Chapter 1583: The Great Tree on Mountain Eighty-Six

The territory of the raptors in northern Hui Three cannot be crossed casually, because the lords of that territory have an extremely strong sense of territory and airspace. Even if you fly over at five thousand meters, you may still be attacked by the raptors. So, after Er Yong piloted the helicopter over the territory of the northern Xiong Qun, he began the risky business of crossing a mountain region in the north with elevations exceeding 4,000 meters.

This mountain region is not only high in elevation, but the terrain is also extremely steep, so vegetation is sparse in most areas. Yet this place is a paradise for herbivorous animals skilled at climbing to thrive and reproduce. Because in this region, they can use the terrain to their advantage to evade natural predators.

Huo Zhun, who was on defense duty, looked through the porthole at a group of what appeared to be sheep nimbly running along the cliff face, his mouth watering, and spoke up to discuss with Xia Qing, "Sister Qing, does this area fall under Bear Bro's jurisdiction? Can we go down and catch a few sheep when we come back?"

Although the others didn't chime in to agree, they were all tempted. Around the human safe zone in the evolved forest, there had long been no more herds of herbivores; only in such rarely visited depths of the evolved forest could one still see scenes like this.

Xia Qing glanced down through the porthole, then leaned back against her seat, "This area is the leopards' territory."

Wang Man asked, "Snow leopards?"

By common sense, among leopards, the snow leopard is the one best suited to survive in this kind of terrain. However, after Blue Star's evolution, new leopard species even better suited to high-altitude, oxygen-poor environments may also have evolved.

Xia Qing nodded, "Snow leopards. This alpine meadow mountain region is home to snow leopards, wolf packs, and lynxes; their territories interlock like jagged teeth. If we go down to hunt, we have to be careful not only of these ground lords, but also guard against the aerial overlords. If we anger those aerial overlords, we'll bring danger back to our own territory—it won't be worth it."

The struggle for survival everywhere in the evolved forest is extremely fierce. Currently, the strongest animal lord in this alpine region is the evolved snow leopard; reportedly, its combat strength is only a little bit less than that of the northern Wolf King.

According to whom? Of course, according to Broken-Waist Wolf. It said that after leaving its original wolf pack, it had once wanted to carve out a patch of land in this region and establish its own wolf pack, because its leaping ability was excellent, suited to surviving in such steep mountain terrain. But before it could find a suitable area to establish its territory, it ran into two extremely formidable snow leopards and nearly died. That's why it kept heading south and joined the northern wolf pack.

Although Huo Zhun was not actually afraid of the leopards, wolf packs, and lynxes, territorial safety was more important than anything. He obediently gave up the idea of hunting and focused on executing the mission.

The co-pilot, Hu Zifeng, reported, "Sister Qing, we've reached the western side of Mountain Eighty-Seven. Below there are three suitable landing points, and the straight-line distance to the target search area isn't much different."

"Take photos, circle the three landing points and send them to me. I'll check with Xin Yu." Xia Qing stood up and began stretching, preparing for the mission.

"Copy." Hu Zifeng quickly took photos, edited them, and sent them to Xia Qing.

After Xia Qing sent the images to Xin Yu, she quickly received a reply, then issued the order, "Point 2 to the northwest, prepare to land."

"Copy." Er Yong piloted the helicopter, slowly setting it down at Point 2.

The cabin door opened. Xia Qing led the team jumping down from the helicopter; they hadn't walked far when they heard a call from a companion, "Caw! Shrimp, shrimp!"

Xia Qing turned her head to look at the large tree beside them, heavy with rime frost, and nimbly pulled a small insulated bag from her pocket, pouring out the last two live mealworms she'd brought back today. "Caw-caw, you've worked hard."

The brain-domain evolved raven hiding in the large tree darted out without hesitation, flying toward Xia Qing. As it flew over, Wu Lianmin instinctively stepped back. Having lived in Territory Eleven for half a year, he had been hit by droppings from this cunning raven in midair no fewer than ten times, and had already developed a conditioned reflex.

After the brain-domain evolved raven, which had arrived at the mission area in advance, finished eating the worms, Xia Qing gently asked, "Did Caw-caw run into any danger here?"

Molly hopped onto Xia Qing's shoulder, spread both wings, and let out a fierce cry, "Caw!"

"Caw-caw ran into fierce big birds and still got away safely—amazing! Caw-caw truly is the most formidable raptor in Territory Eight. The tastiest worms in our territory should all be picked over by Caw-caw first. After this mission is over, can Caw-caw come to my place to pick out worms to eat?"

The raven Molly immediately became happy, "Caw-caw!"

What does that call mean? Huo Zhun and the other two pricked up their ears, listening.

"Caw-caw wants to eat Gaoshan element spinach seeds? Of course you can. In a few days, the spinach seeds in my territory will be ripe. Caw-caw and Xin Yu are both welcome to visit my territory."

Wang Man… how does "caw-caw" connect to spinach seeds? Is there some story behind it?

Wu Lianmin immediately jumped in, "Caw-caw likes eating spinach seeds? In our territory there's spinach with a Gaoshan element content of 5.6?, and it's already going to seed…"

Before Wu Lianmin could finish, the raven Molly spread her wings, ready to attack him. Seeing the raven about to strike, Wu Lianmin nimbly ducked behind Wang Man. Facing Wang Man's murderous gaze, Molly meekly folded her wings and shrank onto Xia Qing's shoulder.

Huo Zhun grinned as he watched his comrades interact with the raven. Wu Lianmin, hiding behind Wang Man, breathed a sigh of relief, then returned to his defensive position and continued forward.

After the four people and one bird advanced at full speed along the game trail through the evolved forest for forty-five minutes, they reached the designated location on Mountain Eighty-Six. Xia Qing sent a message to Yang Jin and began leading the team in the search.

Although Xia Qing had come out this time to play along with Xie Yu's act, and could have wandered around for an hour before heading back, since she was already here, she had no intention of returning empty-handed. "Man-jie, Huo-ge, Min-ge, you guys protect me. I want to collect some samples to bring back."

Mountain Eighty-Six was an area that Xia Qing and her animal friends had never set foot in, so the soil, water sources, and plants here all had sampling value. Xia Qing would use her vision to look for herbs, and her magnetic sense to search for creatures in the area emitting Shang-element or Yi-element magnetic fields.

Watching Xia Qing take out professional equipment, skillfully collect samples and mark sample numbers with a pen, Huo Zhun was full of admiration and felt tremendous pressure. Xia Qing was busy as a top every day, yet still managed to squeeze out time to learn new knowledge and new skills—and the key thing was she could actually remember and apply them. She was just too amazing!

Huo Zhun, who in half a year had to take the junior high school graduation exam for the second time, felt his road ahead swarming with crows…

Just after harvesting a patch of lichen emitting a Shang-element offensive magnetic field, Xia Qing advanced a few hundred meters more and picked up a gentle Yi-element magnetic field from underground ahead.

Not wanting to reveal her magnetic-sense evolution ability, Xia Qing decisively gave up this precious sample and continued sampling surface plants.

"Caw…"

Caw-caw, perched on the large tree beside them and responsible for keeping watch, gave a low call, issuing a warning to Xia Qing. Xia Qing looked up, scanning her surroundings, and quickly locked onto a large tree more than three hundred meters ahead.