Chapter 712: Sensing Green-Light Prey

"Awoo—wooo—"

The chaos of birds and beasts fleeing from the explosion had not yet ended when a long wolf howl rang out from a mountain peak within Mountain Region No. 51, making Xin Yu's hair stand on end.

Xin Yu immediately looked toward the direction of the wolf. "Xia Qing, is this a wolf from the northern wolf pack? What does its howl mean?"

"Awoo—wooooo—"

The second wolf howl rang out from the northern mountain peak. Judging by the sound, it was at least a dozen li away. Xia Qing could hear it, but Xin Yu, whose hearing had not evolved, could no longer hear it.

"It's the northern wolf pack. It's using its howl to pass on a message. Let's keep moving."

The direction the wolf was transmitting information was northward, indicating this was a wolf from the northern wolf pack, which was why Xia Qing decided to keep moving.

If it were a wolf pack from another region, she and Xin Yu would have to retreat immediately. Because once surrounded by an unfamiliar wolf pack, it would be extremely dangerous.

"Got it." Xin Yu gestured and called her tamed bird through the walkie-talkie.

The raven Molli flew back with the horned owl and landed on Xin Yu's shoulder. Xin Yu took out a thermal container from her backpack, took out several pieces of chilled fresh green-light frog meat, fed both tamed birds, let the horned owl rest on her shoulder, and sent Molli to check the explosion site.

Xia Qing continued to protect Molli with her sniper rifle. Xin Yu checked the surveillance footage and reported the situation. "All six large trees were blown apart. No sprouts drilled out from the broken stumps."

No sprouts drilling out meant these aggressive wild paulownias had not yet evolved the ability to grow rapidly outside the Harmful Rain period.

Xia Qing gave the order. "Call Molli back. Let's head to the next observation point."

Although there was no rapid growth now, during the next Harmful Rain, these toppled wild paulownias would take root, and the tree roots left in the soil would sprout new shoots.

To completely eliminate the hidden danger, the paulownias' crowns and roots had to be separated from the soil, allowing them to dry out completely or be burned directly.

This work required more manpower than Xia Qing and Xin Yu's small team could handle.

After finishing the search mission, Xia Qing would compile the growth locations of the aggressive paulownias and report them to Tan Junjie. Tan Junjie would report upward to the Territory Management Department, which would then submit a request further up.

This work would ultimately be announced as a mission, and then a combat team would take the mission and earn points.

After the two reached the next observation point and blew up another 3 aggressive wild paulownias, Xin Yu lowered her voice. "A large predator is approaching, about 100 meters from us. It's full of malice! Guagua, hurry back; Xiaoxiao, take off!"

The maximum range of Xin Yu's magnetic field perception was 100 meters. At this distance, she could only sense the violent magnetic field fluctuations of large animals or humans.

Xia Qing immediately stood back-to-back with Xin Yu, her voice calm. "How many?"

"Two." Xin Yu's voice was taut.

Xia Qing opened her vision and hearing to the fullest, watching the dense forest to the north closely, soothing her teammate and telling her not to be nervous. "Two or three, no matter what kind of predator, I can take them down."

"Got it." Xin Yu took a deep breath, gripped her gun to handle the defense behind Xia Qing, and quickly tapped the phone on her wrist, using the camera on Xiaoxiao's body to search for the approaching enemies.

"It's a wolf from the northern wolf pack. Stand down from emergency status. Put away your weapons, try to suppress your killing intent as much as possible, and stay by my side without moving."

Before Xin Yu had located them, Xia Qing had already spotted the wolf's figure. Her taut nerves relaxed, and she called out, "Broken Leg, long time no see."

The fierce Broken Leg wolf heard the familiar voice, its furry ears turning, and raised its head.

Xia Qing continued to call out, "Broken Leg, it's me, Xia Qing. Who's the one following you?"

Broken Leg wolf raised its nose to sniff, caught the unfamiliar scent beside Xia Qing, bared its fangs, and growled low.

Xia Qing hadn't seen this wild and fierce side of Broken Leg wolf in a long time, and actually thought it looked rather handsome like this.

Because she couldn't recognize which evolved wolf that was without a protective suit, she didn't dare to widen the distance between herself and Xin Yu. She directly pulled a small pack of freeze-dried treats from her pocket. The moment she tore open the plastic packaging, Broken Leg wolf's eyes lit up and it bounded to a spot three meters in front of Xia Qing.

Xin Yu sensed the wolf's joyful mood, and her taut nerves relaxed slightly as well.

Xia Qing tossed the freeze-dried treats over. Broken Leg wolf leaped up to catch them and swallowed them whole. Xia Qing tossed again, it leaped again, swallowed again. After finishing a small pack of freeze-dried treats, the evolved wolf squatting more than twenty meters away still hadn't shown itself.

Xia Qing asked gently, "Broken Leg, did my lord the Queen send you over to check on the situation? I'm here clearing out dangerous trees."

As Xia Qing spoke, she pointed at the large trees beside her, using gestures and signs to communicate with Broken Leg wolf. "Over there, there are dangerous large trees that must be cleared out."

Broken Leg wolf saw Xia Qing patting the tree, and also leaped up to give the tree beside it two swipes of its claws. The small tree beside it wasn't sturdy enough and snapped with a crack.

Xia Qing...

This idiot!

"Broken Leg, I'm going to continue clearing the large trees." Xia Qing raised her hand and pointed at the evolved wolf hiding in the bushes. "You and your companion go off and play."

Broken Leg wolf ran over and pawed at Xia Qing's protective suit, digging out another pack of jerky and a pack of freeze-dried treats, before finally leaving with its companion.

"They're far away now." Xin Yu saw Xia Qing take several small packs of jerky from her backpack and stuff them into her protective suit pockets, and couldn't help but laugh. "Your method is pretty good. Did that wolf's leg break before?"

Xia Qing explained, "It broke last July, and was reattached. This wolf isn't very old, has strong combat ability, and is very lively. Let's head to the next observation point and rest there for half an hour before moving on."

The two reached the next observation point, completed the search and cleared two aggressive wild paulownias, then set up a tent in an open area to rest for half an hour.

After Xin Yu finished resting and was about to switch with Xia Qing to rest in the tent, she was refused. "You rest a bit longer. I'm not tired."

"Got it."

Xin Yu knew that today's mission intensity was nothing to Xia Qing, who often went on missions. She lay down again, seizing the time to rest, trying to recover to her best condition as quickly as possible.

Half an hour later, Xin Yu crawled out of the tent, released the horned owl, and observed the situation ahead. In a valley about two thousand meters ahead, there were herbivores, looking like they should be evolved species of deer or sheep, more than twenty in total. What a pity!"

The pity was that their trip this time was to search for aggressive wild paulownias. Hunting this kind of large animal would slow down their progress.

Xia Qing smiled. "We still have five observation points this afternoon. If we spot prey near the last two observation points, we'll take down two and bring them back."

Xin Yu got excited. "Great! After spotting prey, let's get a bit closer and pick two with gentle magnetic field fluctuations. There's a high chance this kind of animal is a green-light one."

Only now did Xia Qing realize that Xin Yu could judge whether an animal was a green-light animal through magnetic field fluctuations. Could the alpha wolf and Broken Waist wolf also be using this method to judge the prey's grade?