Chapter 764: North Wind

"The wind's up!" Lord Huo Lei, standing inside the house, pressed the walkie-talkie button and shouted, "The wind's up—it's the goddamn north wind!"

Once the wind rose, the thunderclouds would be blown away, and their territory would be safe. But the north wind would drive the thunderclouds southward toward Northern District Three, Northern District Two, and even Hui-Three Safe Zone. With the soaring levels of harmful elements in the atmosphere, harmful-element detonations were very likely to be triggered in those areas!

Lord Shi of Territory Ten responded, "I hope this big patch of thunderclouds gets scattered by the wind."

The north wind wouldn't cause too much damage to this territory, because Northern Mountain Forty-Nine and Mountain Fifty could block the gale.

After the thunderstorm had battered the territory for twenty-five minutes, the snarling thunderclouds were finally pushed by the wind toward Northern District Three's territory. The lords, unable to spare concern for others, scrambled out of their shelters one after another to check the damage within their own territories.

Tan Junjie called out on the lord channel, "Territory Seven, prepare for wind."

Territory Seven sat on the west side of the valley exit between Mountain Forty-Nine and Mountain Fifty. With a northwesterly wind blowing now, among Territories One through Ten, Territory Seven would be hit hardest by the wind.

Territory Seven's agent Ji Li replied calmly, "Territory Seven is prepared for wind."

When the members of the Lord Alliance crawled out from under tables or out of basements to check the damage the thunderstorm had done to their territories, the ally they worried about most was not Territory Seven, but Territory Fifteen.

Because Territory Fifteen and Territory Eighteen were sitting right in the wind's path! The greenhouses inside their territories were not the standardized ones built with steel frames, but shoddy ones with bamboo and wood as the main structure.

"Yingzi!"

Mother Jiang, who had been listening to the walkie-talkie, saw her daughter suddenly stand up and head outside. She hurriedly grabbed her and held her back. "Where are you going? You want to die?!"

Jiang Ying gazed at the trees swaying ceaselessly outside the window. "Mom, the thunderstorm has passed and the wind has started. I have to get to the greenhouse area for assembly."

Mother Jiang gripped her daughter's protective suit and wouldn't let go. "What are you going out for?! It's not time for Group Two to start work yet."

Jiang Ying, who had been assigned to Group Two, explained, "Group Two starts in twenty minutes. The wind just started now, and in twenty minutes it'll be even stronger than it is now. If I head over now, I'll be safer than going later."

Mother Jiang felt her daughter made sense. "Wait for me a moment—I'll go with you."

"You can't, your protective suit's grade isn't high enough, and you haven't been assigned to a task group either." The wind outside had already begun to howl. Jiang Ying grew urgent and tried to soothe her mother. "Mom, Uncle Yue told me to stick with Brother Dazi—he's the strongest fighter in Territory Fifteen. I'll be fine. Make me a pot of porridge; when I get back from work I'll eat it and go straight to sleep, because I have to go back on shift in a few hours."

Unable to hold her daughter back, Mother Jiang's voice trembled. "Yingzi, aren't you afraid?"

Mother Jiang knew better than anyone how timid her daughter was.

Jiang Ying was of course afraid, but—"I'm still going. Because this is the job I do in the territory."

"You shouldn't be going out in weather like this. They're either Evolvers or big strong men…"

"Mom, Teacher Wang from Territory Four, several of the hired workers in Territory Five, and Hearing Zhu Li from Territory Six—they're all women, and all ordinary people."

Mother Jiang watched helplessly as her daughter dashed out of the yard. The gale, carrying harmful rain and dampness, swept in, making the plastic bags Mother Jiang had brought inside rattle noisily. Her tears streamed down.

Her son had died right here, and now her daughter had rushed out again. She regretted letting Yingzi come here to work.

"The rainproof tarp over the fishpond is being lifted by the wind. Xiao Jiang, Eryong, you're the two closest—get over there and seal the wind entry point."

Liangzi, a Level-5 Visual Evolver, spotted the dangerous situation at the fishpond through the surveillance screens and immediately arranged for people to rush over and handle it.

"Copy."

"Copy."

"Sister Qing, one hundred fifty meters ahead of you, left side of the road—looks like an aggressive wild paulownia has sprouted." The appearance of an aggressive wild paulownia was etched deep into Liangzi's mind. While watching eight screens at once, she noticed that on one screen the harmful grass had been tilted by the gale, revealing a small sapling that looked like a wild paulownia.

"Copy, heading over to clear it now." Xia Qing, driving the off-road vehicle, floored the accelerator and sped forward with Ram Boss.

When she was about five meters from the aggressive wild paulownia, Xia Qing used her magnetic sense to lock onto the wild paulownia among the harmful grass. "Confirmed it's a wild paulownia, under one meter tall. Clearing it now."

A sapling under one meter tall could already emit such obvious magnetic-field fluctuations—once it grew up, it would be terrifying.

Xia Qing told Ram Boss to stay in the vehicle and not move. Without even bringing any tools, she rushed over, yanked the wild paulownia sapling—already sprouting aggressive vines—right out of the ground, stuffed it along with the soil on its roots into a packaging bag, sealed it off from harmful elements, and tossed it into a basket in the trunk.

After getting back in the vehicle, Xia Qing pressed the walkie-talkie button and first reported to Liangzi: "Wild paulownia cleared."

Then, using her brand-new walkie-talkie, she contacted Tan Junjie: "Captain Tan, the first aggressive harmful-evolution wild paulownia has been discovered in Territory Three. Height eighty centimeters, has just sprouted aggressive vines, can be pulled out by hand by an ordinary person. Already cleared."

The channel Xia Qing used was the internal channel of the Northern District One Inspection Team—she now counted as an unofficial member of the Northern District One Inspection Team.

"Copy." After Tan Junjie replied on the inspection team's internal channel, Xia Qing heard Tan Junjie's voice come through the lord walkie-talkie clipped to her right shoulder: "Now confirming whether the walkie-talkies for Territories One through Ten are functional. Respond if you copy."

"Territory One, copy." Territory One's agent Yin Jie replied.

"Territory Two, copy. Agent Tang Huai's hearing was damaged during the thunderstorm. Temporary agent Liu Jing is now handling outside communications."

"Territory Three, copy."

……

All nine lords or agents were online. Although some walkie-talkies had obvious static, they were all usable. Only then did Tan Junjie issue the announcement: "An aggressive harmful-evolution wild paulownia has appeared in Territory Three. All territories are to begin patrolling immediately and clear any wild paulownia saplings as soon as possible. Territory Seven, the wild paulownia saplings in Territory Nine are to be cleared by you."

"Copy." Ji Li replied calmly.

Although he didn't know why Territory Seven was responsible for clearing the wild paulownia saplings in Territory Nine, after hearing Ji Li's reply, the three members of the Shi family, located in the territory to the east of Territory Nine, let out a long, heavy sigh of relief.

In Territory Two, to the west of Territory Nine, Liu Jing shouted at Tang Huai at the top of his lungs: "Boss, Territory Nine is being handled by Territory Seven—"

Tang Huai, whose ears were ringing loudly, cursed even louder than Liu Jing: "Are you fucking brain-dead? Didn't I just say I can't hear clearly? Write it down!"

Liu Jing, who had only made it to the fourth grade of elementary school before the catastrophe, grabbed a pen and, after scrawling four wobbly characters, couldn't write any more.

How the hell do you write the character 野?

Drawing circles would probably get him cursed out even worse—better to use pinyin…