Chapter 283: Saving the Wolf

Covered in dirt from head to toe, Xia Qing ran to the chicken coop door and peered through the small glass window. At a glance, she spotted a pinkish-white egg in a nest on a shelf against the wall.

Xia Qing opened the door and rushed in, picking up the egg—about the size of a pre-catastrophe goose egg. Eighteen ways to cook an egg flashed through her mind, and she quickly hit the select button.

Tomato scrambled eggs!

Xia Qing carefully carried the egg inside, placed it in the refrigerator, letting this precious egg be protected by the Yi Stone, then rushed to the terraced fields to pick three bright red Green Lantern tomatoes and pinched off two Green Lantern scallion leaves.

When the tomato scrambled eggs were served, Xia Qing suddenly felt that the bowl of Yellow Lantern rice in her hands, with a harmful-element content of thirteen parts per thousand, was no match for this Green Lantern dish.

After eating for another half year or so, by next summer she'd be able to eat Yellow Lantern rice with a harmful-element content of six parts per thousand!

Xia Qing couldn't wait. She picked up a chopstickful of golden-orange egg and put it in her mouth.

This taste was far better than the Yellow Lantern egret eggs she'd eaten a few months ago. Xia Qing wished she could immediately share this good news with the two evolved egrets that had moved away.

So what if you've got Yellow Lantern eggs? This old lady now has Green Lantern chicken eggs to eat!

Xia Qing, who had even wiped the plate clean with rice, was in an excellent mood. She instructed the well-fed Sheep Boss, "Boss, our chicken did a great deed today. Go let the chickens out for a while. I'll come find you after I finish washing the dishes."

Sheep Boss squinted, looking very displeased.

Without a word, Xia Qing took out a ration and stuffed it into the pouch around its neck. "This is your ration for tonight. Boss, you're the most capable. On Blue Star, you're definitely the only sheep that can herd chickens. You're the sheep standing at the top of the pyramid, the pride of evolved sheep…"

Sheep Boss was satisfied. It opened the door, walked to the chicken coop, lifted a hoof to push the coop door open, and bleated.

The black-feathered rooster heard Sheep Boss's call and quickly led the flock charging out of the coop, leading its brothers and sisters to follow Sheep Boss away.

Watching this scene through the kitchen window, Xia Qing genuinely admired Sheep Boss.

When it comes to which territory has the strongest evolved animals, of course it's the evolved sheep of Territory Three!

After washing the dishes, Xia Qing put on her protective suit to go find Sheep Boss. There were still thorn insects in the territory now; going out without a protective suit was asking for trouble.

Sheep Boss had taken the chickens to the abandoned village in the southeast corner of the territory. This village had more snakes, scorpions, mosquitoes, and insects than the other two villages. Xia Qing had carefully inspected it twice but couldn't figure out the cause, so she could only spray this village two extra times whenever she applied insecticide.

Even so, insects still liked to gather here, so this village became Sheep Boss's chicken-herding spot.

When Xia Qing arrived, she found Sheep Boss lying in the shade of a tree, chewing its cud, while the chickens searched for bugs in the wild grass beside it. Four little swallows perched on a broken wooden window nearby, chirping away.

Xia Qing carefully listened to make sure there were no reptiles around, then moved a stone over and sat beside Sheep Boss, flipping through the breeding books she had collected.

After the hottest part of the day had passed, Xia Qing and Sheep Boss together herded the chickens back to the coop and secured it. Then she packed up her tools and prepared to set out. "Boss, I'm heading to Valley One. Captain Hu said there's a patch of mountain ginger there. I'm going to test it—if it's edible, I'll bring it back, and you'll have mountain ginger leaves for dinner."

When Chen Zheng from Beard Feng's squad came to guard Territory Three, he told Xia Qing something about the wolf pack. "Yesterday morning, the people from the research institute asked about taming wolf beasts. Brother Dong said the wolves got angry because of the wolf howls from the loudspeaker, left the combat team, and ran into the Evolution Forest. Today, Sufeng and Jiang Xiong formed a joint combat team and left the safe zone, entering the Evolution Forest in the northern part of Mountain Forty-Nine. They must be heading for the wolf pack."

