Chapter 1356: A Bountiful Return

Is the eastern jackal pack's combat strength high? Yes, it is.

Is the eastern jackal king large and fierce? Big and fierce, but in front of the southern old wolf, its status boils down to one word:

Whelp!

No wonder, knowing full well how powerful the eastern jackal pack was, Old Four still dared to bring along the southern wolf pack's carefully nurtured next generation — Scarface Junior — to see the world.

Now it wasn't just Scarface Junior who had seen the world; the whole squad had seen the world. Every member looked at the captain with shining eyes, especially a certain stingy wolf that had brought two whelps to freeload its way into the squad, refusing to take on the tasks of cracking hickory nuts and picking them up.

While the three humans were so busy they wished they had four hands, this fellow hung around the old wolf, nuzzling and pressing close, acting so affectionate as if it too were a whelp Old Four had raised, making Scarface Junior and Little Wolf Sister standing beside them look utterly mature by comparison — it was simply too embarrassing to watch.

Xia Qing glanced at the jackal king lying not far away, watching them with over twenty evolved jackals, and sped up again.

Only when they actually reached the hickory nut growth site did Xia Qing understand why Huo Zhun and the others had been violently driven off by the jackal pack last time. These six hickory trees were actually within the main activity area of the jackal pack's core territory, especially the rocks, branches, and fallen leaves under those two green-light hickory trees — jackal fur everywhere!

Seeing the jackal fur, Xia Qing knew today's harvest wouldn't be too optimistic.

Jackals and wolves fight differently; leaping is one of the jackal's core combat methods. These two trees laden with green-light hickory nuts should be their hunting ground or training ground, so no matter how good the relationship with Old Four, the jackal king probably wouldn't allow them to pick the "bait" off the green-light hickory trees.

So Xia Qing made a snap decision: after testing the nuts' quality, she didn't touch those two green-light trees and led the team to start with the yellow-light hickory nuts first.

After the yellow-light hickory nuts were collected, Xia Qing pretended not to see the jackal fur and led the team with sticks toward those two green-light hickory trees. Sure enough, before she could even raise her stick, the jackals wouldn't have it.

"Howl! Howl! Howl!"

After the jackal king let out a short, sharp warning, over twenty jackals immediately joined in howling, their calls carrying obvious hostility and fury.

Xia Qing immediately stopped, waiting for the captain's command.

"Aow—" Captain Old Four let out an authoritative call, then turned toward the way they came. Vice-captain Xia Qing immediately gave the order, "Pack up. Huo-ge, three bags; Big Guy, three bags; me, two bags. Bundle up and retreat."

"Copy." Huo Zhun efficiently packed up; Wang Man collected the iron rods and bags.

Xia Qing first strapped the three bags of yellow-light hickory nuts onto Big Guy's back with binding straps, then shouldered two bags of hickory nuts herself, and led the team to stand behind Old Four.

The jackal king, which had been staring at Big Guy and Xia Qing, finally shifted its gaze to Old Four. The jackal and wolf were disgustingly affectionate for a while, then Old Four led the team out of Mountain Area 15, boarded the helicopter, and set off on the journey home.

The helicopter landed on the helipad of Mountain Area 49. Vice-captain Xia Qing first paid Beard Feng and Guan Tong 10 jin of edible hickory nuts, then led the team into Zone 3 of Mountain Area 49 and stopped at the central position.

This spot had no surveillance. Even top-level hearing-evolved members of the Azure Dragon squad stationed at Mountain Area 49 and the patrol team on the northern isolation belt couldn't hear their conversation.

After confirming with the two brain-domain evolved wolves that no one was nearby, Xia Qing first discussed with Huo Zhun and Wang Man how to distribute this mission's harvest: "After giving away 10 jin of hickory nuts, this trip's harvest totals 870 jin of yellow-light hickory nuts and 46 jin of yellow-light meat. According to the split ratio, Huo-ge and Man-jie can get 174 jin of hickory nuts and 9.2 jin of meat. Do you want supplies or points?"

