Chapter 375: Fire Phoenix's Evolution Ability

After the shooting skills lesson ended, Luo Pei handed Xia Qing a case of exercise-only bullets from his pack. "Take these and use them. When you run out, ask A Jin for more."

"Thanks, Brother Luo." Xia Qing took the heavy bullet case, and was just mulling over how to bypass Iron Rooster and trade directly with Brother Luo for exercise-only bullets, when she heard Luo Pei say he was leaving.

"I have a mission. We set out this afternoon. If you run into problems during training, you can contact me directly, or ask A Jin and Zifeng."

Survival was not easy during the Calamity years. As a squad leader, Luo Pei could not stay idle in the territory after recovering, watching wheat sprout.

After he left, who would deal with the refugees in Territory Two? The Green Dragon battle team surely had arrangements. Luo Pei was a top sniper; his strength was long-range kills. Scheming and strategy were the forte of brain-domain evolvers.

The Green Dragon battle team was hardly short on brain-domain evolvers—two of its three leaders were brain-domain evolvers.

Xia Qing asked, "Brother Luo, want to bring a jar of my pickled cowpeas? They're a bit salty, but taste pretty good—really go well with rice."

Besides pickled cowpeas, Xia Qing decided to give Brother Luo ten jin of Green Lantern walnuts. After her detox, her visual evolution ability had dropped to level nine, so eating walnuts that could supplement the brain and heal brain damage would surely do no harm.

"Good." Luo Pei instructed Xia Qing, "I've already spoken with Tan Junjie. He won't question the wolf pack's comings and goings between Territory Three and Sector Three of Mountain Forty-Nine, but you must keep the wolves in check—don't let them clash with people in the territory, especially the refugees."

"The wolf pack only moves within Sector Three of Mountain Forty-Nine and my territory, and won't enter other zones. As long as no one invades these two zones, there won't be any conflict with the wolves." Xia Qing took the chance to ask, "Has Brother Luo set a time with Captain Tan? When does the inspection team start its regular patrols of the North Isolation Belt?"

Luo Pei told Xia Qing the latest situation. "Most of the inspection team's attention will be on Territory Two and Territory Nine. Patrols start after the Calamity Snow."

That meant December. Xia Qing nodded.

Luo Pei continued, "Tang Zhengpo wants his two sons to use the refugees in Territory Two to practice their hands. Fire Phoenix will come to Territory Nine in a while—this winter's going to be lively. Try not to cross paths with Fire Phoenix, and absolutely don't let anyone she brings enter your territory."

There's an unpolluted spring on Liehuo Mountain, so the Liehuo battle team members are very familiar with spring water. If they enter Territory Three, they're very likely to discover the spring's existence.

Xia Qing nodded solemnly and asked in a lowered voice, "Can Brother Luo tell me what Fire Phoenix's evolution ability is?"

It wasn't much of a secret, so since Xia Qing asked, Luo Pei just told her directly. "She has a recovery evolution—the ability to return to her original state after her body suffers external interference."

Xia Qing had heard of this kind of evolution ability, but had never encountered it. Recovery was a passive ability; combat power wasn't high.

A recovery evolver like Fire Phoenix—what did she rely on to become the captain of the Liehuo battle team, and make everyone in the Liehuo battle team afraid of her?

Xia Qing continued asking, "Why did she dye her whole body fire-red?"

This involved a past that those who knew about it were unwilling and couldn't bear to recall. Luo Pei briefly explained, "After Deng Yufeng's evolution ability was exposed, it attracted the attention of a group of lunatics. They discovered through research that her blood had a very high content of Yi element, and it was highly active—that's why her body could recover from damage so quickly. Those people, for various purposes, conducted all kinds of cruel experiments on her, and drew her blood for research, manufacturing recovery agents and antidotes."

"To get rid of those lunatics, Deng Yufeng injected herself with Calamity-synthesized lethal poison. Her recovery ability could fight the Calamity-synthesized lethal poison in her blood, but couldn't eliminate the poison completely, causing her blood to lose its medicinal and research value."

