Chapter 947: The Falling Cub

"Wooo—"

The alpha wolf in the woods let out a commanding low growl, as if warning Xia Qing not to move, and as if answering the pitiful cub in the tall tree's nest far away.

Xia Qing gripped her sniper rifle tight, worried both about the cub's injuries and about it dying of thirst under the blazing sun.

The giant eagle's use of the cub as bait had not only enraged the alpha wolf, it had lit a fire in Xia Qing's heart as well.

Today, she would blow its head off for sure!

Why was Xia Qing so sure the giant eagle was behind this? Because this pair of giant eagles, when they lived in the evolution forest of Base Guiwu, had used exactly this method to lure monkey troops!

No wonder the alpha wolf had rushed to Territory Three to call her over. The cub had been snatched up to a nest over sixty meters high, and a pack of wolves that couldn't fly could do nothing but fret against a speed-and-brain-evolved giant eagle.

After confirming Xia Qing was hidden, the alpha wolf left two giant wolves beneath the tree and ran off to lie in ambush on Shanfeng to the east.

Below Shanfeng, beneath an outcropping rock, three cubs lay low. To their left was the somewhat restless Black Wolf, to their right the even more restless Broken-Leg Girl.

"Aow…"

The cub in the high nest couldn't help but let out another low, mournful wail.

"Wooo—"

When the alpha wolf growled again, Broken-Leg Girl refused to obey, bared her fangs and roared:

"Aow-woo!!!"

Though her view was blocked, Xia Qing knew Broken-Leg Girl had come too, because she knew that howl all too well.

The cub in the giant tree's nest was very likely Broken-Leg Girl's pup!

Most likely, the giant eagle that had placed the cub in the nest was hiding somewhere, waiting for the wolf pack to appear so it could snatch one.

Where was it?

Where was the speed-and-brain-evolved giant eagle using the cub to lure wolves?!

Xia Qing steadied her breath and heartbeat, calmly scanning the evolution forest and sky within her field of view.

She spotted Broken-Back Wolf in a protective suit on a tree a dozen or so meters to the left of the nest, spotted Handsome Giant Wolf lying low in a crevice between rocks on the other side, even saw a trembling plucked-yellow weasel beside Handsome Giant Wolf—but the giant eagle she could not find.

The cub was wailing, Broken-Leg Girl was roaring, and Xia Qing kept up her calm search for the target.

"Ribbit—ribbit—"

A light-gray male tree frog, barely out of froghood, squatted by a small puddle on a horizontal branch below Xia Qing, letting out a pleasant croak to catch the attention of a female tree frog.

"Shhh…"

The distinctive slithering of a snake sounded. A snake, one step ahead of the female tree frog, crawled toward the male. From the sound of it, the snake was at least five meters long—pythons, most likely.

After judging that the life-and-death struggle below posed no threat to her, Xia Qing blinked a few times quickly and kept her full focus on searching for the target.

"Swoosh—"

The familiar sound of a squirrel leaping by pushing hard off the tree rang out. The male tree frog's croak turned into a shriek as it became the squirrel's prey.

"Hiss-hiss—"

The python, having lost its hunting target, stopped. Its forked tongue picked up a new scent, and it began slowly crawling along the branch toward Xia Qing.

"Wooo—" The giant wolf below the tree sent a warning to Xia Qing.

The python on the tree was not in the least afraid of the giant wolf on the ground and kept crawling toward its prey. After swallowing this big meal, it could hide in the canopy and sleep beautifully for days.

Xia Qing didn't move, because right now she had only one target: the hidden giant eagle!

When the mottled python crawled onto the branch in front of her, Xia Qing only glanced at it.

Five meters long, thick as a leg—that's all. Not even worth comparing to the grandson of that black loach in Snake Pit Number Fifty-Five.

If this little python lived in the evolution forest near Northern District One's territory, it would never dare mess with a human. But the pythons here had never seen a person, and didn't know that the tiny human before them was not one it could swallow at will.

Xia Qing pulled a leech nearly two meters long from her pack and gently set it on a branch beside her.

She'd grabbed it on the way here on purpose, to deal with exactly this kind of sudden situation.

