Chapter 1722: Number Three's Suppression of Number Four

Twenty minutes later, the sap and scent leaking from the severed red vines dissipated, the flock scattered, leaving behind a ground littered with feathers and bird corpses.

Another five minutes passed. The exit of the snow-colored mound shelter was pulled open a crack, and a silver-gray giant wolf with disheveled fur quickly squeezed out, stood on the remnant snow covered in bird corpses and feathers, raised its head, and let out an angry howl that startled the birds and small beasts that had been feeding on carrion into flight.

The patrol wolves of the western wolf pack, who had come to check on the commotion, immediately howled in response. The rising and falling sounds traveled to the western wolf pack's core territory, Mountain Forty, where the Western Wolf King swiftly leaped onto the peak and let out a long, majestic roar.

With the magnetic-sense pain-reduction liquid already taking effect, Xin Yu's headache eased and her stamina recovered somewhat. She quietly reminded her friend, "Handsome Giant Wolf is angry."

"Mm." Xia Qing responded, glanced at the faintly glowing red light on the air toxin detector on her arm, quickly collected samples of bird corpses, residual blood, and severed rope from outside the shelter, stuffed them into her backpack, and instructed her friend, "You and Guagua don't go out, and don't take off your protective mask. I'll go scout the situation."

Xin Yu nodded weakly, "No large creatures within a hundred meters. Be careful of Handsome Giant Wolf—it's very angry, and its magnetic field is fluctuating violently."

"Awooo— awoo—"

The moment Xia Qing emerged from the shelter, Handsome Giant Wolf charged over, bared its fangs, and slammed its paws against the gravel, snow, feathers, and bird corpses on the ground, letting out a fierce roar at Xia Qing as if it wanted to tear her apart.

Xia Qing, covered in wolf fur, crouched down, lowered her head, and obediently took the scolding.

Handsome Giant Wolf is the Northern Wolf Pack's third-ranked fighter; she's fourth. When number three gets angry, number four has to listen. Don't accept it? Then fight. If Xia Qing wins and rises in rank, Handsome Giant Wolf will have to listen to her from then on.

Wang Man's inquiry came through the walkie-talkie again, "Captain, do you need assistance?"

How would they assist? Come over and get scolded together, beat up Handsome Giant Wolf, or use a tranquilizer to take it down? Xia Qing calmly replied, "Not needed."

This time Handsome Giant Wolf had sensed the danger of the red vines and come to warn Xia Qing not to proceed. Although it had underestimated her equipment level and combat ability, its intention was to protect her safety, so Xia Qing accepted the sentiment and let it howl and slam the ground as it pleased.

The birds in Bird Valley had all gone silent, standing on trees or rocks watching the giant wolf rage.

Two minutes later, the western wolf pack members stopped howling under the Wolf King's majestic command, standing on the peak or halfway up the mountain watching Handsome Giant Wolf roar at Xia Qing.

Five minutes later, Handsome Giant Wolf stopped roaring, turned around, and entered the Evolution Forest. Xia Qing immediately pulled out sampling tubes to collect more samples, then began dismantling the damaged cameras on the stone wall.

Not until Xin Yu told Xia Qing her stamina had recovered did the two of them pack up the shelter, return to the helicopter cabin, and head for the hot spring lake basin at Mountain Sixty-Seven.

Xia Qing first took out her phone to reply to Broken-Waist Wolf's inquiry. The bird flock attack at Mountain Forty-Five had alarmed the western wolf pack, and the northern wolf pack had also heard the commotion. Broken-Waist Wolf had @'d Xia Qing in the Blue Star Alliance group chat, asking what had happened. Xia Qing had been busy the whole time and hadn't gotten around to replying.

After Xia Qing put away her phone, Zhang Song asked, "Sister Qing, what components are contained in the red sap that sprayed out after the red vines broke?"

Xia Qing hadn't memorized the names, so she opened the air toxin detector and showed it to Zhang Song.

When Zhang Song leaned over to look, the helicopter hit an air current turbulence. Wang Man and Huo Zhun, responsible for the left and right wing defense missions, also instinctively turned to look at Zhang Song. Seeing that he was being steadied by Xia Qing, they turned back and continued their mission.

