Chapter 1602: The Territorial War Between the Wolf Pack and the Monkey Troop

The fangs of bitter winter bit hard into the coniferous forest within Mountain Region 22 in southern Hui-1, the cold so intense that the air seemed edged with corners, and every breath drawn in carried a sharp, scraping pain.

After applying another layer of special-effect scent-isolating agent to the six wolves, Ye Yiyi, and herself, Zhang Shi removed her protective mask and took a deep breath; the moment she tested the scents here, she felt the bite of the cold air. She immediately fixed her mask back in place, lay prone beside Broken-Waist Wolf and Ye Yiyi, and peered through the wild grass ahead, carefully observing the situation outside.

Below this stretch of Shi Lin, as far as the eye could see, was evolved forest rolling with the terrain. Apart from birds in the trees and in the air, Zhang Shi could see no other living thing. With her abilities fully deployed, she confirmed that within a hundred meters, aside from this human-wolf squad, there were only a few faint magnetic fields of small animals, and the taut nerves in her eased slightly.

She was neither a visual nor an olfactory Evolver, so she could not discover where the southern Hui-1 wolf pack, the monkey troop invading the wolves' territory, or the humans who had come to resist the invading monkeys were hiding. She had binoculars in her pack, but she could not take them out today, because she had brought Ye Yiyi here to experience the real survival environment of the evolved wolves, and could not rely on human equipment for reconnaissance.

Half an hour passed; the two brain-domain evolved wolves, the three giant wolves, and Scarface Little Wolf remained perfectly still, and Zhang Shi held still as well. Using her magnetic-sense evolution ability, she confirmed that Ye Yiyi's condition was also fine.

After lying in ambush for an hour, just as Ye Yiyi was beginning to feel drowsy, Old Four and Broken-Waist Wolf turned their heads to the right at the same instant, and the other wolves turned with them. Zhang Shi gave Ye Yiyi's shoulder a light squeeze, alerting her to look down to the right.

Two minutes later, in a stand of towering fir trees near the river bend to the lower right, the first brownish-gray figure appeared. Ye Yiyi's eyes went wide at once; she recognized it as an animal she had learned about in biology class—a macaque.

After the first one appeared, the second followed right behind, then the third… Zhang Shi's expression grew solemn. Because this was no ordinary monkey troop: they advanced without a single howl, and when they leaped, the branches only swayed slightly, barely dislodging the accumulated snow. The leading giant monkey, if it stood upright, would be at least 1.6 meters tall—nearly the size of an adult human.

When she had survived in the evolved forest with Eleven, she had never gone deep into it, and had never seen an evolved monkey this large. Though she could not use magnetic sense to judge that monkey's strength, based on sight alone and years of experience surviving in the evolved forest, Zhang Shi could determine it was a powerful Evolver.

When the giant macaque in the fir forest suddenly stopped, Old Four immediately lowered his head, the other five wolves followed suit, and as Zhang Shi ducked low she reached up and pressed down Ye Yiyi's protective mask.

The giant macaque stood upright on its two hind legs on a tree fork, turning its head left and right, scanning the terrain rapidly with eyes as full of intelligence as a human's, then finally looked up toward where the human-wolf squad was hidden, lifted its nose and sniffed carefully; after confirming there was no danger, it continued leading the troop forward.

When the human-wolf squad's leader Old Four raised his head, the entire squad raised their heads as well, and Zhang Shi and Ye Yiyi, with their wolf ears perched on top, also peered through the wild grass, looking down.

Following the direction the monkeys were advancing, Zhang Shi looked toward the sheltered river-bend valley to the front-left. There was unfrozen running water there, easier to obtain food, and that was the target of this macaque troop.

When Old Four turned his head to look right, Zhang Shi immediately turned with him, and finally discovered the lords of the river-bend valley—three gray wolves.

The snow-laden wild grass was the perfect camouflage for the gray wolves; if they stayed perfectly still, it was very hard to detect their presence with the naked eye alone.

