Chapter 1135: Emergency State Lifted

Although the giant python led the snake swarm to switch their attack to Mountain 68, quite a few smaller snake species still followed the magnetic field's guidance or the memory of last year's hibernation spot, swimming upstream from the Python Lake into Mountains 60 and 61 to look for hibernation locations.

Among them were a few Yi Snakes! This might be Xia Qing's last chance this year.

She had to seize it!

To obtain a Yi Snake, she had to go through fierce competition.,

Because once a Yi Snake appeared in the river channel, the wolf pack and the Xiong Qun would swarm over to fight for it. The Head Wolf and Xiong Wang did not stop these fights, only letting out a few roars when the situation was about to spiral out of control.

Over the course of the whole day, Xia Qing got two chances to approach a Yi Snake.

The first time, just as she was about to succeed, a black bear charged over. Handsome Giant Wolf immediately stepped forward and flung Xia Qing back onto the shore with one bite.

Xia Qing got up and communicated with Handsome Giant Wolf, making the fellow understand she wasn't in danger, she wanted to grab the meat. Two hours later, Xia Qing's luck exploded again—she was only four meters from where the Yi Snake surfaced!

She charged over at full speed, but that detestable Number Two speed-evolved giant bear from the Xiong Qun beat her to it. Not only did she fail to catch the snake, she was also splashed all over by that shameless bear!

Xia Qing was so angry she wanted to call Yang Jin several times, to have him come over and snatch the snake!

Broken-Waist Wolf wasn't there, Handsome Giant Wolf was focused on fighting, Black Wolf and Broken-Leg Wolf couldn't figure out whether Xia Qing wanted the snake alive. It was the Head Wolf who saw Xia Qing hopping mad with rage and caught a live one for her.

But—goddamn—it was a male again!

The final result was that Xia Qing busied herself from morning till night, and aside from the one the Head Wolf gave her, she didn't catch a single Yi Snake herself. She only harvested seven Qiang Snakes and twenty other green-light snake species.

The reason she could catch so many edible snakes was that the wolf pack had no interest in these harmless snakes and let them burrow into the mountains at will, so Xia Qing's main competitors were honey badgers, weasels, and birds.

Even so, more than half of these green-light snakes were caught by Does Daigua with her round belly and handed over to Xia Qing for storage.

In terms of speed and hunting ability, Xia Qing couldn't even compare to Does Daigua, which sent the morale of the Xiong Qun across from her soaring—they howled and bellowed.

The wolf pack had long been used to Xia Qing's slowpoke speed and didn't react much. Xia Qing could only be thankful that Broken-Leg Girl had been sent to guard the western front today; otherwise she would surely have cursed her up one side and down the other.

After the sun set, snakes no longer swam into the valley river channel. Xia Qing wearily carried over seven hundred jin of snake meat away from Mountain 60, took a helicopter back to her territory, and handed over the two live male Yi Snakes and five Yi Snake meat strips to her idol. The live ones would be raised by her idol, the dead ones would have their active ingredients extracted by her idol to make medicine.

That very evening, six giant pythons entered Mountain 68 along the waterway and vanished. Broken-Waist Wolf, her belly full, carried two Yi Snake meat strips in her mouth and stored them in her double-door big fridge, demanding that Xia Qing send the snake to Territory 7 at dawn, have Zhang San make it into medicine, and then return it to her.

Xia Qing, still fuming, demanded half a bag of green-light walnuts from Broken-Waist Wolf as her idol's medicine-extraction fee.

Broken-Waist Wolf didn't eat walnuts and readily agreed to Xia Qing's request, but refused her request to catch another live Yi Snake for her—it seemed to have something important to do.

The next day, Xia Qing didn't go back to Mountain 60 to look for more frustration, but followed her allies to search for Qiang Snakes that had swum over to hibernate in the mountain areas around the territory. Of course she also held out hope that her magnetic-sense ability might help her find a Yi Snake that had slipped through the net.

Unfortunately, no.

On the third day, the magnetic field of the Python Lake returned to normal.

On the fourth day, no Qiang Snakes were found within 24 hours around the Northern Zone 1 territory. The emergency disaster-control state was lifted. Lords could move freely within their territories, and schools resumed classes.

