Chapter 592: Go Ask the King of Hell

Xia Qing turned her head and glanced at Tang Zhengsu, lying on the cracked rock.

Tang Zhengsu's limbs were twisted at unnatural angles, his protective mask had already been removed, and blood was streaming down from the corners of his mouth and forehead. He was badly hurt, but still a fair way from death.

"Captain Yang, can I deliver the final blow?"

"Sure." Yang Jin naturally had no objection, leaning against a tree trunk nearby that was only as tall as a person to rest. He had deliberately refrained from kicking Tang Zhengsu to death earlier, leaving him for Xia Qing.

If Xia Qing's combat ability weren't high enough, and if she hadn't wanted to take revenge with her own hands, Yang Jin wouldn't have dragged her into a mission with such a high danger rating.

Tang Zhengsu was a dual-system evolver of speed and strength, and tonight he had also taken drugs that stimulated his physical abilities, being escorted by several dozen people as he tried to flee outward. For Yang Jin, this victory had not come easily.

But his mood right now was very relaxed.

Xia Qing slung the sniper rifle across her back, took off her protective mask and the silicone mask pressed against her face, walked up to Tang Zhengsu, reached out and grabbed the front of his protective suit, lifting him half off the ground.

Tang Zhengsu, groaning in pain, recognized Xia Qing's face once he saw it clearly. His bloodshot eyes slowly widened. "It's… it's you. So it was you…"

Last November, when he stood in the Northern District One territory and saw Xia Qing for the first time, he had felt she looked somewhat familiar, but couldn't recall where he had seen her.

Now, seeing Xia Qing's glaring, murderous eyes, Tang Zhengsu remembered at once.

In the fifth year of the Calamity, during the beast tide, Tang Zhengsu led his team to defend the wall.

Fighting on, the piles of wild beast corpses outside the wall grew higher and higher. A few mutated evolved beasts stepped on the mountain of corpses and leaped onto the safe-zone wall. When everyone else fled in terror, a skinny kid in tattered clothes with a buzz cut charged against the tide of people straight at him, wearing exactly this expression of wanting to tear him apart.

Tang Zhengsu didn't know which side that skinny kid had been sent by, but he had a strong intuition at the time: he had to kill this kid, or there would surely be future trouble!

But by the time Tang Zhengsu finished off the beasts and wanted to kill the kid, that skinny kid was already gone. Later, Tang Zhengsu had people look for him, but they never found him.

Later, Xu Pin, who possessed magnetic-sense evolution abilities, joined Sufeng. Tang Zhengsu kept Xu Pin by his side every day, and his safety greatly improved, so he no longer cared about that small underling who had only shown his face once.

He never expected that skinny kid to actually be Third Territory Lord Xia Qing. This woman had been looking for chances to kill him all these years!

Tang Zhengsu fixed his bloodshot eyes on Xia Qing with vicious hatred, and asked through blood-flecked lips, "Why… why?"

Why did she join forces with the Green Dragon people? Why did she plot against him so deliberately?

Why?!

The muscles in Xia Qing's arm and the veins on her hand instantly bulged. She slammed Tang Zhengsu hard against the rock wall—just like back then, when this bastard had casually grabbed Xia's Dad from the crowd as a human shield and thrown him at the beasts.

Tang Zhengsu's brains burst out on the spot, and he died immediately.

Why? Go ask the King of Hell!

Xia Qing had thought that after avenging herself, she would be so emotional that she'd cry, scream, or laugh out loud. But after truly taking her revenge, her mood was strangely calm.

Xia Qing raised her head and gazed up at the stars twinkling between the clouds.

Dad, Qingqing has avenged you.

Mom, you and Dad find a star where you can farm. Wait for me to come over, and just as we planned before, we'll grow vegetables and grain together and live our days in peace.

Yang Jin didn't go disturb Xia Qing. He pressed the walkie-talkie button and calmly reported, "Number one fugitive Tang Zhengsu resisted arrest and killed himself by smashing into the rocks."

Xie Yu replied, "Received. Bring his body back."

Xia Qing gathered her emotions and turned around. "Captain Yang, thank you."

Why she was thanking him, Xia Qing didn't say, and Yang Jin didn't ask. He took off his protective mask, his sweat-damp face wearing a smile. "No need for thanks. This is a win-win cooperation. With Tang Zhengsu taken out, you can farm in peace, and I can be the boss of Hui Three's First Squad in peace. Shall I have Wang Liang and Tang Zhou escort you back now? The spoils due to you from this mission will have to wait until the battle is over and the value of the captured spoils and mission contribution have been tallied before they can be calculated."

