Chapter 1102: Sudden Tiger Attack

Having left the Blind Tiger's core territory, Xia Qing, who had planned to return to the helicopter landing point and reboard, was suddenly stopped by the two wolves, who positioned themselves on either side of her to shield her. The walkie-talkie Xia Qing wore crackled with Beard Feng's urgent warning: "Sister Qing, two evolved tigers are charging toward your position. Use the rappelling rope to board the helicopter now! You only have a minute and a half. Hurry!"

Beard Feng's tension was understandable—the speed and sheer size of those two evolved tigers as they ran through the evolved forest were absolutely terrifying.

Xia Qing definitely couldn't outrun those tigers, and if the helicopter descended to pick her and the two wolves up before taking off again, the evolved tigers would definitely pounce onto it. So the only option was to use the rappelling rope to hoist the three of them off the ground, getting them above the evolved tigers' attack range first.

"Copy that." Xia Qing quickly took out the wearable special harness and swiftly put it on her two companions, buckling it tight.

After the helicopter arrived roaring with the rappelling rope trailing, Xia Qing and the two wolves leapt up and grabbed the three-pronged rappelling rope. She clipped the self-locking carabiner at the rope's end onto the special harnesses worn by Wolf Lao Er and Wolf Fourth, then clipped the last self-locking carabiner onto herself. "Take off!"

"Copy that!"

Er Yong pulled the control stick, and the helicopter rapidly climbed. The rappelling rope went taut, lifting Xia Qing and the two wolves off the ground.

"Roar—"

Before the person and two wolves had risen six meters off the ground, a massive mottled tiger, two sizes larger than the Blind Tiger, let out an earth-shaking roar and lunged at the two wolves and the person in a tiger-pounce stance, its enormous claws and fangs glinting coldly in the sunlight!

"Awooo!!!"

Wolf Lao Er and Wolf Fourth, dangling in mid-air, roared furiously at the same time, but whether in size or volume, their presence fell far short of the tiger's. In the helicopter, Beard Feng and Huo Zhun both gripped their guns tightly, ready to act.

Xia Qing released the rappelling rope, wrapped her left arm around Wolf Fourth and her right arm around Wolf Lao Er, and using her waist as the pivot, flipped herself in mid-air like a capsizing boat. With her legs as whips and feet as hammers, she kicked the tiger hard in the head. Propelled by the reaction force, the two wolves and the person dangling from the rappelling rope swung more than four meters away, dodging the tiger's claws and fangs.

The first evolved tiger, kicked by Xia Qing, had just fallen away when an even larger, more powerfully springing tiger pounced up!

But it was a step too late. The helicopter had already accelerated, and when the person and two wolves swung back like a pendulum, they were more than five meters higher than the second evolved tiger's jump.

Finally… they were safe.

Xia Qing, swinging on the rappelling rope beneath the helicopter, felt her heart pounding wildly and couldn't help wanting to curse those two evolved tigers that had charged in for a surprise attack.

"Awoo—aw aw awoo awoo—" Before Xia Qing could speak, the old wolf she was holding, every muscle taut, let out a string of furious roars at the tigers below.

Xia Qing couldn't understand what it was cursing, and the tigers below couldn't understand the wolves either. The tigers raced and leapt through the trees, chasing the helicopter and letting out roars that shook the mountain forest. They only stopped when the lord of this stretch of mountain forest, the Blind Tiger, caught up and joined them.

Then the three tigers stood in a neat row, roaring furiously at the two wolves and the person dangling beneath the helicopter.

Judging by the situation, these two tigers were probably the Blind Tiger's companions or relatives. They might have thought the helicopter had captured the Blind Tiger, which was why they'd charged in to rescue it.

Touching, and terrifying.

After confirming the Blind Tiger was fine, those two big fellows were still unable to quell their fury, so they roared at the helicopter. The western evolved forest truly didn't have a single evolved beast with a decent temper.

The helicopter's winch reeled the person and two wolves dangling on the rappelling rope back beneath the cabin. With the help of Huo Zhun, a Level Seven strength evolver, they made it back inside the helicopter cabin.

The old wolf, the first to enter the cabin, landed its four paws on the hard protective floor and immediately dug its claws in, lowered its body, and bit down on the protective fabric of Xia Qing's leg to drag her inside.

This old wolf was also a strength evolver. Xia Qing, dizzy from swaying in the air, lost her balance as the wolf dragged her. If Huo Zhun hadn't steadied her with a hand, Xia Qing, still holding Wolf Lao Er, would have definitely crashed into Wolf Fourth.

Huo Zhun closed the cabin door, still shaken. "That was way too dangerous. I almost fired the cannon several times."

Er Yong, piloting the helicopter, reminded her, "Sister Qing, there are two more tigers approaching from the front left."

Xia Qing unclipped the self-locking carabiners from Wolf Lao Er and Wolf Fourth, looked through the window at the two tigers running to join the other three, and felt grateful that she'd been so lucky this time.

Beard Feng was also shaken. "I never expected the tiger Sister Qing saved to be the smallest one in this group of tigers. After all these years of natural disasters, this is the first time I've seen so many tigers acting together."

Deep within the western evolved forest, beyond the western wolf pack's territory, lay the western tigers' territory—a forbidden zone for humans. Even Beard Feng of the Azure Dragon Squad was seeing this many tigers for the first time, let alone Xia Qing, who had always operated near the safe zone and around the territory borders.

Mountains Thirty-Seven and Thirty-Six, closest to the western wolf pack's territory, were the domain of the Blind Tiger—the smallest, and possibly youngest, tiger in the group. The fact that Xia Qing had managed to pick Viola philippica inside the Blind Tiger's territory today and walk away completely unscathed was incredibly lucky.

Huo Zhun speculated, "I think our helicopter circled over Mountain Thirty-Six for too long and caught the attention of evolved tigers from other mountain zones. That's why those first two evolved tigers came over to check. When they saw Sister Qing and the two wolves, they assumed you'd attacked the evolved tiger on Mountain Thirty-Six, which is why they pounced."

Xia Qing nodded. "I think so too."

Beard Feng was focused on another angle. "I've been watching the radar scan screen the whole time, monitoring the situation below the helicopter. These two tigers appeared suddenly. Which means they were either hiding at that spot beforehand, or they reached there from an obstacle the high-frequency microwave radar can't penetrate—like a cave."

Huo Zhun followed up with his analysis. "Our helicopter is civilian-grade, so its radar detection capability is far worse than military-grade. Its detection range and penetration ability over complex terrain are limited. Plus, the effects of the third Killing Rain on the evolved forest haven't fully faded. The air humidity in the evolved forest is too high, and the rain and fog absorb and scatter radar waves, affecting detection performance."

Xia Qing, smoothing the wolves' fur to soothe their emotions, spoke calmly. "Bottom line—we can't rely too heavily on detection equipment."

Huo Zhun nodded. "Right. The deeper you go into the evolved forest, the more complex the terrain, and the magnetic field is extremely chaotic. A lot of instruments will fail. Individual combat ability has to be excellent, otherwise it's a dead end."

Forget Xia Qing and Beard Feng—even when Huo Zhun was serving in the Jiaolong Special Forces, every time they received a mission to go deep into the evolved forest, they set out with the mindset that they might not come back.

Er Yong, piloting the helicopter, reminded her, "Sister Qing, Mountain Twenty-Six is up ahead. Our helicopter hasn't filed with base, so we can't enter the airspace of the border zone between Hui-Three and Hui-One. Where do you want us to land?"