Chapter 222: Sunflower Machine Gun

Chapter 222: Chapter 222: Sunflower Machine Gun

Xiaqing thought for a moment and began to understand.

In the Broken Waist Wolf’s mind, the Sheep Leader was different from the other two wolves. If those two wanted to eat dried meat, it could help them. But if the Sheep Leader wanted some, it had to see if Xiaqing would agree.

Back when Xiaqing and the Wolf Group had clashed over the medicinal juice exchange, the Broken Waist Wolf’s act of ordering the Sheep Leader out of the house to snatch the snake had thoroughly infuriated her. ’Could it be that the incident made the Broken Waist Wolf more cautious?’

Xiaqing walked over, took off her gloves, and pulled a compressed ration from the Sheep Leader’s saddlebag. She tore open the sealed bag, stuffed the ration into its mouth, and then ruffled its head. "Go on, eat."

The compressed rations were extremely dry, so Xiaqing filled the water basin for the three wolves and one sheep with spring water before continuing to clear out the Injurious Grass and Poisonous Insects.

Xiaqing threw the Injurious Grass she had pulled up in the courtyard onto a bamboo rack. Once they were off the ground, with only the little bit of soil clinging to their roots, they couldn’t cause any trouble even if they were still alive. After the Harmful Rain passed, she would dry them out and burn them, clearing them completely.

After cleaning the courtyard, Xiaqing opened the garage, attached the rain cover and weeding wheels to the micro-tiller, and started it up.

Hearing the sound of the micro-tiller, the Sheep Leader, having finished its compressed ration, rushed over and hopped into its designated seat. Xiaqing put a Protective Mask on it, fastened the rain cover, and began using the micro-tiller to clear the path that had been swallowed by Injurious Grass.

Wherever the micro-tiller went, the evolved Poisonous Insects and venomous snakes hidden in the Injurious Grass scattered in all directions. Some of the bolder ones even leaped up to attack Xiaqing and the Sheep Leader, only to be blocked by the rain cover.

After clearing the main paths within the territory, Xiaqing began circling around to clear the Injurious Grass from the edges of the several greenhouses in her farmland. Once the Injurious Grass grew tall, it not only obstructed her line of sight, but the Evolutionary Worms and snakes hiding within also posed a significant safety hazard.

The Injurious Grass grew especially fast during the red-level showers. If she waited until the end of the third Harmful Rain to clear it, their root systems might have already penetrated the greenhouses. That was why Hu Zifeng’s team had been constantly clearing the Injurious Grass around the greenhouses ever since they had recovered.

They had already pulled up all the Injurious Grass within two meters of the greenhouses. For the areas slightly farther out, she first cut the grass down with the micro-tiller, planning to till the soil and burn the roots after the Harmful Rain ended.

The machine was highly efficient. With a few CHUG-CHUG-CHUG passes back and forth, Xiaqing cleared out a large area.

The Endurance Evolver, Little Jiang, watched with envy. "Sister Qing definitely made that cover for the micro-tiller. Her craftsmanship is amazing."

Guan Tong, who had been learning blacksmithing from Xiaqing, watched with gleaming eyes. "I’m going to weld one onto our territory’s micro-tiller when I get back."

As the micro-tiller passed the fodder shed, the Sheep Leader nudged Xiaqing with its head, indicating that it wanted to eat some grass. Xiaqing stopped the machine. After seeing that the Air Poison Detection Instrument was reading normal, she took off its Protective Mask and let it get down to graze.

Seeing the Sheep Leader finally get off, Little Jiang immediately ran over. "Sister Qing, take a break. I’ll cut the rest of the grass."

"Stay away from the low-lying areas, there’s standing water," Xiaqing reminded him as she handed the micro-tiller over to Little Jiang. She opened her umbrella, carried her basket to the small cabin, and the moment she took off her Protective Mask, she was hit by a rich aroma that made her mouth water.

Xiaqing had never expected that Eryong, who had been so unassuming before, was actually such a good cook.

Eryong, wearing an apron and holding a spatula, greeted her. "Sister Qing, have a seat. Dinner will be ready after a couple more dishes."

