Chapter 565: After the Beast Tide: Schemes and Survival

Rustle, rustle, rustle—splash.

Er Gou, the Wolf, heard Xia Qing call its name from the next greenhouse. Padding across the straw laid out to absorb moisture, it nosed open the plastic curtain between the greenhouses and trotted over with a bright, toothy grin.

“Er Gou…” Xia Qing reached out and wrapped her arms around the wolf’s neck.

Sensing Xia Qing’s sadness, Er Gou’s ears drooped and it obediently squatted beside her, letting her hold it close. Old Goat, belly full, also trotted over and settled down next to Xia Qing.

“Bzzzt—”

Xia Qing fished out her phone, which was buzzing in her pocket. It was a call from Yang Jin. She took a deep breath to steady her emotions before answering, “Captain Yang.”

Yang Jin’s voice was a little hoarse, clearly worn out from overusing it. “Xia Qing, this morning a military truck left the Safe Zone, heading to Section One of the North to deliver supplies and pick up people. I had them bring the rice seeds that Blazing Fire Squad owed you—they should get handed out to you today.”

“Alright,” Xia Qing replied. “Everything still under control in the Safe Zone?”

Yang Jin understood what she meant. “The major supplies are fine. There was a big fight inside the Safe Zone last night—over 1,300 killed. We managed to wipe out and capture a lot of scum this time, so things should quiet down for a while.”

Actually, for the Safe Zone, that death toll wasn’t considered high.

Xia Qing had already heard from Cao Xianyun about the casualties in Section One of the North during last night’s chaos: Inspection Team lost 13, with 9 injured. Among the residents, 39 were killed and 45 wounded. Counting the 26 refugees that fled from Territory Two, there were 120 intruders in all—69 eliminated, 15 captured, 36 escaped.

So in Section One of the North, which only had a few hundred people to begin with, 121 died last night. The invaders had clearly joined forces to try to destroy this Territory.

After reporting the numbers, Yang Jin asked, “Did you hear about the wolf and leopard packs attacking the Eastern Territory last night?”

Xia Qing answered, “Yeah, Brother Yue mentioned it.”

Yang Jin spoke slowly, careful with every word. “If anyone approaches you asking to communicate with the Wolf Pack on Hill Sixty—hoping you can mediate the conflict between the Base and the wolf and leopard packs in the Western Evolved Forest—you need to think it over very carefully.”

Then, in true Iron Rooster fashion, he added, “It’s really not worth getting involved. You could lose your chance to trade with the Wolf Pack entirely.”

“Thank you, Captain Yang. I understand.” After hanging up, the chill in Xia Qing’s gaze sharpened bit by bit.

That afternoon, the Inspection Team started distributing the newly delivered rice seeds to each Territory.

“If you hand the rice seeds over to the Territory Management Department for seedling cultivation, you’ll get fifty extra rice seedlings per pound.” When Tan Junjie handed Xia Qing her rice seeds, he passed along the department’s message in a tired, raspy voice: “But if you try to cultivate them yourself, odds are your temperature and humidity won’t be right and your seedlings will do poorly during Devastation Rain.”

Fifty extra rice seedlings per pound?

Xia Qing took the two and a half pounds of Yellow Lantern Rice Seeds that Blazing Fire Squad owed her without hesitation. “Captain Tan, I’ll find my own way to grow them.”

Previously, the Territory Management Department had suggested using the Safe Zone’s standardized greenhouses to cultivate seedlings for the lords of Territories 1 through 26—but in exchange, they’d keep half the seedlings as a fee.

Now that rice had evolved, each seed was bigger than before—one pound held about six thousand seeds.

Without soaking the Yellow Lantern Seeds in Pure Spring Water, only about 40% would germinate. So one pound could yield around 2,400 rice seedlings; after pulling out the runts, about 2,200 would be good for transplanting. With half taken by the department, the lords might get around 1,100 each.

The rest the Territory Management Department would sell to other lords for 10 to 20 credits a seedling. Last July at the Crop Trade Fair, Xia Qing had traded grain for 400 Yellow Lantern Rice Seedlings at a discount—10 credits each.

In other words, having the department grow your seedlings in their greenhouse meant paying over 11,000 credits per pound of rice seeds!

If a lord’s territory couldn’t handle seedling cultivation, they just had to swallow the loss, like Wen Nengjie and the other ordinary leaders.

But with the Hidden Valley up their sleeve, there was no way they’d let the department walk away with that much profit.

Tan Junjie was just following procedure. Since Xia Qing declined, he didn’t push. He just started the truck and drove to his next stop.

Xia Qing stood outside the South Gate, quietly watching Tan Junjie drive away before turning back toward her own territory.

“I bet Blazing Fire Squad never meant for us to get those seeds!” At the next day’s lord meeting, Zhu Li shared her suspicions. “Their plan had to be riding out the beast tide, wiping us all out, then sending in a new lord to use the seeds and plant the rice themselves!”

Qi Fu nodded at Zhu Li’s guess. “On the night of the beast tide, besides Xia Qing, Six and Fifteen came under the harshest attacks. Those two territories are right next to Third Brother’s Territory Seven. Blazing Fire Squad and Sufeng Squad have circled Third Brother for ages.”

Yue Haiying glanced at Xia Qing, and after she nodded, he explained the various groups involved in the beast tide brawl: “The attackers who broke into Territories 1 through 26 that day—based on everything we’ve gathered—came in at least four waves.”

“First is the squad handling Evolved Bats and a team of Advanced Evolutionaries. They’re likely from Blazing Fire Squad or were hired by them. Their targets were Xia Qing and every greenhouse and warmhouse here. After slipping in from Territory Eighteen, they destroyed several greenhouses en route to Section Three.”

“Second, the refugees from Territory Two. According to interrogations, they split into two groups—ten sent by Sufeng Squad to attack Territory Twelve, and sixteen sent to hit Four, Five, Six, and Ten. Their job was to grab supplies, kill the lord of Six, and wound or take out any other lords they could.”

“Third, a group made up mostly of evolved refugees from Gui San Base. They’d joined Hui Three’s team but then broke off, taking some Hui Three members along. Their plan was to raid for food and supplies, then escape to another base. Their targets: Territories One, Eight, Twelve, Fifteen, Twenty-One, and Twenty-Five.”

“Fourth, Sufeng Squad itself—their targets were One and Twelve.”

No one had imagined it was that complicated. The whole group fell silent.

Xia Qing quietly added to herself: there was one more group—the enemies after Xin Yu.

The lord of Territory Four, Zhao Ze, turned pale with terror and drifted closer to Xia Qing without even realizing it.

Qi Fu ran his hands down his face. “Territory Two just wanted to use the beast tide to drive us out and have Sufeng Squad swoop in for the High Evolution Element Soil. Thank goodness we’d prepped in advance.”

“Those damn animals!” Honest Shizhong couldn’t help but curse. “Territory Two’s got thousands of acres lying idle, but they come after our land.”

Zhu Li asked, “Brother Yue, all four groups must’ve coordinated beforehand, right? Otherwise there’s no way they’d have struck at the same time.”

Yue Haiying nodded. “They all had different goals, but there’s no doubt they coordinated ahead of time.”