Chapter 758: Seeds of Resilience

Once back in the wood-scented house, the mother and daughter quickly shut all the doors and windows. Only then did they take off their protective masks and gloves, wash up, and settle at the clean dining table.

Zhang Shi handed her daughter a pair of chopsticks, his eyes gentle and encouraging.

Zhang Shiyi lifted her small head, looking at her mother in confusion.

Zhang Shi spoke softly. “Shiyi, it’s safe to talk here.”

Making any noise in the Evolved Forest was too dangerous. Shiyi, used to silence, struggled to open her mouth several times before finally managing a soft, tender call.

“Mama.”

Since May arrived, the days kept getting hotter, and the crops had shot up fast.

The soybean, mung bean and potato plants had reached thigh-height. Corn was growing fastest—the stalks already towered over Xia Qing.

Cotton bushes, now about a meter tall, had burst into pretty blooms. Rice and wheat were heading and flowering as well. The fields brimmed with hope and urgency.

Faced with these vigorous crops, the lords couldn’t help but worry how many would mutate or become aggressive in the coming second Devastation Rain—enough to slash their yields or wipe out harvests.

To fight off anxiety, everyone threw themselves into preparations. All the territories were busy lately.

Dressed in a cool new summer outfit, Xia Qing cut down the dried, leafless, pod-laden rapeseed plants. She sorted them onto three rain covers spread out inside the greenhouse to dry.

The largest rain cover held 204 Yellow Lantern Rapeseed plants—this kind could be pressed directly for oil. Xia Qing planned to keep these for herself, not for trade.

On the second rain cover were 55 Red Lantern Rapeseed plants. Their seeds had to go through Devastation reduction at the food factory before being made into food or oil, which would end up as low-nutrition food sold at bargain prices to folks in the Safe Zone.

The smallest cover held seven Yellow Lantern Rapeseed plants with 0.6% Devastation Element content—the rare optimizable seeds from this acre, kept for next year’s planting.

Over two hundred other stalks couldn’t be used for seeds—their Devastation Element had already gone past 1%.

After some quick math, Xia Qing realized a whole acre’s rapeseed couldn’t even pay back the fertilizer, pesticide, and fungicide she’d poured into the field. That’s not even counting the cost to build the greenhouse or the labor—hers and the sheep’s—since last winter.

Wheat planted to overwinter had also turned out a loss.

It all traced back to last winter—before the Devastation Snow, the Fire Phoenix Trapping Team set off poison gas bombs on Hill Fifty. This made the red-level Devastation Snow linger way too long across Section One up north, ruining more than half the crops in the fields.

With all the seedlings wiped out, what kind of harvest could anyone expect?

Even though the Blazing Fire Squad paid compensation to the lords with Yellow Lantern wheat seed, the sight of pitifully sparse fields still had the lords cursing Fire Phoenix behind closed doors.

Of course, in secret they cursed people by name—but in the Lords’ channel, it was all veiled insults. Fire Phoenix was Hui One’s top squad, not a group the lords wanted to offend.

Zhu Li grumbled a bit before asking, “Anyone else get optimizable rapeseed plants? I only found three here, with 0.65% Devastation Element. They’ve got 53 pods in total but not even enough seeds for half an acre.”

Despite the loss, the lords still decided to keep planting rapeseed.

First, the mutated rapeseed’s most aggressive side was just a few tiny thorns—way less dangerous than dancing potato vines. Second, this winter’s Devastation Snow shouldn’t be as bad as last year’s, so more rapeseed might survive and make it to next spring’s Devastation Rain and seed-setting safely.

Yuan Yan popped up online. “I’ve only got two here.”

Noticing the numbers were all two or three, Tang Huai asked Xia Qing, “What about you, Xia Qing? You planted half an acre more rapeseed than us—got a few extra?”

Xia Qing pressed the button. “I’ve got seven here, with Devastation Element around 0.6% as well.”

Wen Nengjie instantly appeared. “Seven stalks is enough for half an acre! With Sister Qing’s luck, you might even get a Green Lantern strain out of it. Zifeng, Heng, how are things on your end?”

Tang Heng logged in, voice warm. “About the same proportion as everyone else. Sixty-eight optimizable plants in total, six of which are Green Lantern.”

From Territory One, it wasn’t Hu Zifeng but Tang Zhou who spoke up. “We’re seeing similar rates here. Harvested 320, and 58 were Green Lantern.”

Territory One had sown fifty acres of rapeseed before last winter, Territory Twelve had ten acres. Both their ratios of optimizable plants were about the same as everyone else’s.

But still—those two had Green Lantern rapeseed among their optimized ones. That was a whole different story.

Kuang Qingwei quickly asked, “Heng, Tang Zhou, where did you get your rapeseed for last year’s sowing?”

This was big news. Everyone pricked up their ears.

Tang Heng stayed as mild as ever. “Some came from our base’s Planting Center, the rest from Hui Five. Hui Five’s Yellow Lantern rapeseed was actually better quality. The Green Lantern ones were grown from seeds bought from Hui Five.”

Tang Zhou added, “Same story for Territory One as Territory Twelve.”

Kuang Qingwei jotted it down at once. “Thanks, Heng, Tang Zhou. Looks like Hui Five’s premium rapeseed works just as well on our soil.”

Xia Qing nodded in agreement.

After farming for over a year, she’d learned that sowing premium seeds from other bases always gave different stability than the numbers from their home base.

For example, over at White San Base, their famed bS-6 Green Lantern rice did poorly in Xia Qing’s best fields, with Devastation Element skyrocketing. Red Eleven’s specialty, Y-3 Greenlight Corn, grew a bit better in Section Three, with more stable results than the bS-6.

Xia Qing reckoned it was because White San Base’s climate and soil were worlds apart from Hui Three Base’s—and the vast Evolved Forest separated them from the Red Eleven base, too, even if that gap was a bit smaller.

Yet Section Seven, just three kilometers from Section Three, had great luck with their own premium wheat (M-14) and rice (J-2) in Section Three—the crops flourished there.

Hui Five stood six hundred miles from Hui Three, but their climate was similar—no wonder their premium rapeseed grew so well here.

Qi Fu drew a matching conclusion. “From now on, let’s get seeds from Hui One and Hui Five first—our three bases are close together, same climate conditions.”

“Qi’s right,” Zhao Ze chimed in. “So even if we send our x-2 out to other bases, it might not yield much there after all.”

That was great news for the lords at Hui Three. If that held true, their x-2 High-Evolution Spinach wouldn’t flood the market and devalue.

Just as the conversation was about to heat up, a forceful woman’s voice came online.

“Tang Zhou, are you at Territory One?”

Tang Zhou instantly recognized the speaker. He tensed up, but answered honestly. “Yeah, I got back the day before yesterday.”

Tang Zhou loved tending fields, so whenever he finished his missions and got time off, he preferred his own territory to the Safe Zone.

Because he’d returned to stand watch, Hu Zifeng finally had a chance to go out on a mission.

Yan Long followed up. “Busy over there?”

In Section Three, Xia Qing quietly lit some incense for Tang Zhou.

Tang Zhou felt the pressure but couldn’t lie. “Not busy, Sister Yan. What do you need?”

“Good, I’m heading over right now.”

Tang Zhou… is it too late for me to run?

Xia Qing: If I sprint, can I still catch the action as a spectator?