Chapter 1779: The Captured Barn Owl and the Killed Lynx

Hui-3 northern evolutionary forest, Mountain No. 93 region. The captain of the intruder squad, Zuo Peng, pressed the intercom button, "Squad 5, report your position."

The Squad 5 captain reported, "We have reached Mountain No. 91. A giant evolutionary lynx jumped out to hunt Monkey Nine. We couldn't avoid the conflict and have already eliminated it."

Hunting a beast could very likely trigger a series of chain reactions and be detected by the garrison. Zuo Peng exhorted, "Dispose of the corpse cleanly."

The Squad 5 captain reported, "We have already put the corpse into a packaging bag and buried it."

Bagging and burying wasn't the best way, but without alerting the garrison, it remained the best optional method. Zuo Peng looked up, watching the large raptor flying toward the Mountain No. 91 direction in the high sky above the dense forest.

It was very likely that a scavenger-type raptor had discovered the humans killing the lynx from high altitude. The possibility that they would dig out the corpse to feed after the humans left could not be ruled out.

Zuo Peng ordered, "Have the barn owl head to Mountain No. 87 to scout the garrison's movements."

A tamer from Squad 4 reminded, "Team Leader Zuo, it's currently the raptors' hunting time. Should we send a speed evolver to accompany it?"

The barn owl is only a medium-sized bird and its combat power isn't high. Without the fire cover of humans on the ground, it would be in danger if it encountered a large raptor.

Zuo Peng shook his head, "Human-bird coordinated action is too slow. Squad 5 had a conflict with a beast. Spray the barn owl with potion, have it fly at low-to-medium altitude, and just confirm whether the garrison is shifting troops eastward. Don't get too close."

"Understood." The tamer called for the barn owl above to descend, fed it some food it liked, sprayed it with a potion that could repel poisonous snakes and insects, and released it.

After releasing the tamed bird, the tamer used the miniature command collar worn on its neck to direct it to fly toward Mountain No. 87, while the team member next to him observed whether there was human activity on the ground through the infrared camera worn on the tamed bird.

Mountain No. 87, sniper position No. 1, Xu Yuan's voice sounded in Xia Qing's intercom headset, "Sister Qing, the barn owl is heading toward us, with no ground personnel following."

"Understood, notify the raven Moli immediately." Xia Qing contacted her raven companion, who had already converged with the raven Bai Yan, through the intercom, "Gua Gua, the barn owl is heading toward us. It's carrying positioning equipment on its back, making it easy to confirm the target. It's up to you and Bai Yan."

"Caw."

Mountain No. 86 region, the raven Moli on the green-light prickly ash tree responded, pecked open the foot-ring communicator with its sharp beak, hid it in the dense branches and leaves of the large prickly ash tree, and then spread its wings and flew toward the northeast.

The brain-domain evolution raven Moli, which doesn't wear a positioning foot-ring, miniature video equipment, or communication equipment, except for its feathers being brighter, is no different from the ravens in the raptor territory.

After Moli took off, the raven Bai Yan called out, took its little brothers and took off to follow, with a golden eagle following closely behind.

In the evolutionary forest, golden eagles and ravens have a mutualistic symbiotic relationship: the medium-sized raven flock acts as the eyes for the large raptor, searching for food; the large raptor acts as a bodyguard for the raven flock after feeding, letting the ravens eat the food it left behind, preventing the food from being snatched by other large beasts or raptors.

Therefore, a flock of ravens flying in the same direction with a golden eagle is a common sight in the evolutionary forest, indicating that the ravens have discovered prey and are leading the golden eagle to the prey's location.

Zuo Peng, staring at the monitoring screen, frowned, suspecting that the lynx's corpse had been exposed.

The monitoring screen shook rapidly, and when it stopped again, only a patch of pine needles remained in the picture, because the tamed barn owl had hidden in the dense forest.

The barn owl, which is good at nocturnal activities and hunting, met the giant golden eagle in the sky above the evolutionary forest in the morning. The barn owl had a slim chance of survival, while the golden eagle could end its hunting activity early, grab the barn owl, and return to its nest to feed.

When Zuo Peng contacted Squad 5 to confirm the situation, the tamer next to him let out an "Ah," which gave him a fright. He immediately turned his head to look at the monitoring screen and discovered that the screen was full of garbled code. Zuo Peng immediately asked, "What's the situation?"

The tamer couldn't care about reporting the situation and urgently directed the barn owl to retreat, "No. 3, find thorns to hide, wait for rescue. No. 3, immediately find thorns to hide, wait for rescue!"

No. 3 is the serial number of this tamed barn owl.

