Chapter 1015: Through the Valley: Allies, Wolves, and Bamboo Roots

Xia Qing stayed quiet so Zhang San couldn’t be sure if the northern wolf pack was acting normally. He lowered his voice. “Maybe it’s the pesticide I sprayed—it could be bothering them.”

The formula Zhang San used was actually a result of Bai Liu’s research, designed to relax evolved wolves and make them less hostile. Clearly, the wolves in the Northern Evolved Forest had different preferences from the ones in Bai Liu’s forest. In trying to be clever, he’d only made things worse.

“It’s fine. Just relax,” Xia Qing said, stepping in front of Zhang San to shield him. She gently stressed to the Alpha, “Queen, Third Brother moves too slowly to dodge an attack, so he sprayed pesticide to ward off insects. He’s saved Broken Back, Broken Leg, Er, White Weasel, and Four-Eyes before. He’s my teammate and won’t hurt the pack.”

Once the Alpha finally retracted its fangs, Xia Qing took out the idol’s special boar-skin harness. “Third Brother, I’ll carry you. We need to hurry through Section Three of Hill Forty-Nine and meet up with Huo Zhun.”

Xia Qing had originally planned to have Big Guy carry Zhang San and let Handsome Huge Wolf carry her. But with the Alpha giving her that look, there was no way that would fly.

With her idol light as a feather on her back, Xia Qing dashed toward the chestnut grove at the valley’s edge. The other wolves stayed up on the hillside; only Broken Back, geared up in a protective suit, followed them into the valley.

The two set up a sampling tent in the safe zone before Xia Qing darted into the chestnut grove. She waited for a giant wasp, powered by Evolutionary Synthetic Element and its own magnetic sense, to appear. The instant it did, she unleashed a heavy dose of anesthetic spray right at it. The wasp swarm was thrown into chaos and, within twenty seconds, was dropping to the ground left and right.

Xia Qing snatched up the last giant wasp as it hit the ground and hurried back to the tent. “Third Brother, this is the one.”

“Perfect.” Zhang San took the anesthetized wasp and managed to sample and weigh it all in just fifteen seconds. “Send it back when you’re ready.”

Xia Qing ducked out of the tent, hopped over the creek and put the wasp back right where it fell. She kept watch, making sure no other critters tried to run off with the helpless, drugged up evolved wasps.

Inside the tent, Zhang San was dividing the samples. Broken Back stared at his nimble fingers, deep in thought. Once Zhang San finished and looked up, Broken Back grinned, showing off its two adorable, snowy-white little fangs.

This wolf looked young and fresh, but it was still a wild, evolved forest beast. Zhang San wasn’t sure what it wanted, so he just smiled back, unzipped the tent calmly, and gestured outside. “Go on out. I need to pack up the tent.”

The two of them had barely started tidying up when Xia Qing darted back from the creek, fast as a shot. She speedily rolled up the tent and handed it to Broken Back, then swung the idol up onto her back. “Let’s go!”

The giant wasp’s wings were already starting to twitch—if they didn’t leave now, they’d be out of luck.

After scrambling up out of the valley, Zhang San sprayed on scent-blocker while Xia Qing finished packing the tent, stuffing it into her backpack. She carried Zhang San as they slipped through Section Six of Hill Forty-Nine with the wolf pack guarding their way.

Huo Zhun was waiting outside the hill. When he saw Zhang San on Xia Qing’s back, his eyes nearly popped out. “Th-Th-Third…Qing…”

Xia Qing cut him off. “Third Brother wants to dig bamboo shoots too. Move it.”

Yesterday, when you brought fish and asked if I wanted to team up, you never said Third Brother was tagging along!

Third Brother’s a top-tier scientist, officially under special protection! This place is the insanely dangerous Evolved Forest! What the hell is he doing here?!

Jostled and dizzy from the ride, Zhang San shot Huo Zhun a grumpy glare. “Can’t a guy come out and dig bamboo shoots?”

Huo Zhun snapped right back to attention. “Of course, of course! Whatever you want, I’ll carry you for a while.”

Xia Qing shook her head—Huo Zhun was way better at close combat than she was. “I’ll carry Third Brother. Huo, you take the front. Queen, cover the left, right, and rear.”

Huo Zhun nodded, unable to hold back a reminder. “Careful with your footing, Sister Qing.”