That morning, Yang Jin flew over from the safe zone, wanting to trade with Xia Qing for the meat mountain she had stored in Territory 1's food storage warehouse.

When he arrived, he learned that Xia Qing was neither in Territory 3 nor in the Ninth Center, but was helping Territory 10 build greenhouses.

The Shi Zhong family had already moved to a new territory adjacent to Territory 15, and had dismantled the eight greenhouses in their old territory that hadn't been planted with crops after the green beans were harvested.

According to the exchange agreement made back then, the Ninth Center was responsible for the transfer and reinstallation of Territory 10's supplies. Xia Qing happened to be free today, so she had brought a team over to help her allies set up the greenhouses.

She was a strength evolver and had built many greenhouses before, so she worked fast and well. Seeing their director so capable, the Ninth Center's staff were pumped up like they'd been given a shot of adrenaline, and in less than half a day they had erected the frames of all eight greenhouses and put on the insect-proof netting and rainproof cloth.

The earthen-wall greenhouse the Shi family had built in their old territory couldn't be moved to the new one, so the Ninth Center built them a new one.

Building an earthen-wall greenhouse required yellow clay. Qi Fu, Shi Zhong, Zhao Ze, and Yue Haiying also wanted to fire bricks and build houses in the territory, which required yellow clay.

So after tidying up the greenhouses, Xia Qing discussed with her allies the timing, personnel, and vehicle arrangements for getting the yellow clay, before returning to her own territory.

Because she had long known Yang Jin was in her territory, when Xia Qing walked up to the meeting room by the farmland and smelled food coming from the small kitchen, she wasn't surprised—only hungry.

"Finished that fast?"

Yang Jin, wearing a short-sleeved T-shirt and an apron, cooking in the small kitchen, saw Xia Qing, waved his spatula at her, and asked with a smile, "I made braised green-light rabbit meat. What staple do you want to eat?"

"Let's have steamed buns, there are some ready-made ones in the fridge. Can you, Captain Yang, cook snake meat?" Xia Qing still had a section of Yi Snake in her fridge. She had originally planned to just cut it up and boil it, but seeing how pleasing to the eye Yang Jin was, and smelling how fragrant his rabbit meat was, she changed her mind.

Knowing Xia Qing had caught edible snakes, Yang Jin, who had specially learned several snake meat dishes, beamed. "Of course I can. We already have a braised dish for lunch today—how about salt-and-pepper snake meat?"

The dish sounded appetizing just hearing it. Xia Qing nodded. "Good. I'll grab two potatoes and make a vegetable dish."

Yang Jin reminded her, "Potatoes can't be eaten with snake meat. Bring over two eggs, and go pick some greens from the greenhouse. I'll make a hot-and-sour egg-drop soup and a garlic greens."

Yang Jin had good sense of propriety. After arriving, he hadn't wandered around, and certainly hadn't gone to pick vegetables from Xia Qing's greenhouse—he only took some unpolluted spring water for cooking.

After Xia Qing left with her indignant goat in tow, Yang Jin hurriedly lifted the pot lid to stir the rabbit meat, found the water was low, and immediately poured some boiled unpolluted spring water into the pot. Then he quickly laid out the snake-cooking seasonings he'd brought in the proper order according to the snake recipe steps on his phone, so he wouldn't be in a panic later and forget which was which.

Xia Qing went home, showered, changed into comfortable clothes, then carried the ingredients to the small house by the farmland.

Seeing the snow-white snake meat, Yang Jin was a little surprised. "An albino snake? Also caught in the lake north of Mountain 60?"

"Not an albino—it's because this kind of snake lacks tyrosinase in its body." Xia Qing handed the two jin of snake meat to Yang Jin, explaining why she'd only brought such a small piece. "This is high-Yi-element green-light snake meat."

The moment the light came into Yang Jin's eyes, Xia Qing calmly replied, "Small quantity, no trade. Third Brother says news of this kind of snake shouldn't be leaked for now."

"Understood."

Once this news leaked, every squad would surely rush to the Python Lake and sieve the lake water with nets.

The wolf pack and the Xiong Qun? In the face of high-Yi-element premium meat, everyone would tacitly forget that rule about not actively provoking evolved forest beasts.

Premium food belongs only to the strong.