Chapter 72: Dangerous Qi-Evolved Potatoes and Pumpkins

Red-grade Qi Rain carries an overabundance of Qi elements, and ordinary people with low resistance can easily lose control of their emotions. Humans who lose control display it in different ways—some self-harm, others erupt with tremendous destructive and aggressive impulses.

The reason their destructiveness is so powerful is that humans who lose control feel neither pain nor fear. The people who lost control in Territory Six belong to this category.

Xia Qing realized the danger in Territory Six did not only come from this out-of-control worker; Lord Kuang Qingwei's emotions were also showing signs of slipping.

Just as Xia Qing was about to warn Kuang Qingwei, the calm voice of Tan Junjie, captain of the Hazard Investigation Team, sounded for the first time on the lord channel: "Territory Six Lord Kuang Qingwei, control your emotions immediately. Otherwise everyone in your territory will lose control one after another, all your farmland will be destroyed, and three months of effort will go down the drain."

Kuang Qingwei, who had been cursing and grumbling, immediately stopped. After a few rough breaths he calmed down and thanked Tan Junjie: "Thanks for the reminder, Captain Tan."

Seeing that Kuang Qingwei had calmed down, Tan Junjie continued, "Attention all lords: the current Qi Rain grade is Red. If dangerous Qi evolution appears in any organism within your territory, please contact the Investigation Team promptly. The team will arrive within ten minutes of receiving notification. Until then, lords should first ensure personal safety."

The first lord of Territory One and his workers were wiped out by a swarm of dangerously Qi-evolved caterpillars during the first Red Qi Rain.

Xia Qing sheared the sheep for a while, and only when she saw Wolf Lao Er's emotions had settled did she discuss it with it: "I'm going to take a turn around the sheds, I'll be right back. Boss, you're in charge of watching our house."

Xia Qing had originally planned to rename this little glutton, barely one or two years old, Sheep Lao Er, but it had already claimed the name "Boss" and completely ignored Xia Qing when called Lao Er. Xia Qing had no choice but to accept this little boss.

Being young doesn't disqualify one from being the boss—among the three leaders of the Azure Dragon Squad, wasn't the youngest, Yang Jin, the boss?

Wolf Lao Er also stood up, clearly wanting to go with Xia Qing.

In Wolf Lao Er's rectangular pupils Xia Qing saw obvious unease. She guessed that hearing Kuang Qingwei's voice had reminded it of the time it lost control during a Qi Rain. Xia Qing patiently sheared it some more, until she could no longer put off inspecting the fields.

But Wolf Lao Er still insisted on following.

This stubborn beast—if not allowed to follow, it would immediately throw a tantrum and tear the house apart, tear apart the rain shelter. Xia Qing had to compromise, picking up the canine protective suit and protective mask to dress it: "Boss can come along, but you can't step on the seedlings, or I'll put water on to boil and dunk you right away."

Wolf Lao Er's protective mask also had a breathing filter, and with its mouth sealed it couldn't gnaw on seedlings—but its powerfully destructive hooves and horns were still exposed.

Eighteen ways to eat lamb—Xia Qing had been thinking about it for more than a day or two.

She patiently and enthusiastically praised Wolf Lao Er as boundlessly cool and domineering after putting on the protective suit, and led it to inspect the fields.

After entering the cotton rain shelter, Xia Qing didn't forget to loudly remind Wolf Lao Er, "Don't step on the seedlings."

"Moo!" Wolf Lao Er bellowed.

Xia Qing's ears were ringing from the shout before she realized Wolf Lao Er's mask and hers were connected by earphone-style walkie-talkies—no need to yell to talk.

Wolf Lao Er had tolerated her the whole way; that was already very friendly of it.

Xia Qing softened her voice and apologized gently, "Sorry, Boss, I'll be careful next time. Don't shake your head and knock the mask off—plant Qi evolution might produce toxic gas, and if you get poisoned you won't be able to eat those tasty compressed rations and alfalfa."

