Chapter 1735: The Qiāng Snake Ends Hibernation

Xia Qing entered the mountain-crack passage leading to Wild Boar Valley. Before she reached the stone she'd placed near the entrance to the Wild Boar Cave, she heard the sound of that stone being moved.

Rounding a bend, Xia Qing saw the giant tiger—clearly in much better shape than when it had first moved into Mountain Fifty—had already pushed the stone aside and walked over. It stood with its head lowered in the passage, glaring at her with two eyes like giant lightbulbs.

How did Xia Qing know the tiger's condition had improved so much? Of course, because its low breathing had grown strong and powerful!

Xia Qing hurried over, lowered her voice, and asked, "Brother Pian, I heard your roar and came right away. What's the situation over here?"

Then, one person and one tiger fell silent. Two breaths—one shallow, one heavy—echoed inside the mountain-crack passage. This was an evolved tiger that lived deep in the Evolution Forest and had barely interacted with humans; it couldn't understand human language.

Just as Xia Qing was about to call up an evolved wolf to translate between her and Tiger Pian, the tiger began backing away.

Seeing Tiger Pian retreat, Xia Qing's instinctive reaction was that the beast was putting distance between them to prepare an attack. Every muscle in her body tensed instantly, and her right hand rose on reflex to reach for the gun at her waist.

But Xia Qing suppressed her instinct. Step by step, she followed Tiger Pian forward, asking as gently as she could, "Brother Pian, did you find something abnormal in your sickbed territory?"

When Tiger Pian moved into Mountain Fifty to detox, the old wolf that paid for its treatment signed an agreement with the Broken-Waist Wolf, the beast lord of this mountain region, and also signed an agreement with Xia Qing.

In the agreement, Xia Qing listed twenty-six conditions for residency, three of which concerned how Tiger Pian should handle any abnormalities it discovered here.

Although they didn't share a language, Xia Qing had no doubt about this tiger's level of brain evolution. It had roared through the mountains to call her over—most likely because it had found something abnormal.

As for what the abnormality was, she'd have to go look to find out.

The mountain crack was narrow and low. Unable to turn around, Tiger Pian backed all the way into its cave, then turned and flicked its tail, signaling Xia Qing to follow.

"Brother Pian, hold on a second."

A little farther ahead and she'd leave Tiger Pian's cave, entering the surveillance cameras' coverage area. A human suddenly appearing inside the wire-mesh enclosure that housed an evolved tiger was extremely out of the ordinary. Xia Qing had to make some arrangements before going out.

She first messaged Zhang He to have her pull the guards watching over Tiger Pian, then had Daya replace the surveillance footage inside the wire-mesh enclosure with footage from the same time period yesterday, and finally contacted Xin Yu, asking her to direct Guagua to provide cover for her.

Once the guards had been reduced to only two trusted special-forces soldiers, and Daya had swapped out the surveillance footage, two brain-evolved ravens took off from the Fourth Peak of Mountain Fifty.

The confined, healing evolved tiger had stopped roaring. The two special-forces soldiers on guard duty in the bunker on the slope outside the wire-mesh enclosure had just breathed a sigh of relief when they saw two pitch-black ravens fly over, circling above the tiger's enclosure and cawing loudly. One of the ravens wore a shiny leg band.

This raven, along with the tabby cat from Territory Seven and the hot-tempered sheep from Territory Three, were the three most famous tame beasts in the Northern Zone One territories.

Most people hadn't seen the sheep from Territory Three, but everyone remembered the raven and the tabby cat perfectly.

Because the lords of Territories Seven and Eight had posted their photos and videos in the Northern Zone One Territory Alliance work group, along with a solemn declaration: anyone who harmed these two tame beasts would be making an enemy of Territories Seven and Eight; if these two tame beasts damaged any territory's supplies, their owners would pay triple compensation.

How had the tame raven from Territory Eight ended up at Mountain Fifty? Why was it issuing warning calls? Could there be tame birds sent by some other faction in the sky?

