"Rustle..."

Knowing that Lord Fu Li was going to interrogate the antelope, the staff at the ecological base all helped by pouring water into the antelope's mouth to help it wake up from the anesthesia quickly.

Although the antelope was seriously injured, its thick skin and sturdy nature compensated for its inability to be questioned while heavily hurt; it soon woke up from the anesthesia.

"Fox!"

Upon waking up and seeing Ansheng, the antelope let out a cry filled with despair and fear, tilted its head, rolled its eyes, and fainted, leaving Ansheng and the base staff bewildered.

A short while later, the antelope slowly came to, shrank its neck, and surveyed its surroundings. Confirming there was no white fox in sight, its taut nerves began to relax.

"Is this the power of leadership?"

"It's terrifying."

"Carved deeply into the heart," thought the Antelope Boss silently, feeling utterly dejected.

But.

Before it could wallow in sadness for long, it suddenly felt an itch in its tail.

It tried to wag its tail but couldn't. Just as it was about to lift a hand to check its rear, it heard the fox leader's voice from behind:

"Fat Cat, come here and give this old cow, lacking in energy, a kick to wake it up so it doesn't faint again." Lord Fu Li lifted the short, round tail of the antelope with his left hand and pointed with his right hand at its big basket, signaling Fat Cat to come over and kick it like a football.

The antelope's mind went blank for a moment, let out a "moo," and hurriedly clamped its tail, inching away, afraid that Fat Cat would really kick its basket.

The antelope dodged and looked back to see Fat Cat pulling out a steel bar from somewhere, ready to strike.

"Moo!"

The antelope tightly clamped its tail, eyes wide with fear.

"Haha, sure enough, my cunning worked—scared the old cow awake," commented Fat Cat, honestly and straightforwardly with a hearty laugh, tossing aside the steel bar.

"Awake? If so, let's get to business. You promised to follow me back to the Agricultural Research Institute to farm after recovering... "

"If you go back on your word, I'll use you for hotpot," Ansheng glanced at the antelope and continued:

"Now..."

"I just need you to answer one question: How did you manage to undergo genetic transformation before Fat Cat? Don't tell me it was pure luck, or Lord Fu Li will break your leg!"

There was no controversy regarding the handling of the antelope; sending it to the field to pull a plow was its best destiny.

But before sending it to the farmland, Ansheng needed it to answer his doubts about how it managed to transform and ascend to Guardian Level before Fat Cat.

Luck was impossible.

Though Fat Cat was always acting cute, as a staff member of the Security Bureau, it could receive 1-2 bottles of Spirit Particle Potion as rations every month.

Even with such resources, Fat Cat's transformation speed was still far behind the antelope's.

There was something fishy here, likely related to the "Qinling Spiritual Particle Plant Ecological Anomaly Incident."

"Treasure Grass..."

"There are many Treasure Grasses in the Qinling..." The antelope nervously confessed the reason for its rapid growth due to its instinctive failure-driven bloodline.

"In the depths of the Qinling Mountains, there are white birds that like to poop from the sky. In their droppings, there are numerous seeds of Treasure Grass, which sprout to become seedlings after rain," the antelope spoke with trepidation, revealing the whole story of its rapid empowerment.

Its power did not come from its own efforts, but about two hundred nights ago, roughly half a year ago, it discovered strange big birds with white bodies and red heads.

These birds squawked in the sky while defecating like rain, covering the antelope's back.

At the time, the enraged antelope went into a frenzy, chasing after them, and it happened to encounter a spring rainstorm, complete with lightning and thunder. Afterward, the droppings on its back began to sprout into shiny, exceptionally delicious plant seedlings.

The antelope consumed the Spiritual Particle Plants.

Later, while communicating with other Spirit Beasts deep in the mountains, it learned that Spirit Beasts called these plants Treasure Grass.

They would randomly appear in the Qinling and proliferate explosively after thunderstorms.

After learning about the existence of Treasure Grass, and due to a series of serendipitous circumstances, the antelope discovered the entire process of Treasure Grass birth.

Relying on the information from bird droppings, it could often find Treasure Grass before other Spirit Beasts.

In just half a year.

The antelope transformed from an Overlord Spirit Beast to a Guardian Spirit Beast.

"White birds with red heads..."

Fat Cat, with an expression of mixed surprise and doubt, asked the antelope: "Are their beaks black, with gray and white wings tinged with pink inside, and tails that appear orange-pink under sunlight?"

"You know them?" Hearing Fat Cat's detailed description of the "Treasure Grass Bird," the antelope looked at Fat Cat with a surprised expression and asked.

"Aren't you stating the obvious?" Fat Cat rolled its eyes and said, "I am, after all, part of the civil service."

"In Qinling, white-bodied, red-headed birds are basically only a few types. Based on your identification, I am very certain the bird you're talking about is the crested ibises, among the 'Four Treasures of Qinling,' and a Grade-I protected species!"

The Qinling is rich in wildlife, and the most famous among them is the "Four Treasures of Qinling," consisting of the Qinling pandas, antelopes, golden monkeys, and crested ibises.

They are all top-tier national treasures.

As one of the Four Treasures of Qinling and part of the Qinling Panda Ecological Protection Base's workforce, Fat Cat naturally knew about these goofy birds teetering on the brink of extinction.

If it weren't for the staff at protection bases throughout Qinling constantly diving into the mountains to protect the crested ibises' eggs, their species might have been extinct by the millennium.

Even after many years of nurturance, the crested ibises' population still barely reaches five thousand.

"So it was the crested ibises. Their droppings contained seeds of Treasure Grass. Old Bull here became like this relying on their droppings..."

Lying on its side, the antelope looked at the resembling battle god-like fox leader, reporting its work.

"Crested ibises..."

Ansheng nodded gently. The root cause of the Qinling anomaly used to be known as due to Spiritual Particle Plants, but no one could clearly explain the source of different Spiritual Particle Plants.

Although it's still unclear now, it's known that part of the forest's Spiritual Particle Plants originates from the droppings of crested ibises.

This means the search range has suddenly shrunk.

The Qinling Mountain Range spans across multiple provinces, covering a massive area of 400,000 square kilometers.

Now, by simply focusing on the crested ibises' habitats, it's possible to pinpoint the source of the Qinling anomaly.

Eliminating the need for aimless searching.

"Hey? Wang Qiqi?"

"Shoo, shoo, shoo, I'm in the city for a legitimate reason. I don't buy it that you guys aren't aware of what's going on at the school. What? You said you were asleep and knew nothing?"

"It doesn't matter if you know or not; just bring two bags of Spirit Particle Potions and come find me tonight. I've now discovered the source of the Qinling anomaly."

Wang Qi is on the night shift, and she really didn't know about the ecological base's events while asleep.

The only reason she knew about Lord Fu Li's speeding was because he had reported her name while speeding, prompting a call from the logistics department to Wang Qiqi, informing her that Lord Fu Li had been flaunting and swindling under her name.

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