"The Calamity and Yi elements and the toxin changed the color of her blood, making the blood vessels all over her body very visible. So after escaping those lunatics, she took a potion to change the color of her skin."

So Deng Yufeng's skin color was changed to red by taking medicine, not dyed. Xia Qing continued asking, "Are those lunatics dead?"

Luo Pei sighed softly. "Most of them are dead. There are still many lunatics like that, so before you have enough combat power and status, don't risk revealing your true evolution ability to outsiders."

Xia Qing nodded and asked again, "Will the Calamity-synthesized lethal poison in Fire Phoenix's blood poison anyone who comes into contact with her blood?"

"She regularly injects toxin into her blood. You can think of her as a moving lethal-poison creature. If her blood touches you, you'll be poisoned." Luo Pei warned Xia Qing again, "Try not to have contact with her. That experience changed her personality—she's almost becoming a lunatic herself."

Xia Qing nodded. After parting with Luo Pei, her steps were a little heavy.

Over the years, Xia Qing had been struggling to survive at the bottom of society, but relying on her outstanding auditory evolution ability, she had picked up quite a few secrets unknown to others.

In the sixth year of the Calamity, the base commander, deputy base commander, and research institute director of Huiyi Base were successively replaced, and the base management underwent a major shake-up. The real reason was that the Huiyi Research Institute had secretly conducted all kinds of inhumane experiments, killing and torturing many people to death.

The lunatics Luo Pei mentioned should be that batch of people removed from the Huiyi Research Institute. Fire Phoenix was a victim. Now, this former victim was about to become a perpetrator.

This was probably why Zhang San had firmly stopped them when he heard Territory Nine was going to take in refugees.

Fire Phoenix's trip this time was probably aimed at Zhang San. But Zhang San had Ji Li and others protecting him. As long as he didn't leave Territory Seven, Fire Phoenix couldn't do anything to him.

What Xia Qing had to do was keep her own secrets hidden and survive.

Luo Pei said that once she had enough combat power and status, she could make public the fact that she was a tri-system advanced evolver.

But Xia Qing had no plans to announce it. She had no grand ambitions or pursuits—during the Calamity years, she just wanted to live as comfortably as possible.

Of course, when her combat power was sufficient, Xia Qing would seize the chance to put a bullet in Tang Zhengsu. The main purpose of killing him was to avenge her father, and incidentally rid Hui San Base of a scourge.

"Beep."

The Beimen camera of Territory Three identified and confirmed Xia Qing's identity, turned the iron gate, and after Xia Qing passed through, sent a message to the client:

Territory Three Lord Xia Qing entered Territory Three through the Beimen on November 10 at 11:28.

Hearing the iron gate close behind her, and seeing the message on her phone, the heaviness that had just been pressing on Xia Qing largely dissipated.

Lord Xia Qing didn't care about matters outside the territory—only whether the spinach seeds in the terraced fields had matured, and whether the planted wheat and spinach had taken root.

She first went to the Gao Po terraced fields and carefully tested the spinach. After confirming the spinach seeds hadn't matured, she casually plucked a few stalks of green onion and went to the wheat field.

The seeds buried in the soil were growing hard. Xia Qing didn't rashly push aside the soil to check; she just cleared some weeds at the field's edge, then took her basket and went home.

Today the Green Lantern hens laid four eggs. Xia Qing was going to have tomato and egg noodles for lunch.

The eggs were fresh Green Lantern eggs just taken from the henhouse; the tomatoes were well-preserved Green Lantern tomatoes from the underground vegetable storage; the noodles were mixed flour of wheat and mung bean; the oil was self-pressed sunflower seed oil.

Stir-fry the tomato and egg topping, sprinkle chopped green onion on top, and pour it over the cooked hand-rolled noodles. A bowl of tomato and egg noodles with topping—color, aroma, and flavor all in one—was ready.