Chapter 1695: The Two Wolves and Two Tigers That Appeared at Mountain Forty-Nine

Tigers really are cats' "apprentices," still part of the feline family. No matter how vast the difference between pet-cat doctors and wildlife veterinarians was before the Catastrophe, during the Catastrophe years when medical resources were scarce, a pet doctor who treated cats could perfectly well treat tigers.

These days, having any doctor at all is already a blessing. When there's no specialist, someone like Xia Qing, a jack-of-all-trades, can step right in to treat tigers and bears!

But Hui-3's Northern District One is very different from other districts — medical resources here are not scarce in the slightest.

Besides the big shots standing at the very top of the universe's pyramid, there's also Zhang He and Zhang Song, who have half a foot on the pyramid's peak, as well as two experts, Li Yunkuan and Zhu Xin, who came to Territory Seven to study evolved beasts. Although Xia Qing doesn't know exactly where these two stand on the pyramid, they're definitely higher up than Ma Hai.

So it's not Tang Huai's turn to bring pet doctor Ma Hai out to Mountain Fifty for a consultation.

The evolved tiger's roars carried into the Territory Seven meeting room. Whether it was Zhang Song or the experts present, every one of them wanted to howl and rush over to take a look.

But on the surface, they all had to pretend they hadn't heard. Zhang Song was solemnly showing the inspection team documents from Territory Seven's filing cabinet — supposedly of great significance, but actually utterly useless — and the team members not only had to listen and look with perfect seriousness, they also had to take careful notes…

Evolved tigers? When they visit the Mountain Fifty experimental zone the day after tomorrow, they should be able to see one… probably…

After the tiger roared twice and fell quiet again, Xia Qing, who was in Territory Three's artificial climate cultivation room, bent down and once more opened the glass compartment door where the new batch of X-spinach was growing.

On January 8th, Xia Qing harvested the spinach she'd planted last autumn in Greenhouse One — moved into the cultivation room after the cold set in — with a Yi-element content of 7.5–8.1‰.

On January 18th, while the first batch of inspection-team experts were touring the territories of Northern District One, Xia Qing harvested the spinach whose growing period she'd deliberately extended by controlling temperature and humidity, with a Yi-element content of 6.5–6.8‰.

On January 19th, after clearing out the glass unit where the spinach had been grown, Xia Qing planted forty spinach seeds with a Yi-element content of 6.5‰ into the prepared high-Yi-element nutrient soil. Three days later, twenty-seven tender sprouts poked out — the germination rate still holding steady at 66–67%.

Today is January 28th. The spinach's two lance-shaped cotyledons have already spread open, and one or two oval true leaves have grown out. Although the true leaves are still no bigger than Xia Qing's thumb, their shape is complete and their color a lush green — the more one looks, the more pleasing they are.

After recording the spinach's growth in her notebook, Xia Qing picked up the palm-sized little hoe forged by Lord Huo Lei and Jiang Ying, and focused on clearing the weed shoots poking up through the cultivation soil.

Weeds are plants with terrifyingly tenacious生命力. No matter how many times you clear them, as long as the temperature and humidity are right, they'll quickly snatch the nutrients from the soil, take root, and sprout. If the farmer is lazy for a few days and doesn't clear them, they'll steal the spotlight, swallow up the crops, and turn the farmland into grassland.

The fertilizer in the soil was all collected and fermented bit by bit by Xia Qing herself — of course she couldn't feed it to weeds. After clearing out the little plants, Xia Qing closed the glass unit's door feeling refreshed, picked four strawberries, walked out of the artificial climate cultivation room, and gave one to Chen Cheng, who was analyzing soil.

Does Daigua wasn't in the territory, and Wolf Lao Er was avoiding the inspection team's experts and couldn't come help Xia Qing test the soil. Xia Qing herself was too busy, so she could only ask the Beard Feng squad to help with the testing.

Xia Qing paid out ten green-light eggs just to get a certain shrewd wolf to agree to let the Beard Feng squad into the lab.

