Chapter 1331: Fortune Favors the Bold

Xia Qing, with a monkey hanging around her neck, gave an enthusiastic invitation. "Daigua and I are heading to Xiong Qun's territory, then teaming up with Xiong Qun to scoop up some little snakes over at the hot spring lake. Duan Yao is waiting up ahead—does Handsome Giant Wolf want to come along?"

Handsome Giant Wolf was her lucky money wolf. Xia Qing was sure that bringing Handsome Giant Wolf along meant this trip would pay off. Besides, unlike Duan Yao, who required payment to be invited on a mission, this wolf had a foul temper and a big attitude, but it didn't ask for payment. At critical moments, it could even serve as Xia Qing's mount.

Handsome Giant Wolf seemed to understand nothing, glaring at Xia Qing with a fierce look, just like an ordinary wolf with no brain-region evolution and no recognition of Xia Qing.

Xia Qing wouldn't be fooled by its appearance and kept up the invitation. "Does Handsome Wolf Bro like eating Yi snakes? Third Bro only needs a hundred. If we catch more Yi snakes, I can feed them to Handsome Wolf Bro. Want to go?"

Handsome Giant Wolf still didn't move, its ice-blue eyes holding nothing but a wild beast's ferocity.

Xia Qing let out a feigned regretful sigh. "Fine then, since Giant Wolf Bro won't go, the extra Yi snakes I catch will have to be fed to Duan Yao. After eating Yi snakes, Duan Yao will definitely get even stronger—might even beat the Queen and become the wolf king of the northern pack. Giant Wolf Bro, I'm off."

After walking more than twenty meters forward, Xia Qing heard the sound of Handsome Giant Wolf following behind her and laughed silently. The thing this fellow couldn't resist most was the temptation of getting stronger.

Xia Qing, Daigua, and Handsome Giant Wolf made their way to the slope between Mountain 60 and Mountain 61, where she lay down next to Duan Yao, who was peering down, and asked in a low voice, "Handsome Wolf Bro, you got here early?"

Duan Yao turned and showed Xia Qing its little fang tips.

Last night, Xia Qing had called the head wolf to report that she was teaming up with Xiong Qun to go to the hot spring valley and catch some little snakes for Third Bro, who had a stomachache. The hot spring lake on Mountain 67 had been shown to her by the northern wolf pack, so to go catch snakes at the hot spring lake, Xia Qing first had to get the northern wolf pack's consent, and then the northern bear clan's consent.

Although she called the head wolf's number, it was still Duan Yao who answered. After understanding the situation, it said it would charge a fee to join this mission, with the condition being the CBCT machine in the Number 7 territory lab.

This wasn't something Xia Qing could decide on her own. After calling to get Third Bro's approval, Duan Yao officially became a member of today's mission squad, and the two of them—one person, one wolf—agreed to meet up at this spot.

Duan Yao was the wolf pack's number-two combatant, and Handsome Giant Wolf was number three. Lying between the two of them, Xia Qing felt a lot more at ease.

Xia Qing looked down and saw that in the valley, besides Xiong Wang, the irritable mother bear, and the greedy little bear, there was also a female giant bear cub.

Two months ago, the wolves and bears had been catching Yi snakes in the valley, and this giant bear cub had joined in. Xia Qing discovered it was a speed evolver, though its brain-region evolution didn't seem advanced. So for Xia Qing, this bear was just as dangerous as the irritable mother bear.

Xia Qing took a deep breath and made a little noise. When the four bears in the valley, who were eating walnuts, looked over, she patted the little monkey on her neck. "Daigua, go. Deliver our trade goods to Xiong Wang."

"Eek…"

Daigua answered without much confidence, then leaped between the branches with its little pack on its back, ran up to the greedy little bear, and pulled out the food Xia Qing had prepared for it.

The greedy little bear, with walnut bits all over its mouth, first crunched through a green-light sweet potato with a few crisp bites, then used its claws to tear open a bag of honey and started licking. Its shiny black eyes were fixed on Xia Qing, full of longing for food.

