Chapter 660: Underground River

After the Butcher Rain, the vegetation was lush and damp, and flying insects of every kind were beyond count. Although Xia Qing's body was sprayed with insect repellent, she still turned her screen brightness down, so as not to make the insects that couldn't get close to her even more irritable. Then she chose 0.25x speed and played the video, which was less than a minute long.

The valley was already dimly lit, and visibility underwater was even lower. So the surveillance footage quickly turned black and white, and finally the image trembled once and went completely black. After Xia Qing rewatched the last few seconds of the video three times, she confirmed that the thing that had swallowed the underwater detector was a python.

Because in that suddenly appearing huge mouth, there were fangs curving inward as they grew—unique to pythons. Judging by the size of the fangs, this python was considerably smaller than the high-hardness evolved Green Lantern Python the wolf pack had captured last year.

If this python hadn't evolved special abilities, once it came ashore it would absolutely be no match for the wolf pack. So this python's defeat wasn't what defeated the wolf pack and forced the Alpha to abandon Mountain 55 and move deeper into the Evolution Forest to Mountain 60.

Once it was light, she would send this video to Third Brother and ask him to identify whether the leaf that flashed past the camera one second before the python swallowed the detector was one of the herbs needed to synthesize the antidote for Zhang Hongda's Butcher venom.

The reason she could recognize the herb from a single leaf flashing past was that Xia Qing had played the yellow weasel countless videos showing the characteristics of this herb, and had also printed out pictures of the herb and stuck them on the wall inside the sheep pen. Whether the yellow weasel had memorized it or not, Xia Qing wasn't sure, but she herself had remembered it firmly.

However, the herb introduced in the video grows on land rather than underwater, so Xia Qing had to send the video to her idol.

If her idol confirmed it was the same kind, she would find a way to dig up the underwater herb and bring it back.

The python won't let her dig it up? Screw it! Dazi, a three-system Evolver in the Territory Alliance, is waiting for this herb to save his life.

The black wolf, resting over a dozen meters away, suddenly turned its ears, stood up, and looked toward the pool below the valley. Although Xia Qing hadn't heard any unusual sounds, she trusted the evolved wolf's ears and immediately put away her phone, looking down through her night-vision goggles.

The night-vision goggles could capture moonlight reflecting off the water's surface, so the pool water in the dark night appeared clear and bright in Xia Qing's field of vision. Observing the water surface through night-vision goggles provided clearer, more detailed visual information than the naked eye.

While Xia Qing and the black wolf were staring at the water, Yang Jin inside the tent also opened his eyes. Although he had sensed danger, until Xia Qing made a sound to call him out, Yang Jin wouldn't go out. He and Xia Qing were companions; this was Xia Qing's watch shift, and he had to trust her ability and judgment.

Looking down from the top of the waterfall more than twenty meters high, the pool looked much smaller. When the winding, swimming figure underwater gradually emerged, it made the pool look even smaller by contrast.

After the black wolf staring at the water let out a low growl, seeing that Xia Qing hadn't moved, the black wolf gave Xia Qing another dissatisfied low howl:

Idiot, aren't you going to move to the attack position right now and get ready to fight?!

Xia Qing, who was closely watching the python in the water, didn't understand what those two howls from the black wolf meant. She raised her left hand in a gesture of stroking the wolf's neck, signaling the black wolf not to be afraid, to calm down and wait.

If this python dared to come ashore and attack, she wouldn't need the black wolf or Yang Jin to act—at most two shots and she could blow the python's head apart.

Hardness evolution? Not afraid. As long as it opens its mouth, Xia Qing can shoot a bullet right in!

The python in the water had no intention of surfacing to attack Xia Qing and the black wolf. It wound and swam a few circles in the water. Then, Xia Qing actually saw over a dozen Butcher Snakes coil around the python's body and sink down to the bottom of the water with it.

This scene—damn, it really fits the style of Evolution Blue Star—bizarre, crazy!

After the python sank and the water surface returned to calm, the black wolf glared fiercely at Xia Qing for a few seconds before lying down to continue resting. Because this wolf had always looked at her with fierce eyes, Xia Qing hadn't noticed its mood change. She pulled out the tracking display paired with the tracking ring from her protective suit pocket and discovered that the distance between her and a green Butcher Snake fitted with a tracking ring was rapidly increasing.

A python doesn't move this fast on land, so the pool below the waterfall must be connected to an underground river. The python followed the underground river's waterway and took the Butcher Snakes that had gathered in the pool away with it.

Direction: north.

This move was very unusual. Xia Qing immediately reported the situation to the Disaster-Destroying Commander, Zhang San.

Soon, Xia Qing received a reply from her idol: Received. You and Yang Jin stay where you are and continue executing the mission to capture Butcher Snakes. It's dangerous at night—do not track the Butcher Snakes that were taken away.

After Xia Qing replied "received," she sent Yang Jin's surveillance video to her idol, prompting him to check the leaf that appeared in the second-to-last second, then sent her idol a picture of the herb and asked:

Third Brother, do you think this is the herb you sent me before, asking me to look for it?

This time it took longer—two minutes later Xia Qing received a reply: Judging by the leaf shape, it should be a different evolved type of the same herb. The medicinal effect still needs to be tested. After dawn, find a way to dig it up by the roots and bring it back. Pay attention to safety.

After Xia Qing replied "received," the eyes she fixed on the pool both lit up.

For this herb, the purchase price her idol offered was 10,000 points per plant. If she dug it up and brought it back, she could not only use it to detoxify Dazi, but also use the points from the herb to exchange for the medicinal agent her idol had formulated, to be added into the High-Yi Element Spinach Juice.

In another half a month, she could pinch spinach leaves from the terraced fields, juice them, and make her own premium nutrient solution herself—no more needing to trade with that iron rooster in the tent next door.

At three in the morning, Yang Jin unzipped the tent on time and climbed out, switching with Xia Qing so she could go in and rest. Seeing Yang Jin come out, the black wolf immediately let out a low growl, retreated to fifty meters away, and assumed an attack-ready stance.

Xia Qing tossed over a piece of jerky to soothe the black wolf, then told Yang Jin what had just happened and Zhang San's order, and speculated, "The python might have taken the Butcher Snakes to the lake in the northern part of Mountain 60."

Yang Jin walked over to Xia Qing, tapped the display twice, and a curved red line pointing north appeared on the screen. "It swam 8,523 meters in over two hours—not a speed-evolved python. Once it stops, we'll know their destination."

Seeing this red line, Xia Qing's eyes lit up. "This tracker is more advanced than the locator you traded me last year, the one the red squirrel is wearing."

That locator had already broken, so she could just get a new one.

Yang Jin nodded, smiling extraordinarily brightly—though it was nighttime, so Xia Qing couldn't see. "This military-industrial product has better functions, and the price has multiplied several times over. Do you want to trade?"

The locator was 3,000 points, meaning this advanced tracking ring cost over ten thousand points. Xia Qing immediately calmed down. "I don't want to."

She turned and said goodbye to the black wolf, then crawled into the tent to continue sleeping. It was three in the morning, three hours until sunrise—she could still get some sleep, rest up, and continue catching Butcher Snakes and fishing for herbs tomorrow.

After Xia Qing crawled into the tent, the black wolf glared fiercely at Yang Jin for a few seconds, then also turned and disappeared into the Evolution Forest.