The lab is on her territory — so why does she need the shrewd wolf's permission? Because the lab in Territory Three was jointly funded by Xia Qing and the shrewd wolf, and the ownership and usage rights of most of the equipment inside belong to a certain wolf!

"Thanks, Sister Qing." Chen Cheng took the sweet strawberry, his face still creased with worry. "Part of the soil test report is out. Today's anaerobic bacteria activity is up another point from yesterday."

Xia Qing nodded. "That's the average level for this time of year. Although the ground hasn't thawed yet, the soil temperature has already started warming up — microbial activity in the soil climbs every day."

"Mm, I didn't test last year. As long as it's normal, that's fine." Chen Cheng bit into the strawberry, and his whole person started to bubble over. "This one bite just sent me back to before the Catastrophe!"

Xia Qing smiled. "Before New Year, pick ten strawberries to take home."

"Thanks, Sister Qing!" Chen Cheng and Chen Zheng are very lucky — their mother is still alive, and they have a home to return to for New Year.

Xia Qing nodded. "Once all the test results are out, fill in the forms and send them to Tang Heng. I'm going to clear the drainage ditches first."

Soil anaerobic bacteria activity is rising. Within the next ten days, the ice and snow could melt at any time, switching abruptly from a winter of minus twenty-something degrees to a spring of ten-plus degrees. If the drainage ditches aren't prepared in advance, when Blue Star switches seasons, the farmland in the territory could be scoured by ice water, reducing crop quality.

So the lords, with two years of farming experience under their belts, have already started clearing the drainage ditches in their territories.

Xia Qing walked out of the lab, shared the three strawberries she'd brought out with Sheep Lao Da and Wolfdog Lao Er, then drove the micro-tiller off to clear the drainage ditches.

Sheep Lao Da naturally sat in the micro-tiller's cab with Xia Qing, while Wolfdog Lao Er stayed guarding outside the lab as always. In Lao Er's mind, this abandoned village is its territory, and it won't leave until it has chased Chen Cheng out of the abandoned village.

Driving the micro-tiller, listening to Sheep Lao Da's cud-chewing beside her, and hearing the occasional not-too-loud, not-too-quiet tiger roars drifting over from Mountain Fifty, Xia Qing worked and thought about the negotiation with the base commander at the same time, working until dark before heading home to cook.

The deputy base commander sent word back, telling her to go to the base commander's office at ten tomorrow morning. Xia Qing plans tonight to organize the negotiation points she's thought of, then analyze them carefully, checking for gaps and filling them in. After tomorrow morning's special training ends, she'll change clothes and take a helicopter to Hui-3 Safe Zone's inner city to see the base commander.

The plan is perfect, but putting it into practice always faces all kinds of changes.

At eight in the evening, while Xia Qing was趴在 the table scratching her head, she got a slightly liver-trembling phone call from Beard Feng.

"Sister Qing, Fourth Brother has arrived at Mountain Forty-Nine, Zone Six, with two evolved tigers and one giant wolf. He wants you to come find him now. That giant wolf should be the Western Wolf King. I can't identify the evolved tigers — they're… all very irritable."

Mountain Forty-Nine is the Blue Dragon squad's training ground, and the Blue Dragon squad has the responsibility to intercept beasts and stop them from crossing Mountain Forty-Nine to threaten the safety of human territories. Now, four large beasts with off-the-charts combat power are squatting in front of the camera, having the Beard Feng squad — responsible for guarding the mountain — pass a message to Xia Qing inside the human territory.

Apart from the former Southern Wolf King, Old Four, the other three are clearly on the verge of going berserk. Several big trees in Mountain Forty-Nine, Zone Six have already been knocked down by them. Watching those three big brutes through the screen, Beard Feng — who had seen the world following Xia Qing — had his heart leap into his throat too.

Xia Qing stood up immediately. "I'll set out right now."

"Got it. Er Yong and Chen Zheng will reach Territory Three in three minutes." Beard Feng didn't dare rush Xia Qing, and even less dared shout at the four beasts through the camera. Because the moment he'd opened his mouth earlier, he'd lost a camera.

How did he lose it?

That giant wolf, hearing a human voice, had leapt straight up and clawed the camera to pieces…