Chapter 579: Wolf Howls and Swift Warnings

“Er will bring them over. Wait here a moment, I’ll go take a look.”

Xia Qing stood up and moved toward the three wolves racing in her direction.

The Broken Back Wolf, leading the pack, came to a sudden halt. It passed by Xia Qing and locked its amber eyes onto Yang Jin, who stood partway down the hillside. The Handsome Huge Wolf stopped as well, forming a fan-shaped attack formation with Broken Back Wolf. Its icy blue gaze was fixed on Yang Jin too.

The moment Yang Jin saw the size and presence of this massive wolf, he understood exactly why Xia Qing had called it over. Not wanting either Evolved Wolf to get the wrong idea, he held his hands up to show he was unarmed and stepped back a dozen paces, placing himself in a wide-open space to make it clear he had no hostile intent.

Last to arrive, Er Gou trotted up to Xia Qing, tongue lolling and panting happily.

Xia Qing gave Er Gou’s head a friendly rub, quickly pulling a water basin from her backpack. She poured in some warm water for him. “Good job, Er. Take a break and have some water. Handsome Wolf, Huge Wolf, do you want some too?”

The Handsome Huge Wolf kept its eyes trained on Yang Jin without moving, but Broken Back Wolf came to Xia Qing’s side. After lapping up a few mouthfuls, it lifted its head and looked straight at her.

Xia Qing immediately pulled out Yang Jin’s laptop to show Broken Back Wolf, and the Handsome Huge Wolf standing behind it, the video of the advancing monkey troop. The Handsome Huge Wolf barely glanced at what Xia Qing drew from her backpack, confirming it wasn’t a weapon before turning its icy stare back to Yang Jin.

Broken Back Wolf sniffed the air, then lifted its gaze to Xia Qing.

Xia Qing caught on right away and gestured as she explained, “Handsome Wolf, this isn’t your laptop. It belongs to Yang Jin. He discovered the monkey troop is planning to invade the territory—look.”

Only then did Broken Back Wolf focus its attention on the video, watching with a serious and attentive expression.

Yang Jin’s eyes flicked back and forth between his laptop and Broken Back Wolf.

The laptop he had traded to Xia Qing—had she really traded it straight to a wolf?

What did she use to trade for it? The Yi Stone?

There are so many wolves in their pack. Is just one laptop enough?

Having lived in the Evolved Forest, Broken Back Wolf obviously recognized monkeys. After watching the video, it turned to Xia Qing with a grave look.

Xia Qing immediately spread out a map on the snowy ground and pulled up a fungal image on her phone, pointing it out. “Handsome Wolf, the territory you saw the monkeys in is here. That place has been infected by a highly-evolved pathogenic fungus. It can infect monkeys, wolves, even humans. Once infected, it causes illness and death. Right now, they’re heading for the Western Wolf Pack’s land…”

She flipped through the images again, letting Er Gou see a picture of the Huge Wolf from the Western Wolf Pack, and made sure to show the Handsome Huge Wolf too. The huge wolf stared at the image for a few seconds, then shifted its piercing gaze back to Yang Jin.

“That’s where that wolf’s pack lives—over here. The monkeys want to occupy this land. When they come, they’ll bring the deadly fungus with them. It’ll mean death for everyone there.”

The sight of a human crouched on the ground, laptop in arms, phone in hand, and map laid out while explaining the danger of an evolved fungus to a wolf—Yang Jin had never seen, nor even heard, of anything like it.

As the head of the Azure Dragon Squad, Yang Jin always considered himself worldly. But this was unbelievable—and oddly, something to be proud of. Xia Qing was incredible, and that Brain-Evolved Wolf was much smarter than he’d imagined.

Meanwhile, Xia Qing continued explaining the situation to Broken Back Wolf, her face grave. “This afternoon, once the sun moves from here to there, the monkey horde will attack the Western Wolf Pack’s land! Handsome Wolf, if the Western territory falls, both my land and yours will be infected by the highly-evolved fungus.”

“Handsome Wolf, the Queen is still carrying pups. We can’t let the monkey troop invade, we can’t let them steal the Western Wolf Pack’s land!”

