Chapter 152: North Barrier Rendezvous

Dawn was just breaking, but inside her own territory, Xia Qing didn’t need a flashlight. Her vision evolver’s eyes cut through the dim light with ease.

Two of the solar panels were busted, and the diesel generator still hadn’t arrived. She needed to save every bit of electricity she could.

By the time she reached the northern barrier of her territory, the team from Territory Seven was already there.

A man in camouflage stood waiting. He had to be over 1.9 meters tall and looked powerful, even though he carried no weapons and posed no threat.

Xia Qing stopped just short of leaving the buffer forest at the edge of her land.

This wasn’t her first time seeing him. A few days ago, he’d joined Zhang San on a sweep of Territory Nine. Back then, he’d stood right by Ji Li, hefting a light grenade launcher.

So, Territory Seven has a light grenade launcher!

Xia Qing called out first. “Hello, Territory Three. Two Five Eight.”

“Territory Seven, Three Seven Six. Thanks,” the man replied.

His tone was friendly, and Xia Qing felt herself relax. She stepped forward, handed him the vacuum bag, and quickly retreated back into her own lands.

Returning home, Xia Qing found the yellow weasel had already left. The two injured wolves were still eating.

When Xia Qing returned, the wolf with the broken leg bared its bloody fangs, guarding its food. The brain-evolved wolf just glanced up at her before lowering its head and continuing to eat.

Even dogs guard their food—let alone wolves. Xia Qing had timed her return carefully, but hadn’t expected they’d still be eating.

She kept her distance from the two feasting wolves and greeted the alpha. “Queen, I’m back. At sunrise, I’ll be leaving to hunt. Two people will come by to keep an eye on the territory. They won’t enter the village.”

The alpha seemed exhausted today. When Xia Qing left earlier, she’d seen her sprawled on the ground, and now she hadn’t moved. Even after hearing Xia Qing’s words, she didn’t respond.

There was still plenty of time before daybreak. With nothing better to do, Xia Qing switched on the tool room light on the first floor and picked up where she’d left off digging the cellar.

After three days of hard work, she’d smashed through the cement floor inside the house and dug out a cellar one meter wide and three meters deep. She’d even carved out a storage nook at the bottom. Moving up and down, she finally managed to haul out all the dirt and dumped the pile in the courtyard.

Her luck held—she’d dug over three meters down without hitting water or causing the house to collapse. Next step would be bricking up the walls to reinforce the cellar and sorting out pest control, moisture-proofing, and ventilation.

There wasn’t enough time to finish that today. The sky had lightened; it was time to prep her gear for the mission.

Even though the torrential rain hadn’t been Xiang Rain, the creatures in the Evolver Forest would be even more active and dangerous now thanks to the fresh water.

Gun, knife, rope, vacuum bags, medicine… Xia Qing carefully checked each item, making sure everything was in order before packing them into her sturdy pack.

After breakfast, Xia Qing put the chickens in their enclosure, told Boss Sheep to feed the fish, and asked Da Jiang and Guan Tong to help watch over the territory. Then she threw on her heavy pack and hurried to the entrance of Mountain 49 at the northwest edge of Plot One, meeting up with Hu Zifeng’s squad.

“Qing-jie!” Shi Du, who had already arrived, waved his arms and shouted a greeting.

With Hu Zifeng’s eight-person squad, Shi Du, and Xia Qing, all ten members had assembled. Together, they headed into Mountain 49.

After more than a month of regular sweeps by the Azure Dragon Unit, Mountain 49 was still part of the Evolver Forest, but the dangerous evolved creatures near the trailhead had been wiped out. Walking the mountain path felt especially safe.

Hu Zifeng explained the day’s mission as they walked. “We’re heading to the swamp between the northern end of Mountain 49 and Mountain 52. Job is to clear out evolved pythons, small evolved vipers, evolved venom spiders, and evolved musk rats. Be extra careful—evolved water leeches and nematodes are especially nasty. Everybody check your protective suits for holes before we go in.”

A swamp?

