Chapter 543: Standoff in the Evolved Forest

Everyone working immediately stopped digging and gathering, clustering together. This time, the defenders of the squad—Xia Qing, Yue Haiying, and Hu Ningsheng—readied their guns, standing watch on the outside to keep everyone safe.

Shi Du and Yu Shou, who were also armed, slung their guns off their backs and gripped them tightly in their hands.

Yuan Yan reached out, quickly pulling Zhao Ze and Zhu Li into what was now the safest spot.

Safely behind Xia Qing, Zhao Ze felt his racing heartbeat slow down, his breathing ease, and the ringing in his ears fade. Zhu Li had reacted about the same. In fact, she’d almost tried to grab that best spot behind Xia Qing too. Ten years of disasters had drilled the survival instinct into her bones: when danger struck, always find the safest place.

The only reason she hadn’t fought for it was because everyone here was part of the same Alliance—they were cooperating, not competing. If she snatched the safest place and upset the others, she could get kicked out of the gathering squad. With her husband hurt and most of their winter crops destroyed by Devastation Snow, she couldn’t risk losing this rare chance to earn Credits.

“Ten o’clock direction, fifty meters past the bushes—there’s a leopard. It’s an evolved one, judging by the size,” Xia Qing said, calm and decisive. “It doesn’t look like it wants to attack, so nobody do anything to provoke it.”

“Copy that,” Yue Haiying and Hu Ningsheng replied, steady as ever.

“Got it,” Zhao Ze echoed, lowering his voice. It trembled along with the rest of him.

Leopards were major predatory beasts in the Evolved Forest, and according to the rules, if you ran into one, humans were never to make the first move.

Xia Qing and the leopard stared at each other. The animal’s gaze locked onto hers, seeing right away that Xia Qing was the squad’s strongest fighter.

Both sides—human and beast—stood their ground. Neither attacked, neither backed down. For those like Qi Fu and his wife, Madam Shi, Zhao Ze, and Zhu Li, who’d never faced something like this before, it was a deadly silence. They barely dared to breathe, terrified that the tiniest movement might set the predator off.

Rustle, rustle, rustle—

Snorting grunts echoed through the air…

Lots of animals could make noise walking, but only one big creature Xia Qing knew of grunted like that.

The sound drew closer. Hu Ningsheng, the squad’s auditory evolutionary, reported the update: “Two wild boars just entered the valley—they’re getting closer.”

Yue Haiying spoke low, “The leopard’s waiting to hunt the boar. It can only snatch one.”

Wild boars were famous for holding grudges. If one was caught, the other might scream or even run home and bring the rest of the family for revenge. When the leopard got its prey and escaped, the wild boars’ anger would fall on the humans.

A herd of wild boars was no match for a leopard, but for a handful of humans digging roots here, they were more than enough trouble.

Xia Qing caught Yue Haiying’s drift. “I’ll take down the other boar.”

The two boars snorted, edging closer to the patch of wild kudzu. The moment the leopard broke its stare with Xia Qing, it sprang into action.

Leopards were beasts of explosive speed. The smaller wild boar didn’t even have time to squeal before it was bitten by the neck and dragged away.

The other adolescent boar, startled, opened its mouth to scream—but Xia Qing’s bullet was faster, bursting its head before the sound could escape.

For Qi Fu and the others, this was the first time they’d seen Xia Qing kill big game up close. Their eyes were wide with awe.

In what seemed like no time at all, three giant vultures appeared, circling high overhead.

“The leopard’s gone now,” Hu Ningsheng reported.

Xia Qing gave the order. “Shi Du, go collect the wild boar. Everyone else, keep gathering. Move faster—we finish in four hours and get out of this valley.”

While Shi Du went for the boar, everyone else picked up the pace—those chopping vines kept chopping, those digging for roots kept digging.

Zhu Li’s hands were still shaking so badly her machete couldn’t even sever a kudzu vine, and the tears started streaming down her face.

She knew the Evolved Forest was dangerous, but seeing a predator hunt up close was a whole different experience.

When the leopard looked straight at her, Zhu Li felt her blood freeze solid. If it wasn’t for the evolved protecting them, it wouldn’t have been the boar that died, but her.

After all, she was weaker than the wild boar.

Zhu Li wiped her nose, hacking off a swollen section of kudzu vine and stuffing it in the bag, all while crying and searching for the next bulge. She forced herself to speed up. Every extra bit she gathered meant a few more bugs for the squad, and the more they brought back, the bigger her share of supplies would be after the mission.

She’d never match the strength evolutionaries, but she was determined not to fall too far behind Zhao Ze—another ordinary person.

Yu Shou called for help. “Xia Qing! This green lantern kudzu is actually fen ge, but its root is pinned by a huge rock. Need a hand to pry it loose.”

Fen ge roots were pale and starchy—the texture and flavor were superior to the rough fibrous kind, so they had to bring them back if they could.

Xia Qing replied, “Got it. Cheng, take over my defensive post.”

Cheng Ping from Territory Fifteen rolled over—he was a level-three endurance evolutionary. His left arm was stiff now, but his marksmanship was still reliable.

Yue Haiying, Yu Shou, Hu Ningsheng, and Cheng Ping made up the top four fighters among Territory Fifteen’s legged evolutionaries. Given the risks of this mission, all four had come along.

Once Cheng Ping was in place, Xia Qing hurried to Qi Fu’s side and found the stone pinning down the fen ge root. Covered in moss, even the exposed part of the rock looked to weigh over 1,500 kilograms.

Though Xia Qing hadn’t fully recovered her strength, she joined in with the other three evolutionaries. Together, the four of them wedged their crowbars under the massive boulder and managed to tip it aside.

But the moment it rolled back, excitement on Qi Fu’s face faded to disappointment—the fen ge root had already been gnawed down by rodents.

That was par for the course in the Evolved Forest; Xia Qing and Shi Du were used to it. Shi Du asked, “Can we dig up this kudzu root and plant it back at our territory?”

They were on Hill Fifty, and Xia Qing was manager of the area, so it was her call whether something could be taken.

Xia Qing nodded. “Yeah. Leave part of it behind so the plant keeps growing.”

“Understood!” Shi Du went right to work.

After working for another two hours, the squad took a twenty-minute break, then kept at it.

By 2 p.m., everyone packed up the day’s haul and set out for home. Except for Xia Qing and Yue Haiying—the strongest—every evolutionary was carrying all they could manage, and the rest shouldered a hundred or two hundred pounds apiece.

Today, instead of heading back to Territory Five, they took shelter in Territory Fifteen, which was closer to the mountains’ edge. Besides Xia Qing and Yue Haiying, everyone sprawled out and collapsed—but all wore big grins. This gathering trip had been a true bonanza.

Tan Qi, busy in the greenhouse, ran over to help peel kudzu bug pupae and clean the roots.

This time, the squad had pulled in 800 pounds of yellow lantern kudzu root, 700 pounds of green lantern kudzu root, 760 yellow lantern kudzu bug pupae, 330 green lantern pupae, and a 150-pound yellow lantern wild boar.

For a squad with their average combat power and gear, this was a massive, almost miraculous haul.