Chapter 630: Territory Six Urgently Needs Support

What kind of poison gas?

Xia Qing pressed the air toxin detector on her arm to read it for a few seconds, then decided to honestly just read off the letters and numbers for her idol, "The dial says it contains C11H26NO2PS at a concentration of 2‰, plus trace amounts of C? H? S and two radioactive elements, Pu and T—that's plutonium and tritium."

Her knowledge wasn't broad enough; she really only recognized the last two…

The presence of radioactive elements was a common phenomenon after the Catastrophe. Zhang San wrote down the two strings of letters and numbers Xia Qing had read off, and a smile actually appeared on his face. "Which type of adsorbent did you use?"

Xia Qing answered immediately, "Type B, orange."

The air toxin adsorbent produced by Territory Seven was designed to be used with the air toxin detector. It came in sixteen varieties, distinguished by color and toxin grade. To prevent grabbing the wrong one in an emergency, the dial displayed the grade in a matching font color, and you used the box of adsorbent in that same color.

"That's fine. After the red-grade hostile rain passes, first deal with the sewage flowing into the pond. Don't touch that patch of red hostile grass—the Yishi stones are protecting it, so the situation definitely won't get worse. I need seeds of this hostile grass; it might have a positive effect on repairing soil polluted by inorganic substances. Once the rain stops later, have Er Ying and the others handle the sewage, and you take soil and hostile grass samples from the flowering spots and bring them back."

After saying that, Zhang San, still uneasy, added one more reminder, "That's UX gas. The moment it's inhaled, it can cause central nervous system disruption. You absolutely must take proper protection."

"Don't worry, Third Brother. I'm wearing the highest-protection-grade special protective suit."

She hadn't expected this red hostile grass to have a positive effect. Xia Qing hung up the phone, and her taut nerves relaxed a little because of her idol's tone.

She changed into the new filter cartridge she'd just brought from Territory Seven and picked up her umbrella. Seeing Yue Haiying and Er Ying looking at her, Xia Qing explained, "I'm not going far, just standing at the cave entrance to look around. I haven't seen up close what an evolution forest looks like in red-grade hostile rain."

Hearing that was the reason, both of them laughed. Er Ying, who had less contact with Xia Qing, felt that she was like this—far more interesting than the calm, taciturn Lord of Territory Three on the walkie-talkie.

Xia Qing pushed open the iron door of Xiong Dong, walked out, closed it behind her, stood at the cave entrance holding her umbrella, and quietly gazed at the evolution forest in the red-grade hostile rain.

Unlike the repeatedly cleared buffer forest inside the territory, here, apart from the burned high-danger zones, the other areas were still covered by dense vegetation.

Measured by rainfall, it was currently at a light-to-moderate rain level. The rain lines couldn't block Xia Qing's line of sight; only the rustling sound of rain brought her some interference, but her magnetic sense wasn't affected at all.

Xia Qing activated her magnetic sense, hearing, and vision to the fullest, capturing the changes in the evolution forest during the hostile rain.

Her gaze quickly shifted to the front-left, fixing on the moss beneath a large tree. Though she didn't know which plant it was, there was one plant there undergoing aggressive hostile evolution. Soon, Xia Qing caught a second, then a third.

The magnetic field strength of these tiny mosses was actually no weaker than that purple-leafed little demonic plant inside Territory Three—what kind of heaven-defying species was this?

Then, Xia Qing caught a faint "pop" sound, like a soft rubber bottle cap being pulled off.

This was the sound of a plant jointing during its growth process. Xia Qing quickly locked onto the "noisy" plant with its gray-green leaves using her gaze and magnetic sense. Its magnetic field fluctuation was very obvious—this was also a plant about to undergo aggressive hostile evolution.

Under a protruding rock, mushrooms were poking out of the loose soil one after another, their caps a striking pink.

Xia Qing quietly watched the stipes of these pink mushrooms slowly lengthen in the hostile rain. When they grew to about fifteen or sixteen centimeters tall, the pink caps slowly drooped down their white, polygonal, net-like skirts. Seen from afar, that patch of mushrooms looked like a group of colorfully dressed little sprites dancing in the hostile rain.

But Xia Qing had no intention of taking photos or going over to pick one, because this was something that could kill people. The spores released by fungi and the toxins they contained had made tens of millions sick and killed them in the years before the Catastrophe.

If she weren't wearing the special protective suit, Xia Qing would have started fleeing for her life the moment she saw the mushrooms drop their skirts.

Standing at the entrance of Xiong Dong, Xia Qing couldn't help but think again of Shi Jiayi, who had neither protective suit nor protective mask. To have held on in that hidden valley until the seventh year of the Catastrophe—she really was extraordinarily strong.

Her death was truly such a pity.

The pink mushrooms hadn't been pretty for long before several brightly colored insects chewed the caps full of pits and holes, and the white skirts were also chewed ragged.

An extended tongue shot out, stuck to a blue-winged insect on a mushroom cap, and delivered it into the mouth of a frog hidden somewhere Xia Qing couldn't see.

Where there are frogs, there are snakes; where there are snakes, there are the snakes' predators. However, none of them posed a threat to Xia Qing.

Xia Qing lifted her gaze to look far ahead, continuing to use her magnetic sense and vision to capture the mutations of plants.

This bout of red-grade hostile rain lasted a full forty-five minutes before stopping. Xia Qing carefully lifted one corner of the rainproof cloth over the high-danger zone on the hillside, poked the air toxin detector inside for a few seconds, then pulled it out to check.

Er Ying stepped forward, "The concentration of Type B toxin is 3‰. That's not a low concentration."

"I'll handle this here. Brother Er Ying and Brother Yue go sprinkle medicine on the sewage in the two ponds." After Er Ying left, Xia Qing crawled into the makeshift rain shelter, quickly dug up several flowering hostile grass plants that had already grown to thigh height, then scooped up soil samples, sealed them in bags, then turned on her flashlight to check the growth of the hostile grass inside the shelter. Confirming that all the red hostile grass was within the effective coverage of the Yishi stones, she crawled out of the rain shelter and sealed the entrance tightly.

After inspecting the two high-danger zones and taking several more soil and hostile grass samples, Xia Qing stepped onto her personal flight device and returned to Territory Seven. Er Ying was left inside Xiong Dong, responsible for spraying agents with drones when necessary.

It was only half past four in the afternoon, yet the sky was almost completely dark. Stepping on her personal flight device back toward the edge of the territory, Xia Qing looked down from the air and saw people in every territory patrolling with flashlights; even Territory Nine had beams of light sweeping back and forth.

Xia Qing landed at the entrance of Territory Seven. After passing Ji Li's inspection and thorough disinfection, she carried the samples and was delivered by Yan Long—who was wearing a protective mask—to Zhang San, who was similarly fully geared up.

Zhang San took the samples and was just about to tell Xia Qing to go back to Territory Three to rest, when a cry for help from Kuang Qingwei came over the walkie-talkie: "Captain Tan, an aggressively hostile-evolved wild paulownia has appeared in Territory Six. We need support."

Zhang San discussed it with Xia Qing, "Tan Junjie and the others have gone to Territory Nine. When you head back, stop by Territory Six and clear that wild paulownia on the way?"

"Alright, Third Brother, let Qing-ge know." Xia Qing had no time to pull out her walkie-talkie, nor to ask what had happened at Territory Nine, and rushed quickly toward Territory Six to the west of Territory Seven.