Chapter 1251: Old Five

Sitting on the back of Handsome Giant Wolf, Xia Qing carefully observed the Blind Tiger on the moss-covered, horizontally growing tree.

Its large nose was very dry, its belly sunken, and water dripped from its fur and the large tail hanging down. Moreover, this evolved tiger had lost a lot of weight, and its fur looked loose.

Seeing these symptoms, Xia Qing knew without testing that the Blind Tiger was dehydrated from diarrhea, which was why its nose tip was dry.

Animals mainly judge an opponent's physical condition by scent. The Blind Tiger might have smelled a large animal entering its territory, so it washed its fur in the stream to remove the smell of feces. It was also possible that the diarrhea caused its body temperature to rise, so it jumped into the cold river to cool down.

If it has already started running a fever, it won't be cured by just one or two doses of medicine.

"Roar—" Discovering Xia Qing staring at it, the Blind Tiger opened its mouth wide and let out a low warning.

Its roar didn't carry much hostility, but the large tail, like an iron whip, swung left and right, as if one more look from Xia Qing would make it charge over and whip her to death.

Seeing this evolved tiger issue a provocation at them, the Head Wolf, Broken-Back Wolf, and Handsome Giant Wolf simultaneously bared their fangs and formed a battle formation.

Discovering Xia Qing still lingering on its back, Handsome Giant Wolf irritably shook its body several times. Xia Qing jumped to the ground and stood in the position belonging to Fourth behind the Head Wolf of the Northern Wolf Pack.

When the Blind Tiger opened its mouth, Xia Qing also saw grass stems in its teeth, and immediately judged that this sick evolved tiger had just eaten evolved Purple Flower Ground Ivy to self-treat.

A tiger with diarrhea eating the medicinal herb it watered with its own urine to cure diarrhea... words fail...

The old wolf slowly walked to the base of the tree, placed the bag containing food in the grass beneath the Blind Tiger, pulled open the mouth of the bag, looked up at the Blind Tiger, and called out softly twice.

This is the sound an adult wolf uses to call its pups. Xia Qing had heard the Head Wolf and Broken-Leg Sister use this sound to call their cubs, and had also heard Fourth use it to call Scarface Little Wolf. Now, Fourth used this sound to call the evolved tiger on the tree, which was twice its size.

The Southern Wolf Pack's territory borders the Western Tiger Group's. By age, the Blind Tiger really might be one Fourth had watched grow up.

Seeing the human jump down from the wolf's back to the ground, becoming shorter and less dangerous, the Blind Tiger lowered its head to look at the food the old wolf had placed on the grass.

Seeing it not move, the old wolf raised a paw and crushed an egg.

The starving Blind Tiger, lured by the smell of egg and jerky, jumped down from the big tree and began eating while pressing against its nest. This fellow was a bit smarter than the Black Giant Wolf from the Western Wolf Pack; after finishing the food, it only licked the bag, then raised its massive head and stared at Xia Qing with a pair of fierce pale-yellow eyes.

"Old Five still wants jerky and eggs? Sure, I have more here." Well-prepared, Xia Qing immediately took a pack of jerky and two eggs from her backpack and handed them to Fourth.

Seeing this somewhat weak evolved tiger today, Xia Qing thought of Third Brother's mockery and decided to give it a new name.

The Blind Tiger wasn't interested in what the human was saying. After eating a jin of jerky, four eggs, and drinking pollution-free spring water mixed with anesthetic, it finally felt more comfortable and lay still in the grass, though the tip of its tail still twitched up, up.

Fourth looked back at Xia Qing, signaling she could proceed.

Xia Qing lowered her voice and asked, "Take blood samples now? Old Five is still conscious."

Fourth didn't bare its fangs; Broken-Back Wolf nudged Xia Qing, signaling her to follow.

After Xia Qing left with Broken-Back Wolf, Handsome Giant Wolf turned to head back to the Western Wolf Pack's territory, but after the Head Wolf roared at it, Handsome Giant Wolf stopped and continued watching the Blind Tiger.

With its extremely keen sense of smell, Broken-Back Wolf knew today's mission. It brought Xia Qing to a large pile of fresh watery feces and signaled her to take samples.

