Chapter 1683: The Awakened Giant Python and Yiyi

"Thud!"

Beneath the granite rock face, a boulder weighing over ten tons was pried up and flipped by three strength evolvers working together, producing a muffled sound. The sampling team's disaster-control personnel immediately stepped forward to collect samples of the evolved tiger's fur from the crevice beneath the stone.

Several helicopters circled overhead, while disaster-control team members on the ground swept their searchlights across the area, collecting all manner of samples. Raptors drawn in by the lights shrieked in the air; some, with excessively high levels of qiang elements in their bodies, lost their senses and charged at the helicopters, only to be shot down by snipers on the ground and in the air.

In such a noisy environment, the sound of flipping a boulder weighing over ten tons would hardly draw anyone's attention.

But that sound and the tremor it set off caught the attention of the giant python deep in a warm cave more than a hundred meters below, and its magnetic-field fluctuations grew more pronounced.

"Captain, there's a hole here!"

The sampling team member's voice traveled into the winding cave, already too faint to make out what she was saying, but upon hearing the sound come in, both Zhang Shi and Black-Tail Wolf's magnetic fields began to fluctuate involuntarily, while little Ye Yiyi, who was asleep, showed no change in hers.

The Blue Dragon Fourth Squad, responsible for security in this area, stepped forward to cover the sampling team's retreat. Cao Ling, the squad's scent evolver, went ahead to investigate. "Captain, this is a snake den. Judging by the size of the opening, it should be a python."

Blue Dragon Fourth Squad captain Sun Zhaoxiu gave the order: "Daqi, hold the cave entrance. Finish the sampling as quickly as possible, then seal it with the boulder."

"Yes, sir!"

With so many of them around, of course they weren't afraid of a single python. But one of the regulations for disaster control in Evolution Forest was to disturb the local ecosystem as little as possible, so if they could avoid rousing the hibernating giant python underground, they would.

Under the Blue Dragon Fourth Squad's protection, the sampling team immediately moved forward, quickly collecting the tiger fur and droppings below into sample bags.

Daqi said in a low voice, "Captain, that boulder is too heavy. Those three strength evolvers can't pry it back."

The boulder wasn't round, so prying it back after flipping it would require even greater force. Sun Zhaoxiu nodded. "I'll give you a hand in a bit. You handle the lookout."

"Copy that."

"Thud!"

Hearing that familiar sound, Xia Qing, who was resting inside the cave, leaned out and looked down, seeing Sun Zhaoxiu withdrawing her crowbar and tucking it neatly into her pack.

Sun Zhaoxiu, a Level-5 burst-power evolver, had originally served at the Gui-3 Base. After Gui-3 Base was swallowed by seawater, she was ordered to escort a group of refugees through Evolution Forest to Gui-5 Base. She then retired from the military and joined a Gui-5 combat team. Last October, after a fierce clash with her former team captain, she left the team and, introduced by Yan Long, came to Hui-3 and joined the Blue Dragon combat team.

In last December's Blue Dragon combat team internal competition, the Blue Dragon Fifth Squad she led defeated the Blue Dragon Fourth Squad led by Tang Zhou, so the two squads swapped rankings, and Sun Zhaoxiu became captain of the Blue Dragon Fourth Squad.

Xia Qing withdrew her gaze and silently muttered to herself: I want burst-power evolution, I want burst-power evolution…

Inside the python's den, Xia Qing's employee No. 004, Zhang Shi, was also silently muttering: It's fine, go back to sleep, go back to sleep…

Xia Qing's prayer still needed time to be answered, but Zhang Shi's prayer was granted. The giant python's magnetic-field fluctuations in the den weakened, and it slowly returned to hibernation. Zhang Shi, who had been gripping an anesthetic, let out a sigh of relief. That stuff was expensive—every dose saved counted.

At two in the morning, Zhang He confirmed through testing that the substance in evolved tiger 31-1 was a high-specificity gene-targeted trigger toxin, and that this toxin posed no threat to evolved tiger 31-2, which had just taken over this territory.

Disaster-control commander Zhang San convened a video meeting with the survey experts from Territory No. 7 and several domestic experts in the field, then ordered disaster-control personnel to collect as much of 31-1's droppings, shed fur, and claws within the sealed-off zone as possible.

