Chapter 1068: Rare Category Three Brain-Region Evolvers

In the eleventh year of the Calamity, Xia Qing spent most of her time in the safe zone. Zhang San could imagine her hardship and poverty, and could understand her mindset of saving wherever possible. But seeing her being stingy even where she shouldn't be, Zhang San's veins popped out on his forehead, and his head throbbed with pain.

Saving one sterile pad but contaminating the CT scanner—do you have enough points left to buy disinfectant?

No, that's wrong! She probably can't bear to use disinfectant either. After moving the wolf's corpse away, she'll just wipe the fluid off the scanning bed with a rag or paper towel, and that'll be that!

Without regular, thorough disinfection, the large amounts of bacteria, viruses, and other microorganisms left behind in this damp, sweltering lab could evolve again, reproduce rapidly, and spread throughout the entire house, the entire territory.

Is the food she eats every day clean?

Is the food she brought to Territory Seven clean? Where did she wash the fruit she ate at noon today, and with what water?

The big shot, whose face grew uglier by the second, turned back to glare viciously at Xia Qing, truly wanting to crack open her skull and see just what bizarre genes were packed inside!

"Wooo!!!"

Sharply sensing Zhang San's hostility, the broken-waisted wolf, limping on one leg, sprang forward, landed on all four paws to shield Xia Qing, its claws digging into the wooden floor, bared its fangs, and snarled low at Zhang San with killing intent.

While snarling, this evolved wolf, which specialized in pack combat, also swept Xia Qing's leg hard with its big tail, signaling her to go grab a weapon.

What is Xia Qing's weapon? A gun!

The broken-waisted wolf's first reaction upon sensing danger was to protect her, which moved Xia Qing deeply. But the broken-waisted wolf telling her to use a gun against Third Brother made Xia Qing feel guilty and afraid.

Once Third Brother leaves, she has to seriously introduce to the broken-waisted wolf Third Brother's status and achievements among humans. Without Third Brother, it, Wolf Lao Er, Little Four-Eyes, and Old Wolf would all be dead by now.

Besides, Third Brother may look fragile, but his combat power is not low at all. The ring of medicine on his wrist can instantly drop any breathing creature within two hundred meters, except for himself.

"Broken-Waist, it's fine, Third Brother won't hurt us. He's just angry because he thinks our lab is too crude and he's afraid we'll catch evolved microorganisms." Xia Qing first soothed her companion, then coaxed her idol. "Third Brother, the broken-waisted wolf's senses are very sharp. You can be angry, but please don't have any killing intent…"

"Better to kill you off early, I'd live a few more years." Zhang San suppressed his fury, looked at this evolved wolf that was nearly as tall as Xia Qing, and asked, "It's a magnetic-sense Evolver too?"

Xia Qing wasn't sure either. "I don't know if this counts as magnetic-sense perception. Animals in the Evolution Forest are all very sensitive to nearby dangers."

Nature is survival of the fittest; animals that can't detect danger never grow up, let alone pass on their genes.

The broken-waisted wolf, its thick neck fur bristling, stared fixedly at Zhang San with a pair of fierce amber wolf eyes. Zhang San quickly adjusted his state and calmed himself down.

Man and wolf stared at each other for a long time. Only after the broken-waisted wolf's bared fangs gradually disappeared did Zhang San point at the wolf corpse's head on the scanning bed and ask calmly, "Broken-Waist, why do you want to study its head?"

The broken-waisted wolf couldn't speak human language, and her idol couldn't read wolf expressions, so Xia Qing very considerately acted as translator. "It wants to know how the part inside the skull was cut out."

Zhang San kept staring at the broken-waisted wolf. "And after you know?"

Xia Qing hadn't asked, but she understood the broken-waisted wolf's thought process well, and also understood why Third Brother was asking this question. "It doesn't want to learn how to do this surgery. It just wants to know why a wolf whose head was opened and a piece cut out didn't die, could still stand up, and could be controlled by humans. Broken-Waist, right?"

The serious-faced broken-waisted wolf turned its head and showed Xia Qing its cute little fang tips.

