Chapter 870: Beast Taming Ability?

The organization of Liehuo's situation was extremely large and highly efficient.

In just seven days, Qu Fangzhou had thoroughly investigated Xia Qing's background.

"Xia Qing, 26 years old, publicly known to have dual-system abilities: Level 6 Strength, with no public data on her Visual Evolution level, but based on her sniping ability, at least Level 7. Her mother died in the insect plague of the fourth year of the Calamity, and it cannot be determined whether she was an Evolver; her father was a Level 4 Strength Evolver, who died in the beast tide following the Killing Snow in the fifth year of the Calamity."

"Shortly after her father's death, Xia Qing, leveraging her identity as a Level 4 Strength Evolver, moved into the Hui-3 ordinary Evolver dormitory, sharing a room with Feng Wen, a Level 3 Olfactory Evolver, and with the help of Zhang Yong, an ordinary person her father had once saved, she joined the Hui-3 construction team..."

After presenting Xia Qing's detailed information, Qu Fangzhou analyzed, "From the data, two points can be determined: first, long before leaving the safe zone, Xia Qing already had a close relationship with the Azure Dragon Squad; second, the 'Yan Ning' who hunted Tang Zhengsu together with Yang Jin is Xia Qing."

After pausing for a few seconds, waiting until the three people present all looked at her, Qu Fangzhou delivered the most important analytical conclusion: "Xia Qing cooperates with the Azure Dragon Squad because she and Azure Dragon share a common enemy—her father's death is related to Tang Zhengsu; and the reason the Azure Dragon Squad agreed to cooperate with Xia Qing, I infer, is that Xia Qing possesses another hidden Evolution ability: Beast Taming."

Shan Ying was the first to jump up and question Qu Fangzhou's inference, "There's absolutely no such Evolution ability!"

Fire Phoenix gave Shan Ying a casual glance to quiet her down, then signaled Qu Fangzhou to continue.

"In May of the ninth year of the Calamity, Xia Qing followed a twelve-person mission team into the Evolution Forest outside the Hui-3 safe zone to carry out a gathering mission, and encountered an evolved wolf pack. The mission team members provoked the evolved wolf pack, and everyone else was killed by the wolves, but Xia Qing, who had the worst weapons and equipment, emerged unscathed."

"In February of the tenth year of the Calamity, shortly after Xia Qing entered the territory, she captured a Strength Evolution sheep. Although she described this sheep as a viciously tempered mad sheep, she used it as a beast of burden, and still keeps it to this day."

"In July of the tenth year of the Calamity, Xia Qing found an evolved wolf in the Evolution Forest that had been attacked by parasites and was on the verge of death. This is her own account; as for whether she truly found this wolf, there is no way to verify. After she exchanged medicine with Professor Fu Tianfeng to save this wolf, she gradually tamed the evolved wolf pack in northern Hui-3, which has at least several dozen adult wolves."

Shan Ying couldn't resist speaking up again, "I admit she may have tamed one evolved wolf, but it's absolutely impossible she tamed an entire wolf pack. Evolved wolf packs can only be controlled with drugs."

Qu Fangzhou showed no change in expression, continuing to lay out facts, "On January 24 of this year, over a dozen wolves from northern Hui-3 appeared and used their howls to block the western wolf pack that had triggered a beast tide, preventing them from invading the human territory of Northern Zone One of Hui-3. The western wolf pack continued eastward, invading the eastern territory of Hui-3, and engaged in fierce battle with humans."

"On the night of May 20, wolf howls rose within Xia Qing's territory, prompting evolved wolves on several mountain peaks outside the territory to howl in response. That very night, Yang Jin captured the defectors from Ji Li's squad who had been hiding in a concealed spot in the Evolution Forest."

"Based on these two facts, it can be determined that the behavior of the northern Hui-3 wolf pack meets the criteria for recognizing the initial taming of animals."

Shan Ying couldn't stand being contradicted by others, her temper flaring higher and higher, "Even so, that only proves Xia Qing successfully tamed one or two wolves with influence within the pack, not the entire wolf pack."

Qu Fangzhou continued laying out facts, "From last autumn until now, Tang Huai, the agent of Hui-3 Territory Two, secretly traded six sets of canine protective suits; Lord Huo Lei, the Level 4 Strength Evolver from Hui-3 who once taught Xia Qing blacksmithing, made six sets of evolved dog protective suits last winter using hardened evolved python skin. None of these twelve sets of protective suits entered the market, and they were very likely taken by Xia Qing to arm the evolved wolf pack."

