Chapter 804: Divine Herb Evolution Forest Region

This special-effect medicine is really not just a little bit expensive… No wonder the assistant in the operating room suggested consulting her first about whether to save this squirrel.

Xia Qing sat up ramrod straight, without a single word of nonsense. "Alright, Third Brother. Thank you for your trouble, Third Brother."

For Xia Qing, who had just spent over 50,000 on summer clothes, 280,000 on full-coverage surveillance equipment for her territory, and 360,000 on a car—leaving her total assets in the negative—45,000 was indeed no small sum.

But!

Four stalks of Harmful Weed Grass grew beside her pollution-free spring water. Snipping off a single leaf at random could sell for 50,000 points.

Her idol had priced six leaves at a ten-percent discount, each one coming to exactly 45,000. And just a few days ago, to treat Wang Xin's Harmful Explosion injuries, her idol had already cut five leaves—and hadn't paid for them yet.

So now it wasn't Xia Qing who owed her idol points, but her idol who owed her. But Xia Qing didn't dare bring it up. Still, she also didn't mention the matter of paying back the 80,000. She'd settle the full account once her idol's anger had passed.

How could Blue Star's top idol Zhang San fail to see through Xia Qing's little scheme? He snorted, pulled a stack of point cards from a drawer, picked out five, and said, "Five leaves of Harmful Weed Grass, total points. Deducting what you owe me, this is what's left."

Xia Qing took them with both hands, then asked about the condition of Wang Xin, the renowned Hui Three surgeon who had been sent to Territory Seven for treatment. "Thank you, Third Brother. Can Director Wang's body recover to the state it was in before the injury?"

Wang Xin should still be in the ward at Territory Three right now, because she had undergone a craniotomy and couldn't be transferred to another hospital for the time being.

Zhang San leaned back in his chair, listless. "The damage from the Harmful Explosion can be cured, but how well she'll recover after the removal of the intracranial cystic aneurysm—it's hard to say at this point."

Xia Qing held back the urge to praise her idol, and very humbly and studiously asked for guidance. "Third Brother, was Director Wang captured by Fierce Flame's people?"

Xia Qing was very concerned about this question. If Fierce Flame had captured her, then Xu Juan, who had saved Wang Xin, might also be suspected of impure motives.

Zhang San shot Xia Qing a look and retorted irritably, "If Fierce Flame had captured her, would they have waited until Wang Xin was sent into the operating room at Territory Seven to scatter red Harmful Weed Grass seeds on Mountain Fifty?"

"No, they would have started acting the moment Director Wang was put on the plane. Shan Ying got the intel through an inside source, seized the chance while you were performing surgery in the operating room, quickly made arrangements, lured me out of my territory, and used the opportunity to eliminate me." Her idol was like a fire-breathing dragon right now. Xia Qing didn't dare ask anything else and prepared to slip away.

Zhang San had no intention of letting her go that quickly. He asked listlessly, "What was that wolf howl last night about?"

Xia Qing immediately gave a detailed explanation. "Last night a wolf came to visit my territory. I asked it if it had seen any defectors from Territory Seven in the Evolution Forest. Turns out this wolf was impatient—by the time it was in my territory, it had already used its howl to contact the wolf pack, locked onto the target, and then Yang Jin and I followed it to go capture the defector."

Visit?

Impatient?

Lock onto a target through howling?

Though Xia Qing had only spoken two short sentences, the information contained within was enormous. Zhang San took a while to digest it before asking, "The one that came to visit—was it the one missing an ear, or the one with the broken back?"

Xia Qing shook her head. "Neither. It was a giant silver-gray wolf—the same one that went on a mission with Huo Zhun and me last winter after the beast tide. It used to belong to the northern wolf pack. After the western wolf pack's cubs were brutally killed, this giant wolf has stayed in the western wolf pack's territory, so I'm not sure which pack it counts as now."

Zhang San began analyzing the giant wolf. "This wolf can accurately understand the information contained in human language, and use howling to convey that information to the wolf pack. That means it's also a brain-domain evolver."

"Being able to transmit such complex information through howling shows that the evolved wolf packs here have established a more complex and effective communication system through howling than before the catastrophe, giving them stronger group cooperation abilities."

Seeing that her idol's anger had subsided considerably, Xia Qing immediately put on her humble, studious side, trying to rack up goodwill points in front of her idol. "I also feel that the overall intelligence level of the evolved wolves here is higher than the wolves in that survey report on the Guicheng western evolved wolf packs published in last month's 'Journal of Evolutionary Zoology.' Third Brother, what do you think causes this? Is it related to the Divine Herb Ridge?"

The Divine Herb Ridge after the great Blue Star evolution is dangerous and mysterious—one of several Evolution Forests within Hua Country that humans find difficult to penetrate deeply. The people of Hui Three believe that the intelligent animals in the surrounding Evolution Forests all came out from the Divine Herb Ridge.

The fact that Xia Qing had even carefully read the latest issue of the 'Journal of Evolutionary Zoology' showed that besides farming seriously, she was also seriously studying useful knowledge. Zhang San's expression softened a bit, and he patiently imparted some common knowledge to her. "You think the evolved wolves here are more intelligent. There are two main reasons. The first is directly related to the Divine Herb Evolution Forest Region. Do you know how large an area this forest region covers?"

Xia Qing immediately nodded and answered accurately. "The Divine Herb Evolution Forest Region has the Hui Six Safe Zone to the west, the Hui Three Safe Zone to the south, the sea to the east, and the Red Eleven Safe Zone to the north. Because the Divine Herb Ridge forest region is also within this area, it's called the Divine Herb Evolution Forest Region. The total area is 143 square kilometers."

Zhang San's expression cleared from overcast to sunny, and he nodded.

"Sufficient food and strong Evolution Forest competitors are the necessary conditions for wolf pack survival and evolution. Although the Divine Herb Evolution Forest Region isn't the largest forest region in our country, it has the highest richness of species and populations. It has ample food sources and vast habitats needed for large carnivores to survive. So compared to the other major forest regions, it's the most suitable for large beasts like wolves, leopards, tigers, and bears to thrive and reproduce."

"The wolf packs here have to compete with their own kind and other fierce beast populations for territory, constantly achieving survival of the fittest in the process. So it's a reasonable phenomenon that the combat power and evolutionary level of the evolved wolves here are generally higher than those in the Guicheng western forest region."

Xia Qing nodded, agreeing with her idol's view. But she felt there was another important reason:

The three human bases adjacent to the Divine Herb Evolution Forest Region weren't powerful enough in combat, which gave the fierce beasts of the Evolution Forest the chance to reproduce and evolve.

If Hui One were here, given Fierce Flame's crazy intensity, the alpha wolf would definitely lead the pack deep into the Evolution Forest for shelter. Without top predators, the Evolution Forest's balance would be broken, and super-evolved microorganisms would pose a greater threat to the flora and fauna here—including humans.

But mentioning Fierce Flame would surely ruin her idol's newly improved mood. Xia Qing wasn't that stupid.

She carefully picked a question that would make her idol happy. "You built the laboratory here to study the evolved creatures and ecosystems within the Divine Herb Evolution Forest Region up close, didn't you?"

Zhang San finally had a bit of a smile on his face. "Of course, that's the main reason. Facts have proven my choice was correct."

"You're still the best, with such foresight." Xia Qing praised him, then continued asking, "I understand the first reason, Third Brother. What's the second reason the wolves here generally have a higher evolutionary level?"

Zhang San leaned lazily against the soft chair back, his thick curly hair squashed even more into a mushroom shape. "The second reason is 'what you think.'"