Chapter 1689: Breaking the Ice

At 6:20 a. m., the special training ground beneath the Third Peak of Mountain Forty-Nine.

After being taken down by Yanlong, Xia Qing caught her breath under the big pine tree, opened her backpack, took out the card reader, and transferred 300 credits to the Broken-Waist Wolf to settle last night's Wolf-DiDi fare. Just as she was about to get down to business with it, she heard a clear tiger's roar.

The tiger's roar was simply too震慑, and even though she knew it was a familiar tiger "confined" here making the sound, Xia Qing's heart involuntarily clenched tight. The little birds chirping in the tree were also scared into scattering in all directions.

The tabby cat inside the Northern District One, Territory One team members' dormitory heard the tiger's roar and immediately jumped onto the windowsill to look outside.

In the sheep shed of Territory Three, Sheep Boss and Little Yellow Ox pressed close together. The plucking-yellow weasel in the haystack shielded Little Bai Mao above it, standing ready for battle. Lao Er, who had been catching bugs, dropped its basket and sprinted home at full speed to protect its companions.

Inside Territory Four, the Zhao mother and son guarding the rabbit hutch trembled to their very core at the sound. After receiving the notice from Zhang San that an evolved tiger was coming to Mountain Fifty for treatment, Zhao Ze immediately began modifying the rabbit hutch and adding soundproofing measures. Even with all his preparations, from last night until now, two rabbits raised in Territory Four had still been scared to death by the tiger's roar, and the mother and son were so heartbroken they couldn't sleep all night.

In the Territory Five greenhouse, Qi Fu discussed with his wife, "Today you stay in the territory again to cut the chives, and I'll go to the valley?"

Inside Territory Six, Kuang Qingwei and Zhu Li discussed proposing to convene a territory alliance meeting to deal with the threat this evolved tiger posed to the Northern District One territories.

On the big tree in the northern buffer forest of Territory Seven, the tabby cat that had been guarding the territory all night had its fur standing on end again. The two evolved Border Collies in the expert dormitory burrowed into Wu Chengyu's bed at the same time. Inside the excellently soundproofed laboratory, Zhang San in a white coat was using an optical microscope to observe the chemical reaction between the trial agent and the Qiang-18 toxin.

By the kitchen stove in Territory Ten, Mother Shi, who was adding firewood, kept muttering, "Divine Wolf protect us."

The few veterans in Territory Eleven listened, their blood boiling with excitement.

Inside Territory Twelve, Tang Huai, lying in bed, heard how imposing the evolved tiger sounded and felt certain it would pull through this hurdle and survive.

Tan Qi in Territory Fifteen rushed into the greenhouse to check on her precious chickens.

In the insect-raising greenhouse of Territory Seventeen, Wen Nengjie kicked the two brothers who were huddled together complaining, cursing as he went, "Shut your mouths for me! If Third Brother and Sister Qing dare bring back an evolved tiger, they have a way to control it. No matter how fierce a tiger is, can it flay human skin, eat human flesh, rob people's supplies, or seize their territory? If you say one more word of nonsense and get me kicked out of the territory alliance, I'll flay the skin off you both!"

The lords of Territories Nineteen through Twenty-Six in Northern District One grew even more uneasy. They took out their phones, opened the territory alliance group chat Tang Huai had set up, and carefully inquired how long the big shot from Territory Seven planned to let this continuously roaring evolved beast stay at the edge of the territory…

Beneath the Third Peak of Mountain Forty-Nine, the Broken-Waist Wolf crouching beside Xia Qing bared its fangs and growled softly, then bounded toward Mountain Fifty-Two. Handsome Giant Wolf, who was battling Yanlong, and the four sub-adult wolves of the Northern Wolf Pack followed close behind. Discovering Xia Qing hadn't followed, Little Wolf Sister stopped, turned her head, and roared at her.

Xia Qing resignedly got up and limped after them. "Fourth, go to Mountain Fifty and tell Pian Hu to keep its voice down. The animals in the territory are almost scared to death by it!"

Yanlong asked, "What are you and the wolf pack going to do?"

Xia Qing explained, "The evolved tiger roaring inside the wolf pack's territory is a provocation to the pack. We need to howl back, to let the evolved tiger know whose territory this is."

Yanlong immediately grew interested. "You're too slow. I'll carry you over."

