Chapter 1393: Not a Single One Can Be Left Alive

The Broken-Waist Wolf glanced back at the Blind-Eyed Tiger, then solemnly extended one paw toward Lao Si.

Fifty thousand? That won't do — far too cheap!

Xia Qing spoke first. "Lao Si, I and Broken-Waist agree to the exchange. Let me go back and find out the price of these three Tibetan Mastiffs, and we'll trade at the market rate."

After the old wolf nodded, Xia Qing proposed a second deal. "Since Lao Si is taking these three Tibetan Mastiffs, how about I treat the wounds on the one the Blind-Eyed Tiger injured? Otherwise, before the Killing Snow period ends, they might lose control and die. Shaving the fur, cleaning the wounds, and applying medicine — fifteen hundred credits total."

Lao Si nodded solemnly.

The Broken-Waist Wolf happily bared the tips of its fangs. Xia Qing beamed and brought up the next deal. "Does Lao Si want to put Yishi necklaces on the three of them? Buying costs a hundred and thirty thousand credits for all three; renting is twenty-five hundred credits a day."

The Yishi worn by Lao Si, Queen Cui Yan, and the Little Scarface Wolf were Yishi provided by Lao Si, processed into necklaces by Xia Qing, so Xia Qing only earned the processing fee.

Now Lao Si had taken on three new members with scraggly fur and clearly poor condition, and it wasn't wearing a protective suit, so it certainly hadn't brought extra Yishi to protect these three Tibetan Mastiffs — giving Xia Qing a chance to earn credits.

Lao Si thought for a few seconds, then raised a paw and gestured a single character: 2.

"Lao Si wants to rent Yishi necklaces? Great! Lao Si truly is an evolved wolf standing at the top of Blue Star's pyramid, just like Broken-Waist!" Having closed the deal, Xia Qing quickly arranged things. "Broken-Waist, you hold down the mastiff first so it doesn't run! Lao Si, you hold down the injured one — I'll take care of this one first!"

After briskly fitting a Yishi necklace on the mastiff she was holding down, Xia Qing trotted over to the Broken-Waist Wolf and put a Yishi necklace on the mastiff it was pinning, then circled past the open-jawed Blind-Eyed Tiger, trotted to Lao Si's side, turned on her flashlight, gave the last mastiff — the one clawed by the Blind-Eyed Tiger — a local anesthetic injection before fitting it with a Yishi necklace, then removed the snow-jumping insects that had burrowed into the three wounds to suck blood and gnaw flesh, shaved the fur, debrided and disinfected, and sutured the wounds.

After finishing the work, Xia Qing asked, "Lao Si, may I take that evolved wolf's corpse back for photo evidence, then return it?"

Lao Si didn't object. The Blind-Eyed Tiger, bristling with killing intent, blocked Xia Qing's path — demanding food!

Xia Qing was truly at a loss. After stuffing a small packet of freeze-dried treats into its mouth, she huddled with the Broken-Waist Wolf, whispering and gesturing at length, getting it to demand from the Blind-Eyed Tiger the payment owed to her and the Broken-Waist Wolf for catching the wanderers, clearing the cave, and dealing with the dangerous zone of evolved Bai Mao grass.

Then Xia Qing took the wolf corpse back to the cave to have Zhang He photograph and take samples, and returned it to the cave where one tiger, two wolves, and three mastiffs were. She found the Blind-Eyed Tiger staring at the three mastiffs, the Broken-Waist Wolf standing in front of the old wolf, awoo-ing and awoo-ing.

Thinking about it, it made sense — wolves and tigers don't share a language, so communicating through Lao Si was easier.

Xia Qing no longer concerned herself with matters inside that cave, and went with Huo Zhun, Yang Jin, and Di Ming to carry valuable supplies onto the helicopter. Large equipment like medical instruments would stay here for now and be moved after the Killing Snow period ended.

After two trips back and forth to load the supplies onto the helicopter, Xia Qing, Huo Zhun, and Zhang He headed back. Yang Jin and Di Ming stayed in the cave, waking the six surviving intruders and beginning the interrogation.

At ten that night, the helicopter landed steadily on the helipad of Mountain Forty-Nine.

After Zheng Chen took Zhang He — who was carrying two boxes of documents — away, Huo Zhun returned to Territory Eleven. The pilots Guan Tong and Chen Cheng helped Xia Qing deliver the harvested supplies back to Territory Three.

After distributing the gifts she'd brought back to each of her animal companions, Xia Qing patrolled the territory, cleared the snow in the courtyard, then made another patrol of the Ninth Center in the small hours before finally returning to the territory to sleep.

