Chapter 1206: Two Human Squads Within the Wolf Pack's Territory

The old four leading the way stopped and looked back at Xia Qing in silence.

Xia Qing clenched her teeth—it was she who had asked Old Four to take her to the wanderers' den, and Old Four had finally agreed. She couldn't back out halfway!

But just swaggering across the border like that definitely wouldn't work, because the beast paths near the border line and the passable areas were all fitted with monitoring equipment supporting infrared, thermal imaging, or motion-trigger functions.

Xia Qing and the wolf pack would definitely be captured by the equipment when crossing the border line, bringing a series of trouble.

So Xia Qing sent Yang Jin her location, then called to ask, "Captain Yang, how far am I from the border line between Hui-3 and Hui-1?"

Yang Jin knew Xia Qing had led a team to Mountain 22 today to carry out a gathering mission. Although he wanted to know why Xia Qing hadn't returned yet, since Xia Qing didn't say, Yang Jin didn't ask either, and only answered her question: "Hold on, let me check."

Half a minute later, Yang Jin replied, "Your current location is Mountain 24 of Hui-3. One kilometer due south in a straight line is the boundary line between Hui-1 and Hui-3. South of the boundary line is Mountain 29 of Hui-1."

Xia Qing, who was heading south with the wolf pack, was already less than five hundred meters from the border line. She calmly thanked him: "Many thanks. Sorry to trouble Captain Yang to check for me again—whether there are any combat squads or military forces from Hui-1 or Hui-3 in the area I'm in, and the locations of the border monitoring equipment of the two bases closest to me."

"I'll send you the monitoring location map now. The combat squad situation wait for me to confirm." Yang Jin pushed open the door and strode toward Xie Yu's office.

Xia Qing hung up the phone, communicated with Old Four in a low voice, and confirmed that their destination this trip was Mountain 29 of Hui-1—they would arrive soon.

Of course, this "soon" was measured by Old Four's pace; bringing Xia Qing along would take at least half an hour. If this were the northern wolf pack, Xia Qing would definitely have asked to ride a wolf.

Two minutes later, Xia Qing, who was lying in the dense forest not far from the border line with four wolves, received Yang Jin's reply: "The Shen Shuang Squad of Hui-1's Frost Squad has applied for a gathering mission on Mountain 28 of Hui-1. The third squad of our base's Aurora Squad—that is, Zhou Chuan'an's squad—is hunting and patrolling on Mountain 25 of Hui-3. Sister Qing, are you crossing the border line?"

Xia Qing glanced at the old wolf beside her, lowered her voice and replied, "Yes, I want to go to Mountain 29 of Hui-1 with the wolf pack. Captain Yang, how is the Shen Shuang Squad's combat strength?"

Yang Jin didn't try to dissuade Xia Qing and directly reported the combat strength: "The Shen Shuang Squad ranks second within the Frost Squad. The squad has one senior sniper, two senior speed and elasticity evolvers, one senior olfactory evolver, and one senior auditory evolver—its reconnaissance capability is very strong. When I was in Hui-1, I went on many missions with Shen Shuang, and we have some friendship. Now the Green Dragon and Frost are also in a cooperative relationship. Did you bring the Green Dragon head tag?"

When each combat squad carries out missions, to avoid unnecessary conflicts, they stick a squad marker on top of their protective mask. This marker is luminous and very recognizable at night. When carrying out public missions, mission squads all stick on their squad markers. Green Dragon is the number-one-ranked squad in Hui-3, so showing the team tag is still quite intimidating.

"I brought it." Xia Qing sometimes participates in missions as Green Dragon's Night Heron, and the Green Dragon head tag is one of the supplies she carries with her.

Yang Jin answered, "You enter Mountain 29 of Hui-1 on a mission as Green Dragon's Night Heron. If you find people over there, show the head tag, and I'll handle the follow-up."

"Many thanks, Captain Yang." Yang Jin's words were essentially giving Xia Qing permission to enter Hui-1's Evolution Forest—no longer as an intruder. Xia Qing felt much more at ease.

