Chapter 1556: The Vaporised Corpse and the Little Wolf's New Permanent Teeth

"Ding."

After the combustion chamber, burning at three thousand degrees, had run for six minutes, it gave a crisp sound signalling the program was complete. Yang Jin carefully opened the chamber lid.

Zhang Shi, curled up in a hollow high up in the karst cave, did not feel the wave of heat she had expected. She opened her eyes and looked down.

Inside the combustion chamber there were no charred, carbonised remains or bone fragments — not even ash. Inside was a heart-stopping void, as if the device had just been brought in and had never been used.

Under the extreme high temperature, Deng Yufeng's body had been reduced to its most basic elements and vanished into the air — vaporised.

The scene was simply too shocking. Zhang Shi sat hugging her knees in the hollow of the karst cave, unable to put her current feelings into words.

Or rather, her mind at this moment was, like the combustion chamber below, a void — nothing at all.

Xia Qing stared wide-eyed at the empty combustion chamber. This thing really was a wonderful tool for destroying a body and erasing all traces — the cremation effect was unrealistically good.

It wasn't only Xia Qing who found it unreal. Old Four and Broken-Waist Wolf felt the same. The two clever wolves walked forward, looked into the chamber, then sniffed around. Broken-Waist Wolf even used its paw to scratch at the hard karst-cave floor, trying to figure out where that bad person's body had gone.

Old Four lifted a paw to pull down its mask, raised its nose and sniffed carefully, then looked at Yang Jin.

Zhang San, his face perfectly calm, met the old wolf's gaze through the screen. "What scent did Little Four pick up?"

The old wolf solemnly raised a paw and scratched a character on the hard ground: Rain.

Broken-Waist Wolf immediately hopped over to look. "Aow."

Xia Qing translated, "Third Brother, Broken-Waist says it smelled the same thing as Old Four."

Zhang San, sunk into the soft chair, explained softly, "At an extreme temperature of three thousand degrees Celsius, the oxygen and nitrogen in the air react to form a series of nitrogen oxides. When lightning ionises the air during rain, it also produces nitrogen compounds — that's why you can smell an air similar to that of a thunderstorm."

Xia Qing……

Third Brother, these two wolves haven't even finished primary school yet — it's not time for them to be learning chemistry.

After confirming that Deng Yufeng had vanished completely, Zhang Shi no longer poked her head out to look. She leaned quietly against the stone wall, her eyes vacant as she gazed at the stalactites hanging from the ceiling of Shi Dong.

After Yang Jin had burned all the bodies, he looked up at the stone walls around the karst cave, where more than a dozen wolves — large and small, old and young, familiar or unfamiliar — stood watching, then left the cave.

After the other wolves had left, Zhang Shi slid down the rope to the ground, walked to the centre, and stood quietly on the very spot where, moments ago, a human with the same kind of evolutionary ability as hers had been cremated.

Inside the office of Hui-3 No. 7 Territory, Zhang San replayed the recording. Following the pattern of the blood vessels, he carefully observed the vessel-covered corpse in the footage. His highly evolved brain ran at full speed, deducing what the internal state of the body would look like if dissected.

Xia Qing, sitting opposite, ran through in her mind everything that needed to be done in her own territory, at the Ninth Centre, and on Mountain Fifty. After confirming no key items had been missed, she reached into her pocket, pulled out a piece of roasted jerky, carefully tore open the outer packaging, and put it in her mouth.

Hearing this faint plastic-rustling sound, Zhang San's attention returned to the present. He looked across at the new human who, after watching a body burn, still had the appetite to gnaw on jerky.

Being able to focus on a bodily need at a time like this showed that this new human's nervous system was not easily disturbed by the environment — she possessed powerful emotional isolation and extraordinary concentration.

Seeing her idol come back to himself, Xia Qing immediately held out a pack of jerky. "Green-Light Bamboo Rat Jerky, a specialty of Territory One. Try it — this one's soy-paste flavour."

