Chapter 847: The Price of Rescues

Last November, a so-called ‘refugee squad’ made up of Fire Phoenix and Sufeng Squad members from Territory Two went out hunting. They cornered a brown bear inside a cave on Hill Fifty and tormented it so badly that the bear howled for help.

Their real goal was to lure the bears from Hill Sixty-One southward. That way, Xu Pin, Sufeng’s vice-captain, could take a helicopter over to the lake beside Hill Sixty-One and play some tricks. Of course, this plan only came to light during interrogation this spring, after Sufeng was wiped out and Base questioned the captured members.

After the brown bear on Hill Fifty let out a few miserable cries, Xin Yu told her tamed bird to drop a bag of explosives over Territory Two. The bomb took out Sufeng’s helicopter on the spot, blowing their travel plans to pieces. With no ride left, they finally stopped torturing the bear.

In the end, Yang Jin delivered the bear’s abusers to Hill Sixty-One and paid off the giant bear with a whole can of Green Lantern Honey to calm things down.

The Wolf Pack living on Hill Sixty seized the chance when two Evolved Bears had wandered south and the Python Territory was left unguarded. They launched a sneak attack, killed an over-thousand-jin, high-grade Hardness-Evolved Green Lantern Giant Python—which had lost mobility because of the cold—and sent the catch to Section Three of Hill Forty-Nine. As payment for Xia Qing to craft them Snake Skin Protective Suits from the python’s skin, they handed over a chunk of Yi Stone as a ‘work fee.’

Naturally, Xia Qing agreed to the Wolf Pack’s request and used the python skin leftover from the wolves to make two top-notch protective suits for herself and Xin Yu.

Today, when Xia Qing and Xin Yu teamed up to hunt wild ducks in the Evolved Forest, they wore the python skin suits under their Grade-Four Field Protective Suits.

Without double-layer protection, she wouldn’t have dared go head-to-head with poachers armed with rocket launchers.

Yang Jin nodded. “That’s the one. There were two Evolved Bears in Hill Fifty at the time; this one was smaller. When I treated its wounds, I realized it was a Brain-Evolved Bear. You must’ve noticed too, right?”

Xia Qing had already agreed with Zhang San—no one would leak information about the Evolved animals living in this part of the Evolved Forest.

Last time, when Xia Qing, Alpha, Crippled Wolf and Er wiped out the Fire Phoenix Trapping Team, the only videos and wolf data reported up the chain were those about Er Gou, who’d had his digestion compromised by a parasite.

So, the video Zhang Song filmed this morning of the showdown between the wolves and the bear will only be submitted to Lord Zhang San. Yan Long, Huo Zhun and Xin Yu won’t leak anything either.

That’s why Yang Jin only knew that Xia Qing and Xin Yu had rescued a bear and a monkey, but had no idea the monkey had been shoved onto them by that Brain-Evolved Bear.

Xia Qing nodded. “That bear’s probably the cub of those two Brain-Evolved Giant Bears from Hill Sixty-One. Captain Yang, what’s the tracker inside the bear exactly? Can we get it out?”

Leaving that thing in means the Hui Six folks could show up anytime to recapture the bear. For Section One of the North, that tracker is like a ticking time bomb.

“It’s a tracker about the size of a walnut, powered by kinetic energy. It must’ve been implanted in the bear’s leg. My fault—I didn’t check carefully enough while bandaging its wound,” Yang Jin admitted, then added, “To get the tracker out, we’d need to catch the bear again. After it was injured, it didn’t leave Hill Sixty for over half a year, so it could take just as long now. I’d bet it’s hostile toward humans now, so we can’t risk a reckless capture. What’s with the monkey, anyway?”

Xia Qing briefly explained the situation, then pulled out her brand new phone—picked up just this evening—and showed Yang Jin the current state of the Monkey. “It’s hard to say if this monkey will ever fully bounce back.”

“The Hui Six people loathe monkeys. I’ll bet their tranquilizer dart was meant for the monkey’s brain, but it got its arm up in time, so the dart hit the arm. If it had struck the head, it’d be dead by now,” Yang Jin said, but he was really watching Xia Qing’s hand gripping the phone.

The back of her hand was mottled with bruises. Two fingernails even had deep purple blood pooled underneath. Yang Jin’s heart twisted for her, but he forced himself to act casual and asked lightly, “Did you bang up your hand?”

“Yeah, a rock from an artillery shell blast hit me this morning. No big deal.” It was just a knock—no broken skin, no infection from Evolution Bacteria. It only stung a little and wouldn’t keep her from working, so Xia Qing brushed it off and went on, “I suspect before it got shot, this monkey was a strong evolved fighter too. That’s probably why, during the bear-wolf battle, the bear picked it up and displayed it like a trophy.”

Of course, Xia Qing didn’t mention that the Bears—those clueless oafs—thought she and the Monkey were equals in combat power. How embarrassing!

Yang Jin shared a bit of local intel. “The main territory for the Northern Wolf Pack is between Hill Forty-Nine and Hill Sixty. Last summer, the Bear Pack moved south and seized some wolf land, leaving the Giant Python to guard the Second Peak of Hill Fifty and the Cub to watch over the Third Peak of Hill Fifty-Five. But most of the bears still forage between Hills Sixty-One and Sixty-Five. Hill Sixty-Two is home to loads of bee colonies—the Bear Pack’s absolute favorite stop.”

“When I went picking herbs last year, I passed through Hill Sixty-Two and ran into these Monk-faced Monkeys. They leap through the trees incredibly fast; their strength is a mystery. But if this Monk-faced Monkey can hang out with a Brain-Evolved Bear, it must be evolved too. Once you save it, what’s your plan?”

Hill Sixty-Two? Xia Qing had never visited, but she had gazed north from halfway up Hill Sixty. Hill Sixty-Two lay past the huge Python Lake at the northern foot of Hill Sixty—a sprawling expanse of low, lush, and humid forested mountains.

That place is deep within the Evolved Forest—practically a forbidden zone for humans.

Who would have guessed a whole troop of monkeys lived barely seventy li from human territory!

Xia Qing let out a long sigh. “Honestly, I’d rather kill it.”

Yang Jin smiled reassuringly. “This monkey actually looks kind of cute and dopey. Once you bring it back, maybe it’ll help you build a bridge to communicate with the Brain-Evolved Bear. Even if you can’t reach the kind of friendly exchange that the wolves have, just not being enemies would make the territory so much safer.”

Cute? Xia Qing glanced at the Monkey’s goofy, ugly mug on her phone and silently confirmed for the thousandth time that something was wrong with Yang Jin’s taste. But, “That’s exactly why I’m trying so hard to save it. Here’s hoping it doesn’t turn out to be an ungrateful little brat.”

If this monkey recovers, realizes there’s loads of food in the human territory, and then heads home to hook up with the Giant Bear and lead a troop south to raid human supplies, it’ll be a disaster.

But Yang Jin had absolute confidence in Xia Qing and the Wolf Pack. “It’s just a monkey, barely bigger than a housecat. How much trouble could it stir up? Even if it’s ungrateful, it wouldn’t dare lead the Monkey Troop south through wolf territory. Worst-case scenario—even if the wolves let them through—with your aim, you could wipe out all the monkeys from Hill Sixty-Two before noon.”

He made it sound like monkeys were dumb and she was a sharpshooting legend…

Xia Qing’s smile was all business, “Ammunition’s gotten expensive. Not worth wasting bullets on monkeys.”