Chapter 1337: Disturbing Surgical Modification

Xia Qing's Territory Three had every advantage of terrain and people.

Territory Three's west and north sides bordered Mountain Forty-Nine, which Beard Feng's squad was responsible for monitoring; the section of Mountain Forty-Nine adjacent to Territory Three—Section Three—belonged to Xia Qing, and anyone outside Beard Feng's squad was forbidden from entering that area.

To the east was Xia Qing's good neighbor, Territory Four, which had the weakest overall combat strength; the Zhao family mother and son were ordinary people, and neither in ability nor in intention would they peek into Xia Qing's territory through the wire fence and the wild-grass wall.

To the south was Tang Huai, the hearing Evolver; to the southeast was Center Nine; to the southwest was Luo Pei's Territory One—none of them would spy on the goings-on inside Xia Qing's territory either.

It was precisely because of these favorable terrain and people conditions that wolves, foxes, and monkeys had come and gone through Territory Three for over a year without being discovered by the lords.

Therefore, as long as Beard Feng's squad was not inside Territory Three, Zhang Shi and her daughter could move about the territory without worrying about being seen. Even if Beard Feng's squad was inside Territory Three, as long as Zhang Shi and her son stayed near Xia Qing's home and did not make any loud noises, they would not be detected by them.

So the most likely thing to leak their whereabouts was scent.

The olfactory Evolvers who could move about inside Territory Three were: Chang Li, a Rank Nine olfactory Evolver of the Azure Dragon Squad; Wu Lianmin, a Rank Seven olfactory Evolver of Territory Eleven; Chen Zheng and Chen Cheng, Rank Five olfactory Evolvers of Beard Feng's squad; and Yuan Rui, a Rank Four olfactory Evolver of the Inspection Squad.

Before joining the Azure Dragon Squad, Chang Li had interned at a hospital in the outer city of Huiyi Safe Zone; although she had not interned at the same hospital where Shi Jiaran had worked, it could not be ruled out that Chang Li had seen Shi Jiaran and remembered her scent. Yanlong's special-ops squad had once been ordered to hunt down Shi Jiaran, so Wu Lianmin must certainly remember Zhang Shi's scent.

After Xia Qing invited Zhang Shi into the territory, she would no longer allow Chang Li to enter the abandoned village where she lived, and Wu Lianmin had never been permitted to enter that area in the first place.

These two people, as well as the other olfactory Evolvers operating outside the abandoned village of Territory Three, should not be able to detect the presence of Zhang Shi and her son.

Because Xia Qing was certain Zhang Shi had a way to mask her scent—otherwise she would not have dared to live in the hidden valley for seven months.

Could it be that Zhang Shi's method of masking her scent was exclusive to regeneration-type Evolvers, which was why she said little Ye Yiyi staying inside a human territory would be more easily exposed?

Zhang San yawned again and, in plain language, cleared up Xia Qing's confusion: "Before Zhang Shi moved into the hot-spring valley, I performed a very complicated surgery on her, combined with drug intervention, to alter her base body odor. If you let her move into Territory Three, I can use surgery and drugs again to modify her base body odor to match yours, to confuse olfactory Evolvers."

"The age gap between Zhang Yiyi and you is too large, so this can't be done for her. So once Zhang Yiyi moves into Territory Three, if an olfactory Evolver enters her activity area, they will identify by scent that there is a human child in your territory."

Ah... huh?!

Her idol, standing at the very pinnacle of the universe's pyramid, was already so incredible that she could alter a person's base body odor?! Xia Qing truly did not know how to express her admiration and... shock to her idol.

Zhang San shot a look at Xia Qing, whose head was full of nonsense: "This kind of surgery and drugs are harmful to the body and only work on regeneration-type Evolvers. The reason Zhang Yiyi's body odor differs from Lan Wu's is that, while using the scent-altering agent, she also uses regeneration factors to keep her body from being harmed by the drugs."

"Changing a person's base scent—several research institutes in the country can do that; but changing a person's base scent to match a target individual is not just a matter of surgical difficulty and drug scarcity, it also involves medical ethics." Zhang San was silent for a few seconds, then reminded Xia Qing: "If Zhang Shi does something illegal, the tracking scent the olfactory Evolvers lock onto will be yours, and that will trigger a trust crisis. Think it over before you decide."

Hearing her idol say this, Xia Qing felt it had become more real: "No wonder Zhang Shi dared to live in the hidden valley so long—her base scent has already been altered, so she wasn't worried about Yanlong's squad hunting her down... But, Third Brother, I think Yanlong has already figured it out."

Zhang San slumped in his chair: "Yanlong has more than a nose—she has a brain. The fact that Zhang Shi was able to escape Huiyi Safe Zone and the surrounding evolution forest back then cannot be ruled out as something Yanlong did deliberately. After the Huiyi underground experiments were exposed, Yanlong's squad was repeatedly dispatched to the most dangerous areas for missions—very likely because she had already lost the trust of the higher-ups."

A flash of inspiration struck Xia Qing: "Sister Yan's squad was able to move into Territory Seven along with Ji Li's squad to protect you—that was your request, wasn't it?"

Zhang San shot Xia Qing another look, too lazy to answer such an obvious question, and continued asking: "What is Zhang Shi's final plan?"

"For Yiyi's safety, she wants to live in a cave; after sending Yiyi away, she'll move into my territory."

After recounting Zhang Shi's plan, Xia Qing shared her own: "But conditions inside the cave are harsh, and it's not convenient for her to take part in Old Four's dental treatment. So I want to build two basement rooms beneath the laboratory; after Yiyi has the surgery, she'll recover in the basement, and once she's healed, she'll be sent to a human safe zone to live a normal life."

The laboratory was located four hundred meters west of the two-story small building where Xia Qing lived; Zhang Shi living inside the laboratory would not be able to sense Xia Qing's emotional changes through magnetic sense, which gave a sense of security to both of them.

Xia Qing was a strength-type Evolver and a professional construction worker; building two basement rooms to hide people was no challenge for her, but the basement's design and building materials needed her idol's help.

So Xia Qing gazed at her idol with eager eyes: "Last year, Brother Luo built a basement in my territory to detox with the spring water. That basement could evade detection by olfactory and hearing Evolvers. Third Brother, you must have a better design plan and more advanced building materials than that basement, right?"

Her idol was a big shot, and a big shot definitely had good stuff!

Zhang San yawned again: "This kind of thing isn't under my jurisdiction—go find Daya and have him handle it."

"Understood, thank you, Third Brother." Xia Qing stood up and asked with concern: "Did you stay up late again last night, Third Brother?"

Zhang San replied lazily: "Lan Wu had another synthetic-disaster crisis and activated the disaster-elimination protocol. I was conscripted by the higher-ups to participate in the disaster elimination; I haven't rested since noon yesterday."

Hearing that Lan Wu had run into trouble again, Xia Qing frowned: "What idiotic thing did they do this time? Third Brother, don't be angry—your health is most important; getting angry hurts the body."

"Of course idiots do idiotic things!" Zhang San cursed, then chased Xia Qing out of the office.

Xia Qing cheerfully went to find Daya, and soon obtained the construction and material standards for the underground laboratory. After paying 410,000 credits, Xia Qing returned to the territory and complained to Zhang Shi: "Building the underground laboratory costs way too much."