Chapter 1129: Qi 7

"Holy—!!!"

Piloting the helicopter to the airspace above Mountain 59 and seeing, on the Evolved Forest Beast Path, a pack of wolves following behind a human, carrying a giant python over a dozen meters long as they moved forward, Huo Zhun and Zhang Hongda both blurted out curses at the same time.

Damn it, Year Eleven of the Catastrophe — what hadn't they seen?

This sight, they truly had never seen!

However, after Xia Qing brought the wolf pack closer, neither man let the surprise show on his face, and they both worked hard to keep their emotions calm. Because evolved wolves were very sensitive to changes in human emotions, neither wanted to provoke this bloodstained pack of evolved beasts.

Once Xia Qing and the wolf pack went to haul the second load of meat, Zhang Hongda walked over beside the giant python, his heart utterly shaken.

In Year Five of the Catastrophe, a massive insect plague broke out at Hui-3 Base. Food in the safe zone was extremely scarce, and the base commander ordered Yue Hai Battalion's middle squad to go to the lake in the northern part of Mountain 60 to hunt giant pythons, to supplement the safe zone's meat supply and reserves.

That time, their squad had caught three pythons around 12 meters long, and Zhang Hongda had assumed those were the largest pythons in that lake.

He hadn't expected there to be even bigger ones.

Was it that the pythons had evolved again, or that last time they came, these bigger pythons had been hiding at the bottom of the water and hadn't come out? If it was another evolution, that was just too terrifying...

Zhang Hongda asked, "Brother Huo, have you ever seen a python this big?"

Huo Zhun, sitting in the pilot's seat handling the guard mission, nodded. "I've seen one."

Zhang Hongda also returned to his defensive position. "There are pythons in the sea now too?"

Not in the sea — in Xia Qing's territory. Huo Zhun had even personally skinned the snake and chopped the snake meat himself.

But Huo Zhun wasn't sure whether Xia Qing had mentioned this to her allies, so he didn't bring it up. "When I was on missions at sea, I never saw pythons — only sea snakes five or six meters long. There are plenty of marine animals bigger than this python, but the vast majority can't be eaten directly."

Under the combined effect of the massive amounts of nuclear-contaminated water discharged by humans and the Qi-Yi Two element, the evolution of marine creatures was more complex and violent than that of land creatures.

Huo Zhun, eyes full of envy, took a photo of the giant python. "This lake must have plenty of small and medium aquatic creatures, otherwise it couldn't support a python this big. There's no chance this year, but after spring begins next year, we can team up and come over to fish — and catch pythons."

His three teammates, seeing a python this big, would definitely be itching to come over and grab a few right away. Unfortunately, without getting squad leader Xia Qing's permission, Huo Zhun couldn't show them the picture.

As expected of a retired Marine Corps special forces soldier — way more wild than a regular Marine like himself.

Zhang Hongda immediately nodded. "Sure, Brother Huo, just give me a shout when the time comes and I'll come whenever you call. Oh right, I remember the crocodiles around here don't start hibernating until November. How about we go to the crocodile lake in the Mountain 52 area first to catch a few crocodiles? Sister Qing caught little green-light crocodiles there."

Huo Zhun shook his head. "That lake won't work — the wolf pack guards it pretty closely. Last time we went hunting there, the wolves warned us off. We could go to Mountain 55 to hunt wild ducks; there aren't as many wolves in that area."

The two chatted idly for a while, and then Xia Qing, carrying a big pack with a giant python trailing behind her, once again entered their field of vision. Seeing this scene, Huo Zhun couldn't resist wanting to reach for his phone to take another picture.

Zhang Hongda couldn't help sighing. "How does Sister Qing get nine evolved wolves to obediently listen to her and help her carry the snake?"

Carrying it wasn't the key point — the key point was that Xia Qing had also used binding straps to tie the giant python onto the wolves, lining them up in a column and making them obediently follow behind her to haul the snake.

Is this something a normal human can do?

Are those following behind her normal evolved wolves?

Also, is that monkey with the monk-like face at the back carrying a snake just tagging along for the numbers?

How did she do it? Because Sister Qing's wolf pack is a member of Sister Qing's combat team — and so is he! Huo Zhun's heart surged, but his face stayed simple. "We'd have to ask Sister Qing."

Xia Qing placed the heavy backpack and the medium python she'd been carrying on her shoulder inside the cabin, untied the giant python from the wolves, told them to head back to Mountain 60 first, then brought Daigua into the cabin and closed the door.

