Chapter 765: Reinforcements

Inside Territory 14 on the east side of Territory 10, upon hearing the walkie-talkie report that an aggressive Qi-evolved tree had appeared within the territory, Feng Wen immediately busily began looking for basins to catch the dripping, pattering Qi-rain leaking in through the top of the container.

Yan Meng swept a glance at her, stood up, and called to Liao Chen, who was sitting and playing on his phone. "The two of us will patrol the territory—you go south, I'll go north, and we'll clear out the wild paulownias."

Liao Chen glared fiercely at Feng Wen, then followed Yan Meng with a dark expression out of the container, whose floor was already soaked with water.

Inside Territory 15, over twenty people were stacking sandbags on the northwest side of the greenhouse. Strength-evolver Yu Shou carried four sandbags at a time, running ridiculously fast.

Inside the greenhouse at the very edge of the northwest side, Jiang Ying shouted loudly, "This support beam is about to give out! Brother Dazi, quick—Number Two pole!"

"Coming!" Triple-system evolver Zhang Hongda rushed over with a thigh-thick, three-and-a-half-meter-long support roller, and propped up the already wind-warped greenhouse support beam at the spot Jiang Ying pointed to.

To improve communication efficiency and speed up response time, Jiang Ying had sorted the greenhouse support poles into five categories, neatly stacked at both ends of each greenhouse for easy access.

Jiang Ying secured the makeshift wooden brace with wire while shouting, "That iron wire pressing the film on the outside needs to be tightened two turns with pliers."

"Got it." Zhang Hongda immediately used the walkie-talkie to contact the brothers outside the greenhouse.

Inside Territory 17, south of Territory 15, Wen Nengjie's voice had gone hoarse from shouting, "Fall back, fall back fast, abandon this greenhouse, go protect the one to the south... Qiuzi, what the hell are you doing? Get your ass out there and patrol the territory! If we miss even one wild paulownia sapling, our whole territory is screwed!"

Inside Territory 6, Kuang Qingwei had just led people to dig out a wild paulownia sapling when he heard Hearing Zhu Li report, "A Qi-evolved wild paulownia discovered in southern section three, one and a half meters tall."

"Copy. You retreat immediately. First Squad will go handle it." In First Squad were two Tier-3 strength-evolvers Kuang Qingwei had hired; they drank premium nutrient solution, earned a daily commission of 130 points, and this was exactly the kind of work they did.

Inside Territory 4, Zhao Ze roared, "Quick, bring the shield over here to block it, hurry up and dig out this wild paulownia sapling, now!"

Twenty minutes later, as the gale gradually weakened, Territories 4 and 10 reported emergencies one after another, calling for support from the inspection team.

On the inspection team channel, the number of territories needing support had risen to eight.

Five minutes later, the crises in Territories 4 and 10 still hadn't been resolved. Qi Fu from Territory 5 contacted Tan Junjie via walkie-talkie, asking for help. "Captain Tan, a wild paulownia has been discovered in the northern buffer forest of Territory 5, already three meters tall. I got whipped by the vines and injured. I urgently need the inspection team to come clear it."

"Copy." After Tan Junjie replied, he immediately contacted Xia Qing on the inspection team channel. "Territory 3 lord Xia Qing, can you support Territory 5 right now?"

"I can." After Xia Qing replied, she turned and pressed the walkie-talkie button on her right shoulder. "Brother Qi, open the south gate. I'll drive into Territory 5 within ten minutes."

"Copy, opening it right now." Hearing that Xia Qing could come support them, Qi Fu's tightly wound heart immediately settled back into his stomach.

Not having time to let Old Goat out of the car, Xia Qing floored the off-road vehicle out of Territory 3's south gate, gunned it through the gale and torrential rain across Territory 4 where inspection team members were handling emergencies, entered through the south thorn gate of Territory 5, and drove in one breath straight up to Yuan Yan, who was waving a shovel at her.

