Chapter 992: Setting Out to Pick Mountain Walnuts

The investigation into the Ninth Center employee injury incident quickly produced results.

After a detailed investigation, the incident was classified as a work error. Squad leader Zhang Kui, who was on-site, gave improper commands and bore primary responsibility—he was given a demerit, docked pay, and required to write a self-criticism. Construction Department head Rao Yong bore secondary responsibility.

The day after Xia Qing signed off on the disciplinary results, she finally sent the video Zhu Li had recorded to Yue Haiying.

After watching the video, Yue Haiying—who had worked tirelessly for his retired brothers and personally built up the Ninth Center's employee team—was furious. He took an hour to steady his emotions before calling Xia Qing.

Five days later, Yue Haiying's investigation produced results: Chen Xia, a nurse who joined the Ninth Center after the second Blight Rain, had served in the same company as Zhang Kui before her discharge, and the two were close. Moreover, Chen Xia was not the ordinary person listed on her file, but an auditory Evolver. While serving as a nurse at the Ninth Center, she had been monitoring the center's offices.

Following the trail, Yue Haiying confirmed that Yang Pei, the limping retired wounded soldier from Territory Fifteen, was also secretly in contact with Zhang Kui and Li Cun.

After consulting with Yue Haiying and Tan Junjie, Xia Qing decided to leave the five-person spy team—including Peng Lin—in place for now, and instead use them to continue misleading the hidden forces: Huiyi and the Blaze Squad.

Of the eight new students at the Ninth Center school, seven passed their physicals, and the roster was reported to the Hui Three Education Bureau. Little Eleven, using the alias Ye Shiyi, was enrolled as Ye Yang's niece and received an acceptance letter.

After the acceptance letters were sent out, Xia Qing cut two more leaves of Blight Grass and sent them to Territory Seven.

Zhang San extracted the active compounds from these two leaves and injected them into Lu Fangchun and Wang Bo's bodies, completely neutralizing the synthetic Blight poison they had been afflicted with.

The two children, who had endured so much suffering, were finally carried out of Territory Seven by their families. With three months of proper nutrition and rest, they would fully recover.

In other words, when this winter's Blight Snow arrives, Territory One in the northern sector will gain two more young fighters.

Xia Qing took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and sank back into the medicinal bath, letting the potion temper her muscles, bones, and skin.

After she carried out a mission in Lan Five under her own identity, everyone learned that she was a top-tier sniper with both Strength and Vision advanced Evolver abilities. Blaze had planted eyes in both the Ninth Center and the inspection teams, monitoring her from every angle.

She couldn't stay hidden any longer, so she had to grow stronger—she had to!

The handsome giant wolf lying under the eaves outside and the old wolf perched on the ruins of the southern building both raised their heads at the same time, looking south.

The handsome giant wolf shook its ears, then lowered its big head again.

The old wolf leapt down from the ruins, quickly left the abandoned village, passed through a stretch of woods, and entered the southern wasteland grass wall of Territory Three, pricking up its ears to listen.

"My apologies."

Inside a small cabin on the inner side of the northern wasteland grass wall of Territory Two, a shattered glass cup lay on the floor. A smiling middle-aged man apologized to Tang Lu, who sat across the table from him with a deathly pale face. "The water in the cup was a bit hot—I lost my grip for a second."

Tang Lu raised her chin to signal the two bodyguards who had burst in to leave, slid her compact pistol back into the holster on the outside of her thigh, didn't bother clearing the broken glass from the floor, and reached for a clean cup to pour herself some tea. "It was my oversight—I should have warned you the cup held hot water."

The middle-aged man tapped the table lightly to thank her for the tea. "No wonder Miss Tang keeps her composure—Tang Dong Sect has sent a top expert to protect you."

Tang Lu gave a slight nod. The more she said in front of an expert, the more flaws she revealed, so she kept her silence as much as possible.

The middle-aged man lifted his teacup and just touched it to his lips, his smile still gentle. "Miss Tang doesn't believe what I said? That Territory Three lord Xia Qing is the one who killed your father?"

