Chapter 657: The Secrets Beneath the Pool

Moss and vines crept over jagged stone on three sides of the valley. Blades of light sliced through the canopy above, shining down to illuminate the misty waterfall and three Devastation Snakes shimmering in the pool below.

As soon as they slipped into the water, the two green and one red Devastation Snakes stopped pretending to be reeds and began gliding through the pool, weaving around each other with agile grace.

There was something undeniably strange and sinister about this place.

Yang Jin quickly scanned the area. After confirming nothing too dangerous lurked nearby, he moved to Xia Qing’s side, taking formation. “See anything unusual?”

Even though there were no powerful beasts or highly aggressive Devastation Evolution plants, Yang Jin stayed on full alert. He wasn’t here alone this time—Xia Qing, who had never ventured deep into the Evolved Forest, was with him.

Xia Qing pointed to the bottomless pool. “There are Devastation Snakes down there—at least a dozen.”

Yang Jin’s vision evolution wasn’t as advanced as Xia Qing’s. Only after she pointed them out did he spot the tangle of red and green snakes lurking together in the cracks of the stone wall, a few meters underwater.

Devastation Snakes had always been considered rare and extremely dangerous creatures. That’s why, the moment they discovered them, Zhang San activated the disaster elimination protocol and both Yang Jin and Luo Pei rushed over from the Safe Zone.

But what they saw today completely upended Yang Jin’s understanding. Humans still understood far too little about these evolved creatures.

Yang Jin set down his backpack. “I’ll check out what’s underwater first. You stand guard.”

“Got it. Be careful.” Xia Qing had already scanned the area using her magnetic sense. Although there were a few aggressive Devastation Evolution plants nearby, their threat level was low. As long as they didn’t poke at them, there shouldn’t be any danger.

But there was definitely something out of the ordinary in or around this pool. Or as Li Si liked to say, this was ‘the result of multiple factors interacting’—the only way so many Devastation Snakes could be lured here from miles away.

If there was nothing special about the plants above water, then that ‘key factor’ must be hiding deep below the surface, somewhere Xia Qing couldn’t reach with her abilities.

Time to break out the equipment.

Yang Jin took out a fist-sized underwater detector, set it down by the pool’s edge, and sent it beneath the surface to explore.

“Bzzzt—bzzzt—”

While she was on guard duty, Xia Qing felt her phone buzzing in her pocket. She gave a quick command. “Stupid, stupid, answer the call.”

Standing beside her, Yang Jin couldn’t help but smile as he focused on operating the underwater detector.

Before Xia Qing could say anything, Zhang San’s voice came through the phone. “Xia Qing, the python in the lake to the north of Hill Sixty is releasing a strong chemical signal. It’s probably marking territory and attracting a mate. Where are the Devastation Snakes you’re tracking now?”

Just hearing that, Xia Qing knew things were bad. She immediately turned to Yang Jin. “There’s a python in this pool. Pack up—”

She didn’t even finish before the monitor on Yang Jin’s detector suddenly went dark.

Yang Jin pressed the remote a few more times. “Tell Third Brother there’s a large creature in this pool. It swallowed the detector I just deployed.”

After Xia Qing reported their position and status, Zhang San analyzed the situation. “Odds are, it’s a python down there. Mark the pool’s location and install a surveillance camera nearby. Yang Jin, could you two take whatever’s in the water if it attacks?”

Yang Jin answered confidently. “If we jumped in, maybe not. But if it comes up to land, there’s no way it can take on me and Xia Qing.”

With a top-level Speed Evolver and a top-tier Sniper working together, there’s not much room for worry.

Zhang San gave the order. “Good. If it doesn’t attack, stay and catch every Devastation Snake that comes by. Don’t leave until they’ve all passed through. But if it does attack, bring it back if you win. If not, retreat immediately.”

“Understood.” Xia Qing acknowledged, then asked with concern, “Third Brother, things haven’t broken out at Hill Sixty, right?”

With so many wolf pups, most of them probably weren’t even a month old.

Zhang San had already sent tamed birds from Territory Eight and knew what was happening over at Hill Sixty. “Both the Wolf Pack and the Bear Pack leaders are keeping an eye on the python in the lake. So far, no one’s made the first move.”

Call ended, Xia Qing turned to discuss things with Yang Jin. “Captain Yang, can you watch things for a bit? I’ll make a net to fish out those snakes.”

Yang Jin nodded. Only then did Xia Qing pull some steel wire and fine fishing net from her backpack. She whipped up a small net in no time, quickly scanning for a suitable sapling. Picking one out, she walked over, gripped the trunk, and without even reaching for her knife, snapped it in half with a loud crack. The tree was thicker than her arm.

With a few swift moves, Xia Qing stripped away the bark and branches with her knife, turning the trunk into a sturdy pole for the net. She gave it a test swing.

Perfect. Just right for the job.

As she finished, she noticed Yang Jin watching her, so she explained, “I rode the personal flight equipment out here, so I didn’t bring a collapsible steel pole—those are way too heavy. Devastation Snakes aren’t that tough anyway. This should be more than enough.”

Yang Jin wasn’t doubting the net at all—he was honestly impressed by Xia Qing’s strength and her skill with makeshift tools. “It’s just fine. If it breaks, you just make another one. Cheap and expendable.”

Talking about cost made Xia Qing remember the detector that just got swallowed. “That device you dropped in the water wasn’t cheap, was it?”

Yang Jin just smiled. “Definitely not. But it’s a trophy from the Su Feng Squad. It’s built tough. We’ll just fish it out of whatever we catch down there.”

Xia Qing scooped up a bright red Devastation Snake slithering upstream toward the pool, but she wasn’t as optimistic as Yang Jin. “If that python in the water is the same one that beat the Northern Wolf Pack last July, we might never see that detector again.”

Back on July 18 last year, the Wolf Pack, the Snake Pack, and the Bear Pack clashed at Hill Fifty-Five. Then, just past midnight on July 19, the Alpha led the wounded Broken Back and Lame Wolf to Xia Qing’s territory, desperate for help.

Once Yang Jin loaded the captured Devastation Snake into the bag, Xia Qing asked, “Captain Yang, I never got to ask—when you scouted the fight back then, were the wolves, snakes, and bears allied with anyone?”

Yang Jin replied, “From the video footage, at Hill Fifty-Five, it was wolves versus snakes, wolves versus bears, and bears versus snakes. No clear alliances anywhere.”

Later, during the revenge battle at Hill Sixty on the night of October 21, Broken Back led Xia Qing over to patch up the Alpha. From what she saw, it looked like the snakes and bears were working together.

Fights among animals always tie back to food and territory. A wild guess started forming in Xia Qing’s mind.

As she scoped out the Devastation Snakes, she asked, “That first time the Alpha broke into the Wild Boar Breeding Center last May, you chased it to Hill Fifty-Five, didn’t you? But you stopped there, right?”

Yang Jin caught on to her train of thought and nodded. “Right. Not just then. Half a month later, when I brought a fully equipped team north into the Evolved Forest, we made it as far as Hill Fifty-Five. That’s when Broken Back showed up in your territory for treatment—right after sneaking into the Wild Boar Breeding Center for another hunt.”

Early last June, while Xia Qing was hunting porcupines deep in the Evolved Forest, she happened to cross paths with Broken Back just as he was retreating after killing two wild boars.

Back then, Xia Qing knew she was no match for Broken Back, so she let him pass without a fight. What she never knew, though, was that Yang Jin had also gone to Hill Fifty-Five that time. “When you led your squad to Hill Fifty-Five, were you looking for something specific?”