Chapter 1269: The Escaping Qu Fangzhou

When Yang Jin sent people rushing to Hui-1 Area 4 to capture the fugitives, Xia Qing was still standing with Huo Zhun at the top of the sinkhole, carrying out guard duty.

In the view of Disaster Elimination Commander Zhang San, placing Xia Qing, that bizarre human, next to the wolf pack was more useful than sending her out on a sniper mission.

After dark, the temperature in the evolved forest dropped rapidly. Xia Qing, wearing a faint-glow night-vision device and lying prone at the mountaintop sniper position, switched shifts with Huo Zhun. She stood up, quickly moved her stiffened legs, and opened her satchel to take out a nutrient solution to replenish her energy.

The first phase of disaster elimination has already ended. Containment Zone Five has been listed as the area with the most severe toxin spread and requires priority cleanup. Sixty percent of the disaster elimination personnel have completed their missions and returned to the safe zone; forty percent continue to carry out disaster elimination tasks, conducting a thorough cleanup of Containment Zone Five.

Xia Qing belongs to that latter forty percent. She cannot return to the territory tonight, and there's no way for her to go pick up Daigua.

She had already spoken by phone with Er Yong, Broken-Waist Wolf, and Daigua, and learned that the raptors over the Northern Area 1 territory had been driven off, with no casualties appearing in Territory Three. The invading macaque troop had also been scared off by the evolved tigers that returned to the territory. Currently, the northern Hui-3 wolf pack, tiger group, and raptors had all returned to calm. Daigua had already run off to stay with its monkey family and was no longer afraid, and told Xia Qing she could come pick it up in a few days.

Sheep Boss had strong opinions about Xia Qing not returning to the territory. When Xia Qing spoke with her companions through the No. 1 surveillance camera, the bleating sounds Sheep Boss directed at her had more twists and turns than the bends in a mountain road.

If it weren't for Wolf Lao Er and Little Yellow Ox being in the territory, hearing the boss bleat like that would have made Xia Qing immediately submit a request to her idol to return.

Because the Cui Yan wolf pack has already calmed down and won't come over to attack the disaster elimination humans, Xia Qing's actual usefulness staying here isn't that great.

Staring at the flickering lights inside the sinkhole, Huo Zhun reminded Xia Qing, "Liehuo Mountain was bombed. The more than a hundred Liehuo team members who escaped might change their identities and enter other base safe zones, or they might stay in the evolved forest and become wanderers. Sister Qing must remind Broken Brother, Fourth Brother, and the others to stay safe."

Xia Qing acknowledged him and asked, "Brother Huo, did you have any contact with Liehuo's vice captain Qu Fangzhou when you were at Hui-1?"

"I went on four missions of S-rank or above with her. Her intelligence analysis ability is really outstanding." Huo Zhun knew what Xia Qing wanted to ask and gave the information directly.

"Qu Fangzhou's prestige on Liehuo Mountain is second only to Deng Yufeng. Although she wears a yellow identity tag, she always stares straight into people's faces. The feeling she gives me is quite similar to Brother Song. Mingzi said Qu Fangzhou must be a brain-domain evolver; she just hasn't gone to the testing center to take the test and confirm her evolver status."

"Mm." Xia Qing acknowledged. Huo Zhun's intuition had always been accurate, and Xia Qing trusted his judgment.

Zhang Song is a dual-system evolver in the visual and brain-domain categories, specifically in observation. When he talks with people, he stares at their faces to catch their micro-expressions. Qu Fangzhou appears to be the same type.

The difference between the two is that Zhang Song doesn't want the people he talks with to get a bad feeling, so he wears a pair of plain glasses to disguise himself and tries not to stare at their faces. Qu Fangzhou doesn't care about any of that; she only cares about information and intelligence.

Huo Zhun continued, "The current core members of the Liehuo battle team are, more or less, all connected to the underground experiments back then—either as participants, or as victims or victims' family members. Deng Yufeng is a victim. Liao Wendong's wife and child were victims. Qu Fangzhou's situation is unclear. This person seems to have appeared out of thin air during the Catastrophe year; no records of her from before the Catastrophe can be found."

