Chapter 1267: The Injured Old Wolf

"Awooo—woo-woo—awoo—"

Hearing the wolf howls coming from afar, Old Wolf, who was standing fifty meters outside the underground bunker, twitched his ears and turned his head toward the northwest. Immediately after, Lord Cui Yan, who was standing twenty meters outside the bunker gate, also raised his head and turned northwest.

"Hold." Seeing this, Luo Pei raised his hand, telling the Disaster Eradication squad not to deploy the tranquilizer darts for the moment.

"Awooooo—"

Old Four howled at the three evolution tigers that were eating in the distance, then quickly ran northwest. The three evolution tigers immediately stopped feeding and followed.

Lord Cui Yan let out a howl and led the members of the northern wolf pack in pursuit, leaving Liehuo Mountain. Right behind them, the leaders of the Hui-1 southern wolf pack and the western wolf pack also howled, quickly leading their companions away from Liehuo Mountain and back to their respective territories.

The leader of the hyena pack standing outside the underground bunker raised his head and let out a few heh-heh-ha-ha calls, then led his several dozen companions away from Liehuo Mountain as well.

In less than ten seconds, inside the Liehuo Mountain perimeter wall there remained only over a hundred large herbivores scurrying about in panic, and four evolution tigers that had run over from the Hui-5 Evolution Forest.

The roar of helicopters overhead, and the wolf howls and rapidly retreating wolf packs and hyena packs near and far, made the four evolution tigers sense something was wrong. They immediately stopped feeding, stood up, and looked around.

"Boom—"

A violent explosion rang out from inside the Liehuo Mountain underground bunker. The bunker's iron door was blasted more than twenty meters away, and thick smoke billowed out from within. The four evolution tigers, startled, picked up their respective prey, leaped over the perimeter wall, and returned to the Evolution Forest.

Watching Liehuo Mountain—over eight hundred meters tall—collapse with a rumble and be swallowed by dust and smoke, the Disaster Eradication team members on the helicopter and the personnel at the Disaster Eradication Command Center who saw this through the surveillance screens were all stunned.

Liehuo Mountain... was just gone like that?

Old Four, who was sprinting at full speed, and Lord Cui Yan both stopped, glanced back at the column of smoke rising from the direction of Liehuo Mountain, then continued on their way.

Zhang San calmly gave orders: "After the mountain collapse ends, order Luo Pei's squad to land and confirm whether toxins have spread, and try as far as possible to confirm whether any personnel survived inside the underground bunker. Order Hui-1 to immediately dispatch engineering vehicles to clear the collapsed rock. Once the underground bunker passage is opened, report immediately. Dispatch reconnaissance aircraft to track and observe the beasts that left Liehuo Mountain for ten hours, watching whether they are infected with toxins. Send another reconnaissance aircraft to search the area within fifty kilometers of Liehuo Mountain. If any non-Disaster-Eradication personnel are found, report immediately."

Xin Yu sensed that Zhang San's magnetic field had become unusually sharp, and knew he had developed a killing intent.

This explosion was very likely deliberately created by the more than one hundred Liehuo team members inside the underground bunker in order to escape.

They blew up Liehuo Mountain, not only completely destroying the spring at the foot of the mountain, but also intending to wipe out the over a hundred fierce beasts that had charged into Liehuo Mountain, causing several Evolution Forests under Hui-1 to lose their top predators. Humans cannot deploy large numbers of combat forces to garrison the Evolution Forests, so these forests that have lost their apex predators are very likely to be occupied by the Hui-6 macaque troop, thereby disrupting the existing ecological balance.

Liehuo team's reckless, consequence-destroying madness would, of course, enrage Zhang San, who had always advocated and worked hard to maintain the ecological balance of the Evolution Forests.

Zhang San endured a bout of headache, then continued to calmly give orders: "Zhang Song, lead your team to Liehuo Mountain. Once the underground bunker passage is opened, you will lead the team inside to collect corpse tissue, and confirm the death toll and time of death as quickly as possible. Zheng Chen, take ten men to protect Zhang Song's squad. If anyone dares to force their way into the underground bunker, shoot them dead on the spot."

