Chapter 91: Evolution Wolf Attacks Wild Boar Breeding Center Again

On June 5th, Xia Qing finished clearing the blight grass that had sprouted during the second Blight Rain in her territory. The other crops in her territory that had successfully weathered the second Blight Rain had, in some cases, seen their internal blight element content rise, dropping from green to yellow status.

The biggest losses were the green-status sweet potato seedlings—four of them dropped to yellow. If she hadn't managed to grow one hundred and forty sweet potato vines from cuttings, Xia Qing would have grabbed a sledgehammer and gone back to the Safe Zone to smash up the Weather Station!

Whether green or yellow, the crops were all spreading their branches and leaves after surviving the second Blight Rain, continuing to grow according to the evolved habits of each species.

Tending the crops in her territory no longer took much time, so Xia Qing began following Luo Pei up Mountain 49 to learn long-range shooting. Whenever she went into the mountains with Luo Pei, Hu Zi Feng would send two team members into Territory Three to watch the place for her.

Mountain 49 was going to be used as a training base, so there was no need to clear it completely—just dealing with the mid-to-high-grade aggressive blight-evolved poisonous insects and snakes would do. The mountain was still full of danger, but not lethal.

Today's foraging mission Luo Pei had for Xia Qing was long-range sniping of poisonous snakes.

"Ah!"

Tang Huai, lying in the bunker on the roof of the bungalow in Territory Two, couldn't help exclaiming and ducked his head down. After hearing that Luo Pei was going out of the territory to patrol Mountain 49, Tang Huai had climbed up to the roof and used binoculars to search for Luo Pei's figure. Spotting a tree branch swaying at the mouth of Mountain 49, he adjusted the focus and looked over, only to be staring directly into a cold, gleaming gun barrel.

Hui Three Base's sharpshooter Luo Pei had truly been reborn from the ashes.

Tang Heng, lying beside him, asked anxiously in a low voice, "Brother, how is it? Did you spot Luo Pei?"

"If you want to die, look for yourself!" Tang Huai irritably shoved the binoculars into Tang Heng's arms.

Tang Heng knew his brother was still angry with him, so he didn't explain. He asked softly, "Has Luo Pei already recovered his peak strength?"

Tang Huai's face darkened. "His reaction was extremely fast. He detected me observing him from two thousand meters away and aimed his sniper rifle right at me."

"That's trouble. I'll go report to Captain Xu right now."

"Go, go, go, hurry up and go." Tang Huai impatiently scooted back a stretch, leaving the roof first to go back to digging bugs in the fields.

Tang Heng sighed helplessly and went back inside to report to Xu Pin.

Xu Pin, who had been urgently recalled to the Safe Zone by the brigade commander, was already tearing his hair out over the mess the Sufeng Squad headquarters had been blown into. "Understood. Keep monitoring."

"Yes." Hearing the bad tone in Xu Pin's voice, Tang Heng didn't dare mention the matter of Territory Two needing supplies and personnel reinforcements, and hung up.

Standing on Mountain 49, Luo Pei asked Xia Qing, "Where is the big tree in your territory that was heightened by blight evolution during the first Blight Rain?"

"It's in the western buffer forest—you can't see it from here." Xia Qing pointed out the tree's location to Luo Pei. "It was a Chinese Ash tree. Captain Tan had people pull it up by the roots and take it away. During the second Blight Rain, a blight-evolved Chinese Ash sapling sprouted there, and I've already cleared it."

The western buffer forest of Territory Three had also been cleared by Luo Pei's team last winter. He had no particular impression of that spot, so that suddenly blight-evolved Chinese Ash tree must have grown quite ordinarily last winter.

Luo Pei took Xia Qing up to an elevation of five hundred meters and taught her the essentials of aiming with a sniper rifle.

Having held a gun for over two months, Xia Qing was no longer the novice she once was. With a single shot, she hit... the tail of an evolved green snake on a tree branch five hundred meters away. The green snake dragged its wounded tail and fled.

"Not bad." Although Luo Pei said "not bad," his voice clearly carried dissatisfaction. "The wind speed is currently below five meters per second, but it still affects medium- and long-range shooting. Adjust your aiming point and fire at the same spot you just aimed at."

"Yes." Xia Qing adjusted her aiming point and continued firing.

By noon, Xia Qing had fired off a hundred rounds. She returned to her territory brimming with a sense of accomplishment and bragged to Boss Sheep, "Boss, I'm one small step closer to being a sharpshooter."

Boss Sheep squinted and chewed cud, too lazy to bother with her.

Luo Pei was very busy and didn't have time to take Xia Qing shooting practice every day. The next day, after patrolling her territory, Xia Qing climbed up into the evolved forest outside the northern isolation belt on the high slope of Territory Three.

