Chapter 1108: The Battle Between the Wolf Pack and the Macaque Troop

Inside the unassuming, plain-looking two-story building on the outskirts of Territory Three.

In the kitchen's oven at the southeast corner of the first floor hung two ducks roasting, sizzling with dripping fat. In the first-floor living room, one person, one sheep, and two wolves sat on the sofa watching TV; a little monkey squatted on the sofa's backrest, using its small black paws to groom the fur on the head of the human sitting in the middle; the little squirrels squatting in the wooden nest on the wall and in the cage in the corner stared longingly at the nut dish on the table.

When humans leave the safe zone to carry out missions, unless the mission is secret or illegal, the squad leader will mostly use a camera to record the mission's execution.

Xia Qing's purpose for recording was partly the same as theirs—reviewing afterward, analyzing the mission process, summarizing experience and lessons; but more of it was different—letting her idol understand the ecology of the evolutionary forest in the area she visited, letting good friends see the various animals there, and later she added another item—letting a certain very intelligent wolf with a strong exploratory spirit know what she had gone to do.

She and the Broken-Waist Wolf couldn't communicate through language; using recordings plus a map could save time and improve communication efficiency.

"This is Blind-Eye Tiger; the Queen and the Western Wolf King fought it on Mountain Thirty-Seven… here." When the Broken-Waist Wolf pressed pause and looked over, Xia Qing pulled up the electronic map in her notebook, found and zoomed in on the valley of Mountain Thirty-Seven, letting it understand where the battle had taken place.

The Broken-Waist Wolf had seen the video of that mission and understood.

When the video played to Xia Qing gathering herbs, the Broken-Waist Wolf paused again; what it was paying attention to was not the herbs, but Blind-Eye Tiger lying on a rock more than three hundred meters away when Xia Qing looked up to the side.

Xia Qing also didn't know what it was looking at, so she didn't make a sound, lowering her head to scrub Wolf Lao Er's python-skin protective suit.

The Broken-Waist Wolf stared at Blind-Eye Tiger for a full five minutes before continuing to play the video. When Xia Qing buckled the self-locking clips on the backs of the two wolves, the Broken-Waist Wolf paused and looked at Xia Qing.

Xia Qing understood, smiling like a flower, "These are self-locking clips; they fasten onto the suspenders on the protective suit, so even hanging in the air they won't come off. Does Handsome Wolf want some? Suspenders plus this kind of clip, 300 points a set."

The Broken-Waist Wolf turned sideways, gesturing for Xia Qing to reach into the side pocket of its protective suit and pull something out.

Xia Qing, unsurprised, pulled out a points card, "How many sets does Handsome Wolf want?"

The Broken-Waist Wolf extended its big paw, struggling to spread its toes.

"Five sets? Okay, Handsome Wolf is really shrewd. Five sets is 1500 points; this card has 3000 points on it, I'll find you one with 1500 points." Xia Qing exchanged the points card for the Broken-Waist Wolf, tucking it back into the side pocket of its protective suit.

The protective suits for the two half-grown wolves hadn't been delivered yet, so within the Northern Wolf Pack there were a total of six wolves that owned protective suits. Wolf Lao Er already had suspenders and clips, so only five wolves needed this kind of equipment.

This wolf had, without anyone noticing, already firmly occupied the top of Blue Star's shrewd-creature pyramid, becoming harder and harder to fool.

After completing the transaction, the Broken-Waist Wolf continued watching the video; when the two fierce tigers roared and pounced forward, it and Wolf Lao Er both bared their fangs, Daigua was so scared it hugged Xia Qing's neck, Little Feimao who was gnawing walnuts burrowed into Xia Qing's coat pocket, and Qiangzai curled up into a ball hiding in the nest, trembling all over.

Sheep Eldest Brother only paused for one second, then continued chewing its cud as if nothing had happened.

When Xia Qing was suturing the wound on the cheek of the half-grown wolf belonging to the old wolf, the Broken-Waist Wolf stopped, turning its head to look at Xia Qing seriously.

Replaying the video, Xia Qing also discovered the problem, generously admitting her mistake, "Those two stitches just now were indeed sewn wrong; I'll pay more attention next time."

The Broken-Waist Wolf, who was currently studying medical ethics, raised its big paw, pointing at the half-grown wolf lying bloodied on the screen, looking at Xia Qing even more seriously: Next time is next time, how should the surgical mistake on this wolf be resolved?

If it had been before, Xia Qing would certainly have told this wolf righteously: it was that pack's leader who wouldn't let her bring the wounded wolf back for treatment, so the consequences of the surgical mistake should naturally be borne by that Wolf King.

But after being educated by Sange, Xia Qing knew that her every word and deed had a profound influence on this wolf, whom Sange had confirmed as having a tri-system high-level brain domain evolution; if she went crooked, this wolf would definitely go crooked.