The intelligence Xia Qing had obtained was about the same as what Huo Zhun said. Before the Catastrophe, Deng Yufeng was a top salesperson, and Liao Wendong worked at the same company as her; both of their backgrounds could be checked. But Qu Fangzhou's background simply couldn't be checked.

Xia Qing thought of the intelligence the Azure Dragon battle team had seized from Liehuo Mountain in the chaos after the Catastrophe bombing, including that photo of Qu Fangzhou with a little girl.

She suddenly had a strong intuition that the photo had been deliberately left behind by Qu Fangzhou, and that the little girl in the photo was very likely connected to Zhang Shi and her mother!

"Awooo—woo—woo—"

The howl of an evolved wolf came from a nearby peak. The two who had been chatting immediately went into work mode. After understanding the meaning of the wolf pack's howl, Xia Qing sent a message to her idol:

The wolf pack is using howls to declare territorial sovereignty; they may have discovered and captured or driven out intruders.

Commander Zhang San, who had just received the information, typed back: Based on the information you provided, thirty-three escaped Liehuo team members were discovered in the cave behind that waterfall. During the capture, an intense fight broke out and startled a hyena pack.

So the Hui-1 southern hyena pack discovered the intruders and began howling to declare territorial sovereignty; the Hui-1 western wolf pack heard it and howled along; then the howls traveled to Peak 29's Cui Yan wolf pack, and they howled along too?

That's a possibility.

Xia Qing put away her phone and listened quietly for a while. After confirming the Cui Yan wolf pack had no aggressive intent, she breathed a sigh of relief for her idol.

The Hui-1 disaster elimination personnel's work efficiency is very low. More than seven hours have passed since Liehuo Mountain exploded, and they still haven't opened a passage into Liehuo Mountain's underground bunker cave. Xia Qing believed they were deliberately delaying, the purpose being to prevent Zhang Song's squad from obtaining the corpse samples inside the cave as quickly as possible to determine the death toll.

The longer they delay, the more severely the corpses inside will decompose, and the easier it is to cover up the truth.

Now, accusations have already appeared online that the commander's misdirection caused the destruction of Liehuo Mountain's farmland, factories, and houses worth over ten million, along with one hundred and twenty-five deaths.

Prying open the mouths of these captured escapees would prove that it was the Liehuo battle team members who deliberately blew up Liehuo Mountain. That way, even if a few people really were crushed or blown to death inside the underground bunker, it wouldn't be her idol's responsibility.

Xia Qing wanted to know whether Qu Fangzhou was among those captured. Her idol was too busy, so she sent a message to contact Yang Jin.

Yang Jin replied three minutes later: No. You stay safe.

It was also quite normal that Qu Fangzhou hadn't been captured.

"Awooo—"

From the spot where Xia Qing had treated the two old wolves' external injuries that afternoon, a wolf howl rang out. The sound wasn't loud; Huo Zhun didn't hear it, but Xia Qing, a Level-7 hearing evolver, did, and she even knew which wolf was calling.

She stood up and looked over. Another howl came from the mountain crevice.

Hearing Xia Qing's movement, Huo Zhun, who was carrying out the mission back-to-back with her, asked, "Sister Qing, is there a situation?"

Xia Qing answered calmly, "There's an evolved wolf in the evolved forest over there. It seems to be looking for me. I'll go take a look."

Wolves' eyes glow at night, and Xia Qing is a high-level visual evolver, so spotting a wolf in the evolved forest was perfectly normal. Huo Zhun responded, "Alright. Sister Qing, stay safe and keep in touch."

Xia Qing left the top of the sinkhole, went down the slope, and entered the evolved forest. Standing five meters from the mountain crevice, she lowered her voice and asked the half-grown wolf standing at the crevice entrance, "Scarface, did you need something from me?"