Chapter 916: Azure Dragon Versus Blaze

Since Little Buzzcut moved into Number Forty-Nine's recovery ward four months ago, it and Ram Boss fought every evening without fail, rain or shine; Wolf Lao Er came over to cheer them on, also without fail.

Xia Qing, being busy with many things, hadn't watched a full bout in a while. Taking a careful look today, she noticed the two animals' fighting styles had changed noticeably.

The little honey badger had learned some dirty tricks from somewhere, targeting Ram Boss's reproductive organs specifically. If it really managed to scratch or bite him once, Ram Boss would probably be finished for good.

But no matter how dirty the tricks it learned, against Ram Boss's absolute advantage in strength and speed, Little Buzzcut could only get beaten up.

After praising Ram Boss, Xia Qing went over and nudged Little Buzzcut, who was lying on the ground playing dead. "Who did you learn these dirty tricks from? Your own kind, or hyenas?"

There were hyena packs in the southern evolution forest of Hui Three, and their combat ability was terrifyingly formidable.

The tiny human actually dared to kick it. The little honey badger, furious, twisted its chubby round body to get up and was about to retaliate when Ram Boss charged over and kicked it flying again. Ram Boss had actually learned to slam on the front legs while sprinting at full speed, spinning its body and delivering a flying kick with the hind legs at the same time.

That move of his had more than a little of her own shadow in it. Xia Qing rubbed the little curls on her companion's head. "Boss truly is an evolved ram standing at the pinnacle of Blue Star's pyramid, his learning ability is incredible. Wait till I finish giving Daigua his medicine, then you and I will have a fight and see who's stronger now."

Hiding in the bushes by the pond in Wolf Valley, Zone Three of Mountain Forty-Nine, Daigua the monkey was digging worms out of the dirt to eat. Seeing Xia Qing arrive, he excitedly opened his eyes wide and stretched his dirty little black paw toward her.

This movement was noticeably faster than two days ago. It might be that the second course of medicine was clearly taking effect, or it might be that in the dangerous environment, driven by a powerful will to survive, Daigua's recovery speed had accelerated.

On a big tree not far away perched two white-cheeked sparrowhawks. White-cheeked sparrowhawks were large raptors; if not for the protection of the bushes, the slow-moving Daigua would have long since been snatched away and torn apart by them.

Being targeted by two raptors, Daigua was surely very scared, but Xia Qing had no intention of taking him back. Even after being fed the medicine, when this little monkey in his dirty shorts tightly gripped her hand, Xia Qing didn't soften.

She took out her phone and played Daigua's crime video again, stating the facts with gestures and a stern, slow tone. "You stole food from my shed, you must be punished. You owe me over eighty thousand credits, which must be repaid with red-veined stone."

Xia Qing expressed this three times. Whether or not Daigua understood what Xia Qing meant, he understood that Xia Qing wouldn't take him back, so he slowly released Xia Qing's hand and gazed at her with a daigua face, looking pitifully.

That face, however she looked at it, made Xia Qing angry. She left Wolf Valley without looking back, ignoring the ah-ah cries for help Daigua was making.

Although Daigua the little monkey moved slowly, he was very clever; those two white-cheeked sparrowhawks couldn't catch him at all. If she didn't let him thoroughly understand what serious consequences his mistakes would bring, once he recovered he would very likely bring a troop of monkeys to steal the food humans had worked hard to grow.

When that time came, the bullets Xia Qing used to shoot monkeys wouldn't be reimbursed by anyone.

After Xia Qing returned to her territory and finished petting the fox, Seeing Xin Yu arrived at her territory as promised, and the two chatted while making dinner.

While eating, Xia Qing turned on the radio to listen to the news broadcast.

Hui Three Base had indeed made it onto Huaguo National Station's evening news again. The Hui Three Base news broadcast half an hour later turned the thirty-second briefing in the Huaguo news broadcast into a five-minute special report.

Seeing Xin Yu, gnawing on a boiled corn, commented, "The report is so detailed, looks like the base hopes the hidden evolvers will be on their guard and not fall into the trappers' snare again. The Type A and B magnetic-sense evolvers in the safe zone definitely aren't just these few."

Xia Qing nodded. "Except for the backing forces behind the criminals, everything that could be said was said."

