Chapter 1480: The Most Precious Drop of

Hearing that Huang Wanmao, the medical school professor at Bai Yi University who had saved Li Jun, was a member of the Blue Blood Alliance, Xia Qing wasn't surprised at all. "In the fourth year of the Calamity, Huang Wanmao and Guo Hanmo, the director of the Huiyi Underground Experiment, jointly published an academic paper on the evolution of human abilities."

The already-deceased Guo Hanmo, director of the Huiyi Underground Experiment project, was one of the core members of the Blue Blood Alliance. Huang Wanmao, who had conducted research with him, was naturally likely a member of the Blue Blood Alliance.

Tang Huai stuck up his thumb. "You even know this? Sister Qing, you're amazing!"

Knowing this counts as amazing? Your standards for "amazing" are way too low. Forget Third Brother—even the evolution wolves would look down on you. Xia Qing took a sip of tea with an expressionless face and asked, "What's Li Jun's background?"

Tang Huai pulled out his phone, opened Li Jun's investigation file, and handed it to Xia Qing as he introduced him. "Li Jun, 24, a brain-domain evolver, Huang Wanmao's doctoral student, fourth year. For someone with his damn looks and temperament to be voted 'Campus Heartthrob,' it just goes to show how low the attractiveness level is at Bai Yi Medical School…"

A 24-year-old fourth-year doctoral student and brain-domain evolver—standard stuff, nothing to be surprised about. Xia Qing continued flipping through the file with an expressionless face. When she saw the three characters "Pan Yuanwen," her finger paused. Li Jun's uncle by marriage turned out to be Pan Yuanwen, the Minister of Agriculture of Hui City, who would be coming to Hui-3 Safe Zone in a few days to present Xia Qing with her award certificate.

While Tang Huai kept ranting about Li Jun and took a sip of water, Xia Qing seized the moment to ask, "You weren't able to get evidence on Li Jun?"

The fire that burned Tang Lu to death was ruled an accident. The official notice issued by Bai Yi made no mention of Huang Wanmao or Li Jun's names.

"Li Jun is very cunning. He never communicates with Tang Lu in writing—every promise is verbal. The day of the incident, the people he brought to grab me all used the excuse of putting out the fire. Besides," Tang Huai paused, and his expression and tone suddenly took on the manner of his old man Tang Zhengpo, "Li Jun's aunt Li Huifang is the CFO of Wantong Trading Company, and his uncle by marriage is our Hui City's Minister of Agriculture, Pan Yuanwen. Whether it's for my family's business or for our Alliance, I can't touch Li Jun this time."

Wantong is the largest trading company and underground arms dealer among Hui City's ten bases. The Tang family's restaurant group is nowhere near the same weight class as Wantong. The Hui-3 Northern Zone-1 Territory Alliance is just a mutual-aid organization formed by these farming lords. Its leader, Xia Qing, director of the Ninth Planting Center, is even further below Pan Yuanwen in rank.

Tang Huai went to Bai Yi Base as a representative of the Territory Alliance. If he dug in his heels on Li Jun, it would make things very difficult for Xia Qing as the Alliance leader. In a few days, Xia Qing still has to go to Hui-3 Safe Zone to attend the commendation ceremony and receive her award from Pan Yuanwen.

"Did Sister Qing have any dealings with Pan Yuanwen during the two years before the Calamity when she was in Wanhe Gathering Area?" The Sufeng Squad had once investigated Xia Qing, so Tang Huai knew which human gathering area she had stayed in before entering Hui-3 Safe Zone.

When Xia Qing's family was staying in Wanhe Gathering Area, Pan Yuanwen was the area's order-keeper. Tang Huai figured that a busy man like Pan Yuanwen had specifically come to attend the Hui-3 Agriculture Department's commendation ceremony for Xia Qing's sake.

Xia Qing answered calmly, "We exchanged a few words."

