Chapter 101: Yan Long

"Please wait a moment, you two."

Something was off with the Cat Princess. Ji Li pulled out his phone to call for backup. "Yan Long, come to the North Buffer Forest. Yes, right now."

Yan Long? Beard Feng turned his head in surprise, looking down the slope.

When he saw a short-haired, sharp-looking woman in camouflage walking over, Beard Feng snapped to attention and gave a military salute. "Company Commander Yan."

Xia Qing followed Beard Feng's lead and saluted this young soldier, who was as beautiful as an unsheathed sharp sword.

Yan Long returned the salute, her voice crisp and clean. "I've retired."

"Yes, sir." Beard Feng still stood ramrod straight.

Ji Li explained the situation to Yan Long. "This is the lord of Plot Three, Young Lady Xia. Third Brother invited her over to pick a cat, but the Princess has a lot of hostility toward her. Can you see if anything's off about Young Lady Xia?"

Yan Long answered, "Young Lady Xia carries the scent of an evolved wolf on her. Very strong."

This is a frame-up! She hadn't seen so much as a single wolf hair in the past half month.

Xia Qing was about to explain when Yan Long clarified further. "The scent is concentrated on your right hand and waist. Besides the evolved wolf, there's also the scent of a sheep."

"When I came out, I stroked my evolved sheep's fur, so having a sheep's scent isn't strange. But I haven't run into a wolf in half a month…" Xia Qing suddenly stopped, her expression as if struck by lightning.

Seeing her expression, anyone could tell she understood where the wolf scent came from. Ji Li explained to Xia Qing, "My Princess has had several conflicts with evolved wolves, which is why she's reacting so strongly. Young Lady Xia, you can't take the kitten."

Xia Qing struggled. "What if I go back, wash up, and come visit again?"

Ji Li shook his head. "Even if you take her, the Princess will just go over and carry the kitten back."

The adorable kitten was right before her eyes—how could Xia Qing bear to give up? She kept struggling. "Third Brother even accepted my exchange goods for swapping cats…"

Ji Li was very apologetic. "Once Third Brother is free, I'll report this matter to him."

"Thank you for your trouble." Xia Qing took one last look at Little Fifth, who was hissing at her, then followed Beard Feng out of Territory Seven.

With Xia Qing in such a sorry state, Beard Feng of course didn't feel right picking a cat today either. He quietly discussed with Xia Qing, "Company Commander Yan is a Level Nine olfactory evolver—her judgment is definitely correct. Should we have Chen Zheng and Chen Cheng do a sweep of Territory Three and Zone Three, searching for evolved wolves?"

The Azure Dragon Squad had divided Mountain Forty-Nine into ten zones. Zone Three referred to the non-rented area north of the northern isolation belt bordering Territories One, Three, and Four on Mountain Forty-Nine—an evolved forest that belonged exclusively to Xia Qing.

After Xia Qing nodded, Beard Feng immediately got on the phone to call for backup. By the time Xia Qing returned to her territory, the Chen Zheng and Chen Cheng brothers had already begun using their sense of smell to inspect the territory. Dajiang, who was watching over Xia Qing's territory, was weeding in the shed.

Seeing Xia Qing and the captain return, Dajiang sprang up and asked eagerly, "Feng-ge, Qing-jie, what did the kitten look like? Did you take a photo? When are we bringing it back?"

Touching the sore spot—Beard Feng glared at Dajiang with a dark face. "Pull your weeds!"

Dajiang saw the situation was wrong and immediately obediently shrank back, continuing to pull weeds.

Xia Qing walked straight up to Sheep Boss, who was lying under a tree. Sheep Boss squinted and stared at Xia Qing. The human and the sheep began a staring death match.

Beard Feng silently backed off as well, squatting down with Dajiang to pull weeds.

Chen Zheng, who had finished patrolling Territory Three, came over to report the inspection results. "Qing-jie, the entire territory only has evolved wolf scent under the grape vines and on Sheep Boss. The two scents are identical—it should be the same evolved wolf that came through last night. It must have used something to mask its scent, so we can't sniff out where it entered Territory Three from."

Beard Feng came over and asked Xia Qing, "Should we invite Company Commander Yan over to help with the inspection?"

Xia Qing shook her head. "No need. You don't have to check Zone Three either. Sorry for the trouble today."

Every night, Xia Qing would set up over thirty traps with sound-emitting devices throughout her territory—two of them were under the grape vines. To make it convenient for Wei Chengdong to fetch water, Xia Qing had not set up any traps near the large rock blocking the spring.