This fishing operation inside Hui Three's safe zone was carried out by the remnants of Tang Zhengrong's faction, contacted by Hui One. Hui Three had first wiped out the Su Feng Squad backed by Hui One, then promoted the Gao Yi Element Spinach Seed X-2, and the newly established pharmaceutical factory had seized a lot of market share that originally belonged to Hui One and the Blaze Squad. This made Hui One feel that Hui Three was gradually slipping out of their control.

They wanted to weaken Hui Three's strength, so they secretly set up for over a month, trying to catch all of Hui Three's Type A and B magnetic-sense evolvers in one net and bring them all back to Hui One.

When at the Chonglian Group, Seeing Xin Yu had been exposed to too much high-level infighting and had long guessed Hui Three wouldn't publicly announce the mastermind behind this fishing operation. "On the surface the net has been closed, but actually the shadow war has only just begun. Next we'll see the showdown between Qi Zhongye and Yang Jin versus Chen Dianming and Deng Yufeng—who wins and who loses."

Qi Zhongye was the base commander of Hui Three, and Yang Jin was the captain of the Azure Dragon Squad.

Chen Dianming was the base commander of Hui One, and Deng Yufeng was the captain of the Blaze Squad.

"You missed one—Zhang Guannan, the supreme leader of Hui City and commander-in-chief of all bases. After Tang Zhengrong stepped down this spring, our base submitted the candidate for vice base commander three times in a row, and Zhang Guannan vetoed them all. This shows that Zhang Guannan's relationship with Qi Zhongye isn't that great either."

"So our base must grow stronger, and the squad alliance led by Azure Dragon must also grow stronger, to withstand the open spears and hidden arrows, the swallowing and nibbling from the surrounding bases."

Seeing Xin Yu began comparing the two bases' top squads. "In terms of firepower, Azure Dragon can't match Blaze, but in terms of brains and the captain's combat ability, Blaze can't match Azure Dragon. So this time I'm betting on Azure Dragon."

Xia Qing shook her head. "Yang Jin, Luo-ge, and Xie Yu are all people with bottom lines. Going up against the bottomless Deng Yufeng and Shan Ying, they don't have great odds of winning, because they're not ruthless enough."

Seeing Xin Yu put down the last bowl, casually washed the dishcloth clean and hung it up, then asked, "Azure Dragon does have more of a bottom line than Blaze, but they're plenty ruthless too. Don't you know how Azure Dragon left Hui One?"

Xia Qing replied, "I heard it was because they were dissatisfied with how Hui One handled the underground experiments, and with the rewards they were given."

"That's part of the reason. The main reason is that Luo Pei's girlfriend died horribly along with her entire squad at the hands of a mob, because of some unreasonable Hui One regulations restricting soldiers from using weapons against civilians during a mission."

This was actually the first Xia Qing had heard of this. "Died horribly?"

Seeing Xin Yu nodded. "They must have died very horribly, otherwise the three Azure Dragon bosses wouldn't have gone so ruthless. But no one knows exactly how that squad died, because all 343 people who participated in that riot were killed by Luo Pei, Yang Jin, and Xie Yu, and the bodies of the fallen soldiers were cremated by them. Luo Pei formally retired after that incident; before that, he was the tactical instructor Hui One had assigned to the Azure Dragon Squad."

"That incident happened the day after the underground experiment incident was exposed. Hui One officials merged the two events to cover up the truth, and afterward even gave the three Azure Dragon bosses credit for meritorious service. Apparently Luo Pei had huge influence in the Hui One military camp, and that vicious incident nearly triggered a mutiny."

Xia Qing let it settle for a few seconds, then asked, "Just the three of them did it?"

"Yes, just the three of them. Their opponents were 307 ordinary people led by 36 evolvers. Not a single intact corpse was left at the scene."

To pull this off, it must have been top sniper Luo Pei standing at a high position using his rifle to seal off the entire scene, while Yang Jin and Xie Yu charged into the enemy camp and fought them to the death.

She finally understood why, a few days ago when Luo Pei mentioned that the person he had promised a future to had already passed away, he had given her a sense of weight that couldn't dissolve.

Xia Qing was silent for a long time before saying, "I always thought Xie Yu was a brain-domain evolver with low individual combat ability."

"Xie Yu indeed rarely takes action, so I don't have combat data on him either, but the fact that he can hold steady in the Azure Dragon second-in-command seat definitely doesn't rely only on brain-domain evolution ability." Seeing Xin Yu reiterated her judgment. "Give them another two years to accumulate combat power, and Blaze definitely won't be Azure Dragon's match."