Chapter 317: Spring of Life, Seeds of Survival

After Xia Qing heaved aside the two-hundred-pound stone, Yang Jin used the last rays of dusk to carefully inspect the inside of the cave.

The cave was much smaller than Yang Jin expected—barely half a meter deep, with only about thirty centimeters in height. Pure Spring seeped slowly from the innermost rock wall and disappeared through cracks in the stone. The faint trickle was completely drowned out by the river down the slope; you couldn’t hear it at all.

With the cave sealed, unless someone moved those stones, there was no way to spot the spring. Given how many rocks littered the mountain, who’d go prying each one open? No wonder every team had combed these hills over and over and still failed to find this hidden gem.

Yang Jin pointed to a pit the size of a water barrel near the spring and asked, “Did you dig this hole?”

Xia Qing nodded. “Back then, I didn’t realize that messing with the mountain might damage the spring. I dug the hole just to make collecting water easier.”

“This little pit won’t harm the mountain or the spring, don’t worry.”

After deciding where in the cave to grow grass and clearing the spot, Yang Jin finally removed the lid from the planting box. Xia Qing took a closer look… and froze.

Where were the medicinal herbs?

Yang Jin, noticing how animated she looked at such close range, chuckled. “Look a little closer.”

Xia Qing widened her eyes and stared hard, finally spotting two finger-tall clusters of colorless, translucent little grass growing on the dark, damp soil inside the box. She was stunned.

Just how crazy had this world become after Blue Star’s evolution?

She’d never seen a freakier kind of grass—completely transparent, right beside a pristine spring. Springs found by humans were all heavily guarded, so Yang Jin had to hunt down an undiscovered one. Those were buried deep in the Evolved Forest, places humans rarely tread. No wonder it took Yang Jin a whole month—and he came back wounded.

Yang Jin explained, “This is called the Devastationweed. It’s a plant species discovered only after Blue Star’s great evolution. Like the name suggests, it’s got remarkable healing effects for damage caused by the Devastation Element. It’s so rare that there’s no official price. Even if we charge a million credits per stalk, someone would still fight to buy it.”

If Luo’s poisoning hadn’t been so severe—only curable with this grass—Yang Jin would never have risked his life to go all the way to Bai Seven Base.

Yang Jin pulled out a small bag of soil from his backpack. “This is native earth from the Devastationweed’s habitat. Pour it in the pit, then plant the grass.”

“Let me handle it.” Xia Qing finally tore her gaze from the miraculous little plants and took the soil bag. Yang Jin seemed fine, but with his hands bandaged, he wasn’t suited for heavy work.

With plenty of planting experience, Xia Qing could tell at a glance that this small bag of dirt wasn’t enough to fill the pit. She threw in some of the loosened stones to prop up the base, then poured in the gritty soil, smoothing it out. “Team Leader Yang, do you want to plant it or should I?”

“You do it, you’ve got way more experience than me.” Yang Jin flicked on a flashlight, illuminating the Devastationweed, and reminded her, “Be careful. Don’t touch its leaves.”

“Got it.” Xia Qing gingerly used a transplanting trowel to set the two stalks of Devastationweed into the soil.

Worried she might brush against the nearly invisible plants when drawing water, Xia Qing stuck two small twigs beside them as markers. This was, after all, the miracle cure for synthetic toxin poisoning—worth a million credits per stalk. You couldn’t be too cautious.

The hole they’d dug was ten centimeters from the water, almost a perfect match for its natural habitat. But Bai Seven Base was more than ten degrees colder than here. Xia Qing was afraid the two little stalks would wilt from the heat.

“Team Leader Yang, does Devastationweed attract insects? Does it need fertilizer?”

Yang Jin shook his head, just as clueless. “It’s incredibly rare. Right now, only Red One and White One Bases have a few artificially grown stalks. I’ll have to ask around about the best way to cultivate it.”

“Did Third Brother tell you Bai Seven Base had this kind of grass?” Xia Qing inquired.

“No, I got the info through other channels. Without exact coordinates, it took a lot of effort.” Yang Jin warned, “Only you, me, Luo, and Xie Yu know about the Devastationweed here. Besides yourself, don’t let anyone else near the spring—Wei Chengdong won’t be coming back for water either. I’ll take a barrel of water for Luo’s antidote. He won’t need nearly all the spring water. We’ll discuss the rest next time we meet.”

After Yang Jin left, Xia Qing hurried home, picking some vegetables and heading for the Chicken House to check on the eggs. To her delight, she found there was one more egg than usual today.

She left the Chicken House grinning, and sure enough, spotted two wolves and a sheep sprawled out in the Sheep Shed. In the nearby cage, the wild rabbit had curled itself into a trembling ball.

“Queen, Old Goat, Er, I’m home,” Xia Qing called out, greeting each of them as she carried the rabbit cage inside. She slipped fresh sweet potato leaves into the cage. If she’d done this outside, the rabbit might have died of fear.

Eggs went straight into the fridge as Xia Qing started cleaning the rabbit that Alpha brought back. Though not as big as the one Shi Du had given her, it was definitely one of Green Lantern’s catch.

First, she skinned the rabbit and set the pelt aside for later. Thanks to the wolves, Xia Qing had piled up quite a few animal skins lately—enough to make some warm mats for winter.

She cleaned out the rabbit’s organs, placing them in a small basin and carrying it outside the Sheep Shed. “Queen, dinner’s ready,” she called.

Wolves love organ meat. With Er Gou unable to eat raw food at the moment, Alpha wasted no time and dug right in. Xia Qing took the rest of the rabbit inside—half was boiled with pumpkin for Er Gou’s meal, the other half she braised for herself with chilies and potatoes.

Even after three months in the basement, the potatoes were still fresh. But the smaller ones left in the Abandoned Village’s cellar—without a Yi Stone or climate controls—were already soft and rotting.

That proved it: without a Yi Stone and a climate-controlled cellar, no matter how well you built one, you just couldn’t keep food for long.

After dinner, Xia Qing sat on the veranda chatting with Alpha. “Queen, where have you been lately? Haven’t seen you in ages.”

The last time Xia Qing saw Alpha was before migration season—she’d been gathering Green-Lamp Pine Nuts on Hill Fifty, while Alpha was watching two evolved bears brawl on a neighboring peak.

Alpha, sprawled at the Sheep Shed door, didn’t answer her at all—just kept staring at the half-finished mud nest under the eaves. Er Gou and Old Goat flanked him on either side, playing the perfect lapdogs.

“A few swallows that came during migration built that nest. They couldn’t find the right group to migrate with, so they stayed here,” Xia Qing explained. She went on, “Crippled Wolf left wearing a protective suit—did you see what happened, Queen? Has he taken that suit off yet?”

Crippled Wolf was definitely still in that protective suit. He cared too much about looks—and the suit hid the patch where his fur had been scraped off.

Xia Qing recounted the whole story of why Crippled Wolf left the territory—and everything that happened afterward—to Alpha. When she finished, she brought out the last set of grade-four canine field protective gear she’d traded with Yang Huai and showed it off to Alpha.

She’d helped the wolf pack so much—it was only fair she got something good from Alpha in return.