Chapter 1289: Xia Qing, Come for Training

Xia Qing mixed light salt water, soaked the peeled hickory nuts in a large bucket, left the eldest wolf to guard the house, then took Wolf Lao Er to check on the bee colonies.

To keep them warm at night, the cold-proof curtain of the beekeeping greenhouse had already been lowered, but Wolf Lao Er's detection of the evolved bee-aphid flies didn't rely on vision, so the cold-proof straw curtain and plastic greenhouse film had no effect on it.

One person and one wolf squatted outside the greenhouse; Wolf Lao Er scouted for danger, while Xia Qing watched Wolf Lao Er and used her hearing ability to probe the resting bee colonies inside the greenhouse.

The evolved wolf's five senses had evolved further than a human's, able to detect dangers humans couldn't perceive — this might be why Wolf Lao Er could spot the evolved male bee-aphid flies. Another possibility was that Wolf Lao Er was a Class C magneto-receptive evolver, so he could sense the malicious magnetic fields of animals.

Xia Qing had no plans to verify Wolf Lao Er's abilities, nor did she intend to tell anyone her guess, because she didn't want Wolf Lao Er to be targeted by humans — captured for experiments or bred with other wolves.

One person and one wolf squatted for over a minute; Wolf Lao Er didn't bare his fangs, and everything inside the greenhouse was normal. After patrolling the rest of the territory, they went to check the wild boar valley in Zone 3 of Mountain 49.

Today, the 25 wild boars driven over by the northern wolf pack were spending their first night in the valley. Xia Qing, who had just collected a piece of Yishi stone, naturally had to patrol the area to confirm the boars' condition and check for dangers along the way. If any reckless medium-sized predator showed up to eye the boar herd, Xia Qing was responsible for driving it off or taking it down.

Actually, the wild boars were very safe. First, after the wolf pack drove the boars over, they had already marked this territory with urine, warning off other predators. Second, Xia Qing had installed cameras throughout this mountain area; if any large animal or human appeared near the boar valley, the monitoring system would send an alert to her phone. Third, wild boars were also large fierce beasts, and the herd's combat strength was considerable — apart from the wolf pack and Xia Qing, they had no enemies here.

Even in the Evolution Forest, the wild boars' combat strength was formidable. Apart from wolves, jackals, hyenas, and wild dogs that hunt in groups, no other predators would target a boar herd. Tigers, bears, and leopards — animals that preferred to hunt alone — would only pick off boars wandering by themselves.

After patrolling the boar valley with Wolf Lao Er, petting the red fox family along the way, and giving Little Flat-Top a beating, Xia Qing heard the roar of a helicopter on her way back to the territory.

She looked up at the helicopter, its red light flashing as it drew closer, and knew that Luo Pei and Zhang Song, who had been carrying out the disaster-elimination mission, had returned.

Xia Qing rolled her ankles, lowered her body, and said, "Lao Er, let's race back and see who's faster."

With that, Xia Qing shot off at full speed, and Wolf Lao Er immediately followed.

Half an hour later, Luo Pei's gentle voice came through the walkie-talkie: "Xia Qing, come for training."

No matter how gentle the voice, it couldn't disguise his identity as the Blue Dragon training team's devil instructor. Xia Qing, who was loading outrageously expensive sniper rounds into a magazine, pressed the walkie-talkie button and replied, "Copy that."

Tang Huai's voice came through the walkie-talkie: "Brother Luo, can I come over?"

Like Xia Qing, Tang Huai was attending the Blue Dragon team's training at his own expense.

Luo Pei's voice remained gentle: "You can."

After handing the territory over to Er Yong, Xia Qing left Territory No. 3 carrying a large pack. Actually, she wasn't going just for training — she also had to deliver uncontaminated spring water to Luo Pei.

Luo Pei wanted to thoroughly purge the residual toxins from his body as soon as possible and return to his peak combat strength, which was why he'd called her the moment he got back. So Xia Qing had carried 30 liters of uncontaminated spring water.

