Chapter 1140: Hunting Wild Ducks

"Buzz—"

"Buzz—"

Feeling her phone buzz in her pocket, Xia Qing, who was leading the way, raised a hand to signal the squad to halt. She pulled out her phone and saw the word "Big Shot" on the screen. She turned slightly so her teammates couldn't see her screen, then pressed answer—and was greeted by a stretch of tile-blue sky, across which a neat row of black dots glided slowly.

Those were migratory birds flying at an altitude of several thousand meters, looking like a string of ellipses that perfectly mirrored Xia Qing's mood at that moment.

Then, when a fuzzy head popped into view, the ellipses in Xia Qing's mind stretched twice as long.

I never should have put a SIM card in that guy's phone!

She turned off the walkie-talkie and, using her Bluetooth earpiece, asked in a low voice, "Brother Duan, what's up?"

Xia Qing's voice was very quiet, but the surroundings were so still that everyone still heard her.

Xin Yu, walking behind her, didn't find it particularly strange—Guagua called her too—but the magnetic fields of the three people behind her fluctuated, two of them quite violently.

After Xin Yu locked onto the targets with her magnetic-sense ability and glanced back, she found the most violent fluctuation came from Tang Huai, followed by Huo Zhun and Zhu Li.

Zhu Li's emotional fluctuation was probably pure curiosity; Tang Huai and Huo Zhun had likely guessed who was calling Xia Qing.

Yuan Yan, Shi Du, Zhang Hongda, Yu Shou, Wang Man, and Wu Lianmin showed no obvious emotional change, meaning they either hadn't heard clearly or thought it perfectly normal.

Because the surname "Duan" is still fairly common.

"... Right, I just passed the second peak of Mountain 52 and saw the scarred ones. I'm leading a ten-person squad to Mountain 53 to hunt wild ducks—if we don't catch them now, they'll be flying off."

Wearing a protective mask, Xia Qing solemnly asked the lowered wolf-head against a backdrop of endless blue sky, "Does Brother Duan need anything else? If not, I'm hanging up... I know I have to have the lab inspected..."

After hanging up, Xia Qing calmly resumed leading the way, taking the team forward.

This was wolf territory; Xia Qing was following the game trail, so the job of leading the way wasn't too demanding.

She led the team past the mountain-guarding wolves and hunting leopards, through the territories of giant lizards and crocodiles, around more than a dozen aggressive mutated plants and poisonous-gas groves, until they reached today's mission site.

Between Mountain Domain 52 and Mountain Domain 53 lay a body of water covering over four thousand mu.

This body of water was a clear, shallow lake formed by rainwater and melted snow from the mountaintops; even at its deepest point in the center it was only six or seven meters. Around the edges were shallows and marshes thick with reeds and cattails.

Besides the dense aquatic plants, the lake teemed with small fish, small snakes, insects, and algae—this was a bird paradise, home to over a hundred thousand birds of all sizes.

This was one of the few areas within wolf territory where humans were allowed to enter freely and hunt.

So the main natural enemies of the birds resting here were not the crocodiles that swam over from Crocodile Lake, the snakes, or the raptors in the sky, but humans.

Within the Hui-Three Evolution Forest, there were twenty-four such bird paradises in total—the main areas where combat teams went out on hunting missions. Catching birds was far less dangerous than hunting large game like wild boar.

To maintain the ecological balance of these bird habitats, Hui-Three Base had laid down strict rules for combat teams hunting birds in these twenty-four areas:

First, combat teams had to apply three days in advance and receive approval before hunting birds in a designated area. Second, when hunting, they could only use guns, bows and crossbows, small-range bird nets, slingshots, and the like; heavy firepower, poisoned food and water-soluble agents, bird nets longer than thirty meters, and electrofishing were all forbidden. Third, no more than three hundred birds could be caught in a single outing.

What happened if the rules were broken?

Once ground patrols and aerial helicopters spotted violations and reported them, the relevant department would punish the offending combat team by docking points and contribution scores, and revoke that team's qualification to operate in the area for the next three years.

Relatively speaking, fewer combat teams came to this body of water north of Mountain 52 to hunt birds, because it was over 250 li from the safe zone. Apart from the Azure Dragon Combat Team, which had helicopters and a training base and territory here, other teams preferred to apply to hunt at bird habitats closer to the safe zone.

When lords from the Northern Zone One territory came to hunt birds, they only had to report to the Inspection Squad in advance and follow the relevant rules. According to regulations, the Inspection Squad would notify the Azure Dragon Combat Team members stationed on Mountain 49, requiring them to provide aerial supervision of the lords' squad while they were out hunting. If a lord broke the rules, they would be punished just the same.

However, this bird habitat lay deep in the Evolution Forest; without high-combat-power evolvers like Xia Qing, Huo Zhun, and Zhang Hongda leading the way, members of other territories wouldn't dare come either.

"Baer's Teal, Mallard, Black-Maned Goose, Coot... holy smokes!" Wu Lianmin, visiting for the first time, whispered in awe, itching to start. "Sister Qing, what are we catching today?"

Xia Qing replied through the walkie-talkie in a low voice, "We'll head left along the edge of the marsh for twenty minutes; there are plenty of Black-Maned Geese and teal there."

Tonight, Third Brother was coming to Territory Three to inspect the lab and test what she and Broken-Waist Wolf had learned. Xia Qing had to prepare plenty of quality meat that Third Brother liked, or she might get blacklisted by him.

Today's hunting spot was one Xia Qing had traded a string of beautiful pearls to Broken-Waist Wolf for. It was an area the wolf pack often hunted in, and Broken-Waist Wolf frequently caught edible birds there.

"No problem, let's go, let's go, let's go!" Tang Huai couldn't wait.

Wang Man, responsible for rear guard, reminded them, "Everyone watch your step and don't fall—there are a lot of venomous snakes here."

Tang Huai, who had already fallen twice and sworn he absolutely would not fall a third time today—on pain of writing the character "Tang" backwards—immediately fell silent.

After reaching the target spot, the hunting squad split into two groups. Xia Qing, Xin Yu, Tang Huai, and Wang Man, who were good shots, were in charge of guarding, while the rest circled the perimeter and set up large-mesh bird nets eight meters high.

Once the nets were in place, everyone except Wang Man, Wu Lianmin, and Xia Qing, who were on defense, took up their assigned positions, aimed their bows at their respective targets, and prepared to drive the Black-Maned Geese and wild ducks toward the nets for capture.

The iron bows and hardened mutated bamboo-and-wood arrows they used were made by Lord Huo Lei and Jiang Ying. The lords often practiced in their own territories, and everyone's archery was decent.

Xia Qing glanced at the seven wolves—three big, four small—watching them hunt from a nearby hilltop, then issued the order in a low voice: "I'll count to three, everyone loose at once. One, two, three!"

"Whoosh!"

"Whoosh!"

"Caw caw!!!"

"Cluck cluck!!!"

"Croak—"

The bamboo-and-wood arrows struck eight wild ducks and Black-Maned Geese, and the animals' startled cries rang out on all sides. Several thousand birds of all sizes took flight, while small animals like frogs scurried about in panic. Huo Zhun, Shi Du, Yu Shou, and Yuan Yan hauled the nets tight together—a bountiful haul!

"Awoo—"

Seeing the humans catch so many birds, a half-grown black wolf on the hilltop let out a howl, eager to join in.

Young Wolf Brother, bored, watched a crocodile crawling toward the human squad from afar and yawned. He'd seen humans catch birds too many times—there was nothing new about it.

Young Wolf Sister, in high spirits, fixed a pair of amber eyes intently on Wang Man beside Xia Qing.