"On May 24, Hui-6 dispatched a helicopter into the northern Hui-3 Evolution Forest to hunt bears, which was discovered by Azure Dragon Squad's mountain patrol personnel, triggering a conflict between the wolf pack and the bear group. During the conflict, an evolved giant bear smashed a poacher, indicating that the giant bears had discovered humans poaching evolved bears."

"But this group of giant bears, whose combat power is off the charts, did not launch an attack against the human territory of Northern Zone One, which is over twenty miles away and poorly defended. Captain Shan is an expert in animal behavior research—please analyze why this is?"

Shan Ying remained stubbornly defiant, "The giant bears may have undergone brain evolution, and to achieve the best attack effect, they would wait until the Killing Rain period to launch an attack on Northern Zone One."

Qu Fangzhou presented more facts, "On the night of May 26, the territory of Northern Zone One of Hui-3 was suddenly struck by returning rain, gale-force winds, and hail, and the territory suffered heavy damage. This was a perfect opportunity for animals to retaliate against humans, but the bear group still did not launch an attack."

After saying this, Qu Fangzhou stopped paying attention to Shan Ying, whose hostility was surging, and continued her analysis:

"As a triple-system high-level Evolver, after her father was killed, Xia Qing did not immediately seek revenge, but instead joined the construction team, doing hard labor for over five years alongside a group of the strongest men at the very bottom of society. What kind of bad habits these men have, I don't need to say for everyone to understand. Every one of these facts shows that Xia Qing has extremely strong psychological fortitude, as well as extraordinary endurance and willpower."

"Her goal is to farm and survive within the territory; as long as no major natural or man-made disasters occur next, her goal will not change. Captain, we have no need to become the 'man-made disaster' and target that causes Xia Qing to mobilize several dozen evolved wolves in northern Hui-3 to launch an exceptionally large-scale beast tide. At the very least, we should stay out of Xia Qing's way; ideally, we should maintain a friendly cooperative relationship with her."

Liao Wen added, "To protect Xia Qing, Professor Fu Tianfeng went against his usual nature and chose to confront us head-on, which shows he values Xia Qing greatly—the reason should be precisely that Xia Qing tamed that wolf pack in northern Hui-3."

Beast Taming ability? Triple-system? Fire Phoenix raised her hand and tossed the test tube, with its ever-increasing sediment, toward Shan Ying.

Shan Ying scrambled to catch it, as if she had found a treasure, "Captain, surely many people would be very interested in the Beast Taming ability. As long as we release the news..."

Liao Wen angrily interrupted Shan Ying, "And then what? Xia Qing gets captured, Professor Fu Tianfeng vents his fury on us, comes up with several dozen types of affordable medicines, and completely ruins our squad's business. Are the several hundred of us supposed to make a living as bodyguards, selling pollution-free spring water, and the Captain's blood?"

Shan Ying, clutching a tube of blood, quietly argued back, "Professor Fu Tianfeng has no evidence to prove we did it. Just like this Hui-6 beast-catching operation—even if they suspect we're involved, who can hold us accountable?"

Liao Wen laughed angrily, "When the time comes, you go explain it to Professor Fu Tianfeng, and see if he'll even see you!"

Qu Fangzhou presented more facts, "I can cite twenty incidents that prove Professor Fu Tianfeng is a person whose emotions outweigh his reason. If something happens to Xia Qing, he will absolutely launch a frenzied retaliation. So before our scientific research capability completely overwhelms Professor Fu Tianfeng's, Xia Qing cannot be allowed to come to harm."

"If you want to pin Xia Qing to an operating table, wait until your research capability surpasses Professor Fu Tianfeng's. Otherwise, your position will shift from beside the operating table to on it." Fire Phoenix coldly warned Shan Ying. Although she too very much wanted to kill Xia Qing immediately, she was far more rational than Shan Ying, able to see the situation clearly and distinguish primary from secondary priorities.

The color drained from Shan Ying's face in an instant.

The Xia Qing who had sparked this argument among Liehuo's four captains was currently staring, utterly speechless, at the bristling red fox in front of her.

Damn it—the iron-net fence she had built for 250,000 points had, up to now, only successfully intercepted one animal:

Xiaopingtou!