Chapter 313: Unwanted Ties and Schemes in the Territory

Xia Qing explained, “This wolf is just here to recover in my territory. Once it’s better, it might go back to the Evolved Forest, so there’s no need to register it for now.”

For evolved beasts—especially large predators that could threaten human safety—if you want to bring them into a Safe Zone, you have to get a domesticated beast ID and have the beast’s registration number clearly marked on its body.

Once registered, a domesticated beast is officially recorded and considered the personal property of its handler. Nobody else is allowed to seize or hunt it—or they’ll face legal consequences.

Of course, if a domesticated beast injures someone or destroys public property, the handler will be held legally responsible.

So unless she was sure the sick wolf would stay in her territory for good, Xia Qing didn’t want to register it. If its pack called out to it someday and it ran off, and later that same pack got into a fight with some squad, the authorities would track the registered number back to Xia Qing, holding her accountable.

She could end up sacrificing her entire territory over this, so Xia Qing had to be careful.

Old Goat?

It can’t be registered.

Because to get a domesticated beast ID, you have to show the authorities the animal follows your commands. In Old Goat’s eyes, Xia Qing was more of a little sidekick than a master, so it never passed the test.

Just as Xia Qing was about to head back to her territory, she overheard someone reporting to Xie Yu over the phone:

“The Qian Lin Squad and the two ambush squads have all been captured. We found several illegal animal lures on them. Their plan tonight was for Qian Lin to provoke the wolf pack into attacking the territory, while the two hidden squads would sneak into Territory One during the chaos and blow up the building where Luo stays.”

Xie Yu gave a calm order, “Find out what those powders are for. Make sure the people involved are handled cleanly.”

“Understood.”

After Xie Yu hung up, Xia Qing greeted him and then headed back to her territory.

During the first nine years of catastrophic disasters, beast tides and natural calamities were rampant. Squads from the same base had to work together to defend the Safe Zone. Even though there was rivalry, they wouldn’t really go for the kill or take out each other’s core members.

But in the tenth year, when humanity started to recover and expand production, although the calamities hadn’t fully ended, impatient people started trying to grab the spoils of victory.

To snatch a bigger slice of the pie, you needed to kick more people out of the game. That’s when squads started fighting each other for real—sometimes even killing. The Sufeng Squad, highest-ranked in Hui Three Base, made their first strike against the second-ranked Azure Dragon Squad.

From that moment, at least as far as Xia Qing knew, the clashes and under-the-table fights between the two squads had happened at least ten times over the past year, with damage on both sides. Once Yang Jin brought herbs back and thoroughly removed the synthetic toxin from Luo Pei, Azure Dragon’s counterattacks would be fiercer.

Honestly, Xia Qing hoped Azure Dragon would get even more ruthless, stripping Tang Zhengsu of his cronies one by one—so she could finally take her revenge.

“Qing-jie.”

Xia Qing had barely walked a few steps before Xie Yu called out again.

Xie Yu waved his phone full of messages and came over with a grin. “Xu Pin gave Tang Huai a mission—to mess up things between you and Hu Zifeng, and try to pull you over to Sufeng’s side.”

So that’s why Tang Huai offered to trade an oil press with her? That over-the-top act finally made sense.

Xia Qing nodded, letting him know she understood.

After Xia Qing got back, Jing Kuan and the others didn’t leave right away. Instead, just like Xie Yu ordered, they kept watch over Section Three all night.

Before she could even enter the village, Xia Qing got a message from Xie Yu: Territory One had officially entered into partnership with Tang Zhengbo. “Qing-jie, try to be a bit nicer to Tang Huai—let Tang Zhengsu and Xu Pin believe he’s still useful, so they’ll keep him here in Territory Two.”

Letting Tang Huai stay in Territory Two was good for Tang Zhengbo, for Territory One, and for Xia Qing herself. If Sufeng swapped in someone else, there was no guarantee they’d loaf around like Tang Huai did.

After replying to Xie Yu, Xia Qing greeted Old Goat and Er Gou, who were lying on the straw pile by the chicken yard. “Someone else is guarding the territory tonight, so why don’t you both go sleep inside?”

Old Goat got up at once and followed Xia Qing, but Er Gou just stayed sprawled on his straw pile.

Xia Qing walked over and gave the big patient a good scratch behind the ears. “You planning to sleep out here tonight?”

Er Gou locked eyes with Xia Qing, his eyes glowing faintly in the dark, and pressed his head deeper into the straw.

Xia Qing shrugged. “Suit yourself. Want to sleep here? All right. Do you want to keep your protective suit on, or take it off?”

Er Gou rolled halfway over so his belly was up, stretching his front paws toward Xia Qing. She took the little shoes off his front paws, and then he stuck out his hind paws for her to take those off too.

Once the shoes were off, he didn’t nudge for the protective suit to come off, so Xia Qing just left it at that and went home with Old Goat.

The next morning, Xia Qing was woken by Red Squirrel.

She opened her eyes and sat up, peeking through the gap in the curtains she’d left open on purpose, watching Red Squirrel have a drink.

Red Squirrel drank water just like a cat or dog, lapping it up with his tongue. After drinking, he wasn’t in any hurry to leave—he sat on Xia Qing’s windowsill, stubbornly wrestling with the two soybeans she’d left out.

The soybeans Xia Qing had harvested were as hard as rocks. Red Squirrel’s teeth couldn’t crack them, so in the end, he just stretched his neck and swallowed them whole. Then he dipped his paws in the spring water, washing his face and big fluffy tail.

Red Squirrel was so small that every little thing he did was ridiculously cute. Xia Qing couldn’t help but want to scoop him up and give him a good rub.

After she’d watched for long enough, Xia Qing finally climbed out of bed and got started on her day.

As for the missing Qian Lin Squad? Not her problem. She was a law-abiding farmer-lord with zero idea about any drama happening outside.

Bright and early, Tang Huai was full of energy, already grilling Hu Zifeng about last night’s wolf howls.

Hu Zifeng looked pleased as punch. “What do you think it was? A wolf, of course!”

“Did you get your runaway wolf back?”

Hu Zifeng shot back, “Come on. If we hadn’t gotten it back, do you really think you’d have heard those crystal-clear wolf howls last night?”

Tang Huai curled his lip. Yeah right, like you guys actually had a wolf. That had to be Xia Qing’s.

“Hey, Xia Qing, you around?” Tang Huai dropped Hu Zifeng and called out with renewed enthusiasm. “I heard your roosters are crowing again. How many do you have now? Any chance we could trade?”

Xia Qing pretended she hadn’t heard a thing and switched off the walkie-talkie, heading out to do her rounds.

Chen Zheng caught up as Xia Qing came back out, sharing last night’s intel. “At first, their plan was to set fire inside Section Three by using the evolved cotton’s flammability. Once Territory One sent people to help, they’d sneak in and get their shot. But after you cleaned up that area, they switched to driving wolves at the territory instead.”

“Why’d Sufeng send Qian Lin’s squad for such an important mission?” Xia Qing asked.

“Because Qian Lin knows exactly how Jiang Xiong Squad uses their special concoction. And by the way, the howling from the high-powered speaker last night? That was Qian Lin’s idea. The recording was from a wolf Jiang Xiong Squad had caught.”

“Is that wolf still alive?” Xia Qing pressed.

Chen Zheng’s expression turned dark. “Already dead. The potion Qian Lin used last night to draw wolves here? It was made from wolf blood. If you hadn’t gotten Er from the wolf pack to talk them down, the rest would’ve gone berserk as soon as they smelled that blood, and humans would’ve paid the price.”