Chapter 1114: How Many People Are in Qing-jie's Squad

After watching Huo Zhun walk east along the north isolation belt for a stretch, Xia Qing turned and returned to her own territory.

She didn't need to follow up to guess that although Huo Zhun's trip to Territory Seven this time wouldn't be entirely fruitless, the potions he traded for could never cure Zhang Yi's bodily damage.

Among physical-type evolutionary abilities, explosive power evolution is closely related to speed and strength evolution of the same type.

Explosive power refers to the ability of different muscles to coordinate with one another; it is a physical quality that combines strength and speed.

Only when an evolver's strength, speed, and nervous system regulation ability all surpass those of an ordinary person can they be identified as an explosive-power evolver. Such evolvers have somewhat higher combat power than other physical-type evolvers of the same level. But at the same time, the bodily wear caused by overusing explosive power is also very great.

During the years Xia Qing lived in the Safe Zone, she mainly relied on her strength-evolution ability to survive, and the muscle and bone damage caused by overusing that strength still hasn't been fully repaired to this day.

Zhang Yi is a level-six high explosive-power evolver who also served in the military for fifteen years. Even though the army's rations are a bit better, the accumulated damage to his body is certainly no less than Xia Qing's.

This kind of bodily wear accumulated over years needs to be nursed back slowly; there is no miracle drug that can cure it in one go.

Nursing it back requires points.

Currently, Xia Qing nurses her body by taking an evolved version of the Eight-Treasure Pill every day, plus soaking in a bodily-damage treatment potion once every ten days.

Each Evolved Eight-Treasure Pill costs 10,000 points. Her idol first prescribed her a 50-day supply, then after testing her body added another 50 days, totaling one million points. According to her idol, even putting this medicine on the market at four times the price, you still couldn't buy it; the bodily-damage potion requires 18 soakings, totaling 800,000 points.

Adding in the pollution-free spring water Xia Qing drinks every day, plus the green-light vegetables, staples, and meat she eats, her half-year of nursing her body and repairing damage has cost her over 2.5 million points.

Huo Zhun was discharged for violating discipline, so his retirement pay and subsidies are pitifully small. Lord Huo Lei, in order to take over Territory Eleven, nearly emptied the family coffers, so the Huo family can't afford that many points to treat Zhang Yi's bodily damage.

After discharge, Zhang Yi directly left Hui-1 and entered Hui-3's territory, which shows he gave up the job Hui-1 arranged for him. Although he is a special-forces veteran with fifteen years of service, his rank definitely can't compare with Yue Haiying's, who was discharged for injury, had comparable years of service, and likewise gave up the post the base arranged for him.

Yue Haiying's one-time retirement pay plus various other subsidies came to 890,000 points in total. Zhang Yi's retirement pay plus all kinds of subsidies would be at most a little over 700,000. Those points are indeed enough for daily expenses, but they're far from enough to treat his bodily damage.

Besides, even if Zhang Yi scraped together enough points, it wouldn't necessarily mean he could get Zhang San to mix medicine for him.

Because the big shot has been in a bad mood lately.

Xia Qing returned to her territory and carefully cleaned the newly built laboratory, making sure every corner was spotless, hoping her idol would be in a good mood when he came to inspect.

Huo Zhun had been in Territory Seven less than twenty minutes before he was chased out by the big shot.

After trudging back to his territory in low spirits, Huo Zhun went to find Wang Man first, to ask about Zhang Yi's performance in the squad after his discharge, and Captain Yan Long's evaluation of him.

Wang Man's gaze was sharp as a blade. "You want to know?"

In front of her, the little-brother-type Huo Zhun obediently nodded. "I do. But Man-jie, I really do have something today—can you beat me up again tomorrow?"

"Go ask Zhang Yi." Wang Man couldn't be bothered to look at his cowardly face, turned around, and went back inside.

If he could ask Zhang Yi directly, would he have come over here to take a beating?

