Chapter 1457: The Hunting Cat Princess and the Missing Wolf Lao Er

The moment she heard she'd have to pay points, she shut her mouth and jumped up to run? Zhang San suspected that Duan Yao's gesture of clamping his mouth shut in disagreement was also learned from this new human!

"Your inference about Mountain Fifty and the spring in Territory Three might hold up. If you don't want trouble, keep your mouth shut even tighter."

Why hadn't the water-rich Mountain Fifty area been designated a key zone for searching for uncontaminated springs?

Because in the second year of the Catastrophe, an earthquake struck here, severely damaging the mountain structure of Mountain Fifty.

Based on humanity's understanding of uncontaminated springs, once a mountain structure is damaged, even if this area originally had uncontaminated springs, they no longer exist.

Once Xia Qing's inference spreads, and human researchers refresh their understanding of uncontaminated springs, they will formulate a reasonable hypothesis based on this understanding:

Since the major earthquake in the second year of the Catastrophe altered the mountain structure and formed uncontaminated springs in Mountain Fifty, then when the humans living in the hidden valley of Mountain Fifty damaged the mountain structure again, causing the springs to be harmed, might the changes in mountain structure cause new uncontaminated springs to appear in other areas within a five-kilometer radius?

When that happens, the attention that has just been shifted to Peak Three of Mountain Fifty will once again focus on the buffer forest of Northern Territory One, and all the time and effort Zhang San and Xia Qing have spent diverting attention will have been wasted.

"Understood."

Xia Qing had also considered this point, but now she didn't dare say a single extra word, and left her idol's office with her mouth firmly shut. Because her idol meant what he said—if she opened her mouth and he judged it as "nonsense," he really would charge her extra points.

How hard was it to accumulate points and supplies during the Catastrophe? Xia Qing had to hold tightly to what belonged to her; no one was going to pry it from her hands—not even her idol!

Xia Qing walked out of the lab building and turned north, wanting to leave through the north gate of Territory Seven, but was stopped by Zheng Chen. "Sister Qing, the Princess is hunting in the northern buffer forest."

Xia Qing stopped. "I'll leave through the south gate. Captain Zheng, what's the Princess's hunting target?"

The northern buffer forest of Territory Seven is the Princess's territory.

North of the buffer forests of Territories Five, Six, and Seven is a fifty-meter-wide isolation belt. North of the isolation belt is Area Five of Mountain Forty-Nine—this area was originally the territory of the freeloading big red squirrels.

After the big red squirrels moved into Xia Qing's territory, Wolf Lao Er occupied this area.

So Wolf Lao Er and the Princess are neighbors.

Although cats are one of the red squirrels' natural predators, a strength-evolved cat can't catch a speed-evolved red squirrel, which is why Wolf Lao Er dared to occupy this area with two green-light pine trees.

In any other season, Xia Qing wouldn't have asked. But now it's the cold winter—Wolf Lao Er should be holed up sleeping. This little guy's luck has always been bad; if the Princess leapt over the territory boundary into Area Five of Mountain Forty-Nine and cornered Wolf Lao Er in its den, that would be trouble.

The Princess's claws could easily rip open a pine trunk and dig Wolf Lao Er out!

Zheng Chen understood what Xia Qing was worried about. "Today's prey is a nest of voles discovered in Territory Six. The Princess knows her hunting range is Territories Six and Seven—she won't hunt in other areas."

Xia Qing nodded, left through the south gate of Territory Seven, and sped up toward the eastern isolation belt. Wolf Lao Er was an unlucky kid—Xia Qing hadn't seen it for two days and decided to hurry back to confirm it was safe.

Su Ming, who was patrolling the isolation belt, was startled to see Xia Qing running over. "Sister Qing?"

Xia Qing slowed down as she walked over. "Nothing's wrong. I just came from Third Brother's territory and want to run back along the isolation belt."

"It's cold—running keeps you warm." Su Ming excitedly suggested, "Sister Qing, want to race?"

Xia Qing nodded. "Sure, but don't make too much noise when we pass the northern isolation belt of Territory Seven."

"Understood." Cao Xianyun, who was beside them, nodded. The big shot of Territory Seven hated noise, so they tried not to make any when passing around Territory Seven.

After passing the isolation belt north of Territory Seven, Xia Qing and the five inspection team members lined up in a row and charged forward together.

Third-level visual evolver Su Ming, fourth-level auditory evolver Cao Xianyun, third-level strength evolver He Wu, and two ordinary soldiers couldn't run as fast as Xia Qing—the distance quickly widened.

When the five inspection team members ran past Territories Four, Five, and Six and stopped at the isolation belt north of Territory Three, they couldn't even see Xia Qing's shadow.

Su Ming gasped for breath. "Sister Qing's speed has improved again!"

The ordinary soldier beside him nodded while panting. "High-level evolvers are badass."

After adjusting his breathing, Cao Xianyun spoke. "Xia Qing isn't a speed evolver. She can run this fast entirely because of the desperate training she's put in over the past two years."

Another ordinary soldier nodded. "Right, I have a comrade who isn't an evolver either. He trained like crazy, and his top running speed can reach the level of a third-and-a-half-level speed evolver."

Su Ming was shocked. "How long can he maintain that speed?"

"A minute and a half."

"That's insane!"

"Train like that and you'll be insane too. Keep running!"

Xia Qing, who had been quietly standing behind a large tree in the evolution forest of Area Three of Mountain Forty-Nine, waited until the inspection team had walked far away, then stepped toward the boar valley.

She stopped in the boar valley for a while, then saw a little weasel peeking out half a head from behind a rock not far away, trembling, watching her with a pair of green-glowing eyes.

Xia Qing took out a small packet of freeze-dried treats, tore it open, brushed the snow off the rock in front of her before pouring the treats onto it, stepped back a few paces, and saw a smaller round head pop out beside the plucked weasel.

Xia Qing greeted them proactively. "Plucked one, Plucked junior, how are Little Bai Mao and Little Little Bai Mao doing?"

The bolder Plucked junior ran over to eat the food Xia Qing had brought, while Plucked the weasel continued hiding behind the rock watching.

Xia Qing instructed the two weasels not to enter the Princess's territory, then continued east toward Wolf Lao Er's territory.

After circling Wolf Lao Er's territory and calling out a few times, Xia Qing still couldn't find the little guy. She called Yang Jin to confirm Wolf Lao Er wasn't in any of the tree holes in Territory Three either, then immediately returned to Territory Three to call for help.

"Wolf Lao Er, did you see Wolf Lao Er today? I can't find it anywhere. Wolf Lao Er, Little Feimao's sister, Wolf Lao Er." Xia Qing gestured to make Wolf Lao Er understand what she meant. "The red squirrel that lives in the big tree hole up in this tree—Wolf Lao Er."

After Wolf Lao Er understood who Xia Qing was looking for, it carefully sniffed the scents here and began running back.

Following Wolf Lao Er all the way back to the territory, back home, and standing at the sheep pen door, Xia Qing's premonition grew worse. Wolf Lao Er wasn't in its own nest, nor in its mother's and Little Feimao's nest—so why had it come to the place where it was born?

She lifted the door curtain made of rainproof cloth and straw and walked in, turned on the light, and greeted Sheep Boss who was lying beside the little yellow cow chewing cud. When she looked up, she saw bloodstains on the straw up high!