According to the lease agreement she had signed with the Azure Dragon Squad, the thirteen thousand five hundred mu of evolved forest north of the northern isolation belts of Territories One, Three, and Four, extending one and a half kilometers upward, was designated as non-leased area.

Therefore, the dangerous aggressive blight-evolved creatures in this area had to be cleared by Xia Qing herself. If she hadn't been equipped with better protective suits and firearms, Xia Qing alone would never have dared to venture into the evolved forest after two Blight Rains.

This was the training ground Xia Qing had reserved for herself, and her own exclusive wild gathering base. If she wanted to get stronger, she had to go deep into danger and train with live ammunition.

Getting stronger also had to be done step by step, carefully and cautiously.

Within fifty meters of the isolation belt, the evolved forest was basically safe because the danger-inspection teams frequently sprayed insecticide and repellent there. Beyond fifty meters in, it was an entirely different world.

Soon, Xia Qing's foot was tightly wrapped by a green vine as thick as a finger. Low-risk aggressive vines didn't require a gun at all. Xia Qing hacked the vine binding her with a machete, then followed the vine—chop chop chop—cutting this evolved vine into segments, dug it up by the roots, cleared it thoroughly, and continued pushing forward.

Two hours later, Xia Qing heard a faint rustling sound—the sound of a large animal moving.

Xia Qing immediately sheathed her blade, drew her pistol, and took aim.

An adult evolved porcupine, its body covered in sharp spikes, entered Xia Qing's field of view, delighting her beyond measure. The wildlife on Mountain 49 really was plentiful!

A porcupine covered in spikes is still a pig. Xia Qing aimed her gun at the porcupine's front leg, deciding to capture it alive.

"Yeah—"

Before Xia Qing could even pull the trigger, a wild boar's wail came from down the mountain. Xia Qing's heart sank sharply. The wild boar breeding center had run into trouble again!

"Bang!"

Xia Qing shot the porcupine in the front leg, dodged the shower of spikes it sprayed, rushed forward and pinned it down, taped shut its mouth and wound, then wrapped the porcupine tightly along the grain of its spines and stuffed it into a bag.

"Yeah—"

Another wild boar's cry of agony. Xia Qing slung the bag on her back and ran back along the original route.

"Sister Qing, Sister Qing." Chen Cheng's voice came through the walkie-talkie—he was the one watching Xia Qing's territory for her.

Xia Qing immediately replied, "I'm rushing back right now. Protect Boss Sheep."

"Copy that. Sister Qing, be careful. If you run into a wolf pack, report your position immediately."

"Understood."

Half a month later, the wolves had come again.

After running not far, Xia Qing suddenly stopped, swiftly climbed a nearby big tree, and aimed her gun forward. A grey-brown evolved wolf bounded up and appeared in Xia Qing's view.

The evolved wolf accurately pinpointed Xia Qing's location, leaped backward to let the big tree block its body, leaving only half its face exposed, baring its teeth and glaring at Xia Qing. Its mouth and teeth were still stained with fresh red blood.

This was the evolved wolf that had just hunted down two wild boars at the breeding center.

Xia Qing didn't want to make an enemy of it. She holstered her gun, raised her hand, and made a "after you" gesture. The evolved wolf understood Xia Qing's meaning, and with one leap vanished without a trace.

Xia Qing listened intently, confirmed it was safe, then jumped down from the tree and ran back to her territory.

"Sister Qing." Chen Cheng came up to greet her, sniffed, and said, "The smell of porcupine. Sister Qing, did you hunt a porcupine?"

Seeing Boss Sheep working the water treadmill, Xia Qing finally breathed a sigh of relief. "Lucky to run into one. Do you know how many wolves came this time?"

"No news yet. Captain Tan and Brother Feng have taken people over." Chen Cheng sighed. "From the sound of it, another two adult wild boars. The people at the breeding center must be heartbroken."

Xia Qing nodded, put her backpack on the ground, took out the bag with the porcupine, and drew blood to test its blight element content.

Chen Cheng watching from the side said regretfully, "Red light, what a pity. How does Sister Qing plan to handle this porcupine?"

"Zhong Tao is coming over tomorrow, I'll trade it to him for supplies." Xia Qing quickly tied a tourniquet around the porcupine's wound—a live one is worth more than a dead one.

Tomorrow was the day she and Sun Zhe had set for transporting the second batch of worm castings. The Razor Rain had already passed half a month ago, and the roads swallowed by Razor Grass had been reopened. Zhong Tao was a member of the military patrol and supply transport convoy at Base Hui-3, and he would not cancel a patrol just because an evolved wolf had entered the breeding center and killed two wild boars.