Chapter 481: Losses Exceeding Half

The Evolution Forest in the Calamity Snow wasn't safe — every now and then, maddened Calamity-evolved animals would appear, birds and beasts of every kind.

However, none of the Calamity-evolved animals lunging at her got close to Xia Qing before two evolved wolves took them down. The smell of blood here was growing thicker and thicker. Just as Xia Qing began gathering her strength to climb onto the Handsome Giant Wolf's back, letting the two wolves carry her away, Er Yong finally arrived.

Seeing Xia Qing wrapped up like a fish about to be stuffed into an oven, Er Yong panted and asked, "Sister Qing, you… hypothermia?"

Xia Qing slowly shook her head. "No hypothermia. Er Yong, let's move somewhere else — it's too dangerous here."

After Xia Qing coaxed the two wolves blocking him aside, Er Yong picked her up and carried her to a safe spot, then lay down on the rubble-streaked snow, his chest heaving rapidly. "Boss… you're way too insane, I couldn't catch up at all… if it weren't for the locator, I never would've… found you."

Xia Qing answered silently in her heart: Yes, your boss is very insane — but nowhere near as insane as my boss.

Suddenly, a dark shadow flashed past Er Yong's eyes. As Er Yong rolled to his feet to protect Xia Qing, he found the shadow had already reached Xia Qing, scaring him into breaking out in a cold sweat instantly.

Once he saw clearly that the dark shadow was Xia Qing's Queen, Er Yong lay flat again.

Bundled in the blanket and warm, drowsy Xia Qing's eyes immediately lit up. "my lord, you're finally back!"

The lead wolf walked over to Xia Qing, who was wrapped up like a cocoon, and nudged her protective mask with its head.

Huo Zhun, who arrived later, was also startled to see Xia Qing wrapped in a hypothermia emergency blanket. "Xia Qing, you've got hypothermia? How do you feel now?"

As he spoke, Huo Zhun opened his backpack and started pulling out heat patches and a cold-weather suit.

"Brother Huo, I'm not hypothermic, I'm fine." Xia Qing hurriedly stopped Huo Zhun from adding any more warming measures — any more and she'd be sweating from the heat. "Brother Huo, did the helicopter blow up?"

"It blew up. The explosion triggered a Calamity burst and destroyed a large stretch of Evolution Forest. Luckily it was some distance from the territory, so it didn't reach the territory." After confirming Xia Qing wasn't hypothermic, Huo Zhun strapped her onto a stretcher. "Hold on a little longer, we're heading back to the territory right away."

"Sorry for the trouble, Brother Huo. I really can't hold on anymore, I need to sleep for a bit. my lord, you and Broken-Waist have to come back with me to take medicine." Xia Qing finished speaking and passed out.

When she opened her eyes again, the sky was already pitch-black.

She lay on a grass mat by the fireplace on the first floor of her own home, covered by the hypothermia emergency blanket. The firewood in the fireplace was crackling and popping, and Sheep Boss's cud-chewing and snoring were unusually rhythmic.

Snoring?

Xia Qing immediately turned her head and found Huo Zhun actually lying asleep on Sheep Boss's bare tatami mat. After a few snores, he began groaning in pain.

Huo Zhun was also in the side-effect period after taking the Yi Element stimulant, so groaning in pain was perfectly normal.

But why was he lying here?

Xia Qing slowly sat up and checked the time, discovering she had slept for nearly thirteen hours — the second day of Calamity Snow was about to begin.

No wonder — she felt she had some strength in her body, and the pain had eased.

Xia Qing patted the heads of Sheep Boss, the lead wolf, Broken-Waist, and the sick wolf one by one, folded the emergency blanket, stood up quietly from the grass mat, fetched the medicine kit, drew blood from the three wolves and herself separately, went to the second floor, and used the Yi Element detector to test the Calamity-Yi dual-element content of the blood samples. She then calculated the dosage of Calamity-Reduction Agent, took most of a vial herself, and gave each of the three wolves most of a vial as well.

