respective territories. I emphasize again: without permission from the investigation team, no one in any territory may cross the isolation belt into the evolved forest. Otherwise, you accept the consequences."

Tang Huai gazed longingly in the direction Xia Qing had disappeared. Does the experimental zone still need someone to run errands? I can take missions for free, just let me play with the aircraft.

Even on a clear day, the spot that took Xia Qing nearly half an hour to reach at a full run, she arrived at in five minutes on the personal aircraft.

The high-danger zone was the area directly affected by the Fierce Fire hunting team's toxic gas shells during Xia Qing's battle with them. It was divided into two sections: one at the foot of the Third Peak, and one five hundred meters below Xiong Dong, totaling five mu in area.

After being thoroughly burned, the high-danger zone, which should have been ashen, looked from the air as if it had been dyed red with fresh blood.

Xia Qing gripped the remote control with her right hand, lowered the aircraft, and stopped on the firebreak. She put on shoe covers and anti-bacterial gloves, then walked forward. When she was still five meters from the danger zone, she felt countless steel needles furiously attacking the space between her brows, making her involuntarily step back.

The Qi-grass sprouting in the high-danger zone had all freaking undergone aggressive Qi-deviant evolution!!!