Chapter 469: Only 2‰ Away from the Critical Threshold

After the poisoned alpha wolf summoned the pack to stop howling and sprinting, the animals in the northern part of the third peak of Mountain Fifty no longer fled outward in panic from fright.

An hour later, fewer animals were running out of Mountain Fifty, and Xia Qing's defensive pressure eased.

An hour and a half later, the reinforcements arrived, and the search team was rotated inside the fire wall to rest.

After Xia Qing, who had single-handedly served as the first echelon and held the second exit for nearly two hours, was also rotated off to rest, Hu Zifeng stepped forward and asked quietly, "How do you feel? How much longer?"

"Half an hour." Even after taking the Yi-element stimulant, Xia Qing felt exhausted. With trembling hands, she pulled out her phone and sent Hu Zifeng a message: Does Captain Hu know where Captain Yang is right now?

After contacting the squad monitoring room, Hu Zifeng replied: Mountain Fifty.

Mountain Fifty?

Xia Qing immediately sent Yang Jin a message, told him how to enter the hidden valley, and then asked: When you're done, could you go into that valley and bring back the three bags hanging on the wall and the big bag on the stone for me?

Xia Qing had originally planned to deal with the beast-hunting squad first, then return to Xiong Dong with the peanuts and head back to her territory. But plans can't keep up with changes—the beast-hunting squad actually used poison gas bombs, forcing her to first bring back the three poisoned wolves.

The peanuts she had just gathered were still wet; if she didn't bring them back to dry soon, they would very likely mold and rot. Brought back, they could be eaten, used as seeds, or kept as reserves for trading supplies with her idol.

Yang Jin, who was currently carrying the bodies of the Fierce Fire beast-hunting squad members down from the third peak of Mountain Fifty, replied with two words:

Sure.

After receiving Yang Jin's reply, Xia Qing was completely reassured. She replied telling him to watch out for the wound snakes, then rushed back to the first echelon to resist the beast tide.

She wanted to rest too, but Third Brother had told her to fight until she dropped.

More than being tired, she feared petty Third Brother getting upset. She absolutely would not withdraw from the defense line until she fought to exhaustion.

When only a sparse few animals were still charging out of Mountain Fifty, Xia Qing felt her stamina draining rapidly. She reported to Tan Junjie and withdrew from the defense line, heading for Territory Seven.

Before she even reached Territory Seven, Xia Qing couldn't hold on any longer. Hu Zifeng immediately stepped forward to support her and rushed toward Territory Seven.

Yan Long, who had come out to meet them, smelled the pungent stench on Xia Qing and stood far away. "Did you run into a weasel?"

When Xia Qing was carrying the wolves through the valley, the plucked-fur weasel released poison gas that blew open the surging beast tide, allowing her to quickly reach Territory Forty-Nine. Xia Qing had expected to smell bad, but hadn't expected it to be this obvious. She asked guiltily, "Do I really stink?"

"Wait here." Yan Long turned around briskly, returned to Territory Seven to put on a protective mask, brought out a plastic sheet, wrapped Xia Qing in it, hoisted her up, and carried her into Territory Seven.

Hu Zifeng hadn't been granted entry permission, so he could only stand outside the territory and watch helplessly as Yan Long carried Xia Qing inside like a sack of grain.

Yan Long brought Xia Qing to a clean bathroom and handed her over to Zhang He. Zhang He, who was completely unarmed, cut open the plastic sheet and told Xia Qing, "Your protective suit is contaminated with the evolved weasel's poison gas. You need to take it off and have it disinfected before going to the operating room for an examination. Shall I help you take it off?"

"No need, Sister He, I can manage it myself." Although Xia Qing was exhausted and aching all over, she could still take off her protective suit.

Seeing Xia Qing slowly raise her hands to remove her protective mask first, Zhang He stopped her, saying, "Take off the protective suit first, remove the mask last, or you'll stink yourself out."

Xia Qing...

"It really smells that bad?"

Zhang He nodded vigorously. "Last time I smelled it on Yan Long, I lost all appetite, couldn't eat a single bite, and had to live on nutrient solution for three days."