Xia Qing pointed the camera on her head at the feces, took out her phone and snapped a clear picture to send to Zhang Song, then pressed the walkie-talkie button and asked softly, "Song Ge, can you see it?"

Zhang Song's voice came through Xia Qing's earpiece walkie-talkie: "Yes. The feces are very fresh, excreted less than fifteen minutes ago, suitable for sampling. The feces are in a steatorrhea state with a little blood. Combined with that evolved tiger's condition just now, the preliminary judgment is parasitic infection, most likely Giardia lamblia. Qing-jie, have Broken-Back take you to where the tiger drinks water and collect a water sample."

The Blind Tiger is a brain-domain evolved tiger already capable of independent survival, with abundant food in its territory, so it shouldn't be hunting sick, weakened small animals. That's why Zhang Song inferred it drank unclean water.

"Copy."

After putting on sterile gloves and taking fecal samples with test tubes, Broken-Back Wolf took Xia Qing straight back to the stream. Because the anesthetic had taken effect, now was the best time to draw blood.

Watching the evolved fierce tiger getting closer and closer on the screen, Zhang Song in the air held his breath, while Huo Zhun was so excited his adrenaline was surging.

Drawing blood from an evolved tiger is a high-risk, highly dangerous task. On her way over by helicopter, Xia Qing had looked at the pictures and knew which spot was best to draw blood from.

She walked to the Blind Tiger's side, confirmed it was anesthetized, then immediately had it lie on its side to expose the blood-drawing site on the ventral side of its tail. Then Xia Qing quickly put on a new pair of sterile gloves, took out a blood-drawing needle and test tubes from the satchel at her waist, and drew blood from the vein on the ventral side of its tail.

Although she'd been very busy lately, during the Ninth Center employee physical a few days ago, Xia Qing had still taken half a day to go have blood drawn and personally practiced over thirty times. She hadn't expected the skill she'd just learned to come in handy so soon.

The evolved tiger was huge, with highly visible tail veins and strong blood flow. Xia Qing succeeded on the first try, smoothly drawing three tubes of blood, then quickly pressed an iodophor cotton ball on the puncture site, applied a hemostatic patch, and took the evolved tiger's temperature.

After confirming it didn't have a fever, Xia Qing handed the blood and fecal samples to Broken-Back Wolf to deliver to the helicopter landing site and give to Peng Jian. Not letting the helicopter enter the airspace above the Blind Tiger's core territory in Mountain Area Thirty-Six was to avoid alerting other members of the tiger group.

After sampling, Xia Qing took out an absorbent cloth, wiped the water off the Blind Tiger's fur, applied a layer of deworming and antibacterial powder, then trotted off to cut the stems and leaves of the evolved Purple Flower Ground Ivy.

After Xia Qing left, Fourth and the Head Wolf of the Northern Wolf Pack sniffed each other and left. Only the Head Wolf and Handsome Giant Wolf remained by the Blind Tiger.

Twenty minutes later, Fourth returned dragging a deer weighing several dozen jin. The Blind Tiger slowly regained consciousness, moved a few times, then began eating.

Thirty minutes later, Zhang Song's voice came through Xia Qing's walkie-talkie: it had been confirmed that the Blind Tiger was infected with evolved Giardia lamblia, the route of infection being drinking unclean water.

Xia Qing mixed the oral medication Broken-Back Wolf had brought back into pollution-free water, carried it to the Blind Tiger again, and said softly, "Old Five, you're sick. Drink this basin of water and you'll get better. There's special-effect medicine in it."

The Blind Tiger stared at Xia Qing with killing intent, crunching meat.

Xia Qing stood up and left the place to the old wolf. "Fourth, Queen my lord and the rest of us are heading back to Mountain Thirty-Seven first. You get Old Five to drink the medicine, then come meet up with us. We'll go to Mountain Twenty-Two together."

After Fourth briefly bared its fangs, Xia Qing flipped onto Handsome Giant Wolf's back and left the Blind Tiger's core territory with the Head Wolf and Broken-Back Wolf. They had just entered Mountain Thirty-Seven when they ran into the Western Wolf King and Black Giant Wolf, carrying two deer and heading east.

Xia Qing had a vague feeling they had hunted the deer in the same area as Fourth. And these deer were prime prey within the Blind Tiger's territory.

She wanted to catch two too...