Chapter 1122: Battle for Survival at Python Lake

Xia Qing tore her gaze away from Cub, who had just swallowed an entire strip of meat in one bite, and looked out over the shimmering Python Lake. The lake was huge—far bigger than Hill Sixty—and her face grew serious.

Out on the lake, a struggle for survival was playing out. Creatures fought desperately for every scrap of food.

The giant python Xia Qing had killed, all the way out on the lake fifteen hundred meters from shore, had vanished. Some animal had dragged it away, leaving no trace behind.

Chunks of Devastation Snake, the pieces Xia Qing had blasted apart, drifted on the rippling water. Birds, snakes, and fish immediately began a savage fight for the tasty prize.

One unlucky bird had just grabbed some Devastation Snake meat and hadn’t even taken off before a huge fish leapt from the water, biting down and dragging it below. A small snake who’d managed to swallow a bite was instantly seized by an even larger snake, only for a swift evolved bird to swoop down and snatch them both off the surface…

Every inch of the Evolved Forest was a battleground—every day, everywhere, creatures fought to claim food and defend their territory.

The snakes of Python Lake needed to hibernate, so in autumn, when the air turned chill, they’d leave the lakes and swamps to search for the perfect spot to sleep through winter.

Hill Sixty and Hill Sixty-One—especially this valley—were their likely destinations. The reason? Both sides of the river in this valley held bodies of snakes, bears, and wolves. If the snake pack had only chosen a single mountain, why land on both riverbanks at once?

The wolves and bears were gathered here, too: not just for premium food, but also to defend their own territories.

The pythons looking to seize land for winter weren’t stupid.

Earlier, after those six massive pythons appeared fifteen hundred meters out on the water, the white Yi Snake finally began to climb ashore, winding around the Devastation Snake. Clearly, the pythons were forcing the Yi Snake to land.

These white Yi Snakes were predators’ dream prey—every carnivore wanted a bite. And the Yi Snake’s scent was similar to that given off each spring by the Toon Tree in Section Three when it sprouted new buds.

That Toon Tree scent always got Old Goat and Xia Qing riled up, making them want to ram the tree and drive off the pesky wood moths clinging to the branches.

The scent of the Yi Stone made Xia Qing restless and angry, itching for a fight she couldn’t quite explain.

So, the giant pythons pushed the Yi Snake ashore, counting on its scent to provoke the wolves and bears into fighting each other. The goal? Weaken both sides, then pick the safest spot to hole up for winter when the dust settled.

It was a brilliant move.

The valley’s scattered corpses were the pythons’ ‘trophies.’

If it weren’t for her idol—the visionary at the peak of the pyramid—looking out for her, Xia Qing might’ve fallen victim to the same trick. The upgraded filter cartridge she’d been given kept the Yi Snake’s scent at bay. Without it, who knows what she might’ve done.

Last year, a big fight broke out here, but the timing was different—two months later, not in September.

Why not September last year? Xia Qing guessed it wasn’t because the pythons stayed away. More likely, the wolf pack’s Section Two fighters, Broken Back Wolf and Wolfdog Number Two, were both in her territory recuperating at the time, leaving the Northern Wolf Pack underpowered. So, the Alpha yielded part of Hill Sixty.

Then, in November, Broken Back Wolf was healed up and learned Xia Qing had some power-boosting medicine. That’s when the core wolves all jumped into a medicinal bath to grow stronger and launched a surprise attack on the pythons wintering on Hill Sixty.

At the same time, half-hibernating bears on Hill Sixty-One heard the commotion and rushed to grab meat, sparking a three-way battle.

By the time Broken Back Wolf took Xia Qing to Hill Sixty, all the Yi Snakes had already been eaten—nothing left but traces of their scent and magnetic fields, both of which had faded. She only saw the remains of wolves, bears, and other snakes.

This year, the wolf pack had grown much stronger. The Alpha didn’t back down, so instead of a simple hunt, the wolves and bears started a life-and-death battle in the valley, driven wild by the Evo-Synthetic Element gas from the Yi Snakes.