"There’s dried meat, flour, cucumbers, tomatoes, and chili peppers in here. You can figure out what to do with them. I’m going to patrol the greenhouses," Xiaqing said, placing the basket next to Eryong before putting on her Protective Mask and leaving the cabin.

She finally understood why no one was in the cabin. With an aroma like this, anyone inside would have been unable to resist the urge to sneak a few bites ahead of time.

Xiaqing inspected the greenhouses one by one. When she reached the High Slope, she saw Hu Zifeng pulling up Injurious Grass on the slopes on either side of a greenhouse and went to help him. Using a private channel, Hu Zifeng first told Xiaqing about the Zhang San and Li Si matter, then asked in a very low voice, "Can you still make spinach juice for Brother Luo during the Harmful Rain?"

Xiaqing knew what Hu Zifeng was worried about. He was afraid that harvesting the spinach for juice would cause the plants to become unbalanced during the Harmful Rain, triggering a Qiang Evolution. The spinach terraces were protected by Yi Stones; even if the plants were picked bare, the chance of a Qiang Evolution was very small. "I can. There are hundreds of spinach plants in the terraces. Even if half of them undergo a Qiang Evolution, there will still be enough left to eat."

Brother Luo’s body really couldn’t handle any more setbacks. Hu Zifeng nodded, firmly etching Xiaqing’s kindness into his heart as he pulled up weeds with renewed vigor.

A heavenly voice came over the walkie-talkie. "Sister Qing, brothers, time to eat!"

Braised pig’s head, red-braised pork knuckle, stewed pig’s trotter soup, stir-fried cabbage leaves, dried meat stir-fried with bamboo shoots, tomatoes with white sugar, smashed cucumber salad... Every single dish was so delicious it made Xiaqing want to cry.

’Damn it,’ she thought. ’Compared to Eryong’s cooking, my own is absolute garbage.’

If Eryong wasn’t a core Evolver on one of Azure Dragon’s top ten teams, Xiaqing would have definitely tried to strike a deal with Yang Jin to hire Eryong as her personal chef.

After dinner, Hu Zifeng and the four others who hadn’t rested since last night went to the break room to catch up on sleep, while Xiaqing and the other five patrolled the farmland. The Harmful Rain drizzled on until midnight. Just as everyone was at their most exhausted and weary, Tan Junjie’s calm, serious voice came over the Lord channel. "The second wave of red-level Harmful Rain is beginning. All Lords, please be on high alert."

All personnel in every territory mobilized to face the second wave of red-level Harmful Rain.

Fortunately, this wave of Harmful Rain only lasted for forty minutes. Just as Xiaqing breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing Tan Junjie announce the end of the red-level rain, she heard Zhao Ze’s panicked plea for help. "Captain Tan, the sunflowers in Territory No. 4 have undergone a dangerous Qiang Evolution! Two people are injured, we need support!"

"Received. Arriving in three minutes," Tan Junjie replied calmly.

Kuang Qingwei burst out cursing, "Two of my sunflowers had a dangerous Qiang Evolution! They’re spitting out seeds like a damn machine gun, and they turned the fucking rain shelter into a sieve! Half the shelter is gone!"

Tan Junjie issued a stern warning, "Sixth Lord Kuang Qingwei, control your emotions. Does Territory No. 6 require support?"

Kuang Qingwei paused for a few seconds, barely managing to suppress his frantic, collapsing mood. "No one is injured in Territory No. 6. We do not require support."

After responding to Tan Junjie, perhaps to alleviate his own frustration, Kuang Qingwei asked on the Lord channel, "It’s my fault. I shouldn’t have put most of my people in the cornfield. Is everyone else’s territory okay?"

With the corn seeds from Luo Pei and more exchanged from the Safe Zone, Territories No. 3, 4, 5, and 6—the four with Buffer Forests—had all planted large cornfields, making them the focus of their patrols.

Qi Fu was probably too busy to talk. Shi Du replied, "We also had two sunflowers undergo a dangerous Qiang Evolution, but because we surrounded them with iron plates beforehand, no one was hurt."

Xiaqing also pressed her button. "I surrounded mine with iron plates too, and I cleared out the sunflowers with high Harmful Element content in advance. No dangerous Qiang Evolutions occurred."