"No need to thank me—just give me a ten-percent cut when Sister Qing comes back." Yang Jin smiled and earnestly reminded her, "Shen Shuang speaks harshly but her character isn't bad. If she won't let you continue forward, you absolutely must not clash with her—just withdraw directly back to Hui-3's Evolution Forest."

"Understood." Shen Shuang, a senior explosive-power evolver and a top-ten expert on Hui-1's combat strength ranking board—Xia Qing had of course heard of her. After hanging up the phone, she took the Green Dragon Squad head tag out of her backpack and stuffed it in her pocket, ready to stick it on her protective mask when humans were spotted. Then she pointed in the direction where the two human squads were located and introduced the current situation to the four wolves beside her.

Mountain 28 of Hui-1 and Mountain 25 of Hui-3 are both within this wolf pack's territory, but neither is part of the core territory. The wolf pack does not allow humans or other hunters to enter the core territory. As for the outer territory, hunters may enter, but cannot stay for long.

After Xia Qing finished her introduction, she asked again, "Old Four, are we still going?"

Xia Qing had teamed up today with four wolves from the southern pack—old, middle, young. Whether facing Frost or Aurora, there was danger. If the old wolf chose to continue forward, Xia Qing would go this round with it. However, she had to leave the gathered southern wild jujubes here, to make sure this trip wouldn't yield nothing at all.

After understanding Xia Qing's meaning, before the old wolf had made a decision, Lord Cui Yan stood up, shook its thick silver-gray fur, and shot across the border line like lightning, running to the highest nearby peak, and raised its head to let out a long howl.

"Aooo—oooo——"

Hearing the wolf king's howl, responses came one after another from all over the southern wolf pack's territory. Even the male wolf and the scarred-face young wolf beside Xia Qing stood up and threw their heads back to howl.

Xia Qing gazed at the wolf king draped in moonlight on the mountaintop, her eyes shining and her blood boiling.

Lord Cui Yan is summoning its companions—they're going to… hunt!

This is the Evolution Forest, the southern wolf pack's territory. Lord Cui Yan's move is really brilliant!

Because the wolf pack has begun a large-scale hunt, humans within the area must withdraw. This is the rule—human combat squads and military forces entering the Evolution Forest on missions must comply. Personnel who cannot withdraw in time must also take shelter nearby and must not engage in direct conflict with the wolf pack.

Based on the wolf howls rising and falling among the mountains, Xia Qing, relying on her senior auditory ability, identified 25 adult wolves howling. Judging by the number, the southern wolf pack's combat strength might be about the same as the western wolf pack's—counted as a medium-sized wolf pack.

The western wolf pack lost combat strength because of a conflict with Hui-3 base's humans in spring. The southern wolf pack, on the other hand, had its numbers reduced by infection with Hui-6's pathogenic bacteria, combined with captures by human wanderers.

Xia Qing was thrilled by the howls one after another, but the two human squads in Mountain 28 of Hui-1 and Mountain 25 of Hui-3 were not thrilled at all.

Aurora Squad's Zhou Baldy cursed, "Damn it, in the middle of the night, what's gotten into these damn beasts!"

An Aurora Squad member reminded him quietly, "They should be hungry. Boss, wolf packs already like to be active at night."

"Sister Shuang, we're too close to the northern wolf pack's core territory. If we keep carrying out the mission and get spotted by the patrolling wolves, there'll definitely be a conflict."

Shen Shuang took off her protective mask, sniffed the air around her, and decisively ordered, "Withdraw."

"Aoo—oooo————aoooooo————"

Fifteen minutes later, Lord Cui Yan let out a howl rich in information, leaped down the peak, and vanished from Xia Qing's sight.

?? Thanks to reader Gui Gui Zhen Qin Xiang for the tip to Old Four, thanks to reader Mujiu Xi for the tip to this book, and thanks to everyone for your subscriptions, votes, and comment support.

? (End of this chapter)