Chapter 718: High-Risk Wild Paulownia

From the human territory to the wolf pack's core territory—Mountain 60—was over sixty li away, crossing countless dangerous zones. Xia Qing had no confidence she could cross these evolved forests alone, so she wanted to try the wolves' communication method first.

After howling for several minutes, she finally called over two evolved wolves. Although neither was one Xia Qing was familiar with, and they were baring their teeth at her, she confirmed they were members of the northern wolf pack.

Why?

Because Xia Qing had not only seen them on Mountain 60, she was also the lifesaver of the one with the scar on its belly. This wolf had been injured in last year's battle of revenge, and the wound on its belly had been stitched up by Xia Qing herself.

Xia Qing greeted the two wolves amiably, "Scarface, you and your companion came all the way out here to hunt?"

"Grrr—" Scarface and its companion roared angrily at Xia Qing.

Although they were far from friendly and kept more than ten meters away from Xia Qing, she knew they recognized her, because the two wolves showed no attack intent— their current behavior was more like throwing a tantrum.

Why the tantrum? Xia Qing had no idea. She took out her phone and enlarged the photos of the alpha wolf and Broken-Back Wolf, and discussed with them, "Scarface, can you call the Queen and Broken-Back over here? I have something to discuss with them."

After confirming the phone wasn't a weapon, the two wolves continued glaring at Xia Qing and cursing her.

Xia Qing took out a pack of freeze-dried treats, tore it open, and tossed it over. The two wolves didn't eat, still cursing and complaining.

These two couldn't communicate. Xia Qing raised her voice again to call other wolves, "Awooo— woo—"

"Awooo———— woo————" After Xia Qing started howling, Scarface also raised its head and let out a long wolf howl. If you listened carefully, you could even hear the anger in it.

"Awooo— woo—" The other wolf also joined in howling.

After the two wolves and one person howled a few times, a wolf howl came from another northern hilltop, "Awooo— woo—"

Huh?! The message really got out?!

Xia Qing was delighted and kept howling.

"What's going on? Why are there wolves howling?" Tang Huai inside Territory Two asked about the situation over the walkie-talkie. Xia Qing's voice carried far worse than a wolf's, so Tang Huai couldn't hear her amateur howling—only the real wolf howls.

Wen Nengjie replied, "Only Brother Huai has ears that good. I can't hear a thing."

Inside Territory Six, Hearing Zhu Li pricked up her ears and listened carefully for over ten seconds, then laughed and cried at the same time, "I heard it, hubby, I heard it! There really are wolves howling!"

"Hu疯子, what's the situation on your end? Did you provoke the wolf pack?" Tang Huai judged the direction from the sound and asked Beard Feng.

Beard Feng, who was busy disinfecting Little Fifth, had no time and didn't want to bother with Tang Huai.

"Broken-Back, you finally came! Cough, cough—"

After being scolded by six wolves and howling until her throat was parched, Xia Qing finally saw Broken-Back Wolf arrive an hour later.

Broken-Back Wolf stared at Xia Qing thoughtfully for a few seconds, lowered its head to eat the freeze-dried treats she'd placed on a rock, then raised its head to look at her again.

Xia Qing absolutely adored that clever little look in its eyes. After taking a few sips of water to soothe her throat, she beckoned Broken-Back Wolf to come with her.

The little honey badger that had finally caught up after defeating some small cat saw that its prey had brought a wolf, turned around, and ran back the way it came.

The person and the wolf glanced at the little honey badger, then continued on their way.

It took nearly two hours for the person and the wolf to reach Mountain 51. Xia Qing first showed it a few of the attack-type wild paulownia trees that had been blown apart, and finally brought it near the attack-type wild paulownia that occupied the entire valley.

Xia Qing endured the pin-prickling discomfort between her brows and pressed forward, but was stopped by Broken-Back Wolf after only two steps. Xia Qing laughed, "Broken-Back, you really can sense danger. As expected of the Queen's mate and a leader of the pack!"

