Chapter 692: A Relentless Honey Badger and an Unexpected Reunion

After the third round of staring contests with the honey badger today, Xia Qing finally gave up. “Buddy, if you’ve got something to say, spit it out. If not, could you please get out of the way? I’m busy here.”

The little honey badger just bared its teeth at her and charged over, clearly wanting a fight.

Xia Qing was left speechless.

Didn’t Li Kai and Zhang Hongda say to just avoid this honey badger when you see it? She did! Five encounters in two days—she dodged three times, jumped away once, so why was it still so persistent?

Could it be… just because she jumped that one time?

Xia Qing didn’t want to kill it or waste time on it, so she decided to leg it.

She cranked her speed up, used her Magnetic Sense to dodge all the devastatingly evolved plants, and with keen hearing and eyesight, she sidestepped all the venomous snakes, lizards and other critters on the mountain. In one breath, she ran from the Third Peak of Hill Fifty straight to the bamboo grove north of Hill Fifty-Two.

After catching her breath, Xia Qing cleaned the branches off the hardened bamboo pole she’d cut down last time, split it in two, then hoisted them up and started heading back.

But before she even left the bamboo grove, she spotted that tenacious little honey badger still huffing and puffing as it chased after her.

The poor thing was foaming at the mouth from running but still wouldn’t give up. Once it caught up to Xia Qing, it gritted its teeth and charged at her again, stumbling as it went.

Seriously, it was in this state and still wanted to brawl?

Xia Qing couldn’t take it anymore. She tossed the bamboo pole aside, stuck out her long leg clad in her snakeskin jacket and said, “Which part of me are you after? Go ahead, take a bite—just don’t chase me anymore. I’ve got to head back to human territory and I can’t bring you with me.”

The weather was muggy, so Xia Qing wasn’t wearing her protective pants over her snakeskin jacket today. Besides, the defense on her snakeskin was top notch.

The little honey badger huffed over and chomped hard on Xia Qing’s ankle.

“Aaaah—”

Xia Qing put on a show, crying out in pain, though inside she complained: With a bite force like that, you can’t even leave a mark on my snakeskin pants. Are you serious?

Wait a second!

Could it be the scent from her python skin protective suit made this little guy—famous for eating snakes—mistake her for a snake?

Xia Qing looked up at the sky in exasperation.

If that’s really it, then this critter’s brain is definitely not right. Other animals evolve their brains—this one, though, probably has a shrunken cerebellum.

Her snakeskin pants were tight, so after the honey badger gnawed for a while, it started clawing and scratching in frustration before finally letting go, flopping on its side and panting heavily.

Xia Qing grabbed it by the scruff of its neck and lifted it up. She thought this stubborn, not-so-bright honey badger could actually get along with Old Goat.

Shame it’s a carnivore. Old Goat’s fur isn’t tough enough, so if things got rough it’d probably get shredded. Besides, Section Three doesn’t have enough prey to feed this badger. Xia Qing worried it might go after her chickens and rabbits if it got hungry.

With most animals, the skin is attached to the flesh—even after evolving.

But honey badgers are different. Just when you think you’ve got them by the neck, you realize you’re only holding a strip of skin.

Using this unique skin-flesh separation skill, the honey badger twisted and turned to dodge Xia Qing’s grip, still trying to break free and keep the fight going.

This is one of the reasons big predators don’t like hunting honey badgers—their hides are thick and slick, plus the skin barely attaches to the meat. Even if you sink your teeth in, you can’t kill them right away, and they fight back every chance they get.

You waste all your energy, get nowhere, and if the honey badger scratches a hole in your skin, you risk infection.

In the deadly Evolved Forest, an injury can mean death.

Clutching the restless little honey badger, Xia Qing sighed. “If your meat wasn’t so awful, I’d have made you into dinner by now.”

It must weigh over twenty pounds.

Swish—shhh—

At the sound behind her, Xia Qing instantly dropped the honey badger and spun around to face the northern edge of the Evolved Forest.

Why would a wolf show up now? And this wasn’t even a path the Northern Wolf Pack used to go from Hill Forty-Nine. What was a wolf doing here?

Soon enough, a black wolf in a snake skin protective suit emerged in front of Xia Qing, carrying a filthy cloth in its mouth with a dirty albino weasel sprawled across its back.

Looking closer, what the black wolf had in its mouth was actually the pouch Xia Qing had made for Old Goat, which Old Goat later gave to Alpha!

Dragging the still-clinging honey badger with her, Xia Qing rushed forward and called out in delight, “Black Wolf! White Weasel! Did you come looking for me?”

The pouch in the black wolf’s mouth thudded onto a rock as it bared its fangs and snarled at the honey badger on Xia Qing’s leg.

“Awooooo—”

Apparently, the honey badger had tangled with wolves before and knew not to push its luck. The second the black wolf roared, it let go of Xia Qing and staggered away.

The black wolf shot after it, with the albino weasel making a beeline for the Third Peak of Hill Fifty too.

Right now, Xia Qing couldn’t care less about the honey badger, the black wolf or even the albino weasel. Her eyes were glued to the ragged, soaked little pouch sitting on the rock.

Peeking out from a tear in the pouch was half a grass leaf stuck with mud, a shape Xia Qing knew all too well.

She gingerly opened the pouch and pulled out a root-covered, filthy clump of medicinal herb, her heart pounding. Even without her Idol to identify it, she knew this was the last herb Zhang Hongda needed for detoxification!

Was it White Weasel that dug this up, or Black Wolf? Why were they together, carrying Alpha’s pouch? And what happened to the yellow weasel that White Weasel chased yesterday?

No point worrying over questions she couldn’t answer.

She turned and yelled in the direction of the Third Peak, “White Weasel! Black Wolf! Thanks for the herb. Black Wolf, honey badger meat is nasty—spare that little guy, okay?”

After shouting, Xia Qing carefully moved the medicinal herb into a special slim box for her herbs and stashed it in her backpack. Then she washed the pouch in the stream, wrung it dry, and left it on the rock to air out.

Over ten minutes later, the black wolf returned. Since there was no blood around its mouth, Xia Qing figured it hadn’t killed the honey badger.

She stuffed a pack of freeze-dried meat into the little pouch and handed it over. “Black Wolf, thanks for your hard work. Have some jerky. If you can’t finish it, share a few pieces with Er when you get back.”

Er had been gone from Section Three for eleven days now, and Xia Qing really wanted to know how it was doing. If the wolf pack weren’t busy raising pups, she would’ve visited Er on Hill Sixty ages ago.

The black wolf grabbed the cleaned pouch and dashed back towards the Evolved Forest.

Once it was gone, Xia Qing hoisted the bamboo pole and headed back to Section Three, dropping off her supplies before making her way to Territory Seven to deliver the herb to her Idol.

When she came out again, she was carrying a points card worth sixty thousand credits in her pocket.