Tang Huai could tell Xia Qing didn't want to talk more about Pan Yuanwen, so he continued, "Huang Wanmao isn't only connected to Guo Hanmo—he's also collaborated multiple times with Blaze's research institute. Di Ming obtained another important piece of information from Huang Wanmao's notebook: he had several encrypted emails with someone from the Heavy Alliance's Life Sciences Lab, discussing how to trigger evolution abilities. The content was too technical for me to understand."

After Tang Huai finished speaking, he handed Xia Qing a USB drive. "Sister Qing, give these files to Third Brother. Hopefully they'll be of some use."

The brain-domain evolver Di Ming, codename "Keyboard," isn't just the Jiaolong Special Ops Team's interrogation specialist—he's also a master of information warfare. Cracking passwords and obtaining classified files is no challenge for him.

Xia Qing asked, "Why don't you just hand the USB drive directly to Zhang He?"

Tang Huai sighed. "No chance. Every time I see Zhang He, she's either hugging her laptop or carrying a huge stack of files. I suspect she just doesn't want to deal with me."

No need to suspect. That's exactly it.

After Zhang He completed the soil pollution remediation project on Mountain 50 and returned to Territory Seven, she quickly joined the Yi Snake Research Project team. She wished she could sleep next to the incubator every day and was far from willing to take this assignment.

Xia Qing took the USB drive and instructed Tang Huai, "Don't leave Northern Zone-1 Territory for now."

Tang Huai leaned back in his chair and sighed. "Now I kind of understand why Fire Phoenix went crazy like that. Good thing I'm not a recovery-ability evolver. Thanks to Third Brother, thanks to Professor Meng Xianglai. I hope these big shots keep at it and crack the mass-production technology for the recovery factor soon."

After Zhang San discovered the β-group active evolution protease in Tang Huai's body, with his consent, he assembled a top-tier domestic research team to tackle the mass-production challenge of this enzyme group. Dean Meng Xianglai of Bai Yi University Medical School led his research team in round-the-clock intense work for a full year and finally achieved a major breakthrough.

The mass production of the β-group active evolution protease significantly raised the personal safety coefficient of its host—liver-function evolver Tang Huai.

If the recovery factor could be mass-produced, recovery-ability evolvers would no longer be everyone's idea of a piece of Tang's flesh. But this is very difficult, because over the years, top expert teams from every country on Blue Star have poured in countless effort without cracking this difficult problem.

The recovery factor is the most precious drop of "blood" in the eyes of fanatical Blue Blood Alliance members.

Fire Phoenix dares to act so recklessly precisely because the Blue Blood Alliance can't bear to part with her blood—no matter what she does, those people can't bear to let her die. Fire Phoenix certainly doesn't want to become the Blue Blood Alliance's blood bank. Her frantic search for Shi Jiaran is meant to have Shi Jiaran share—or even eliminate—her personal danger.

Zhang Shi, who bears the same kind of pressure as Fire Phoenix, chose to flee human society to survive. Now, for the sake of her daughter, she has returned to human society, hiding in a basement a few hundred meters from this liver-function evolver.

Without the support of parents or siblings, the psychological pressure she endures is countless times that of Tang Huai.

After his lament, Tang Huai gazed at Xia Qing eagerly. "Sister Qing, once my running speed reaches Level 4 and my combat skill reaches C-level, the β enzyme will definitely be in mass production. When Sister Qing takes on missions that need a hearing evolver in the future, you must take me along."

Tang Huai was dying to go on missions with Xia Qing and with the wolf pack.

Xia Qing made a promise. "If your combat ability meets the mission's needs, I'll consider you."

"Thanks, Sister Qing!" Without asking for a look at Wolf Lao Er, Tang Huai happily left Territory Three to go dismantle the breeding shed he had built in Territory Two.

Tang Huai hadn't gone far from Territory Three when Xia Qing received a call from Hearing Zhu Li. Upon hearing what supplies she wanted, Xia Qing stared at Tang Huai's retreating back and fell silent.