After this dose, the Calamity Element content in Xia Qing and the wolves' bodies would return to pre-poisoning levels. Of the eight vials of Calamity-Reduction Agent exchanged with her idol, one was left. This was good stuff — it had to be stored properly.

To avoid waking Huo Zhun, Xia Qing went to the second floor and contacted Hu Zifeng by walkie-talkie.

Hearing Xia Qing's voice, Hu Zifeng finally breathed a sigh of relief. "You're finally awake — how do you feel now?"

"Much better than yesterday. Captain Hu, why didn't Brother Huo go back to Territory Seven?"

"Don't even ask."

Hu Zifeng also found it very hard to believe. "After Huo Zhun carried you back, he wanted to take you to Territory Seven, but the wolf pack fiercely opposed it. Third Brother had me come pick you up. But the wolf pack wouldn't let anyone, including me, get close — only Huo Zhun could bring you back. Then the stimulant he took wore off and he entered the side-effect period, so he could only rest at your place first."

After saying this, Hu Zifeng still couldn't help asking, "Huo Zhun hasn't had much contact with the wolf pack either — why would they trust him?"

It was probably because the combat ability Huo Zhun showed while operating with the wolf pack made them feel he was more reliable. But that wasn't easy to say out loud. Xia Qing answered, "I'm not sure either. Has the crisis at Mountain Fifty been resolved?"

Hu Zifeng briefly outlined the current situation. "The super evolved pathogen has been temporarily contained — it hasn't continued spreading. The first echelon has already returned; the second echelon is still at Mountain Fifty. Third Brother applied to base for heavy machinery — once the Calamity Snow passes, they'll start plowing firebreaks in the Evolution Forest and burning the mountains to sterilize them."

Burning the mountains again? Xia Qing's heart sank. "How are the greenhouses and the polytunnels?"

Hu Zifeng didn't mention the Calamity-evolution damage to the crops. "The red-grade Calamity Snow triggered by the Calamity burst lasted three hours. The yellow-light wheat and rapeseed have already lost more than half; the greenhouses and green-light wheat are all fine. Rest easy at home — we have enough hands."

Hearing that the losses had exceeded half, Xia Qing's heart ached terribly. "If I'd known it would be like this, I would've waited until after next year's first Calamity Rain to plant the wheat and rapeseed."

Those two mu of yellow-light wheat were all premium yellow-light seeds Xia Qing had exchanged with her idol — now only one mu was left.

"Qi Fu and the others are all saying the same thing." Hu Zifeng shared some good news with Xia Qing. "Territory One also suffered heavy losses. Our captain says this damage was man-made and must be compensated at double by the Blaze Squad."

Hearing Hu Zifeng say this, Xia Qing felt a bit better, but also a bit conflicted.

This Calamity Snow's consecutive red grades were indeed caused by the Blaze Squad. But the whole thing started because Blaze's Shan Ying had his eye on the sick wolf inside Territory Three, and Xia Qing had been overconfident, thinking she and the three wolves alone could wipe out the beast-catching team, so she struck first.

So this man-made disaster was partly her fault too. She had overestimated her own strength and underestimated Blaze's lack of bottom line. If Third Brother and Yang Jin hadn't been there, the chain-reaction disaster triggered by this man-made calamity might already have reached this territory and caused massive casualties.

Super evolved pathogen — just hearing the name told you how terrifying this harmful microorganism was.

This was the first and last time — Xia Qing solemnly admonished herself. She put on her protective suit, went out to the garage basement to fetch food, and took the chance to shake the accumulated snow off the roof.

She only opened the door to find that the snow on the roof had already been shaken off, piled into a tall snow ridge beneath the eaves of each room.

This was…

Looking down at Broken-Waist, who had come out with her, Xia Qing laughed. "Broken-Waist, you're really such a good homemaker."

Broken-Waist grinned, revealing cute little pointed fangs.