Chapter 159: Collapse

"Screech—"

A sharp, furious eagle cry pierced through the clouds and struck the eardrums of every person in the territory below; flocks of birds followed with screams of their own.

The two wolves dragged into the living room opened their eyes wide at the same time, straining to roll their eyes in search of the source of the sound.

"Baa—" Boss Sheep immediately stopped chewing its cud, clamped the brain-evolved wolf's neck in its mouth, dragged it cloppity-clop up to the attic, tossed it beside Xia Qing, then ran back downstairs to drag the broken-legged wolf up as well, and after that ignored both wolves entirely, lying down beside Xia Qing's legs and resuming its cud-chewing.

The evolved raptors in the sky circled and screamed.

Xia Qing could only put down her gun, grab the two wolves by the scruffs of their necks and drag them to the most concealed corner of the attic, then run back to the window and resume aiming.

The altitude of the evolved raptors circling at high altitude was gradually descending.

Once they entered within a thousand meters, Tan Junjie immediately gave the order, "Territory Seven, lock onto the evolved monkey-eating eagle with the laser cannon; everyone else, defend the territory!"

"Bang!"

"Rat-a-tat-tat!"

The sounds of sniper rifles and machine guns immediately rang out, mingling with the bird cries into a chaotic mess. Xia Qing fired one shot that broke the neck of an evolved sea eagle extending its talons toward her house, nudged Boss Sheep aside with her foot, "Stay over there, don't rub against me, I'm busy!"

"Bang!"

Xia Qing fired another shot, but this time she didn't hit a vital part of the bird; the evolved raptor lost a patch of feathers and continued flashing its talons toward Xia Qing's house.

These birds must have fought humans many times and knew where humans would hide. Once the roof was ripped open, a human became a worm of meat it could toy with as it pleased.

Damn it!

Xia Qing set down the sniper rifle and picked up the submachine pistol, spraying a burst of rat-a-tat-tat that riddled the bird in the air with holes, then immediately picked up the sniper rifle again and aimed at the raptors circling at altitude.

"Bang!"

"Baa~" Boss Sheep obediently leaned against Xia Qing's legs, bleating in a cutesy voice to cheer her on.

The Beard Feng squad guarding Territory Three's farmland was also firing rat-a-tat-tat at the evolved birds clawing at the greenhouses.

Perhaps the evolved monkey-eating eagle had issued some kind of order, but Territory Seven and the surrounding area had become the main target of the evolved raptors' attack.

"Captain Tan, Territory Five's greenhouses are under attack by evolved birds, requesting assistance." Yuan Yan of Territory Five sent out the first call for help.

"Received, entering immediately; personnel in the territory, take cover." Tan Junjie's calm reply was very soothing to the heart.

"Captain Tan, Territory Six is under attack."

"Received."

"Territory Four is under attack." Zhao Ze's voice was trembling, "Come quickly, Xia Qing, please save me."

Xia Qing, who was defending her territory, didn't even have the mind to press the walkie-talkie to answer such nonsense.

Territory Seven announced on the lord channel, "Territory Seven has hit the evolved monkey-eating eagle's left claw again, no substantial damage inflicted."

The leading evolved monkey-eating eagle was locked down by Territory Seven's laser cannon and could only hide at high altitude; no matter how strong the attack power of the remaining two hundred-plus raptors, they could not contend with bullets.

Fifteen minutes later, humans gained the upper hand; some of the two hundred-plus evolved raptors were shot down, some fled, and only forty-plus remained circling at high altitude, not daring to descend.

"Screech—"

Another cry of the evolved monkey-eating eagle came down from high altitude; Xia Qing clearly heard that this cry was different from the previous ones, but she wasn't a bird and couldn't understand its meaning.

"Screech—screech—"

Two more unusual bird cries; Xia Qing felt a wave of unease in her heart and asked her companion, "Boss, what is that bird saying?"

Boss Sheep, lying beside Xia Qing, seemed to hear nothing at all.

Unexpectedly, Territory Eight's lord Seeing Xin Yu reported on the lord channel, "Captain Tan, the evolved monkey-eating eagle should be calling for companions. The evolved sea eagle recuperating in my territory is getting agitated and spreading its wings to take off."