Having Wang Liang and Tang Zhou escort Xia Qing back was an arrangement made in advance. Xia Qing was not a speed or elasticity evolver, and on her own she had no way of making it back to the territory before dawn.

But Xia Qing now had a more labor-saving, faster, and more covert way to return. "Captain Yang, did you bring the protective suit?"

"Tang Zhou brought it over, it's here." Yang Jin picked up a backpack from the side and handed it to Xia Qing.

"Thanks, I'll change into the protective suit first, please wait a moment." Xia Qing went behind a tree, quickly took off Yan Ning's protective suit and equipment, and changed into the Green Dragon Squad's. Then she loaded the bullets, medicines, and nutrient solution that belonged to her from the backpack into the new backpack, slung it on her back, and packed Yan Ning's supplies and equipment into a bag.

Xia Qing came out after changing into the protective suit and handed the swapped-out suit to Yang Jin. After Xia Qing left, Yan Ning would don this skin and continue executing the mission here. "Captain Yang, no need to trouble the two of them to escort me back. I'll have the wolf pack take me—it's less likely to be spotted that way."

Wolf pack? Isn't this area the territory of the Western Wolf Pack?

Yang Jin asked, "The conflict between the Western Wolf Pack and the base hasn't been resolved yet. Is it safe to have them escort you back?"

Xia Qing explained, "Not the Western Wolf Pack, the Northern Wolf Pack. That giant wolf we saw at the foot of Mountain Fifty-Two a few days ago—I just spotted it over there."

Wolves come in many eye colors, but Xia Qing had only seen two with ice-blue eyes: Handsome Giant Wolf and the Western Wolf Pack's alpha wolf. Their eye colors were the same, but their builds were different, so Xia Qing could tell them apart.

Yang Jin's visual evolution wasn't as high-level as Xia Qing's, so he hadn't noticed the wolf approaching.

Being escorted back by the wolf pack was indeed less likely to expose her. If it were that one-eared alpha wolf, or that broken-waist wolf clever to the point of being uncanny, Yang Jin felt there'd be no problem sending Xia Qing back. But that giant wolf with ice-blue eyes was far too wild.

Yang Jin was still uneasy and confirmed with Xia Qing once more, "Are you sure it'll work?"

"Definitely. I've gone on missions with it before, we have some bond." Xia Qing was very certain. "That wolf is pretty alert. Captain Yang, you go ahead with your work, I'll head over on my own."

"Alright, be careful on the way. Get back to the territory before five in the morning." Yang Jin knew that giant wolf held a grudge against him, so he stepped forward, picked up Tang Zhengsu's body, and left quickly.

After Yang Jin left, Xia Qing headed in the direction where she had just seen Handsome Giant Wolf, calling softly as she walked, "Big Brother Giant Wolf, still there? Big Brother Giant Wolf, come out and do me a favor? Big Brother Giant Wolf, for the sake of the Queen, how about escorting me back to the territory? Big Brother Giant Wolf…"

Seeing the tall, mighty, and handsome silver-gray giant wolf emerge from the mountain forest, Xia Qing smiled. She hadn't borrowed luck from Boss Sheep for nothing—tonight, her luck was off the charts.

"Big Brother Giant Wolf, you heard the commotion and came to patrol your territory?" Xia Qing didn't move any closer, stopping in place to chat the giant wolf up in a friendly tone.

Although she had spoken very confidently in front of Yang Jin, facing this cold, powerful giant wolf alone, Xia Qing was actually still a bit uncertain inside.

Last winter, the beast-hunting team used gas bombs to trigger a beast tide. Xia Qing, who was in the side-effect period of the Yi Element Stimulant, was given a last-minute assignment. She formed the Calamity-Quelling Third Echelon with this very wolf, the alpha wolf, the broken-waist wolf, and Huo Zhun, and went deep into the Evolution Forest to pursue fugitives. When the situation was urgent, Xia Qing had once had this giant wolf carry her on its back for a few steps.

The fellow had been reluctant even then.

This was a very proud wolf—it wouldn't even agree to carrying her a few steps. Asking it to carry her for dozens or hundreds of kilometers, it would definitely be even more unwilling.

This matter needed to be discussed properly.