Chapter 296: Threads of Power and Secrets

When Xia Qing nodded, Tiger eagerly leaned in and asked, “Captain Yan must’ve landed a big catch this time, right?”

“Nope,” Xia Qing said, answering flatly. She waited for everyone’s surprised faces before adding coolly, “She just caught a few old softshell turtles—probably two hundred pounds each—and a handful of evolved eels.”

The eyes of the Inspection Team lit up instantly, but before they could press for details, their captain barked at them to get moving.

Xia Qing completely understood the team’s excitement. Watching Yan Long climb out of the pitch-black reservoir in the middle of the night, Xia Qing was even more pumped than any of them. Even though she couldn’t see how Yan Long hunted turtles and eels underwater, she just had this unshakable faith—lightning or not, Yan Long could easily take down the whole reservoir on her own.

That’s just the kind of powerhouse Yan Long was.

“Captain Yan is incredible!”

Xia Qing stood quietly inside her territory, listening to the Inspection Team’s voices fade as they walked away, still whispering about Yan Long.

Yuan Rui lowered his voice, “Before the calamity, she was the chief of the Frogman Special Ops in our military region. Why else do you think her code name is ‘Yan Long’?”

With powerful evolved beasts prowling around every corner these days, people naturally admired the strong. Cao Xianyun, buzzing with excitement, added, “Forget turtles, even if sharks showed up in that reservoir, Captain Yan could knock out all their teeth! Someone like her being assigned to protect Zhang San is such a waste of talent.”

Su Ming mumbled, “Tiger, have you noticed? Qing-jie looks way fairer these days.”

“…”

Xia Qing was a bit floored—turns out, Yan Long, who now had a level-nine evolved sense of smell, had already been a legend even before the calamity.

Still, Xia Qing didn’t think Yan Long was wasted protecting Zhang San. After all, anyone who could provide the military with potions that heal injuries was definitely worth high-level protection.

It had been a full month since Xia Qing sent chestnuts over to Territory Seven to trade for Zhang San’s healing potion, but the ever-reliable Zhang San still hadn’t delivered. Just goes to show how hard it was to make that potion.

If her idol was taking this much time to craft a potion, the results had to be amazing. Xia Qing, who was prepping to heal her own injuries, had cut back on her skin-dyeing serum, and her natural color was slowly returning.

Technically speaking, Xia Qing wasn’t getting paler—she was just heading back to a normal, healthy skin tone. Spending every day in the fields, how pale could she really get? She honestly didn’t care what color her skin was—so long as she was strong and healthy, anything worked.

As she fixed the drainage ditch near the reservoir’s south side, still a mess after last night’s lightning and surging water, Xia Qing heard the distant whir of a helicopter getting closer until it landed in Territory Two. She hurriedly finished the repairs, grabbed a bamboo basket and hurried to the wild grass wall at the southern edge of her territory, picking through rocks while listening closely to what was happening in Territory Two.

Territory Two covered 2,300 acres with the same width as Section Three, but at 766 meters from north to south, it wasn’t as deep. The houses stood square in the center, some three hundred meters from the wild grass wall on Xia Qing’s southern border.

That distance was nothing for Xia Qing, with her level-seven evolved hearing. Unless there was a strong wind or major background noise, she could pick up every word shouted inside the houses of Territory Two.

“Six months in the territory and there’s still no lightning rod? Useless, the lot of you!”

When Xia Qing heard the outrage from inside Territory Two, her pupils shrank—she had to suppress a tidal wave of murderous intent in her heart. Her father’s killer, Tang Zhengsu, had arrived. And if Su Pin, who could sense the emotional changes of everyone within a hundred meters, was here too, Xia Qing couldn’t risk blowing her cover.

If both squad captains from Su Feng Squad had taken a helicopter over, then Kou Fanming must be in really bad shape.

She heard Tang Huai reply calmly, “There’s no problem with the lightning rod in Territory Two. Kou Fanming got struck because he was wearing a metal protective suit by the window—”

“Let me ask you—was Kou Fanming inside or not?!” Tang Zhengsu cut Tang Huai off, launching into a vicious tirade. “If he got zapped inside the house, then your lightning rod isn’t worth squat! And wipe that look off your face, who the hell do you think you’re glaring at—”

Tang Zhengsu’s insults were getting nastier by the second. Xia Qing had no interest in listening to more. She lugged her basket of stones to the road beside the Abandoned Village in the southwest. As she turned, she noticed that one of the giant cotton bolls on the evolved cotton plant near the village had split open.

Not sure if the evolved cotton had developed any attack ability, Xia Qing didn’t risk getting closer. She watched from a distance, then pressed the button on her walkie-talkie. “Hey everyone, my evolved cotton’s about to bloom—though the stuff’s a dark yellow with black, and it’s got to smell awful.”

After speaking, Xia Qing tuned her hearing once more to the sounds coming from Territory Two.

Their walkie-talkie was on as well—in the middle of cursing out Tang Huai, Tang Zhengsu paused to ask, “Is that the woman from Section Three, the one teaming up with Hu Fengzi?”

“That’s right,” Tang Heng replied. “The Section Three leader gets along with both Territory One and Seven—the best relationships among all these territories. Zhang San from Seven can’t get enough of her spinach.”

Su Pin added in a low voice, “Last night, Zhang Xi from the Jiang Xiong Squad led some guys into Section Three trying to steal a wolf, but the Inspection Team nabbed them. Blind Jiang called me last night begging us to bail him out. He claimed he didn’t know those two would sneak around against orders.”

Xia Qing raised an eyebrow, guessing Su Pin’s words were for the benefit of any evolved eavesdroppers listening outside the territory.

“Worthless idiots, what’s the point in keeping them around? They’re not even Tangs—is it really worth my mercy every time?” Tang Zhengsu’s latest jab was obviously aimed at Tang Huai.

The other territory leaders didn’t have enhanced hearing and couldn’t follow what was happening in Territory Two, so they eagerly responded to Xia Qing’s news. Kuang Qingwei asked, “How’s your cotton crop looking, Xia Qing? I want to check on mine too.”

Zhao Ze regretted his earlier choices. “Had I known these plants would really produce cotton, I would’ve kept mine!”

Xia Qing answered Kuang Qingwei, “All my evolved cotton has forty or fifty bolls each. If they all open up, I might get over a hundred pounds of cotton.”

With a lazy drawl, Zhang San finally chimed in. “When the evolved cotton blooms, it releases flammable gas. It’s rated level C. Remember to wear gas masks and keep any fire far away.”

Inside Territory Two, Su Pin immediately reported, “Captain, that’s Zhang San from Territory Seven.”

Qi Fu jumped in, “Third Brother, how far does the gas from evolved cotton spread?”

“A single flower affects a two-meter radius. If more bloom, the diameter’s unknown.” After replying, Zhang San switched topics, now in a great mood, and started chatting about last night’s giant river prawns. “The prawns tasted great—if only they hadn’t been struck by lightning, they’d have been even better. Such a shame.”

Back in Section Three, Xia Qing was double-checking the area around the evolved cotton for anything flammable when she hit the walkie-talkie button. “I’ll keep an eye on the reservoir. If I spot any prawn larvae next year, I’ll scoop them up and start raising them.”

“Sounds good,” Zhang San replied, then asked, “About those fish and prawns from last night, what do you want to trade for them?”