The Blue Dragon team had discovered uncontaminated spring water in the Sea of Death in Lan City, but the quality of the water there wasn't as good as that in Xia Qing's territory. So Luo Pei had discussed with Xia Qing about exchanging spring water for toxin-purging.

The spring water was still 180 points per liter — 30 liters came to 5,400 points. It sounded like a lot, but it couldn't even cover the points she'd spent on bullets during tonight's special training, and that was only because she'd cooperated with Yang Jin to buy the bullets at half price…

Top snipers are forged through bullets and piled up with points!

After handing the water bucket to Wei Chengdong of Luo Pei's squad, Xia Qing arrived at the Mountain 49 shooting range carrying her sniper rifle and saw Tang Huai already standing beside Luo Pei.

This kid runs pretty fast.

Seeing Xia Qing arrive, Luo Pei, who was on a phone call, asked, "Xia Qing, what do you think of Wang Bo? Does he have the makings of a sniper?"

Tang Huai immediately explained, "Sister Qing, the No. 22 territory lord Fu Xiaodan wants her son Wang Bo to join the Blue Dragon team's sniper training."

Besides Xia Qing and Tang Huai, quite a few territory alliance members were paying to attend the Blue Dragon team's training this year — this was a benefit the No. 1 territory lord gave to his allies.

Wang Bo, Lu Fangchun, and Tan Qi had already signed up for the close-combat and team-combat training. Tan Qi and Lu Fangchun were both speed evolvers, skilled in melee combat, so this program suited them best. Wang Bo was a visual evolver whose goal was to become a sniper, but he only had a homemade gun and no points to buy bullets, so he hadn't signed up for sniper training.

After leaving the Liang Qing team and moving into Territory No. 22 this summer, Fu Xiaodan had taken care of her injured, poisoned son while simultaneously reclaiming farmland and building greenhouses, planting 90 mu of Yellow Lantern rice. After weathering one damaging rain and one sudden natural disaster, Territory No. 22 harvested over ten-thousand jin of Yellow Lantern rice from 83 mu.

Yesterday, Fu Xiaodan sold 30,000 jin of rice and earned 600,000 points.

That amount sounded like a lot, but after deducting costs like seedlings, fertilizer, chemicals, labor, and greenhouse construction, she could earn at most 30,000 to 60,000 points. After soil anaerobic bacteria evolved, farming costs had risen again — territory lords might work hard for a year and only earn enough for food. If they encountered a major natural or man-made disaster, they could even lose their lives. This was why, apart from the territories in the northern Zone 1, lords elsewhere weren't very enthusiastic about farming.

The points Fu Xiaodan earned had two uses: paying off debts and improving her son's combat ability. So when she heard Tang Huai say on the 11-18 territory lord channel that Luo Pei was back and he was going to sniper training, Fu Xiaodan hitched a ride with Tang Huai and brought her son along.

Participating in training and receiving Luo Pei's personal instruction were, of course, two different things. After Luo Pei trained Xia Qing into a top sniper, people in Hui City had been flocking to ask him to take them as disciples.

Who Luo Pei taught sniper techniques to, of course, didn't require Xia Qing's approval. By asking her this way, he was letting the territory alliance members know that regarding personnel and affairs related to the alliance, the No. 1 territory lord Luo Pei followed the orders of alliance leader Xia Qing.

Xia Qing answered calmly, "Wang Bo is fourteen this year, a Level 5 visual evolver. Brother Luo can test his potential."

Only then did Luo Pei reply to Fu Xiaodan, "Have Wang Bo bring his gun up. Let me see his potential."

Fu Xiaodan brought Wang Bo up, thanked Luo Pei, and wanted to thank Xia Qing, but couldn't find any trace of her.

Territory alliance leader Xia Qing had already taken her sniper rifle off to practice.