Chapter 204: The Clever Red Squirrel

The Azure Dragon Squad spent over four months searching across the country for the medicinal ingredients on Zhang Sankai's antidote formula, and now only two herbs remain before the prescription can be completed.

One of these two herbs grows within the territory of Huicheng Base; the Azure Dragon Squad has already narrowed down the general area, a place riddled with swamps and amber, and swarming with poisonous insects and snakes. The other grows in the Evolution Forest of Baicheng Base in northern Huaguo, the territory of Evolution Tigers, and the harvesting season is October.

Yang Jin leads the team to gather the herbs, having to deal not only with venomous snakes and insects, but also with other squads competing for the same herbs.

No matter which squad obtains precious medicinal ingredients, none will readily offer them up for trade. If the Azure Dragon Squad fails to secure the herbs, they will most likely have to wait until this time next year to make another trip.

If Luo Pei's body is dragged out until next year, he will never be able to recover to his peak condition. The Azure Dragon Squad can only succeed this time; failure is not an option.

Wei Chengdong, in charge of the guard duty, gave a light knock on the door. "Boss, Brother Luo, Teacher Tan is here."

After Tan Junjie entered the room carrying a basket of vegetables, Yang Jin asked with a grin, "These are vegetables grown in Teacher Tan's territory?"

"Mm, Green Light Oil Wheat, tastes pretty good." Tan Junjie handed the vegetable basket to Yang Jin, and looked with concern at the somewhat weakened body of his old comrade. "How are you feeling now?"

Luo Pei replied, "Not bad."

"Not bad" means not good.

Because with Luo Pei's peak strength, he would never have let an Evolution Monkey-Eating Eagle escape right under his nose. Tan Junjie turned to ask Yang Jin, "Which medicinal ingredients are still missing? I'll go find the Military Commander. At this critical juncture, every connection we can use must be used."

The Military Commander Tan Junjie referred to was Qi Zhongye, the current Base Commander of Huicheng Base Three. Unless they had reached the point of absolute necessity, they would not have troubled the Military Commander.

"We're still missing two. I've already asked the Military Commander, and none of the research institutes in Huicheng have these two herbs. However, we've basically locked down the growth range of these two herbs." Since they were all on the same side, Yang Jin did not hide anything from Tan Junjie. "One of them is in the area of Mountains 62 to 65. I'll lead the team out tomorrow. For the next few days, I'll have to trouble Teacher Tan to come check on Brother Luo whenever you have the time."

Mountains 62 to 65 lie in the heartland of the Evolution Forest, and entering during the Blade Rain Season is extremely dangerous. Tan Junjie asked, "Is the information reliable?"

Yang Jin showed Tan Junjie the pictures. "All other areas have been ruled out. Only that one remains."

Seeing that this herb grew in water, Tan Junjie asked again, "How many of you are going?"

"Six. I'll lead the team."

Six people is too few. Tan Junjie turned to Luo Pei and said, "You ask Yanlong. When it comes to fighting in water, no one is more skilled than her."

Luo Pei shook his head. "Yanlong is currently on military duty."

Tan Junjie explained, "Yanlong told Sister Qiqi she has four days of leave per month, and they can be accumulated. She plans to take Sister Qiqi out to play during the winter break."

If Yanlong could go with Yang Jin, whether or not they managed to gather the herbs, they would surely come back alive. Luo Pei immediately called Yanlong.

Tan Junjie asked Yang Jin in a low voice, "Are you bringing a domesticated beast?"

Yang Jin nodded. "We have one Evolution Snake Eagle."

Going into the territory of poisonous insects and snakes, bringing a Snake Eagle was the most suitable choice. Tan Junjie said nothing more. But his question piqued Yang Jin's curiosity. "Teacher Tan, is there a domesticated beast in the nearby territories?"

Tan Junjie answered seriously, "I haven't yet asked the other party's opinion, so I can't give you an answer right now."