Shi Du shuddered and shot Xia Qing a look. Seeing the steady calm in her eyes behind the protective mask, he pulled himself together.

The team skirted around the west side of the peak, and an hour later they arrived at the mission site on the north side.

Hu Zifeng assigned tasks. “Group One is me, Chen Cheng, Er Yong, Da Jiang, and Shi Du. Group Two is Chen Zheng, Jing Kuan, Peng Jian, Liangzi, and Xia Qing. I’ll lead Group One as the sniper. Chen Zheng leads Group Two, with Peng Jian as main sniper and Xia Qing as vice sniper.”

Shi Du stared at Xia Qing in astonishment.

For Xia Qing to be named vice sniper in Group Two meant her marksmanship, while not quite at Peng Jian’s five-star vision evolver level, still beat everyone else in her group.

So that sniper rifle wasn’t for Hu Zifeng’s squad after all—it was for herself?

No way!

Shi Du gawked as Xia Qing, shouldering the old pack she’d carried for years and gripping her sniper rifle, took up her post opposite Peng Jian in Group Two. He just couldn’t wrap his mind around it.

“Shi Du.”

Hu Zifeng, leading Group One forward, glanced back and saw Shi Du frozen in place. “Let’s go.”

“Coming!” Shi Du snapped out of it and hustled to his logistics post.

It might be Shi Du’s first time seeing Xia Qing take up the sniper position, but it wasn’t her first mission. Swiftly, she and Peng Jian divided the area, covering their respective fields, back-to-back as they got ready.

“Bang!”

Xia Qing took out a huge spider leaping from a distant tree with one shot, startling a flock of birds. In a heartbeat, she pivoted her rifle forty-five degrees and aimed at an evolved musk rat poking its head out of the swamp fifty meters away.

A rat’s head, barely bigger than her palm and fifty meters off, was no challenge at all for Xia Qing, a level nine vision evolver.

“Bang.”

Watching Xia Qing’s smooth shots and the downed mutated creatures, Shi Du, busy vacuum-sealing the trophies, finally believed it—Xia Qing really had become a sniper.

An hour later, the squad paused for a break—which also meant Shi Du was at his busiest.

He quickly vacuum-sealed a few small vipers and stuffed them into his pack, glancing over to see Xia Qing still covering the squad as sniper while the rest of Group Two dealt with the dead creatures.

Once the trophies were packed away, the cleanup continued.

After the second round of fighting, as everyone vacuum-packed the fresh kills, Hu Zifeng shouted, “Nine o’clock, two hundred meters out, there’s a brood of goslings under those bushes. Xia Qing, Peng Jian, cover us! Jing Kuan, Er Yong, and I will go grab them—bring them back alive!”

“Got it!”

The whole squad lit up. Two speed evolvers sprinted after Hu Zifeng toward the hiding goslings, while Xia Qing and Peng Jian kept picking off evolved creatures that jumped out at them.

Soon enough, Er Yong came back grinning, sack in hand. “No idea where the goose went, but we got fifteen goslings!”

Chen Zheng opened the sack and frowned. “These goslings look barely two weeks old. Shouldn’t there be a parent looking after them?”

Their fluffy down was the same breed as the one she’d bartered with Territory Seven that morning. Maybe these goslings’ parents had been killed by the wolf pack earlier today or yesterday. Xia Qing got excited. “If the goose is dead, we should be careful the goslings don’t suffocate. Let’s take them back and test for Xiang element content. If we’re lucky, raise them to lay eggs.”

Chances were slim, but Hu Zifeng was hopeful too. “Let’s bring them back. If they’re edible, Little Wu’s in for a treat.”

Hu Zifeng couldn’t help but show off, and Xia Qing muttered to herself:

So what if you have a cat? I’ve got wolves. I’ve got sheep. And not just any sheep—it’s Greenlight’s sheep!

Once the vipers were packed up, Shi Du pointed to a lush patch of green plants not far off. “Captain Hu, I think that’s a field of water chestnuts over there.”