After confirming it was safe, Xia Qing took off her protective mask, wiped off some sweat, drank some water, then nimbly sealed up the two small snakes Daigua had brought back and put them together with the five Qi-snake meat strips. She instructed her two teammates: "The snakes in these three small bags all go to Territory Seven — hand them to Third Brother in person. Don't squeeze these two live ones — Third Brother specifically asked for live snakes. These two giant pythons and four medium pythons all go to the food storage warehouse in Territory One. The two giant pythons are yellow-light, one medium python is yellow-light, three medium pythons are red-light. I'll process the snake meat after the mission ends."

Huo Zhun's eyes immediately lit up. "Sister Qing, can today's mission payment be made in yellow-light snake meat?"

When Xia Qing had recruited them to team up, she'd said one trip would pay each of them 100 points — this was the third trip today. Dead yellow-light animal meat was priced at the market rate of 50 points per jin, meaning Huo Zhun could ask for six jin of meat.

Having harvested several tons of meat, Xia Qing certainly wasn't going to be stingy. "Of course. However, we haven't had time to test the toxin and radioactive substance content in this snake meat yet — it might not be edible directly."

Huo Zhun replied cheerfully, "No problem — I'll take it even if it can't be eaten directly."

Even if it couldn't be eaten directly, it could be made into jerky, carried around to feed the wolves, and used as a chance to get closer to them.

Zhang Hongda followed right after, but what he wanted wasn't meat. "Sister Qing, can I trade for some python skin?"

Xia Qing pointed at the dark-green spotted giant python. "This one is a high-hardness evolution — I still have uses for it, so I can only trade a small amount. For the other snake skins, take as many as you want."

The black high-hardness evolved green-light python the wolf pack had hunted last time was about the same size as the one Xia Qing had killed today.

Last time, that python had been made into six sets of wolf-sized protective suits, three sets of human-sized protective suits, plus one vest.

This time, this giant python would make four sets of wolf-sized protective suits — Handsome Giant Wolf was too big, so he'd have to be counted as two ordinary evolved wolves' worth of material.

The remaining snake skin, Xia Qing would make herself a protective suit to rotate wearing, make one for Yan Long, and the rest could be traded to Huo Zhun and Zhang Hongda.

H-high-hardness evolution?!!! Zhang Hongda's eyes lit up. "Thank you, Sister Qing. How much of this high-hardness evolved giant python's skin are you putting out? Brother Huo and I will take however much you have — does that work?"

"Sure." Xia Qing put on her protective mask, picked up Daigua the monkey, and got off the helicopter. After watching the meat-laden helicopter take off, she called her idol to report the current situation.

Hearing that Xia Qing had gotten another seven Qi-snakes, Zhang San instantly became affable. "The Qi-element content in this white snake's body is 7? — it's a high-Qi-element creature. This Qi element forms a natural Qi-synthesized element, Qi 7, inside the snake. This is also a very rare element that currently cannot be artificially synthesized."

Qi 7...

Xia Qing quickly searched her mind for the effects of Qi 7. "Third Brother, Qi 7 can improve gastrointestinal function, right? Keep the two live ones and raise them. Out of the five Qi-snake meat strips being sent back, keep three for yourself to eat."

After obtaining the blood of Zhang Ten and his mother, Zhang San had extracted the Qi 6 — the recovery factor — from the blood and made it into an anti-allergy medication. After taking the medication, Zhang San's body was somewhat better than before, but he was still too thin, and Xia Qing was always afraid he'd fall and fall apart.

Hearing Xia Qing's words, Zhang San's voice became so kind you could wring water out of it. "Besides improving gastrointestinal function, Qi 7 also has a biological barrier effect on human health — it has anti-tumor, immunity-boosting, anti-aging, and many other important physiological functions. Such high-quality meat, eaten directly, would be too wasteful. After you come back, send that one in your territory over too. I'll extract the active ingredients, make it into a medication, and then you take it."

"Okay, thank you, Third Brother. Sorry for the trouble, Third Brother." Xia Qing decided to cut a piece from the one in her territory to try the taste, and send the rest to her idol. Watching the wolf pack eat so enthusiastically, she'd been craving it for a long time.

Zhang San asked again, "You just said you were sending nine snakes over — what about the remaining two?"

Those were the reserve meat Daigua had grabbed for himself, but Xia Qing certainly didn't dare answer that way. "Just two ordinary small snakes. I'll leave them at your place for now and come pick them up after I return to the territory."

Ordinary snakes — and small ones at that — what are you sending them back for?

Zhang San didn't ask, because he was afraid of hearing some bizarre reason that would ruin his current good mood.