Chapter 891: Pursuit Through the Ruined Wilds

The Handsome Huge Wolf was about the same size as a pre-Cataclysm horse.

Both the Huge Wolf and the Evolved Horse were built for endurance and excelled at running. Out on the open plains, the horse could outrun the wolf, but in the rough, tangled Evolved Forest, the Huge Wolf was faster.

With Xia Qing in tow, the Handsome Huge Wolf raced from the northern edge of the territory at Hill Forty-Nine straight into the western Hill Forty-Eight, then cut through Hill Forty-Six to reach the town ruins—also called Section Nine Forest of the Western Lands—only slowing down once they arrived.

The first two years after the Cataclysm, when Blue Star’s continents shifted, Huaguo’s terrain was unrecognizable. To keep things simple and pinpoint locations quickly, each base just started calling mountains, lakes, and rivers by numbers.

Within Hui Three Base’s zone, the mountain ranges were marked from small to large, radiating from the Safe Zone at the center: Mountains 1 through 8 were to the south, 9 to 18 to the east, 19 to 48 out west, and 49 to 139 stretched through the north.

It was nearly two hundred li in a straight shot from the Safe Zone to Section Nine in the west. Crippled Wolf had run with Xia Qing along winding beast trails for who knows how far.

When the wolf finally slowed and moved with more caution, Xia Qing knew they were close to their goal. She piped up again, “Big Wolf, I’m beat. Let’s take a break and have some honey-egg nutrient shake, yeah?”

As soon as the Handsome Huge Wolf stopped, Xia Qing whipped out fresh spinach juice, added honey, cracked in two eggs, mixed everything up, and offered it to the wolf. Panting from the run, he sniffed it once—then drank it all in a few gulps.

She poured half a basin of pure spring water for him too. When he finished, she whispered, “Big Wolf, those humans—are they over there?”

Xia Qing knew Section Nine Forest of the Western Lands like the back of her hand.

Three kilometers further southeast lay Territory Seven of the Western Lands. With Yang Jin’s help, this was where Xia Qing had managed to bring down her father’s killer, Tang Zhengsu. Back before she started farming, she’d often come out to this exact area with mission teams to forage and hunt.

She pointed ahead—3,000 meters away, there was a patch of abandoned village ruins.

The Handsome Huge Wolf kept a straight face, pointedly ignoring Xia Qing.

Even acting aloof, he pretty much confirmed it—they had to be hiding in those ruins. The wolf had started slowing as they drew near, which meant the missing Liang Qing Squad couldn’t be far. In this area, the only place you could hide a full team was among those abandoned houses.

There weren’t any big predators around here. Liang Qing’s squad had come out to clear aggressive devastation-evolved plants from Section Three, but maybe they’d run into evolved rat swarms or spiders and ended up trapped or killed in the ruins. Or maybe a rival mission team with a grudge jumped them and dumped their bodies here.

Inside the Safe Zone, squad members had to follow the law and Squad Alliance rules. But in the wilds, all bets were off—running into an unfamiliar team could be as dangerous as running into mutated beasts or lethal devastation-evolved plants.

That’s why, the moment the Squad Alliance learned of their disappearance, they posted a thirty-thousand bounty for their rescue.

If the squad had just been mugged, as long as they were still breathing, even robbers would suddenly volunteer to become a rescue team—just to haul their victims back for the bounty.

Xia Qing pulled out the deodorizer and Evolved Forest insect repellent she’d traded from her Idol. She sprayed both herself and the Huge Wolf with the deodorizer, then gave them both a thorough coat of repellent. She turned to the wolf, “Big Wolf, stay put and rest here. I’ll go look for them.”

It was dark, but Xia Qing was so familiar with this place she could find her way blindfolded. She decided to make the most of this rare shot to hone her skills in real combat.

Survival during the Cataclysm—all depended on fighting power. Allies’ strength belonged to the Alliance. The wolves’ strength was the wolf pack’s. Only your own strength was truly yours to count on.

After sending her location to Luo Pei, Xia Qing gripped her sniper rifle, activated all her senses—sight, hearing, and magnetic sense—and plunged into the forest.

Fifteen hundred meters out from the ruins, Xia Qing—wearing night vision goggles—spotted a bright signal much bigger than the typical bugs and rats. Judging by the shape and movements, there was a good chance it was a human head.

It was pitch black, and even though she wore a special suit that shielded against infrared and radar, Xia Qing took every precaution, picking out the most concealed path forward.

Eight hundred meters from the two bright spots, Xia Qing confirmed they were humans. The way they stood and moved pointed to them being sentries posted by whoever was hiding in the ruins.

Since she couldn’t be sure yet who they were, Xia Qing crept even closer.

When Xia Qing was just one hundred ninety meters out, she tapped into her level-seven evolved hearing, sifting through the wind and insect sounds until she caught human voices—and realized who it was:

Jiang Xiong and Qi San from the Dongyang Squad.

These two were supposed to be at the Hui Five Base. If they’d shown up here, that all but proved the missing Liang Qing Squad had something to do with one man: former third-in-command of Liang Qing Squad, then Dongyang Squad leader, now captain of Hui Five’s Spring Wind Squad—Chen Dongyang.

Back in January, after news broke that Dongyang Squad’s Xue Jinchang and Sun Jun helped butcher wolf pups from the Western Wolf Pack, the authorities tore Dongyang Squad’s base apart. Every major member got interrogated.

Not only did Dongyang Squad end up with empty coffers and zero contribution points, but Chen Dongyang—after being cleared and released—suddenly found himself everyone’s target.

The Western Wolf Pack, furious over the loss of thirteen pups, launched a beast horde. Fifty territory leaders lost the homes they’d spent a year building, and dozens from defending squads and inspection teams died fending off the horde to protect the east.

Leaders who couldn’t take revenge on the wolves, along with squads and civilians who lost teammates or family, turned all their anger onto Dongyang Squad.

No one led the charge more fiercely than Zheng Jiang, whose younger brother was killed by evolved trees, and Chen Deng, Liang Qing Squad captain, who blamed Chen Dongyang for the deaths of both the previous captain and vice captain.

With Zheng Jiang vowing not to rest till someone paid, and with new generation evolved fighters on Liang Qing Squad’s rise, Chen Dongyang knew things were about to get ugly. He cut his losses, sold squad supplies, and took twenty-plus teammates to leave Hui Three for Hui Five’s third-ranking Spring Wind Squad.

Xia Qing had heard from Xu Juan that Chen Dongyang only made it into Spring Wind Squad by charming Deng Fang, the team’s number two—an evolved fighter with both stamina and elasticity abilities.

Chen Dongyang: once third in line for the old Liang Qing Squad, later captain of Dongyang Squad (ranked eleventh), and a crowd favorite in Hui Three’s Safe Zone. Now? He’s just barely Spring Wind Squad’s squad leader—only getting in by sharing a bed. Half a year in, and that’s all he’s got to show for it.

You could imagine just how well things were going for Chen Dongyang inside Spring Wind Squad.

And you could bet what his real reason was for coming back this time.