Chapter 764: The Coming Storm

“Wind’s picking up!” Huo Lei shouted from inside the cabin, slamming the talkie’s button. “It’s coming from the north, damn it—north wind!”

Once the wind started, the thunderclouds would blow away, making this territory safe for now. But those same clouds would be pushed south toward Section Three, Section Two of the North, and even the Hui Three Safe Zone. With the Devastation Element in the air spiking, those areas could get hit by a Devastation Explosion any moment.

“Let’s hope this huge thundercloud breaks apart in the wind,” responded Shizhong, Lord of Territory Ten.

The north wind wouldn’t do much damage here since Hill Forty-Nine and Hill Fifty stood between them and the worst of the storm, acting as natural shields.

After twenty-five minutes of thunder and lightning, the savage thunderclouds were finally pushed off toward Section Three in the north. The lords didn’t have the luxury to worry about others—they scrambled out of their shelters to survey the damage to their own lands.

“Territory Seven, get ready for the wind!” Tan Junjie called out on the Lords’ channel.

Territory Seven sat west of the valley opening between Hill Forty-Nine and Hill Fifty. Since the wind was coming from the northwest, out of the first ten territories, Territory Seven would take the hardest hit.

Ji Li, the acting lord of Territory Seven, replied calmly, “Territory Seven is fully prepared for the wind.”

As members of the Lords’ Alliance crawled out from under tables and from their basements to check the losses from the storm, their biggest worry wasn’t Territory Seven, but Territory Fifteen.

That was because both Territory Fifteen and Territory Eighteen were right in the wind’s path! The greenhouses on their land weren’t made of steel and iron but slapped together with bamboo and wood—crude and fragile.

“Yingzi!”

Jiang Ying’s mother, listening to the talkie, saw her daughter suddenly stand and head for the door. She rushed over and grabbed her arm. “Where are you going? You want to get yourself killed?!”

Jiang Ying stared at the trees shaking outside. “Mom, the thunderstorm’s ended and now the wind’s picking up. I have to get over to the greenhouses and meet up with everyone.”

Her mother clung to her protective suit, refusing to let go. “What do you think you’re doing?! It’s not even time for the second work crew yet!”

Jiang Ying, now assigned to the second group, explained, “We’ve got twenty minutes till our shift, and the wind’s only just started. In twenty minutes, it’ll be a lot worse. It’s safer if I head out now than later.”

Her mother, seeing the logic, caved. “Wait for me—I’ll come with you.”

“You can’t, Mom. Your protective suit isn’t the right grade, and you’re not even in the work groups.” The wind was already howling outside, and Jiang Ying sounded anxious as she tried to soothe her mother. “Uncle Yue told me to stick with Dazhi—he’s the best fighter in Territory Fifteen. I’ll be fine. Please make me some porridge for when I get back. As soon as I finish the shift, I need to eat, then sleep. I’ve got another round in just a few hours.”

Unable to stop her, Jiang Ying’s mother’s voice trembled. “Yingzi, aren’t you scared?”

No one knew better than her mother just how timid her daughter really was.

Jiang Ying was scared, of course. But “Scared or not, this is the job I signed up for here.”

“In weather like this, you shouldn’t be out there. The others are mostly evolved fighters or men—”

“Mom, Teacher Wang from Territory Four, several hired hands from Territory Five, even Zhu Li from Territory Six—they’re all women, all just regular folk, too.”

Her mother watched helplessly as her daughter dashed out of the yard. The wind slammed in carrying Devastation Rain and a heavy dampness, rattling the plastic bags her mother had brought. Tears streamed down her cheeks.

Her son had died here already, and now her daughter was running out there too. She regretted ever letting Yingzi come to work in this place.

“The rain cover over the fish pond is about to blow off! Xiao Jiang, Er Yong—you’re closest, get over there quick and block the wind from getting in!”

Liangzi, a Level Five Vision Evolutionary, watched the surveillance screens and spotted trouble at the fish pond. He immediately sent people to handle the emergency.

“Copy.”

“Copy.”

“Sister Qing, about a hundred fifty meters ahead of you on the left—I think something aggressive just crawled up out of the ground.” The look of those attack-evolved wild tung trees was burned into Liangzi’s mind. His eyes scanned all eight screens at once. On one, the wind had tilted the Scourge Grass, revealing a young sapling—likely a wild tung tree.

“Got it, heading over to clear it out now.” Xia Qing stomped on the off-roader’s gas pedal, Old Goat in tow, and sped off.

When Xia Qing was five meters from the attacking wild tung tree, her Magnetic Sense locked onto the sapling hidden among the Scourge Grass. “Definitely a wild tung tree and under a meter tall. I’ll deal with it now.”

The sapling wasn’t even a meter tall, yet it radiated such a strong magnetic field. If it grew larger, it would be a menace.

Xia Qing told Old Goat to stay put in the car and, without even grabbing any tools, charged over and yanked out the little wild tung tree by the roots, soil and all. She packed it right into a bag to seal away the Devastation Element. Then she tossed the whole thing into the crate in the back of her truck.

After climbing in, Xia Qing pressed the talkie, reporting to Liangzi first. “Wild tung tree cleared.”

Then, she switched to a fresh walkie-talkie and called Tan Junjie. “Captain Tan, Territory Three just found the first attack-type Devastation-Evolved Wild Tung Tree here. It’s eighty centimeters tall—just started growing attack vines. A regular person can pull it out by hand. Already cleared.”

The channel she used was actually the internal frequency for the Inspection Team in Section One of the North. Technically, Xia Qing counted as a non-staff helper for the Team there.

“Copy that.” Tan Junjie replied in the Inspection Team’s channel. No sooner had Xia Qing heard his voice in the walkie on her right shoulder than she heard him again, but now from the lord communicator: “Please confirm that the walkies are working in Territories 1 to 10. Sound off when you get this.”

“Territory One responding.” Section One’s agent Yin Jie replied.

“Territory Two here. Tang Huai’s hearing got damaged in the thunderstorm, so communications will go through Acting Agent Liu Jing from now on.”

“Territory Three, roger that.”

……

All nine lords or their agents were online—even if some of their walkies crackled pretty badly, at least they still worked. Only then did Tan Junjie make the announcement: “Territory Three has just encountered the first attack-type Devastation-Evolved Wild Tung Tree. All territories are now ordered to conduct sweeps for wild tung tree saplings and clear them immediately. Territory Seven and Territory Nine saplings are your responsibility.”

“Understood,” Ji Li replied calmly.

No one was sure why Territory Seven would be handling Territory Nine’s wild tung trees, but the Shi family on Territory Nine’s eastern border let out a deep sigh of relief when they heard Ji Li’s answer.

Meanwhile, over on Territory Nine’s west side in Territory Two, Liu Jing yelled at Tang Huai, “Boss, it says here Seven’s gotta handle Nine’s saplings—”

Tang Huai’s ears were ringing so loud he shouted back even louder, “Are you deaf or just dumb? Told you I can’t hear—WRITE IT DOWN!”

Before the disaster, Liu Jing had only made it to the fourth grade. He grabbed a pen, scrawled out four big characters, then his hand cramped and he stopped.

How do you even write the character for ‘wild’?

If I just draw a circle they’ll blow their top even worse—guess I’ll go with pinyin…