Huo Zhun trudged into his good brother's room and was about to throw himself onto the bed, but Di Ming, who was lying on it, kicked him onto the chair beside it and asked coldly, "Got yelled at?"

Huo Zhun……

"Who yelled at you—Territory Seven's lord, Xia Qing, or Man Snake?"

Huo Zhun slumped into the clumsy but very sturdy wooden chair he'd made himself. "……Nobody yelled at me."

Although Third Brother and Man Snake both looked unhappy, they weren't doing it on purpose—those two were just born that way. Xia Qing didn't yell at him either; she even smiled a little because of his code name……

Huo Zhun's foolish look was truly unbearable to look at. Di Ming turned his head in disgust. "Clearly he's got a pig-slaughterer's face, but behind that face hangs a pig's brain."

Wu Lianmin on the bed beside them snickered. "Mingzi, don't you be insulting pigs. After they evolve, pigs are way more useful than a hammer."

Huo Zhun, who had perfectly inherited his old man's face, kicked the bed he'd made himself. "You two have some guts—go say to my old man's face that I've got a pig-slaughterer's face. Mingzi, tell me what we should do about this?"

When something came up, those two—Huo Zhun and Wu Lianmin—were too lazy to use their brains and always went straight to the brain-domain evolver Di Ming.

Di Ming was long used to it. "When Sister-in-law Yan first arrived, she brought up the matter of work with Xia Qing right in front of everyone. I already felt something was off at the time. Later, Man Snake handed Xia Qing a package of local specialties that Yan Long had sent over, right in front of us. That confirmed Sister-in-law Yan definitely has a problem. What specialty did Yan Long send Xia Qing—a seahorse?"

Huo Zhun instantly perked up. "It was a seahorse with no tail! From what I know of Yan Long, she definitely meant Brother Yi is being threatened!"

Di Ming gave Huo Zhun a look. "After being beaten up by Yan Long for years, you still don't understand her well enough. If Zhang Yi were being threatened, Yan Long would have just twisted the seahorse's head off. The meaning of her sending a tail-less seahorse is that someone is threatening Sister-in-law Yan with the two kids."

Wu Lianmin didn't get it either. "Why not threaten Brother Yi?"

"Tail means 'descendant'—it refers to offspring. Look at Brother Yi's state these past few days and how he acted at dinner just now—does he look like someone in the know?"

Di Ming pressed his temple, which had started throbbing with pain again. As a brain-domain evolver, Di Ming naturally suffered from the common ailment of this type of evolver—headaches.

He didn't want to say more, and simply gave Huo Zhun a plan. "Yan Long sent the thing over in broad daylight because she isn't afraid of people knowing. Xia Qing understood this point, which is why she called you straight over. Since Yan Long has taken this matter on her own shoulders, there's no need for you to keep hiding it. Later, take the seahorse straight to Zhang Yi and see how he chooses. Both of you get lost—don't bother me sleeping. I'm discharged; I'm going to sleep until I wake up naturally!"

Huo Zhun suddenly saw the light, stood up with a grin. "Head hurting again? Rest well, nothing's on this afternoon. In a few days I'll be able to get eight jin of green-light mountain walnuts—I'll bring them all back to nourish your brain."

Di Ming immediately jumped up. "Xia Qing traded them to you? Your relationship with her is already that solid?!"

Di Ming had once carried out a mission in Territory Seven, so he knew about Xia Qing's transaction with Zhang San over green-light mountain walnuts last year.

Huo Zhun solemnly reminded his good brother. "Don't go saying 'Xia Qing, Xia Qing'—if you two want to get along here, you've got to call her Qing-jie. I'm now a core member of her squad; of course the relationship is solid."

Wu Lianmin also crowded over, chattering to ask, "What's the name of Qing-jie's squad, how many people does it have, and what's its rank on Hui-3's combat power leaderboard?"