Chapter 691: A Newcomer in the Valley

Xia Qing stared at the honey badger blocking the mountain stream entrance, its head held high and acting like a stubborn little thug, leaving her at a loss for words.

The honey badger noticed Xia Qing wasn’t running away. It bared its tiny teeth in a show of bravado, trying to scare her off.

Xia Qing found herself even more speechless at its antics.

One reason honey badgers dare take on animals much larger than themselves is because of their odd, convex-lens-like eyes that shrink everything they see. In their vision, the world looks smaller.

Through these quirky eyes, tall as Xia Qing was, she didn’t seem intimidating at all. So, the honey badger figured baring its teeth would be enough to drive her off.

It had just eaten its fill, wasn’t in the mood to hunt, and only wanted this strange creature gone from its newly claimed territory.

Not leaving? Then chase you out!

Xia Qing recognized this honey badger as the one she’d come across while foraging for bamboo shoots. Judging by its childish display, she guessed it was still young despite its grim appearance. Clearly, it hadn’t had any harsh lessons from humans and didn’t know how scary they could be.

“Li Kai, yeah, I’m here. Open the stone gate for me. I’ll be inside in a second.”

Ending the call, Xia Qing vaulted right over the defiant honey badger, darted into the valley through the mountain stream, and sealed the stone gate behind her—all in one smooth motion.

Outside, the honey badger realized Xia Qing had vanished and stomped around in frustration, searching everywhere.

“Sister Qing.”

Zhang Hongda, standing near the stone gate, introduced, “That honey badger just moved in recently. Li Kai and I have come across it a few times when heading out. It’s not much of a fighter, probably not an evolved one. Since it eats snakes and scorpions, we figured it could stay.”

With the honey badger eating up snakes and scorpions, the valley became even safer.

Now Xia Qing understood why that little guy had the guts to challenge humans—these two in the cave had given it the wrong impression. “Only two treatments in and your skin already looks so much better.”

Without a protective mask, Zhang Hongda’s face and neck showed that the angry, festering bumps had faded a lot. Judging from how he moved, the rest of his body had improved too. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have been able to open the heavy stone gate alone.

Zhang Hongda grinned wide, flashing all his teeth. He’d already thanked Xia Qing when she brought the medicine last time, so he didn’t say it again, but he tucked the favor away to repay someday.

Xia Qing took out more medicine and pure spring water, placing them into the storage cubby carved into the rock wall. “Third Brother asked me to bring these. It’s enough for two more treatments.”

Zhang Hongda’s grin stretched even wider. “Once I finish these rounds, I’ll be able to join you on missions, Sister Qing.”

“No rush. Let the toxins clear up completely first.” She still needed one last ingredient for the second round of treatment. Luo Pei had jumped into missions before detoxing fully and now the rebound hadn’t let him get back to his best.

“Sister Qing, the meat’s ready! Come try it.” Li Kai, who was grilling by the water, called her over for a taste.

“Coming.” Xia Qing removed her protective mask and gloves, washed her hands with filtered hot spring water, then sat down on a wooden stump as Li Kai handed her a juicy skewer.

“Dazhi caught this Green Lantern snake. The seasoning for the roast is what we got when we traded with Tang Huai.” Li Kai looked healthier too, maybe even a bit rounder.

The valley’s mild temperature, fresh Green Lantern vegetables, and limitless supply of premium filtered hot spring water made it the perfect place to recover.

“Tasty. This snake meat’s surprisingly good.” Xia Qing gave a straightforward verdict.

“Eat up, Sister Qing. The two of us have already polished off several of these.” Zhang Hongda didn’t mention how he’d caught over a hundred snakes before finding this one Green Lantern variety for Xia Qing to try when she dropped off the medicine.

With gloved hands, he lifted the lid of the stone-built stove. Steam billowed out, slowly dispersing into the valley air.

The stove’s chimney was cleverly built. Even a smoky meal of firewood in the valley wouldn’t give away that people lived here.

He brought out a platter of wild greens steamed with cornmeal, dressed with soy sauce and salt, then set it on the wooden table. Zhang Hongda urged, “Try this, Sister Qing. We found these Green Lantern wild greens on the mountain—steamed, they’re fantastic.”

Alongside the greens, there were fresh, coarse-milled mantou. One meaty dish, one veggie, and a huge basket of mantou—that took both men no small effort to prepare.

“Delicious!” Xia Qing praised them wholeheartedly, devouring over a dozen skewers, four mantou, and half a bowl of wild greens. Then she pulled from her backpack a pound of freeze-dried pork, half a pound of roasted jerky, and a bottle of sesame oil for them to keep.

In years of disaster, nothing comes for free. Since Li Kai had invited her for lunch when they spoke last night, Xia Qing had brought these rations specially.

After the meal, Xia Qing took another small piece of freeze-dried meat from her pocket, set it on a rock, and called out for the weasel, “Hey, Baldy, you around? White Weasel? Baldy…”

Li Kai and Zhang Hongda knew venom-evolved weasels lived in the valley’s crevices. They’d always kept their distance from the one place the weasels came and went.

But they’d stayed here nearly a month and never seen a single weasel enter the valley.

Would Xia Qing’s calls actually draw one out?

“Not sure, just giving it a shot.” Xia Qing said it casually, but inside she was pretty confident.

Thanks to her sharp hearing, she’d already picked up the faint, familiar squeaks of baby weasels inside the rocks. If the pups were here, their parents had to be close too.

After a couple minutes of calling, the Balding Weasel poked its trembling little head out from the crevice. It watched the two humans in the distance with big, dark eyes, then turned to Xia Qing, as if asking what she wanted.

Seriously? That worked?!

Li Kai and Zhang Hongda stared in disbelief at the sight.

“Baldy, are you home alone?” Xia Qing pointed at the freeze-dried meat. “I brought you something—see if you like it?”

The Balding Weasel snatched the jerky and disappeared back into the crevice.

Xia Qing set two more pieces at the cave entrance before heading off to check her little acre of farmland.

The fields had the perfect temperature, moisture, and supplemental light. Both her half acre of Green Lantern peanuts and half acre of Yellow Lantern peanuts were growing strong. The high-evolution spinach seeds hadn’t sprouted yet, so she couldn’t tell if the spot suited spinach.

It looked like the soil had just been loosened yesterday with a hoe, the weeds cleared away, and any small stones piled neatly beside the fields. Xia Qing checked the other half-acre plot and found it just as well-tended.

Tending two acres isn’t easy for the men here. One of them was poisoned and still not fully healed, so even swinging a hoe must be tough. The other only had one leg.

To keep the farmland looking this good must have cost them a lot of effort. With these two guarding the fields, Xia Qing felt reassured.

After circling the valley, Xia Qing put her mask back on and left for Hill Fifty-Two. She needed to collect that Hardness Evolution bamboo she’d cut down last time and bring it back to the territory.

On her way down the mountain, she ran into that same defiant little honey badger again.