Chapter 1077: Eighty-Twenty or Seventy-Thirty

Xia Qing immediately called out to the old wolf charging at the vagrant, "Lao Si, don't bite that human to death. Keep him alive so we can catch more bad guys."

The old wolf stopped, turned, and charged at the other side of the cave—an iron cage, rusted and mottled, firmly fixed to the stone wall.

Xia Qing pulled out a sterile glove, put it on over the pitch-black snakeskin glove, then opened her waist pouch and took out two antidote tablets. She fed one to the black wolf, walked to the iron cage, and stuffed one into Lao Si's mouth.

Based on their skin color and the two satchels at their waists, Xia Qing confirmed these two blue-skinned vagrants were in the same gang as the vagrants from Mountain Thirty-Seven. The blue coating on their skin was poisonous; the black wolf and the old wolf had bitten these two people, so they had to take the appropriate antidote tablets.

Then Xia Qing used an iron rod from the cave to prop open the iron door, confirmed with the lead wolf that aside from the five giant lizards locked in the adjacent cave there were no other living things inside, and walked toward the iron cage.

Inside the iron cage lay two conscious adult wolves and one unconscious half-grown wolf. Although these three wolves had dirty, tangled fur, sunken bellies, and lower halves smeared with feces, there were no scars on their heads—they hadn't been sent into the operating room to have their cerebral cortex removed. That was the one stroke of luck amid the misfortune.

The two adult wolves in the cage clearly recognized the old wolf and were struggling to drag themselves closer to it. Seeing Xia Qing approach, both wolves bared their fangs. Though they were lying down, though their mouths and whiskers were trembling, their eyes were fierce and defiant.

The old wolf howled a few times at the two wolves, then turned its head and looked urgently at Xia Qing.

Only then did Xia Qing open the cage, drag the three wolves out, and inject them with the antidote.

The drugs in these blue-skinned vagrants' satchels had already been thoroughly studied by the idol, who had formulated an antidote.

The reason the three wolves were weak was that they had been injected with a muscle-weakening agent. Half an hour after the antidote was injected, the exhausted evolved wolves would regain their strength.

But Xia Qing couldn't wait half an hour. The five giant lizards in the cave showed these vagrants had ridden over on giant lizards; there might be three vagrants outside the cave.

Xia Qing had managed to subdue two vagrants earlier only because she had caught them off guard.

Although her gun had a silencer, the people outside had very likely heard the commotion, and the three outside were now on their guard. This was the vagrants' turf—god knew how many traps and poison pits were nearby.

Every extra minute spent in this cave, the danger to Xia Qing and the wolf pack grew by another degree.

She carried the three wolves to the stove area and began gesturing to assign tasks. "Queen, my lord, carry this one; Black Wolf Bro, carry this one; Little Wolf Sis, carry this one; Lao Si, carry this bad guy. We'll climb out of the cave and hide. Hurry—the bad guys will rush in soon!"

Xia Qing didn't know what was happening outside the iron door of this cave; but the broken-waist wolf and the handsome giant wolf guarding the flue exit hadn't made any move, which meant things were normal on that side. So Xia Qing decided to retreat through the flue.

The lead wolf leapt down from a stone several meters high, retreated into the pitch-black flue, took the neck of the largest evolved wolf that Xia Qing handed over, and dragged it backward at speed.

Little Wolf Sis followed suit, picking up the half-grown wolf Xia Qing passed her and retreating into the cave. Then the black wolf also picked up the second adult wolf and followed. Last was the old wolf, dragging a human.

Xia Qing, who stayed behind to cover the retreat, wasn't idle either.

Drawing on the experience and intuition for scavenging supplies she had accumulated over eleven years of natural disasters, she rushed to the bed on the left side of the cave—a bed that had been swept spotlessly clean and covered with an entire tiger skin. She quickly pulled two heavy little pouches from a hidden compartment under the wooden bed and stuffed them into her own bag.

On her way to the other side of the cave, Xia Qing casually grabbed a handful of evolved Bai Mao grass roots from the bamboo rack by the stove and stuffed them into her bag, then ran to the area near the cave holding the giant lizards and struck the stone wall with a rod.

Apart from the wooden bed on the left, the entire cave was filthy and chaotic. The old iron cage and the giant lizard cave's droppings hadn't been cleaned for at least two days, but the ground outside the giant lizard cave had been swept spotlessly clean.

What did that mean?

It meant there was something fishy here. The people in the cave had swept the floor so that footprints on the ground couldn't lead anyone to where they had hidden their supplies.

