Chapter 137: Wolf Medicine and Territory Rules

By evening, Tan Junjie announced the Hui San Land Management Department’s decision on Territory Nine’s violations in the Lord’s Channel:

First, all illegal chemicals would be confiscated and Li Si, along with other key members, was taken back to the Safe Zone for investigation.

Second, Li Si would be fined thirty thousand points, and Territory Nine would lose all policy benefits for a year.

Third, the Management Department would send people for surprise inspections of Territory Nine at least once per month to ensure no more dangerous chemicals were being hidden or produced. Further violations would lead to harsher punishment, including legal action against those responsible.

If the first two penalties stung at all, the last one really hit Territory Nine where it hurt.

After the announcement, Tan Junjie reminded the other lords, “Let this be a warning. Don’t store illegal items or engage in unlawful activities in your territories.”

Everyone wanted to ask who would be sent to inspect Territory Nine, but no one dared speak up. They were all afraid of provoking people from Territory Nine at this moment.

Xia Qing thought the nation’s crackdown on technicians and dangerous chemicals was exactly what they needed. Left unchecked, those people could wipe out a Safe Zone or even an entire Base in the blink of an eye.

With that, the incident of Territory Nine hoarding top-level hazardous chemicals was considered settled. Xia Qing didn’t care much about how many people from Territory Nine were taken away or when the investigation would be over.

She closed the Lord’s Channel and got started on her daily routine: push-ups, frog jumps, hand-eye coordination drills, and rebound shooting practice. After her intense standard workout, Xia Qing went to bed right on time.

Tomorrow, she had a tough battle ahead.

The next morning, Xia Qing woke as usual around four, roused by the chicks. She got up and went downstairs, just as the wolf delivering breakfast arrived. When she saw the wolf dragging in a freshly killed rabbit, legs still twitching, Xia Qing abandoned the thought of asking the Alpha Wolf for live rabbits. As soon as the two injured wolves came out for their meal, she quickly tidied up the Sheep Shed and brought the rabbit inside to process.

Once both wolves were fed, the one with the leg injury was able to crawl back to the Sheep Shed using its front paws without help. The wolf with the injured spine still couldn’t manage on its own.

The Alpha Wolf dragged the spinal injury wolf off to relieve itself, but as it was about to pull it back to the Shed, Xia Qing stopped them. She showed the Alpha Wolf the medicine bottle in her hand. “I’ve got to change its dressing now.”

Pointing at the wolf with the spinal injury, Xia Qing warned, “Queen, keep your pack in line. If they attack me, I can’t guarantee its wound will heal.”

The Alpha Wolf stared at the medicine bottle with its golden eyes, sniffed the air, then nosed its injured companion on the ground before looking back at Xia Qing.

Xia Qing immediately nodded. “Yes, I’ve got to change the medicine.”

The Wolf King stepped back, showing it understood. Xia Qing let out a relieved breath and called for Boss Sheep, “Boss, come help me out and watch the board while I change the wolf’s dressing.”

By “the board,” Xia Qing meant the thick square wooden board she’d prepped, with a semicircular cutout along one edge—just the right size to lock the wolf’s neck in place before securing it with a tripod.

Even though the brain-evolved wolf with the spinal injury bared its teeth at Xia Qing, she knew better than to underestimate its strength. Without locking its neck in with the board, she wouldn’t dare change its bandages.

The safer method would be to give the wolf a Calming Capsule and incapacitate it before changing the medicine, but since those pills have side effects, Xia Qing instinctively rejected the idea.

After all, she wanted this wolf to recover to its prime.

With the brain-evolved wolf calmly watching, Xia Qing secured its neck with the wooden board and changed its bandages.

As for the glares from the other wolves? Xia Qing didn’t care. As long as the Alpha Wolf stayed put, the rest wouldn’t start trouble.

Following the steps taught by the assistant from Plot Seven, Xia Qing steadied the wolf, letting it lie down, and quickly untied the rope keeping the split cylinder brace on its spine. She disinfected the spinal wound, applied ointment, then closed the cylinder over it again.

