Chapter 598: Spring Preparations in the Hidden Valley

Even though Xia Qing had started considering letting Territory Twelve join the Alliance, she hadn’t actually taken any steps yet, so the Hidden Valley still had to be kept secret from Tang Huai. Shi Du grinned. “Thanks for the heads up, Huai. My dad says we should try raising a few crabs—if one turns out stable, we’ll hit the jackpot. If they all mutate into Red Lanterns, well, guess we’ll just have to accept our bad luck.”

A lot of people brought that same hopeful attitude when they came to trade for crab seedlings. Tang Huai just laughed. “Worth a shot, right?”

Once the group reached the base of Third Peak, they split into two teams. Zhao Ze, Yue Haiying, Tang Huai and his two bodyguards gathered samples in the hazardous zone, mapping the terrain, checking snow depth and calculating how much meltwater they’d have to deal with. Meanwhile, Xia Qing, Qi Fu and Shi Du headed further up the mountain to clear out any snow that might slide into the high-risk zone or the fissures, hoping to ease the flood pressure on those areas.

Tang Huai had wanted to team up with Xia Qing, but she shot him down without hesitation, saying he was too weak for the job and the upper paths were way too risky.

If she hadn’t rejected him so firmly, it wouldn’t have worked. Tang Huai was the type to push his luck—give him an inch, he’d take a mile, and if Xia Qing so much as let her guard down for a second, he’d latch on without any shame.

Shi Du stayed halfway up the mountain, clearing snow and keeping watch. Xia Qing and Qi Fu kept climbing, unlocked the iron gate on the Bear Cave and slipped into the Hidden Valley.

Seeing neat rows of rice seedlings spread out in the fields, Xia Qing suddenly felt refreshed, breathing easier with hope flooding through her.

Qi Fu’s face lit up with delight. “They look amazing, just beautiful. Xia Qing, what kind of Green Lantern rice is this? The color really pops!”

Alliance members all grew their own seedlings here, but each family’s patch was kept separate. Xia Qing had the widest variety—besides the Yellow Lantern rice Ld-10 with its high Devastation Element content (compensation from Fire Phoenix), most of her seedlings were types she’d traded for herself.

The color of the rice seedlings changed depending on the amount of Devastation Element in each plant. The less Devastation Element, the more the leaves looked like normal rice from before the Cataclysm. So when Qi Fu said Xia Qing’s seedlings had the perfect color, he meant they were noticeably greener than everyone else’s.

Xia Qing explained, “That lush patch of Green Lantern rice and the big field of Yellow Lantern rice next to it are actually the same variety. It’s called J-2.”

“A new strain?” Qi Fu got excited. “Once we harvest in June, if the yield and stability are better than Fire Phoenix’s Ld-10, let’s all switch to J-2 for the next round.”

Since the Cataclysm boosted the Devastation and radioactive elements in the air, Blue Star’s plants went through brutal natural selection. The only ones that survived thrived in the new world, but not all of them were safe for humans to eat. To survive, people had to search for and breed crops that were both safe for eating and resistant to disasters, pests and bacteria.

The new crop seeds that got bred were usually named with a mix of letters and numbers. The letters were chosen by whoever bred them—sometimes one letter, sometimes several, meaning all kinds of things.

Some letters stood for the plant type, like ‘m’ for wheat, ‘Y’ for corn, or ‘d’ for rice; others for the origin, like bS-6 rice from White San Base; sometimes it was both, like Fire Phoenix’s rice Ld-10. Sometimes no one even knew what the letter stood for—nobody’s figured out what the ‘J’ in Territory Seven’s J-2 rice meant.

The number after the letters showed how many generations the seed had been bred. Ld-10 meant the Ld line of rice had gone through ten generations of screening and selection. J-2 meant the J line was only at the second generation.

Two generations in definitely made it a new variety. To count as ‘new’, these seeds had to show some clear advantage over older types in order to get approval for broader use.

Xia Qing nodded. “It should be better than d-10.”

Xia Qing wasn’t just being overconfident—she genuinely respected Territory Seven’s technical skill.

Qi Fu checked each field a row at a time, keeping an eye on the rice seedlings while Xia Qing looked for the weasel who’d been guarding her valley. “Hey, Balding! Are you here? Balding…”

She’d barely called for a minute when the round head of the balding weasel poked out from a crevice, trembling a bit. It shot a wary look at Qi Fu to make sure there was no threat, then focused on Xia Qing.

Xia Qing set a fist-sized piece of roast meat on the rock, thanking her loyal little guardian. “Happy New Year, Balding. Fresh rabbit, roasted this morning. Eat while it’s hot.”

Right away, the weasel snatched the roasted meat and disappeared into the crevice. But before Xia Qing could leave, it popped back out, ears perked and round black eyes on her expectantly.

That look—it was just like the freeloading Red Squirrel back at her Territory.

Xia Qing laughed, searched her pockets and brought out a piece of jerky she’d grilled for Er Gou. “I’m out of roast, only got jerky left. Take it, thanks for keeping my valley safe.”

The weasel sniffed the jerky, bit it and zipped off.

Qi Fu watched all this from a distance and laughed. “My wife says every time she comes to work in this valley, knowing there’s a Huang Daxian on guard puts her mind at ease.”

Xia Qing laughed too. “It’s been years since I’ve heard anyone call them ‘Huang Daxian’.”

Qi Fu opened the water channel and started watering the seedlings, making small talk with Xia Qing. “Before the Cataclysm, we would drive freight long haul without sleep for days. We were superstitious—if we ran over a snake, we’d go burn incense at a temple just to be safe. And if we saw a weasel, we’d always take a detour…”

Chatting and working, the two of them got started installing water-deflecting barriers at the top of the valley’s fissure.

After the Cataclysm, Blue Star’s climate had totally changed. Over the next half-month, Hui Three Base’s temperature would climb from more than twenty below up to above zero—peak temps could even hit eleven or twelve degrees.

That surge of almost thirty degrees would put a huge strain on every kind of infrastructure and risk people’s health, but it would also trigger a rapid melt. Snow from the forests would rush into the valley, turning quiet rivers into wild torrents.

If they didn’t put up those water deflection boards at the top where the cracks were, all that melting snow mixed with rocks would plunge right down like a waterfall, smashing up the valley’s topsoil and rice seedlings, washing everything away.

The easiest fix was just to cover the top of the fissure with rain covers and let the meltwater run down. But if anyone saw that from above, the unusual cover would give away the Hidden Valley’s location.

So, after talking it through, the Alliance decided to stick with the method the valley’s old residents had used—keep installing water barriers at the valley’s top. That way, the incoming meltwater wouldn’t hammer the crops but would be channeled along both sides and out through the mountain fissures.

Steel pipes, lumber and rain covers for this job had all been prepped ahead of time. Today, Xia Qing and Qi Fu just had to get the water-deflecting boards in place.

After all, to a pair of Strength-Based Evolution fighters who’d worked years on the construction team, installing seven hundred meters of deflection boards was child’s play.

Once the boards were up and the rice fields watered, they left the cave and circled up to the top. They started clearing snow from above the fissure—if too much melted all at once, it could drag rocks down, smashing up the barriers they’d just built.

They worked through the whole day.

By four thirty that afternoon, Xia Qing, Qi Fu and Shi Du headed down and regrouped with Zhao Ze and the others, hurrying back to the Safe Zone together. Tang Huai trudged along behind Xia Qing, drained and dragging his feet.