Chapter 615: Fig Frenzy Beneath the Toon Tree

Do red squirrels eat meat?

Who cares if they do or not? If you dare steal my food, you’re signing your own death warrant!

Fueled by adrenaline and the new element from the toon tree, Xia Qing’s emotions ran hotter than usual. Clutching her gun, she shoved open the door and stormed outside.

Old Goat, exhausted from cycling all night, didn’t budge from the living room. Er Gou, who was foraging for insects with his basket, saw Xia Qing and the Balding Weasel leave the village. He instantly dropped his basket and dashed back to the sheep shed to protect White Weasel and its babies.

Red Squirrel vanished in a flash—the Balding Weasel couldn’t keep up. But squirrels might outrun the chase, not their dens. Balding Weasel, burning with rage, charged straight into Red Squirrel’s tree hollow and started flinging out all the dried fruits hidden inside.

Those dried fruits were Xia Qing’s stash, lent to Red Squirrel for winter. It had this much food tucked away and still tried to swipe her meat!

Xia Qing marched over, still seething. “You’re too slow, baldie. Move aside, let me handle this.”

The Balding Weasel, fuming as well, ignored Xia Qing entirely and just kept tossing dried fruits out of the tree hollow.

Xia Qing shoved her homemade pistol into her protective suit pocket, clasped her hands together with a crack, then slammed her fist hard against the thick tree trunk—wider than her waist.

Honestly, a gun or a knife would’ve been easier and more efficient, but today Xia Qing only wanted to use her fists.

Bang!

Bang!

When her hand started aching, she switched to her shoulder. Bang, bang!!

Once, twice, then a few more times—each strike set the tree trunk quivering, branches flailing, and sent dead leaves and water droplets raining down. The Balding Weasel, startled, immediately leapt to the ground and put a safe distance between them.

Red Squirrel, clutching wild frog meat and hiding among the dawn redwood leaves nearby, saw all this and its tail puffed into a fluffed-up ball.

Bang!

Bang!

Bang, bang!

Red Squirrel couldn’t take it anymore. It jumped over and tossed the wild frog meat right at Xia Qing’s feet.

Xia Qing didn’t even glance at it. She kept hammering away at the tree. Seeing her true intentions, Balding Weasel clambered up onto her protective mask, squeaking encouragement.

Bang!

Bang!

……

Crack—

At last, the hollow trunk split under Xia Qing’s relentless fists, but her fury wasn’t spent. She kept pounding, shoulder-checking and kicking until with a mighty snap, the tree crashed to the ground. Xia Qing, fists still clenched, turned and glared murderously at Red Squirrel hiding on a nearby tree.

The plump, round Red Squirrel was so terrified its fur fluffed out in panic, and in the blink of an eye it dashed away. Looked like it had fled back to Section Three of Hill Forty-Nine. Xia Qing knew she was still too worked up and didn’t chase after it.

The Balding Weasel, still buzzed from the chaos, hopped into the half-broken stump and went right on tossing dried fruit.

This little guy really knows how to hold a grudge.

Red Squirrel’s stash—walnuts, chestnuts, pine nuts and wild grass seeds—was scattered everywhere by Balding Weasel. None of the nearby birds dared swoop in though. Even they’d been spooked by Xia Qing’s rampage.

After knocking down the big tree, Xia Qing felt a whole lot better. She flexed her fingers, picked up a wrinkled, bun-shaped dried fruit from the ground and split it open, double-checking what kind it was.

A fig. Something she didn’t have before.

Did Red Squirrel steal this fig from another territory or find it in the distant Evolved Forest? Xia Qing called out to the busy Balding Weasel in the tree hollow, “Hey, baldie!”

Balding Weasel’s chubby little head popped up from the broken tree stump, its eyes shiny and dark as it stared back at Xia Qing.

Xia Qing showed it the fig and said slowly, “I want this kind of fruit. Is there any more in the tree hollow? This one here.”

Its head ducked back in, and a moment later, a few more figs were tossed out. Then the Balding Weasel peeked over the stump again. Its adorable expression wiped away the last of Xia Qing’s anger. She chuckled, “No more of these left? That’s fine. Play as much as you want, I’m heading home.”

Once Xia Qing walked off, birds swarmed in, fighting over the scattered fruit. Red Squirrel, still cursing, jumped down from a distant pine tree and started leaping around the stump in frustration.

Both critters were small: Red Squirrel was round and fluffy, a bit bulkier than the weasel, while Balding Weasel was longer. But here’s the thing—Yellow Weasel’s a predator, with sharp claws and teeth. In a real fight, Red Squirrel wouldn’t stand a chance.

But with a venom-evolved weasel up against a speed-evolved red squirrel, it’s anyone’s game.

That’s why Balding Weasel didn’t care about Red Squirrel—it just single-mindedly cleared out the stash. Only when the tree hollow was emptied of dried fruit and wild grass seeds did it finally crawl out and dash back to the sheep shed.

Back in the cabin, Xia Qing checked the test report. “Devastation element 9‰, evolution element 2‰… Looks like it’s a Green Lantern fig.”

She grabbed her phone and called Xin Yu, getting straight to the point. “Xin Yu, do you have any Green Lantern figs?”

“Nope,” Xin Yu replied. “Those figs are huge; Jasmine and the others don’t like them. What happened just now?”

The commotion in Xia Qing’s territory caught Tang Huai’s attention. He fussed for ages in the Lords’ channel, but no one paid him any mind.

Xia Qing filled her in quickly. “Red Squirrel tried to steal my food, so I knocked down its home tree and found some figs in its den. If Red Squirrel didn’t steal them from you, it probably picked them in the Evolved Forest.”

Xin Yu already knew Xia Qing wasn’t hand-feeding the animals in her territory, but hearing she’d toppled such a thick tree over food was still surprising. “What did Red Squirrel steal from you, anyway?”

“Half a wild frog!”

Uh…

Xin Yu was quiet for a moment, then cleared her throat. “Figs ripen twice a year, right? How about we go looking for some in the Evolved Forest when June comes?”

Depending on the variety and where they grow, figs might ripen once or twice a year. In Hui Three Safe Zone, some fig trees bear twice a year.

The first is the spring crop, the second the summer–fall crop. Spring figs come from last year’s buds on old branches. They survive winter and mature in June. Summer-fall figs grow on new branches, ripening only in late summer.

June is when the spring figs are ready.

Xia Qing agreed without hesitation. “Sounds good. I’ll scout out spots where figs might grow until then, and when the time comes, we’ll go together.”

After making plans with her ally, Xia Qing carefully extracted fig seeds. She packed them with cucumber, chili pepper, eggplant, tomato, and jujube pit seeds—each sealed in small bags—and handed them to Yue Haiying. That’s when she saw Zhang Hongda, a rare three-element evolver from Territory Fifteen.

Today, Yue Haiying was taking Zhang Hongda to live in the Bear Cave on the pretext of guarding Hill Fifty’s high-risk area, using the hot spring water inside to mitigate Zhang’s poisoning symptoms.

Because Zhang Hongda wore a jet-black one-way protective mask, Xia Qing couldn’t see how bad his skin was, but at least he was standing at Yue Haiying’s side on his own two feet—a much better condition than when Luo Pei was poisoned.