Chapter 725: Return to Peace and Midnight Visitors

“Sister Qing, have you made it back from Mountain 51 yet?”

Xia Qing hadn’t been lounging in her hammock chair for long when Zhu Li’s call came through.

Xia Qing answered, “I’m back. How’s your territory holding up? No major losses, I hope?”

Old Goat had thrown a tantrum and then promptly fallen asleep, so Xia Qing hadn’t switched on her walkie-talkie after coming home. She was still in the dark about how her allies fared in the latest bird attack.

Hearing Xia Qing was safe, Zhu Li finally breathed a sigh of relief. “Old Kuang and I are fine. Two of our greenhouses had their insect nets torn by birds, but it’s nothing serious. Did you hear the helicopter shot down a Giant Raptor this afternoon?”

“Yeah,” Xia Qing said. That was my hit, after all.

Zhu Li sounded a little gleeful. “That Giant Raptor crashed into the fields in Territory Fourteen and smashed up all the veggies Yan Meng was growing.”

Xia Qing… That’s almost too convenient!

Zhu Li went on, “When the fourth investigation squad went in to haul out the raptor’s body, Yan Meng complained that it had flattened 102 of his high-evolution spinach seedlings and demanded the team compensate him for his losses.”

This bird swarm had been triggered by Tan Junjie’s team on a task at Mountain 51, endangering and damaging the northern territories. Per the rules, the mission team was supposed to pay for the losses.

But Yan Meng had sold off all the high-evolution spinach seeds his base gave him. He never even planted any in his territory. Clearly, he just wanted to scam the task team and cover up the fact that he’d sold off the seeds.

Xia Qing asked, “What did Captain Zeng say about it?”

Anyone who loved gossip knew just how loaded that question was coming from Xia Qing.

Zhu Li, thrilled, rattled off everything she’d overheard. “First it was Tang Huai going on about it in the Lords’ channel, then I went to keep watch on the south side. When the fourth squad came out of Territory Fourteen’s north gate with the raptor, I overheard someone whispering that Yan Meng wouldn’t let them take samples of the spinach leaves that’d been trampled, so there’s no way to prove it was high-evolution spinach.”

“So basically, Yan Meng outed himself.”

“Pretty much.” Xia Qing cautioned Zhu Li not to get too carried away. “Yan Meng’s pretty much recovered now. He’s a Level Four Scent Evolution. If he’s moving around near the Wild Grass Wall in Territory Fourteen, and you’re anywhere close to the southern Wild Grass Wall in Section Six, he might spot you.”

Territory Six and Territory Fourteen were only separated by a single passage, just like Territory Two and Section Three.

After hanging up, Xia Qing had a simple but hearty Green Lantern dinner. She headed out for a nighttime run and to check on the territory. Three laps in, she stopped by the greenhouse on the low slope, grabbed the water pail that had been filled with spring water from the mountain cave, and tucked it into her backpack.

That was drinking water for her, Old Goat, the chickens and Squirrel’s family. Every day, Xia Qing would bring a pail home.

When she got home and saw Old Goat still sprawled in the hammock by the door, Xia Qing laughed. “You really love that hammock chair, huh, Big Guy?”

“Baa~” For once, Old Goat used that soft, clipped voice he usually only reserved for food. There was some real affection there.

“Then I’ll weld another metal frame and set one up for you inside,” Xia Qing promised. “There’s plenty of space next to the tatami in the living room anyway.”

“Baa~”

Xia Qing went to the warehouse, got a metal frame, cut and welded it with practiced speed, and hauled Old Goat’s hammock inside.

After her shower, she glanced downstairs and found Old Goat still lounging in the hammock, swaying lazily. Xia Qing couldn’t help wincing—it really did feel like she’d shot herself in the foot. Now that Old Goat had a hammock, he wasn’t even using the generator bike for exercise…

Well, she’d deal with that tomorrow. Xia Qing stifled a big yawn. It had been a long, productive day and she was beat.

“Ding.”

At 2am, a sound trap in the Northern Buffer Forest was triggered, ringing out sharply. Xia Qing’s eyes snapped open and she grabbed her phone.

Ever since Er Gou left, Xia Qing had set sound traps at critical spots each night for an extra layer of security, even though Section Three had cameras.

The trap had gone off, but her phone hadn’t received any alerts from the cameras. That could only mean the visitor was probably a familiar wolf. Xia Qing checked her phone and saw a tall, imposing Evolved Wolf. Its eyes glowed green under the night, but she recognized it by its left ear.

It was the Alpha from the Northern Wolf Pack, notorious for never using doors, carrying prey in its jaws and leaping two iron mesh walls to slip into her territory.

Xia Qing threw on her protective suit and stepped outside, just in time to see her own dazzlingly white Evolved Sheep cuddling up against the Alpha.

They hadn’t seen each other in ages—Old Goat had missed the Alpha too.

When Xia Qing appeared, the Alpha just flicked its ears, its eyes still locked on the sheep shed.

“Your Majesty, that freeloading Red Squirrel that lives in my sheep shed just gave birth to a litter,” Xia Qing explained, then curiously eyed the prey the Alpha had brought. “Wait…is that a Giant Raptor leg? So you really did catch the one that escaped into Hill Fifty-Eight this afternoon. You are incredible! The greatest on Blue Star, the queen of the universe!”

Only then did the Alpha turn its rich gold eyes on Xia Qing, gazing at her in silence.

Yeah…

She got the message.

Xia Qing picked up the two bird legs, each over a meter long, and hauled them inside to pluck the feathers. Ever since she proved her feather-plucking skills were better than the Balding Weasel, the Alpha and Broken Back always brought her unplucked birds, never bothering with the task themselves.

The Alpha came in behind her, wiping its paws on the screen door, and after a cursory glance at Old Goat lazing in the hammock, turned its gaze back to Xia Qing.

While boiling water, Xia Qing tested the Giant Raptor meat and was surprised to discover it was a Red Lantern—”Your Majesty, this bird’s leg has a Devastation Element content of 19‰. Are you sure you want to eat it? You’re still nursing pups—is it okay to eat something with that much Devastation Element?”

The Alpha didn’t react, so Xia Qing just plucked every single white feather clean off the raptor leg. The moment she finished the first leg, the Alpha walked over and crunched right in.

Not only did it eat the meat, it crunched up and swallowed the bones as well. In the year she’d known the Alpha, Xia Qing had never seen it tear into prey so fiercely.

The Alpha was acting a bit odd. Xia Qing glanced at Old Goat, still swinging lazily in the hammock, and went back to plucking feathers.

Once she finished the second leg, the Alpha devoured it—bones, skin, everything—leaving only six massive claws behind.

Raptors hunt with these long, lethal talons and their beaks.

Once, when Xia Qing’s team was gathering supplies in the Evolved Forest, a swarm of bees attacked. While fleeing, one of the Evolved fighters was caught by a Giant Raptor and dragged to a cliff. Xia Qing, who had excellent eyesight, saw the raptor rip off the fighter’s protective mask, blind him, then tear him to shreds before swallowing the pieces.

The man screamed a long time before dying. His blood stained the cliffs all red.

Tang Huai had said on the Lords’ channel that refugees from Territory Two met several Giant Raptors on their way to Hui Three Base. Dozens were brutally killed.

Giant Raptors didn’t just torture humans. Whenever they caught large prey, they’d always rip them apart alive before eating. Xia Qing couldn’t feel any sympathy for such savage animals.