Chapter 1725: The Three Monkeys and the Dung Ball in the Backpack

Seeing Xia Qing return safely, the team members on the helicopter all breathed a sigh of relief.

Not long after the high-grade speed-evolved giant bear charged into the hot spring lake basin, it let out a roar that shook the mountains and forests, sending birds fleeing in fright and baboons scrambling in panic. If Liangzi hadn't confirmed through the monitoring equipment that Xia Qing was still safely perched in her tree, and Xia Qing herself hadn't ordered them over the walkie-talkie to stay put, Wang Man would have jumped down long ago.

Then, Zhang Song saw Xiong Wang staying under the tree while Xia Qing and the three little monkeys scrambled about in the branches, and he got so excited he started yelping. Because apart from Xia Qing, those four animals were all brain-domain evolvers…

Now that Xia Qing had returned to the helicopter alone, they were still a bit unable to come back to their senses.

Seeing Xin Yu used magnetic sense to detect three violently fluctuating animal magnetic fields inside Xia Qing's large backpack. Since Xia Qing didn't mention them, she didn't want anyone else to know—especially Zhang Song.

"Captain Hu, head to the mountain flower-pepper tree area of Mountain Eighty-Six."

After giving the order, Xia Qing walked steadily to Seeing Xin Yu's side, set her backpack down beside her, sat down and first removed her gloves to disinfect, then took off her protective mask, and pulled out a small bag of golden loquats from her backpack for everyone to share. "A green-light loquat tree in the basin ripened its fruit, and the baboon troop stole the fruit and angered Xiong Wang, which is why it roared. Everyone have a taste—I don't expect it'll be very sweet."

The fruit's sugar content depends on photosynthesis, and the basin is shrouded in fog, leaving the plants inside short on sunlight—which is why Xia Qing said the fruit wouldn't be very sweet.

Sweet or not, being able to gather green-light fruit in the evolution forest during a year of natural disaster was a great blessing. Seeing Xin Yu washed the fruit for everyone. "Let's save the seeds—maybe we can grow green-light loquat trees."

After washing them, Seeing Xin Yu let Xia Qing pick first.

Xia Qing took one that looked the tastiest, stuffed it into Guagua's little house, then took another and took a bite—so sour she winced. "Better eat it after processing—sour and astringent."

Seeing Xin Yu took the chance of passing fruit to Zhang Song to shift over slightly, using her body to block Xia Qing's backpack from Zhang Song's line of sight.

"Thanks, Sister Xin." Zhang Song's attention wasn't on the backpack at all. After taking a fruit, he gazed at Xia Qing with eager eyes.

Through the helicopter's monitoring equipment, Zhang Song had seen Xia Qing spending a long time with the three monkeys, and he was dying to know what she'd chatted with them about.

Xia Qing answered briefly, "Does Daigua and Does Ergua are both doing fine. I took their collars off."

Xia Qing handed the collars over, without mentioning that all three monkeys were in her backpack.

After confirming that the blue-faced little monkey knew which monkey had poisoned Pian Hu, Xia Qing worried that people from the Blue Blood Alliance would go to the hot spring lake basin to kill the monkeys and silence them, so she persuaded the blue-faced little monkey to return to her territory to lie low.

Xia Qing didn't say anything not because she suspected Zhang Song, but because she'd promised the blue-faced little monkey not to tell any humans about it going to her territory to avoid trouble.

Say it, and you must do it. To evade the helicopter's monitoring, Xia Qing had loaded the monkeys into her backpack in an area the monitoring system couldn't see. The three little ones were now quietly squeezed together in the insulated bag inside the backpack.

Seeing that Xia Qing didn't want to say more about what happened in the basin, Zhang Song tactfully shut up and lowered his head to peel fruit.

After the helicopter landed at the border between Mountain Eighty-Six and Mountain Eighty-Seven, Hu Zi Feng and Liangzi stayed to guard the helicopter while the others hurried to the large flower-pepper tree area to collect samples.

Xia Qing walked at the front with her large backpack on her back, Watching Huo Zhun carried Zhang Song in the middle, and Dead Man Jie protected Seeing Xin Yu at the rear. The five of them collected samples as they traveled, while also dodging large raptors that occasionally glided overhead with spread wings. It took them nearly two hours to reach the vicinity of the large flower-pepper tree.

