Chapter 388: A New Neighbor and Old Grudges

When Xia Qing and Kuang Qingwei both nodded, Shizhong finally replied, “Okay. Captain Tan, have Brother Yue come over now. We’ll wait for him by the signpost.”

After hanging up, Zhao Ze’s Mother looked surprised. “I thought Captain Tan’s daughter was just around ten years old. She’s that young and already a territory lord? Don’t you have to be an adult for that?”

“It’s probably a special military family policy. Both Captain Tan and his wife were soldiers, and his wife died in the line of duty,” Kuang Qingwei explained. “Territory Fifteen rented a thresher before. Yue Haiying’s right arm is missing a section. We always thought he was the lord—turns out he’s just the acting agent.”

Xia Qing guessed, “The refugees from Territory Two probably have to head into the Evolved Forest for supplies, starting with Hill Fifty, since it’s closest to us. Territory Fifteen is just east of there, so odds are they’re after the same patch of forest we picked, likely to get lumber to build an eastern wall. Have you ever dealt with the lord of Territory Fourteen, Uncle Shi?”

To the east of Territory Ten is Territory Fourteen, and further east is Territory Fifteen. If both Territory Ten and Fifteen wall in their boundaries, that means Territory Fourteen would just need to build north and south walls to seal themselves in.

In theory, if Shizhong wanted to build a wall between his place and Territory Fourteen, he should talk it through with their lord ahead of time. If the lord is reasonable, they’d each build half the wall.

Shizhong shook his head. “I’ve shouted over toward their east border before—nobody ever answered. Later I had Captain Tan pass a message, but they still haven’t replied, so I’m just focusing on the north and west walls for now. Haven’t touched the east wall yet. In the past six months, the only sign of life from them was some noise when they ran a thresher to process corn kernels.”

At the mention of threshing corn, all eyes landed squarely on Kuang Qingwei.

“Yeah, Territory Fourteen rented the thresher from me,” Kuang Qingwei said. The scars on his face—left by acid rain—twisted as he smiled, giving his grin a frightening look.

He rarely smiled like that around outsiders, but now that he felt comfortable with the group, his guard was down.

“Territory Fourteen’s lord is a lot like Xin Yu, keeps to himself and never showed up at the July Crop Trade Fair. Contacting me for the thresher was the first time he reached out. He looks about forty, big eyes, square face, a bushy beard, and a blue cross-shaped scar over three centimeters long on his left cheek. He’s about 1.9 meters tall—probably an evolutioner. But he’s really skinny and speaks softly, not sure if he’s hurt or what.”

When Blue Star suddenly had the Double Element surge and the first great evolution kicked off, any human evolutioner under twenty-five physically grew again, usually getting much taller.

That’s why Kuang Qingwei guessed the lord of Fourteen is an evolutioner—just going by his height.

A tall, skinny guy with a blue cross scar and a beard on his left cheek?

Xia Qing stayed calm. “From what Qing just described, this sounds like Yan Meng, a former Storm Squad member and a level-four Scent Evolutioner. He got poisoned on a mission last August and lost his evolution ability, so he retired. He’s got a grudge against me. Try not to interact with him much or you might get dragged into trouble because of me.”

Everyone was shocked and started peppering Xia Qing with questions about what happened.

A lot of people already knew this story, so there was nothing to hide. Xia Qing summed it up, “Last May, Storm Squad took on a mission to clean out the Evolved Forest and recruited Strength Evolutioners. I signed up. We ran into a pack of evolved wolves. The main Storm Squad members hunted the wolves but ended up wiped out. I only survived by hiding up a tree.”

“Ah!” Zhao Ze’s Mother gasped. “I’ve heard about that! All the main members of Storm Squad were gutted by evolved wolves—their hearts, lungs, everything eaten.”

Kuang Qingwei and Qi Fu both nodded. It was last year’s big safety incident. Everyone in the Safe Zone heard about it, but they never knew Xia Qing had been on that hunt.

Kuang Qingwei asked, “Did the wolves really eat them? I thought evolved wolves hated the taste of human meat and only sucked blood.”

Just how outlandish had the story become by now?

Xia Qing, the actual survivor, corrected them. “The wolf pack killed them and destroyed Storm Squad’s weapons. They didn’t eat any meat or drink human blood.”

“Maybe the wolves weren’t hungry anymore,” Shizhong suggested. “I heard from Xiao Du that Yan Meng took it out on you just because you survived?”

Xia Qing nodded.

Truth is, Yan Meng did have the right target. His sister—Storm Squad’s level-four Scent Evolutioner Yan Pan—was only killed by the wolf pack because Xia Qing pushed her out of the tree.

There were twelve people on that mission, eight of them were core Storm Squad. Yan Pan wasn’t one of the main fighters, but when they decided to hunt the wolf pack, she was the first to fire, hitting one of the wolves thanks to her good aim.

Out in the Evolved Forest, any wild animal struck by a bullet is basically as good as dead.

So after the Alpha led the pack to kill the main squad, the wolves then set their sights on Yan Pan in the tree.

Yan Pan spent her last bullets and crawled across the branches to Xia Qing’s hiding spot, planning to throw Xia Qing down to buy time for a rescue. But she underestimated Xia Qing’s strength and got tossed down herself, meeting her end at the wolves’ claws.

When the rescue team arrived, Xia Qing told them straight about the fight between Storm Squad and the wolves—she just left out the part about fighting with Yan Pan. Yan Meng, who’d come with the team, caught the scent of his sister on Xia Qing and tried to kill her for revenge.

But that day’s rescue team leader wasn’t one of Storm Squad, and Xia Qing was needed to report back at Base, so Yan Meng never got his shot.

After that, Yan Meng always looked at Xia Qing with murderous intent, but she was careful and never gave him an opening. Soon after, Yan Meng was badly injured and vanished—Xia Qing couldn’t find him even if she wanted to settle things.

Never expected he’d pop up here farming, and so close by.

They weren’t in the same lords’ channel, but since Xia Qing often posted messages there, Yan Meng definitely knew she was in Section Three.

Once things calmed down, Xia Qing planned to test out what Yan Meng really wanted. If he genuinely wanted to farm, she wouldn’t interfere. But if he’d come for revenge, she wouldn’t mind sending him on his way.

Zhao Ze’s Mother frowned. “That guy’s just unreasonable. Who knows if he’s got a gun—Xia Qing, you be careful, okay?”

“Yan Meng’s not unreasonable, just a coward. If he weren’t, he’d be going after the wolf pack, not people,” Qi Fu advised Shizhong. “Shi, with a neighbor like that, watch your back.”

So why wasn’t Qi Fu worried about Xia Qing?

Isn’t it obvious?

Even if Yan Meng hadn’t lost his evolution powers, he was always just a Scent Evolutioner, no match at all for Xia Qing the Strength Evolution sharpshooter.