Chapter 1039: A Risky Bargain with the Evolved Tiger

The threshold for humans losing control to Devastation Evolution is 30‰. Once the Devastation Element in a human’s body crosses that, the immune system can’t fight off the damage and once it invades the brain’s critical regions, the person will spiral out of control.

Last year, after Xia Qing was poisoned during a fight with the Fire Phoenix Trapping Team, she had to take an Evolution Element stim shake. That sent the Devastation Element level in her body soaring to 28‰. Only after taking two Devastation Element Antidotes and half a year of rest and recovery did her body finally return to how it was before the poisoning.

Xia Qing had no idea what the out-of-control threshold was for an Evolved Tiger, but 35‰ sounded dangerously high.

She poured Pure Spring Water into a basin, added three X Nutrient Shakes, then reluctantly pulled out a Devastation Element Antidote. “You really are one lucky blind tiger, running into me.”

From this batch of Devastation Element Antidotes produced in Territory Seven in August, Xia Qing got twenty. She traded away sixteen and kept four for herself.

Of the four she held onto, one went to Number Four, another to Little Fei Mao and Goofball, just earlier she’d given one to the Wolf Pack, which helped counteract the harm from exposure to Devastation Rain and breathing in Devastation Element-heavy air.

That meant the one left in her hand was Xia Qing’s very last Devastation Element Antidote.

Given how big this tiger was, a single 10ml antidote couldn’t possibly bring its Devastation Element levels back down to normal. Still, any reduction was a win in a situation like this.

As long as the Evolved Tiger could hold on through this tough stretch, once its wounds healed it could start hunting prime prey to get proper nutrition and slowly nurse itself back, lowering the Devastation Element in its body over time.

Carrying the basin, Xia Qing looped around to the tiger’s massive head and found it had opened its eyes. Pale yellow, threaded with blood, eyes full of intelligence—and the moment it saw Xia Qing, that glint turned lethal.

She knew that if it weren’t so weak, the beast would’ve lunged at her by now, determined to finish the hunt.

“Since you’re awake, it’s time we had a little chat.” Xia Qing set the basin down, sat beside the blind tiger’s giant head, used a syringe with the needle removed to draw up some medicine, pried its jaws open and pushed the medicine down its throat.

In its current state, the tiger was too weak to swallow food. She had to force the medicine straight in.

Once she’d made sure it went down, Xia Qing flicked the hairy top of its giant head.

Of course, she was careful to avoid the spots she’d already punched twice—no sense in making the tiger hate her even more. “There are good and bad tigers, just like there are good and bad people. Blind tiger, use that big head of yours—does the voice and scent of that human match mine?”

“I’ve never been here before, and I never hurt you.”

Tigers deep in the Evolved Forest didn’t understand human speech, but this one could sense Xia Qing wasn’t here to harm it. It relaxed a little, fixed its gaze on her, curious what this human was up to.

Xia Qing gave it another dose of medicine. “Glaring at me won’t help—I’m not saving you because you’re handsome, I just don’t want to see the Evolved Forest lose its lord.”

“This medicine bath cost 12,000 credits, the topical treatment I used on you was worth 5,200 credits, patching up your wounds was 2,000 credits, and that Evolution Stone on your neck is worth 24,000 credits. You owe me, big time. No credits? Got any Evolution Stones?”

The Evolved Tiger glared at Xia Qing, medicine dripping from its whiskers, whiskers trembling ever so slightly.

“Don’t have either? I saw bits of plant leaves in the festering wound on your back leg—what kind of medicinal herb did you use there?”

After forcing the medicine down, Xia Qing pried the tiger’s jaws wider and discovered shredded green leaves wedged between the back molars.

Though tigers are carnivores, sometimes they’ll eat grass or plants to help purge indigestible things from their system.

Examining the leaves closely, Xia Qing saw they matched the ones in the tiger’s leg wound—clearly, it had been trying to heal itself with herbal remedies.

