Chapter 410: Found It?

Although the green-light spinach was no longer in the field, Xia Qing was not short of premium nutrient solution.

Because she had traded the roots, stems, and leaves of the high-yi element green-light spinach from her cultivated land with Zhang San for thirty-eight tubes of premium nutrient solution. The shelf life of these premium nutrient solutions was two months, which meant that if they weren't finished within two months, they would lose their nutritional value.

In another month, the high-yi element spinach in her greenhouse would also have grown up, and she could continue to juice it to make premium nutrient solution. Therefore, the premium nutrient solution that others considered worth two thousand points per tube, Xia Qing used without any heartache.

Beard Feng contacted Brigade Captain Yang Jin, confirmed the location of the Number Two Territory refugees, then called Xia Qing to inform her, "The Number Two Territory has a total of four squads, forty-five refugees who entered Mountain Fifty. Two squads are hunting in the evolution forest under the Second Peak, and two squads are returning with their prey. You enter the valley from Sector Seven of Mountain Forty-Nine and head to the Third Peak of Mountain Fifty, which can avoid the line of sight of the Second Peak refugees."

After Beard Feng finished speaking, he emphasized again, "And that's only avoiding their line of sight."

If there were high-level smell or hearing evolvers among that batch of refugees, they could still detect Xia Qing's presence through scent and sound.

"Understood, thank you Captain Hu." Xia Qing hung up the phone, led the sick wolf around to Sector Seven of Mountain Forty-Nine, then left the Green Dragon Squad's training ground, crossed the valley, and entered the evolution forest under the Third Peak of Mountain Fifty.

Then, Xia Qing heard the gunfire of the Second Peak refugee squad hunting. Judging from the gunfire, they were using homemade muskets.

Xia Qing patted the sick wolf's back soothingly with her hand, telling it not to make a sound. One person and one wolf continued to track the bloody scent of the red squirrel, pushing forward.

With Xia Qing's current combat strength, she wasn't afraid of running into a Number Two Territory refugee squad, but less trouble was better than more; being able to avoid it was of course the best. Because the purpose of Xia Qing's trip was to find green-light peanuts.

After entering Mountain Fifty, Xia Qing's forward speed noticeably slowed. Unlike Mountain Forty-Nine, which had been cleared, Mountain Fifty was a purely wild evolution forest. It was Xia Qing's first time setting foot in this mountain forest; every step she took could trigger risk.

Xia Qing's vision and hearing were fully activated, listening to the surrounding wind, flowing water, and faint movements under the fallen leaves, while using her vision to seek out every danger, striving to reduce the risk level to the lowest.

But, some dangers cannot be avoided.

Xia Qing followed the sick wolf forward, stepping on a stone the sick wolf had just stepped on. When the sick wolf stepped on it, this stone had no problem at all, but the moment she stepped on it, it let out a "squeak."

An evolution rat darted out from beside the stone less than half a meter before being snatched by an evolution centipede burrowing out of a pile of fallen leaves, letting out an even louder shriek.

"Squeak squeak, squeak—"

Before the evolution centipede had time to poison the rat to death, a hobby falcon that had long been ready flew out from the nearby bushes, grabbed the evolution rat and centipede, which were larger than its own body, and quickly took off.

Just when Xia Qing thought the hobby falcon was the final winner, the tree vine that the struggling centipede had coiled around suddenly tightened, wrapping up the hobby falcon and centipede together. Immediately after, the tree vines within a four-meter radius all began to tremble, tightly coiling around every object they could touch.

This unremarkable dead vine was actually an offensive-type plant!

Xia Qing swung her blade and cut down a few approaching tree vines, then jumped with the sick wolf onto a large rock nearby, avoiding the tree vines' attack.

To break free from the tree vines, the hobby falcon had no choice but to release the prey in its talons.

No matter how it kicked with its talons or pecked with its beak, it could not break the tree vines, and was bound tighter and tighter. On the contrary, the evolution rat it had released fell to the ground and quickly burrowed into the pile of fallen leaves.

