Chapter 1131: Standoff on the Riverbank: Wolves, Bears, and Bargains

Crippled Wolf glanced at the furious Bear Pack leader near Territory Two, then at the shining amethyst in Little Monkey’s hand, and finally turned to look at Xia Qing, deep in thought.

Seeing this stubborn wolf still refusing to give up, Xia Qing took a step back and firmly refused. “I can treat the cub, but it needs to come over here. I’m not going over there. That’s bear territory—too dangerous.”

Crippled Wolf wasn’t afraid of the Giant Bear because it wasn’t a speed or elastic-type evolver—unlike him, a jumping power evolver. If the bear came at him, he could easily dodge.

But Xia Qing had neither elasticity nor speed evolution, so there was no way she could avoid a close-range attack from a Giant Bear.

Challenging it in a test of strength? What a joke!

We’re talking about a towering bear that stood over four meters tall on its hind legs, while Xia Qing was merely a level six-and-a-half strength evolver among humans.

Negotiations hit a deadlock and Monkey grew so anxious he kept chittering.

The Alpha, lounging lazily on the royal platform, only glanced over before returning his focus to the lake. But as soon as the Bear King, who’d been watching the wolf-bear deal unfold, landed with a thud from the platform, the Alpha flashed forward and blocked Xia Qing. His rich gold eyes blazed with murderous intent as he stared down the Bear King.

In terms of speed, the Alpha might not be faster than the Bear King; and he couldn’t match the Bear King in raw power. Still, he stood there, regal and unyielding, not the least bit afraid.

The Wolf Pack rushed up, taking a defensive stance. Lame Wolf shot Xia Qing a glare for standing in the wrong spot and even stepped on her paw.

“Roar!” The Bear King growled, stopping his companions from charging, and strode forward alone. With one massive swipe, he smacked the ravenous Cub straight into the river.

Xia Qing, splashed from head to toe, actually let out a sigh of relief. Wonderful—now she could finally get her hands on that amethyst.

With Crippled Wolf’s eager attitude, she’d be able to swap that five-figure amethyst for a Yi Stone in a heartbeat. This deal was a steal!

The cub dragged itself out of the water, shot its dad a look, and slowly crawled toward the wolves. The Alpha had the pack fall back, leaving only himself and Crippled Wolf to guard Xia Qing.

Little Monkey had once helped both wolf leaders with deworming. Seeing his friend approach, he summoned up his courage and hopped over, happily handing the amethyst to Xia Qing.

The Alpha kept a fierce eye on the Bear King. Meanwhile, the ever-unreliable Crippled Wolf became obsessed with the amethyst, motioning frantically for Xia Qing to hurry and stash it in his protective suit pocket.

But this wasn’t the time to haggle. Xia Qing ignored Crippled Wolf, slipped the stone into her own pocket, then pulled out a folding paper bowl. She poured in a good amount of pure spring water and sedative, then handed it to Monkey. “Here, Monkey. Get your friend to drink this, okay?”

This wasn’t just any bear cub—this was a brain-evolved Giant Cub. Xia Qing didn’t dare attempt local anesthesia to treat it—she had to knock it out cold.

Monkey carefully presented the bowl to the soggy Cub, acting out a drinking motion.

Cub sniffed it, locked eyes with Xia Qing for a few seconds, then drank everything in one go.

The special anesthetic worked fast—within three minutes the Cub stumbled and collapsed. On the other side of the river, the mother bear let out a furious roar, desperate to charge over, but the Bear King held her back.

The wolves and bears lined up on either bank and started a shouting match. Behind the Alpha, Xia Qing felt perfectly safe—her hands were steady as ever.

Taking the chance to examine the cub’s wounds, Xia Qing felt a round, hard lump just beneath the skin on the inside of the Cub’s muscular hind leg.

Perfect! The tracker and the cub’s wound were on the same leg, so she wouldn’t need to cut any others.

Examining the injured leg further, Xia Qing realized Monkey hadn’t asked her to treat the cub’s claw marks but rather its swollen, discolored ankle.

No wonder the Bear King hadn’t used much force to knock such a big cub into the water—the poor thing was poisoned.

