Chapter 841: Recovering Lost Territory

An eleven-person beast-hunting squad from god-knows-where—four were wounded by Xia Qing's arrows, two were crushed to death by rocks, and four were killed by the wolf pack—one of them was even swatted by a bear after dying, and another hid inside a helicopter only to be surrounded and captured by the wolves.

After the bear and wolf packs left, the beast-hunting squad members, dead or alive, were all stuffed into Xia Qing's trophy helicopter and flown back to Territory One with the Azure Dragon Squad, where they would be officially interrogated and punished according to the law by Hui Three.

Yan Long also took Huo Zhun and Zhang Song, flew the helicopter back to Territory Seven, leaving only Xia Qing and Xin Yu's squad—who had come out to hunt wild ducks—on the scene.

And one silly monkey.

With no outsiders around, Xin Yu no longer had to hold herself together. She braced herself against a rock and sat on the ground, her trembling hand pulling a medicine bottle from her backpack.

"Is that a painkiller?" Xia Qing was also a magnetic-sense evolver and knew exactly what being attacked by magnetic sense felt like. Spending the day around the powerfully magnetic wolf pack, the sharp-aura Yan Long, and the brain-domain evolver Zhang Song must have been miserable for Xin Yu.

But the situation had been urgent, and aside from sending her onto the helicopter, Xia Qing hadn't had a better option.

Xin Yu nodded—her head was splitting. Without a fast-acting painkiller, she didn't have the strength to walk out of these mountains.

"No medicine. We're not going after the wild ducks anymore—I'll carry you back." Painkillers taken too often have adverse effects on the nervous system, so Xia Qing certainly wouldn't let her take any. Xin Yu weighed just over a hundred jin; that kind of load meant nothing to Xia Qing.

She pulled a soft folding chair from her backpack, opened it, and gestured for Xin Yu to sit down. "I had Uncle Huo make this for me."

This chair had been specially designed by Xia Qing for her idol, and she'd given one to Zhang Song as well. Zhang Song said he liked it very much, but this time he'd been carried out by Yan Long again—probably because she found it too much trouble.

Xin Yu didn't stand on ceremony with Xia Qing and sat straight down in the comfortable chair. The chair even had a bulletproof backrest to protect the person being carried from attack—truly a thoroughly thought-out design.

Xia Qing hoisted her friend and teammate onto her back, stuffed the silly monkey that had been lying dazed on the rock into a cloth bag and slung it at her waist, and started the return trip.

Being close to Xia Qing's gentle magnetic field didn't make Xin Yu feel sick, so she closed her eyes and rested. She'd already lost her combat ability, and by team rules Xia Qing could have sent her back by helicopter with Yan Long or the Azure Dragon Squad.

She hadn't done so—not because she didn't trust Yan Long and the Azure Dragon Squad, but because she knew being around them would give her a headache. In her groggy haze, Xin Yu made up her mind: she had to improve her tolerance for hostile magnetic fields as soon as possible. She still wanted to team up with Xia Qing and explore the Evolution Forest together.

After sleeping only a dozen minutes or so, Xin Yu heard a pack of wolves howling. She opened her eyes, took out her phone, typed a message, and held it up for Xia Qing to see.

Xia Qing stopped and asked, "Which direction is the howling coming from?"

The mountains produced echoes, and Xin Yu wasn't a hearing evolver, so she couldn't accurately judge the distance to the source—only the general direction. She pointed to the north-northwest. "There."

Xia Qing looked toward the northwest, her eyes bright, her voice calm. "That's Mountain Fifty-Five. The wolf pack took back from the bears and the giant python the territory they lost last year."

Although she'd taken part in the entire confrontation between the wolves and bears today, Xia Qing still hadn't figured out how the two sides had negotiated—still, as long as the outcome was good, that was enough.

Sensing Xia Qing's joy, Xin Yu gave an OK gesture and continued resting against the soft chair's backrest. This chair even had a head-support fixture—Xin Yu was experiencing for the first time that being carried on someone's back while traveling could actually be this comfortable…

Knowing Xin Yu was uncomfortable, Xia Qing emptied her mind to steady her emotions and hurried back to the parking lot at the foot of Mountain Fifty, then drove through the north gate back to Northern Zone One.

