Chapter 1608: Mountain Sixty-Seven in Distress

"Sister Qing, is that bear running on the ground one of the two brown bears we saw when we went to Mountain Fifty to gather pine nuts last autumn or the autumn before?"

After half a month of grueling training, the auditory evolver Dajiang finally defeated his companions and secured a spot to go on a mission with Xia Qing. Watching the giant bear sprinting through the evolution forest below, he asked excitedly.

The well-traveled Jingkuan glanced down and remained very calm.

Xia Qing, her face bruised and swollen, replied, "It's the smaller one."

Dajiang was very excited today, talking even more than his younger brother Xiaojiang. "The little one has gotten this big? How much does it have to eat in a day! Luckily, after Blue Star evolved, food in the evolution forest is plentiful—otherwise this guy would definitely hibernate in winter."

That was indeed the case. For giant animals to survive—especially large predators like bears, tigers, and giant pythons—the main reason was that they could obtain enough food. Xia Qing watched the greedy little bear below running northward while looking up at the helicopter, understanding it had come for her.

Could it be that Daigua had told its greedy, voracious friend that she was coming?

Is Xiong Wang sleeping, or has it already gone to Mountain Sixty-Seven?

The helicopter flew past Mountain Sixty, where a broken-legged wolf was howling, a frozen lake of pythons, and a snow-covered mountain range, arriving above the misty basin of Mountain Sixty-Seven.

After radar confirmed there were no large animals below except one giant bear, the helicopter lowered its altitude. Xia Qing, carrying a backpack and a large package bag, rappelled down onto a large tree.

This basin was where the Azure Dragon Squad had captured the Fierce Fire Second Combat Squad. That information had already leaked; a few days ago, someone had secretly entered the basin to search for the Fire Phoenix's whereabouts and was killed by evolved plants and venomous snakes.

For this reason, Hui-3 Base had increased its patrol efforts. The Azure Dragon Squad's helicopter, which had a giant eagle's claw tied to it, was required to patrol over the basin at least twice a day. In addition, cameras had been installed along the paths leading into the basin, which would immediately sound an alarm if intruders were detected.

But most of the cameras installed by humans had been destroyed by evolution forest animals. Xia Qing asked Daigua and learned that most of the cameras had been dismantled by baboons, and a few by Daigua. The cameras the baboons dismantled had been smashed to pieces playing with them; Daigua called Xia Qing, wanting to sell the equipment it had dismantled to her.

A secondhand dealer certainly wouldn't refuse ninety-percent-new secondhand equipment, and was kind enough not to drive the price down too hard.

"Eh!"

Before Xia Qing, carrying her huge backpack, had even climbed down from the large tree, the eager little monkeys Daigua and Ergua had already run over from a tree several hundred meters away, staring with bright big eyes at Xia Qing... and her backpack.

Monk-faced monkeys were animals that lived in trees and wouldn't come down unless necessary. Xia Qing simply sat on a large tree fork. Above, thick fog and dense canopy provided cover; below, it was over thirty meters to the ground—far safer than the ground crawling with poisonous insects, snakes, and plants.

Once seated securely, Xia Qing pulled a small carrot from her backpack, broke it into two pieces, and gave them to the two gua monkeys. "This is a delicious food I traded for. Daigua and Ergua, try it."

Daigua happily took the washed carrot, took a crunching bite, "Tch!"

"Mm, it is quite tasty. This is a qiang-element-sensitive plant; it can only be grown in standardized greenhouses without qiang elements, so it's very expensive. Because Daigua and Ergua are both my best friends, I'm willing to give it to you for free."

Xia Qing picked up Ergua, who was gnawing the carrot, to check its hind paw. Ergua knew Xia Qing was going to examine it and actively moved its toes to show her how well its paw worked now.

"Ergua's paw has recovered very well, and it's grown bigger too—it feels much heavier holding it than when it first came back." Xia Qing stroked its dusty gray fur and took two collars from her backpack. "These are the collars I mentioned. Can you wear them now?"

Both Daigua and Ergua were wild animals that had been treated at Territory Seven. Yesterday, primate research expert Zhang Song approached Xia Qing to discuss hoping that during the expedition team's stay in Northern Zone One, both Daigua and Ergua would wear tracking collars.

Because only this way would it make sense.

So Xia Qing had taken the helicopter over to put collars on Daigua and Ergua, and deliver goods along the way.

Daigua already understood what this was. Although it didn't like it, to prevent bad humans from discovering it was a brain-domain evolver who could read, possessed electronic devices, and had personal monkey assets, it obediently put the collar on.

After putting the collars on the two little monkeys, Xia Qing earnestly instructed, "Daigua, Ergua, you two just stay in the basin. I'll keep your phones and backpacks safe for you..."

"Thump, thump, thump..."

Before Xia Qing finished her instructions, she heard familiar, heavy footsteps from below. She pushed aside the branches and waved her arm in greeting. "My lord Xiong Wang, are you here for the hot springs?"

The damp Xiong Wang stared at the monkeys in the tree for two seconds, then raised its paw to climb up.

Xia Qing was afraid that once it came up it would break the branches and cause her to fall, so she hurriedly stopped it. "Brother Bear, don't come up! I'll come down right away!"

After Xia Qing came down from the large tree carrying the big bag and the two gua monkeys, Xiong Wang—which had looked not very big from thirty meters up in the tree—once again became the massive beast before her eyes.

Xia Qing carefully examined its fur and found that new fur had already grown in the place where it had lost hair from a skin disease before. "Brother Bear's skin disease is cured. It doesn't itch anymore, right?"

"Roar." Xiong Wang responded in a low voice, a pair of crafty big eyes fixed on Xia Qing's backpack—the meaning was very clear.

Xia Qing opened her backpack and took out the goods Daigua had messaged her to order. "Forty catties of sweet potatoes, six large Chinese cabbages, twenty carrots, fifteen eggs, one jar of honey, six exclusive-agency steamed buns—that comes to points, and after rounding down it's..."

"ROAR!!!"

Xia Qing the secondhand dealer had just taken the supplies out and was about to collect the points when she heard the angry roar of the greedy little bear from far off to the southwest.

Daigua and Ergua immediately wrapped their arms tightly around Xia Qing's neck. Xiong Wang, who was gnawing a Chinese cabbage, let out an angry roar, turned around, and ran.

Xia Qing immediately called the helicopter circling overhead to ask about the situation.

Dajiang reported, "The bear that ran over from Mountain Sixty is roaring at a tree four kilometers from you. Radar shows no abnormalities."

Xia Qing immediately ordered, "Monitor from above. You must ensure the greedy little bear's safety. Use howitzers if necessary."

"Copy that!"

There was no time to put away the vegetables and eggs. Xia Qing grabbed the most valuable jar of honey, stuffed it into her backpack, and sprinted after Xiong Wang at full speed.

"Holy crap!"

Seeing Xiong Wang's speed, Jingkuan and Dajiang on the helicopter were both stunned. "Brother Kuan, this giant bear is faster than our boss!"

"Obviously. This is a speed-evolved giant bear—it covers over twenty meters in a single bound! I'd bet even the Queen's speed isn't as fast as this."

"Don't you ever say that in front of the broken-waist wolf."

Jingkuan...