Chapter 1039: Herbs in the Tiger's Mouth

The critical threshold for a human evolver losing control is 30‰. Once the qiang element content in a human body exceeds the critical threshold, the immune system can no longer resist the destructive effects of the qiang element. After the qiang element attacks key regions of the brain, that person will lose control through qiang evolution.

After Xia Qing was poisoned during a battle with the Blaze Beast Hunters last year, she took Yi Fluid, causing the qiang element content in her body to spike to 28‰. After taking two doses of Qiang-Suppressant and then eating well and resting for over half a year, her body only recovered to its pre-poisoning state.

Xia Qing didn't know what the loss-of-control threshold for an evolved tiger was, but 35‰ was certainly a very high number.

She poured pollution-free spring water into a basin, added three vials of X Nutrient Solution, and then, with great reluctance, took out one dose of Qiang-Suppressant. "Meeting me is a stroke of luck for you, you blind tiger."

Xia Qing received 20 doses from this batch of Qiang-Suppressant produced in Territory Seven in August. She traded away 16 and kept 4 for herself.

One of the four she kept was given to Lao Si, one was split between Xiao Feimao and Daigua, and just now she gave one to the wolf pack to offset the effects of the qiang rain and breathing air with excessive qiang element content.

So the one in her hand was the last dose of Qiang-Suppressant Xia Qing had.

Given this fierce tiger's size, one 10-milliliter dose of Qiang-Suppressant certainly couldn't bring the qiang element content in its body down to pre-injury levels, but no matter how many points it brought down, under these circumstances it would still have positive significance.

As long as she helped the evolved tiger get through this hurdle, once its wounds healed, it could hunt high-quality prey for nutrients and gradually nurse its body to reduce the qiang element content within.

Xia Qing carried the basin around to the tiger's big head and found that it had already opened its eyes. Its large pale-yellow eyes, streaked with blood, were filled with a wise light, but the moment it saw Xia Qing, they immediately became murderous.

Xia Qing was certain that if this fellow weren't completely drained of strength, it would have leaped up and continued chasing her down.

"Awake? Then let's have a little chat." Xia Qing set the basin down, sat, lifted the blind tiger's big head, drew up a tube of medicine with the needle removed, pried open its big mouth, and pushed it down its throat.

In its current state, it couldn't swallow food, so she could only pour it in directly.

After confirming it had gone down, Xia Qing lightly flicked its big head.

Of course, Xia Qing avoided the spots where she'd punched it twice, so as not to make this evolved tiger hate her even more. "Among tigers there are good tigers and bad tigers, and among humans there are good people and bad people. You blind tiger, use that big head of yours and think carefully—does that human's voice and smell match mine?"

"I've never been here before, and I've never hurt you."

The evolved tiger living deep in the Evolution Forest couldn't understand human language, but it could sense that Xia Qing wasn't trying to harm it, and it relaxed slightly. It stared at Xia Qing intently, trying to figure out what this human was doing.

Xia Qing poured another tube of medicine into it and continued, "Staring me down won't help. I'm not saving you because you're handsome, but because I don't want this patch of Evolution Forest to lose its lord."

"This basin of medicine is worth 12,000 points, the topical medicine on your body is worth 5,200 points, my surgical fee for treating your wounds is 2,000 points, and the Use Yishi around your neck is worth 24,000 points. You owe me points. You don't have points, do you? Do you have a Use Yishi?"

The evolved fierce tiger stared at Xia Qing, its whiskers, still dripping with medicine, trembling slightly.

"Neither? I see there are plant fragments in the pus-filled wound on your hind leg. Did you apply medicine to the wound? What herbs did you use?"

After Xia Qing finished pouring in the medicine and pried open the big tiger's mouth, she found green grass leaves wedged between its back molars as well.

Tigers are carnivores. When they occasionally eat plants like grass, it's to use the plant matter to expel foreign objects and indigestible food from their digestive tract.

Xia Qing observed carefully and confirmed that the leaf fragments in this evolved tiger's mouth were the same species of plant as those in its hind-leg wound, deducing that this tiger was using herbs to treat itself.