After saying that, Xia Qing tucked a small piece of compressed ration into the pocket of Wolf Lao Er's protective suit, and instructed in a soft voice, "Stay here, I'm starting work."

Inside the cotton shed, two Qi-evolved cotton plants had already appeared, growing extremely fast. If Xia Qing had arrived half an hour later, the rain shelter would have been pushed up into a big bulge by them.

She dug out the Qi-evolved cotton plants, put them in a basket, and the human and the sheep went on to inspect the wheat shed and the mung bean shed.

These two plants had no use after Qi-evolving, so she simply pulled them up, stuffed them into a back basket, and took them out to be destroyed. By comparison, Xia Qing found that fields whose seeds had been soaked in spring water had a lower Qi-evolution rate than those soaked in filtered water.

Next time she sowed, apart from a small amount of crops for trading with outsiders, all other seeds would be soaked in spring water. What she couldn't eat herself could be traded with the Azure Dragon Squad.

The lower the Qi element content in crops, the higher the price—and she still owed the Azure Dragon Squad eight hundred thousand.

In the sweet potato, potato, and pumpkin sheds, three yellow-light potatoes had Qi-evolved and bloomed into a tree full of potato flowers. Without needing to test, Xia Qing confirmed that these three faintly trembling potato seedlings had evolved animal characteristics.

The potato seeds obtained from the Safe Zone had developed animal-characteristic Qi evolution this quickly—something was off.

These three Qi-evolved potatoes couldn't be handled like the previous Qi-evolved plants. Xia Qing pulled a large thickened sealed bag from her backpack, covered the trembling potato seedlings with it, dug them up roots and soil and all into the bag, then used a vacuum sealer to extract the air and seal it, and stuffed it into her backpack to keep them from continuing to Qi-evolve.

Xia Qing suspected the potato flowers were toxic. She took out the air toxin detector she had traded from Zhang San to test, and sure enough it showed that the air currently contained a Class C toxic gas, which irritates the eyes and respiratory mucous membranes of animals.

Toxic gas hazard levels are divided from high to low into four classes: A, B, C, and D. Class C poison isn't severe, but it can't be taken lightly.

But seeing this result, Xia Qing still breathed a sigh of relief. Because an irritant gas that merely irritates the eyes and respiratory mucous membranes was far easier to deal with than an asphyxiant gas that could cause flora and fauna to suffocate.

Although this toxic gas couldn't reach her and Wolf Lao Er in their protective suits, nor would it endanger the crops, Xia Qing still pulled a palm-sized little box from her backpack, peeled off the sealing film, and hung it on the bracket supporting the rain shelter.

This was the Class C and D toxic gas adsorbent she had traded from Zhang San; the substance inside the box could quickly absorb toxic gases from the air to purify it.

The reason for purifying the air was that plants normally evolved by Qi Rain are extremely fragile, and changes in air composition could also stimulate them to undergo Qi evolution.

Walking further on, Xia Qing discovered two Qi-evolved green-light sweet potato seedlings whose vines had suddenly grown to twice their length. She cleared the sweet potato seedlings while wincing in heartache.

If the pruning hadn't disrupted the original elemental balance of the sweet potato seedlings, even facing a Red-grade Qi Rain, the increase in Qi elements in these two sweet potatoes would only have downgraded them to yellow light, not caused direct Qi evolution.

It's possible the remaining fourteen sweet potatoes had all been downgraded to yellow light—the loss was too great!

Xia Qing took several deep breaths to suppress her rising irritability, and continued forward to check the yellow-light pumpkins.

If Xia Qing hadn't earlier smoothed out the pumpkin vines and marked the position of the vine tips with wooden stakes, she definitely wouldn't have been able to tell that two pumpkins had Qi-evolved.

Just as she was about to use a shovel to touch the pumpkin vine and confirm its Qi-evolution status, Wolf Lao Er butted her aside with its head, sending her tumbling onto her bottom on the empty ground beside it.

"Baa."

The call from Wolf Lao Er over the walkie-talkie carried a clear warning.