Therefore, Xia Qing could not shirk responsibility, "Those two stitches' mistake is my fault; I will bear the consequences. Next time I see this Broken-Face Wolf, I will check its healing condition; if it healed poorly, I will treat it for free."

Only then was the Broken-Waist Wolf satisfied, rewinding to repeatedly watch this segment of the video of Xia Qing treating the wolf pack's external injuries.

Xia Qing didn't want to be looked down on again, so she peeled the Daigua monkey off herself and placed it beside Wolf Lao Er, went to the kitchen to flip the roast duck over, came back and found the Broken-Waist Wolf had paused the video again, staring at the messy wounds on a wolf's body.

"Broken-Waist, what animal left the wounds on this wolf's body?" Xia Qing confirmed that the wounds on this pack of wolves included animal scratches, bite marks, and crushing injuries, as well as cuts from sharp branches or pointed stones, but she couldn't determine what animal had caused them; the Broken-Waist Wolf probably could.

The Broken-Waist Wolf didn't answer Xia Qing's question, repeatedly and carefully examining the wounds on the seven wolves' bodies.

When she saw the green-eyed lead wolf that had blocked her turn sideways, exposing the wound on its flank, Xia Qing's eyes lit up; she pulled up photos from after the Western Wolf Pack's great battle with the macaque troop, zoomed in on the wound on a wolf's body, and asked, "Broken-Waist, look, this is the wound on Lord Cui Yan's body; it should have been made by a macaque!"

The Broken-Waist Wolf's eyes didn't leave the TV, it only grinned, briefly showing the tips of its fangs, indicating Xia Qing had guessed correctly.

So it turned out Wolf Lao Si's pack had gone to fight the macaques; why did they fight?

Xia Qing strung together the things that had happened this year, deducing cause and effect.

At the end of January this year, before the Northern Wolf Pack's lead wolf had given birth to Little Wolf Brother and Little Wolf Sister, an evolution fungus appeared within the Hui Six macaque troop's territory, causing food shortages for the macaque troop in the Hui Six evolutionary forest. The macaques seized the opportunity of the conflict between the Hui Three Western Wolf Pack and the humans of Hui Three Base, wanting to occupy the Hui Three Western Wolf Pack's territory, but were repelled by the wolf pack led by Handsome Giant Wolf and the Western Wolf King.

Then, the fleeing monkeys might have turned toward Xiang Xinanfang, invading Wolf Lao Si's pack's territory.

Wolf Lao Si was very capable; it would certainly be able to lead the wolf pack to defeat the monkey troop, but at the same time it would also become infected with the pathogenic fungi carried by the monkeys, causing the wolf pack's bodies to develop problems and combat power to decline.

Hui One's blue-skinned wanderers very likely seized this opportunity to launch a sneak attack on Wolf Lao Si's pack, capturing several of its companions, causing the wolf pack's combat power to be damaged again.

Later, Hui Three's pharmaceutical factory mass-produced an effective medicine to kill this evolution fungus; Hui Six, Hui One, and Hui Three took joint action, using helicopters to repeatedly spray the agent over the evolutionary forest, completely killing the evolution fungus that was spreading rapidly in the western part of Hui Three, the eastern part of Hui Six, and the northern part of Hui One's evolutionary forests; the old wolf's pack also survived because of this.

Because the old wolf performed poorly in this crisis, and possibly because it was old, its body recovered slowly after being infected with the fungus, it lost to the Lord Cui Yan female wolf that challenged it, and left its wolf pack.

Of course, whether Lord Cui Yan's challenge to Wolf Lao Si or the humans spraying the agent came first, Xia Qing couldn't deduce.

But what happened afterward was very clear: Wolf Lao Si lost the position of Wolf King, wandered from the western part of Hui Three's evolutionary forest to the north, encountered the wolf-dog Wolf Lao Er by chance, and was brought by it to Territory Three.

Later, it was that the old wolf happened to hear the screams of its companions in the video, returned to Mountain Twenty-Six for revenge, accidentally found other captured companions, then turned back to find Xia Qing for help, and after that, the old wolf led these three wolves back to the original wolf pack; the addition of four wolves increased this pack's combat power.

Then, they fought a battle with the macaque troop.

The wolf pack fought a macaque troop that had learned to use weapons, which was why the wounds on the wolves were so varied.

What was the reason for the wolf pack's battle with the macaque troop? Was it because the macaque troop still occupied territory that originally belonged to the wolf pack, or because that troop of macaques had cooperated with the wanderers and harmed the wolf pack?

Where is that troop of macaques now? Are there still blue-skinned wanderer accomplices within the evolutionary forest?

Xia Qing grew more and more serious; the Daigua monkey that had already snuggled up to her side was frightened, and shrank back beside Wolf Lao Er again, carefully grooming Wolf Lao Er's fur.