Besides Beard Feng's squad and Wei Chengdong who fetched water, no one knew the locations of the traps.

Last night, a wolf had entered her territory, crawled into the net shed, and stayed under the grape vines for a long time—yet hadn't touched a single trip wire. When Xia Qing patrolled the territory in the morning, she hadn't noticed a single thing out of place.

How could a wolf this smart possibly leave its scent in Zone Three of Mountain Forty-Nine, letting people track where it came from and went?

After Beard Feng led his squad out of Territory Three, Xia Qing hung a bag of dried small fish and roasted snake meat on a tree, then beckoned Sheep Boss. "You—get up!"

Seeing that Xia Qing wanted a fight, Sheep Boss stood up, showed off its spiral horns, pawed the ground, and got into a full fighting stance.

Xia Qing furiously demanded, "When the hell did you hook up with an evolved wolf? How could you not tell me something this important?"

Sheep Boss squinted and kept pawing the dirt with its hooves—looking more and more like it deserved a beating.

"You still dare paw the ground!" All the fury Xia Qing had been holding in all morning exploded. She charged fiercely, and Sheep Boss met the attack without backing down an inch.

"Boom!"

A high-level strength evolver and a strength-evolved sheep collided at full force, making the surrounding air tremble.

Beard Feng's squad, which hadn't yet left the buffer forest of Territory Three, turned back and saw Xia Qing, sent flying by Sheep Boss, flip mid-air and viciously kick Sheep Boss's horn.

"Moo!" Sheep Boss was kicked back several steps by Xia Qing, then charged fiercely again.

"Boom!"

Dajiang winced at the sound and quietly asked, "Captain, what's gotten into Qing-jie?"

Beard Feng said darkly, "Sheep Boss has a wide social circle."

Besides the wild boars at the Breeding Center, it was apparently also friends with an evolved wolf…

This isn't a sheep, this is a cow—truly awesome.

"Boom!" Xia Qing kicked Sheep Boss flying several meters away, followed by another tremendous crash.

Chen Zheng took the opportunity to lecture his younger brother. "See that? Don't always be so flippant in front of Qing-jie, running your mouth without thinking. If you make Qing-jie angry, she'll beat you just like she's beating Sheep Boss. Think you can take it?"

Chen Cheng and Dajiang, who had been included in the lecture, shook their heads at the same time. They couldn't take it—they really couldn't take it.

After shaking his head, Dajiang immediately turned and asked Beard Feng, "The Company Commander Yan the captain just mentioned—is that Company Commander Yan Long?"

Beard Feng glared at him. "Want to test whether you can take my fist?"

Dajiang shrank his neck. He really didn't…

After returning to the territory, Beard Feng reported the matter of going to Territory Seven to pick a cat to Luo Pei.

Luo Pei couldn't help laughing after hearing it. Although Xia Qing couldn't adopt the kitten, she might have gained a wolf trading partner—not a bad deal.

What Beard Feng cared about most wasn't whether Xia Qing could adopt the cat, or even whether he himself could—it was Yan Long appearing in Zhang San's territory. "Luo-ge, Company Commander Yan actually left Huiyi Base with Zhang San. She said she's retired—how could that be possible?"

Luo Pei, however, was very calm. "Zhang San isn't worth the military sending Yan Long to protect him?"

Beard Feng…

Worth it. Of course worth it.

Luo Pei poured a cup of tea. "Ji Li, who runs around delivering supplies to every territory every day—do you know what level ability user he is?"

Hu Zifeng guessed, "Level five?"

"Level seven. Level seven speed evolver."

Hu Zifeng…

A Level seven speed evolver could stand on his own anywhere — yet here he was running errands and raising cats in Zhang San's territory…

"Buzz… buzz…"

The phone vibrated.

Xia Qing, sprawled on the ground, ordered weakly, "Dummy Dummy, answer the phone."

The phone answered cheerfully, "Yes, Master. Your call is connected."

"Xia Qing, it's me, your Third Brother." Zhang San's calm idol-like voice came through the phone, and Xia Qing sat up at once.

Old Sheep, who had been lying flat, saw Xia Qing sit up and jumped up too, striking a pose to continue the fight.

"I heard from Ji Li that wolves have entered your territory?"

"Mm, it's a friend of Old Sheep's coming to visit it — I just found out myself. Third Brother, the Cat Princess is fine now, right?" Please don't have a stress reaction — the Cat Princess is still nursing two kittens.