After confirming that the hobby falcon and centipede bound by the tree vines could not break free, more than twenty evolution rats rustled out from the fallen leaves, carefully avoiding the tree vines as they crawled over, gnawing on the bound hobby falcon and centipede.

This is the evolution forest. Until the very last moment, you never know which is the predator and which is the prey.

Because the tree vines had blocked the path, the sick wolf circled on the rock, looking for a spot it could jump over.

"Lao Er, I'll clear the tree vines." Xia Qing had already locked onto the location of the tree vine's root and found a good foothold. Because she didn't want to alert the Second Peak hunting squad, she directly used her black long blade to cut down the entire plant.

After the tree vines lost their vitality, their coiling movements slowed and stopped. Xia Qing poked them with her blade, confirmed the tree vines had lost their activity, then signaled the sick wolf to continue forward.

The sun had moved to the other side of the mountain, and the light inside the evolution forest dimmed. Xia Qing took off her protective mask, wiped the sweat from her face, put on night-vision goggles, and told the sick wolf, "Lao Er, we'll search for at most another half hour. Whether we find it or not after half an hour, we must withdraw the way we came."

Half an hour later.

Just as Xia Qing was about to call out to the sick wolf, which was still exploring forward, she discovered it had stopped in front of a mountain crevice. It sniffed a few times with its nose and let out a "whine wh whine," indicating the bloody scent here was very strong.

Found it, is this it?! Xia Qing's eyes lit up, and she carefully walked over. "Inside here?"

The sick wolf nuzzled Xia Qing's leg with its body, responding with its actions: right here.

This was a crevice formed by a huge mountain rock splitting open. The crack was only a palm's width, so neither Xia Qing nor the sick wolf could enter, but a red squirrel could. A strong wind blew out from the mountain crevice, making a sound similar to a human wailing, and the wind was also mixed with the rustling sound of a reptile walking.

Peanuts are a plant with relatively high requirements for light, temperature, and humidity, so after passing through this rock crevice, there should be an area that could be reached by sunlight and had decent soil conditions.

Xia Qing took out her phone, took a photo of this towering boulder and the surrounding environment, and casually pinched to death a thin snake that had jumped out of the rock crevice to ambush her.

A snake that hasn't hibernated in this season is definitely not a normal snake!

"Lao Er, let's head back, we'll come again tomorrow."

Green-light food was important, but safety was even more important.

It was about to get dark, and many animals that hunted at night had already begun to move. Even though Xia Qing was wearing night-vision goggles, she could not guarantee the safety of herself and the sick wolf.

Moreover, the sick wolf's forward direction was upward, and Xia Qing had personally seen two evolution bears on the Third Peak of Mountain Fifty. Although bears might have already begun hibernating in this season, Xia Qing still did not dare to enter the evolution bears' territory at night.

"Buzz."

Xia Qing felt the phone in her protective suit pocket vibrate, took it out and opened it, and found it was a message from Beard Feng:

The ten-person refugee squad from the Second Peak has begun to return, with four people walking outward along the valley.

Four people walking outward, six people whereabouts unknown—they might be dead, but more likely the squad had split up to act separately. Because Xia Qing had not heard any intense sounds of battle coming from the Second Peak.

Xia Qing replied that she had received it, put the phone back in her pocket, bent down, and whispered in the sick wolf's ear, "If you hear humans approaching, alert me."

The sick wolf nuzzled Xia Qing's leg with its head and led the way ahead.

The speed of returning the way they came was much faster than before, but the risk still existed. Xia Qing gripped her long blade tightly, taking every step very carefully.

Just as they were about to withdraw from the evolution forest of Mountain Fifty's Third Peak, the sick wolf walking ahead of Xia Qing suddenly stopped, its body slightly leaning down, its drooping tail held flat like an unsheathed military saber.

This was the posture of a wolf discovering danger and about to attack.

At this moment, the sky was almost completely dark. Xia Qing raised her hand to press down on the sick wolf's back and listened carefully.

There was a small squad of people heading toward the location where she and the sick wolf were.