These three wolves rose from the wild grass and scattered rocks at the valley's edge, facing the monkey troop and forming an attack formation. Though she could not hear them, from the white mist appearing before their muzzles, Zhang Shi confirmed they were growling low, warning the monkeys not to advance any further.

"Captain, the wolf pack and the monkey troop have met."

From the trees on the other side of the river-bend valley, to the lower left of the human-wolf squad, an observation post of the Hui-1 mission squad hidden high in a large tree quietly reported the latest situation.

"This time it's the leader of the Gray-Spotted Monkey Troop leading them; the wolf pack may not be able to hold the territory. We can't let the monkeys have this place. All personnel, prepare to join the battle. Lynx, lock onto Gray-Spot."

"Copy that." Within the human squad, the senior sniper code-named Lynx searched for the leader of the Gray-Spotted Monkey Troop through her scope.

"Owooo—"

The three evolved wolves blocking the monkey troop let out low growls; one evolved wolf after another emerged from the shrubs and rocks deep in the valley, and when a sub-adult wolf with a slightly larger nose than the others appeared, Ye Yiyi's eyes went wide at once, and her small gloved hand reached out and grabbed Zhang Shi's protective suit.

On the cliffs of Mountain Region 22 in Hui-3, the Black-Nosed Little Wolf who had been studying knowledge from videos with Ye Yiyi was now standing in the valley with its companions, staring murderously at the monkey troop invading their territory, the fiercest of roars bursting from its mouth.

The giant monkey Gray-Spot, perched in the fir tree, looked all around, then raised one forelimb. The monkey troop instantly stopped moving and spread out, taking the high branches. The howls and roars of monkeys and wolves echoed through the valley, each one striking against Ye Yiyi's eardrums.

Sniper Lynx raised her eyes, looking at the swaying branches 2,500 meters away, and pressed her lips tight. That giant monkey, with a large patch of naturally especially thick dark-gray fur running from its right shoulder blade to its back, was outside her range.

Just then, the giant monkey Gray-Spot let out a short, penetrating yet not loud vocalization. Zhang Shi could not understand what it meant, but from the magnetic sense of Old Four and Broken-Waist Wolf instantly sharpening, she knew the battle between wolves and monkeys was about to begin.

After the giant monkey Gray-Spot gave the order, the monkey troop did not charge upward; instead, they used their claws to grab icicles from the trees and hurled them down at the wolves on the ground!

The evolved wolves could not climb the great trees and could only leap to dodge; soon the first wolf appeared, struck by an icicle and bleeding.

The moment the monkey troop let out a victorious cheer, an elasticity-evolved wolf leaped up into a great tree and sank its teeth viciously into a monkey; in an instant, the monkeys' cheers turned to furious roars.

When a speed-evolved monkey in the troop roared and rushed to rescue its companion, Black-Nosed Little Wolf and two other wolves attacked it at the same time. The monkey was agile, but the striking power of monkey claws was far inferior to that of wolf claws; this speed-evolved monkey failed to reach its companion in time, and the elasticity-evolved wolf bit through the monkey's leg, slammed it onto the ground, and as it charged toward the second great tree, the giant monkey Gray-Spot, holding an icicle over a meter long, leaped down from high in the tree and thrust it at this elasticity-evolved wolf.

The elasticity-evolved wolf in midair bit through the icicle with its bloodstained fangs, but was seized by the fur in the giant monkey Gray-Spot's sharp claws.

Just as the giant monkey Gray-Spot was about to leap onto the evolved wolf's back to deliver a fatal blow, Black-Nosed Little Wolf, which had already darted up into the great tree, leaped down and stomped viciously at the giant monkey Gray-Spot!

"Kra-kah!" As the giant monkey Gray-Spot released the elasticity-evolved wolf to dodge, it issued an attack command, and the monkeys in the trees hurled over a dozen sharp ice shards at Black-Nosed Little Wolf.

Seeing this scene, Ye Yiyi's eyes went wide, and Scarface Little Wolf bared its fangs.