Chapter 813: Wolf Lao Er and the Giant Crocodile

What should we do?

Whatever the reason, since there are evolved animals here that refuse to retreat and that humans cannot actively provoke, she and Xin Yu cannot advance.

Xia Qing calmly gave the order, "Retreat. Let's go find bamboo shoots in another bamboo grove, about three kilometers from here. We'll get there quickly."

"Okay."

Xia Qing was the team leader, and Xin Yu followed her command. "Does that bamboo grove have green-light bamboo?"

Xin Yu had used her trained bird to scout this mountain area from the air a couple of days earlier and knew the location of the bamboo grove Xia Qing mentioned. It was very close to Crocodile Lake.

Perhaps because she had heard of Xia Qing's heroic feat of wrestling a crocodile, Xin Yu no longer feared crocodiles like before.

Xia Qing replied, "We haven't gone in to look before. Let's head over and try our luck."

Xia Qing had taken her idol's white sugar and promised to make bamboo shoot threads for her idol, so she had to find green-light bamboo shoots. If the bamboo grove ahead didn't have green-light bamboo shoots, she could only trade with the Green Dragon Squad.

Within the bounds of Mountain Area No. 49, there was a bamboo grove where Xia Qing and Beard Feng had teamed up to dig shoots last year. There were green-light bamboo shoots there.

According to the agreement Xia Qing had signed with Yang Jin back then, she had priority purchasing rights for green-light food discovered on Mountain No. 49. But she couldn't buy today. Because Yang Jin hadn't left yet, and Xia Qing had just taken several hundred thousand in compensation from his pocket. Going to him to buy shoots right now would definitely mean getting fleeced.

Hmm?

When they were still a few hundred meters from the bamboo grove, Xia Qing tilted her head slightly. She seemed to hear... the sound of a wolf moving through the trees. From the noise, it was Wolf Lao Er!

But this wasn't on the route from Mountain No. 60 to Territory No. 3. Why had Wolf Lao Er come here?

Could it be a different wolf?

"There's a large beast ahead. Although it shows no aggressive intent, it's very powerful," Xin Yu issued a warning. "It's the season for crocodile eggs to hatch. The area ahead might be where crocodiles lay their eggs, and there's likely a mother crocodile guarding them."

When baby crocodiles are about to break out of their shells, they let out shrill cries. The mother crocodile will dig out the eggs based on the cries, help the babies hatch, and then carry them back to the shallow water. A mother crocodile during this period is extremely aggressive.

"Alright, let's take a detour." Xia Qing wasn't sure which wolf it was, so she led Xin Yu in a different direction. Although they were wearing protective masks and communicating through walkie-talkies at very low volume, Xia Qing was certain that if it was Wolf Lao Er, it would definitely recognize her voice. Because Wolf Lao Er's ears were especially sharp.

"It's coming closer, speeding up, no obvious ill intent." Although she knew the other party had no aggressive intent, Xin Yu's voice was still taut.

She hadn't brought her trained bird today, so she couldn't identify the species, nor could she drop explosives from the air. This made her feel very insecure.

Xia Qing was completely different from Xin Yu. Her eyes sparkled. "Judging by the way the grass and trees are swaying, it's not a crocodile. It should be a wolf or a leopard."

A wolf or a leopard...

Xin Yu's grip on her knife loosened a little.

Soon, a tawny evolved wolf poked its head out from the dense grass of the evolved forest more than twenty meters away. It held two baby crocodiles, each over thirty centimeters long, in its mouth, and looked at Xia Qing with a pair of clear rust-colored eyes.

"Wolf Lao Er!"

Telling Xin Yu to wait for her on the spot, Xia Qing rushed toward Wolf Lao Er, the wolf-dog that had suddenly appeared here, and asked in delighted surprise, "Wolf Lao Er, how did you end up here? Where's your protective suit?"

Wolf Lao Er glanced at Xin Yu in the distance before holding out the two baby crocodiles in its mouth toward Xia Qing.

"Are these for me?"

After Xia Qing took the crocodiles, Wolf Lao Er grinned at her. No matter how you looked at it, it was adorable.

