Chapter 543: Evolution Leopard

The people working immediately stopped digging and gathering and clustered together; the defenders for this mission squad, Xia Qing, Yue Haiying, and Hu Ningsheng, gripped their guns and faced outward, responsible for protecting everyone's safety.

Shi Du and Yu Shou, who had brought guns, also took theirs off and held them in their hands.

Yuan Yan reached out and pulled Zhao Ze and Hearing Zhu Li to the safest spot available right now.

Pulled behind Xia Qing, Zhao Ze felt his heartbeat steady, his breathing ease, and the buzzing in his ears fade. Hearing Zhu Li's reaction was much the same; in fact, she had wanted to snatch the best spot behind Xia Qing just now. This was an instinct honed over ten years of natural disaster to seek self-preservation in moments of danger.

The reason she didn't fight for it was that she was in the same alliance as these people; they were not competitors but collaborators. If she fought for the safest spot and made the others unhappy, she'd be kicked out of the gathering squad. Her husband was injured, and the overwintering crops planted in their territory had been destroyed for the most part by the blight-snow; she couldn't afford to lose this rare opportunity to earn points.

"Ten o'clock direction, fifty meters out, a leopard is lying down behind a thicket. Judging by its size, it's an evolved one." Xia Qing's voice was calm and decisive. "It doesn't seem to intend to attack us. Nobody make any provocative moves."

"Copy." Yue Haiying and Hu Ningsheng replied calmly.

"Understood." Zhao Ze also responded in a lowered voice; his voice was shaking, and so was his body.

Leopards are large predatory beasts in the Evolution Forest. According to the relevant regulations, when humans encounter large beasts in the Evolution Forest, they cannot be the side to initiate provocation.

Xia Qing stared at the leopard crouching behind the thicket, and the leopard's eyes were fixed on her too. Clearly, the leopard had judged that the highest combat power in this team was Xia Qing.

Neither the leopard nor the humans attacked nor retreated, falling into a stalemate. Qi Fu and his wife, Shi Mu, Zhao Ze, and Hearing Zhu Li, who had never experienced such a scene, didn't even dare breathe heavily, afraid that if they moved, the beast opposite would take it as provocation.

Crunch, crunch, crunch—

Grunt, grunt…

Plenty of animals can make that sound when walking, but among large animals that grunt, as far as Xia Qing knew, there was only one kind.

When the sound drew closer, the hearing evolver Hu Ningsheng reported the latest situation: "Two wild boars have entered the valley and are approaching."

Yue Haiying said quietly, "The leopard is waiting to hunt the boars. It can only take one."

Wild boars hold grudges. If one boar is taken, the other might squeal or run back and bring its whole family to take revenge. If the leopard succeeds in its hunt and runs off, the boars' fury will be vented on the humans.

A herd of wild boars can't beat a leopard, but the few humans digging kudzu here are no match for a herd of wild boars.

Xia Qing understood what Yue Haiying meant. "I'll take down the other boar."

The two boars grunted as they approached the wild kudzu area from the other side. The instant the leopard's eyes left Xia Qing, it launched its attack.

A leopard's explosive power is astonishing; the small boar didn't even have time to squeal before the leopard bit its neck and dragged it away.

The other half-grown boar, startled, had just opened its mouth to squeal when Xia Qing fed it a bullet and blew its head apart.

Qi Fu and the others, seeing Xia Qing shoot a large prey at close range for the first time, had their eyes light up.

In just this short while, three large vultures had arrived, circling overhead in this area.

"The leopard has left." Hu Ningsheng reported.

Xia Qing gave the order: "Shi Du, go store the boar. The squad continues gathering, speed up. Finish within four hours and withdraw from the valley."

While Shi Du went to collect the boar, everyone sped up their actions—those cutting vines kept cutting, those digging roots kept digging.

The machete in Hearing Zhu Li's trembling hands couldn't cut through the kudzu vine, but tears streamed down her face.

Knowing the Evolution Forest was terrifying and seeing a beast hunt at close range were two completely different things.

In the instant that leopard had looked over, the blood in Hearing Zhu Li's whole body froze. If there hadn't been evolvers protecting them, the one who died just now wouldn't have been the boar—it would have been her.

Because she was weaker than a wild boar.

Hearing Zhu Li sniffed hard, forcefully chopped off the bulging section of the kudzu vine, stuffed it into her bag, and kept looking for the next bulge while tears streamed down her face. She had to speed up; every extra bulge she cut down meant a few more worms for the squad. The more the squad harvested, the more supplies she'd be allocated when the mission ended.

She certainly couldn't compare to a strength evolver, but she absolutely couldn't fall too far behind Zhao Ze, who was also an ordinary person.

Yu Shou called for help: "Xia Qing, this green-light kudzu vine is powder kudzu, but its root is pinned under a big rock. I need you to come pry the stone."

Powder kudzu's root is whiter in color and powdery in texture; its taste and starch yield are far higher than the coarse-fibered firewood kudzu. So powder kudzu roots must be dug up and brought back.

Xia Qing replied, "Copy. Brother Cheng, come take over my defensive position."

Cheng Ping from Territory Fifteen was a Tier-Three stamina evolver; although his left arm wasn't agile, his shooting was still decent.

Yue Haiying, Yu Shou, Hu Ningsheng, and Cheng Ping were the four evolvers with both legs intact in Territory Fifteen who had the highest combat power. Because this mission was high-risk, all four of them came.

After Cheng Ping took position, Xia Qing hurried to Qi Fu's side and found that the moss-covered rock pinning the powder kudzu's root, judging just by the part exposed, had to weigh over three thousand catties.

Although Xia Qing's abilities hadn't fully recovered, with her joining in, the four strength evolvers working together still pried the big rock open with a crowbar.

Once it was pried open, the delight on Qi Fu's face turned to disappointment. Because this powder kudzu's root had already been gnawed nearly through by rodents.

This was a common occurrence when gathering root-type plants in the Evolution Forest; Xia Qing and Shi Du were already used to it. Shi Du asked Xia Qing, "Can this kudzu root be dug up and planted back in our territory?"

This was Mountain Fifty; Xia Qing was the manager of Mountain Fifty, so whether it could be dug up was Xia Qing's call.

Xia Qing nodded. "Yes. Leave part of the root so it can keep growing."

"Understood!" Shi Du immediately got to work.

After working for two hours, the squad rested on the spot for twenty minutes, then continued digging.

At two in the afternoon, the squad members packed up the harvested supplies and began the return trip. Apart from Xia Qing and Yue Haiying, who had the highest combat power, the five strength evolvers carried supplies at full load, and the remaining people each carried one or two hundred catties of supplies.

Today, instead of returning to Territory Five, everyone entered Territory Fifteen, which was closer to the mountain pass. Apart from Xia Qing and Yue Haiying, the others collapsed from exhaustion, but every face was beaming with joy. Because this gathering trip had yielded a full harvest.

Tan Qi, who had been working in the greenhouse, also ran over to help strip the kudzu worm pupae and clean the dirt off the kudzu roots.

This gathering mission yielded a total of 800 catties of yellow-light kudzu root, 700 catties of green-light kudzu root, 760 yellow-light kudzu worm pupae, 330 green-light kudzu worm pupae, and one 150-catty yellow-light wild boar.

For a gathering squad whose average combat power and weapons and equipment were both less than excellent, this was already a tremendous harvest.