Chapter 301: The Feast

Lacking all three of heaven's timing, earth's advantage, and human support, Xia Qing decisively chose to retreat, planning to team up tomorrow to gather the human element before returning to test and harvest.

Seeing Xia Qing climbing up, the crows and evolved hawk waiting for a feast refused to let her, swooping over, flapping their wings, and pecking with their beaks to force her down to the base of the Torreya tree.

On the slippery slope, Xia Qing gripped the climbing rope with her left hand and drew her gun with her right.

"Pfft."

The silenced gunshot was quiet, but still precise—one shot took out the leading evolved crow.

Xia Qing swung her pistol around, only to find the leading evolved hawk had already dodged into the trees. That movement technique—it had to be a speed-type evolved creature, no doubt.

After the flock was driven off, Xia Qing hauled herself up the rope quickly, only to hear a tapping sound.

Looking up, Xia Qing couldn't help cursing.

A crow had hidden behind the tree where the climbing rope was anchored and was pecking at it, leaving only a few pitch-black tail feathers trembling in view, making it impossible for Xia Qing's weapon to hit it.

Judging by that cleverness, it had to be a brain-domain evolved crow.

Damn!

This is seriously bizarre—in the half year since she came out to farm, Xia Qing had seen more brain-domain evolved animals than in all her missions over the previous ten years combined!

She had to climb up before the crow pecked through the rope, or she'd be in trouble!

As Xia Qing climbed quickly, she saw a familiar red flash dart through the shrubs, charging toward the big tree at the top of the slope. Xia Qing's mind moved, and she immediately aimed her gun at the tree.

The red squirrel, swift as lightning, did exactly as Xia Qing had predicted—slammed into the brain-domain evolved crow hiding behind the tree pecking the climbing rope and sent it flying!

"Bang!"

The instant the brain-domain evolved crow was exposed among the branches, sniper Xia Qing put a bullet through its head. Then Xia Qing scrambled up the slope at top speed and, from high ground, began picking off the evolved hawks and crows leaping and fleeing through the trees on the slope.

The feast that the evolved animals had been about to serve on their table moments ago had, in the blink of an eye, become the hunter at this banquet.

A crow leaping between branches was wrapped by a vine with pale purple leaves and slowly dragged toward the ground. This vine was the second hunter to successfully catch prey in this banquet.

The other crows, frightened, flew out of the trees and were shot down one by one by Xia Qing.

The hunt was over.

After memorizing the appearance and location of the other hunter, Xia Qing began searching for the red squirrel. But the little fellow was timid and fast, and had long since vanished.

As Xia Qing refilled her pistol with bullets and coiled up the climbing rope into her pack, preparing to retreat, she suddenly heard a sound from fifty meters to the north.

Swish, swish, swish, tap, tap... that was the sound of a large animal pushing through shrubs and shaking off water droplets! No clatter of hooves on stone—this was a predator!

Every muscle in Xia Qing's body tensed as she listened closely, and she heard a familiar faint, rhythmic sound.

Among large animals, only a wolf wearing shoes could make that sound! Xia Qing grew excited and called softly, "Broken-back, Lao Er?"

"Whine..."

Tap, tap, tap...

Half a minute later, a wolf's head, dripping wet, poked out of the shrubs and looked at Xia Qing with clear rust-colored eyes.

The sick wolf Lao Er, who had left the territory the morning before the day before yesterday, had returned!

Xia Qing wiped the water droplets that had just dripped onto the outside of her protective mask and beamed. "Lao Er!"

The sick wolf emerged from the shrubs, walked over to Xia Qing, and rubbed its protective suit—caked with grass and mud—against Xia Qing's equally filthy protective suit.

Xia Qing rubbed its head. "Where did you go these past two days, what did you eat, any upset stomach?"

The sick wolf nudged Xia Qing's protective suit pocket with its nose.

"Hungry?" Xia Qing pulled a piece of jerky from her pocket, tore open the compressed bag, and handed the jerky over.

The sick wolf swallowed the jerky in one bite.

Xia Qing felt its belly—sure enough, it was sunken. Looked like it hadn't eaten a thing since leaving.

Xia Qing took out today's portion of premium nutrient solution. "Freshly squeezed this morning, lucky you—open up."

The sick wolf opened its mouth, revealing a soft pink tongue and sharp fangs, and drank every drop of the freshly squeezed spinach juice Xia Qing squeezed into its mouth, then nudged her pack again.

"Thirsty?"

Xia Qing set down her pack, poured water from her bottle into a small fresh-keeping bag, and the sick wolf quickly drank most of it.

A sick wolf that had been both thirsty and hungry, after eating jerky, drinking premium nutrient solution and pollution-free spring water, was fully revived and began wagging its tail.

With a companion now, Xia Qing decided to head back down to test the Torreya tree's qiang element content. The flock was wiped out, and her companion had arrived. She held two of the three—timing, terrain, and support—and could act.

After re-tying the climbing rope to the big tree and spraying the sick wolf with insect repellent as well, Xia Qing instructed her companion, "Lao Er, stay here and guard. Don't let any animal damage the climbing rope. I'm going down to test one tree's condition and might harvest some food."

The sick wolf nuzzled Xia Qing's leg once, then stood by the big tree on guard.

Xia Qing hauled herself down along the original route, gripping the climbing rope. This time, without the evolved hawk, crows, or little squirrel, only a few mice and snakes hiding in their holes watched her.

Xia Qing carefully avoided the purple tree vines nearby, reached the base of the Torreya tree, squeezed out leaf juice to test and confirm it was green-light, then decided to go all in, picked all the three-year fruits from this tree before heading back up the slope.

After reaching the top of the slope, Xia Qing turned to show the sick wolf her big pack. "Look! Green-light Torreya fruit—got a whole big bag!"

Xia Qing quickly sealed the bag of Torreya fruit with a heat sealer and soothed the somewhat nervous sick wolf. "Don't be afraid, that's the smell of anesthetic. As long as you don't touch it directly, you won't be knocked out. Let's go, we're heading back to the territory—the boss has missed you guys terribly."

The corpses of the evolved hawk and crows? They were all on the slope and hard to collect, so Xia Qing simply gave up. With this big bag of Torreya fruit, the trip was more than worth it.

She had come alone, her mind full of thoughts of revenge, but on the way back she had a companion with her. Xia Qing felt much more relaxed, and as they walked she told the sick wolf everything that had happened in the past three days. "Lucky you didn't head back yesterday—you would've run into Jiang Xiong's squad for sure. They've got two evolved dogs, and you're not fully recovered. You might not have been able to take them."

The sick wolf followed quietly behind Xia Qing, unclear whether it understood or not.

Chen Cheng of Hu Zifeng's squad saw the wet wolf following behind Xia Qing and was stunned. "Sister Qing, this... this is?"

Xia Qing explained briefly. "Mm, Lao Er's back. Sorry to trouble you this morning."

"No trouble." Having learned from last time when his wolf-flattery landed on a wolf's leg, Chen Cheng didn't dare approach rashly the wolf that seemed obedient beside Xia Qing, afraid that some move or word might upset it and make it run off again.

After Chen Cheng left, Xia Qing took the sick wolf past the buffer forest and saw Boss Sheep charging over.

Seeing the wolf return, Boss Sheep was even more excited than Xia Qing, rubbing all over Lao Er until Bai Mao was covered in mud.

Xia Qing had originally planned to wash only the wolf, but now the sheep had to be washed too.

But Xia Qing was happy to.

Forget washing just two—even if Her Majesty, the broken-leg wolf, and the broken-back wolf all came back rolling in mud, she'd still wash them clean!