Chapter 768: Hardness-Evolved Bamboo

Hearing Xia Qing's voice come through the lord channel, Tang Huai, who had already run out of the south gate of Territory No. 12, gazed from afar at the tiny-looking humans beside the wildly flailing great tree and asked, "Xia Qing, that thing can be taken down, right?"

Before Xia Qing had to spare the attention to answer, Tang Heng spoke up. "Brother, Squad Leader Tan and Sister Qing and the others are about to start fighting. Everyone relax, with over forty evolvers, they'll definitely be able to clear that great tree in Territory No. 18. Everyone step up patrols, don't let the wild paulownias in your own territory grow big and damage the greenhouses and houses."

Tang Huai said that of the forty-plus evolvers on site, over thirty had already arrived. Xia Qing knew all the evolvers from Territories No. 1, 8, 10, 12, and 15. There were also a few who had signed up in the group chat, evolvers from Territories No. 21 and 25.

A somewhat disheveled Fang Lin walked over and raised a hand to greet Xia Qing; Xia Qing also raised a hand and nodded in response.

When Xia Qing was in the safe zone, she had taken on several East Sun Battle Squad missions. Fang Lin had previously been a strength evolver in the East Sun Battle Squad, and the two had gone on missions together, so they were nodding acquaintances.

Times change and circumstances shift. The Fang Lin who used to see Xia Qing and pretend he hadn't now took the initiative to walk over and greet her. Because Xia Qing's combat power was now above his.

When the twenty-two evolvers from the territory and the twenty inspection team members had assembled, the aggressive wild paulownia had already grown to over six meters tall. The curved vines buried in the soil had straightened and taken root, and countless vines were whipping about wildly.

This tree had already entered its third-stage form, and its growth rate was accelerating!

Tan Junjie gestured for everyone to switch their earpiece communicators to the same channel, then announced the grouping plan. "First, form teams freely. Each squad includes one speed evolver, one strength evolver, and one sniper."

Xia Qing pulled Tan Qi and teamed up with her "boyfriend" Hu Zifeng.

After twelve squads were formed, Tan Junjie gave another order. "Three squads form one platoon. Four platoons each take one side. The remaining personnel provide outer support…"

Once the battle plan was deployed, Tan Junjie gave the word, and the twelve squads advanced together.

Xia Qing's three-person squad attacked from the east side.

Xia Qing took the lead, responsible for slashing at the attacking vines and the ones buried in the soil. Tan Qi and Hu Zifeng flanked her, assisting in attack and defense. Xia Qing's black blade was both heavy and fast, and in five minutes they had reached the designated position.

Tan Qi immediately stepped forward and began rapidly digging soil with a shovel. Hu Zifeng and Xia Qing were responsible for defense—Hu Zifeng with his gun, Xia Qing with her blade.

Xia Qing's marksmanship was actually better than Hu Zifeng's, but this was the Calamity Rain Period, and the number of people who could use guns in a given area was limited. Otherwise, if the firepower was too dense, there was a danger of triggering a Calamity Explosion.

In less than five minutes, Tan Qi had dug a pit over a meter deep and half a meter wide. After Xia Qing swung her blade and quickly cut through the thick roots exposed in the pit that Tan Qi hadn't been able to sever, the three-person squad quickly withdrew to the east side of the great tree. In Xia Qing's ears, besides the sounds of battle and rain, there was also Tan Qi's panting.

Although this young girl was a fourth-level evolver, she was young and didn't have much strength, so being able to complete the task this quickly was already very impressive.

The heavily wounded great tree grew even more frenzied. New vines kept burrowing out, and the crown grew at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Once all twelve squads had completed their tasks and withdrawn, sixth-level strength evolver Xia Qing, fifth-and-a-half-level strength evolver Shi Du, and two fifth-level strength evolvers Guan Tong and Fang Lin simultaneously charged the half-meter-thick trunk from the north and west sides.

Once—the treetop shook violently.

Twice—the trunk tilted to the southeast.

Thrice—the trunk toppled, revealing the roots connected to the ground.

The four fifth-level-and-above strength evolvers stepped back, and eight fourth-level strength evolvers stepped forward, swinging their blades to quickly sever the roots, cutting off the crown's nutrient supply.

Then, everyone worked together to drag away the treetop and clear out the roots and vines buried in the soil.

Forty minutes. The task force finally cleared the great tree completely before it could enter its fourth-stage form. Support personnel returned to their own territories, and inspection team members continued patrolling and handling emergencies.

The four members of Hu Zifeng's squad got right into Xia Qing's off-road vehicle and rode back with her to Territory No. 3. In another half hour, these four and Chen Zheng were supposed to enter Territory No. 3 to replace Liang Zi's five-person team and carry out the mission of protecting Territory No. 3 during the Calamity Rain Period.

Xia Qing drove in the front row, and the four members of Hu Zifeng's squad squeezed into the back row. No one dared sit in the front passenger seat.

Why?

Because the front passenger seat was the "Goat Seat." If they dared leave their scent on it, they would definitely receive special attention from Boss Goat. In the future, when entering Territory No. 3, they'd either have to stay up in the trees or get chased on a wild run by Boss Goat.

After the off-road vehicle entered Territory No. 3, the four voluntarily requested to get out and patrol the territory to clear dangers, rather than going with Xia Qing to Greenhouse No. 15 to pick up Boss Goat.

Xia Qing relied on her vision and magnetic sense to detect anomalies around her. She picked up Boss Goat and headed to the western buffer forest to patrol it. Although the vegetation inside the buffer forest wasn't as dense as the evolved forest, the cultivated land beneath it was much denser. The cameras' lines of sight were blocked by shrubs and tree trunks, so even if an aggressive wild paulownia appeared, it would be hard for the cameras to detect it before it entered its second-stage form.

Relatively speaking, the wild paulownia saplings growing inside the buffer forest had their underground root systems disturbed by other plants' roots, and their above-ground leaf growth was also affected by the shrubs, so they grew more slowly than the wild paulownias in the cultivated land areas.

Even so, the 3,500 mu of buffer forest inside Territory No. 3 was still a key patrol area, requiring a patrol every half hour.

Xia Qing cleared two wild paulownia saplings in their first-stage form, not yet over 1.5 meters tall, and arrived at the edge of the western buffer forest, where she felt the strong magnetic field fluctuations of an aggressive Calamity-evolved plant at the spot between her brows.

Over a dozen purplish-red aggressive bamboos had already shot up to over six meters tall. Xia Qing endured the discomfort brought by her magnetic sense, stepped on a few stones she had specially placed here, and went under the bamboo to tap the bamboo stalks with a dagger.

The bamboo stalks gave out dull sounds, and the Calamity raindrops pattering down hit her protective mask and shoulders. These sounds weaving together made Xia Qing feel a bit more comfortable at the spot between her brows.

These were bamboos grown from the roots of an aggressive hardness-evolved bamboo she had dug up from Mountain No. 52. Xia Qing had placed stones around the bamboo to prevent the root system from piercing through the soles of her shoes.

After these bamboo roots were planted and watered several times, they finally sprouted. In the two months before the Calamity Rain, they had only grown to just over three meters tall. Today, after over five hours of Calamity rain, they had grown over three meters taller.

Truly worthy of being a Calamity-evolved plant. It's a pity the bamboo strips aren't thick enough yet—they can only be harvested after a few more hours.

Xia Qing hoped these bamboo roots would step up and produce lots of bamboo during the fifty-plus-hour Calamity Rain Period. That way, she could replace all the greenhouse support frames with hardness-evolved bamboo and improve the greenhouses' defensive capabilities.