Zhang San took a separately packaged disinfectant wipe from his coat pocket, cleaned his hands, then walked to the crude bookshelf, took down a book, quickly flipped to a diagram of the human nervous system, and showed it to the man and wolf opposite.

"The death of an animal refers to the permanent disappearance of the animal's essential characteristics, including the destruction of bodily integrity and the cessation of metabolism in all cells. This is the human nervous system, this is the human brain, and the human brain is the highest-level nerve center in the human body."

Zhang San flipped three more pages, and with his pale, slender fingers accurately pointing to the corresponding positions on a full-page color diagram of the human brain structure, slowly introduced the brain structure to the wolf and the person. "The human brain is divided into six parts: the cerebrum, diencephalon, cerebellum, midbrain, pons, and medulla oblongata. The cerebrum is further divided into… This is the prefrontal lobe… The cerebral cortex is a layer of gray matter on the surface of the cerebrum…"

Xia Qing, who had been force-fed a pile of professional knowledge, fought hard against the urge to yawn, her eyes welling up. The broken-waisted wolf crouching beside her stared intently with its bright amber eyes at the picture under Zhang San's finger.

"…So, precisely removing a small portion of the cerebral cortex in the prefrontal lobe will cause impairments in cognition, emotion, and memory in humans or evolved wolves, but won't affect the mobility of the limbs."

After Zhang San finished his summary, Xia Qing's eyes immediately lit up. An idol who can store so much knowledge in his brain—truly worthy of being a human standing at the very top of Blue Star's pyramid!

Zhang San glanced at Xia Qing, whose head was full of nonsense, and stared at the broken-waisted wolf beside her, wanting to know how much it had understood.

The broken-waisted wolf looked at the picture in the book, then at its kindred on the bed, deep in thought.

Xia Qing immediately reached out her hand. "This book is pretty heavy, Third Brother. Let me hold it?"

It really was quite heavy. Zhang San handed the book to Xia Qing and continued surveying the crude lab. The books on the shelf and the portable CT scanner had come from his territory; the Yi-element detector had been exchanged with Luo Pei; who had that optical microscope next to it been exchanged with?

The microscope's eyepiece, fine-focus knob, and stage were all covered in wolf hair, and the floor under the table was pockmarked with small holes dug out by wolf claws.

Clearly, this microscope, like the CT machine beside it, was mainly used by that brain-region evolved wolf. Zhang San's mind spun rapidly, his expression growing more and more serious.

The broken-waisted wolf, who was studying the brain structure diagram, looked up and stared at Zhang San, the fur on its neck gradually bristling.

Xia Qing wanted to remind her idol not to think wildly in front of the evolved wolf, but seeing his serious expression, she didn't dare speak. Zhang San noticed the change in the broken-waisted wolf, quickly adjusted his state, and emptied his mind.

The broken-waisted wolf snarled irritably at Zhang San a few times, then raised its paw to point at the prefrontal lobe on the brain structure diagram, looked at its kindred lying on the scanning bed, and then looked at Xia Qing.

Xia Qing asked in a low voice, "Broken-Waist, you want to know about the prefrontal lobe of the brain?"

Zhang San, who had stopped thinking, quietly observed how Xia Qing interacted with this wolf.

Xia Qing continued asking, "How is the prefrontal lobe removed? …No. Then what do you want to know… What's wrong with Third Brother?"

After a few seconds of thought, the broken-waisted wolf, limping on its glove-wrapped paw, walked to the scanning bed, pointed at its companion's brain, and then pointed at the book page in Xia Qing's hand.

This wolf's big paw landed precisely on the prefrontal lobe position he had pointed to during his explanation. From this behavior, one could judge that this was an extremely rare, highly proficient in human language, with observation, thinking, and memory all at Gao Shuiping evolution—a Category Three Brain-Region Evolver.

If this video and the existence of this wolf were made public, it would drive animal researchers across all of Blue Star insane.

After the man and wolf muttered and gestured at each other for a while, and finally figured out what the broken-waisted wolf was thinking, Xia Qing said softly to it, "That definitely won't work. It's impossible."

The serious-faced broken-waisted wolf pointed its paw at Zhang San—ask him!

Seeing Xia Qing hesitate, Zhang San spoke up directly. "What does it want to know?"