Xia Qing struck the stone wall from left to right, searching for a hidden stone chamber, and quickly discovered that next to the giant lizard cave there was a wooden wall at least 10 centimeters thick, plastered on the outside with cement and disguised as a stone wall.

Look for a keyhole, key, or other mechanism to open the wooden wall?

No time for that!

Strength-evolver Xia Qing kicked the wooden door open with one foot, confirmed there was no ambush inside, rushed in, and quickly packed up the supplies.

Bags of grain and canned food? Leave them!

Bottles and jars of medicine? Leave them!

Three muzzle-loaders? Leave them!

Half a box of bullets? Take them!

A wooden box of Yi stones? Take them!!!

She figured that by now, the old wolf bringing up the rear was about to drag the hostage out of the flue.

Xia Qing gave up further scavenging, crawled into the flue with her bag and scrambled quickly outward. Coming out of the flue right behind the old wolf, she stuffed the seized supplies into her backpack, picked up the unconscious hostage, and said, "Lao Si, lead the way. Let's get out of here and hide somewhere safe!"

The old wolf immediately ran ahead; Xia Qing followed close behind. "Queen, my lord, keep up."

The handsome giant wolf, the broken-waist wolf, and the black wolf, each carrying one of the three same-kind wolves whose strength hadn't yet recovered, followed behind Xia Qing, with the lead wolf and Little Wolf Sis covering the rear. The retreat began.

After running more than two thousand meters through the canyon, the old wolf scrambled up a nearly vertical stone wall by stepping on jagged rocks, and the northern wolf pack carrying wolves in their mouths quickly followed. Then came Xia Qing carrying the hostage, the lead wolf, and Little Wolf Sis.

After climbing diagonally upward twenty or thirty meters, the old wolf led everyone into a small cave hidden in a crevice in the stone wall.

Once inside, Xia Qing discovered it was a gourd-shaped cave—small at the entrance, very spacious inside, with a draft blowing through, which meant this cave had other exits.

Seeing that the slowpoke Xia Qing had finally made it inside, the old wolf came over and nudged her toward the three companions lying there.

Xia Qing carefully listened and observed outside the crevice, confirmed there were no vagrants here, then walked over to the three wolves lying down. She ran her hands over their bodies, confirmed there were no fractures or other external injuries, then applied anti-parasite powder to the two adult wolves that were baring their teeth at her and to the still-unconscious half-grown wolf, and dripped anti-parasite drops behind their necks.

After a helicopter roared overhead and flew past, Xia Qing took out her phone, found a satellite signal, and called Yang Jin.

Xia Qing briefly and quickly explained the situation on her end, then asked, "Are there any members of the Azure Dragon Squad at the border between Hui One and Hui Three?"

Yang Jin understood what Xia Qing was after and replied, "Xie Yu's squad is in Hui One, Mountain Area Twenty-Nine. Where are you right now?"

Until the terms were agreed upon, Xia Qing wouldn't tell him her exact location. "Captain Yang, have Captain Xie come over and capture the magnetic-sense evolvers outside the cave and any vagrants that might be there. The supplies on them are yours. The remaining supplies inside the cave, we split them eighty-twenty—you get two, I get eight."

Yang Jin laughed; his raspy voice made people's ears itch. "Sister Qing has already taken the valuable supplies from inside the cave, hasn't she? The remaining supplies inside the cave, we split them seventy-thirty."

"Eighty-twenty." Xia Qing's tone was firm. "These vagrants have high-grade Yi stones. I dare guarantee there's more inside the cave. If Captain Yang doesn't agree, I'll team up with the wolf pack and go on the offensive."

Faced with vagrants in the canyon who could follow their tracks at any moment—unknown in number, combat strength, and equipment—Xia Qing preferred to cooperate with the Azure Dragon Squad rather than the wolf pack.

Last winter, Xia Qing had been blindly confident. She took the lead wolf, the broken-waist wolf, and Wolf Lao Er to fight the Blaze Capture Team, which led to her and the three wolves being poisoned and nearly wiped out. Zhang He was still at this moment leading a research team to decontaminate Mountain Fifty-Five, which had been covered in poisonous gas.

The current Xia Qing had grown stronger, and also more cautious. These vagrants had rich experience and methods for fighting large beasts; they had close ties with Blaze, and the satchels they carried held over a dozen medicines designed for dealing with large beasts!

Therefore, rather than letting the wolf pack take the risk, Xia Qing was more willing to give up twenty percent of the gains and cooperate with Xie Yu's squad.