Chapter 726: The Alpha’s Grudge and the Gift of Talons

Now it made sense—the Alpha clearly had no love for the Giant Raptor. No wonder she tore into it with such fury.

Staring at the snarling Alpha, Xia Qing didn’t feel the slightest bit afraid. She probed, “Queen, do you have some personal vendetta against this big bird?”

The Alpha flicked her ears.

Xia Qing’s gaze landed on the missing chunk from the Alpha’s left ear and something clicked.

She pinched her own ear, then pointed at the notch in the Alpha’s. “Did the Queen get her ear hurt by this Giant Raptor?”

“Awoo—”

The Alpha let out a low growl, brimming with anger.

So the Alpha’s ear was scratched up by the raptor’s claws—most likely by this very raptor.

It must’ve happened when the Alpha first emerged from her den, back when she was learning how to survive in the Evolved Forest. If she hadn’t evolved for speed, the raptor probably would’ve killed her outright. No wonder she was so furious.

If the Alpha had died back then, the Northern Wolf Pack would be nothing like it is now. Old Goat might not have lived this long, and Xia Qing would have never gotten the chance to trade with the wolves.

The more Xia Qing thought about that claw on the ground, the more she hated it. “I’ll burn this thing for you—consider it revenge!”

The Alpha stopped Xia Qing and nudged the raptor’s claw right to her feet.

Now Xia Qing was confused. “Queen, what are you keeping these two claws for? What do you want to do with them?”

When the Alpha saw Xia Qing didn’t get it, she pressed one of her sharp paws down on Xia Qing’s shoe, her eyes full of obvious disdain.

Finally Xia Qing caught on, though she fell silent a second later. She picked up the bird’s talon and lined it up against her shoe. “You want me to… put these claws on my own feet?”

Sure, they looked sharp—but she honestly couldn’t see how that would help her at all.

The Alpha just turned and headed straight upstairs.

Xia Qing trailed after her, only to see the Alpha open up the storage room. She walked right to the box with the personal flight equipment, then looked back at Xia Qing with those golden, money-colored eyes.

The Alpha’s expression was crystal clear—one more dumb question and Xia Qing was in for a lesson she’d never forget.

Xia Qing gave up trying to figure out how the Alpha could’ve known she stashed the flight gear here. She opened the box, took out the equipment and held the raptor’s claw up to it, sizing up the fit. “So the Queen wants me to mount these bird claws onto the flight gear?”

The Alpha didn’t move. Xia Qing knew she’d guessed right.

The Alpha and Crippled Wolf had always looked down on her flight gear. Xia Qing used to think it was because it was noisy and didn’t go far. Turns out, the Alpha also hated that it could fly but didn’t have deadly claws like a bird.

So after she hunted down the Giant Raptor, she brought over the talons as a gift for Xia Qing—so she could arm her flight equipment with them.

Xia Qing was genuinely moved. “Queen, you found these awesome claws just for the flight gear and brought them to me… I’m touched. Your mind works in ways I can’t begin to fathom. You’re the most perfect wolf on Blue Star, a true champion among wolves…”

The Alpha stood there listening to Xia Qing ramble, then turned and headed back down the stairs, pushing the door open to leave for her territory.

“Queen!”

Xia Qing called after her, slipping a pack of dog food into the side pocket of the Alpha’s protective suit. She went on, “Give this to Er. Now, about the medicinal bath—it hurts like hell but it’s worth it. We need to keep at it.”

She pointed at the Alpha’s now round belly after devouring two giant bird legs. “Once your little wolf cubs are weaned, bring Er and Broken Back over and we’ll all take the bath.”

The Alpha circled Xia Qing once, making it clear she’d understood, then headed out.

Xia Qing watched her leave and muttered quietly, “Old Goat, do you think if I ask the Queen to let Er come live with us, she’d agree?”

“Baa.” Old Goat, lounging in her hammock chair, bleated comfortably.

