Chapter 1684: Moving into Mountain Domain Fifty's Piece Tiger

In the dark Evolution Forest at over twenty degrees below zero, more than two hundred Disaster Elimination team members toiled for another six hours before completing the cleanup of tiger droppings and tiger fur within the containment zone.

At this point, only one task remained unfinished in this Disaster Elimination operation: confirming the source of the poison.

After another two and a half hours of in-depth searching, Zhang San confirmed that the small amount of Qiang-18 residue on the trunk of the pine tree that 31-1 frequently rubbed against was the sole poison source. The Disaster Elimination procedure ended, and the containment was lifted.

Large numbers of Disaster Elimination team members withdrew from the Evolution Forest carrying their equipment, while a 25-person military combat squad hid inside an underground bunker, guarding the Evolution Forest through the 46 cameras already installed.

The four hidden high-level Evolvers within this squad also received a secret mission—to capture the intruder who had invaded Mountain Domain Thirty-One and dug up the poison source buried underground by Huang Ju.

The poisoned 31-1 was loaded onto a helicopter and transported to Mountain Fifty in northern Hui-Three for treatment. After being locked in a dark cage for over ten hours, 31-2 regained its freedom. After letting out a roar as it circled the territory it had just seized—an area filled with strange and hateful scents—it returned to its original territory—Mountain Thirty-Three.

Special Ops Team One, the Territory Alliance squad, Green Dragon Teams Three and Four, and Aurora Teams Two and Three returned to the edge territory of the southern wolf pack to continue yesterday's mission—hunting down the intruder who had invaded Mountain Domain Twenty-One—to ensure the safety of the experts visiting and inspecting the southern experimental zone this afternoon.

At two-thirty in the afternoon, Zhang Song led the inspection team on a circuit above the southern experimental zone. After giving a detailed introduction, he did not return immediately, but instead turned the helicopter toward Mountain Domain Thirty-One—the domain where the Disaster Elimination procedure had been urgently launched yesterday at noon.

This leg of the itinerary had been added at the collective request of the experts.

After the helicopter lowered its altitude, the experts listened to Zhang Song's introduction while looking down at the mountain domain that had shocked the entire nation the previous night.

What the public was buzzing about was the fact that someone had fed the Evolution Tiger the Qiang-18 toxin.

The experts on the helicopter were not interested in Qiang-18, which would be quickly degraded by nature. What shocked and unsettled them was that someone had successfully developed a highly specific gene-targeted trigger-type toxicant, and had verified the stability of this toxicant on an Evolution Tiger.

Which team had developed this toxicant? Why had they poisoned 31-1? Over the past four months or even longer, what other animals had they used for experiments—and did those include… human test subjects?

Besides being bound to Qiang-18, what other toxins could this highly specific gene-targeted trigger-type toxicant be bound to?

Were the relatives and colleagues around them who had died of rare illnesses over the past year or two truly dead by accident, or… had they been poisoned?!

The mood of the experts on the helicopter was as terrible as the mountain domain below, which had been trampled and rummaged through by the Disaster Elimination personnel until it was a mess. Some of the more psychologically fragile ones—especially Zhu Xin, an expert from the Guiwu Research Institute who had just joined the Blue Blood Alliance—were already feeling that something was wrong all over.

This panic was not only spreading among the twenty-two researchers on the helicopter, but was also spreading rapidly among researchers at the various bases who had received the news—everyone felt themselves to be in danger.

Two hours after the inspection helicopter, escorted by two military aircraft, flew back to Northern Zone One, Xia Qing and the others finished their mission and boarded the Lei Sha helicopter to return to the Safe Zone and the territory.

The members of the western tiger group and southern wolf pack, who had been harassed for two days, climbed to the mountaintop and let out angry roars. The Handsome Giant Wolf, who had spent two days in the western wolf pack's territory, got into a fight with the Western Wolf King before returning to the northern wolf pack's territory, its fur filthy and unkempt.

