Chapter 1058: The Capture of Peng Yuancai

The microtiller heading for Monitoring Zone East-1 of Territory No. 3 stopped after only a dozen meters or so.

Without Xia Qing saying a word, Eryong pushed open the door and jumped down, and from the qiang grass that had grown back after being crushed by the tiller's tracks, he pulled up a twenty-something-centimeter-tall Yellow Glycoside-39 plant and stuffed it—root ball of mud and all—into a bag.

Yellow Glycoside-39 is a dangerous evolved species among qiang grass; the entire plant is toxic and cannot be burned for disposal, so it must be handed over to the inspection team to be sent back to the safe zone for centralized destruction. Therefore, whenever any territory spots Yellow Glycoside-39 during patrol, they pull it on the spot, not giving it the chance to bloom or set seed.

After clearing the Yellow Glycoside-39, Xia Qing continued on. Eryong, sitting beside her, seized this rare chance to ask, "Sister Qing, can the agent Third Brother mixed today that melts aggressive qiang grass be mass-produced and used?"

Because the big shot was in a bad mood today, no one dared bring it up on the lord channel, but everyone was mulling over whether it was feasible. If this astonishingly effective agent could be mass-produced, spraying the territory once before a locust-rain would make defending the territory during the rain far easier.

Does that agent stink?

A stench can drive animals away and lower the territory's risk—better than one that doesn't stink!

"It can't."

Though she hadn't consulted her idol yet, Xia Qing had already guessed the function of the blood-red agent. "That agent works by cutting off gas and water, which stops the qiang grass roots in the soil from growing fast. But at the same time, it makes anaerobic bacteria in the soil multiply rapidly, changing the soil quality. The follow-up recovery and soil-improvement workload will be huge."

Just these three corridors and territory areas covered by the blood-red agent—the cleanup workload and cost afterward will definitely be steep. Once her idol lists the loss-compensation budget, Xia Qing will hand it up and have Hui-3 Base Commander demand compensation from the responsible party.

The five hens that died on her territory—she'll demand 10,000 points each, and she won't take a single point less.

Because the little hens she had painstakingly raised would have started laying in another month. After evolution, hens live longer; one hen can lay at least a thousand eggs in its lifetime. At today's market price, a green-light egg sells for 150 points, so a thousand eggs would be 150,000 points…

After working out the ideal revenue a single hen could bring in, Xia Qing decisively doubled her compensation asking price.

"Then that approach definitely won't work—our territory is a farming one, we have to protect soil quality." Eryong hopped off again, pulled up three more Yellow Glycoside-39 plants, climbed back onto the tiller, and kept asking, "Sister Qing, during last winter's qiang-snow period, why didn't Third Brother use this kind of agent against the red qiang grass in the High-Danger Zone of Mountain No. 50?"

If her idol didn't use it, there had to be a reason it wasn't suitable.

Xia Qing guessed at the reason. "I didn't ask Third Brother. At the time, the biggest threat in the High-Danger Zone of Mountain No. 50 wasn't the red qiang grass itself, but the super-evolved Salmonella breeding fast in its roots, so they couldn't use the same handling method as for the qiang grass in the territory corridors, right?"

"That's got to be it!"

Just as Eryong was about to pick Xia Qing's brain—asking how she managed, while farming and training, to squeeze out time to learn and remember so much useful knowledge—Xia Qing stopped the tiller again and pulled a phone with a cracked screen from her pocket.

Eryong, very tactful, got out of his own accord to clear the surrounding Yellow Glycoside-39.

"…Understood…Got it, I'll report up and request instructions right away."

After hanging up with Xie Yu, Xia Qing immediately dialed her idol. "Third Brother, Frost Battle Team captured Peng Yuancai alive three kilometers south of Hui-1 First Prison. I had Xie Yu send you the video and coordinates directly—see if you can use them. Frost Battle Team is asking whether they need to wake Peng Yuancai for interrogation…Got it, I'll notify Xie Yu…Got it, roger that!"

Frost Battle Team is the second-ranked battle team at Hui-1 Base, and Liehuo's main rival. Azure Dragon Battle Team moved from Hui-1 to Hui-3, so they must be on good terms with Frost Battle Team—hence how they got in touch with Frost so quickly and acted together to capture Peng Yuancai, who was on his way back to prison, along with the four unidentified people protecting him.

After getting her idol's orders, Xia Qing immediately replied to Xie Yu. "Boss Xie, Third Brother's side needs to organize the video and related materials, so he asked me to pass along a word. Peng Yuancai was hit by an agent Third Brother mixed and can't fully wake up within four hours. Tell Frost Battle Team to keep the man safe—don't kill him and don't lose him. Third Brother will report to Red-1 Base very soon; once they issue the formal document, just have Frost hand the man over."

"Understood." Xie Yu acknowledged, his hoarse, weary voice carrying a smile. "Sister Qing, while Third Brother's in a good mood, could you ask whether today's agent can be traded? Any terms for the exchange would do."

No one would believe it if told—Peng Yuancai, sitting in a car in a sealed protective suit, had been taken down by Third Brother's drug. Xia Qing also wanted to trade for it, but with such heaven-defying efficacy, it was probably a restricted agent.

If it's restricted, Third Brother probably won't trade it with Azure Dragon Battle Team, but giving her a little for self-defense is possible. Xia Qing, wearing her usual Daigua face, felt secretly delighted but kept her tone even. "Got it, I'll get a clear answer and get back to you."

After hanging up, Xia Qing couldn't help telling Boss Sheep, "Boss, Third Brother really is a medical big shot standing at the very top of Blue Star's pyramid!"

Boss Sheep, lying beside her, squinted without a sound, then shook its head hard, splattering Xia Qing with mud.

Xia Qing……

The microtiller stopped at the edge of East-1 Zone—right at the edge of the abandoned village where Xia Qing lives. Xia Qing slung Boss Sheep onto her back, opened her iron umbrella, and walked home on foot. Eryong turned the tiller around and continued patrolling the territory.

Once home, Xia Qing first stripped Boss Sheep out of its protective suit and rinsed it clean, then went upstairs and had a thoroughly refreshing shower, and just then received a message from her idol.

In less than an hour, her idol had submitted Peng Yuancai's criminal evidence to Red-1 Base, proving he had committed six charges including escape, illegal hunting of large evolved beasts, and illegal experimentation on large evolved beasts. Under the current post-catastrophe laws, Peng Yuancai would definitely be sentenced to death.

As for who helped him escape prison, who provided him the lab, and who launched this attack on the northern Zone-1 territory of Hui-3—that would have to wait for the investigation team Red-1 sent to pry the answers out of the five of them.

Xia Qing yawned and was asleep almost the moment her eyes closed. In the first-floor living room, Little Feimao crouched beside a cage on the floor, sleeping sweetly against its mother through a layer of wire mesh.

On the ruins of a house outside her courtyard, the old wolf with the yi-stone lay on a rain-fly-draped king's platform, quietly watching the qiang-rain outside.

In Territory No. 2, Tang Huai sat in the insect-rearing shed, leaning against Shi Zhu, lost in thought.

Halfway up a mountain in Mountain Area No. 37, inside a cave, an evolved tiger with several patches of fur shaved off stood up and lazily stretched, took a few laps of water from a basin, then turned to lick the wounds on its body. It sniffed, though, and stopped; after a few quiet seconds, it lazily crawled back onto the moisture-proof mat and, with a big paw, batted back and forth at whatever-it-was the human had left beside the water basin.