Chapter 626: When the Storm Passes, the Fields Breathe Again

Before long, hailstones pelted the entrance of the Bear Cave, turning the ground a dirty yellow. Xia Qing quickly dialed Yue Haiying. “Brother Yue, how’s it looking on your end? I’m seeing hail out here.”

Yue Haiying, who was patrolling in the valley, replied, “The wind’s strong. The hail is coming down at an angle, so it’s not hitting the iron mesh covering the fissure directly. No problems for now.”

If it wasn’t hitting the iron mesh, that meant the hail was just striking the stone walls on either side of the fissure, diffusing the impact and posing no threat to the mesh.

“We got lucky this time,” Xia Qing reminded him. “Brother Yue, watch out for any danger. If anything comes up, let me know right away—people come first, the seedlings can wait.”

You can always grow new crops, but you can’t risk people’s lives.

“Got it.”

Waiting for the disaster to strike made every minute drag. Xia Qing huddled close with her two companions, trying her best to stay calm.

The wind eased up a little. That was a good sign.

Ten minutes later, Kuang Qingwei’s excited shout came through the lords’ channel. “It’s starting to sleet!”

Freezing rain?

Xia Qing stepped out of the little house, caught a piece of sleet with the devastation element detector, checked the readings, then breathed a sigh of relief. She pressed the walkie-talkie on her shoulder. “Yellow-level freezing rain. The wind’s died down, hail shouldn’t reach our area now.”

Hu Zifeng chimed in. “Looks that way. Xia Qing, do you need more people over there?”

“Not at the moment. Thanks, Brother Feng.”

After running around getting everything ready, then anxiously waiting out the hail, Tang Huai barely had time to feel relieved before Xia Qing and Hu Zifeng stuffed a mouthful of puppy love right in his face. He felt both frustrated and helpless.

And if he had to suffer, so should everyone else!

But just as Tang Huai moved to push the button, Shizhong’s cheerful voice took over the lords’ channel. “We’ve got mountains on the east, west, and north. The clouds blowing in from those directions can’t cause any real trouble—this place is a treasure!”

Tang Huai snorted. “Yeah, and if it weren’t for those mountains trapping the clouds, we wouldn’t have hail in the first place! Treasure, my foot!”

Honestly, if the mountains weren’t blocking the clouds, the wind probably would’ve torn the greenhouses apart already. But nobody felt like arguing with Tang Huai.

Wen Nengjie spoke up. “You’ve got a point, Brother Huai. Brother Qi, do we need to light fires in the greenhouses? Mine’s already dropped to zero degrees.”

Qi Fu wasn’t sure. “Captain Hu, how long do you think this sleet will last?”

Hu Zifeng checked with the meteorologists and answered, “About half an hour.”

With that answer, Qi Fu replied to Wen Nengjie, “Let’s wait half an hour. If the temperature drops below minus five, we’ll need to keep things warm.”

Wen Nengjie breathed a sigh of relief. “Good thing we handed the rice seeds from Fire Phoenix over to the territory management for sprouting. If this freezing rain keeps up, any seedlings left in the greenhouses would be dead, or at least badly damaged.”

Yellow-level freezing rain brings a rapid drop in temperature and a surge of devastation element. For those evolution rice seedlings that need precise temperature and humidity, their quality will definitely drop. The devastation evolution rate will soar.

“Seedlings at this stage just can’t take a beating,” Kuang Qingwei added, then changed the subject. “Keep an eye on the rapeseed in the greenhouses—watch out for any signs of aggressive devastation evolution.”

Aggressive devastation evolution is the biggest threat plants pose to humans during devastation rain, when they absorb too much devastation element. But for Xia Qing, that threat was much less now—she could use her magnetic sense to spot and remove plants about to undergo aggressive evolution before anything dangerous happened.

This power was practically made for a farmer!

With her enhanced magnetic sense, Xia Qing checked over all three crop greenhouses and the planting greenhouse. Once she was sure everything was safe, she lifted the curtain and called her companions. “Old Goat, Er, we’re good now! No more hail coming. Let’s head to the greenhouse.”