Tang Lu shook her head slightly. "I believe you."

The middle-aged man leaned forward slightly. "Then why won't you agree to cooperate with me? Don't you want to avenge your father?"

Tang Lu played weak. "I do, but she's a dual-system advanced Evolver top-tier sniper, and I'm just an ordinary person—I don't have the ability to take revenge yet. I handed over full authority over Territory Two to my uncle in exchange for his protection. I really can't make decisions about the territory's affairs."

"The people of Hui Three all misjudged you. In my eyes, you're the smartest, most survival-savvy person in the Tang family."

The middle-aged man's smile widened, his gaze turning cold. "Miss Tang is going to study at Bai Yi University Medical School, aren't you? I just had a chat with Vice Dean Meng of the medical school this morning. He said the students admitted this year are all of excellent caliber, and in five years they'll surely train a batch of much-needed medical talent for the nation."

Hearing his words, Tang Lu's face went deathly pale, and her lips began to tremble slightly.

"Beep beep, beep beep—"

"Splash—"

After the alarm clock in the two-story house in Territory Three went off, Xia Qing, who had been holding her breath underwater for fifteen minutes, lifted her head above the surface, gripped the edge of the tub with trembling hands, and slowly stood up.

By the time she had rinsed the medicinal liquid off her body, dressed, and come downstairs, the head wolf had already brought Sheep Boss into the medicinal bath on the first floor.

Xia Qing tested the water temperature, added some hot water for the two of them, then ladled out a small basin of medicinal liquid and soaked Little Feimao in it.

Then, Xia Qing slumped weakly against the back of her chair and chatted casually with the head wolf, who was soaking in the medicinal bath. "Has the Queen been to the python territory north of Mountain Sixty lately?"

The head wolf in the water slowly opened its eyes.

"Daigua is in the evolution forest north of Python Pool. Have you seen it? It's been a month, and Daigua still hasn't brought back the red-veined stone. It still owes me over eighty thousand points. After this long, it's probably forgotten—doesn't know what moon shape means it's time to come back for its medicinal bath…"

The head wolf in the water slowly closed its eyes again.

Today was the twenty-ninth of the lunar calendar. There was no moon at night, only a sky full of little stars.

A white-faced little monkey clutching a heavy backpack squatted at the entrance of a bear cave halfway up Mountain Sixty-One. It gazed at the stars for a while, then shrank back into the cave, squeezed up next to its companion, closed its eyes, and went to sleep.

Just before dawn, Xia Qing, who had been sleeping soundly, was woken up by Broken-Waist Wolf's big paw.

Xia Qing glanced at the time on her phone and yawned. "Broken-Waist, your biological clock is really accurate."

The well-read Broken-Waist Wolf knew what a biological clock was. It thought Xia Qing was praising it, and bared its adorable, snow-white little fang tips.

"Alright, you and the Queen head out first. We'll meet up at Mountain Fifty-Two later." Xia Qing, every bone in her body freshly oiled, got up, ate a simple but hearty breakfast, put on her protective suit, shouldered her backpack, left the territory in the care of Sheep Boss, Beard Feng, and the old wolf, and headed herself for the helipad atop Mountain Forty-Nine.

Yesterday, Broken-Waist Wolf had finally agreed to let her go pick mountain walnuts at Mountain Sixty. Its only condition: she had to take a helicopter.

Xia Qing naturally had no objections. A helicopter wasn't just fast—its carrying capacity was top-notch. No matter how many pounds of walnuts the two mountain walnut trees on Mountain Sixty bore, she could haul them all back.

When Xia Qing and Huo Zhun took off from Mountain Forty-Nine in the helicopter and landed at the designated spot within Mountain Fifty-Two's area to invite the head wolf and Broken-Waist Wolf aboard, the two clever wolves saw that a human—Huo Zhun—was on the aircraft, and simultaneously bared their fangs and growled softly.