Chapter 1968: Dyeing the Fur Again

In the living room on the first floor of the No. 3 territory, the calm wolf king stared at the human squeezed beside Xia Qing for a few seconds, then slowly nodded its large head, which it had just dyed back to its original color.

Xia Qing exclaimed, "Base Chief, Lao Si, you two are truly amazing! You can still remember something from eight years ago so clearly!"

In the third year of the Catastrophe, September, Lao Si was only one and a half years old, still a scrawny, sub-adult wolf. Chief Qi Qi Zhongye had only met the wolf pack once in the evolution forest, and they hadn't even clashed, yet he could still remember Lao Si.

Through this, Xia Qing confirmed that the Base Chief was definitely a brain-domain evolver!

This was considered amazing? Zhang San, a Level 3, Type 4 brain-domain evolver, rolled his eyes at Xia Qing and lowered his head to continue examining the video of the wild dog pups.

Lao Si, the high-level brain-domain evolved former wolf king, naturally wouldn't respond to Xia Qing's nonsense.

Base Chief Qi Qi Zhongye spoke warmly, "In September of the third year of the Catastrophe, our base's humans discovered a group of edible evolved cattle. I led a team into the evolution forest, intending to capture the herd for breeding. I underestimated the combat power of the cattle, which led to one speed-evolved cow breaking through the encirclement and charging into the Southern Wolf Pack's territory, which is why I had the opportunity to meet the wolf king."

After introducing the sequence of events, Qi Qi Zhongye spoke naturally to the wolf king on the other end of the phone, "I didn't know at the time that you could understand human language, so I didn't communicate with you or the wolf pack leader at the time using human language, and I led my team to withdraw from the wolf pack's territory. Wolf King, did you catch that cow that broke into your territory?"

In the third year of the Catastrophe, the scale of the Hui-3 base wasn't as large as it was now, and the safety zone walls weren't as tall or sturdy. When encountering major missions, Base Chief Qi Qi Zhongye would still personally lead teams outside.

At that time, the country hadn't yet issued regulations against actively provoking large predators in the evolution forest.

When Qi Qi Zhongye led his team to capture the evolved cattle and accidentally trespassed into the wolf pack's territory, he didn't clash with them because that white-eyed female wolf leading the pack looked extremely formidable, and Qi Qi Zhongye didn't have the confidence to kill it in one strike. Therefore, he chose to lead his team in a retreat, safely bringing the cattle herd back to the Hui-3 safety zone.

At the time, Lao Si was still a half-grown wolf, and with the same eye color and powerful aura as that female wolf, Qi Qi Zhongye had once thought about going back to that evolution forest to find a way to bring Lao Si back to the human base to raise it himself.

But the base affairs were busy, and Qi Qi Zhongye couldn't spare the time to go outside. Two years later, when he received intelligence about this wolf again, the half-grown wolf had already reached adulthood, becoming a wolf king occupying a piece of the evolution forest.

Later on, this white-eyed wolf king led its pack to operate mainly in the evolution forest of the Hui-1 base, clashing with humans from the Hui-1 base multiple times, becoming a predator on the Hui-1 base's bounty hunting list.

After the country announced the regulations against actively provoking predators in the evolution forest, that list was withdrawn, and Qi Qi Zhongye stopped paying attention to the news about this wolf.

Upon learning that there was a wolf infected with parasites in Xia Qing's territory, Qi Qi Zhongye didn't connect it to the white-eyed wolf king that had once been on the bounty list.

It wasn't until Zhang San wanted to circle the Southern Wolf Pack's territory as a test zone that Qi Qi Zhongye retrieved the relevant intelligence, discovering that the wolf Xia Qing had saved was actually the white-eyed wolf king he had once wanted to tame.

Today, eight years later, he met this wolf again. It really was true that as long as you lived long enough, you would encounter surprises.

On the mobile phone screen, the calm old wolf nodded its furry head again, then turned its gaze toward Xia Qing.

Xia Qing went straight to the point, "Lao Si, you've discovered it too, right? Among the offspring bred by the gene-edited dog that invaded the Eastern Wild Dog Pack's territory, four of them have mutations in their claws..."

