Chapter 720: Strength Unleashed in the Valley

As the territory bustled with activity, Alpha and Crippled Wolf, halfway through their retreat in Mountain 51, paused when they heard a familiar voice. Looking up, they spotted Xia Qing, then quietly turned around, picking up their basket and heading back.

Inside the basket, nestled on a soft cotton pad, one furry cub lay fast asleep flat on its back. The other pressed its front paws against the edge, tilting its tiny head back and gazing up with bright golden eyes at the giant, noisy thing in the sky it had never seen before.

When the strange thing started descending fast, the wolf cub’s eyes grew rounder with surprise.

Hovering over the small valley and seeing the chaos below, Xia Qing instantly understood why Tan Junjie had stopped using shells and called her in for support.

Many of the tung tree’s fruits were already turning red—one more round of shelling and the seeds would fly everywhere, making cleanup a nightmare.

After batting away a bird trying to peck her, Xia Qing guided the personal flight equipment down, landing right next to Tan Junjie. “Captain Tan.”

Tan Junjie immediately issued an order. “Xia Qing, team up with He Wu and the others over there. Work together to clear out the aerial roots and cut off their energy supply so the crown stops ripening fruit.”

He Wu was another member of a patrol team from Section One of the North. Though Xia Qing hadn’t seen him much, she recognized him all the same.

“Understood.” Seeing the broken-down chainsaws and listening to the chorus of chopping, Xia Qing realized just how tough these aerial roots were to cut.

Today’s squad only had six Strength-Based Evolvers. Guan Tong was the strongest and the main force clearing the roots right now, gripping an arm-thick aerial root and pulling up with all his might. Not far off, He Wu and another Evolved fighter wrestled with a similar root together.

For roots thicker than an arm, the non-Evolved would saw through them with whatever chainsaws still worked.

Other team members hovered above, spraying medicine from small helicopters or topping up scent-blocker. Some kept the birds at bay, stopping them from swooping down to peck the ripe tung fruits.

Xia Qing hurried to He Wu’s side. “Brother He, you find the roots. I’ll do the pulling.”

Bombing had scattered rubble everywhere, and the collapsed canopy hid a lot of aerial roots, but it was still easy for Xia Qing to spot ones connected to the soil. Even now, the fruit-laden vines trembled as nutrients kept flowing and the fruit kept turning red.

“All right.” With labored breaths, the pair let go of the thick root. Xia Qing bent down, grabbed it with both hands, and with one easy lift—like yanking up a green onion—pulled the root free, shook off the soil, and tossed it onto the fallen canopy.

Just like that… done in one go?

He Wu and his teammate stared in wide-eyed amazement, hearts pounding. So this is what an Advanced Strength-Based Evolver can do? Seriously impressive!

From nearby, Su Ming, busy fending off birds, shouted, “Sister Qing, you’re amazing! Nobody can beat you!”

After dealing with that root, Xia Qing strode over, grabbed hold of a branch heavy with red fruit, and gave a forceful yank. She uncovered another aerial root—thicker than her thigh. Wrapping both hands around it, she pulled hard, and in less than five seconds, hauled it out, shook off the dirt, and tossed it onto the crown.

Now even more people—including He Wu—found themselves completely stunned.

A root as thick as that, and not even Level Five Guan Tong could budge it. He needed help and a chainsaw brigade. Yet Level Six Xia Qing only had to bend down and pull!

There really is a massive gulf between Level Six and Level Five.

Dusting off her hands, Xia Qing pointed at the roots and said to He Wu and his teammate, “Leave the ones you can’t budge to me. If it’s under this thickness, I’ve got it covered.”

“Great!”

“Got it!”

Seeing Xia Qing’s display of strength, everyone suddenly felt these aerial roots weren’t much of a problem after all. No wonder Captain Tan had called Section Three Lord Xia Qing over.

With her help, the pace of root removal doubled.

“Whoosh—”

A sharp eagle cry echoed. Up in the yew trees, a female leopard whisked her two cubs into the bushes. On the mountain peak, Crippled Wolf nudged his basket a meter deeper into cover and bent down to comfort the frightened cub with a gentle lick.

In the thick of uprooting roots, Xia Qing looked up to see two massive evolved eagles circling overhead, then lowered her head and carried on.

Evolved eagles were ferocious, but two alone didn’t matter much. Both helicopters patrolling over Mountain 51 had snipers on board. As long as the eagles dared to descend, they’d be shot down.

The only worry was if the two giant eagles decided to switch targets and lead the birds to attack the Section One territory. That made it all the more urgent for Xia Qing to finish here and hurry back to defend her own territory.

Once backup arrived, they followed Tan Junjie’s command and cleared the open spaces, dragging the downed canopy away and burning it with oil.

As thick smoke billowed, birds stopped flocking to the valley. The only problem was today’s westerly wind. It sent the smoke drifting away and made the bird flock scatter east toward Section One.

The giant eagles wheeled after the flock, also turning east. Loudspeakers and walkie-talkie warnings blared through the territory. People ducked into houses and underground shelters as the Inspection Team rushed to their posts, aiming their guns at the sky.

At the top of the tallest building in Territory Seven, a laser cannon slowly rose, its silver barrel gleaming as it pointed skyward.

Back on the mountaintop, Crippled Wolf hustled the cubs away from danger. Last year, when birds had attacked the human territory, the weapons’ thunderous blasts had terrified the pups, who’d been much smaller then and couldn’t take that kind of noise.

Once Crippled Wolf was clear, Alpha leapt to the summit and howled long and loud, his call noble and commanding. “Awooo—awoooo… Awooooo—awoooo—”

Queen!

Xia Qing immediately straightened up, looking toward the southern peaks.

What’s happening? Why are there wolves here? Weren’t we told there weren’t any in this area? Nearly a hundred team members froze, scanning the surroundings, nerves on edge.

Xia Qing glanced at Tan Junjie and found him watching her. She gave him a small nod.

Using his walkie-talkie, Tan Junjie issued an order to all team members: “Nobody is to attack the wolves on the southern peak. They won’t harm us. Keep moving—this valley must be cleared within two hours!”

“Awooo—awoooo—”

Alpha’s howls rang out again.

From the sound, Xia Qing could tell Alpha wasn’t calling his pack, but sternly warning them. What the warning was about, she didn’t know and didn’t have time to figure out.

She needed to finish uprooting the last aerial roots and get back to her territory—not just because she had a dozen greenhouses and nearly a hundred chickens to protect, but because her friends were there too.

Old Goat, a herbivore, was especially nervous by nature. Without Xia Qing around, hearing the evolved eagles’ cries would leave him even more on edge.