Er Gou made a beeline for his fish as soon as he got inside. Old Goat, meanwhile, had his eyes glued to the iron umbrella in Xia Qing’s hand.

Xia Qing grinned. “You like this, Old Goat? It’s not that great, but, how about I make you one that covers your whole body when I have time?”

Twenty minutes later, the sleet turned to devastation rain and the temperature started to rise. The ice covering the straw curtain on the greenhouse roof began to melt. Forty minutes after that, the sound of running water came from outside as things warmed up.

Meanwhile, in the danger zone of Hill Fifty—far from prying eyes and hidden from cameras—a thick layer of hail covered the soil as countless seeds of devastation grass began to rapidly take root.

Back in Section Three, Xia Qing made sure the hail threat had completely passed. She got up to go out and check the fields—only to be blocked by Old Goat.

Old Goat lifted his head high, hinting for Xia Qing to take off his protective mask—he was ready to eat.

With the Yi Stone around Old Goat’s neck, he didn’t need the mask as long as he stayed in the greenhouse. Xia Qing took it off for him, then turned to Er Gou. “Want yours off too, Er?”

But Er Gou didn’t come over. Instead, he walked toward the exit. Xia Qing got the message. “You’re heading home to check on the weasel family? I’ll take you back.”

Even with his protective mask and snakeskin suit, Er Gou’s tail still stuck out—and getting it soaked wouldn’t be pleasant.

So Xia Qing hoisted Er Gou onto her back, popped open the iron umbrella, and stepped out into the devastation rain. Guan Tong watched from the lounge, a little envious.

Xia Qing pulled back the rain cover over the sheep shed, pushed open the door, and saw the Balding Weasel poking his soaked little head up from the straw pile.

“Hey, now that you’re back, Balding, stay inside. It’s dangerous out there.” Xia Qing set Er Gou inside, then opened the snake box to fish around for a snake.

Wearing snakeskin gloves with top-grade hardness evolution, Xia Qing wasn’t worried about bites. But she didn’t expect to pull out that same bright green little snake again!

Staring at the snake’s fiery red eyes as she stood there with her iron umbrella, Xia Qing frowned. Something was off. This little snake was all wrong.

It didn’t feel like the dangerous evolution she sensed in aggressive plants, nor was it the same as the Toon Tree. To be safe, Xia Qing ought to squish the snake right now, but she put it back in the box.

After all, no matter how fierce a little snake gets, it can’t cause too much trouble. Xia Qing decided to keep raising it, curious about what it might become.

She fished out another yellow lantern snake weighing over three pounds, closed up the snake box tight, then opened the sheep shed door again. Flattening the snake’s head, she tossed it into the food bowl. “Balding, White Weasel, here’s your meal for today. Remember to help me look for medicinal herbs after you eat.”

After Xia Qing closed the sheep shed door and left, White Weasel clambered down from the straw pile, devouring the meal with his head down. A faint glimmer of the Yi Stone necklace could be seen around his neck.

The yellow lantern wheat and rapeseed in the greenhouse were safe under Chen Zheng’s watch, and the green lantern wheat was protected by the Yi Stone. With nothing else to worry about, Xia Qing headed for the greenhouse and found Old Goat sprawled inside, contentedly chewing the cud and listening to the rain.

With a smile, Xia Qing left the greenhouse and made her way to the western buffer forest.

Devastation rain season was the perfect chance to practice using magnetic sense. Dressed in her protective suit and shielded by the iron umbrella, Xia Qing stood beneath the forest canopy, calmly focusing on the changes in the plants as the rain fell.

The temperature had already started to rise. Devastation grass seeds were sprouting at a rate you could almost see, but Xia Qing couldn’t sense their magnetic fields.

They were simply too faint.

Walking from the western to the northern buffer forest, Xia Qing casually split open some unidentified critter that had leapt up from the reservoir to attack her—her eyes settled on a patch of bushes in the north.

Though it hadn’t begun yet, the magnetic field around those little barberries was shifting fast enough to set Xia Qing on edge.