The underground chamber the Blaze Squad had built here had been completely cleared out and filled in. Whether it was because the people who filled the pit lacked professional skill or just didn't work carefully, the filling was done sloppily, leaving plenty of small holes. When Xia Qing led the team over to inspect, she found these hollows had already been taken over by wild boars and wild rabbits.

Animals occupying the holes wasn't a big deal—the trouble was that the area emitting the Yi-element magnetic field had, by a nasty coincidence, been used by these people as a spot to dig soil for filling the pit.

The Yi-element magnetic field had already vanished. Over a hundred murderous ravens were perched on the large flower-pepper tree ahead, and raptors circled overhead—there was no need to push forward.

Xia Qing decisively ordered them to collect samples on the spot.

After setting Zhang Song down, Watching Huo Zhun grinned. "Sister Qing, let's catch a couple of rabbits to take back? If we happen to snag a green-light one, we'll send it over to Third Brother."

"Don't use guns—be careful not to be spotted by the raptors." Green-light wild rabbits weren't easy to find. Xia Qing wanted to use the chance of catching rabbits to search the filled-in burrows, hoping to find the creature that had been emitting the Yi-element magnetic field.

"Got it!" The elastic evolver Watching Huo Zhun first broke off from the group to catch rabbits, Dead Man Jie stood guard, and Xia Qing's three-person team took samples.

Twenty minutes later, Watching Huo Zhun still hadn't caught a rabbit, but Xia Qing sensed a faint Yi-element magnetic field inside one of the rabbit holes.

She walked over without changing expression. "Dead Man Jie, protect Song Ge and Seeing Xin Yu. Brother Huo, block that side. I'll poke at this hole. If we get nothing, we pack up—it's getting late."

"Got it." Watching Huo Zhun responded and stood by the hole waiting for rabbits. Rabbit holes usually have several exits—poking around might turn up something.

Xia Qing took an iron rod from her backpack, poked it into the hole emitting the Yi-element magnetic field and stirred it around. Finding no fluctuation in the field, she began probing in all directions with the rod.

A wild rabbit bolted out of the hole in fright, and just as Watching Huo Zhun—who was standing by waiting—pressed it down with one hand, Xia Qing also used her rod to fish out the source of the Yi-element magnetic field.

Xia Qing switched on her low-light night-vision goggles, rummaged around a couple of times, and discovered that what was emitting the Yi-element magnetic field was… a dung ball…

She collected the dung ball as a sample and asked Watching Huo Zhun, "How'd it go?"

Watching Huo Zhun reported, "Qiang-element content 18‰, and it's a pregnant female rabbit, under three jin. Sister Qing, should we let her go?"

Per base regulations, when a hunting team captures pregnant prey in the evolution forest, they should try to take it alive; if they can't capture it alive, they should give up the hunt.

Xia Qing nodded. "Stuff her back in her burrow. We're packing up."

Setting out at ten in the morning, the mission squad that had patrolled the evolution forest from south to north overhead returned to Northern Zone One at half past five in the afternoon.

After Xia Qing shared some fruit with her team members, Seeing Xin Yu drove Watching Huo Zhun and Dead Man Jie back to Territories Eight and Eleven. Xia Qing drove the off-road vehicle parked at the entrance to Mountain Forty-Nine, first delivering Zhang Song and the collected samples to Territory Seven, before returning to her own territory.

Chen Cheng, bruised and swollen-faced, reported the situation in the territory to Xia Qing. "Sister Qing, a little past three this afternoon, Wolf Lao Er left the territory with the Broken-Waist Wolf and hasn't come back yet."

"I saw that." The Broken-Waist Wolf and Wolf Lao Er left the territory through the north gate—Xia Qing's phone had received a notification from the access-control system.

When the Broken-Waist Wolf broke its appointment this morning, looking dead serious while stationed at Mountain Fifty-Five, Xia Qing had a premonition that the alpha wolf might be giving birth. When she got the phone notification, she confirmed it.

Last year, Wolf Lao Er had returned to the wolf pack after the alpha wolf gave birth, and didn't come back to Territory Three until after the second Qiang rain. The alpha wolf is giving birth a month earlier this year than last—will Wolf Lao Er return to Territory Three a month earlier?

Xia Qing felt that wasn't very likely.