Chapter 681: Northbound: Through the Evolved Forest

After leaving the territory, the ten-person team moved in a single file line heading north. Xia Qing, as team captain, led the way with Liangzi bringing up the rear and Yue Haiying positioned in the middle to watch both flanks.

This was Tan Qi’s first real mission. She walked in front of Yue Haiying, her expression tense, eyes darting around for any movement. She reminded herself not to underestimate even a centipede or a grasshopper—out here, any creature could be an evolved fighter that could kill.

Yue Haiying noticed Tan Qi’s nerves. If she stayed so on edge all the way to the bamboo grove, she’d burn through most of her stamina even if nothing dangerous actually happened.

But he didn’t scold her like a new recruit. Tan Junjie and Yan Long had already taught the basic skills she needed. Now it was up to real experience to help her spot her weaknesses and improve one step at a time.

At ten years old, kids before the disaster were still in elementary school, needing parents to pick them up every day. But during the disaster years, survival skills became mandatory as soon as you were old enough to understand. The earlier you learned, the better your odds when disaster struck.

The team set out at seven that morning, following the valley between Hill Forty-Nine and Hill Fifty northward. For the first stretch—from the territory to the Third Peak of Hill Fifty—there was an old firebreak road cut last year. Though weeds and saplings had overrun the surface, it was still safer than most trails.

Xia Qing walked at the front, hacking a path through the overgrowth with the sharp machete Huo Lei had just handed her. Wild grass, tangled vines, thorny branches, saplings—she sliced them all in one clean stroke to clear the way.

She opened up the path now so the team could carry back bamboo shoots this way in the afternoon. If they didn’t clear it in advance, hidden animals on the trail would make defense harder for the guards on the return trip, and the extra tension would slow everyone down.

They really couldn’t afford to still be out in the forest after dark.

Once they passed Third Peak, the road got steeper and rougher, and hacking a path became more of a challenge. Shi Du offered, “Sister Qing, let me take over for a bit?”

Ever since joining the territory, Shi Du had been eating better, getting stronger. His Strength Evolution had risen from level four to five and a half—second only to Xia Qing in the team. He was more than able to carry his weight.

“Go ahead,” Xia Qing said, handing him the machete. “Stick to the animal trail and avoid the big trees.”

“Got it!” Shi Du replied, happily taking the machete and moving to the front.

“Nine o’clock, about thirty meters out, large animal ahead.” Right after Third Peak, the animal life in the Evolved Forest picked up. From the rear, Liangzi called out a warning to Xia Qing. “Could be a leopard or a wolf.”

Both wolves and leopards were major predators in the Evolved Forest, but the lords of Section One up north felt totally different about the two:

Leopard—dangerous. Wolf—a friend and guardian spirit, at least to Xia Qing.

Everyone was hoping for the wolf.

Xia Qing heard something too. She knew wolves so well she could identify them just by the sounds and where they hid. This one wasn’t a wolf. “Pretty sure it’s a leopard. Keep moving, and Liangzi watch the leopard’s position. Report any change right away.”

“Copy that.”

Liangzi kept updating them as Shi Du pushed forward, slicing a path through the forest.

Tan Qi tightened her grip on her homemade pistol, staring at the noises on the left. Leopards were natural speed kings. After evolution, nothing could match them. As a Speed Evolver, Tan Qi was fascinated—she wanted to see for herself a creature even faster than top speed evolvers like Yang Jin.

Was she nervous? Absolutely. But was she scared? Not really—Xia Qing was calm, and since she ordered the team to keep moving, the leopard clearly wasn’t a threat.

Liangzi kept up the updates. “Leopard’s tailing us, still about thirty meters out. Right side, medium-sized animal—sounds like a badger.”

Xia Qing responded instantly. “Eyes up, everyone. If the badger charges, get out of the way fast.”

Badgers, like yellow weasels, were small or mid-sized omnivores belonging to the mustelid family. Their toxic gas attacks were not to be underestimated.

The reason Xia Qing warned everyone was simple: this type of animal held grudges—most of all, the honey badger, known as Ping Tou Ge.

If any animal embodied ‘live free, fight anyone who dares,’ it was the honey badger. Xia Qing knew this firsthand.

With its white head and stripe down its back, the rest pitch black, and beady little eyes, the honey badger almost looked cute at first glance.

When the trailbreaker in Xia Qing’s old gathering team found a honey badger, he wanted to chop it up and take it back.

But the little guy was tougher than it looked, managed to slip away, and after escaping, secretly tracked the team all day. Everyone joked about it, thinking nothing of it—until sunset on the way home, when the honey badger jumped out and bit the leg of the guy who’d kicked it.

The team guards killed the honey badger, but the bitten member ended up losing half his leg from a mutagenic infection.

Ever since, whenever Xia Qing came across a badger in the Evolved Forest, she avoided conflict if she could. Even now, with her sharpshooting skills, she rarely targeted honey badgers.

Because these creatures ran in packs. Kill one, and a whole group would come after you for revenge.

Every time Xia Qing encountered an animal in the forest that didn’t belong there, she mentally thanked the people who’d come up with the whole ‘zoo’ concept.

Bringing animals from across Blue Star into tiny zoos had, after the disaster, flooded the Evolved Forest with all sorts of new species.

“Sha—”

“Defensive positions!”

The faint rustle of leaves and twigs on the left signaled movement. Xia Qing snapped a command into the comms, raising her sniper rifle to aim.

In a flash, the team shifted from single file to a triangular formation. Xia Qing, Liangzi, and Yue Haiying formed the triangle’s three points, ready to fight back. Tiny Tan Qi and defenseless Madam Shi huddled in the center.

“Hiss—”

Tan Qi sucked in a breath when she spotted the leopard. Just like the teachers at school warned, the animal’s camouflage was scarily good. If the captain hadn’t given the order, Tan Qi wouldn’t have even noticed the leopard was so close.

Xia Qing’s sniper stayed locked on the leopard—one she’d crossed paths with before—waiting to see what it would do. If it attacked, she was sure she could drop it in one shot, but if it retreated, the team would just keep moving.

The leopard stared down Xia Qing for ten solid seconds before slowly slinking away into the brush.

“Leopard’s fallen back to forty meters. The badger’s within ten meters, two o’clock direction.” Liangzi reported again.

Xia Qing lowered her sniper rifle. “Keep moving. Shi Du, fall back in line—I’ll take the lead again.”

“Roger!”

Xia Qing took the machete back and started cutting east through the forest. They’d passed Hill Forty-Nine and were now into the range of Hill Fifty-Two. One more kilometer east and they’d reach the bamboo grove.

They turned left early to steer clear of the badger. Through a gap in the brush, Xia Qing caught a glimpse of the honey badger’s swaggering white mohawk and tiny defiant eyes.