The cylinder wasn’t made of plaster, just a light, flexible material Xia Qing had never seen before.

The tension in the air was palpable, but Boss Sheep, stretched out beside Xia Qing, seemed oblivious as ever, chewing his cud with his eyes half-closed.

As she disinfected and bandaged the wound, Xia Qing felt the wolf’s muscles go taut and its hind leg twitch twice. Even without waiting for someone from Territory Seven to check, Xia Qing knew the wolf’s spinal nerve wasn’t severed. It’d stand up again for sure.

That was great news! Once this wolf could walk, the Alpha Wolf would owe her at least two Yi Stones, right? Grinning, Xia Qing removed the board and called to the Alpha Wolf, “Medicine’s done. Drag it back to rest in the Sheep Shed.”

With her task complete, Xia Qing left the yard to the wolves and headed back inside, closing the door behind her.

Boss Sheep? He didn’t follow.

While Xia Qing was in the kitchen cleaning the rabbit for breakfast, she glanced up and saw three uninjured wolves sniffing at the spinal injury wolf’s bandages.

But the Alpha Wolf went further, licking the injured wolf’s head, then Boss Sheep’s. The scene looked like it belonged in some twisted art film, leaving Xia Qing completely weirded out.

She decided it was better not to watch. Dropping her head, she focused on cleaning the rabbit meat.

After two days of rabbit stew for breakfast, Xia Qing felt like a change. Using a sharp knife, she cut large pieces of meat off the rabbit to marinate and dry. The rest she minced, tossing it with chives, ginger, salt, pepper oil and soy sauce before wrapping it into dumpling dough.

The rabbit dumplings smelled amazing. Once she finished eating, Xia Qing felt energized and grabbed her shovel, ready to prep the terraced field for planting Green-glow Spinach.

To save the wolves, Xia Qing still owed Zhang San two thousand Green-glow Spinach seeds. Today happened to be the day that the spinach seeds harvested during the second Xiang Rain finished their dormancy, meaning it was time to plant.

Green-glow Spinach was rich in Yi element—up to six-tenths of a percent—so Xia Qing took it seriously. Once the leaves grew in, she could juice them, add Zhang San’s special medicine, and sell fifteen milliliters as premium nutrient solution for two thousand points.

With premium nutrient solution in hand, Xia Qing would finally be able to explore the two valleys in Area Three of Mountain Forty-Nine. Those valleys brimmed with vegetation and wildlife and were bound to hide all sorts of treasures.

Determined to do everything right, Xia Qing used her very best fertilizers—leaf compost from the first round of Green-glow Wheat and Mung Beans, ash made from Green-glow Chinese Toon branches, and fully fermented Greenlight Sheep Manure.

She soaked the seeds in pure, uncontaminated spring water. Worried this planting might fail, she only soaked half her spinach seeds. That way, there’d still be enough for a retry next year.

Once they soaked, she planted twelve hundred spinach seeds in the low-slope terraced plot, then put in some cabbages for good measure.

She had a hundred Green-glow Cabbage seeds from trading with Zhang San, and a hundred and fifty Yellowlight Cabbage seeds she’d bought at the Produce Trade Fair. All the Green-glow Cabbage was planted in the terraced plot. Half the Yellowlight went there too, with the other half in the greenhouse.

After finishing with the cabbage seeds, Xia Qing took off her gloves and wiped sweat from her brow. She’d finished planting all the second round of vegetables.

The radishes, sunflowers, eggplants, cucumbers and corn she’d planted seven days ago had already sprouted. Her terraced plot and farmland at the mountain foot were thriving.

Give it another month or so and she’d be eating fresh cucumbers, tomatoes, eggplants and scallions again. Three months from now, the second harvest would be ready.

As for how much she’d get? That all depended on weather and luck. But with four Yi Stones in her pocket, Xia Qing felt confident this crop would outdo her first.

Next, Xia Qing was set to start forging protective shells for the Yi Stones.