Chapter 1389: How Do You Plan to Handle This

Taking out her phone, Xia Qing finally saw the message Yang Jin had sent her, telling her the battle on Mountain 24 was over and they had captured four blue-skinned wanderers in total. Because the cave where this group of wanderers was hiding had several exits branching off in all directions, Lao Si needed so many human team members to assist.

With both battles over, they could switch to a voice call directly.

While rubbing the bloodstains on her protective suit with the Qi-Snow, which had the effect of eliminating odors, Xia Qing called Yang Jin.

Yang Jin on Mountain 24 picked up immediately. "Sister Qing, is your mission over too?"

Hearing it was Xia Qing calling, Old Wolf, who had been staring at Huo Zhun, immediately pricked up its ears to listen. Seeing its action, Yang Jin turned on his phone's speaker.

Xia Qing answered calmly, "Yes. In the Qi-Grass area of Mountain 36, we discovered ten intruders. Broken Waist and I killed four, and put six down with anesthetics. Of these ten, two were blue-skinned wanderers, four were Liehuo Sect members who fled with Qu Fangzhou, and the remaining four I don't recognize, but they all have thin arms and thin legs, so they should be researchers. Inside the cave we found an operating room, four pieces of detection equipment, and four domesticated beasts. I've already activated the signal jammer and blocked the cave entrance."

Xia Qing didn't mention that the ones who put the intruders in the cave down were the potions her idol had given her for self-defense. Because this was her idol's means of self-protection, the fewer people who knew, the better.

Hearing there were domesticated beasts, Lao Si's expression grew even more serious.

"A ten-person squad? Are you hurt?" Yang Jin asked about Xia Qing's condition, raising his hand to signal Huo Zhun to set up a tent immediately.

Xia Qing replied, "No. I'll report the situation here to Third Brother, then go back to clear out the supplies."

This ten-person squad had come from the Liehuo Sect, and they might be carrying trackers or remotely detonatable bombs on them, so until the supplies inside the cave were thoroughly cleared out, Xia Qing would not turn off the signal jammer.

Yang Jin acknowledged, then asked the question he was most concerned about. "Sister Qing, did the enemy recognize you?"

"They probably did." When she sniped the high-level speed evolver, she had exposed her sniping ability.

Without needing Yang Jin to finish, Xia Qing understood what he meant: if she didn't want to expose that she was the one who captured this group, didn't want to expose her coordinated combat with the wolf pack and tiger pack, the safest approach was to make all ten of them shut their mouths. "I'll ask Third Brother's opinion first."

"Okay." Yang Jin looked at Old Wolf, who was pawing at his phone with its paw, and asked, "Sister Qing, the captain wants to talk to you. Can we switch to a video call?"

"Sure." Xia Qing hung up the voice call and connected the video call, discovering that they had actually set up a tent and turned on a flashlight on their side, so the screen was brightly lit.

Xia Qing simply turned on her flashlight and set it beside her, letting Lao Si see half her face behind the protective mask. "Lao Si, did the four human team members I sent over perform all right?"

Inside the tent, Huo Zhun immediately held his breath, while Yang Jin focused all his attention on the screen, on Xia Qing, whose protective suit was covered in snow and mud. Her expression was relaxed, her movements natural—she definitely hadn't been seriously injured. Only then did Yang Jin truly set his mind at ease.

Old Wolf nodded solemnly, raising its paw to gesture a "4."

Xia Qing understood what it wanted to ask. "The wanderers on Mountain 36 brought a total of five domesticated beasts—two wolves and three dogs. Three dogs and one wolf were rescued by me in the cave. Broken Waist and the Western Wolf King are chasing the wolf that was let out. Lao Si, do you want to come over now?"

Lao Si nodded solemnly; it was eager to go confirm whether those two wolves were its companions.

"Okay, I'll send you the location. After I contact Third Brother, I'll go handle the scene. There's no signal at the cave, so I can't be reached. Can Lao Si bring Yang Jin? I need him to help me clear out and carry supplies."