The Jiang Xiong combat team ranked fifth in Hui Three Base. The team raised over a dozen evolved dogs. After their failure to tame wolf beasts a few years ago, they had spent the past two years trying to breed wolf-dogs with stronger combat power than evolved dogs.

Xia Qing asked, "Who's leading the Jiang Xiong combat team?"

Chen Zheng answered, "Their captain, Jiang Xiazi."

Learning that the tamed wolf from the Azure Dragon combat team had run back to the Evolution Forest, Xia Qing wasn't surprised that the Jiang Xiong combat team had sent a squad over, but she hadn't expected Jiang Xiazi to come personally. "How many people did he bring?"

"Two Jiang Xiong squads plus two evolved dogs, one Sufeng squad. Judging by the weight of the equipment they're carrying, they'll probably be searching in the Evolution Forest for a few days." Chen Zheng was worried about the wolf pack. "Sister Qing, if the wolf pack runs into Jiang Xiazi and his men, they'll definitely suffer."

In terms of combat power, the wolf pack led by the alpha wolf was no worse than the Jiang Xiong combat team. But the Jiang Xiong combat team was not only familiar with the habits of wolves and dogs, they were also skilled at using poison. The wolf pack didn't wear protective masks, so it would be easy for them to fall victim.

Xia Qing asked, "Which way did they go, and how long have they been in?"

"Half an hour. They entered through the valley between Mountain Forty-Nine and Mountain Fifty." Chen Zheng replied.

The wolf pack entered and left her territory using this same route. If they were allowed to keep tracking, the brain-evolved alpha wolf and the broken-backed wolf might be fine, but the sick wolf, whose body hadn't fully recovered, was another story.

If the sick wolf fell into the hands of the Jiang Xiong combat team, they would definitely drug it, lock it in a cage, and turn it into a breeding body for wolf-dogs. It wouldn't even be able to kill itself.

Xia Qing decisively dialed Tan Junjie's number. "Captain Tan, could you do me a favor and get in touch with Territory Eight's lord, Seeing Xin Yu? I have a deal I'd like to discuss with her."

"Sure."

After a short while, Tan Junjie sent word back to Xia Qing: "Seeing Xin Yu wants you to wait under the Territory Eight signpost in fifteen minutes."

"Many thanks." Xia Qing immediately went home, packed a good amount of wolf dung into sealed bags, and walked along the northern isolation belt through Territory One. When she arrived under the Territory Eight signpost, Lord Seeing Xin Yu was already waiting for her there.

Today Seeing Xin Yu was wearing a two-way transparent protective mask, and Xia Qing could see her calm eyes.

Xia Qing walked over quickly, greeted her first, then asked in a low voice, "Could I borrow your tamed bird to help scatter some things in the northern Evolution Forest?"

Seeing Xin Yu raised her eyes and frowned slightly. "How do you know I have a tamed bird?"

Xia Qing answered honestly, "During the migratory bird season, I was stationed on the high slope of my territory and saw an evolved Himalayan vulture circling above your territory."

Seeing that Seeing Xin Yu wasn't responding, Xia Qing pressed on, steeling herself. "An evolved wolf I saved from a parasitic infection was stimulated by the wolf howls from the loudspeaker and returned to the Evolution Forest. Now there's a combat team with evolved dogs searching the northern Evolution Forest. I'm worried it'll be caught. So I want to ask your tamed bird to scatter wolf dung in the northern Evolution Forest to confuse the evolved dogs. I'll pay with edible chestnuts or pine nuts, but the chestnuts can only be exchanged for Yellow Lantern grade."

Besides the Himalayan vulture and the evolved eagle with a broken wing, Seeing Xin Yu must certainly keep other birds. The two types of nuts Xia Qing had chosen were favorites of omnivorous birds.

Seeing Xin Yu was indeed tempted. She opened her mouth to ask, "Which combat team, how many people, and how large an area to scatter?"

Xia Qing hurriedly answered, "Three squads from Sufeng and Jiang Xiong, over twenty people, plus two evolved dogs. Scatter the wolf dung in the direction they're heading, and lead them to Mountain Fifty and Mountain Fifty-Two."