The farmland and animals inside Territory Three were protected by Yishi, and the other areas were watched by Beard Feng's squad, so Xia Qing didn't need to stand night watch.

When she opened her eyes again, it was already daylight. Turning on the walkie-talkie, Xia Qing heard her allies discussing the disaster situation across the ten bases of Hui City during this Killing Snow.

The safe zone and territories of Hui Base Six had been attacked again by a large beast tide launched by the monkey horde. Around Hui One and Hui Five, sizable beast tides had also formed in the evolved forest. Both bases had dispatched troops and combat squads to intercept the tides, preventing these out-of-control animals from charging into human territories outside the safe zones.

On the Hui Three side, because they had cleared the large evolved animals infected with evolved anaerobic bacteria from the evolved forest in advance, no beast tide of medium scale or larger had formed yet — the disaster was under control.

Xia Qing got up and stretched, drew open the curtains, and saw smoke pouring from the chimney of the small kitchen by the farmland. She assumed it was a member of Beard Feng's night-watch squad making breakfast.

She put on a protective suit, tidied up the house, then drove an off-road vehicle out with Old Da, Wolf Lao Er, Little Feimao, and the two Melons, heading for the breeding greenhouse.

According to the weather forecast, the temperature this morning would plunge ten degrees, to around minus seventeen Celsius. Getting them over early was the only way Xia Qing could rest easy.

The little yellow calf had stayed in the breeding greenhouse the night before, so it didn't need to be transported back and forth.

After settling her animal companions, Xia Qing went into the meeting room by the farmland and was surprised to see Yang Jin, looking clean and fresh, on the phone while pouring boiling water over tea leaves. On the table sat two plates of steaming buns and two plates of crisp green vegetables — a feast for the eyes, nose, and mouth, enough to make anyone's mouth water at a glance.

Xia Qing briskly removed her protective mask, took off her protective outer jacket, went to the kitchen to wash her hands and fetch two pairs of chopsticks, handed one pair to Yang Jin after he'd hung up, and asked, "Something happening at the safe zone?"

Yang Jin's voice was slightly hoarse. "The beast tides to the north of Hui Five and Hui One may enter our base's evolved forest. The base is requiring the top ten combat squads to draw personnel to assist the military in resisting the beast tide. I'll head out right after breakfast — I probably won't be back until the Killing Snow ends. Sister Qing, try one of these pork-and-cabbage buns and tell me how they taste. I used the pork and cabbage you brought over."

Looking at Yang Jin's state, she figured he'd finished interrogating the intruders last night, then come back to mince meat and steam buns, and still hadn't rested. According to the forecast, this Killing Snow wouldn't end until nine tomorrow morning. Executing a beast-tide resistance mission in the evolved forest meant there was no time to sleep — in other words, Yang Jin was going to pull two all-nighters in a row.

Xia Qing thought for a moment, then said, "I have a pair of noise-canceling headphones at home, traded from Third Brother — they work really well. Take them with you when you go, Captain Yang, and catch some rest when you can."

"Sure." Yang Jin smiled brightly and bit off half a bun in one go.

After the two finished their meal in silence, Yang Jin briefly recounted the interrogation to Xia Qing. "The ones who attacked the Blind-Eyed Tiger before the third Killing Rain were this same group. Luckily you were cautious enough not to let the Blind-Eyed Tiger catch their scent — otherwise we wouldn't have brought back a single live one. This time they were hiding on Mountain Thirty-Six, planning to capture the Blind-Eyed Tiger, remove its prefrontal cortex, then have it lead the way to explore the tiger clan's core territory in search of uncontaminated spring water. Di Ming is still interrogating over there. I came back because that researcher from Hui Five insists on seeing Third Brother — otherwise he refuses to talk."

Xia Qing asked, "Where is the person now?"

"On Mountain Forty-Nine. He's already had the meeting. Third Brother told me to send the person back to Mountain Thirty-Six." Yang Jin laid out the follow-up plan. "Once the Killing Snow ends tomorrow and my mission is over, Sister Qing, first have the Broken-Waist Wolf or Lao Si take the Blind-Eyed Tiger over there and have all these people dealt with. Then I'll bring the squad over to wrap things up. The crimes these people committed all warrant the death penalty, and they all know you were the one who ambushed them in the valley — so not a single one of them can be left alive."

Xia Qing nodded in agreement and asked, "Are there any evolved ones among those three Tibetan Mastiffs?"