Xia Qing...

This is bad...

Right now, three stinking evolved wolves are lying in her living room—can her house still be salvaged?

After Zhang He sealed Xia Qing's removed protective suit into a bag and performed indoor ventilation and disinfection, she let Xia Qing remove her protective mask.

Perhaps because she had braced herself, or perhaps because Territory Seven's disinfectant was exceptionally effective, after taking off her protective mask, Xia Qing actually felt the smell in the room was much better than the stench when she had gone to clean up corpses after the base was attacked by the insect tide.

After sealing Xia Qing's protective mask, Zhang He asked, "Do you still have the strength now? If you can move, take a shower and change clothes first, then I'll take you for the examination."

Xia Qing nodded. "Yes."

Zhang He knew very well how severe the side effects of the Yi-element stimulant were. She was surprised that Xia Qing still had the strength to change clothes and shower. When reporting the situation to Zhang San, she speculated, "Third Brother, Xia Qing may have evolved the ability to endure pain."

Zhang San snorted. "What transmits pain?"

Pain is a defensive perception, transmitted through nerves to the neural center in the brain to be sensed. If a person cannot feel pain, they cannot sense or avoid harm. In a disaster-ridden world, they simply couldn't survive past the tenth year.

Zhang He knew she had said something stupid and laughed sheepishly.

Xia Qing used the brand-new hospital gown on the bathroom shelf to cover the bruises all over her body from the fighting. Fully geared-up Zhang He wheeled her into the operating room in a wheelchair, and she lay down on the operating table where the sick wolf, the broken-back wolf, and the broken-leg wolf had once lain.

Honestly, this state of having no ability to protect herself at all, able only to be at others' mercy, made Xia Qing very uneasy.

Would the upcoming examination expose her secret of being a triple-system advanced evolver? She wasn't afraid of Zhang San knowing, but she was afraid of others in Zhang San's territory knowing.

Zhang He saw that Xia Qing was nervous and comforted her, saying, "Relax. I'll first use the instrument to scan whether your bones are damaged, then draw blood to test whether the poison is completely cleared and whether follow-up treatment is needed—that has to be decided by Third Brother."

Half an hour later, Zhang He delivered Xia Qing to Zhang San's laboratory and withdrew, closing the door behind her.

Zhang San examined the test results one by one, his face growing darker and darker.

Before her idol could open his mouth to scold her, Xia Qing apologized directly, "Third Brother, I'm sorry. I didn't anticipate the beast-hunting squad would use poison gas bombs. All three evolved wolves were poisoned, and the wolf pack doesn't trust anyone else. I was afraid the conflict would escalate, so I took the anesthetic defensive agent and the Yi-element stimulant and brought them back."

Seeing Zhang San still silent, Xia Qing could only dangle some food as bait. "Third Brother, I gathered some Green-Light Black-Skin peanuts this time out. Once I get them back, I'll bring them right over to you."

Hearing about food, Zhang San's expression indeed improved considerably. "How much did you gather?"

"138 Green-Light plants, 246 Yellow-Light plants. I think the stability of this evolved peanut shouldn't be low." If it were low, it would have long since turned into a Green-Light plant like the other crops in the valley.

In other words, she very likely had another high-stability Green-Light plant! Xia Qing grinned, her smile radiant.

Zhang San raised his thin eyelids and glanced at her. Xia Qing immediately endured the pain and propped herself up, sitting ramrod straight.

Zhang San took off his glasses, raised a hand, and pressed his brow. "Your poison is cleared, and the damage to your bones and skin isn't serious. However, the wound-element content in your body has risen to 28‰."

When the wound-element content in a human body exceeds 20‰, it's at a dangerous level. Above 30‰, the human immune system can no longer resist the destruction by wound elements. Once the wound elements invade key areas of the brain, the person will develop irreversible wound-evolution symptoms.

Xia Qing was only 2‰ away from the critical threshold—it was already very serious. She asked carefully, "Third Brother, is this caused by the poison gas bomb, or is it a side effect of the Yi-element stimulant?"