Chapter 832: Under the Carnivorous Blooms

The next morning, Xia Qing asked Hu Zifeng to send someone to watch over the territory while she and Xin Yu headed to the spot where the wolf pack hunted wild ducks.

Just as Xia Qing suspected, the wild ducks the wolves brought back both times lived in a stretch of wetlands between Hill Fifty-Two and Hill Fifty-Three—a passage the wolves always took when traveling between Section Three and Hill Sixty.

With Xin Yu’s magnetic sense for detecting edible prey, teaming up with her meant they wouldn’t have that infuriating situation where they hunt dozens of ducks and not a single Green Lantern turns up.

If it weren’t for Er being so wary of Xin Yu—and the fact that his magnetic field made Xin Yu uncomfortable—Xia Qing would have loved to team up with them both, since Er knew today’s hunting area like the back of his paw.

Xin Yu sidestepped the eyes that watched her, slipping into Section Three before dawn. She headed out from the north gate of Section One of the North and soon showed up at the parking lot beneath Third Peak, Hill Fifty, then continued on foot toward their destination.

Hill Fifty-Three sat to the north of Hill Fifty. The wetlands where the wild ducks lived were only six kilometers away as the crow flies, but the mountain trails twisted and turned. They’d need to climb mountains, leap across fissures more than a hundred meters deep, and trek through a patch where the flowers rivaled washbasins in size—carnivorous flowers that drooled at the sight of people. On top of that, they’d have to cross through territory owned by giant lizards and crocodiles. Even as the perfect team for detecting aggressive plants and animals, Xia Qing and Xin Yu still had to be ultra-cautious.

Getting up close to these drooling, meat-red flowers for the first time, Xin Yu whispered, “Are these… evolved monster blooms?”

“They look similar, but Third Brother ran tests and says this is a new species. We still don’t know if it’s an evolved plant or fungus. They sense danger through vibrations in the ground and release a volatile substance that causes hallucinations in animals. Whatever you do, don’t take off your protective mask.” Xia Qing and Xin Yu both had high-grade masks that could filter out such gases.

Thanks to the pads on the wolves’ paws, they didn’t stir the blooms as they moved through, so those odd flowers only drooled at Xia Qing when she traveled with the pack.

Life forms on Blue Star were straight-up nuts now that they’d evolved!

After sneaking past the bizarre flowers and the giant lizards’ turf and climbing yet another mountain, Xin Yu murmured a warning, “Ten o’clock, about a hundred meters out—there are two hostile animals, one with an especially intense magnetic field. It’s probably a large predator.”

“Hold up.” The rush of water here was so loud Xia Qing couldn’t rely on her hearing to catch evolved beasts lurking around. She immediately switched places with Xin Yu after the warning, pulling her behind a rock for cover, shielding her from any danger.

Two minutes later, Xin Yu warned again in a low voice, “Twelve o’clock, another predator—it’s a human. The hostility is off the charts!”

“Follow me—let’s change our hiding spot.” Unlike wild animals, humans pack serious long-range firepower. Xia Qing led Xin Yu ahead, moving softly for twenty meters until they ducked behind two even larger rocks. She lowered her voice. “Contact Captain Tan and ask if there are any military or combat teams operating in this area.”

“Got it.” Xin Yu glanced at her phone and put it away. “No signal here. Either the magnetic field’s out of whack or someone’s using a jamming device. One o’clock, another human shows up—hostile, too.”

“It’s a jammer. There used to be a signal along this animal trail.” Xia Qing, having walked this route a number of times, was certain. That explained why their walkie-talkie was full of static: they were being jammed.

Carrying a jammer that blocks phones but not walkie-talkies meant the other group was using walkie-talkies, too. These people definitely weren’t here for ducks or crocodiles.

Xia Qing pulled out the sniper rifle and lowered her voice. “Keep me updated on any changes in the humans’ positions. Ten o’clock—is that a human?”

“Confirmed—not a human at ten o’clock.”

So the two openly hostile humans and the two aggressive beasts at ten o’clock likely weren’t working together. In fact, they were probably enemies. The beasts could be wolves or a bear, and Xia Qing’s eyes grew colder at the thought.

Xin Yu’s brow pinched with pain. She cautioned softly, “Rein in that malice of yours—you’re interfering with me.”

“Understood.” Xia Qing immediately repressed her killing intent.

Half a minute later, Xin Yu reported, “Two more humans just appeared. Nine o’clock, both moving with the one at one o’clock toward the ten o’clock mark at the eighty-meter point. They’re all feeling pretty happy right now. The predator’s magnetic field at ten o’clock is weakening, and the person at twelve o’clock is staying put, also growing more excited.”

“That predator at ten o’clock is probably an evolved wolf—that’s what those four people are hunting.” Xia Qing stayed calm inside. “Seems like they haven’t noticed us.”

If they had, those four definitely wouldn’t be advancing cheerfully before dealing with Xia Qing and Xin Yu.

This was wolf pack territory in the north, or maybe the turf of a brain-evolved bear. Let them fight among themselves—all fine by humans. But if people started hunting evolved wolves or bears here, the wolves on Hill Sixty and the brain-evolved bear on Hill Sixty-One would go ballistic, triggering an unpredictable crisis.

The only thing you could be sure of in this kind of crisis was: Section One territory was going to get wrecked!

Xia Qing acted decisively. “Xin Yu, can you come with me to check it out? I promise to keep you safe. If they’re poaching predators, we have to intervene.”

“You go ahead, I’ll stay here.” Xin Yu understood—Xia Qing didn’t need her help but just wanted to keep her close and safe.

Xin Yu wasn’t some defenseless weakling despite her slow speed, lack of strength, and mediocre skills with guns and fighting. If she was, she wouldn’t have dared venture out without a tamed beast or bodyguard. “I brought twenty grenades, each loaded with 180 grams of mixed explosives. My hit rate at a hundred meters is a hundred percent. As long as you keep your emotions stable, I can defend myself.”

As long as Xia Qing kept her mood steady and her magnetic field calm, Xin Yu wouldn’t mistake her for a threat. Everyone else broadcasting hostile vibes became her target. “Go on—they’re only fifteen meters from their target now. The target’s magnetic field keeps weakening—looks like it might die or pass out.”

“Understood.”

With no time to waste, Xia Qing fished out her cat’s claw climbing shoes from her backpack, slipped them on, and scurried forward several meters before scaling a normal tree over a meter in diameter.

Xin Yu said she didn’t need a teammate guarding her, but as team captain, Xia Qing saw it as her responsibility to look after her people. She wasn’t about to risk her teammate and friend just to save a wolf or a bear. Xin Yu could sense magnetic fields, true, but the chance the other side had weapons like hers was a hundred percent.

Let Xin Yu toss a grenade and she’d instantly become the next target for retaliation.

That’s why Xia Qing chose to climb a tree—she could scout from afar and stay close enough to shield Xin Yu if things went south.