So last winter, when she, Watching Huo Zhun, and the wolf pack teamed up to catch the fugitives from Territory Nine, even without her warning, Broken-Back Wolf wouldn't have run into the attack-type plants.

Broken-Back Wolf stared at Xia Qing thoughtfully, not understanding what she wanted to do.

Xia Qing stepped back and, using gestures along with words, explained to Broken-Back Wolf why she'd brought it here, "That tree is called wild paulownia. It's threatening my territory and Sheep Boss's territory…"

After explaining it several times, Xia Qing felt Broken-Back Wolf understood, and confirmed once more, "Handsome wolf bro, once the humans come to clear out this wild paulownia, they'll leave. Don't let the wolves come fight the humans, okay?"

The always solemn Broken-Back Wolf revealed its little white, adorable fang tips in what looked like a smile, indicating it understood Xia Qing's meaning.

Xia Qing's heart melted on the spot, "Broken-Back, how are you so smart and so cute! Your smile is so beautiful—I've never seen a wolf smile so beautifully!"

What to do when something's cute? Feed it, of course.

After feeding Broken-Back Wolf, Xia Qing asked about the alpha wolf and Wolf Lao Er. Broken-Back Wolf stopped smiling and stared at Xia Qing very solemnly.

It seemed news of the alpha wolf, who was currently nursing cubs, was off-limits. Xia Qing didn't bring up the medicinal bath matter again, said goodbye to Broken-Back Wolf, and returned to her own territory.

Unexpectedly, when Xia Qing was patrolling her territory that evening, Broken-Back Wolf came again. It greeted Xia Qing, went straight into the house, ran upstairs to its own room, pulled its notebook out of the basket, and carried off the basket lined with a cushion.

What would a wolf want with a basket? To hold cubs in?

Xia Qing was baffled.

To protect the safety of Northern Zone One, where Hui San had the largest planting area, on the third day after receiving Tan Junjie's report, Jidijiu Sect dispatched troops and combat teams to clear the wild paulownia on Mountain 51.

Besides ground forces, Jidijiu Sect also sent two helicopters and four large trucks.

The small helicopter flew at low altitude, coordinating with the troops to search the entire mountain area for any evolved wild paulownia that Xia Qing and Seeing Xin Yu had missed; the medium helicopter was responsible for transporting the sawed and bundled wild paulownia to the eastern quarantine belt of Northern Zone One and loading them onto the large trucks.

The large trucks would haul the wild paulownia to a paper mill in the safe zone to be used as raw material for papermaking.

The task squad responsible for clearing that giant high-risk evolved paulownia consisted of two parts: 16 people from the Qinglong Combat Team, led by Beard Feng; 18 people from the Northern Zone One Hazard Inspection Team, led by Tan Junjie.

The two had brought their teams to clear this tree in order to improve their members' combat capability and prepare for the next two element rains.

To avoid triggering an element explosion, humans would not use heavy firepower weapons during the element rain. The task squad simulated combat conditions during an element rain and decided to use machetes, saws, and guns to destroy this high-risk tree.

Ten members of the first assault echelon attacked the tree simultaneously from different directions, hacking at its vines.

"Bang!" Like the other attack-type wild paulownia, this tree had also undergone hardness evolution—and its hardness was even greater.

Just as Xia Qing had predicted, after being attacked, the aerial roots of this giant tree that had already taken hold in the soil ripped themselves out of the ground and, together with the vines that hadn't yet rooted, lashed about, smashing rock after rock. When they encountered rocks they couldn't smash, the vines quickly coiled around and bound them.

The quiet wild paulownia turned into a clawing, gnashing monster, and dust filled the entire valley.

Just as the task squad was preparing to launch a second attack to continue cutting the vines and weaken the wild paulownia's offensive power, the visual evolver Beard Feng suddenly ordered, "Everyone fall back immediately! Fall back, now! The vines are growing rapidly!"

Outside of an element rain period, this evolved giant tree had actually begun growing rapidly because of the attack! Just how much element had accumulated inside this giant tree?