According to team-mission rules, all supplies gathered during a mission belong to the squad and must be distributed according to pre-agreed distribution rules or mission contribution. So even though those two yellow-light prey were caught by the wolf pack, they still count as the mission squad's harvest and are distributed by the rules.

Huo Zhun and Wang Man exchanged a glance and asked, "Qing-jie, can we both take hickory nuts?"

Xia Qing looked at Old Four, and casually at Broken-Waist Wolf too: "Captain, Huo-ge and Man-jie's twenty percent share both want hickory nuts. Is that okay with you?"

Actually, only the captain's opinion needed to be consulted on this matter, but Xia Qing wanted to spare Broken-Waist Wolf's pride, so she asked it too.

Old Four and Broken-Waist Wolf both nodded solemnly.

"Thanks, Captain, Broken-ge." Wang Man and Huo Zhun thanked them in unison.

Xia Qing began calculating how many jin of hickory nuts Huo Zhun and Wang Man should get: "Peeled yellow-light hickory nut kernels are 250 points per jin. Our harvest still has shells but is almost fully dried, so one jin counts as 240 points. Everyone agree?"

After the old wolf and Broken-Waist Wolf nodded, Huo Zhun and the other finally agreed.

"Alright, yellow-light meat is 50 points per jin, 9.2 jin is 460 points, equivalent to 2.3 jin of hickory nuts. You can get 176.3 jin of hickory nuts." After distributing the hickory nuts, Xia Qing sent the reluctant Huo Zhun and Wang Man back to their territory, then began discussing supply distribution with the two wolves: "Old Four, Broken-Waist, do you want hickory nuts, meat, or points?"

The two brain-domain evolved wolves, who didn't eat hickory nuts and weren't short on meat, both pressed their big paws on the two characters "points" Xia Qing had written on the ground — which looked terrible.

Very good.

Xia Qing nodded: "Alright, you both want points. Old Four's thirty percent: 261 jin of hickory nuts, 13.8 jin of meat, converted to points; Broken-Waist's twenty percent: 174 jin of hickory nuts, 9.2 jin of meat, converted to points. Did you bring your points cards today?"

The old wolf, not wearing protective gear, looked solemn. Broken-Waist Wolf immediately turned, took a points card from the side pocket of its protective gear in its mouth, and handed it to Xia Qing.

Xia Qing transferred the points to Broken-Waist Wolf on the spot, then told Old Four: "Old Four's points will be transferred next time you bring your points card over."

Old Four nodded again, indicating no problem.

Then Xia Qing gathered the remaining hickory nuts together and asked: "I'm heading back to the territory. The basement is finished. Do you want to come take a look? Or wait until treatment starts?"

Broken-Waist Wolf didn't answer, turning to look at Old Four.

Seeing Old Four follow Xia Qing back, Broken-Waist Wolf also brought its whelp along.

The plucking whelps? Already returned to the Wild Boar Valley. After Zhang Shi moved out, the Plucking family didn't go back to Mountain Area 50 and moved straight into the cave in Wild Boar Valley.

Big Guy? After unloading its cargo, it returned to Mountain Area 55. This was a non-brain-domain evolved giant wolf that didn't like territories full of human scent.

So Xia Qing, carrying two bags on her back and three bags in hand, led four wolves back to her territory. Because it was daytime and concealment was poor, Broken-Waist Wolf, who loved playing with doors, didn't climb the wall or play with doors either. It followed Old Four closely through two gates and entered Xia Qing's territory.

Seeing Xia Qing leave the territory alone and return carrying a large amount of supplies with four wolves, the two members of Beard Feng's squad took it in stride, but Zhang Shi in the basement felt his heart pounding, thump-thump, thump-thump.

After watching cattle eat grass and sheep eat grass for a long time, Ye Yiyi's eyes widened once again.