"Sister Yan, you're not a member of the Northern Wolf Pack. If you go to Mountain Fifty-Two now, the pack will see it as a provocation. I'll go on my own. Fourth, Pian Hu keeps roaring endlessly like this, and every animal in Northern District One is going to be scared to death by it! What did you say to Pian Hu last night? If you can't control it, I'll throw it back to Mountain Thirty-One tomorrow!" The Northern Wolf Pack's Number Four combatant, afraid of a beating, limped along at top speed.

But this "fast" was only relative.

Xia Qing, who had taken a phone call halfway, had just passed through the red-leaf bamboo forest between Mountain Forty-Nine and Mountain Fifty when the Northern Wolf Pack's war wolves had already reached the mountaintop and let out angry howls. From within the Northern Wolf Pack's territory came the sound of wolves howling one after another.

By the time Xia Qing had climbed up the mountain, the Northern Wolf Pack members, having finished their territory-declaration, were all staring at her in unison. Xia Qing, not caring at all, set her backpack and sniper rifle aside and lay on the rock, panting hard.

A faint, familiar crunch of snow on snow came. Xia Qing turned her head and saw a familiar little head peeking out from behind a rock.

"L-Little Bai Mao, you've moved to Mountain Fifty-T-Two?" The dirty but already round-bellied Little Little Bai Mao hesitated for a moment before picking up a small bamboo rat in its mouth, walking over, and placing it beside Xia Qing, looking at her with a pair of shiny black eyes.

"Trading for eggs? Sure." Xia Qing sat up, dug out a small egg from her backpack, and placed it in front of Little Little Bai Mao. "It's spring. I need to save up big eggs to hatch chicks, so these few days I can only trade you small eggs."

Last winter when she moved in, Xia Qing had raised 44 Green-Light chickens in the greenhouse. Now there were 22 left: 2 roosters and 20 hens.

Twenty egg-laying Green-Light hens sounded like a lot, but even keeping chickens in the greenhouse during winter, the egg production rate wasn't as high as in summer.

The eggs these chickens laid weren't only loved by Xia Qing and the wolf-dog Lao Er; the animals in the Evolution Forest and Xia Qing's Employee No. 004 and his family all loved them too. Supply was about to fall short of demand.

So Xia Qing planned to hatch more chicks this spring. Originally, she'd planned to let the hens in the territory brood on their own. But with the wolf pack and Pian Hu making such a ruckus, the hens probably wouldn't be in the mood. Xia Qing could only change her plan and send the eggs to Territory Seven to use the incubator to hatch chicks.

Little Little Bai Mao didn't mind the small eggs. Skillfully using its teeth, it cracked open the eggshell and began eating.

Seeing Little Little Bai Mao getting eggs to eat, the four sub-adult wolves were about to sidle up to Xia Qing when the stingy Broken-Waist Wolf growled them to a halt.

Xia Qing didn't spoil the kids either. She took out a picture book from her backpack and sternly reminded each one in turn, "You've all grown up now. If you want to eat delicious Green-Light chicken eggs, you have to catch adult Green-Light prey yourselves and trade with me. Little Wolf Bro can only use adult springbok, Little Wolf Sister and Little Four-Eyes can only use adult crocodiles, and Black Three can only use adult wild boar."

Understanding the trade requirements, the four little ones all wilted. Because the prey Xia Qing wanted were all things they couldn't catch alone with their current combat power.

"Aoooo—"

Pian Hu on Mountain Fifty had been quiet for over ten minutes and roared again.

The wilted little ones immediately perked up, each one howling louder than the last. Xia Qing also took off her protective mask and started cursing.

Damn it, some tiger promised brightly at three in the morning today that it would behave and recuperate quietly on Mountain Fifty. And damn it, just three hours later it's gone back on its word and started howling again!

Spit it out!

Spit out the 4 eggs, 2 packs of freeze-dried food, and 20 milliliters of fresh-squeezed spinach juice you ate three hours ago, damn you!

After the argument, Xia Qing returned to the territory, drank a big glass of water, took a shower, sat down beside Sheep Boss, and pressed the walkie-talkie button.

Normally at this time, the lord channel would be bustling, but today everyone spoke carefully, not mentioning the morning's tiger-versus-wolf howling contest at all.

As a fellow lord, Xia Qing could understand everyone's concerns and also knew their reservations.

Pian Hu, this unstable element that posed a potential risk to the entire territory, was something she had brought back. This ice, of course, should be broken by her.