Chapter 512: The Sheep That Carries the Wolf

"What?!" Tang Huai snapped back.

Zhou Xun's eyes welled up. "Boss, are you feeling better?"

Damn it, how many times have you asked? Is there no end to this?

Tang Huai replied irritably, "No, no! I'm still on crutches. How did a fight break out in Xia Qing's territory?"

Zhou Xun, the visual evolver, answered, "Territory Three has an anti-electronic-surveillance jammer installed, so we can't use listening devices. The new guy sent over, Liu Jing, doesn't have ears as good as yours. The dead-grass wall around Territory Three is just as thick as before—I can't see a thing, and I still haven't figured out why those two are fighting."

"Xia Qing can't beat that sheep." Tang Huai stood on this side of the passage, gossiping with his former subordinate on the other side. Although Xia Qing's side effects from the stimulant had passed, her stamina hadn't recovered to peak condition—she'd probably be done fighting soon.

What to do—Tang Huai really wanted to go to Territory Three to watch.

Zhou Xun, however, had a different take. "I think Xia Qing's been letting that crazy sheep go easy. She's still counting on it to pull the plow and till the fields."

Tang Huai shot Zhou Xun a look and kept listening intently.

Zhou Xun seized the chance to invite him. "Boss, it's too far from here. How about I carry you back on my back to listen? I dug out a snow den at the old spot—it's nice and warm inside."

"Get lost!"

Tang Huai guessed right—Xia Qing really was running out of strength and lost quickly. She lay spread-eagled on the ground, staring at the grey sky and panting hard, yet her face was full of exhilaration.

Sheep Boss, who hadn't had enough fighting, circled Xia Qing twice. Seeing she wasn't getting up, it turned and charged at the sick wolf.

This was probably the only evolved sheep on the whole Blue Star that dared to actively provoke an evolved wolf.

The wolf's build was well-proportioned, with long, slender limbs built for running. It would attack with its sharp fangs and claws—either sinking its fangs viciously into the prey's throat or spine to suffocate or paralyze it, or raking its claws across the prey to leave deep wounds that bled without stop.

The sheep's method of attack was very simple—just ramming hard with its big horned head.

There was no need to compare to know who would win a fight between wolf and sheep, but Xia Qing, lying on the ground, still turned her head to watch with great interest.

The sick wolf leapt lightly upward and dodged Sheep Boss's iron-head charge. Sheep Boss's head slammed hard into the big tree beside it.

Dead leaves and accumulated snow on the tree came rustling down, nearly burying Xia Qing who was watching the show. Xia Qing didn't have the strength to move, so she reached up and wiped the snow off her protective visor—and was amazed to discover the sick wolf was actually playing head-butt with Sheep Boss.

Clearly neither animal was putting much force into it, but they were having a great time. The sick wolf seemed to know how to "coax a child"—it had the short-legged wolf siblings behaving obediently too. This was the first time Xia Qing had seen it coax Sheep Boss.

It was very likely because, after taking the suppressant, its body was slowly recovering—its strength had grown, and its confidence had returned with it.

Xia Qing reached into her pocket for her phone to capture the moment, then remembered she was wearing a leather suit, not a protective one—she hadn't brought her phone at all.

After playing for quite a while, the sick wolf finally led Sheep Boss over to Xia Qing.

Xia Qing tilted her head right and bumped heads with the wolf; then turned left and bumped heads with Sheep Boss. The three of them collapsed together on the uneven ground, savoring the peace after a good play.

The sun poked out from the sooty clouds, spilling over one person, one sheep, and one wolf.

Xia Qing, who had caught her breath, closed her eyes and basked in the sunlight, chatting with her two companions. "Boss, Wolf Lao Er, do you like your protective suits? They're made from high-grade hardened evolved snake skin—comfortable, right?"

"Wolf Lao Er, you didn't bite Boss just now—that's very good, because Boss is your companion, not your prey." Xia Qing turned to look at the sick wolf on her left, tongue out and hahaha-ing, and said with a smile, "But even if you did bite or claw it, it'd be fine—it's wearing a snake-skin suit."

The sick wolf kept hahaha-ing, clearly not understanding what Xia Qing was saying. Sheep Boss, sprawled on the other side, was expressionless—unclear whether it understood or not.

Xia Qing turned her gaze to the sunlit clouds. "The Queen and Broken-Waist Wolf's snake-skin suits are done too. I wonder when they'll come try them on. The Queen is hard to say, but Broken-Waist will definitely love it…"

Xia Qing suddenly remembered she still owed Broken-Waist Wolf a power-generating bicycle.

She struggled to sit up, wanting to put on her protective suit and head to the North Buffer Zone to wait for the patrol team to pass by, then order another bicycle from Hu Zi.

The sick wolf stood up faster than she did, circled Xia Qing once, then ran toward the North Buffer Forest.

Watching the sick wolf sprint away, Xia Qing asked her companion beside her, "What is Wolf Lao Er going to do? Check on the wild boars in the valley, or go back to the wolf pack to deliver a message?"

Sheep Boss lay beside her, expressionlessly chewing its cud.

"Boss, get up. If we stay any longer, snow-jumping bugs will burrow into your protective suit and bite you." Xia Qing stood up and slowly walked back to the village.

Sheep Boss watched Xia Qing leave, then stood up, shook the dirt off its body, and clip-clopped along behind her.

Before Xia Qing reached home, Jing Kuan from Beard Feng's squad contacted her through his earpiece radio. "Sister Qing, a wolf wearing a strange protective suit just ran out of Valley One and left Mountain 49, heading north."

Only then did Xia Qing understand what Wolf Lao Er had gone to do. "That's Wolf Lao Er. It's gone to find the wolf pack. A group of wolves will be coming later—they should take the usual route. Please tell Captain Yang and Captain Hu, Brother Jing."

There were people working on Mountain 50. With the wolf pack coming, Yang Jin or Beard Feng had to arrange things in advance so the construction crew and the second disaster-elimination echelon wouldn't spot the wolves.

Xia Qing got home, wiped the mud off the snake-skin suit, changed out of it, put on her protective suit, and went to the north gate of the territory to wait for the patrol team.

Bad luck this time—the ones who came were Su Ming and a few others. Hu Zi had gone to Mountain 50 on a security mission.

Su Ming readily agreed to Xia Qing's request and asked curiously, "Sister Qing, were you fighting with Sheep Boss again just now?"

Xia Qing nodded and explained, "I wanted to see how much of my combat power had recovered."

"Don't rush it, Sister Qing. Take good care of yourself. There's definitely no beast-tide threat here for a month." Su Ming comforted Xia Qing—the weakness period after taking the Yi-element stimulant couldn't pass that quickly.

Yuan Rui, the olfactory evolver driving, caught a faint weasel smell on Xia Qing but didn't say anything, only sharing a piece of good news with her. "We got word this morning—once the beast tide here in the safe zone is completely over, the construction crew installing the ground-based mobile base station for our territory will be able to come. It'll definitely be installed and debugged before the end of the year."

"That's great!" Xia Qing did have a phone that could connect directly to satellites, but the communication fees were steep, so she avoided using it whenever possible. With a mobile base station, she could use her phone to contact her allies.