Chapter 785: The Bamboo Harvest and the End of Devastation Rain

“Beep beep. Beep beep.”

At 3:30 in the morning, the alarm clock sounded right on time inside the two-story house of Section Three. A hand reached out, grabbed the phone, and pulled it back under the covers.

Half a minute later, Xia Qing poked her head out from beneath the blanket, her short hair in a wild mess. She stretched with a big yawn.

She’d slept well and felt totally recharged—ready to take on a mountain of bamboo!

After quickly getting dressed and washed up, Xia Qing skipped downstairs and greeted her companion. “Morning, Boss.”

“Baa.” Old Goat answered but didn’t sound thrilled.

“Just hang in there, Boss. Devastation Rain ends tomorrow morning. What do you want for breakfast today? How about some cucumber and corn mixed with Section Three feed? It’ll look good, smell better, and taste amazing!”

“Baa~~~”

“Alright then. Let’s chop the bamboo first, then I’ll grab some cucumbers from the greenhouse and make it for you.”

“Baa!” Old Goat perked up, bursting with energy.

Xia Qing downed a cup of warm Pure Spring Water, then helped her companion into a protective suit before putting on her own. One person and one goat set out on the rotary tiller, mowing down grass on the way and heading for the Western Buffer Forest.

Old Goat lifted its nose and sniffed the air, bleating in annoyance at a scent it disliked inside the vehicle.

Something smelled off? Xia Qing pretended not to notice, putting on a serious face. “This vehicle just makes cutting grass easier. We’ll switch cars once we reach the lounge.”

Hearing the sound of the rotary tiller, Guan Tong, Chen Zheng, and Chen Cheng left the lounge and hurried up to the bamboo fields along the Western Buffer Forest.

Guan Tong blinked at the red-leaved bamboo. “Is it just me, or is that bamboo getting darker in color?”

Chen Cheng yawned. “Maybe your vision’s evolving. You can see color in the middle of the night? Once we harvest a stalk, bring it down and compare. You’ll know for sure.”

Chen Zheng knew what Guan Tong was worried about.

It’s actually risky to keep chopping aggressive Devastation-Evolved plants during Devastation Rain. Limbs cut off mean all that nutrition and Devastation Element gets trapped in the roots, possibly pushing the plant to evolve again and become even more aggressive.

But in Section Three, this risk doesn’t matter much. “The soil’s shallow here, and this bamboo’s got shallow roots that run sideways instead of deep down. If anything goes wrong, we just yank up the bamboo roots and suppress them with a Yi Stone.”

“Right, I totally forgot!”

Guan Tong finally remembered—Xia Qing had generously used Yi Stones to block out Devastation Elements for all five greenhouses. With how cautious she is, she’s bound to have spare stones on hand.

With these rare minerals that counter Devastation Element so well, no matter how wild the bamboo gets in Section Three, it can’t really make any trouble.

Where did Xia Qing get her Yi Stones? Everyone in Hu Zifeng’s Squad had a good guess: Hui Three Base’s prized X-2 seed likely came from Section Three!

That realization left them all a little shaken. For a whole year, such rare, Evolution Element-packed crops had been growing right where anyone—and the ever-hungry Old Goat—could grab them!

“Boss, Sister Qing! You’re here!” Chen Cheng called out with enthusiasm as the Section Three leaders arrived.

Old Goat ignored him, but Xia Qing asked, “You all got a nap in, right?”

“We did, just woke up. Everything’s fine in the territory—don’t worry, Sister Qing.” Chen Cheng replied.

Xia Qing nodded and looked up at the red-leaved bamboo through her night vision goggles. “Feels like it’s a bit brighter than last time, maybe tougher too. I’ll test whether it’s gotten any more aggressive.”

She shot a steel pellet, neatly snapping a bamboo branch about as thick as her finger. Instantly, the roots of the plant lashed out—over fifteen centimeters long.

Guan Tong let out a breath. “So the roots are just longer. That’s fine.”

It really was fine.

Xia Qing reminded everyone, “Stick to the stone slabs on the way back and forth—don’t get jabbed in the foot. Boss, watch your hooves too.”

“Baa.”

Old Goat replied, trotting after Xia Qing as their hooves clacked against the stone path leading toward the bamboo grove.

Time for a round of rapid-fire chopping.

Forty minutes later, four people and one goat had harvested the third batch—43 stalks of Hardness-Evolved Bamboo.

Half an hour after that, Xia Qing gathered another 50 stalks for the fourth batch.

By five in the afternoon, after the fifth batch of 58 stalks, Xia Qing realized the bamboo was evolving again—the main roots were pulsing with energy, buried in the dirt but trembling all over, sending the entire field quaking.

If it kept up at this rate, by the sixth batch, the main roots would probably burst above ground, swinging like whips everywhere.

Whips of bamboo—each over a dozen meters long with rings of roots—dancing across the field. Definitely more dangerous than the Dancing Potato Vines!

To play it safe, Xia Qing decided not to cut any more. She’d already gathered 222 stalks—plenty to refit the entire skeleton of her greenhouse. No need to risk it.

As for the sixth batch, they’d wait until Devastation Rain stopped, and the Devastation Element in the air went back to normal. Then they’d chop it slowly.

With sixteen hours left until the end of the rain, and no plans for another batch, there was no need for more fertilizer. At the current growth rate, those bamboo stalks would definitely reach eighteen meters by the time the rain ended.

With the bamboo put on hold and both Section Three and Territory Nine under control, Xia Qing started taking on more of Tan Junjie’s dangerous cleanup missions that needed Evolved fighters.

No matter where the call came from—even all the way down in Territories 20 to 26 at the southern tip—Xia Qing went to help whenever dangerous outbreaks needed extra hands.

Need a sniper? I’m there!

Need someone with Strength Evolution? I’m there too!

Xia Qing wasn’t just being helpful—she was angling for Green Lantern Corn Seeds, hoping to sow them in her greenhouses once the winter wheat was harvested.

Inspired by her, Shi Du, Yu Shou, Zhang Hongda, and the rest all started hustling for seeds too.

The Inspection Team was stunned: Where do they get all that energy? Don’t they ever get tired?

The lords with their hands on the Nutrient Source just laughed: Tired? What’s that?

By eleven o’clock on the third day, the second bout of Devastation Rain of Year Eleven finally came to an end.

With the sun edging its way around thick clouds, the amount of Devastation Element in the air began to drop.

Once no more evolved crops crawled out of the greenhouse soil, and no more aggressive plants popped up, the exhausted farmers straight up collapsed and fell asleep on the spot.

The Inspection Team started tallying damages and reporting up to the Territory Management Department.

This fifty-three-hour disaster left the situation worst in Section One of the North around Hui Three, where the most complex dangers flared.

During this Devastation Rain, Section One ran their Devastation Snake emergency protocol and wiped out 458 aggressive plants.

But!

There were only 58 casualties in Section One.

Those two numbers together—even if they don’t shock the whole Huaguo, they’re bound to send ripples through all ten bases in Huicheng!