Treating the snake venom took priority over removing the tracker. Xia Qing immediately injected the Cub with a serum that could neutralize mixed toxins, then cleaned its wounds with a saline solution made from pure spring water.

Once the venom was dealt with, Xia Qing quickly shaved a patch inside the cub’s thigh, made an incision to pull out the tracker, stitched it up, then turned to stitch the claw wounds.

No doubt about it—the cub’s wounds were from the Huge Wolf, and probably the Handsome Huge Wolf. Likewise, any wounds on Handsome Huge Wolf likely came from this cub.

She stitched up the three deep gashes, sealed them with medical tape, gave the Cub a quick shot of special anti-inflammatory medicine, then pried its jaws open to inspect its teeth.

Both the one-eyed tiger and this cub were brain-evolved animals in the Evolved Forest. The one-eyed tiger had found herbs after getting hurt, so even if the Cub had no idea, its parents must have brought it something.

The Cub had waded through the river so its ankle had been washed clean, making it impossible to see if herbs had been applied. That’s why Xia Qing had to check its teeth.

Sure enough, she found a few bits of plant leaf stuck between the Cub’s teeth, though they were small and unidentifiable. Xia Qing gave up on collecting a sample and stood up. “Your Majesty, all done.”

Seriously, quit all the yelling—my head’s pounding and my heart’s about to jump out of my chest.

The Alpha paid no mind and kept right on howling at the Bear Pack.

As if it were addictive, the bear and wolf packs kept up their back-and-forth roaring.

Xia Qing had no intention of joining this contest. She headed over to the ever-howling Handsome Huge Wolf and carefully checked its wounds. She couldn’t be sure if the Cub was poisoned before or after it fought the Handsome Huge Wolf. If the poison came first, the Handsome Huge Wolf might’ve been poisoned too.

Handsome Huge Wolf’s injuries didn’t look red or swollen, but Xia Qing still worried. She pressed her hand to its chest, feeling for its heartbeat and breathing.

Handsome Huge Wolf got fed up, flicked away from Xia Qing, and leaped up to a high spot to continue howling.

Judging by its behavior, it was fine. Xia Qing relaxed a bit, stood where she belonged, and joined in the colorful cursing.

Eventually, the sedated Cub regained some feeling, staggering upright. Only then did the wolf and bear packs finally lower their voices.

As the Cub stumbled into the river, all the animals went quiet. Once it made it back to the Bear Pack’s side and collapsed, its mother anxiously sniffed its wounds and whimpered softly.

Xia Qing retreated to the shade and excitedly pulled out the amethyst to admire it. Soon enough, Crippled Wolf showed up and again tried to get her to shove the amethyst in his protective suit pocket.

“Hey, Handsome Wolf, do you want the prettiest stone on the Blue Star pyramid? Sure, I’ll trade it for a Yi Stone!” Xia Qing grinned.

Crippled Wolf stared at the sparkling rock, an unusually conflicted look on his face.

But as Xia Qing made to stash the stone away again, Crippled Wolf instantly pressed her arm down with his paw, then turned and dropped what looked like a plain pigeon-egg-sized rock in front of her.

…

You stingy miser!

Once the deal was set, Xia Qing slipped the shiny stone into Crippled Wolf’s side pocket and moved on to the next order of business. “Hey, Broken Back, the two white snakes you caught for Third Brother were both male. Third Brother still wants a female. If any white snakes show up soon, can you catch two more alive?”

To determine a snake’s gender, you had to flip it over and look under its belly. With a fight about to break out, there’d be no time for that, so Xia Qing decided to have Crippled Wolf grab two more. Probability said one should be female.

Now blessed with his amethyst, Crippled Wolf was in fantastic spirits, grinning and flashing his little fangs in agreement.

The rascal bolted straight up to the royal platform, gleefully rolling around at the Alpha’s side. The Alpha expertly unzipped the side pocket of Crippled Wolf’s protective suit, fished out the amethyst, batted it around, then lost interest and returned to watching the glimmering lake.

Crippled Wolf lay beside the Alpha, gazing dreamily at the sunlit, sparkling stone.

From the look on his face, Xia Qing figured this tightwad would get along just fine with the Apocalypse Sect Leader.