If that was the case, there certainly wouldn't be a single intact corpse inside the underground bunker whose identity could be recognized. But that didn't matter—as long as they got fragments of corpse tissue, everything would be crystal clear.

After Zheng Chen's squad carried Zhang Song and, with their equipment, boarded a helicopter and flew toward Liehuo Mountain, Zhang San contacted the Azure Dragon captain Yang Jin: "Yang Jin, do you have a map of Liehuo Mountain's underground water system?"

Twenty minutes after Zhang Song's squad departed, Xia Qing and Huo Zhun returned to the sniper position above the sinkhole in Restricted Zone Five. One hour after resuming their defensive mission, they received a video call from Old Four.

Xia Qing first signaled Huo Zhun to keep watch for her, then answered the call: "Old Four, you're finally back! Are you hurt?"

In the afterglow of the setting sun, a gray old wolf raised its right hind paw and showed it to the human companion on the screen. Its paw was injured, smeared with bloody dirt and grass clippings.

"Old Four did very well. We're in a Disaster Eradication period now, and there's toxin everywhere, so you can't lick your wound." After praising the old wolf, Xia Qing raised one hand and scratched in front of the screen: "Old Four, like this—move your injured paw."

A wolf's hind paw isn't as nimble as its front paw. Old Four tried hard to move it for Xia Qing to see.

After looking, Xia Qing was relieved: "No bone damage, it's a superficial wound. Don't be afraid, Old Four—you've been injected with the antidote, so even if you come into contact with toxins within 24 hours, you won't be poisoned. Which mountain are you on? Wait until I finish my mission here, then I'll come over to disinfect and clean your wound. Are any other members of the wolf pack injured?"

Old Four nodded once, then rotated the phone.

Seeing the mountain peak that appeared in Old Four's screen, and the human standing on it holding a rifle, Xia Qing was silent for two seconds, then turned to look at the mountain peak where the old wolf was hiding: "Okay, I know where Old Four is now. Stay there and don't come out, Old Four. I'll come find you."

Xia Qing stood up and looked at Huo Zhun standing beside her: "Brother Huo, I'll be back in a bit."

Huo Zhun grinned foolishly: "Okay, if anyone asks, I'll just say Sister Qing went to take care of a personal matter."

Xia Qing...

Fine, that excuse was pretty solid.

Because this was the top of the sinkhole, there wasn't enough space for Xia Qing and Huo Zhun to set up a tent and crawl inside to take care of personal matters. Even if an aerial reconnaissance aircraft spotted Xia Qing leaving the mission point and going into the woods, it would assume she had gone to take care of personal matters.

Xia Qing ran down the mountain, ducked into the dense forest, and using the mountain body's cover to keep the aerial reconnaissance aircraft from filming her movements, she hurried to the rock crevice where the old wolf was hiding. Just then, she heard a low growl from an unfamiliar wolf coming from inside.

Xia Qing stopped and asked in a low voice, "Old Four?"

Old Four poked his head out and looked calmly at Xia Qing.

Seeing him, Xia Qing couldn't help feeling a wave of dread—if she had been a few seconds later, more than half of Old Four's wolf pack would have been buried under Liehuo Mountain and never come back. Xia Qing asked softly, "Are there other injured companions inside? May I come in?"

Old Four nodded twice, signaling that Xia Qing could come in.

"Okay, I'm coming in."

Xia Qing, with her rifle on her back, entered the mountain crevice and followed Old Four to a spot beneath some rocks, where she saw an evolution wolf with a twenty-centimeter-long wound on its abdomen baring its badly worn, tawny fangs at her.

Xia Qing recognized it. This morning, at Mountain Twenty-Two, Xia Qing had held down the thin, scraggly body of this female wolf while Zhang Song drew blood from it to test for toxins.

Xia Qing asked softly, "Old Four, was she injured in the beast tide?"

The old wolf nodded.

This time, when they launched the beast tide to take revenge, the Cui Yan wolf pack had sent out a total of twenty-seven wolves. Besides twenty-two adult wolves, there were also half-grown wolves and old wolves joining the fight.

Not only did Old Four charge toward Liehuo Mountain with the resolve to die, this old wolf did too.