Chapter 443: Three Yi Stones

Xia Qing raised her doubt. "Captain Yang, you said it was the Liehuo Sect's evolved eagle owl that dropped the bomb, trying to kill you and Xu Pin. That story might fool Tang Zhengsu, but would the Liehuo Sect people believe it?"

"They don't believe it, but there's no way to prove someone else did the bombing, while I have evidence of their crime."

Yang Jin had secured two pieces of evidence, or rather, two witnesses. First, that Liehuo Sect team members had infiltrated Territory Two under the guise of refugees and entered Mountain Fifty to abuse and provoke the evolved bear; second, that after the explosion, the Liehuo Sect had sent speed-type evolvers to capture Yang Jin.

Xia Qing wanted to know what purpose Shan Ying had sent people for after the explosion. "After the explosion, what did they send high-level speed-type king evolvers over to do?"

Yang Jin told her directly. "Liehuo is secretly conducting research on awakening evolver abilities, and they need high-level ability evolvers as test subjects. Their research methods aren't much cleaner than the underground lab at the Huiyi Base research institute that was blown up back then. The only difference is that Liehuo keeps things more tightly sealed and offers enough benefits to shut some people's mouths."

"Is it the underground lab that was blown up in the winter of Year Five of the Calamity?"

Seeing Yang Jin look a bit surprised, Xia Qing explained on her own. "Once when I went to the safe zone administrative hall to handle some business, I overheard two staff members inside whispering about this matter. According to them, at the end of Year Five and the beginning of Year Six of the Calamity, the Huiyi Base commander and the research institute director were successively replaced, and the management underwent a major shake-up, all closely tied to this incident. I remember your combat team also left Huiyi around that time and came to Huisan Base."

Seeing that Xia Qing was interested, and since he had nothing to do that evening, Yang Jin told her in detail about this horrific incident that had been buried deep underground.

"The underground experimental project at the Huiyi Research Institute started out using evolved animals for research. Later it developed into recruiting ordinary people, having them sign a series of agreements, and then helping them awaken evolver abilities. After that, they grew bolder and bolder, eventually progressing to using evolvers directly for human experimentation research…"

It took the Yang family over half an hour to clearly explain this bloody incident, and Xia Qing listened until she was chilled to the bone.

If she hadn't been careful enough, she might very well have died on an operating table in an underground laboratory a hundred meters below…

Xia Qing poured the boiled spring water into cups, handing one to Yang Jin and holding the other against her palm. "I've met Tang Feng from the Sufeng Combat Team. She's extremely powerful, the goal many people in Huisan strive for. I never imagined she'd die so tragically."

"Tang Feng was the mainstay of the Sufeng Combat Team, and behind her stood Tang Zhengpo. In the early days of the Sufeng Combat Team, if Tang Zhengpo hadn't put up the money and offered his strategies, Sufeng couldn't have developed so quickly. So if Tang Zhengsu wanted to seize sole control of Sufeng, he had to get rid of Tang Feng."

Yang Jin took a sip of chrysanthemum tea, pushing down those horrifying scenes.

"Although the base commander and the research institute director were both replaced, and the main participants in the underground experiments were killed or arrested, the management didn't really undergo a complete overhaul, so we decided to leave Huiyi. Several bases threw us olive branches at the time, and Huisan Base offered the best conditions, so we came here. The Fire Phoenix also moved out of the base to occupy Liehuo Mountain, rapidly growing stronger."

Then, on the day he came to Huisan Base to negotiate terms face-to-face with the base commander, he spotted her at a glance at the safe zone gate.

Xia Qing listened to the wind whistling outside the window, watched the steam curling up from her cup, her mood heavy. "The Fire Phoenix were victims of the underground experiments, yet now they've become the perpetrators. Were Shan Ying and Li Si participants in the project?"