After the helicopter dropped off the Territory Alliance squad, it returned to the Safe Zone. Xia Qing led the team forward at a brisk pace. Tang Huai, who was following behind her, stretched out his legs but involuntarily toppled toward the ground.

Huo Zhun reached out and caught him. "Brother Huai, airsick?"

"Brother?" Tang Heng, who had been waiting at the south gate, immediately rushed over and supported his brother, who looked utterly haggard.

Putting himself in Huo Zhun's shoes, Tang Huai figured Huo Zhun must be even more exhausted than he was, so he didn't burden Huo Zhun any further. He handed his sniper rifle to Tang Heng, steadied himself on the ground with the longest black blade, and said, "I'm fine. I was lying flat in the helicopter for thirty-two hours, and even after getting off I still feel like I'm swaying. It's nothing—I'll be good after resting a bit."

Huo Zhun chuckled. "Brother Huai's constitution is good; you've done well. The first time I rode in a tank, I threw up all over Damin."

Everyone: …

Tang Heng supported his brother as he greeted everyone. "Everyone's worked hard—get back in the car and rest a bit. Sister Yan, Sister Qing, which territories are you headed to?"

Yan Long spoke up. "I'm going to Territory Eleven."

Xia Qing also stated her destination. "I'm going to Territory Seven. Everything's fine on our end, right?"

"Nothing happened—Territory Three is completely normal. Everyone went to Mountain Fifty today to raise rice seedlings, and they'll be back soon." Tang Heng quickly made arrangements, putting Tang Huai, Yan Long, and Huo Zhun into one car to head toward Territories Eleven and Twelve, while he himself drove Xia Qing and Zhang Hongda to Territories Fifteen and Seven.

Tang Heng had a clear mind and good eloquence. Along the way, he reported to Xia Qing everything that had happened in the territory over the past thirty-plus hours. Just before parking, he finally mentioned the inspection team's movements. "Professor Wu Chengyu from the inspection team visited Territories Eleven and Twelve this morning, and after two o'clock this afternoon he went to Territory Twenty. He's currently inside Territory Twenty-Five."

"I'll tell everyone about his business later." Xia Qing got out of the car, handed her backpack and weapons to Zheng Chen, passed through the security check, and entered Territory Seven.

After the experts returned from Mountain Domain Thirty-One, they were holding a special seminar under Zhang Song's chairmanship, so there were no experts wandering around Territory Seven. Everything was as usual.

But the moment Xia Qing stepped into the laboratory building, an abnormal atmosphere began.

Under Zhang San's leadership, the people of Territory Seven all worked with extreme efficiency. Outside of rest periods, not a single person could be seen in this long, clean, and tidy corridor. But today, the moment Xia Qing walked in, the office doors began opening one after another.

Researchers Zhang He, Zhang Tao, Zhang Xu, and others filed out of their offices one after another, staring at Xia Qing. Seeing this lineup, Xia Qing's heart tightened. "Sister He, what's going on with you all?"

Zhang He hadn't expected everyone to come out either, and whispered a reminder. "Junior Sister, try to persuade Teacher later to go back and get some sleep."

Zhang Tao put it more directly. "Third Brother hasn't rested for over forty hours now."

Zhang Xu and the others also looked at Xia Qing with eager, imploring eyes, their gazes full of worry.

Going thirty or forty hours without rest was not the longest record for their idol's continuous work, and Xia Qing had never seen everyone this worried before. After a moment's thought, she understood: the two pieces of news—high-level brain-domain Evolver Wu Chengyu having cancer, and the Piece Tiger being poisoned with a gene-targeted toxicant—had had an enormous impact on the researchers of Territory Seven.

Bearing everyone's earnest hopes, Xia Qing knocked on her idol's door. Seeing her idol transformed into a skull-headed panda, her tone was remarkably calm. "Third Brother, didn't you find time to catch some sleep?"

Zhang San shook his head. "I'll sleep later. Are the tiger group and wolf pack stabilized?"