Xia Qing loved this kind of trading partner the most, but she didn't dare make any moves right now and lay there obediently.

After Daigua finished sharing the food with its good friend, it ran over to Xiong Wang, pulled out a large green-light cabbage leaf from its backpack, and handed it over. Xiong Wang sniffed the little leaf and looked up at the wolf pack on the slope.

Xia Qing immediately took off her protective mask, pulled out a big cabbage from her pocket, and indicated she had plenty of cabbage leaves.

For today's team-up to catch Yi snakes, the trading partner Xia Qing had chosen was of course not the greedy little bear, but Xiong Wang.

If she went to the greedy little bear, it would surely agree, but it was very likely that before it could walk Xia Qing to the hot spring lake, Xiong Wang and the irritable mother bear would catch up. Then the little bear would get a beating, and Xia Qing, who had led the little bear astray, would have to pull out her gear and knock down a whole group of bears—otherwise she'd get flattened.

If she took down Xiong Wang, her relationship with the bear clan would definitely sour, and that wasn't the outcome Xia Qing wanted. So she held the food in her hands and gazed at Xiong Wang eagerly, hoping it would agree to the trade.

If it didn't agree, Xia Qing would have no choice but to team up with the veterans from Number 11 territory to steal snakes.

After Daigua delivered another washed green-light sweet potato to Xiong Wang, Xia Qing immediately pulled out an even bigger sweet potato from her bag, holding a cabbage in one hand and a sweet potato in the other, gazing at Xiong Wang.

These two green-light foods had been chosen by Daigua, who claimed they were Xiong Wang's favorites. Xia Qing said she completely understood why Xiong Wang would like these two foods. The bear clan had been eating high-calorie mountain walnuts and pine nuts this whole time—eating too much of that stuff was bound to cause constipation, and some vegetables would help with digestion.

Actually, Daigua had also picked green-light chestnuts, but Xia Qing couldn't bear to part with them, so she hadn't brought any.

In the valley, Xiong Wang, clutching the cabbage leaf and sweet potato, stared at Xia Qing without moving.

The irritable mother bear beside it rubbed the shells off a few mountain walnuts on a rock, picked up the shelled walnuts, and crunched them with loud snaps, looking as if it wasn't walnuts it was chewing but Xia Qing itself. Daigua got scared, retreated to its good friend's side, pulled out a sweet potato, and started crunching away.

The greedy little bear, having finished licking the honey, twitched its nose to sniff, crawled over to its dad, snatched the cabbage leaf from its dad's hand and stuffed it in its mouth, then stuffed the sweet potato in too, chewing with loud crunches.

"Roar————"

The irritable mother bear let out an angry roar and slapped the greedy little bear. Xiong Wang kept staring at Xia Qing, motionless.

Xia Qing took a deep breath, set the sweet potato on top of the cabbage, then pulled out a three-jin jar of honey from her backpack and unscrewed the lid. This was her bottom-of-the-chest trade good—if Xiong Wang didn't agree, she was out of here!

Catching the scent of green-light honey, Xiong Wang slowly stood up and let out a low growl at Xia Qing. "Roar."

Honey really was the biggest draw after all. Xia Qing beamed, pulled out a small Yi snake, and gesturing with it, spoke to Xiong Wang at a very slow pace to negotiate. "Bear Bro, I'm the human Xia Qing. Can I use this bag of sweet potatoes, this cabbage, and this three-jin jar of green-light honey to trade with Bear Bro for a hundred of these little snakes? One of my companions has a stomachache and needs to eat these little snakes."

The four-meter-plus-tall Xiong Wang showed no reaction, staring at Xia Qing with a calm face. Just as Xia Qing's smile was about to freeze on her face, Duan Yao raised a paw and nudged her, signaling her to go down.

Fortune… comes from seeking it through danger!