Chapter 1061: The Eleventh Year: After the Devastation Rain

In the eleventh year of the Cataclysm, the third Devastation Rain was the sixth one the lords had faced since settling in their territories.

After a year and a half of repeated clearing, their lands no longer spewed out swarms of evolved snakes, insects, rats or ants eager to attack. Even when aggressive Devastation plants sprang up quickly, the lords now handled them with practiced ease instead of panic.

So once the crisis of the passage’s Devastation Grass was over, even that morning’s brief, thirty-five minute downpour of red Devastation Rain, and the fact that the rain would drizzle on for another thirty hours, didn’t bother them. The lords could finally relax a little.

Of course, this sense of ease came from the safety that Zhang San, Xia Qing, and the Magnetic Sense Evolvers brought to everyone.

Thanks to the Magnetic Sense Evolver, any oil sunflowers growing in the greenhouse with even a hint of aggression were already rooted out.

If a big tree in the territory suddenly underwent aggressive Devastation Evolution and the Inspection Team couldn’t handle it, they called Sister Qing.

When plagues of insects, waves of birds or beasts struck, or someone got hurt or poisoned, Third Brother was always there to help.

The more they thought about it, the more reassured they felt.

Everyone continued to patrol the land in an orderly way, clearing Devastation Grass and chatting in the Lords’ channel about their losses. Some shared plans for the autumn harvest once the rain ended, others dreamed about what came after.

At noon, after a busy morning, Xia Qing picked a basket of fresh vegetable leaves, chopped them up, mixed them with special feed and carried them into Shed Thirteen—the breeding greenhouse. She scattered the feed for twelve trays of breadworms, then grabbed her umbrella and headed to Shed Fifteen, where different pasture grasses grew. After picking up her companions, she returned home for lunch and a break.

If nothing out of the ordinary happened, Xia Qing could rest at home for six hours, then guard the territory with Peng Jian and three others from six in the evening until dawn.

Back at home, Xia Qing noticed that the two Red Squirrels in the cage hadn’t eaten all day but their bellies were still round as ever.

After lunch, Xia Qing pressed the walkie-talkie button. “Third Brother, are you there?”

Hearing Xia Qing call for the Senior Expert, every lord on channels one through ten paused whatever they were doing, listening in.

A full minute later, Zhang San’s tired voice finally came through the walkie-talkie. “Speak.”

Xia Qing asked, “Third Brother, the two Red Squirrels I’m raising got lured to the passage by a scent last night. Their spirits seemed fine after I brought them back, but their bellies have stayed bloated ever since and they haven’t pooped. Should I give them medicine?”

Everyone fell silent…

Zhang San snapped, “I’m not a vet. Go find Zhang Song!”

“Alright, thanks Third Brother.” Xia Qing had just grabbed the cage to take the squirrels to Territory Seven when Xin Yu called.

Turns out the free-range Evolved Hawk in Territory Eight also overate last night. Xin Yu asked Xia Qing to bring it along so ‘vet’ Zhang Song could check it out.

So, Xia Qing carried two cages into Territory Seven. One held the two Red Squirrels with swollen bellies, the other held a droopy-winged, round-bellied Evolved Hawk.

She didn’t dare leave the cages with Zhang Song directly, so she took them all the way into his lab, set them on the testing table, and only then let go.

Zhang Song beamed, “Sister Qing, you go see Third Brother. Leave these three animals to me.”

“I’ll stick around to learn how animal checkups work from Brother Song.” Xia Qing didn’t really want to see the idol, whose mood was clearly sour.

Zhang Song explained, “The mildly toxic Devastation Grass makes animals constipated if they eat flower buds or their seeds. Their droppings clump together, making perfect fertilizer for the Devastation Seeds. The two bags of those dark purple-black insects you brought back from Hill Thirty-Seven grew so big because they fed on this very grass.”

It turned out those bugs only looked strong because their bellies were full of pellet-shaped droppings. Xia Qing fell silent.

Zhang Song added quickly, “Go see Third Brother when you’re free. He paid a heavy price moving his lab here, and for over a year we’ve all worked under crushing pressure. We’d barely been able to loosen up for a week before this happened. Third Brother’s been in the lab since last night. If you hadn’t just called him on the Lords’ channel, even Zheng Chen couldn’t have gotten him out.”

Xia Qing was surprised. “He hasn’t eaten breakfast or lunch?”

Zhang Song shook his head, “He probably just drank some nutrient shake and kept working.”

Leaving Zhang Song’s lab, Xia Qing swung by her territory before heading back to gently knock on the idol’s door.

She grinned as she closed the door behind her, then sat across from the idol—now gaunt and sporting heavy bags under his eyes—at his desk. She pulled a thumb-sized high-grade Yi Stone from her pocket and slid it across. “Third Brother, keep this high-grade Yi Stone with you. It drives off Devastation Elements even better than the mid-grade ones.”

Zhang San still slumped in his chair, unchanged. “What do you want in return?”

Just as Xia Qing started to smile, Zhang San added, “You can’t trade for last night’s pesticide.”

Xia Qing was stumped.

Fine then.

“Third Brother, those Giant Wasps in the chestnut grove are still alive, right?”

Zhang San shot Xia Qing a look and couldn’t even be bothered to respond.

Xia Qing went on, “Giant hornets have shown up in the chestnut grove, so we can’t pick chestnuts like last year. I’ve got two ideas: One, we block the wasps’ nest in the crevice before dawn, then harvest the chestnuts and uncover the nest after we’re done. Two, we borrow some equipment from your territory to set up a mechanical arm in the chestnut grove before dark so we can pick the chestnuts remotely. Which do you think is better?”

Zhang San replied wearily, “Go with the second plan—it’ll stir up the wasps less. Once the rain’s over, take Da Ya with you. He’ll handle the design, and you two can set it all up together.”

“Got it.” Xia Qing agreed, then pulled out some grass roots from her pocket. “Third Brother, I found two of the juiciest mutated White Weasel Grass roots in a confiscated backpack. Can we use them to propagate more White Weasel Grass?”

Zhang San glanced at them once. “Let Zhang Tao give it a try. Shouldn’t be a problem.”

“Great, thanks Third Brother.” Xia Qing set the White Weasel Grass aside, then fished out a box of fruit from her backpack and offered it over. “These are all fresh-picked. Give them a taste, Third Brother.”

Inside the fruit box were a few purple grapes, a handful of blackish wild berries, some bright red groundcherries, and a fist-sized green apple.

For the first time, Zhang San sat up straight. “This apple grew on one of your own fruit trees?”

“Yep. Last year, all the apples were smashed by hail. This year, we got twenty-four. I smelled a hint of sweetness the last couple of days. Try it, see how it tastes.”

Actually, it was Old Goat who first caught the apple’s scent and kept pestering Xia Qing for one. She’d held back though, since Yang Jin’s Growing Manual said these apples, while early harvest varieties, shouldn’t ripen before early September.

Today was August 27th.

Die-hard fan Xia Qing brought over the biggest apple from the tree to try to coax the idol into eating, hoping he’d at least have a bite.