Chapter 550: A Favor from a Wolf, a Gift for a Friend

Xia Qing locked eyes with Crippled Wolf for a few seconds. She got the message—this clever Brain-Evolved Wolf wasn’t interested in the magnifying glass.

So what kind of supplies was she supposed to trade with Crippled Wolf?

Seeing how serious Crippled Wolf looked, Xia Qing put the magnifying glass away and tried to negotiate, “Broken Back, what do you want?”

Crippled Wolf continued to stare at Xia Qing with that same serious expression, saying nothing at all.

Xia Qing thought it over for a few seconds, gesturing as she tried to reason with him. “Do you have something important you need to handle right now? How about this—you send a wolf to guard the valley for me, and whenever you figure out what you want in exchange, just let me know. Sound good?”

It seemed Crippled Wolf understood. He bared his little sharp fangs at Xia Qing in a symbolic show, turned around, and left her home. A moment later he was sprinting through the Northern Buffer Forest, leaped over the iron mesh wall, and was gone from Section Three.

Guess he really was busy. Was it because the Queen was about to give birth, or had the odd behavior of the Wolf Pack in the Western Evolved Forest caught the attention of the pack on Hill Sixty?

Despite being so busy, Crippled Wolf still made the effort to stop by with Er Gou. Xia Qing was genuinely touched. As she watched him leave, she asked her companions, “Old Goat, Er, do you guys think Broken Back understood me?”

Old Goat kept chewing, her face unreadable and unchanged. Er Gou, sensing Xia Qing’s emotion, nudged her gently then grinned wide, showing off his happy smile.

Xia Qing grinned back. “Yeah, I think he got it. Let’s see what he does next. If he doesn’t send a wolf, I’ll go talk to Xin Yu and borrow a bird from her.”

She gave Old Goat and Er Gou each a fond pat on the head and led her companions home. “Come on, let’s go eat! Er, you worked hard today—I’ll cook you meat porridge with egg. Old Goat, you did a great job generating power, I’ll make your favorite fresh toon sprouts.”

At the mention of toon sprouts, Old Goat’s eyes sparkled big and bright. She hurried to Xia Qing’s side with a happy bleat, “Baa~~~”

That high-pitched squeal from Old Goat was something Xia Qing hadn’t heard in ages. She flicked the greedy goat’s forehead. “Let’s go back and make it for you guys.”

“Baa~~~”

“Awoo—” Er Gou tried to imitate Old Goat, letting out a soft, happy sound of his own.

“Beep, beep, beep.”

Dinner wasn’t even ready when Xia Qing heard her phone chime with a notification. She pulled it out and saw an alert from the surveillance camera on Hill Fifty.

She opened up the Hill Fifty feed and stared at her phone for a few seconds, then asked through the monitor, “Broken Back, did you assign the plucked one to guard the valley?”

There was Crippled Wolf, standing at the camera by the Bear Cave entrance, flashing his little sharp fangs. Behind him stood a shifty-looking Yellow Weasel.

Xia Qing laughed. “Broken Back, you sure know how to pick wolves. The plucked one is the perfect choice for guarding the valley! You’re the smartest Evolved Wolf on all of Blue Star, the Evolved Wolf standing at the top of the food chain. Thanks for your hard work these last few days, balding one.”

The Balding Weasel’s whiskers twitched. He wasn’t big and certainly not brave, but in a fight he was top tier, the best choice for guarding the valley. With the plucked one watching over things, Xia Qing wouldn’t need to ask Xin Yu for a bird after all.

After her farewell with Crippled Wolf, Xia Qing happily shared the news with her two animal friends squatting by the kitchen door. “Broken Back sent the plucked one to guard the valley, so there’s no need for us to trade our precious Green Lantern dried fruits with Xin Yu anymore.”

“What do you think I should prepare to thank Broken Back? How about using our leftover cotton to make him a pink wolf den? Maybe decorate it with a few pearls around the edges?”

“That last big winter beast tide was started by a bunch of wild boars, right?” Kuang Qingwei asked about beast tides in the Lords’ channel.

Qi Fu answered, “That time with the wild boar-triggered beast tide should have been late January or early February. I remember it wasn’t this cold then.”

“Seems about right,” Shizhong added.

Whenever a beast tide hit, the Base would send out Evolved fighters and the Military to deal with it, so life for regular people in the Safe Zone wasn’t much affected. That’s why back then, the lords scraping by inside the Safe Zone didn’t remember the exact date.

Xia Qing, who’d actually helped defend the Safe Zone walls during that tide, pressed the button. “The one Qing mentioned—beast tide happened on year ten, February 3rd after the Cataclysm, started by some wild boars in the southern Evolved Forest near the Safe Zone.”

The Evolved Forest near the Safe Zone had been scavenged so many times by collection teams that every edible Green Lantern plant was dug up. That left the nearby herbivores with nothing but Red Lantern plants to eat, which caused the Devastation Element in their bodies to spike out of control.

When herbivores lose control, it triggers the carnivores in the same area to lose control as well. So every year, from late January to early February, is when the largest beast tides usually hit. The root cause is humans over-harvesting.

That’s why Base leadership always urges teams not to strip the Evolved Forest bare—leave some Green Lantern plants for the plant eaters. But not many teams actually listen.

Since the Evolved Forest is public land, if you don’t pick it clean, somebody else will.

“So this time, the tide only came eleven days early—not too bad. But why would there suddenly be so many out-of-control wolves and leopards deep in the Western Evolved Forest? Did something major just happen there?” Kuang Qingwei asked, “How are your greenhouse veggies growing, everyone?”

“Not great. I’ve only managed to harvest one batch of yellow chive, it’s just too cold this year,” Qi Fu sighed.

Shizhong sounded equally discouraged. “Mine aren’t doing any better. I’d hoped to make some money selling veggies in the spring to buy fertilizer and fungicide.”

Among the Alliance members, yellow chive was code for calling an Alliance meeting. Qi Fu had brought it up, and Xia Qing had been thinking the same thing. So she pressed her walkie-talkie button. “Same here—my yellow chives can’t even meet my own needs.”

Hearing Xia Qing’s voice finally put Qi Fu at ease. “I still have some left. If you want to eat, just come over and cut some.”

“Okay,” Xia Qing replied.

Over in Territory Ten, Zhao Ze jumped up from his seat, finally excited that a meeting was about to start!

Before the official Alliance meeting even began, Tan Junjie took the initiative to contact Xia Qing, inviting her to discuss something at the North Gate of Section Three.

To Xia Qing’s surprise, the first thing Tan Junjie brought up was Blazing Fire Squad’s compensation. “Blazing Fire agreed to give two million credits to repair Hill Fifty’s ecosystem. The credits will be deposited into Zhang San’s account.”

Xia Qing gaped. “That much?!”

Tan Junjie explained, “Yang Jin took care of the talks with Blazing Fire’s captain.”

Xia Qing nodded. Being on Iron Rooster’s side felt way better than haggling with him over business!