"Li Si wasn't. Her seniority is too shallow; she didn't qualify. Shan Ying did participate, but she wasn't the project leader, so she wasn't on the severe punishment list. She was locked up for just over a year and then released." Yang Jin revealed to Xia Qing the reason Li Si had come to the territory. "The Liehuo Combat Team has always wanted to recruit Zhang San. When they learned he'd come to this territory, they sent someone to make close contact with him. They chose Li Si because she'd once participated in Zhang San's research project."

In other words, had her idol once worked at the Huiyi Research Institute? That Huiyi senior researcher who exposed the underground experiments Yang Jin mentioned—could it be her idol?

It had to be. This was exactly the kind of thing her idol would do. Her idol never talked about it, but he was a researcher with principles and a bottom line.

That's why he couldn't stand the sight of Li Si, who had once worked on the same team as him but later left the research institute to join Liehuo, and couldn't stand Shan Ying, who continued the illegal experiments.

Mentioning Li Si made Xia Qing feel that Li Si's purpose in coming might not align with Liehuo's demands. "Li Si's bottom line should be a bit higher than Shan Ying and her lot. The hazardous chemicals in Territory Nine weren't hidden by her; they were hidden by a man in the territory named Zhang Qikun. I think she deliberately exposed the hidden hazardous chemicals in the territory so Zhang San would bring people to search them out, preventing Zhang Qikun's dangerous research activities from affecting her own research project."

Yang Jin nodded. "Li Si did want to use Zhang San's hand to break free from the Liehuo Combat Team. However…"

Xia Qing laughed and picked up the thread. "She must have offended Third Brother before."

"Right." Yang Jin laughed too. "The stronger Zhang San's ability, the smaller his mind. Once he takes a dislike to someone, he puts them straight on his blacklist and refuses to have anything to do with them. Even if that person walks right past him, he'll treat them like air."

Mentioning her idol filled Xia Qing with a sense of shared pride. Third Brother's abilities were strong enough, and his personality was distinctive enough.

Seeing that it was about time, Yang Jin pulled three walnut-sized yi stones from his pocket and handed them to Xia Qing. "For the antidote to cure the evolved bear, I took five yi stones. These three are yours."

They had agreed on a fifty-fifty split from the start, so Xia Qing didn't take advantage. "Are these mid-grade yi stones too? I'll crack one open."

"They're mid-grade yi stones. You don't need to crack one open; these three are all for you. If you hadn't asked Seeing Xin Yu to step in, I wouldn't have gotten rid of Xu Pin so easily. This is what you deserve." Yang Jin didn't give Xia Qing a chance to refuse further and asked, "That strain of qiangwu grass is still alive, right?"

The supplies had been handed over, the tea had been drunk, it was time to see the guest out. Xia Qing tucked the three yi stones into her pocket and stood up. "It's still alive. Shall I take you to see it?"

"Good." Yang Jin followed Xia Qing into the low-slope planting greenhouse. They moved the stone blocking the spring water opening and turned on the flashlight.

Xia Qing's mind was on the two small, colorless, transparent qiangwu grass plants inside the cave, while Yang Jin's mind was entirely on Xia Qing.

Xia Qing introduced them. "They haven't melted into water; they're still alive, but they haven't grown new leaves either. The one next to them with the intact appearance has grown two leaves."

Although she knew these two small grasses were growing in the cold Baicheng Base, Xia Qing still lowered the greenhouse's rainproof cloth every night to protect them from the cold, safeguarding these incomparably precious little plants, hoping they would grow up quickly and propagate more of their kind.

"It grew new leaves?" Yang Jin's gaze finally settled on the qiangwu grass.

"Yes, but they're still very small. You have to lean in for a close look to see them." Xia Qing took out her phone, pulled up the extreme macro photos of the qiangwu grass, and showed them to Yang Jin. "When they were first transplanted, the grass core was a small cluster. Now these two little leaves have grown bigger."

After saying that, Xia Qing scrolled through her phone for a long while more, pulling up the photos taken right after the initial transplant, so Yang Jin could compare them.