Chapter 798: Clearing Bamboo and Breaking Limits

Watching the bamboo whip twitch on the ground after Wen Nengjie sliced through it, Zhao Ze stared in disbelief. “Jie, did you evolve your strength too?!”

Wen Nengjie, still wearing his protective mask, gave a wry smile. “I wish I was that lucky. I’ve just chopped enough things to know how to put my weight into it.”

Before the disaster, Wen Nengjie ran a slaughterhouse. Butchering pigs and splitting meat was routine. After the cataclysm he and his brothers handled body collection and cremation, fighting for every job. The bamboo whips in Section Three had evolved to be tougher, but to Wen Nengjie, they still weren’t as hard as human bones. If he put his strength in the right place, he could split them open.

So thin ones he could hack through—but what about the thicker ones?

Feeling a surge of confidence, Wen Nengjie gripped his knife and stepped forward. When a thicker bamboo whip lashed out, he swung with precision and cut it clean through.

Zhao Ze’s eyes went even wider. There was no way Wen Nengjie was telling the truth—he must have evolved his strength!

Zhang Hongda, who’d been monitoring every move, whispered to Zhao Ze, “After Blue Star’s Great Evolution, humans did improve. Most soldiers protecting the country, bases, and civilians are just trained regular folks. With enough practice, courage, and a good tool, any young adult—man or woman—can chop through these tough bamboo whips.”

Zhao Ze finally snapped his mouth shut, clutching his knife tighter.

Was he young and strong? Of course he was. He was only thirty-nine and in perfect shape.

Did he have the right tool? Absolutely. His steel blade was crafted by Huo Lei himself.

The last question: Could he conquer his fear? Fired up by Wen Nengjie and Zhang Hongda, Zhao Ze grabbed his knife with both hands and charged. Zhang Hongda watched him closely, ready to jump in if things went wrong.

After slicing through a bamboo whip on his third try, Zhao Ze leaned on his knife, gasping for air. The noise of bamboo cracking and teammates chopping faded away—all he could hear was his own breath. All he saw was the shivering, meter-long segment he’d finally brought down.

As the piece of bamboo slowly lost its vitality, the needle-sharp root hairs bristling from its surface went limp. A rush of unnameable emotions surged up from deep inside. Zhao Ze straightened, gripped his blade, and let out a roar as he rushed forward again.

“Ahhh—!”

His shout startled Tang Huai next to him, making him jump. Tang Huai snapped, “You think yelling chops bamboo, or is it the knife? Quit howling—you scared the hell outta me!”

Tang Heng, another regular guy, understood why Zhao Ze was so wound up. That rush—he’d felt it himself in the first year after the disaster, when his father pushed him to fight through fear.

In terms of stamina and speed, ordinary people weren’t always weaker than second- or third-level evolved fighters. It all came down to grit.

Even Kuang Qingwei, now forty-five, snuck a glance at Zhao Ze before nervously trailing his wife, blade in hand, determined to guard her from flying bamboo whips.

Half an hour later, Xia Qing called out, “Alright, fall back and take a fifteen-minute break.”

Everyone retreated from the bamboo field in an instant. After half an hour’s grind, only Yu Shou, Shi Du, and the Qi couple had actually felled any bamboo, but spirits were still high. Even Zhu Li and Tan Qi had managed to chop through at least one bamboo root each.

Kuang Qingwei was pumped too—not because of his own tiny victory, but because his wife had chopped down more roots than Zhao Ze. That meant her fitness had improved, maybe even stronger than most grown men!

Xia Qing started giving personalized feedback. “Yu Shou, you still need to work on judging distance by sound. Uncle Huo, your footwork’s off—if something goes wrong, you won’t retreat fast enough…”

After pointing out their mistakes and demonstrating proper technique herself, break time was over. Everyone jumped back in, eager to fix their errors and keep chopping.

After a long morning of hard work, Xia Qing finally grabbed her own knife, stepped up, and brought down the last seventy-two hard-evolved red-leaf bamboo from Section Three, hauling them all to the hillside below.

All told, they’d harvested two hundred ninety-four segments of hardness-evolved bamboo roots from the attack-evolved bamboo planted in Section Three.

Looking at the massive pile Xia Qing left beneath the hillside, stacked under the rain cover for natural drying, Qi Fu and his wife—who had taken home one hundred six pieces themselves—were full of envy. They weren’t alone—everyone else stared with longing too.