A sniper lying in ambush in the evolution forest often became big predators' hunting target. To avoid being exposed, a sniper had to prepare bait in advance to draw predators away.

The python's long, forked tongue immediately picked up the fishy scent particles the leech was giving off in the air, and it switched targets to swallow the leech.

"Aow… woo… woo-woo…"

The cub in the treetop wailed again. Broken-Leg Girl beneath the rock couldn't take it any longer—she crawled out, threw her head back and howled, then charged toward the giant tree. The Black Wolf, left behind to guard the three cubs, also couldn't help letting out a roar.

"Aow—woo—"

The alpha wolf let out a soul-shaking roar, sounding the horn for the pack's battle.

Broken-Back Wolf sprang up from a tree below the giant tree, landing on a branch of the giant tree. Fifteen meters in a straight line from the cub in the nest above, it began leaping upward.

On this monstrous giant tree, for a stretch of over five meters below the top of the trunk, there wasn't a single branch—Broken-Back Wolf had no way of climbing up to the nest.

So rather than saying it was going up to save the cub, it was better to say it was using itself as bait to lure the giant eagle out.

"Aow—woo—"

The alpha wolf directed the battle, and two more evolution wolves with leaping ability began climbing the giant tree. They were far clumsier than Broken-Back Wolf and couldn't be relied on at all.

Xia Qing opened her vision to the fullest, scanning her surroundings. A black dot emerged from the high clouds to the due north, rapidly growing larger as it streaked straight toward Broken-Back Wolf!

"Aow—woo—"

The alpha wolf roared, and Handsome Giant Wolf along with five other giant wolves leapt out and roared together, trying to disrupt the giant eagle with their wall of sound.

But the black dot in the sky kept streaking straight toward Broken-Back Wolf, over fifty meters up the giant tree!

Every hair on Broken-Back Wolf stood on end; it pressed its back against the trunk and readied itself to fight back.

"Aow…"

"Aow-aow—"

"Aow-woo—"

The cub in the giant nest and the three cubs on the ground howled at the same time. The alpha wolf and Handsome Giant Wolf roared once more.

"BANG! BANG! BANG!"

Three bullets roared from the chamber, blasting apart the giant eagle's head, and the little python in front of Xia Qing—which had been swallowing a half-eaten leech—was so startled that it retreated backward while vomiting.

Xia Qing, holding the sniper rifle, paid no attention at all to the scene before her, and kept pressing the trigger.

"Bang bang bang…"

The giant eagle was falling, and the little wolf in the giant nest had already crawled to the edge of the nest, swaying on the brink!

Xia Qing swiftly shot through the trunk of a "small tree" over thirty meters tall on the outside below the little wolf, making it topple toward the area beneath the little wolf.

Getting hit by the trunk would certainly cause injury, but falling onto the rocks would certainly mean death!

"Aow—"

"Aow—woo—"

The little wolf let out a startled cry and fell from the giant nest; at the same moment, the lead wolf's howl rang out.

The broken-backed wolf leapt out, caught the little wolf in its jaws, then quickly adjusted its posture midair—four paws facing down—and dropped rapidly.

"Aow-wooo—"

With a howl from the lead wolf, Handsome Giant Wolf charged up along the big tree Xia Qing had shot down, leapt up, and precisely caught the little wolf that the broken-backed wolf had flung out with a violent toss of its head.

"Crack—"

The broken-backed wolf landed on the branches of the fallen big tree, bounced again over five meters into the air, landed on a nearby rock, staggered two steps to steady itself, then raised its head and let out a long, majestic howl.

Handsome Giant Wolf also landed on the rock, gently set down the cub it had been carrying in its jaws, and raised its head to howl in fury. Black Wolf and Broken-Leg Girl ran toward Handsome Giant Wolf with the two little wolves. The remaining little wolf brother with the rich-gold eyes jumped onto the rock and gazed up at Xia Qing in the big tree.

Xia Qing slid quickly down the big tree, landing right on the body of the little python the giant wolf had bitten to death. After steadying herself, she didn't even bother to gather the rope before running toward the giant tree.