Although the residual Qiang-18 toxin in these droppings and fur did not pose a direct toxic hazard to other organisms lacking that specific gene.

The Qiang-18 toxin in the droppings and fur would be broken down by nature into qiang elements and the heavy metal thallium. Once thallium entered the soil or water, it would be absorbed by plants, algae, or soil microorganisms.

Insects and small herbivorous rodents that fed on these thallium-containing plants would accumulate thallium in their bodies, which would then be passed on to their predators, such as birds and small mammals, and ultimately thallium would bioaccumulate up the food chain, growing ever more concentrated and endangering the entire ecosystem.

In other words, the longer 31-2 lived here, the more thallium poison would accumulate in its body, and it would eventually develop symptoms of thallium poisoning.

Hearing that the disaster-control mission had changed from sampling and searching for the toxin source to a full, thorough cleanup of 31-1's droppings and shed fur, the Blue Dragon Fourth Squad members looked once more at the boulder they had pried back into place.

Beneath that boulder, there was still some tiger droppings and fur…

If anyone else had been serving as disaster-control commander, the group would surely have grumbled a bit, but with the big shot in command, they said nothing and immediately began carrying out the order.

Sun Zhaoxiu ordered, "Get two samplers over here."

"Thud!"

The boulder was pried open again, and the sampling team members swiftly cleaned up the droppings and fur beneath it, even scraping the soil and stone walls around the python cave entrance with collection tools.

Then the Blue Dragon Fourth Squad set the boulder back in place with another "thud."

Under the repeated stimulation of the sounds coming from above, the giant python's magnetic field turned into a roaring river—it was fully awake!

The awakened giant python's first sensation was—hunger. It flicked its forked tongue a few times to sense its surroundings, pointed its huge head toward where the two humans and one wolf were hiding, and began slithering upward.

Black-Tail Wolf's fur bristled all over its body. It clamped its jaws on little Ye Yiyi's protective suit and signaled Zhang Shi to flee with it, but Zhang Shi quickly pulled open the tent and tossed out the air anesthetic. Ye Yiyi, now awake, opened her eyes, and her breathing involuntarily quickened again as her body began to stiffen.

One second, two seconds, three seconds…

The boiling magnetic field drew close, then rapidly weakened. Just as Zhang Shi wrapped her arms around little Ye Yiyi and caught the fainting Black-Tail Wolf, the sound of the giant python sliding down came from the stone cave below—the scraping of the python's scales against stone was especially jarring in the dark, quiet cave.

Zhang Shi, who wasn't strong enough, was pinned down by Ye Yiyi and Black-Tail Wolf. Just as she was gathering her strength, trying to shift Black-Tail Wolf off her and soothe Yiyi's chaotic magnetic field, she felt Yiyi's magnetic field gradually returning to normal.

So Zhang Shi decided to take no action and simply lay still on the ground.

Inside the tent it was dim. Little Ye Yiyi, lying across Zhang Shi's body with Black-Tail Wolf's head pressing on her back, couldn't see a thing. But she forced her eyes open wide, forced herself to breathe in through her nose and mouth, breathe out, breathe in again, breathe out again…

Five minutes felt extraordinarily long.

Having regained control of her body, Yiyi struggled to wriggle free of Black-Tail Wolf's weight, then fumbled to turn on the lamp. Zhang Shi, fighting back the urge to cry, closed her eyes and waited quietly.

Little Ye Yiyi first felt for the black wolf's head beside her, confirmed it was still breathing, then crawled toward her aunt, wanting to remove her protective mask to check on her.

Only then did Zhang Shi slowly open her reddened eyes, look at Yiyi, and ask softly, "Auntie's fine. Black-Tail Wolf got hit by the anesthetic and passed out, and landed on Auntie. Can Yiyi help me move Black-Tail off together?"

Seeing that her aunt was still alive, light shone in Yiyi's frightened eyes. She nodded stiffly and helped shift Black-Tail Wolf, which weighed close to two hundred jin.

After dragging Black-Tail Wolf's body aside, Zhang Shi sat up, smiled with relief, and thanked Yiyi softly, "Yiyi's so strong, Yiyi's amazing. With Yiyi's help, Auntie can sit up now."

Lying on her stomach, little Ye Yiyi trembled as huge teardrops fell one after another from her eyes, splashing onto her protective face shield.