Chapter 1290: Will the Wolf Pack Migrate?

Wang Bo's fundamentals as a sniper are quite solid.

Because the Level-5 Vision Evolver Wang Bo and the dual-system Level-5 Stamina and Level-5 Speed Evolver Lu Fangchun are the second-generation evolvers that the Liangqing Squad has been cultivating as a priority, Wang Bo has been trained as a sniper since the age of seven.

This spring, after Tang Zhengsu was killed and Tang Zhengrong fell from power, when the squads of Hui-3 Base scrambled to seize the evolvers and supplies of the Sufeng Squad, Liangqing Squad Captain Chen Deng lost his composure and had Lu Fangchun and Wang Bo—two thirteen- or fourteen-year-old evolvers—reveal themselves too early, standing on stage for the Liangqing Squad to recruit personnel, which resulted in the two being targeted and kidnapped by Chen Dongyang.

After the two were rescued by Xia Qing and She Xing, Chen Deng abandoned them because the cost of treatment was too high. She Xing and Fu Xiaodan pleaded with Xia Qing, using her connections to send the two into Territory No. 7, and borrowed one million credits from Yang Jin, the brigade commander of the Azure Dragon Squad, for medical expenses, finally healing their wounds and poison and letting them stand on their feet again.

After this ordeal, the two studied while training intensely, rapidly boosting their combat power. So now they are stronger than before their injuries.

After testing Wang Bo's static sniping fundamentals, Luo Pei gave his affirmation and corrected several of his movement errors, telling him to keep improving his fundamentals.

It is not that Wang Bo has not yet reached the level for live-fire shooting training, but because he has no sniper rifle. The sniper rifle he used previously belonged to the Liangqing Squad and was taken back after he left the squad.

After arranging Wang Bo, Luo Pei left the basic training ground and went to the advanced training ground—where the terrain and wind direction are most complex and chaotic—to check on the training of his prized student.

Xia Qing's current shortcoming is insufficient accuracy in dynamic shooting, which is also the main reason she signed up for this Azure Dragon Squad winter training.

Watching Xia Qing fail to hit the fast-moving target three times after rapid position changes, Luo Pei had her stop, directly pointed out her problem and corrected it, only then letting her continue training.

After three hours and burning through the 150 rounds she had brought, Xia Qing wrapped up today's training. Her expression was so calm it was as if she didn't care at all about the twenty-plus thousand credits that had just been blown, and she asked, "Luo Ge, did Song Ge come back with you?"

Zhang Song, like Yang Jin, missed the mission to gather hickory nuts with Xia Qing because he had to participate in the disaster relief. After he returned, Zhang Sanhao arranged for him to go together with Zhang Han to Territories No. 1, No. 2, and No. 3 to carry out research on the symbiosis of bees and aphid flies.

"He's still at the disaster relief site on Liehuo Mountain, testing the blood and limb samples found in the underground bunker."

The killing intent in Luo Pei's calm voice was caught by Xia Qing's keen hearing.

When she went to Territory No. 7, she heard with her own ears Deng Peng, captain of the Seventh Combat Squad of the Liehuo Squad, confess that his squad was the last batch of personnel to evacuate Liehuo Mountain and detonate the explosives.

The Liehuo people all evacuated, so whose bodies are those? Xia Qing asked, "Have the identities of the dead been confirmed?"

"The more than twenty bodies that could be identified are all members of the Liehuo Squad who had appeared publicly, but their time of death was March through October of this year. The Hui-1 disaster relief personnel who delayed the excavation progress at Liehuo Mountain were waiting for the bodies to thaw, so the testing team would conclude they died in the explosion."

Luo Pei's voice grew colder than the mountain wind, "They overestimated themselves and underestimated the professional ability of Zhang Song's squad. After the first body was dug up, Zhang Song confirmed the time of death on video."

Although Zhang Song falls down at the slightest provocation, his professional ability is beyond doubt. Xia Qing paused for a few seconds before asking, "Over a hundred Liehuo squad members escaped—could there really be that many bodies in the cave?"

Luo Pei replied, "The soil collapse made excavation extremely difficult, and the underground bunker couldn't be fully dug out. When I left, thirty-six bodies had already been found; based on that density, there should be over a hundred bodies buried in the collapsed mountain."

Before detonating the mountain, the Liehuo Squad people must have already calculated which areas were diggable and easy to dig, and deliberately piled the bodies in those spots.

The squad members who took shelter in the Liehuo Mountain underground bunker during the cross-base disaster relief all escaped, so the bodies found in the bunker must have been hidden there earlier or just been moved in.

Those killed recently are probably the traitors caught in the Liehuo warehouse supplies and drug incident; what about those who died several months earlier? Why did the Liehuo Squad keep these people's bodies? Where did the unidentifiable bodies come from, and what was the cause of death?

The more she thought, the tighter Xia Qing's brow furrowed, "The bodies were put in by Deng Peng's squad—don't they know how many there are?"

"They scattered limbs stuffed in bags; the number of people can't be confirmed." Those limbs reminded Luo Pei of the underground experiment incident six years ago that shocked the entire Huaguo.

He was silent for a few seconds before continuing, "Several Hui-1 disaster relief personnel tried to use drugs to destroy the bodies, and we caught them. Zhang Song suspects Liehuo used those bodies for illegal experiments. San Ge wanted to bring some of the limb samples back to Territory No. 7 for testing, but was directly overruled by the General Base Commander. The disaster relief at Liehuo Mountain is still ongoing, and the power plays among all sides have already begun."

Liehuo Mountain falls under a cross-base disaster relief zone; samples obtained at the relief site should, according to procedure, be tested on site; those that cannot be tested on site should be sent to the testing institution closest to the relief site that has the qualifications to test them.

So according to procedure, the samples obtained from Liehuo Mountain should be sent to the testing institution in the Hui-1 Safe Zone, which is also the legal basis on which Zhang San's application to send the samples to Territory No. 7 was overruled by the Hui City General Base Commander.

Regardless of whether General Base Commander Zhang Guannan is aware of Liehuo's criminal acts, if this blows up, what suffers is the reputation, image, and interests of the entire Hui City, so he will certainly find ways to suppress it—turn big things into small ones and small ones into nothing.

The focus going forward is not the excavation of Liehuo Mountain or the subsequent disaster relief work, but how to define, assign responsibility for, and compensate for this toxin spread incident.

To put it bluntly, it's about negotiating among all parties to produce a disaster relief report and conclusion that the General Base Commander can nod to and that all sides can accept.

What happens next is no longer in the hands of the disaster relief commander. The truth is not as important as interests.

Luo Pei gazed at the starry sky, which looked no different from before the catastrophe, reined in his emotions, and in a gentle voice brought up the good news Xia Qing was interested in: "The three vulture carcasses that fed on Wolf No. 5's body have been found within the wolf pack's territory in western Hui-1, and the toxin has not spread further. The General Base Commander has already agreed to designate that evolution forest in northern Hui-1 and southern Hui-3 as the trial zone for Hui-3's Territory No. 7, to be defended by Hui-3, for a term of ten years."

This is the main reason Zhang San made concessions and stopped insisting on sending the limb samples found at Liehuo Mountain back to Territory No. 7.

Xia Qing breathed a sigh of relief, "Ten years is enough."

As the two left the shooting range, Luo Pei suddenly asked, "Will that pack of wolves migrate?"

Xia Qing gazed at Territory No. 3, shrouded in darkness, and calmly uttered two words:

"No."