Chapter 523: Special Training

"Clang!"

Xia Qing swung her blade viciously, hacking at a pine sapling as thick as a thigh, startling the two Territory Nine researchers inside the high-danger zone into trembling at the same time.

"There's a hardness-evolved pine here, we need a chainsaw." Xia Qing called out.

"Coming—coming!" Wen Nengjie, who had been watching Xia Qing closely, beat Qi Fu to it, snatching up the chainsaw and rushing over. "Sister Qing, this one?"

"Right." Xia Qing, hatchet in hand, walked expressionlessly to the next small tree, felled it with one stroke, and pressed on.

The two researchers in the high-danger zone watched Xia Qing walk away, muttering softly, "She couldn't have not heard, could she?"

"Maybe—she's not a hearing-evolver after all…"

"If only we'd stood a bit closer."

During the two-hour rest break, Xia Qing held up her phone screen for Shi Mu, Yuan Yan, and Hearing Zhu Li to read:

The people from Territory Nine want to join other territories and stay. Everyone must think this over very carefully.

Because there was no base station here, neither Yuan Yan nor Shi Mu had brought their phones. Hearing Zhu Li pulled a cracked old phone from her clothes, typed a line, and showed it to Xia Qing:

Don't worry, no one will let them into their territory.

Yuan Yan and Shi Mu nodded along.

The people of Territory Nine really can research things, but they either hide hundreds of jin of hazardous chemicals or blow up mountains with poison-gas bombs. Letting people like that into your territory is asking to die.

Besides, Zhang San clearly dislikes the Territory Nine people. If they took these people in, wouldn't that be openly going against Zhang San? Between Territory Nine and Zhang San, even a fool knows who to choose.

Sure enough, after failing to get anywhere testing Xia Qing, the two of them approached Zhao Ze with the same pitch. Perhaps in their eyes, Zhao Ze—appointed by Xia Qing as the project lead—was the most capable and promising among these ordinary territory lords.

Not to mention Zhao Ze had already received Xia Qing's warning. He didn't want them. He was just an ordinary person who came out here toiling in the fields, wanting a full meal. When a bunch of refugees from another base showed up, he was so scared he couldn't sleep without fencing in a stockade wall. If these Territory Nine lunatics who played with poison and explosives entered his territory, he definitely wouldn't even dare eat—afraid of being poisoned.

Back in the territory, exhausted Hearing Zhu Li hid under the covers and secretly told her husband about it. "I watched all day. They didn't approach the people from Territories Fifteen and Seventeen, just us few. Hubby, if we all say no, they won't do something shady, right?"

Kuang Qingwei wasn't sure either, but he still pretended not to care and comforted his wife. "Blazing Fire is tough, but a strong dragon doesn't crush the local snake—this is our alliance's turf. Don't forget, we're allies with Third Brother and Xia Qing now."

"Right, right!" Hearing Zhu Li's anxious heart settled at once, and she soon began snoring softly.

But Kuang Qingwei lay with his eyes open, turning over and over how he should handle it if the Territory Nine people came to him.

The next day when they went up the mountain again, those two didn't show. After asking around, he learned they'd been kept in their tent by Territory Nine's assistant Xiao Liu to test samples and weren't allowed out.

Though he hadn't asked, Kuang Qingwei figured this must have been handled by Xia Qing, because she was the administrator of Mountain Fifty.

It really was Xia Qing who had said a word to Xiao Liu. This was a critical phase of the mission, and Xia Qing didn't want any more complications.

On Xia Qing's third day of the clearing mission, the firebreak was completed, enclosing the entire high-danger zone within it.

On the fourth day, wind speed on the Third Peak of Mountain Fifty dropped below Force 4, with no snowfall, meeting the natural conditions required for setting the mountain fire. Disaster-relief commander Zhang San ordered the snow on the trees shaken off first, and the mountain burning began.

At the burn site, Yang Jin and Xia Qing were in charge of command.

The high-danger zone was dominated by pine trees. Pine needles and branches contain large amounts of resin, which breaks down into large quantities of volatile flammable gases when burning, causing intense combustion and crown fires. So not long after the burn began, the big pines in the high-danger zone within the firebreak truly lived up to their name as fire trees.

Once the fire was going, the heat in the high-danger zone kept climbing. The qiang-snow on the ground quickly melted into sewage, releasing qiang elements into the air while flowing down dug channels toward a deep pit at the foot of the mountain lined with two thick layers of plastic sheeting. The newly formed sewage-treatment team worked methodically, thoroughly killing any super-evolution bacteria in the water.

Xia Qing made a round, confirmed the fire wouldn't spread beyond the firebreak, said a word to Yang Jin, went up the mountain into the hidden valley, and set fire to the stone-house ruins inside the valley along with the qiang grass and weeds she had cleared earlier. This great fire utterly destroyed all traces the Shi Jiayi family had left in the hidden valley.

This great fire burned for a full two days before going out. After a careful inspection, the team sent by Territory Seven confirmed the danger level had been reduced from high to medium. Commander Zhang San's mission was complete, and the disaster-relief working group was disbanded. All second-echelon members came down the mountain—those to be detained continued to be detained, those to undergo special training continued their training.

At 8:35 the morning after the disaster relief ended, Xia Qing arrived on time outside Territory Seven to meet up with Yan Long and Sister Qiqi, beginning a ten-day special training.

For this special training, Xia Qing had prepared thoroughly.

For weapons, per Yan Long's request, she brought only a short blade.

But for clothing—she wore a high-grade hardness-evolved snakeskin suit and power-evolver protective gear, which Watching Huo Zhun had specifically messaged her to remind her she must put on.

For food—she ate a full breakfast this morning, and also brought a top-grade nutrient solution and a big pack of pork jerky. The taste was nothing special, but she used green-light pork and green-light ingredients, so the nutritional value was through the roof.

More importantly, she was mentally prepared. Because Ji Li and Watching Huo Zhun had both hinted to her that Yan Long's special training was extremely intense. Yang Jin had told her very directly that when he was at military school and joined a special training led by Yan Long, he didn't make it to the end—he passed out halfway.

When she saw Yan Long standing quietly outside Territory Seven, Xia Qing squared her shoulders and walked over without the slightest fear.

"Sister Qing." Standing beside Yan Long, like a bean sprout, Sister Qiqi raised her hand and cheerfully greeted Xia Qing, whom she hadn't seen in months.

Xia Qing also raised her hand in response, walked quickly over, and greeted them cheerfully, "Sister Yan, Sister Qiqi."

Sister Qiqi was also very happy; her eyes, which looked a lot like her father's, curved into smiles. Looking at this cute little face behind the protective mask, Xia Qing suddenly felt that Tan Junjie, who always kept a stern face, would probably look very sunny and handsome when he smiled.

Yan Long spoke calmly, "Line up. Destination: Second Peak of Mountain Fifty. Run forward. Move out."

"Yes!" Sister Qiqi answered crisply, stood beside Xia Qing, and matched her stance.

"Yes." Xia Qing answered as well, and followed behind Yan Long, running toward the valley between Mountain Forty-Nine and Mountain Fifty.

After jogging slowly for a few minutes, Yan Long began to pick up speed, and Xia Qing and Sister Qiqi sped up with her.