Chapter 766: Fourth-Stage Form

Tan Junjie replied, "Copy that. How's the attack power of the wild paulownia inside Territory Five?"

Xia Qing replied, "The wild paulownia is about three and a half meters tall, in its second-stage form. Both its growth rate and the striking force of its vines are faster than those of ordinary wild paulownia. It should be a descendant of the high-risk wild paulownia in Valley Fifty-One. I suspect that one has already reached the fourth-stage form."

"Copy that."

Tan Junjie's heart grew heavy.

After Xia Qing and Seeing Xin Yu previously teamed up and discovered a high-risk aggressive mutant-evolved wild paulownia in Valley Fifty-One, the base divided the mutant-evolution stages of wild paulownia into three forms.

The first-stage form is the seedling phase. Whether sprouted from seed or propagated through the root system, any aggressive wild paulownia seedling is classified as first-stage form until it grows attack vines. Wild paulownia at this stage are the least dangerous, and ordinary people can clear them.

The second-stage form is the growth phase from when the wild paulownia grows vines until those vines burrow into the soil and take root. So far, all aggressive wild paulownia discovered within the territories have been at this stage. Second-stage wild paulownia already possess attack capability, but when their height is below 1.5 meters, they remain easy to clear. Once the height exceeds 1.5 meters, they gain considerably stronger attack capability, and the difficulty of clearing them rises along with the height of the canopy.

The third-stage form is the phase after the aggressive wild paulownia's vines have drooped down into the soil and taken root, and before it flowers. Wild paulownia at this stage can draw large amounts of nutrients from the soil through their root systems and vines, accelerating their growth, turning a single tree into a thicket, and making clearing difficulty skyrocket. Only by severing every connection between the soil-rooted vines and root system and the canopy can the canopy's growth be stopped.

The fourth-stage form is the phase in which the aggressive wild paulownia flowers, attracting large flocks of birds to peck at them and disperse the seeds. This is the most dangerous stage, because during clearing, humans must face not only the attacks of the wild paulownia itself, but also drive off the birds and prevent the spread of harmful seeds.

Until now, both the base officials and Tan Junjie had believed that the wild paulownia in Valley Fifty-One was at the third-stage form and had not yet had a chance to disperse its seeds. But Xia Qing had extensive combat experience against wild paulownia; if she said so, she had a certain measure of confidence.

Tan Junjie took a few seconds to collect himself, first re-reminding everyone in the inspection team channel to stay alert, then switching to the lord channel to notify Territories One through Ten to step up patrols and try to clear wild paulownia while they were still at the first-stage form or the early second-stage form.

Based on experience, if the seeds of aggressive mutant-evolved plants scattered across the territories are not buried deeply, they will take root and sprout within six hours before the Calamity Rain, growing rapidly.

So, as long as they could endure the first six hours of this Calamity Rain, they would have weathered the wild paulownia crisis.

One hour later, the first wave of Calamity Rain and gale finally stopped.

Across the battered territories, people didn't even have time to catch their breath—busy patrolling the territories to clear wild paulownia, busy clearing Calamity Grass, busy pulling out mutant-evolved crop plants sprouting inside the greenhouses.

Compared with other territories, the territories of members of the Territory Alliance, bolstered by premium nutrient solution, worked more efficiently and suffered smaller losses.

The inspection team members were also busy—patrolling the peripheral zones of the territories and the buffer belts, responding to lords' requests and rushing into various territories to clear threats first.

Tang Huai, whose tinnitus, headache, and nausea had finally eased, cursed over the lord channel, "That bolt of lightning came straight for me! If I hadn't reacted fast, I'd be a lump of charcoal by now! Where did the first bolt hit? Which son of a bitch did something rotten to get struck by lightning and drag me down with him?"

The lords, busy as they were…

The first bolt had struck Mountain Forty-Nine. Hu Zi Feng, stationed at Mountain Forty-Nine, shot back, "You worm-digger, are the lightning rods in Territory Two just for show?"

Tang Huai cursed, "What do you mean? I learned how to install lightning rods from Xia Qing!"

Hu Zi Feng chuckled, "Nothing else, just curious—if everyone learned from Xia Qing, why is it that every other territory took lightning strikes just fine, and only yours didn't work? Could this be a character issue?"

"…Hu Madman, just you wait!"

This was the first time Tang Huai had been talked down with nothing to say in return. The spot where this bolt landed was almost exactly the same as the bolt ten years ago that had crippled Kou Fanming from the waist down! The more Tang Huai thought about it, the more shaken he felt.

"Maybe the spot in Territory Two where the house was built has bad feng shui. After the Calamity Rain, Brother Huai should move somewhere else to live." Kuang Qingwei changed the subject, not letting the two keep arguing. "Brother Qi, is your injury better?"

Qi Fu replied, "Much better. Thanks to Xia Qing coming over to help clear the wild paulownia, otherwise several of my greenhouses would have been lost."

"Sister Qing, nice going—your combat power just keeps getting fiercer." Xia Qing held the largest territory; she not only didn't need the inspection team's help, she had the spare capacity to aid other territories. Just looking at that management ability, Tang Huai raised two thumbs up in genuine admiration.

If only her taste in men could keep up with half of her management ability, Tang Huai would admire her even more. "Xia Qing, how many bolts hit your territory?"

Xia Qing, who was on foot patrol through the western buffer forest, pressed the walkie-talkie button. "Four."

"One more than here!" Zhao Ze was shocked. "Sister Qing, is everything okay in the territory?"

Xia Qing replied, "Two bolts hit the greenhouses, but the lightning rods did their job. Everything's fine."

Tang Huai…

Wen Nengjie immediately came online. "I also had a bolt hit a greenhouse here. Thanks to learning from Sister Qing how to install lightning rods, otherwise the crops inside would all be gone. But one of my greenhouses got torn apart by the wind."

Tang Huai sighed. "You guys don't know yet, do you? In Territory Fifteen, one greenhouse was struck by lightning, three dead; in Territory Twenty-Six, a house was crushed by a tree branch brought down by a lightning strike, two dead, five injured."

"So many people died…" Zhao Ze felt sick just hearing it.

The lord channel fell silent.

Xia Qing continued moving through the buffer forest, where water was still dripping, relying on sight and magnetic sense to search for plants about to undergo or already undergoing intense evolution.

She had already heard the casualty reports through the inspection team channel. The death toll in Northern Zone One was not five but thirteen—three from Territory Eight, two from Territory One.

The people who died in Territories Eight and One were not killed by the natural disaster; those two territories had used the disaster period to settle internal scores.

After clearing three wild paulownia not yet thigh-high and two clumps of aggressive mutant-evolved shrubs, Xia Qing asked through her earpiece walkie-talkie, "Liangzi, how are things in the greenhouses?"

Liangzi, in the monitoring room, replied, "The seven protected greenhouses are all normal. The other greenhouses only have a small number of mutant-evolved plants, no aggressive mutant-evolved plants detected so far."

"Copy that. I'm going to take a lap around Zone Three of Mountain Forty-Nine. I'm leaving the territory to you all."