"Go!"

Seeing that the two guards' attention had been drawn by Guagua, Xin Yu gave the order to move.

Xia Qing received the order, sprinted out of Tiger Pian's cave at top speed, plunged into the dense, muddy Evolution Forest, and followed Tiger Pian for a stretch until they reached their destination. The moment she arrived, Xia Qing immediately understood why Tiger Pian had called her.

Ice and snow were melting fast, temperatures inside the Evolution Forest were climbing rapidly, and hibernating animals were waking and leaving the dens where they'd hidden for over three months, going out to look for food. Small, medium, and large predators were right behind them, kicking off the first great battle for survival of Year Twelve of the Calamity's spring.

Inside Tiger Pian's sickbed territory, there were actually one red and one green—more accurately, four segments of—Qiāng Snakes.

One of the residency clauses Old Four signed with Xia Qing when Tiger Pian moved into Mountain Fifty was that any Qiāng Snakes discovered should be killed if possible and reported immediately.

Qiāng Snakes are evolved animals carrying the deadly synthetic Qiāng toxin. If a Qiāng Snake is found within five li of a human settlement or its surroundings, a disaster-elimination procedure of a higher level than that for advanced evolved nematodes must be activated at once.

Tiger Pian's living area was more than five li from the human settlement, so finding Qiāng Snakes there didn't require activating the disaster-elimination procedure—but they still needed to be cleaned up as soon as possible.

Xia Qing immediately put on rubber gloves, took out a beast-hide bag, and collected the snake segments, the evolved centipede that had been gnawing on them, and the dead leaves and soil stained with snake blood all together.

This evolved centipede, over a meter long, was clearly the lord of this damp area—no other insect dared come compete with it for food, which made it convenient for Xia Qing to clean up the Qiāng Snake contamination zone.

After collecting the Qiāng Snakes and conducting an environmental toxin monitoring check, confirming the surrounding area wasn't contaminated, Xia Qing ran over to Tiger Pian, who was lying on a rock grooming itself, dug out two of the largest Green Lantern eggs and three spinach leaves, and put them into a folding plastic bowl.

"Brother Pian really is a brain-evolved one—dangerous Qiāng Snakes caught and killed by you in one go. These two delicious Green Lantern eggs are a reward for the smart and responsible Brother Pian…"

After Tiger Pian ate the food she'd prepared in two bites and drank a whole basin of water, Xia Qing pointed at the beast-hide bag holding the Qiāng Snake segments, then pointed at Tiger Pian's paws, gesturing as she asked, "Which of Brother Pian's awesome big paws did you use to snap these two snakes? This one, this one, this one, or this one?"

The evolved tiger that had snapped two Qiāng Snakes in two and been poisoned with Qiāng-18 toxin lay lazily on the rock, letting Xia Qing gesture and point around it.

After gesturing several times and realizing the fellow didn't understand what she meant, Xia Qing simply reached out and started examining its big paws and lower legs.

After confirming none of Tiger Pian's four legs had been bitten by the Qiāng Snakes, Xia Qing gave it a few earnest instructions. "Brother Pian, rest up and heal well. The ice and snow are melting; at the latest, the day after tomorrow I'll start arranging medicinal baths for your detox treatment. I'm leaving now—the territory is still in the disaster-elimination period, and I have to get back to protect the farmland."

Under cover from Xin Yu and Guagua, Xia Qing returned to the Wild Boar Cave, passed through the mountain-crack passage, collected some soil samples, then went back to the Third Peak to add some fuel, and finally rode a single-person flyer back to the Northern Zone One territory.

The moment she landed, Xia Qing heard her idol's voice coming from the loudspeaker: "Tan Junjie, send people to Territory Seven to pick up the pesticide for killing and suppressing advanced Evolved Nematodes, and deliver them to all the territories as fast as possible to be diluted and sprayed."

What does it mean to stand at the very top of the universe's pyramid? This is exactly it!!!