Chapter 630: Rain of Red: The Poisonous Secret of the Evolved Forest

“What kind of toxic gas is it?”

Xia Qing pressed the air toxin detector on her arm, watching the screen for a few seconds before deciding to just read out the letters and numbers to her idol. “The dial says it contains C11H26NO2PS at a concentration of 2‰, along with trace amounts of CHS and two radioactive elements, Pu and T—so, plutonium and tritium.”

She didn’t have a broad knowledge base; honestly, she only recognized the last two.

After the disaster, radioactive elements became commonplace. Zhang San jotted down the strings of letters and numbers Xia Qing recited, a rare smile tugging at his lips. “Which adsorbent are you using?”

Xia Qing answered right away, “Type B—the orange one.”

The air toxin adsorbent produced by Territory Seven was designed to work with the detector. There were sixteen types in total, distinguished by color and toxin level. To prevent any mix-ups in emergencies, the color shown on the detector matched the corresponding box of adsorbent.

“Alright. Once the red Devastation Rain stops, start by dealing with the runoff that flowed into the ponds. Leave that patch of red Devastation Grass alone. With the Yi Stone protecting it, things shouldn’t get any worse. I need seeds from that grass; it might help repair soil polluted by inorganic contaminants. After the rain stops, let Second Respondent and the others handle the wastewater, and bring back samples of the blooming soil and the grass.”

As he finished, Zhang San couldn’t help adding a warning. “That’s UX gas. If you inhale it, it’ll cause chaos in your central nervous system. Make sure you’re fully protected.”

“Don’t worry, Third Brother. I’m wearing the highest-grade special protective suit.”

Who would’ve thought this red Devastation Grass actually had a positive side? After hanging up, Xia Qing felt the tension in her body ease a little, soothed by her idol’s calm advice.

She swapped in a fresh filter she brought from Territory Seven, picked up her umbrella, and noticed Yue Haiying and Second Respondent looking her way. Xia Qing explained, “I’m not going far, just standing at the entrance for a look around. I’ve never seen the Evolved Forest up close during a red-level Devastation Rain.”

Both of them laughed when they heard her reason. Second Respondent, who’d had little interaction with Xia Qing before, found her far more interesting than the cool, quiet Section Three Lord he knew from the walkie-talkie.

Xia Qing pushed open the iron gate of the Bear Cave, stepped out, and closed it behind her. She stood under her umbrella at the entrance, silently observing the Evolved Forest drenched by the red-level Devastation Rain.

Unlike the repeatedly cleared buffer woods within the territory, this place—aside from the burned High-Risk Area—was still thickly covered in vegetation.

By rainfall standards, this was somewhere between light and moderate rain. The sheets of water didn’t block Xia Qing’s view, though the steady hiss of rain dampened her hearing. Still, her Magnetic Sense was unaffected.

Xia Qing dialed up her magnetic sense, hearing, and vision, trying to catch every transformation happening within the Evolved Forest during the Devastation Rain.

Her gaze quickly locked onto a patch of moss beneath a large tree. She wasn’t sure exactly which one, but somewhere there, a plant was undergoing aggressive Devastation Evolution. Soon, Xia Qing picked up a second plant. Then a third.

Surprisingly, the magnetic field strength of these tiny mosses was no less than that of the purple-leafed viperwort back in Section Three. What kind of overpowered mutation was this?

Then, Xia Qing caught the faint sound of something—like the soft pop of a rubber bottle cap being pulled off.

It was a plant stretching as it grew. With her eyes and magnetic sense, Xia Qing quickly pinpointed the source: a grayish-green plant, its magnetic field fluctuations screaming imminent aggressive Devastation Evolution.

Under a protruding rock, clusters of mushrooms poked out from the loose soil. Their caps were pink, almost glowing amid the drab ground.

Xia Qing watched as the stems of the pink mushrooms slowly stretched upward in the Devastation Rain. When they reached about fifteen or sixteen centimeters tall, their pink caps gently lowered delicate, white, web-like skirts. From a distance, the patch looked like a bunch of little spirits in fancy dresses dancing in the rain.

But she had no intention of taking a picture, much less picking one. These things were deadly—the spores and toxins released by these fungi had made countless people sick or dead in the first few years after the calamity.

If she weren’t donning a special protective suit, Xia Qing would’ve turned and run the moment the mushrooms dropped their skirts.

Standing at the Bear Cave entrance, Xia Qing couldn’t help thinking of Shi Jiayi, who’d survived without a suit or mask. Lasting in the Hidden Valley until year seven of the disaster—it was astonishing how tough she’d been.

Her death was a true tragedy.

It wasn’t long before a few brilliantly colored insects chewed holes in the pretty pink caps, tearing up the mushroom skirts too.

Suddenly, a long tongue shot out, snatching a blue-winged bug from one of the caps and delivering it into the mouth of a frog hidden somewhere Xia Qing couldn’t see.

Where there are frogs, there will be snakes—and where there are snakes, even their predators show up. Still, none of them posed any threat to Xia Qing.

Xia Qing lifted her gaze to the distant treeline, relying on both her magnetic sense and sight to track the odd changes in the plants.

The red-level Devastation Rain lasted a full forty-five minutes before finally stopping. Xia Qing carefully lifted a corner of the rain cover over the High-Risk Area halfway up the slope, slipped the toxin detector in for a few seconds, and pulled it out to check.

Second Respondent leaned in. “Type B toxin concentration is at 3‰. That’s not a low amount.”

“Let me handle this. You and Brother Yue should go scatter pesticides in the two ponds.” After they left, Xia Qing ducked into the makeshift rain shelter, quickly dug up a few thigh-high blooming Devastation Grass plants plus some soil samples, packed them up, and sealed them tightly. She then checked the growth inside with her flashlight, making sure all the red Devastation Grass was still within the effective protection range of the Yi Stone. Finally, she exited the shelter and sealed the entry for good.

After double-checking two sections of the High-Risk Area and gathering more soil and grass samples, Xia Qing hopped on her personal flight equipment and made for Territory Seven. Second Respondent stayed behind in the Bear Cave, ready to use the drone to spray pesticides if needed.

It was only four-thirty in the afternoon, yet the sky was nearly pitch black. Flying back over the territory edge, Xia Qing could see people in every territory out with their flashlights on patrol—even in Territory Nine, beams of light darted around nonstop.

Xia Qing landed at the entrance to Territory Seven. After being inspected and thoroughly disinfected by Ji Li, she passed the samples to Yan Long—both of them armored and masked—who took her to see Zhang San, also fully geared up.

Zhang San took the samples, just about to send Xia Qing back to Section Three for some rest when Kuang Qingwei’s voice crackled in over the walkie-talkie. “Captain Tan, there’s an aggressive Devastation Evolution wild tung tree in Section Six. We need backup.”

Zhang San turned to Xia Qing. “Tan Junjie and the others went to Territory Nine. Want to swing by Section Six and handle the wild tung tree on your way back?”

“Sure. Just let Third Brother and Qing know.” Xia Qing had no time to pull out her walkie-talkie or ask about what happened in Territory Nine. She dashed off toward Section Six on the west side of Territory Seven.

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