Chapter 273: Aerial Battle Against the Pest Outbreak

“It’s done!” Kuang Qingwei immediately reported to Tan Junjie. “Captain Tan, our entire group needs San-ge’s special herbal mixture for our territory. Could you talk to Captain Jiang, who’s in charge of spraying, and ask her to mix the herbal solution into the pesticide tank when she lands in Section Three to refill water?”

“Understood.”

Ten minutes later, Tan Junjie replied, “Everything’s arranged. Sections Eleven through Twenty-Eight need it too. The helicopter spraying has been paused for now. San-ge, please prepare the herbal solution as quickly as possible. I’ll come by to pick it up.”

Zhang San, sounding lazy as usual, responded, “Already done. Come get it.”

After everyone thanked Tan Junjie and Zhang San, Qi Fu asked, “Captain Tan, what about the areas that have already been sprayed? Should we respray those ourselves, or will the helicopters handle it?”

A new voice echoed in the Lord Channel. “I’m Jiang Ting, the squad leader for today’s spraying mission. We’ll go over the more than ten thousand acres already sprayed again using the new solution. Lord of Section Seven, can the improved pesticide be sprayed at night?”

Zhang San answered, “As long as it doesn’t rain, it’s fine.”

“Copy that. The helicopter team will work around the clock until the job’s done.”

Jiang Ting’s reply put everyone at ease.

After switching to the new mixture, the helicopters sprayed all the greenhouses again.

Did they even respray Section Three’s greenhouses, where there weren’t any bugs? Yes. There were so few greenhouses in Section Three, it’d take extra effort to skip them, so they just included them in the sweep.

“Half the stinger worms in my greenhouse are dead!” Zhao Ze cheered half an hour after the second spraying.

Shizhong chimed in, “Same here. Most of the borers are almost gone. Thanks, San-ge. And thank you, Captain Jiang.”

Xia Qing also offered her thanks.

Zhang San had already gone offline by then, and Jiang Ting was too busy with the spraying to respond.

By three o’clock the next afternoon, the helicopter team had finished spraying all the way from Section One to Section Twenty-Eight. They spent another three hours flying over the evolved forest near the territories. Then Jiang Ting made an announcement in the Lord Channel:

“Lords, the pesticide mission in Sector One of the Safe Zone’s north side is complete. The helicopter team is heading back to base.”

Everyone thanked her in a hurry.

Jiang Ting replied, “The grains and vegetables you’ve raised will help many people get through this winter. On behalf of the helicopter crew, I salute every one of you Lords.”

Jiang Ting’s words kept echoing in Xia Qing’s mind. Watching the three helicopters fade into the sunset, she was filled with a sense of pride from farming.

The Lords had all taken a risk for a better life by growing crops. In the grand scheme of things, they were first citizens of Huaxia. By providing for themselves and not taking state rations of compressed food, they helped ease the country’s burden. Their crops and herbs, once sold, kept even more people from going hungry. The country wasn’t short on points—it was food that was scarce.

Territories had now become a third major food source for the Safe Zone, alongside squad hunting and foraging in the Evolved Forest.

So, coming out to farm wasn’t just for themselves—it helped others and the nation too. As a Lord, she was proud.

Just for that one sentence from Jiang Ting, Xia Qing made up her mind to open up another acre next spring.

All because of the swift pesticide spraying, the locust plague that could have wiped out the territories was stopped in its tracks. As the sun dipped low, the Lords walked their land, stepping over the dense carpet of caterpillar corpses.

The wild grass wall was chewed full of holes, leaves were ragged, and crops inside the greenhouses had taken a beating. But that was okay—the plants’ roots and stalks were still intact, so they could bounce back soon. The mung bean blossoms that got eaten, though, wouldn’t be producing beans.

Since everyone had seeds from the first harvest, every Lord had planted a few or even a dozen greenhouses with mung beans. A drop in yield would hit them all pretty hard.

Only Section Three, which had gotten the early pesticide treatment, took the least damage.

