Chapter 581: Predators and Boundaries

At two in the afternoon Xia Qing received a video from Yang Jin. The only message alongside it said:

“It’s started.”

On screen a towering monkey with a distinct vertical scar above its left brow stood upright on a tree branch, shaking it with all its strength while baring its teeth and roaring angrily. The monkeys on nearby trees followed its lead, howling in sync. The shrieks, sometimes long, sometimes staccato, high and low, grated on Xia Qing’s nerves.

Clashes between evenly matched animals usually began with snarls and battering rocks or trees—each side showing off strength and determination in the hope of scaring the enemy into backing down.

If the challenger didn’t leave, then it was a fight.

Xia Qing couldn’t tell if the wolves were intimidated, but the domesticated beast monitoring this scene was clearly terrified, trembling hard. Or maybe it was just a surveillance bird swaying with the rocked branch.

The shaky camera panned to the other side and Xia Qing’s eyes went wide.

The handsome huge wolf from Hill Sixty was standing shoulder to shoulder with the Alpha from the Western Wolf Pack, both perched on a jutting boulder. Their icy blue stares locked onto the monkeys across twenty meters of empty ground. Even with the shaky lens, nothing could diminish the wolves’ imposing presence—or the killing intent radiating from the dozens of wolves behind them in the trees.

So these two wolves really do have some secret understanding.

Xia Qing held her breath, waiting for the wolf pack to break out in outrage. But to her surprise, the two massive wolves on the rock simply stared coldly at the show of force from the monkeys, making no move at all.

Suddenly she understood: these two thought the monkey troop didn’t even have the right—or the strength—to challenge them.

They were standing at the border of their territory, waiting for those rowdy monkeys to cross over so the slaughter could begin.

As the shaky camera started to swing back toward the monkeys, a huge grayish-white paw with black pads suddenly filled the frame. A split second later the screen went black.

That was the paw of a leopard.

A leopard had silently crept up and smashed the surveillance device—or surveillance bird. The moment that paw appeared, Xia Qing’s heart clenched tight.

How could such powerful and alert evolved predators have their territory invaded by humans, losing their young?

There’s only one answer: sedatives.

Xia Qing watched the footage two more times before messaging Yang Jin again: A monkey in that troop is infected with a deadly pathogenic fungus.

Yang Jin’s focus was the same: ‘Already reported.’

They could not let the pathogen spread through the Western Evolved Forest. Otherwise animals here would die in droves.

Xia Qing asked, ‘Why isn’t Hui Six sending teams to cull the monkeys on their territory?’

Yang Jin kept it brief: ‘Too far from the Safe Zone. Out of our reach.’

Too far out—such a simple, impossible reality.

After Blue Star’s Great Evolution, the population was slashed to a tenth, huddled in just over forty Safe Zones. The combined area didn’t even make up 0.1% of Huaguo’s former territory.

The other 99.9% became Evolved Forests, Evolved Lakes, deserts and snow mountains—uninhabited wilderness.

The government didn’t want to abandon these lands. For management, they split them into over forty districts, each under the watch of a specific Safe Zone.

So the Safe Zone plus its assigned Evolved Forest was called a Base. The Base was Huaguo’s primary administrative unit during the era of disaster.

Anyone living in the Safe Zone could harvest or hunt resources in the Evolved Forest belonging to their Base. Meanwhile the Safe Zone itself was supposed to monitor creature evolution within its forest and step in if ecological balance broke down—protecting the ecosystem and ensuring humanity’s survival could continue.

But shouldering that duty meant burning through manpower, resources, and time on a massive scale.

During those disaster years, most Bases could only pay attention to the Evolved Forest within a few dozen or at most a hundred kilometers outside the Safe Zone. That was where hunting and gathering squads usually worked.

Beyond that, the rest of the forest was left to evolve or perish on its own.

After ten years of disaster Huaguo rolled out the territory policy: every Base had to push outward, establishing new territories far outside their original security zone. For most Bases it was a crushing load, suddenly having to monitor another hundred kilometers’ worth of wild forest.

The monkey territory ruined by high-level evolved fungus was likely far from Hui Six’s Safe Zone and existing territories, just out of reach. Even if advanced fungus wiped out all the local animals, those were beyond human hunting range. It wouldn’t matter much to people; eventually something immune would survive and repopulate the area.

If it weren’t for the monkeys from Hui Six targeting the Western territory of Hui Three’s wolf pack—and that land being less than a hundred li from Hui Three’s domain, with recent human-wolf conflicts flaring up—Hui Three wouldn’t bother paying attention to fights deep in the forest, or to a high-level fungus that could even infect humans.

Watching the monkeys squabble with the wolves in the video, Xia Qing knew the pack wasn’t about to lose their land.

An hour later the Western and Northern Wolf Packs joined forces and beat back the monkeys that’d traveled so far hoping to seize territory.

The defeated monkeys fled. The victorious wolves threw back their heads and howled, letting every living thing in the Evolved Forest know who’d won.

Other wolf packs and loners joined in, the chorus of howls rolling all the way to the Northern Evolved Forest. Even the Crippled Wolf, standing on Hill Sixty, tipped back its head and let out a long howl, before sniffing noses with the Alpha and then running southward down the slope.

Two huge bears on the summit of Hill Sixty-One also lumbered down the mountain. A few cubs couldn’t be bothered to walk—they just tumbled down the hillside instead.

Deep in the Western Evolved Forest, Yang Jin, having just finished reporting the wolf-monkey war to the Base leader, heard a scout beside him asking, “Jin, just what are the wolves doing now?”

Yang Jin switched to the surveillance feed and found that—contrary to their usual instincts—the winners weren’t feasting on the monkey corpses at all. Instead, they were stacking dozens of bodies in one place, which was not typical behavior for evolved wolves.

He recorded it and sent it to Xia Qing, who soon replied: ‘The ones guarding the corpses are from the Northern Wolf Pack. The Crippled Wolf has learned how to handle animal bodies infected with microbes. Did it go over there?’

The wolves and leopards had already destroyed three surveillance birds. With the pack having won, their patrols were only going to increase. Yang Jin didn’t risk ordering another probe—he slid out of his tent, climbed a tree, and scouted with his binoculars before replying:

“The Crippled Wolf isn’t there.”

Hearing that, Xia Qing’s stomach twisted uncomfortably. She pressed on: ‘After the wolves win, what’s the next move for the Base?’

Yang Jin answered: ‘Sample the evolved fungus, disinfect the area, and try to figure out why the wolves started a beast tide.’

All three of those meant working right under the wolves’ noses—no wonder Yang Jin himself had to lead the team.

Xia Qing rubbed her face. ‘Don’t do anything just yet. I’ll bet the Crippled Wolf is already trying to finish the cleanup. It’s probably making its move right now.’

Yang Jin stared at his phone for a few seconds, then gave the order: “Pause operations. Pull everyone out of wolf territory for now.”