Zhang San took it silently and set it aside, then took a dragon fruit from the fridge and placed it in front of her. "From the first year of the Catastrophe to the present, our country has publicly acknowledged four recovery-type evolvers. Two of them are already dead. In Red One there is still one male recovery-type evolver remaining."

Xia Qing, who had finished her jerky, picked up the dragon fruit. "Third Brother, could the one in Red City be Eleven's biological father?"

"I hope not, but the probability is high." Zhang San raised a hand to press his forehead, stared at the snow-white ceiling, his expression grave. "With Deng Yufeng, who was also of childbearing age, now dead, Zhang Shi's situation has become even more perilous."

Xia Qing reminded him, "Third Brother, no one would be willing to kill a recovery-type evolver. Deng Yufeng didn't die — she disappeared."

Zhang San……

"Third Brother, you…"

"Shut up!" Zhang San said, coldly refusing. After being thrown onto Jin Zita, he asked, "You've told all the wolves, tigers, leopards… all the animals not to reveal Zhang Shi's whereabouts to outsiders, and you've told Little Four and Broken-Waist not to take Zhang Shi to dangerous places."

"Understood." Xia Qing, holding the peeled dragon fruit, reminded her idol, "Third Brother, Zhang Shi entered the Evolution Forest while pregnant and safely brought her child to the age of five. She has plenty of experience surviving in the Evolution Forest — you don't need to worry too much. And right now she's Old Four's doctor, the key to Old Four returning to peak combat strength. Old Four will absolutely protect her well."

Zhang San asked, "Is she going to keep living with the wolves from now on?"

Xia Qing shook her head. "She didn't say. We'll play it by ear."

Whether she comes back or not, Zhang Shi is employee number 004 of Territory Three — she's on the payroll Xia Qing hands out.

Under the protection of South Wolf-19, Zhang Shi returned to the cave where she lived, only to see two wolves standing at the entrance. The adult wolf bared its lips, revealing a mouthful of sharp, snow-white teeth.

Zhang Shi lowered her voice, first praising then asking, "Brother Duan, your teeth are still as healthy and perfect as ever — truly the most beautiful teeth on all of Blue Star. Yang Jin and the others have already left?"

Broken-Waist Wolf closed its mouth and stared solemnly at Zhang Shi.

Zhang Shi, sensing its somewhat sharper aura, explained sincerely, "Brother Duan, you've got the wrong idea. I'm not trying to find out how your mission went — I'm checking whether there are still any humans here, whether it's safe. Ye Yiyi and I can't be discovered by other humans, or we'll be taken away."

Broken-Waist Wolf nodded solemnly.

"Alright, thank you, Brother Duan." Zhang Shi let out a breath of relief and showed a gentle smile. "Brother Duan, you want me to check Little Wolf-Sister's teeth?"

Broken-Waist Wolf nodded again, let out two "aow-woo"s, and Little Wolf-Sister reluctantly opened her mouth for Zhang Shi to look.

Zhang Shi stepped forward two paces, switched on her flashlight and quickly examined Little Wolf-Sister's teeth, then gave her preliminary diagnosis. "Little Wolf-Sister's deciduous incisors have fallen out and her permanent teeth have already come in. From what I can see, they haven't grown crooked. But during this teething period, she shouldn't be tearing at hard objects, in case the teeth grow crooked — this point must be watched carefully, or it will seriously affect her bite."

Since moving into the southern wolf pack's territory, Zhang Shi had seen eight wolves born that spring, one after another. The other wolf pups had already finished teething; Little Wolf-Sister was the latest. Previously Zhang Shi had worried she might be missing permanent-tooth buds, but now it looked as if the situation was a little better than she had expected.

Broken-Waist Wolf nodded solemnly, turned around, fished a pink points card out of its pocket, and placed it in front of Zhang Shi.

Zhang Shi……

"Brother Duan, what is this?"