Calling for companions?

There's an evolved sea eagle recuperating in Territory Eight?

The panicked lords' minds went to mush, unable for the moment to decide which matter deserved more attention.

Territory One reported, "Captain Tan, observation from Mount Forty-Nine shows at least a hundred-plus large birds taking off from the evolved forest to the north."

With the firepower of their territory, they simply couldn't contend with large numbers of evolved birds; they couldn't let the evolved monkey-eating eagle call for companions!

Xia Qing furrowed her brow tightly, quickly mounted the scope on her sniper rifle, and began searching through the scope for the evolved monkey-eating eagle hiding in the clouds. Watching the black shadow flash past in the scope, Xia Qing gritted her teeth.

That was a distance even the laser cannon couldn't reach, let alone a sniper rifle with a maximum range of only two thousand five hundred meters; this time, her territory was likely going to get clawed to shreds by the evolved birds.

Never give up until the very last moment—that is the most important survival principle in a natural disaster. Xia Qing immediately turned toward an evolved bird circling downward and shot it down with a bang.

"Waaah… I quit, I don't want the territory anymore, I don't want the grain either, I want to go back to the safe zone." Zhao Ze broke down emotionally, wailing loudly on the lord channel.

"The situation has been reported to the safe zone; the safe zone has dispatched reinforcement troops. No one is to leave cover. In three minutes, we will begin using ultrasonic waves above 24 kilohertz to interfere with the bird flocks; the attack duration will be adjusted based on the battle situation, with an initial plan of no less than ten minutes. Hearing-evolved individuals, please prepare personal protection immediately." No matter how the battle shifted, Tan Junjie's voice remained as calm as ever.

Three minutes!

Hearing-evolved Xia Qing immediately put down her gun, closed the window, and raced downstairs. Boss Sheep, seeing Xia Qing run, immediately baa-ed and followed.

Xia Qing rushed to the first-floor room where the chickens and geese were kept, quickly tied the chicken coop and goose coop with ropes and lowered them into the newly dug cellar, then sealed the cellar door tight and piled all the straw mats on top of the door, hoping this would reduce the impact of the ultrasonic waves on the poultry.

"Baa—"

Boss Sheep, which had followed her down, couldn't understand what Xia Qing was doing, but it sensed panic from her movements and opened its mouth to ask.

"It's nothing, Boss, keep up." Xia Qing moved swiftly, her tone steady, soothing Boss Sheep's nervous mood. She led Boss Sheep rushing to the second-floor storage room and took out all the protective masks in the house.

There were a total of three protective suits in the storage room: one for Boss Sheep, two for Xia Qing; together with the one Xia Qing was wearing, there were four protective suits in the house altogether. What she needed now wasn't the protective suits, but the protective masks.

Xia Qing fitted the protective mask on Boss Sheep properly, grabbed the remaining two, and rushed back to the attic. The protective masks could defend against physical attacks, filter the air, and also reduce the intensity of sonic attacks.

After putting the protective mask on Boss Sheep, Xia Qing took off the protective mask on her own head and put on the one with the best protective effect—the mask that went with the silver-white airtight protective suit. She was the main combat force of the household and had to have the best protection.

The protective mask Xia Qing had just taken off went with the camouflage protective suit she had traded with the Azure Dragon Squad; she put it on the brain-evolved wolf and fastened it tight. This wolf was clever and was also the wolf the alpha valued most; it needed priority protection.

The third protective mask had been traded from Zhong Tao; it was a protective mask openly traded within the safe zone, with relatively poor sound insulation, but better than nothing. After fitting this protective mask over the broken-legged wolf's head, Xia Qing patted its back, "Brother, you're the toughest, you'll definitely hold up!"

Neither wolf had ever worn a protective mask before; upon finding their heads covered, they uneasily widened their eyes. But they had both been anesthetized and couldn't resist at all. At this moment, Xia Qing was immensely grateful she had fed the two wolves anesthetic that morning.

From the walkie-talkie beside her came Tan Junjie's calm voice, "Half a minute until the ultrasonic attack begins."