Chapter 1124: Will Bear and Snake Packs Attack Human Territory?

Xia Qing entered Territory Seven, handed the two wolves to Zhang Song and his assistant, briefly explained their injuries, and went straight into her idol's lab.

As the emergency disaster-mitigation commander, with his deputy commander Xia Qing not in the territory, and Chang Li in Territory Three only able to relay messages for Xia Qing and nothing else, Zhang San had no choice but to interrupt his research and focus on commanding the disaster mitigation. This made him very unhappy; his face was sour, and seeing Xia Qing — though disinfected, still filthy — irritated him even more.

What to do when the idol is in a bad mood? Coax him! Xia Qing immediately pulled two sealed, snow-Bai Yi snakes from her pack.

Zhang San instantly perked up, hurriedly put on gloves, and was practically itching to grab the snakes and rush into the lab to test whether their skin color was albinism caused by a lack of tyrosinase in their bodies, or the result of a genetic mutation producing a dominant white gene.

Seeing her idol's expression change, Xia Qing felt a great sense of accomplishment. "Third Brother, these came crawling out of the python lake — Green Lantern Snakes that can release a magnetic field of Yi elements. The aura they emit makes humans, wolves, and bears emotionally agitated and combative. One for you, one for me — can I leave mine with you for now?"

Hearing they were Green Lantern Yi-evolved creatures, Zhang San was bursting with energy, but he still caught the key point in Xia Qing's words. "Your filter cartridge can't filter out the odor molecules these creatures release?"

Xia Qing's bravado instantly deflated. "It can filter them. I used the ultra-sensitive air-toxin detector you gave me to confirm there were no toxins in the air over there before I took off my mask."

Even if there's no toxin in the air, there could still be all kinds of spores and bacteria — don't you know even that much common sense?!

Seeing Xia Qing's guilty look, Zhang San didn't want another headache and simply didn't ask why she'd taken off her protective mask. "You're keeping one snake because you plan to eat snake meat?"

"Yes. Wolves and bears fought to the death over this snake's blood, which means its taste and nutritional value are both very high." Xia Qing held the larger one out to her idol. "Third Brother, don't use it all for research — try some fresh."

Creatures rich in Yi-synthesis elements certainly have high nutritional value, but their medicinal value is even greater. Still, this was prey Xia Qing had obtained, and Zhang San had no right to interfere with how she arranged it. He simply took the smaller snake in front of her with a firm pull, put it in the refrigerator, and reminded her, "First test the snake's radiation and toxic-substance content. If the levels are too high, bring it over and I'll extract the active ingredients to make medicine."

Xia Qing nodded, gave a detailed account of the wolf-python battle and her speculation, then asked, "Third Brother, do the Qiang snakes in the lake need human intervention?"

Northern Region One Territory is still in its disaster-mitigation procedure period — this matter needs to be resolved as soon as possible.

"Of the five honey badgers you sent over, four are currently relying on their own immune systems to neutralize the Qiang-snake venom. Real-time monitoring data shows they'll wake up in three hours and head back into the Evolution Forest to wipe out Qiang snakes. This indicates that the Northern Evolution Forest ecosystem already has a certain capacity for self-regulation."

Zhang San asked, "The more complex the species composition in an area, the more stable its structure, the sounder its function, and the higher its self-regulating capacity. Are you planning to go to Mountain Sixty again?"

Xia Qing nodded. "I'll go catch a few white snakes alive and bring them to you."

"Based on the number of Qiang snakes you observed in the lake, they haven't yet reached plague proportions. If other Qiang-snake predators can, like the honey badgers, have more than half of them successfully break down Qiang-snake venom, we can determine that the Northern Evolution Forest ecosystem has strong self-regulating capacity and doesn't need human intervention for now. Qiang snakes and these white snakes appearing in the same body of water means there must be a biological connection between them. Until we understand that connection, we need to be even more cautious — interfere as little as possible."

Zhang San's expression grew even more benevolent. "Get in touch with Xin Yu. If possible, borrow her trained birds and take them to Mountain Sixty, and have the trained birds track the animals that have eaten Qiang snakes. The magnetic field around the python lake has been extremely chaotic these past few days — the monitoring equipment is unusable."

A thought flashed through Xia Qing's mind. "Third Brother, could the pythons choosing to come ashore now be related to the regional magnetic-field anomaly?"

Zhang San answered rigorously and patiently, "Animal navigation, migration, and physiological changes are all closely linked to Blue Star's magnetic field. So we can't rule out that the large number of snakes in the local waters chose to leave the lake during this period and move a short distance to a safe area to hibernate because of changes in the regional magnetic field."

Amazing, truly amazing! Third Brother truly is the human standing at the very top of the highest pyramid in the entire universe — he knows everything!

One look at Xia Qing's eyes and Zhang San knew she had nothing serious left to say, so he started shooing her out. "You don't need to worry about the disaster mitigation here. I've already pulled evolvers from the territory and the inspection teams to form six snake-catching squads to search for Qiang snakes in the mountain areas near the territory. What equipment do you need to go to Mountain Sixty?"

As expected of the idol standing at the top of the pyramid — he got straight to the point!

Xia Qing, brimming with boundless, inexpressible admiration, rattled off the equipment she needed. "I need trauma first-aid medicine, anesthetics, protective-mask filter cartridges, and a communicator with a stronger signal than a phone. Sorry to trouble you, Third Brother."

Zhang San went into the inner lab and quickly brought out a pack of supplies for Xia Qing. "These are what you asked for. This is a bag for carrying snakes — much more breathable than the one you use. Go to Da Ya for the communication equipment. These white snakes are very precious — try to catch at least one male and one female."

Seeing the look in Xia Qing's eyes, Zhang San knew she couldn't tell the sexes of these snakes, so he took the white snakes he'd just put in the freezer back out and gave her an on-the-spot lesson. "The two snakes you brought back are one male and one female. The sex characteristics are very easy to distinguish…"

Having received her supplies and equipment, and learned how to tell male Yi snakes from female, and knowing Zhang Song hadn't finished treating the two wolves yet, Xia Qing decided not to wait and got up to take her leave.

Zhang San asked one last question. "You taking part in food fights between Evolution Forest animals and catching white snakes — won't that anger the bear and snake packs and cause them to launch a beast tide to retaliate against humans?"

As a human, Xia Qing had of course considered this threat and answered with certainty. "The bears consider me a member of the wolf pack, and my relationship with the bears has already eased — I won't have a direct conflict with them. One of the five largest pythons in the python lake is the black python that came over from Mountain Fifty-Five. It remembers me and knows I'm a member of the wolf pack."

Zhang San……

"Don't look at how big a python's head is — in terms of brain evolution and intelligence, they're no match for the two wolf leaders of the Northern wolf pack. The pythons have already been driven out of wolf-pack territory by the wolves, and they're more than sixty li from us. Unless we become enemies of the Northern wolf pack, there's no way a python group could cross wolf-pack territory and threaten the safety of our territory."

Zhang San was relieved, but now he had a new headache, and he gave Xia Qing a final warning not to be reckless. "If you take off your protective mask and get poisoned by snake venom, and then make me add medicinal agents to your medicated bath for you, the price goes up twenty times."

Twenty times?

The idol is going to clean her out completely!!!

Xia Qing, who had just soaked in the ninth body-damage treatment medicated bath a few days ago, put on a solemn face and solemnly vowed, "Don't worry, Third Brother. I absolutely will not take off my protective mask, and I won't waste the precious medicated agents you formulated."