Even someone like Old Goat, not exactly the sharpest evolved animal around, knew the White-Haired Chicken Manure Vine could cure ailments. So, for a brain-evolved tiger in the Evolved Forest to discover certain plants were good for it? Totally normal.

When the Scavenger lured this tiger, it was probably busy chewing and applying the leaves as makeshift medicine—hence the plant bits still stuck in its mouth.

Xia Qing picked out every last bit of greenery from the tiger’s molars, stored them in a sample tube, figuring her Idol—the pharmaceutical expert—would definitely be interested.

Then, after gently lowering the tiger’s massive head, she noticed it was still shooting daggers at her, so she ducked out of the tent to join the Alpha, worry etched on her face. “Your Majesty, you don’t suppose that Evolved Tiger, now that it’s awake, is going to chase me all the way into human territory for revenge?”

Resting on a rock at the cave entrance, Alpha flicked an ear but kept a watchful eye on the helicopter hovering above the valley.

The Devastation Rain was coming down hard again. Devastation Grass had shot up taller than a person. Hu Zifeng’s Squad was still searching for the wounded Scavenger.

There wasn’t much Xia Qing could do out there, so she contacted Chen Cheng first for an update on the situation inside their territory.

Inside the tent, the helpless Evolved Tiger tried to listen to the humans talking outside. The pounding rain and distant rumble of helicopter blades quickly overwhelmed it and, coupled with physical weakness and the medicine, its eyes soon slid shut.

Once Xia Qing had confirmed that Old Goat and Number Four hadn’t appeared, the Greenhouse was undamaged by the storm, no dangerous mutant plants had sprung up, and no emergencies had been reported from the Ninth Planting Center or Hill Fifty, she finally let herself relax and turned to check the haul of weapons from this mission.

The most valuable among them was a sniper rifle in about sixty percent condition. It wasn’t as good as Xia Qing’s own, but still worth a solid sixty thousand credits.

Xia Qing tried it out, grinning. “Still good as new! Alpha, you really are the Wolf King at the top of Blue Star’s food chain. Amazing as ever.”

Alpha looked on without emotion. Inside the tent, the Evolved Tiger peeked its eyes open for a few seconds before drifting back to sleep.

Xia Qing’s check confirmed the sniper rifle hadn’t just been snatched by the Scavenger Squad—it was actually the weapon used by the Scavenger sniper killed by Alpha, and had seen years of use.

Its shoulder strap was fitted with extra support points, designed to ease shoulder strain for long treks.

As a Strength-Based Evolution fighter, Xia Qing had no use for that kind of strap, but she’d seen Azure Dragon Squad’s snipers with similar setups.

Besides the handmade beast hide support, the strap was decorated with more than twenty animal fangs, over half of them wolf fangs—and most were from Huge Wolves.

She was sure of that detail because Xia Qing was intimately familiar with the shape, curve, and lines of wolf fangs.

Since Evolved Wolves were protected by law—humans are absolutely forbidden to provoke such beasts—no military would allow their people to use these ‘trophies’ and provoke the packs.

Xia Qing didn’t want to upset Alpha next to her, so she took off the strap and set it aside, storing the sniper rifle by itself in a separate bag.

She was just about to inspect the rest of the loot when bursts of machine gun fire erupted from outside.

Hu Zifeng’s Squad had finally tracked down the wounded Scavenger hiding in the Evolved Forest.

As Xia Qing stashed the sniper rifle and looked outside, Hu Zifeng radioed in an update. “Sister Qing, target neutralized.”

“Good. Once you’ve gathered up his body and supplies, bring the other corpse with you as well.”

“Roger that,” came Hu Zifeng’s prompt reply.

With the rain finally letting up, Xia Qing took the chance to slip into the valley and check on the trapped wild boar still squealing from the pits.

Now that the Evolved Tiger was down and the Western Wolf Pack had left, all the wild boars that had fallen into her traps belonged to her and Alpha.