Chapter 591: Chapter 18: The 100,000 Heaven-defying Value Mission
The sun in the sky shrank to a tiny white dot, emanating scorching heat.
Xiao Xian had not expected that in just two days, the cattail growing in the desert had shot up like crazy, truly embodying the saying that the spring breeze brings forth new life.
When the cattail had accepted Romeo’s job, the agreement was to cut the grass, not to eliminate it.
The cultivation of cattail in the North Campus was to prevent the expansion of desertification in Area C; its root system serves as excellent material for wind prevention and sand fixation.
Wind prevention and sand fixation is one thing, but it is not permissible for the grass to grow excessively wild. Hence the consistent practice in Area C towards cattail is to allow it to reach a certain height, yet not let it bloom and produce seed heads. In this regard, the grass-cutting Xiao Xian really had it tough.
Regarding the rapid growth of this cluster of grass, Romeo One’s explanation was that it had rained the night before last. For the desert of Area C, rain is a rare event; all animals and plants in the C Area desert use the rain to accumulate water and take root to grow and reproduce.
That rain, which was a blessing for the desert in Area C, greatly increased the difficulty of Xiao Xian’s task, requiring her to handle two to three times her usual workload.
The stingy Romeo One still refused to raise the price; it was the original price for work.
Fortunately, Xiao Xian still had the Spiritual Rhinoceros Scissors. She consoled herself, and after dealing with more than half of the cattail, Xiao Xian wiped her sweat, the sun burning white and bright in the sky, and she took out a cushion to sit on.
Stretching, rolling sand dunes everywhere emitted a dry sandy scent. Area C is the outermost part of the entire North Campus. Looking at the campus layout, it is also the largest area.
Yet it was puzzling how the designers of this bizarre campus space had considered it; such a vast area was being wasted.
The entire Area C, apart from ensuring domestic water supply, is said to have no other surface water source. Xiao Xian and Zhang Yiyi had also discussed this; apart from the central area of Area C where they often operated, what else could be in the vast desert of Area C?
Xiao Xian did not know the exact situation in Areas A and B, but seeing that students from Areas A and B rarely came to Area C, she imagined that the conditions over there must be much better than in Area C.
"Why can’t Area C be transformed into a green space?" Xiao Xian had noticed that nearby, in addition to the cattail, there were only some hardy lichen and cactus plants.
"Stop thinking too much, better to finish the work early, Yiyi must be waiting anxiously at home." Holding the black Spiritual Rhinoceros Scissors for quite a while under the big sun, absorbing heat and sweat, the temperature rose to sixty or seventy degrees. Had Xiao Xian not protected her hand with a layer of Silver Grade Spiritual Energy, she might have burned blisters on her hand by now.
Xiao Xian got up and noticed that the cut cattail behind her had already grown back a bit. Such growth speed gave Xiao Xian a déjà vu kind of illusion.
It was somewhat similar to the growth pattern of the Vincetoxicum fern. However, the Vincetoxicum fern’s own Spiritual Power was stronger, so its growth rate was much faster.
The original growth speed of the cattail wasn’t to the extent of inching up every second, but the rain from the night before made its growth all the more aggressive.
If the roots were dug up along with the grass, it would grow back at a rate of several centimeters per hour; by tomorrow, it would mean all the work done today was in vain.
"It looks like I’ll have to use the old methods," Xiao Xian thought about it, the method she originally used to handle the Vincetoxicum fern. While manipulating the Spiritual Rhinoceros Scissors, she generated new Spiritual Energy to curb the growth of the cattail.
This method might seem simple, but it is not easy to execute. First of all, the Vincetoxicum fern had a large individual target, and there was only one plant which made its root system and growth pattern easy to figure out. Within the area Xiao Xian was responsible for in the past few days, the cattail was innumerable, and the use of Spiritual Power required much more attention.
Fortunately, Xiao Xian had already repeatedly experimented with controlling Spiritual Power in the Special-level course, and by now she had quite the deft hand.
She chose a sand dune that protruded the highest and from the elevated view, due to the sheer number of cattail, Xiao Xian could only divide the area into four sections.
The Spiritual Rhinoceros Scissors flew up in her hands, the cattail, soaked with water, made "snap plop snap plop" crisp sounds as dozens of strands of Spiritual Energy were separated from the stems of the cattails.
Unlike the battle with the Vincetoxicum fern, the Spiritual Energy Xiao Xian employed was more carefully calculated and frugal; she rarely resorted to using the Spiritual Power of the space.
The Spiritual Power she used at the moment all came from the cattail itself.
The Spiritual Rhinoceros Scissors flitted out, row upon row of cattail was cut, and the juice-oozing cut ends were immediately sealed by the Spiritual Energy taken from their own bodies.