Though Tan Junjie wouldn't say it, Yang Jin guessed it was more or less correct: Lord Xin Yu of Territory Eight had very successfully domesticated Evolution Beasts.

Because if the domestication isn't successful, forget letting others command it—even the owner themselves can't make it obey.

At this moment, inside Territory Three, Xia Qing, who wasn't yet familiar with her own "domesticated beast," was forcibly pressing the little fellow to the ground to fit a locator on it. "Don't move. Once it's on, I'll let you go. Don't move."

After fitting the locator and spraying the red squirrel with scent-tracking potion, Xia Qing grabbed the red squirrel and went inside, up to her own bedroom on the second floor.

She opened the window, tied the little fellow's iron water can to the outside of the windowsill, and placed beside it a section of cucumber, a few mung beans, and a bundle of Red Lantern tobacco. She spoke to it in coaxing terms: "See? I've put spring water, food, and the tobacco you like right here. When you're hungry or thirsty, you can come over to eat and drink, and come here for the tobacco too. I absolutely won't catch you. Just don't go steal from other territories. If you get caught by them, you're done for."

Xia Qing felt the little fellow probably couldn't understand. She pressed the red squirrel's little head to make it drink some water, then stuffed a small piece of cucumber into its mouth and tobacco into its tiny paws, and finally let go.

The instant it was released, the red squirrel shot up to the roof and vanished.

Xia Qing immediately opened the app on her phone and watched the red dot of the locator run a few hundred meters west before turning north. Only when the straight-line distance between the green dot representing the phone's location and the red dot of the locator on the red squirrel reached three thousand five hundred meters did the red dot finally stop.

Judging by the distance, the little fellow had stopped at Area Three of Mountain 49. Xia Qing put away her phone and smiled happily at Mountain 49.

The safest approach after getting the locator and tracking potion would have been to keep the red squirrel in a cage first, and only release it when she set out with her team.

But Xia Qing chose to release the red squirrel first. Although it was more risky this way, Xia Qing felt that if she kept the red squirrel locked in a cage, the moment it escaped, it might abandon its current territory and flee directly.

Even if Xia Qing caught the red squirrel again, she wouldn't be able to track down where it had been gathering edible chestnuts.

Having released the red squirrel now, although it had been somewhat frightened, it hadn't left its territory and remained within Xia Qing's tracking range. This was the ideal state.

If this little fellow could be lured by the spring water, food, and tobacco to return to her windowsill to eat, drink, and take them, that would be even more ideal.

Xia Qing cheerfully went downstairs and continued weeding the fields. After weeding for a while and taking a break, Xia Qing took out her phone to check the app and discovered the red squirrel was actually in the West Buffer Forest of Territory Three, only one thousand two hundred meters from her in a straight line.

There were only a few Red Lantern Chinaberry trees there. What did it go over for? To eat the chinaberries on the trees? Such a good appetite?

Xia Qing returned to the vegetable shed and, using the plants as cover, quietly searched for the little fellow's location.

Xia Qing, a Level Nine Vision Evolver, quickly spotted the red squirrel's figure high up in a tall chinaberry tree. The little fellow was perched on a branch, and what its two front paws were clutching were not chinaberries, but a shed snake skin—one shed by a highly venomous Evolution Snake from within Xia Qing's own territory.

This little fellow was actually gnawing on a shed snake skin!

Looking more closely, Xia Qing discovered the red squirrel was spitting the shredded bits of shed snake skin onto its fluffy, beautiful big tail, making it look as if its tail had grown dandruff.

Watching this made Xia Qing's scalp itch, but she also understood the red squirrel's purpose in doing this.

It was arming itself with the highly venomous shed snake skin to make itself smell like a venomous snake. Or perhaps it wanted to use this scent to mask the smell of the scent-tracking potion Xia Qing had sprayed on it.

This little fellow is quite clever.

Not only on Blue Star, but the little squirrels on our Earth also use venomous snakes' shed skins to arm themselves and evade snake attacks.