Wen Nengjie approached Xia Qing. “Sister Qing, these attack-evolved bamboo aren’t that dangerous. I’d like to plant a patch in my territory to harvest a few batches for building a greenhouse. Is that okay?”

Only Tang Huai was off searching for Old Goat. Everyone else set their eyes on Xia Qing, desire written all over their faces. Real farmers couldn’t resist this kind of premium building material.

Xia Qing nodded. “I’ve already planted a lot of bamboo on both peaks of Hill Fifty, and during the second round of Devastation Rain, we didn’t even harvest a single stalk. They’re still in their first evolution. You can team up to chop some, or dig up roots to plant in your own territories. Each territory can cut up to forty bamboo stalks, each one costs ten credits. Take as many roots as you want to plant—roots are free.”

Just as everyone’s faces lit up, Xia Qing’s tone hardened. “But remember, these are attack plants. Any danger during harvesting or planting is your own responsibility. Think carefully before you act. I recommend against planting a large patch in your territory—it’s just not worth the risk.”

Wen Nengjie looked truly grateful. “Thanks, Sister Qing. You’re just looking out for us. I’ll only take forty stalks and plant a small plot.”

Kuang Qingwei immediately chimed in, “Xia Qing’s right. Good as they are, there’s danger. Everyone needs to think it through.”

Tang Heng was more thorough. “Shouldn’t we check out the patch first and divide up areas between the territories so there’s no squabbling later?”

“Agreed, that’s how it should be.” Huo Lei glanced at Xia Qing.

Xia Qing nodded. “Anyone wanting bamboo, sign up with Qi. Then pick three people to go survey and divide the area.”

As for who the three were or when they’d go, Xia Qing didn’t get involved—she had plenty on her plate. With daylight left, she hurried to Territory Nine to check on land development and cleanup.

Yue Haiying’s team worked with amazing speed. In just four days, the Ninth Planting Center had recruited forty-six staff and officially started operations.

The Ninth Planting Center was now divided into four sectors: planting, offices, dorms, and warehouse. Right now, they were cleaning up the dorm and office areas.

Just yesterday, when Xia Qing visited, the dorm area was still full of broken walls. Now, over two acres were cleared. Usable building materials were stacked neatly in one area, unusable debris in another. Tomorrow, they could start digging foundations.

Even though the day was nearly done, everyone was still working at full energy. From a distance, Xia Qing could feel their drive radiating across the site.

Whenever there’s hope, people push harder.

Xia Qing didn’t approach. Instead, she turned and walked to the office.

“Sister Qing.”

Noticing Xia Qing enter, the office director Yan Yue, sitting in her wheelchair, grabbed her crutches as if to rise. Yan Yue had once been the deputy director of a logistics division in a military unit. She lost both legs in an earthquake and, after retiring, worked as a warehouse manager at the Safe Zone’s outer city hospital—until Yue Haiying poached her for this job.

Xia Qing waved her off. “No need for formality, Sister Yue. Sit—let’s not stand on ceremony anymore.”

Yan Yue realized she’d reacted out of habit. She smiled, remembering this wasn’t the hospital anymore, and Xia Qing wasn’t some overbearing department head. Then she reported, “Minister Zhao from the Planting Division rejected our materials application for the staff dorm and canteen, saying the planting center’s infrastructure doesn’t officially include those, so he has no authority to allocate funds.”

In the Safe Zone, the planting centers didn’t need those facilities—but did they really think that didn’t apply out here? The Planting Division had to know the truth.

Without dorms, could all forty-plus Ninth Center staff keep squatting in Territories Two and Six forever?

Without a canteen, how were they supposed to eat? Survive off ration bars and hot water every day?

And even if they wanted to do that, what hot water? There wasn’t even a water purifier in Territory Nine—should they drink unfiltered river water?

Zhao Baolin resented that while the Ninth Planting Center was technically under his division, he had no real control over it, couldn’t install his own people, and now didn’t want to pay either.

Xia Qing calmly instructed, “If Minister Zhao won’t approve it, Sister Yue, call the Base Director’s office directly and ask for help.”

This was their direct authority: anything urgent the Planting Division couldn’t solve, the Ninth Planting Center could go straight to the Base Director’s hotline!