Zhang Song apologized, lowered his head to look at the chemical formulas on the instrument, "Erythritol, cathinone, Harmful-3, and unknown substances. Good. Did Sister Qing collect sap samples?"

Xia Qing told him to sit steady and fasten his seatbelt before answering, "I collected gas samples and several kinds of red liquid samples. I'm not sure if it's the red vine sap or bird blood. I brought the severed rope back."

Zhang Song immediately nodded, "There must be vine sap that seeped into the severed rope."

Xia Qing asked, "Song Ge, what kind of plant is this red vine?"

Although Zhang Song didn't study evolved plants, his knowledge was the most extensive among the seven people on the helicopter, "The shape of the vine looks very much like evolved dodder. After the vine broke, the birds immediately gathered and frantically pecked at it because they couldn't resist the temptation of the erythritol and cathinone in the vine sap."

Xin Yu joined the discussion, "For birds, erythritol is over a dozen times sweeter than sucrose—it's an irresistible temptation for them. The neuroactive alkaloid cathinone stimulates the birds' brains, making them extremely excited."

"Correct." Zhang Song nodded, "As far as I know, this is an unregistered Harmful evolved plant, with great research value."

Liangzi spoke up, "In the ninth year of the Calamity, a mission team that came to Bird Valley to collect samples was attacked by the bird flock and suffered heavy casualties. They must have accidentally broken this kind of vine and gotten the sap on them."

Xia Qing also felt this possibility was very high. Thinking back now, her last time teaming up with Handsome Giant Wolf to come collect soybeans was truly fraught with danger.

Zhang Shi, who had told Xia Qing there were soybeans in Bird Valley, hadn't mentioned the vines to Xia Qing—not because she was deliberately hiding it, but because she wasn't a Class-B magnetic-sense evolver. When the vines were dormant and motionless, she had no way of knowing this plant was aggressive.

Wang Man spoke up, "If we report this vine, the collection mission should be classified as A-rank. Sister Qing, shall we grab this mission and come back for another trip?"

Collecting samples of aggressive Harmful evolved vines deep in the Evolution Forest, within the evolved wolf pack's territory, in a valley inhabited by tens of thousands of birds—that was indeed an A-rank mission, with a reward of several thousand points.

But for Xia Qing to come collect them, the difficulty wasn't A-rank. She had good relations with the wolf pack, so the mission difficulty was directly cut by two-thirds.

Xia Qing answered cautiously, "Let's send the samples to Territory Seven first. If Third Brother thinks this plant is useful, we won't report it to the Safe Zone yet."

It wasn't that Xia Qing didn't want to earn those points, but because Handsome Giant Wolf was angry and wouldn't agree to bring her back to Bird Valley for a while.

Earning points would have to wait until Handsome Giant Wolf calmed down, or until the Western Wolf King recognized that the scent-isolation agent worked well and came to Xia Qing to trade again.

Huo Zhun asked, "Sister Qing, is Giant Wolf Bro angry because you dragged it into the shelter?"

Xia Qing responded with an acknowledging sound.

Zhang Song gazed at Xia Qing with great envy. Handsome Giant Wolf's anger was only roaring to intimidate Xia Qing, which showed that Handsome Giant Wolf regarded Xia Qing as a companion. To achieve this—his senior sister was truly amazing!

Her headache had eased, but the rapidly fluctuating magnetic fields of Zhang Song, Wang Man, and Liangzi still made Xin Yu uncomfortable. She scooted closer to Xia Qing and lowered her head to groom the wilted Guagua's feathers.

The matchmaking hadn't worked out, and she'd also encountered a bird tide attack at close range—the brain-evolved raven Jasmine was unhappy.

Beard Feng reported, "Sister Qing, five minutes to the hot spring lake basin at Mountain Sixty-Seven."

"Good." Xia Qing responded, unbuckled her seatbelt, went to the rear of the cabin, pulled out the flexible metal color-changing shelter from the large backpack, and began loading food into it.