Even an evolved animal like Boss Sheep, who wasn't very bright, knew that the Bai Mao Chicken-Droppings Vine in the territory could cure illness. So it was perfectly normal for a brain-domain evolved tiger living in the Evolution Forest to discover that certain plants were beneficial to the body.

When the wanderer went to lure this evolved tiger, it must have been chewing leaves to apply medicine to its wounds, which was why there were still plant fragments in its mouth now.

Xia Qing took all the plant leaves from between the tiger's molars and put them into a sample test tube. Her idol was a medical expert and would definitely be interested in this herb.

Then Xia Qing gently set the tiger's big head down. Seeing that it was still glaring at her viciously, she crawled out of the tent and went to the head wolf's side, worried. "Queen, my lord, you don't think this evolved tiger will chase me all the way to the human territory and bite me once it comes to, do you?"

The head wolf, resting on a rock at the cave entrance, flicked its ears and continued staring at the helicopter hovering in the air outside the valley.

The qiang rain was pouring down again, the qiang grass had already grown taller than a person, and the Hu Zi Feng Squad was still searching for that injured wanderer.

Even if Xia Qing went over, she couldn't help, so she first contacted Chen Cheng to learn about the situation in the territory.

The evolved fierce tiger lying in the tent, unable to move a muscle, listened for a while to the human voices outside, the patter of rain beyond the cave, and the distant thrum of the helicopter. It soon couldn't hold up against its body's weakness and the effects of the medicine, and slowly closed its eyes.

After confirming that the boss and Lao Si hadn't shown themselves, the sheds hadn't been damaged by the qiang rain and gale, no high-risk qiang-evolved plants had appeared in the territory, and neither Center Nine nor Mountain Fifty had reported any crises, Xia Qing finally relaxed. She went to inspect the weapons captured during this mission.

The most valuable weapon was a sniper rifle at sixty percent of its lifespan. This gun couldn't compare with Xia Qing's sniper rifle, but it was still worth 60,000 points.

Xia Qing tested it and was delighted. "This gun still works! The Queen, my lord, truly is the wolf king standing at the pinnacle of Blue Star's Jin Zita—amazing…"

The head wolf's expression didn't change. The evolved tiger in the tent opened its eyes and listened for a few seconds, then closed them and went back to sleep.

After inspecting it, Xia Qing confirmed that this gun hadn't just been snatched by the wanderer squad, but had been used for quite some time by that wanderer sniper the head wolf had killed.

The sling on this sniper rifle had extra support points—a design meant to reduce shoulder pressure during long periods of carrying.

Xia Qing was a strength evolver and didn't need this kind of sling with support points, but she had seen snipers from the Azure Dragon Squad use them.

Besides the support points hand-stitched from beast hide, this sling also had over twenty beast tusks hanging from it—more than half of them wolf tusks, and from giant wolves at that.

She was so certain because Xia Qing was extremely familiar with the lines, curves, and shape of wolf tusks.

Evolved wolves were classified by law as fierce beasts that humans were forbidden to provoke. The military certainly wouldn't allow its soldiers to wear accessories like this that would provoke the wolf packs.

Xia Qing didn't want to provoke the head wolf beside her either, so she unfastened the sling and set it aside, packing the gun separately in a bag.

Just as she was about to continue inspecting the other weapons, she heard the sound of machine-gun fire outside.

The Hu Zi Feng Squad had finally found the injured wanderer hiding in the Evolution Forest.

As Xia Qing put away the sniper rifle and leaned out to look, she received Hu Zi Feng's battle report: "Sister Qing, target eliminated."

"Good. After you pack up his body and supplies, bring the other body over too."

"Copy that." Hu Zi Feng acknowledged the order.

The qiang rain stopped again. Xia Qing took this opportunity to enter the valley and check on the wild boars still squealing in the trap.

The evolved tiger was injured, the western wolf pack had left, so this group of wild boars that had fallen into the trap naturally belonged to her and the head wolf.