Chapter 1320: Standing at the Pinnacle of the Universe's Perverted-Planet Pyramid: Blue Star

Hearing something off behind her, the lead wolf walking ahead turned its head and fixed its tuhao-gold eyes on Xia Qing, who stood still in place.

Staring at the lead wolf in silence for two seconds, Xia Qing followed.

No matter why the wolf pack was heading for the basin on Mountain 67, she had to follow. Once separated from the pack, she might not make it back to Mountain 59 alone.

Call in a helicopter?

This damn place is raptor territory!

If a helicopter dared to fly low through the Evolution Forest here, that thing with an eight-meter-plus wingspan would screech a few times, call in a few winged brutes to attack, and easily send her Cloudpiercer Mark III—worth eight million points—along with the three people inside back to zero. It might even lure the raptors back to human territory!

Besides, the lead wolf never planned to bring Xia Qing on this trip; she had volunteered to come along herself. The lead wolf had brought her and assigned her as the fourth-strongest fighter to protect the pups. If she backed out, the pack's combat power would drop—so she couldn't retreat.

The wolf pack had entered the basin without protective masks or suits, which meant the area they were heading to wasn't that dangerous. She was wearing a special protective suit and the highest-grade protective mask, so she had even less reason to chicken out.

A main force fighter has to look the part!

Xia Qing ran a hand over the strap of her safety mask at her neck, glanced at the air-toxin detector on her arm, then strode to her assigned position. She formed an arc with the lead wolf, Broken-Waist Wolf, and Handsome Giant Wolf to shield the rest of the pack behind them and pressed on.

Once they entered the basin's water-mist zone, visible range quickly dropped to under fifteen meters, which made Xia Qing, a sniper, extremely uncomfortable.

But Xia Qing didn't switch on her low-light or infrared night-vision goggles, because the obstruction wasn't lack of light—it was the thick mist. Water mist severely degrades night-vision performance; naked eyes worked better.

With vision compromised, she could still rely on hearing, magnetic sense, and her companions' keen sense of smell, so Xia Qing kept moving calmly.

Little Feimao, who trusted Xia Qing's combat power completely, wasn't nervous at all and kept darting out to gather food and stuff it into Xia Qing's pockets.

When visible range in the thick fog dropped to about five meters, Xia Qing saw a sea of dead-leaf-yellow flowers appear ahead.

Flowers mean danger.

Although she couldn't sense the magnetic field of any hostile evolved plant, and the air-toxin detector on her arm only showed a faint yellow light—meaning toxin concentration here wasn't high—Xia Qing used hearing and sight to confirm that within several dozen meters of the flower sea ahead there were no snakes, crawling insects, flying insects, or large animals.

Based on common sense, Xia Qing judged that these flowers were very dangerous and should be avoided.

But the lead wolf leading the way walked straight in. It didn't avoid the blooms; it even lifted its head and rubbed the underside of its neck against the petals, letting its fur get coated in the dead-yellow powder.

Broken-Waist Wolf and Handsome Giant Wolf did the same as the lead wolf, rubbing against the flowers and picking up powder. Seeing Xia Qing hadn't moved, the main-force wolves on both flanks all stared at her.

Xia Qing calmly stepped into the flower sea that came up to her chest and kept formation as she walked forward. She touched a petal and found the powder stuck to her damp glove; she rubbed a few times but couldn't get it all off.

The pups entering the flower sea behind her began sneezing from the pollen, confirming for Xia Qing that the pollen was irritating—and that was why her air-toxin detector had changed color.

Hearing the pups' sneezes, the lead wolf didn't look back and kept leading the way.

From the lead wolf's behavior, Xia Qing confirmed this was a powder that protected evolved wolves from some kind of attack. She pulled Little Feimao out of her pocket, dusted it yellow from head to tail, then set the constantly sneezing little fellow on her shoulder. She took out a sample tube and quickly collected a whole plant with its root system.

Broken-Waist Wolf, now dead-leaf-yellow on the other side, glanced at Xia Qing and raised its left forepaw to point at this plant's flowers. Xia Qing nodded, plucked a few of the dead-yellow blooms, and stuffed them into another sample tube.

After the northern wolf pack sneezed its way through the flower sea, every wolf—regardless of coat color—had turned dead-leaf-yellow, and they pressed on. Xia Qing's guess was confirmed: ahead, whether palm-sized flying insects, birds, or venomous snakes of various colors, none dared approach the pack.

After another five minutes of walking, Xia Qing saw the lead wolf heading toward a moss-covered vine-type evolved plant that emitted a medium-risk hostile-element magnetic field. She was just about to call out a warning when Handsome Giant Wolf let out a low howl, stepped forward to take the lead wolf's place, and redirected the group.

Following the detour around the aggressive vines, Xia Qing suspected Handsome Giant Wolf was a Class-B magnetically evolved being, with an even better ability to detect hostile plants than the lead wolf.

After skirting patch after patch of aggressive plants and poisonous insects, and trudging across stretches of swamp stepping on giant crocodiles and hippos, Xia Qing felt her understanding of the world being rewritten with every step. She felt as if she had left Blue Star and arrived on an entirely new planet—no matter what appeared ahead, nothing could surprise her anymore.

But when the wolf pack reached their destination and stopped, and she made out the creatures fifteen meters away—then lowered her infrared goggles and saw the patches of light filling her view—she still froze.

This damn… damn… Blue Star, standing at the very pinnacle of the universe's perverted-planet pyramid, beyond any words humans could describe!

Before her lay a vast expanse of white water. Judging by the rising steam, it was a hot spring lake. In the cold winter, it was normal for a mountain region within the Hui-3 Evolution Forest to maintain a near-rainforest climate and have a hot spring lake; and it was also normal that this hot spring lake stretched beyond sight.

But what the hell was the deal with that pack of dead-leaf-colored wolves fifteen meters to the left of the wolf pack, that troop of dead-leaf-colored baboons to the right, and those few dead-leaf-colored evolved tigers further right?!

That green-eyed wolf right in the middle of the wolf pack fifteen meters away—wasn't that Lord Cui Yan? And among the three half-grown wolves beside it, the one looking at her—wasn't that Scarface Pup?

That slightly smaller dead-leaf-colored evolved tiger in the middle of the tiger group—wasn't that the Blind Tiger from Mountain 37?!

Isn't this Xiong Qun's territory? Why are so many fierce beasts gathered here? Where's Xiong Wang?

…Which human, based on what incident, decided this was Xiong Qun's territory and marked it on the map?

Is this really Xiong Qun's territory?

Though countless questions flashed through Xia Qing's mind, her heartbeat and breathing showed no obvious change, and her expression stayed calm. This calm—or rather, this composure—had been forged by Xia Qing over eleven years of disaster. Without it, she wouldn't have lived this long.

She tightened her grip on her gun, sank down onto the warm stone following Wolf Lao Er's pull, and fixed her eyes on the steaming hot spring lake ahead.

There must be something extraordinary in this lake—something that could draw the "big shots" of the Evolution Forest to bring this year's cubs and gather here.