Lao Si nodded solemnly again, raised its paw to end the call, and looked up at Yang Jin.

Yang Jin nodded immediately. "Understood, I'll go with the captain to Mountain 36, and leave this place to the vice-captain. Captain, should I call the helicopter over now?"

The straight-line distance from Mountain 24 to Mountain 36 was 83 li. Being able to take a helicopter was, of course, far better than running through the danger-filled Evolution Forest on two legs or four.

Mountain 24 was the core territory of the wolf pack, so Old Wolf certainly didn't agree.

Signaling Yang Jin to open the tent flap, Old Wolf walked out and stood in the Qi-Snow, raised its head and howled a few times. After receiving a response from Lord Cui Yan, the Wolf King, it took Yang Jin and left Mountain 24, signaling that he could call the helicopter now.

In the Territory 7 office, looking at the four photos of faces with closed eyes that Xia Qing had sent over, Zhang San immediately confirmed their identities. "The first and third are Liehuo Sect researchers, the second is a researcher from Hui-5 Research Institute, and the fourth is Fan Chengping, a brain surgeon at Hui-1 Inner City Hospital—he's also Shi Luyao's student."

Shi Luyao, a neurology specialist at Hui-1 Research Institute and a main participant in the Hui-1 underground experimental project. Zhang San used the word "also" because Peng Yuancai, who had been captured during the previous Qi-Rain and had since been executed, was also Shi Luyao's student.

Xia Qing speculated, "Third Brother, they carried surgical equipment and hid in the tiger pack's territory. They must have been planning to capture evolution tigers for a prefrontal cortex resection."

It was very likely this group who had entered this area before the third Qi-Rain to capture Blind Eye Tiger. The first capture attempt failed, and Blind Eye Tiger escaped after being injured. Then, during the Qi-Rain, this group sent wanderers to make a second attempt to capture Blind Eye Tiger, which Xia Qing had disrupted.

This time, they had hidden directly inside Blind Eye Tiger's territory. Being able to transport so much medical equipment in, this group definitely had an inside man at Hui-3 Base!

Zhang San asked, "How do you plan to handle the people and equipment inside the cave?"

Her idol hadn't given a direct order but asked for her opinion, so Xia Qing spoke frankly. "These people have already recognized me. I don't want to bring danger back to the territory. So I plan not to alert the authorities for now. After Yang Jin and Di Ming finish the interrogation, we'll decide whether to keep any live ones to hand over to the authorities."

Brain-domain evolver Di Ming, during his service in the Jiaolong Special Forces, was always the one the special forces entrusted with interrogating prisoners. Now that he had joined the Territory Alliance, Xia Qing naturally wanted him to continue shining in his area of expertise.

Zhang San approved Xia Qing's plan. "Alright. I'll have Zhang He go with Di Ming. The instruments, domesticated beasts, and data inside the cave will all be handed over to Zhang He, and she'll decide whether they need to be brought back."

Everything else was fine, but the wolf-beast was a problem. Xia Qing explained, "Third Brother, the Old Four of the southern wolf pack is on its way from Mountain 24. If those two wolves are ones Old Four recognizes, it should take them away."

Zhang San raised a hand to press his forehead. "Do those two wolves have scars on their foreheads from craniotomy surgery?"

Xia Qing answered calmly, "The wolf-dog in the cave does. The three dogs don't. Whether the wolf-creature that escaped has them, we'll have to wait until Broken Waist and the Western Wolf King bring it back to confirm."

A wolf-dog that needed a prefrontal cortex resection definitely couldn't have been successfully tamed through conventional means, so Xia Qing guessed it originally lived in the Evolution Forest and was a member of the wolf pack.

Zhang San spoke solemnly, giving instructions. "Xia Qing, regardless of which wolf pack those two wolves belong to, you must hold the wolf packs back. You can't let them trigger a beast tide because of this and attack human safe zones and territories."

Xia Qing assured her idol, "Don't worry, Third Brother. Debts have their debtors. I'll make sure the wolf pack and tiger pack know exactly who their enemy is."