Xia Qing rubbed Wolf Lao Er's wet big head and discussed with it, "I've never eaten baby crocodile before. I'm in luck today, thanks Wolf Lao Er. Let's head back to Territory No. 3 and cook the crocodile, okay? We'll add eggs and pumpkin and cook them together."

Sensing the joyful emotions between Xia Qing and the evolved wolf with blood on its fangs, and hearing the content of their conversation, Xin Yu felt

Her understanding of evolved wolves had been refreshed.

She knew this was the sick wolf Xia Qing had saved last year when it was nearly dead, and she knew this wolf was very close to Xia Qing. But she hadn't known that the bond between a person and a wolf had already become this intimate.

Confirming that Wolf Lao Er wanted to return to Territory No. 3 but was unwilling to travel in a group with anyone other than herself, Xia Qing told it to go back first.

"The boss is inside the territory. Wolf Lao Er, go back first. I'll return this afternoon. You must avoid the bamboo grove ahead. There are high-level evolved foxes there..."

Foxes weren't as large as evolved wolves, but those two were high-level evolvers. Wolf Lao Er might not be a match for them.

Xia Qing reminded it twice. Only after confirming that Wolf Lao Er understood that taking the path she had come from would be dangerous did she let it leave. She then regrouped with Xin Yu and continued on toward the bamboo grove.

"Grr—rr, grr—rr." When they reached the edge of the bamboo grove, Xia Qing heard the low, hoarse sound crocodiles make, like something rubbing against an object.

Although crocodiles don't have vocal cords, when they expel air from their lungs, they make different sounds. This growling sound indicated that the crocodile had detected its territory was being invaded and was using its roar to warn enemies and protect its territory.

Needless to say, the crocodile had discovered that its babies had been snatched by a wolf and was furious.

If Xia Qing and Xin Yu went looking for bamboo shoots now, they would definitely get chased and bitten by the crocodile.

Xia Qing led Xin Yu to climb up onto a relatively tall rock. Observing from a distance, they discovered there was actually a green-light bamboo nearly eight or nine meters tall inside the grove!

How could they tell it was green-light? Because a furious baby crocodile over four meters long had just snapped off a bamboo shoot, and a bamboo tree had shot bamboo-leaf darts.

Although the bamboo-leaf darts hadn't done much to the thick-skinned mother crocodile, they had pierced and killed two baby crocodiles. The mother crocodile roared furiously, picked up the two newly hatched babies in her mouth, and twisted her body as she crawled toward the lake.

Xia Qing discussed quietly with Xin Yu, "Crocodiles can't climb up here. Stay up here and don't go down. I'm going to dig for shoots."

Xin Yu nodded. "Watch out for the bamboo-leaf darts and the crocodile. That crocodile is very angry right now."

Without Xin Yu needing to say so, Xia Qing could also see that the crocodile was very angry. She pushed her speed to the maximum, ran over to pick up the bamboo shoot the crocodile had snapped off, then opened her iron umbrella, swiftly used a hoe to dig out the half of the bamboo shoot left in the soil, and amid the sound of bamboo-leaf dart attacks, gave a hard tug on a bamboo root. After confirming the direction of the root, she quickly locked onto two bamboo shoots and confirmed that none of this large patch were aggressive evolved bamboo.

"The mother crocodile is coming back."

Hearing Xin Yu's warning, Xia Qing quickly left the bamboo grove, returned to the rock, and took shelter with Xin Yu.

The mother crocodile caught the scent of other creatures here and roared furiously several more times. After Xia Qing and Xin Yu waited quietly for over twenty minutes, two more baby crocodiles broke out of their shells with shrill cries. Once the mother crocodile carried them away, Xia Qing rushed over again and dug out two bamboo shoots, one large and one small. Just as she was preparing to continue searching for shoots, she heard Xin Yu urging her, "Come back quickly. A giant crocodile is coming."

Xia Qing immediately returned to the rock and saw a giant crocodile about twelve meters long slowly crawling into the bamboo grove.

At the same time, the wolf-dog Wolf Lao Er, passing through the evolved forest, encountered a red fox.