Chapter 72: Red-Level Xiang Rain and the Farm Inspection

Red-level Xiang Rain carries an overwhelming amount of Xiang element. Ordinary people with low resistance are prone to losing control emotionally—some hurt themselves, others unleash terrifying destruction and aggression.

The reason their destructive power surges is because people who lose control can’t feel pain or fear. The out-of-control worker in Plot Six falls squarely into this category.

Xia Qing realized the dangers in Plot Six weren’t limited to that worker—even Lord Kuang Qingwei was showing signs of losing control.

Just as Xia Qing was about to warn Kuang Qingwei, Captain Tan Junjie’s calm voice echoed in the lord’s channel for the first time: “Kuang Qingwei, Lord of Plot Six, control your emotions immediately. If you don’t, everyone in your territory will lose control one after another. All your farmland will be ruined, and three months of work will go up in smoke.”

Kuang Qingwei’s cursing stopped on the spot. After a few ragged breaths, he calmed himself and thanked Tan Junjie. “Thank you for the reminder, Captain Tan.”

Seeing Kuang Qingwei calm down, Tan Junjie continued, “All lords, pay attention—the current Xiang Rain level is red. If any creatures in your territory show signs of hazardous Xiang evolution, contact the Inspection Team at once. The team will arrive within ten minutes of being notified. Until then, prioritize everyone’s safety.”

The first lord and his workers in Plot One were all wiped out by hazardous Xiang-evolved caterpillars during the first red-level Xiang Rain.

Xia Qing took a moment to pet Boss Sheep, only setting out once it was calm again. “I’m just going to check the shelter, I’ll be right back. Boss, guard the house for us.”

Xia Qing had planned to rename this little glutton—barely a year or two old—as Second Sheep, but it already responded to “Boss.” Call it ‘Second’ and it completely ignored Xia Qing, so she had no choice but to let it keep the title.

Turns out, you can be young and still be the boss. Just look at the Azure Dragon Unit—youngest of the trio, Yang Jin, runs the show there.

Boss Sheep stood up too, clearly wanting to tag along.

Xia Qing caught a hint of unease in Boss Sheep’s rectangular pupils. She guessed it was because Kuang Qingwei’s angry voice reminded it of the time it lost control in the last Xiang Rain. Patiently, she soothed its wool until she absolutely had to go check the fields.

But Boss Sheep insisted on following.

This stubborn thing throws a fit and tears apart the house or rips up the rainproof shelter if you leave it behind. Xia Qing gave in, pulling out a protective suit and mask designed for dogs and putting them on the sheep. “Fine, you can come—but don’t step on any seedlings. Or I’ll start boiling water to turn you into hotpot.”

Boss Sheep’s protective mask also had a breathing filter. Its mouth was sealed, so it couldn’t eat seedlings, but those powerful hooves and horns were still perfectly usable.

Eighteen ways to cook mutton—Xia Qing had been planning them for quite some time.

She put on her best smile and praised Boss Sheep for how cool and tough it looked in the protective gear, then led it out toward the fields.

Once inside the cotton shelter, Xia Qing called out loudly to Boss Sheep. “No trampling the seedlings!”

“Maa!” Boss Sheep bellowed.

Xia Qing’s ears buzzed from the noise before she remembered—the voice transmitters in both her mask and Boss Sheep’s were linked by walkie-talkie. There was no need to shout.

Boss Sheep had been putting up with her along the way. That was more than enough to call it a friend.

Xia Qing softened her tone, apologizing, “Sorry, Boss. I’ll remember next time. Don’t shake your head and knock off the mask—the Xiang-evolved plants could release poison gas. If you’re poisoned, you won’t get to eat your favorite rations or alfalfa.”

With that, she stuffed a small piece of compressed ration into Boss Sheep’s protective suit pocket, whispering, “You stay here while I get to work.”

Two cotton plants in the shelter had already undergone rapid Xiang evolution. If Xia Qing had shown up half an hour later, those two would have burst through the roof.

She dug out the Xiang-evolved cotton, dumped them in a basket, and moved on—one human, one sheep—checking on the wheat and mung bean shelters.

These two types of Xiang-evolved plants were useless. She pulled them out on the spot and stuffed them in her basket to be destroyed later. Comparing the plots, Xia Qing found that fields irrigated with Spring Water had a much lower rate of Xiang evolution than those irrigated with filtered water.

So next time she sowed, except for a small amount set aside for trading, she planned to soak all her seeds in Spring Water. Whatever crops she couldn’t eat, she could still trade with the Azure Dragon Unit.

The lower the Xiang element in the crops, the higher the price. She still owed the Azure Dragon Unit 800,000 credits, after all.

In the sweet potato, potato, and pumpkin shelters, she found three yellow-light potatoes that had undergone Xiang evolution, blooming with potato flowers. Xia Qing could tell just by glancing at their trembling stalks that these three had taken on animal traits.

For potato seeds distributed by the Safe Zone to evolve into animal traits this fast—something was definitely off.

These three Xiang-evolved potatoes couldn’t be handled like the others. Xia Qing took out a large, extra-thick vacuum bag from her pack, covered the shivering potato stalks—roots and all—and sealed them with her vacuum packaging machine before shoving the whole thing in her bag, halting any further evolution.

Suspecting the potato flowers were poisonous, Xia Qing pulled out a portable toxin detector traded from Zhang San. Sure enough, the device showed that the air contained a type C toxic gas, which could irritate the eyes and respiratory mucous membranes of animals.

Toxic gases are ranked from A to D, with A the most dangerous and D the least. Type C isn’t the worst, but it’s nothing to ignore.

Still, Xia Qing felt relieved. At least this was just an eye-and-throat irritant, better than suffocating gases that rob plants and animals of oxygen.

While this gas couldn’t penetrate the protective suits she and Boss Sheep wore, and wouldn’t harm crops, she still pulled a palm-sized box from her bag, peeled back the seal and hung it from the shelter’s support beam.

This was a C and D-grade gas absorbent she got from Zhang San. The material inside quickly sapped up toxins, helping purify the air.

She needed to keep the air clean because plants undergoing normal Xiang evolution were extremely fragile—any change in air composition might drive them into wild Xiang evolution too.

A little further on, Xia Qing spotted two Green-light Sweet Potato seedlings with vines twice as long as normal. Her heart ached as she uprooted them while muttering to herself.

If she hadn’t pruned them and messed up their elemental balance, these two sweet potatoes could have survived even the red-level Xiang Rain—maybe dropping from green to yellow-light, but at least they wouldn’t have mutated.

With her luck, the last fourteen sweet potatoes probably all downgraded to yellow-light too. That was a huge loss!

Xia Qing took a few deep breaths to calm her rising frustration and moved on to check the yellowlight pumpkins.

If she hadn’t straightened the pumpkin vines in advance and stuck wooden stakes to mark the growing tips, she would have missed spotting that two pumpkins had undergone Xiang evolution.

When she tried to prod the pumpkin vines with her shovel to check on their mutation, Boss Sheep butted her aside with its head and plopped down onto the bare patch beside her.

“Baa.”

Boss Sheep’s warning call came through the walkie-talkie, sharp and unmistakable.