Just don’t drop Third Brother, whatever you do.

Last month, Xia Qing and Huo Zhun had led a team to dig up bamboo roots from aggressive devastation-evolved bamboo on Hill Fifty-Two. Even though the path they’d cut was nearly overgrown with wild grass and vines, Huo Zhun hacked through the tangle with his black blade and they pressed on.

Finally Xia Qing stopped running and Zhang San started to feel less battered. He started to pay attention to the evolved wolves around them—and, in the distance, a pair of yellow weasels, one big and one small, trailing behind.

The little one was probably one of five pups born to the albino weasel mother that had a tough birth back in February. Wild animals breed and grow up so much faster than people.

The keen-eyed Alpha caught Zhang San staring and leapt several meters ahead, barking fiercely from a rocky perch.

Huo Zhun was so startled his hair stood on end. “Sister Qing, what’s going on?”

Xia Qing understood what the Alpha was saying. She quietly reminded her idol, “Third Brother, the wolves hate being stared at by humans. Take this chance to look at the local plants and animals instead, okay? Queen, Huo, let’s keep moving.”

“Will do.” Zhang San stopped looking at the wolves and started focusing on the Evolved Forest plants instead.

It was the first time he’d been this close to the wild, rainbow-colored evolved woods. Even though he could name and classify the plants on sight, their sheer variety still stunned him.

He was dying to take off his protective mask and take a deep breath of the cool, free air.

The evolved wolves teaming up with Xia Qing had developed some patience with her slow pace by now. But the young weasel pup, out on its first group adventure, couldn’t stay focused—after jogging a bit, it chased butterflies or pounced on lizards instead.

By the time Xia Qing finally reached the bamboo grove, the little guy still had half a lizard hanging from its mouth.

Hu Zifeng, who stood guard at the grove, was even more stunned when he spotted Zhang San than Huo Zhun had been.

Chen Cheng ran over to help Xia Qing with the harness, steadying the skinny, bespectacled figure with utmost care. “Sister Qing, who is this?”

Who walks around this thin? Is he just frail or does he have special abilities?

Xia Qing explained, “This is Third Brother from Territory Seven. He’s here to collect edible bamboo shoots too.”

Third! Third! Third Brother?!

Chen Cheng’s hands were shaking. He suddenly felt they should’ve cleared the grove more thoroughly—maybe even sift the soil with a net—before letting Third Brother come dig. Hu Zifeng’s squad felt about the same.

After regaining his composure, Zhang San nodded to Hu Zifeng’s squad. He collected a soil sample first, then asked, “Is all of this moso bamboo?”

“Yeah, this whole area is. You have to walk over two hundred meters west for other evolved species,” Xia Qing replied. She had the Alpha lead the wolf pack in a perimeter patrol while Hu Zifeng’s squad and Huo Zhun closed in for protection. Then she began teaching Zhang San how to dig for shoots.

“Only whip shoots can be dug now—the tips of the underground bamboo roots. The ones poking above ground have already hardened and there’s not much meat left, no good to eat. See here? Lots of exposed whip shoots have already been nibbled off by wild boar or bamboo rats…”

Xia Qing fitted the idol with the iron umbrella, leading him to a relatively open spot beside a thick Green Lantern Bamboo. She popped open the umbrella. “This is an aggressive Green Lantern Bamboo. Its roots are in good shape. We’ll gently peel back the topsoil, looking for the tip of the bamboo root, or bamboo whip. Don’t break the root, or the bamboo will fire bamboo-leaf darts.”

“Got it.” Zhang San, with his brain evolution, had never used a mattock before, but after watching Xia Qing dig a few times, he got the hang of it. He grabbed the mini-mattock with both hands and started digging.

After a couple tries, he found his first whip shoot and sounded cheerful. “Xia Qing, is this one?”

Standing guard by Zhang San, Huo Zhun suddenly realized why Xia Qing had risked bringing him here. Out in the wild, Zhang San wasn’t some skeleton in a lab coat—he finally felt alive.

The more Huo Zhun thought about it, the more he felt his father had picked the right path for him. Life in this territory was tough—plenty of chores, no restaurants, bars, or shopping centers—but it was more real, more grounded, more… human.

Even someone as efficient and mechanical as Zhang San must’ve felt it too, or he wouldn’t have stepped out of the lab and into this territory to join in real life.