“Handsome Wolf, take this huge wolf and follow that human—his name is Yang Jin—head with him to the Southern Evolved Forest. Let the wolves hiding there know what’s happening and get them to return and protect their territory. Will you do that?”

Broken Back Wolf looked toward Yang Jin in the distance, then back at Xia Qing, seeming deep in thought.

Didn’t trust Yang Jin? Xia Qing had already anticipated as much.

She pulled the personal flight equipment from her backpack and gestured to Broken Back Wolf as she negotiated, “How about this? I’ll use the flight gear to go with Yang Jin, you, and Huge Wolf to notify the Western Wolf Pack. Is that alright?”

Broken Back Wolf clearly recognized that box Xia Qing was holding and, surprisingly, showed a look of disdain at the sight of it.

It was nearly three hundred li from here to the Southern Evolved Forest. Xia Qing planned to fly partway, then run some, then have the Handsome Huge Wolf carry her for a while. When it got tired, Yang Jin could give her a piggyback until she could run again.

No matter what, the message had to reach the wolves preparing revenge as quickly as possible: Get home. If you don’t hurry, the monkeys will take over your turf.

Broken Back Wolf was a smart one. It circled around Xia Qing once, then turned and sprinted up the slope, with the Handsome Huge Wolf and Er Gou following close behind.

A couple minutes later, long, drawn-out wolf howls echoed from the top of the hill, carrying out in every direction.

“Awooo—oooo—”

“Awooo—oooooooo—”

“Awooo—oooo—”

Almost instantly, another wolf howled back from Hill Fifty-Five: “Awooo—oooo—”

And from somewhere else, wolves on other hills began to answer as well: “Awooo—oooooooo—”

Xia Qing…

No wonder Broken Back Wolf gave her such a weird look before—turns out they had a far more efficient way to spread messages.

Run all that way? Please.

A few quick howls did the trick!

Xia Qing couldn’t help but laugh.

Yang Jin walked over and saw the bright, smiling light in Xia Qing’s eyes. His heart started pounding out of control. He quickly looked up, searching for clouds, and asked in a soft voice, “Do you understand what they’re saying?”

She wished she could, but sadly, that’s one skill she hadn’t evolved.

Xia Qing shook her head. “All I can tell is that these howls are nothing like the ones used for intimidation, warning, or finding and calling for packmates. This one sounds serious, with clear ups and downs—there must be a lot of information packed in. It should travel quickly.”

Yang Jin immediately contacted the Safe Zone base. A few minutes later, he ended the call and smiled. “The twenty-some wolves and a few leopards hiding out in the Southern Evolved Forest have gotten the message and are already racing west.”

“That’s fantastic!” Xia Qing was standing higher up, so when she turned her head, her gaze met Yang Jin’s smiling eyes right at the same level. It was…pretty easy on the eyes.

Meeting Xia Qing’s eyes up close made Yang Jin’s heart skip even faster. He felt like he should say or do something to close the gap between them—but his usually sharp mind went utterly blank.

Before Yang Jin could react, Xia Qing had already turned away, glancing up at the sky. “The wolves’ howls have changed.”

Yang Jin followed her gaze and cleared his throat before saying, “Yeah, I think they’re getting feedback now. If the Western Wolf Pack heads back to defend against the monkeys, I’ll put in a good word for you with the base commander. What do you want as a reward?”

What did she want?

Xia Qing stared at the clouds shrouding the mountaintop. “I want a really precise laboratory microscope. Easy to use, sturdy, something good for looking at microbes.”

A microscope? For wolves?

“No problem,” Yang Jin replied, doing some fast mental accounting. “One microscope’s not enough. I’ll get you a thousand sniper rounds too, and see if I can find any premium seeds.”

Xia Qing’s eyes lit up. “If you can get high-quality wheat, would you ask for twenty jin for me? If you can’t get Green Lantern, Yellow Lantern is fine too. Most of my winter wheat is gone, so I need to plant another round in the spring.”

She had planned to trade with Tang Huai for wheat seeds, but before she could bring it up, Yang Jin arrived.