"Caw—"

"Caw—"

Within the Mountain No. 88 region, the tamed barn owl in the pine forest had no way to find a hiding place. When it dodged backward to avoid the claws of the evolutionary raven in front, it was ambushed from behind by another raven. Under the pincer attack of the two ravens, the barn owl had to spread its wings in a panic to dodge.

During the struggle, the binding strap fixing the equipment on the barn owl was torn off, and the equipment, which combined communication, positioning, and video functions, hung on a pine branch, with the lens aimed exactly at the sky.

When the monitoring screen stopped shaking and a few bird feathers fell, the tamer watched helplessly as the barn owl he had raised from a chick was grabbed by the golden eagle's sharp claws and disappeared into the high sky.

Zuo Peng frowned and asked, "Is that golden eagle a tamed bird?"

The tamer looked angry and shook his head very definitely, "No, there is no positioning or communication equipment on the raven and the golden eagle."

Other team members cursed the tamed bird for being useless and reminded, "Team Leader Zuo, have Squad 5 send Monkey Nine over?"

Sneaking into the evolutionary forest of another base and losing the tamed bird means you can't release a drone. Relying only on humans' own reconnaissance ability, the maximum reconnaissance range is only a hundred meters around, making it impossible to discover beasts and raptors in the air in time, and the risk of exposure and being attacked increases significantly.

Bringing the macaque over and having it jump through the snow pines to move forward can not only act as a sentry but also attract the attention of beasts, increasing the safety coefficient of the human team members.

Zuo Peng wanted to as well. At the beginning, he considered having the well-coordinated Myna and Monkey Nine take this route, but Monkey Nine refused. Now that the barn owl had been killed by the giant eagle, it was even more impossible for Monkey Nine to come over. Zuo Peng could only change his plan, "We retreat along the original path, first reunite with Squad 5, and act jointly."

Joint action would lead to an extension of the mission period, but the safety coefficient would be higher. Between wasting time and life safety, it wasn't hard to make a choice.

"Captain, Sister Qing, after losing the barn owl, the two intruder squads are retreating. It looks like they are going to merge into one squad and act jointly." Xu Yuan reported in the intercom channel, his tone filled with excitement.

"Received." Xia Qing responded after Wei Wei Xianyi.

The second platoon leader, Zhang Dong, also couldn't help but come online, "It's a pity we have few people, otherwise after destroying the barn owl, we could have destroyed this squad."

Wei Wei Xianyi came online, "Destroying them is a matter of time. Reconnaissance personnel continue to scout, other personnel continue to lie in ambush, must be extremely careful, don't get exposed. Otherwise, we will turn from hunters into the prey of the intruders and the beasts."

"Understood."

"Received."

Two hours later, the intruder squads merged into one, crossed Mountain No. 89, and advanced southward. Judging by the direction of travel, they were heading for the hot spring lake basin of Mountain No. 67.

The goal of this group of people was most likely to confirm the whereabouts of the blue-faced little monkey. If the blue-faced little monkey hadn't been killed and had successfully survived, the hot spring lake basin of No. 67 was the survival area the golden monkey would most likely choose.

Wei Wei Xianyi quickly made tactical adjustments. Xia Qing and her partner Lu Bin transferred their sniper positions and waited silently for the target to appear.

Mountain No. 91 region, a female lynx currently in the lactation period tracked the scent and came to a mountain fissure. It dug away the rubble, tore open the packaging bag, discovered its partner's corpse, and let out a few low roars.

Then, this female lynx rubbed its face repeatedly on the packaging bag, deeply memorized this scent, then raised its head, its nostrils trembling, and quickly locked onto the direction of the intruders. It tracked along the scent for a while, confirmed that the intruders had already left its territory, immediately returned to the hidden cave to transfer its cubs, then carefully patrolled the territory, confirmed that there were no other dangers, and ran to a high place on the mountain to howl toward the south.

The giant wolf in the southern mountain region and the snow leopard in the southeastern mountain region heard the lynx howl coming from the north, raised their furry heads one after another, and carefully sniffed the scent in the wind.

?? Thanks to book friends Zhongxia, Di! Water Card, Da Yu Er, flater, October's First Quarter Moon, Crocodile's Tears L, Sunset and Sea Breeze, Fearless Cicada for their rewards, and thanks to everyone for their subscriptions, votes, and comments. These few days after returning to work after the New Year, work has been too busy, so my time for coding words has been drastically compressed. After finishing coding, I often fall asleep as soon as I hit the pillow, and don't have time to correct typos and adjust awkward phrasing. Thanks to everyone for helping catch bugs. ===== CHAPTER 1780 =====