As for why the pythons invaded the Northern Wolf Pack’s core territory—Hill Fifty-Five—through the hidden underwater river last July, and why the bear pack got involved, Xia Qing could only guess. Probably because Hill Fifty-Five had clean water and a supply of Yi Stones.

If she wanted to learn the truth about that invasion, she’d have to ask Broken Back Wolf, now an advanced Brain Evolutionary, once this fight was over. But knowing that sly penny-pincher, he’d probably keep it to himself.

Those were questions for another day. Right now, Xia Qing had more pressing problems to solve.

As long as the pythons didn’t give up on invading Hill Sixty or Sixty-One, they’d keep forcing Yi Snakes ashore. Now, if it was just that, Xia Qing felt, as a human, she shouldn’t interfere too much in the animals’ battles for survival. But as Section Four’s top wolf, she would do whatever she could to cut wolf losses—and catch a few Yi Snakes to bring home.

Best-case scenario? Capture a live one. Her idol could study it and figure out exactly which Evo-Synthetic Element it contained, and maybe find a way to raise this top-quality snake in captivity.

If she couldn’t get one alive, she’d gladly settle for a dead one—eating the meat would still boost her strength.

Any other human barging into the wolves’ and bears’ core territory for food would spark a bloodbath. For her, it was fine. She was one of the pack.

But the big issue wasn’t with the Yi Stones; it was with the Devastation Snakes that sometimes left the lake with the Yi Snakes, or wandered the rivers.

Her idol had said before—a Devastation Snake population boom could throw the entire balance of the Northern Evolved Forest out of whack.

For half a year now, the research team from Territory Seven had been on the trail, studying Devastation Snakes. They’d deployed underwater robots into the lake again and again, but lake creatures wrecked them every time—so nobody knew how many snakes were really out there.

Xia Qing needed to gather up the Devastation Snakes, the Yi Snakes, and the wounded wolves as fast as she could and get them back to the territory. She’d talk with her idol about how to end this crisis at its source…

The fact she wasn’t eating the Yi Snakes she caught was making both the wolves and the bears restless. They wanted their share of the meat.

Er took up a spot behind Xia Qing, squaring off to block the agitated bear pack across the river.

Alpha came up beside Xia Qing and nudged her gently with his body. Lame Wolf hopped in front of her, pulling on her arm for food.

With all this meat, Xia Qing couldn’t keep it to herself. She stuck to the wolves’ rules: opened one of the food bags, and let Alpha dig in first.

Alpha started eating, and the wolf pack finally calmed. The bears, on the other hand, grew even wilder. Cub kept urging Monkey to cross the river and bring back some meat.

Monkey had just started crawling forward when a fierce shout from Er froze him in his tracks.

Once Alpha had his fill, Handsome Huge Wolf naturally wandered over to eat. He put away a ton, but Xia Qing didn’t mind—after all, he’d lost so much blood from his wounds and needed to recover.

After Alpha and Handsome Huge Wolf had eaten their share, Xia Qing pulled three fairly intact Yi Snakes from the bag. She sealed two away and shoved them deep into her backpack. The other wolves crowded forward. It was finally their turn to eat.

These were the main fighting force of the Northern Wolf Pack.

Xia Qing stepped aside, letting the wolves rush in. Lame Wolf, Black Wolf, and Er snagged the best spots and started chowing down. Any wolf who tried to jump the line got swatted away with furious snarls and heavy paws.

No wolf dared to snatch the snake meat from Xia Qing’s hands, but the bears across the river bared their fangs at her anyway.

Xia Qing wasn’t about to start an experiment to see if Yi Snakes drove the bears nuts too. She waved at Monkey, who was clinging to Cub’s leg. “Goofball, come here.”

The wolf pack nearby was intimidating, but Monkey jumped the more-than-four-meter river in one leap, landing in front of Xia Qing as soon as he heard her call.

“Ah—”

Xia Qing handed him a strip of meat, pointing across the river. “Go share it with your friends.”

Monkey bounded back over, and in a twist that wasn’t really surprising, he didn’t give the meat to his best friend—instead, he offered it to the Bear King.