“I’ll ask her next time.” Xia Qing gave the hammock a push to help Old Goat sleep better. Only then did she clean up the bird’s blood and feathers, disinfect the floor, and finally head upstairs for some more sleep.

The next day, as Xia Qing went to feed the chickens, she discovered three dead pullets and a cockerel in the chicken house!

There were no signs of snakes, rats or yellow weasels, yet the chicks were dead. Xia Qing couldn’t figure out what happened, so she immediately contacted Zhang Song.

After getting Zhang Song’s reply, Xia Qing let Old Goat know, then grabbed the dead chicks and hurried to Territory Seven to have Zhang Song investigate.

After examining the chicks, Zhang Song gave her a verdict—two had been trampled and two died from fright.

“It probably happened during the bird invasion—when the hens were frightened by the Giant Raptor and Evolved Hawk calling out, they trampled the chicks. These are my carefully bred hens—fast to mature, early layers, lots of eggs, but a bit timid.”

Seeing Xia Qing’s face, Zhang Song guessed what she was thinking and explained, “Braver breeds grow slower and fight more, so they often get injured and infected.”

“Then timid ones are better.” Xia Qing took the chance to ask about the mother rabbit eating her babies.

“Could be weak maternal instincts, or maybe poor nutrition,” Zhang Song guessed. He followed up, “Where did you catch the rabbit?”

“On Hill Fifty,” Xia Qing said.

Zhang Song suggested, “Blue Star’s evolution paths are all tied to the environment. Maybe your mother rabbit needs some evolved plant, a water source, or a nutrient from Mountain 51’s soil. Try raising her on Mountain 51 and see if the issue goes away with her next litter. If she stops eating the babies, it’s probably a nutrition problem.”

Xia Qing picked up a valuable lesson. “Last year, when our Base’s Breeding Center built the Wild Boar Breeding Center on Hill Forty-Nine, was that for the same reason?”

She really was sharp—a fact that didn’t escape Third Brother’s notice.

Zhang Song nodded, smiling. “Exactly. Too bad our progress was interrupted by the Wolf Pack. The day we were out searching for the Devastation Snake, I saw the piglets in the valley—big and healthy. No doubt about it, a perfect place for raising pigs. Yang Jin made another smart play.”

No, no, no.

Those pigs weren’t Yang Jin’s. They were being raised for Crippled Wolf, who traded a piece of Yi Stone for Xia Qing’s help. But Xia Qing didn’t bother to correct Zhang Song—she just let it go.

Once home, Xia Qing immediately moved the mother hens out of the chick yard and into the main chicken yard, keeping adults and chicks separate so no more trampling accidents could happen.

With the chickens sorted, Xia Qing went back to her fieldwork.

The rapeseed she’d planted last winter had just 265 plants left, scattered here and there. To make better use of the empty patches in her fields, Xia Qing sowed mung beans where she could.

Today her job in this greenhouse was to pollinate the rapeseed flowers.

With so little rapeseed left in each territory and Kuang Qingwei still recovering from his injuries, plans to keep bees had fallen through. So this year, she was once again hand-pollinating all the insect-pollinated flowers in Territory.

Xia Qing used a stick to gently tap each blooming rapeseed plant, helping the pollen from the stamens fall onto the pistils—job done. But whenever she passed a rapeseed flower tied with a red string, she would stop and carefully pollinate it herself.

Out of the acre she’d planted last year, only 265 rapeseed stalks remained. Of these, 55 had higher Devastation Element and became Red Lantern Rapeseed, so they couldn’t be eaten. Of the remaining 210 Yellow Lantern Rapeseed, 7 had Devastation Element content around 6‰—just right for selective breeding.

These seven stalks were set aside for seed. Xia Qing brushed every single flower on them with a little sheep-wool brush, making sure each one was properly pollinated.

Every time she finished a job like this, Xia Qing especially enjoyed doing the detailed farmwork. It gave her a rare sense of calm and satisfaction—a real feeling of accomplishment.