On the mid-slope of the buffer forest behind Yuan Yan, a three-plus-meter-tall aggressive wild paulownia was wildly thrashing its vines at the surrounding normal trees, having already domineeringly cleared out a large patch of living space.

"Boss, wait in the car. I'll go pull up a tree and be right back."

"Baa." Staying in its beloved car, even though the environment outside was unfamiliar and even though the Qi-rain was falling, Old Goat still felt completely at ease.

After getting a response from her companion, Xia Qing grabbed the black long blade, jumped out of the car, and charged over.

This three-plus-meter wild paulownia had clearly grown faster and was more aggressive than the ones that appeared during the last Qi-rain and last year's Qi-rain. Because when she was still a dozen meters away, Xia Qing felt over twenty needle-like magnetic field fluctuations stabbing fiercely at the space between her brows.

The reason Territory 5 had a Tier-3 strength-evolver like Qi Fu, rather than the Tier-3.5 strength-evolver Yuan Yan, clear this wild paulownia was probably because Yuan Yan, who possessed magnetic-sense evolution, would experience obvious discomfort approaching the wild paulownia, causing her combat power to drop.

No need to ask—this was definitely a seed spread by that high-risk aggressive wild paulownia on Mountain 50, germinated and grown up.

This perverted thing is really fucking shaming its ancestors who could summon phoenixes!

Xia Qing, who also possessed magnetic-sense evolution, endured the discomfort, cursed as she hacked through two vines and charged to the base of the tree, then delivered a vicious kick to the trunk, brutally kicking this ancestor-shaming thing down.

The hired workers in Territory 5 stared dumbfounded. Yuan Yan took the lead and charged over. "What are you standing around for? Dig, dig out all the wild paulownia's roots, or it'll just keep growing."

Only then did the crowd come to their senses and follow Yuan Yan to clear out the wild paulownia's roots.

Xia Qing cut through a main root connected to the wild paulownia's trunk, stepped aside to let Yuan Yan lead people to continue clearing, then walked over to Qi Fu, who was leaning against a trident maple, and asked, "Brother Qi, you okay?"

"I'm fine. No broken bones, just my back is numb and I can't put any strength in my arm." Qi Fu said shamefully, "I was just trying to use your move, but my foot slipped and I didn't manage to cut the vine."

This wild paulownia was growing on a fairly steep slope in the buffer forest, so its roots weren't anchored firmly enough. Qi Fu had also noticed this and wanted to kick it down from above, then quickly clear out the root system.

But he lacked combat experience. His attention was all on the vines, and he didn't notice his foot slipping. Not only did he fail to cut the vine, but the mistake triggered the wild paulownia's attack, and he got viciously whipped on the back and right arm by the vines.

Fighting inside a buffer forest made slippery by Qi-rain wasn't an easy thing.

After Qi Fu was injured, Yuan Yan didn't dare charge up again, because the Qi-rain had just started and if she got hurt too it would be trouble. So Territory 5 could only call for support.

They didn't expect their luck to be this good—Captain Tan had sent the strongest combatant, Xia Qing, over.

"Good thing no bones were broken. Brother Qi, go back to the room, spray some painkiller, and rest a bit." Xia Qing instructed Yuan Yan, who had walked over, "Sister Yan, this batch of wild paulownias grows fast. The patrol interval needs to be shortened."

The wind was too strong. Earlier, magnetic-sense evolver Yuan Yan had been busy reinforcing the greenhouses and hadn't gotten around to patrolling the territory, which nearly caused an irreversible disaster. She was deeply ashamed. "Qing, sorry for the trouble. Don't worry, that was the last one. Within the next three days, there won't be another wild paulownia over two meters tall in Territory 5."

"Sister Yan, just do your best. Call for support the moment you need to." Xia Qing patted her shoulder, then jumped onto the off-road vehicle, reporting to Tan Junjie on her way back. "The wild paulownia in Territory 5 has been cleared."