Before Xia Qing could finish, the old wolf in the screen raised its right front paw and wrote an Arabic numeral in the air:

6.

Qi Qi Zhongye showed a look of astonishment. Not only could this wolf understand human language, but it had also learned to use human characters?!

Seeing the old wolf's action, Xia Qing immediately reported, "Base Chief, Third Brother, Lao Si says the number of mutated offspring bred by the gene-edited dog in the Eastern Wild Dog Pack isn't 4, but 6!"

Zhang San immediately asked, "Xiao Si, where are the offspring of the other two gene-edited dogs? Are they already dead, or were they taken by humans?"

The old wolf kept its mouth shut.

"Lao Si says it doesn't know." After answering the idol's question, Xia Qing continued to communicate with the old wolf, asking about the specific situation.

"Lao Si, you went into the wild dog pack's den to check?"

"... No? Then how did you see it? You saw it from outside the cave? Okay. Are there any cameras near that cave?"

"... You didn't see any? Okay. Have you smelled any human scent near the Eastern Wild Dog Pack's core territory? None, okay..."

Discovering that the communication between this wolf king and humans was even smoother than the communication between brain-domain evolved military dogs and humans, Qi Qi Zhongye felt a stormy sea rising in his heart.

This was the scientific research project that Zhang San had just mentioned, right? The value of this project was indeed much higher than that of the pollution-free spring water.

If humans could reach a deep level of cooperation with predators, it could greatly improve the Hui-3 base's defense level in the evolution forest.

However, once these predators turned against humans, the difficulty and cost for humans to acquire resources in the evolution forest in the future would increase exponentially.

"... Lao Si, these two litters of pups are all offspring of the gene-edited dog. If they are allowed to grow up, the genes edited by humans that they carry will spread in the evolution forest, triggering uncontrollable, catastrophic consequences. Can you make a trip to the Eastern evolution forest and have the new leader of the wild dog pack kill these pups? You cannot eat their corpses after killing them, as it might trigger mutations."

Lao Si lowered its head and looked at its fur color.

Xia Qing understood, "This mission requires you to participate personally? Will it be dangerous?... Okay, you go prepare first. I'll call Da Gua and have him dye your fur. I'll tell you the human response plan after I finish the meeting."

Xia Qing hung up Lao Si's call and dialed Da Gua's number, speaking directly via voice call, "Da Gua, I have things to do and won't be back for a while. Go to the first-floor bathroom, use that bottle of black hair dye to dye Lao Si's fur. Rub it in well and make sure it's dyed evenly. The reward for this mission is 250 grams of green-light delicious honey. Can the smart and capable Da Gua complete this mission?"

"Yi!!!"

Qi Qi Zhongye drank a calm sip of water. Xia Qing gave such detailed instructions and even used honey as a reward. Could it be that the one called Da Gua in her territory is a child?

Is it... the child of the resilience evolver Shi Shi Jiaran?

"Very good. As expected of the most excellent employee in our territory, Da Gua. Go execute the mission. If you encounter difficulties, call me again."

"Yi!!!"

After ending the call, Da Gua put on tiny rubber gloves and, full of energy, rushed into the first-floor bathroom.

Xia Qing put down her phone and reported, "Lao Si will dye its fur black first and set off in half an hour. It is expected to enter the target area from the northwest with at least one evolved wild dog at 11:30. Please notify the relevant personnel to let them pass."

Qi Qi Zhongye nodded, pointing out a loophole in the plan: "As far as I know, there are no black wolves with white eyes in the evolution forest around us. Changing only the fur color still carries the risk of exposure."

Zhang San stood up, "I'll go prepare a potion to change the color of the irises. Fifteen minutes."

Watching his idol enter the laboratory, Xia Qing turned her head and found the Base Chief holding his phone, looking at her with a burning gaze...

Seeing Xia Qing reveal a look of vigilance, Qi Qi Zhongye restrained his emotions slightly and asked kindly, "The communication tool you provided for Lao Si, was it exchanged with Professor Wu?"