Xia Qing checked her fields one patch at a time. Some leaves on the bok choy, radish, and spinach were ragged from bites, but the losses weren’t too bad.

The corn had barely any damaged leaves, but the rice fields had more. Clearly, these borers—properly called evolved Chilo suppressalis—preferred the rice seedlings.

Luckily, none of the rice seedlings had their stalks chewed through. There shouldn’t be much lasting harm.

She had ninety-five Green Lantern rice plants she had to keep for seed—each one precious. Every day for the past few days, Xia Qing had been inspecting them one by one, listening and checking for signs of bugs boring inside.

Of the four hundred rice seedlings she brought back from the Safe Zone, just 280 were left after the third toxic rainstorm. Afterward, Xia Qing tested the yellow lantern seedlings for toxin levels and pulled out any that went above 1.5%. Once rice had that much toxin, it was classified as inedible—no point keeping it around to be wasted.

Of the 260 that remained, their toxin levels ranged from 0.9% to 1.4%, so they could still be eaten. And now that she had some seeds of a D-21 rice cultivar with a much lower toxin count traded from Zhang San with chestnuts, she didn’t plan on keeping the higher-toxin yellow lantern ones as seed stock.

When those rice plants were harvested, she planned to give them to Uncle Huo of the Huo Blacksmith. She’d promised him that when she managed to grow rice, she’d send some his way.

Even with those high toxin levels, this rice was still in demand—most people couldn’t buy it even if they wanted to. As a gift, it would be perfect to ask Uncle Huo for a custom set of protective gear suitable for someone with advanced strength.

Thinking of Uncle Huo, Xia Qing couldn’t help but wonder about the kind stranger who’d messaged her before. She hoped he’d made it through the third toxic rain safe and hadn’t suffered in this insect outbreak.

That person was still a mystery, and Xia Qing didn’t feel right reaching out. With a sigh, she headed off to patrol Section Three of Hill Forty-Nine. Lame Wolf and Red Squirrel had both hidden deep in the forest to avoid the aerial spraying and weren’t in their lairs. The bug density in Hill Forty-Nine’s Section Three was lower than the territories, and Jiang Ting’s helicopter squad had given it a few extra passes, though this time with regular pesticide, not the advanced herb-infused mix. It helped a bit, but not much.

But in the Evolved Forest, a bug boom wasn’t a problem. Unlike human-cleared territories, the forest had plenty of insect-eating animals to keep things in balance. No matter how many bugs showed up, they’d eventually get eaten.

The bug-eaters would attract another wave of small carnivores, and then the big predators would appear. Hill Fifty could be left alone, but Hill Forty-Nine was actually the Azure Dragon Base’s field training ground. If one of those big predators came down into the territory and started wrecking things, Azure Dragon Squad would have to answer for it.

So Xia Qing called Hu Zifeng to ask if they needed to kill off the bugs in Hill Forty-Nine.

Hu Zifeng replied, “No need. Captain Xie said we’re using those bugs as bait for hunting.”

Xie Yu was treating Hill Forty-Nine as a live training field. Xia Qing knew Yang Jin was still out on assignment, but hadn’t realized Xie Yu was calling the shots in Territory One now. Hu Zifeng came by every day to pick up Green Lantern vegetables, which meant Luo Pei was still living there.

And what did that mean? Luo Pei’s health was really in bad shape.

Xia Qing quietly asked, “How’s Brother Luo holding up?”

“He’s hanging in there. Our boss just found the last herb and is rushing back. Once Luo gets the medicine, he’ll be completely healed,” Hu Zifeng said with a hint of relief.

Luo Pei had suffered from the poison for more than half a year and was finally on the verge of recovery. Xia Qing was so happy she hummed an upbeat tune as she scoured Red Squirrel’s house, then picked up a few evolved giant lizards before heading back to Section Three.

She was just about to cross the Northern Barrier when she spotted a patchy-looking yellow weasel poking its head out from behind a big rock not far away, eyeing her as if it had something to say.