After first dropping Xin Yu off at Territory Eight, Xia Qing returned to her own territory through the south gate.

Tang Huai leaped out from Territory Two. "Xia Qing, why were you at Territory Eight so long? You two didn't just watch the whole fight through your tamed birds, did you? Do you have video? Can I see it?"

Xia Qing shook her head, jumped out of the car, opened the south gate of her territory, and drove inside. Though the ringing in her ears had eased a little, she still couldn't hear clearly what Tang Huai was saying.

But even if she couldn't hear, Xia Qing could still roughly guess what this guy was saying—shaking her head was definitely the right response.

Seeing Xia Qing return to Territory Three, Dajiang really wanted to run over and ask about the battle, but Sheep Boss and Wolf Lao Er were much faster than him, so Dajiang didn't dare.

Xia Qing gave Dajiang a greeting, then opened the car door and let the Boss and Lao Er in. Once home, Xia Qing tossed the silly monkey from the cloth bag straight into the sheep pen. "Lao Er, this silly thing's yours. I've got a meeting."

The wolf pack had taken back Mountain Fifty-Five—no wonder the alpha wolf had been willing to take on this silly monkey and let her bring it back for treatment. By that math, the deal wasn't a loss. The alpha wolf and the broken-back wolf must both be in great moods now; once Xia Qing's ears healed, she'd go talk to them about the monkey's treatment fee—she might be able to trade it for a small piece of yi-stone.

Lao Er grinned at Xia Qing, while Sheep Boss squinted at the dumb monkey lying in the pen, looking thoroughly annoyed.

After Xia Qing went inside, Sheep Boss pawed the ground, showed its spiral horn to the silly monkey, and issued a challenge. Lao Er blocked the Boss, licked its fur, and gestured for it to go outside and play.

After Sheep Boss huffed off, Lao Er sniffed the dumb monkey lying on the ground, ran to the vegetable greenhouse, fetched a cucumber in its mouth, and placed it by the silly monkey's mouth.

The silly monkey didn't move, lying dumbly on the ground, staring at the roof of the sheep pen, its eyes completely unfocused.

Seeing it wasn't hungry, Lao Er left it alone. Picking up the small basket in its mouth, it went off to catch bugs to feed the chickens. It had already fed the fish—the chickens still needed feeding.

Not long after Lao Er left, the freeloading red squirrel leaped down from the roof, squatted at the sheep pen door watching for a while, then darted in, snatched the cucumber, and vanished in a streak of red light.

On closer inspection, that red light had a tinge of green to it.

After showering in the second-floor bathroom and changing into clean clothes, Xia Qing came out, opened the fridge, took out a glass of her homemade iced mung-bean soup, drank it to suppress the nausea, then picked up her phone and found a message from her idol sent twenty minutes earlier:

Don't bring that ugly monkey anywhere near me today.

Xia Qing replied immediately: Yes, thank you, Third Brother, for sending the helicopter to rescue me today. I got my hands on a bigger, roomier helicopter—wherever you want to go from now on, I'll fly you there.

Zhang San replied quickly: I can fly a helicopter myself.

Xia Qing laughed—her idol really was impressive, even able to fly a helicopter. She typed: The wolf pack took back Mountain Fifty-Five. Do you want some green-light crocodile meat? I'll go catch one for you tomorrow.

The crocodiles of Mountain Fifty-Two were food for the giant python of Mountain Fifty-Five. Now that the wolf pack had taken back Mountain Fifty-Five, that giant python had either become the wolves' meal or fled—starting now, the crocodiles belonged to her and the wolf pack.

With green-light food on the table, her idol really did become gentler: No rush, let's eat in a couple of days—get your ears healed first. Also, do you still have those two medicines, SDE-5 and RDS-1? If so, three times a day, two tablets of each.

Those two medicines had been traded to her by her idol after Xia Qing's ears were injured by bat bombs the night the western wolf pack launched the beast tide.

Xia Qing found the tablets in the special medicine compartment of the fridge, took them, lay down on the bed, and fell asleep.

Being chased by rocket fire and then roaring at the bear pack had left Xia Qing's ears and throat sore—she desperately needed rest.