Chapter 1595: Raven Brain-Domain Evolution Affinity Farming

"Hey, White-Eyes, look here."

After leaving Xin Yu's territory in the evening, Xia Qing drove back along the east isolation belt to her own territory. While patrolling, she spotted at a glance the White-Eyes Raven sitting in the strong-child tree hollow on the big tree outside the isolation belt in Mountain Forty-Nine.

Not knowing that Xia Qing had already sent Molly back to Territory Eight, the bird thought Molly was still in Territory Three, so it was waiting in the same spot. How to put it—it just made Xia Qing feel this fellow was awfully devoted and awfully simple-minded, and made her want to recruit it even more.

So she went home, grabbed a few sparkly stones, left her territory through the north gate, and arrived under the big tree to try communicating with the raven up top. Humans had lived in its territory for nearly half a year now, so maybe it could understand a few words of human speech.

Ravens aren't nocturnal birds, and their night vision isn't great, but the White-Eyes Raven in the tree naturally heard Xia Qing's voice and recognized her, and looked down.

"White-Eyes, I'm Xia Qing, the human who went to your territory this morning, the lord of this stretch of land." Xia Qing pointed at her own territory, gesturing as she tried to communicate with this brain-domain evolved raven. "My name is Xia Qing, Xia Qing. Croak-Croak—that's the pretty female raven you like—she calls me Xia Qing. Come on, say it once: Xia—Qing."

The raven in the tree looked down, without moving at all.

Xia Qing repeated it several times, and once she was sure that, given how smart this raven was, it had remembered her name, she moved on to the next topic of communication. "Croak-Croak lives in human territory, so she's seen plenty of human sparkly stuff and doesn't like it. She likes gems and food. Do you have any gems?"

Xia Qing pulled a pink-pearl bracelet from her pocket, set it on the snow, and shone her flashlight on it to light it up. "This—a pearl bracelet—Croak-Croak likes it. Do you want this pearl bracelet?"

Xia Qing stepped back a dozen paces, still shining her flashlight on the pink, plump pearl bracelet. Under the flashlight's beam, the pearl bracelet was stunningly beautiful to a bird.

Without a moment's hesitation, the White-Eyes Raven flew down, snatched the bracelet in its beak, stuffed it into the strong-child's nest, then poked its head out of the tree hollow and kept looking down.

Seeing that the raven understood her meaning, Xia Qing relaxed, and praised it very sincerely. "White-Eyes, you're really so smart. I'm not giving you this bracelet for free—once you understand things, you'll have to pay me back with supplies. Besides pearl bracelets, Croak-Croak also likes small gems."

Xia Qing took a fluorite piece the size of a fingernail from her pocket, walked over, and set it down where she'd been standing. This time she didn't need the flashlight, because fluorite glows on its own. The light wasn't strong, but it still stood out pretty clearly on the snow.

The White-Eyes Raven stared at the fluorite for a while, showing no sign of flying down to pick it up. Xia Qing understood: in this raven's eyes, this kind of gem wasn't precious at all, because it was a local specialty of the mountains.

It had never seen pearls before, because pearls only come from pearl oysters in the water, and only after being polished by humans do they become as pretty as that bracelet.

So Xia Qing took out another bracelet and set it on the snow. "White-Eyes, I'll trade you this big-pearl bracelet too. I made this one myself too—the colored thread used to braid the bracelet is something only humans have. Even though there's only one pearl, it's big and beautiful. If I traded it to Broken-Waist, I could get at least 1,000 credits for it…"

Xia Qing retreated and squatted on the ground. Sure enough, the White-Eyes Raven quickly flew down and snatched the second pearl bracelet. Once it returned to the tree hollow and poked its little pitch-black head out again, Xia Qing continued, "White-Eyes, you're the handsomest, smartest male raven I've ever seen. Take these two pearl bracelets and go court Croak-Croak with them. If it works, don't forget me, your matchmaker; if it doesn't, you can use the pearls to court other ravens. Remember, my name is Xia Qing, and over there is my territory…"

Before Xia Qing could finish, she heard a huffing-puffing sound. The honey-badger lord of this stretch of land, Flat-Top, came trotting over shaking his head and baring a mouthful of little teeth, and bit down on Xia Qing's leg the moment he reached her.

Xia Qing didn't dodge, because the little fellow wouldn't really use force. After he bit her twice, Xia Qing pulled a strip of yellow-lamp jerky from her pocket and handed it to him. When Flat-Top let go of Xia Qing and started gnawing the jerky, his shiny black eyes stayed fixed on her.

Xia Qing ignored him and kept farming White-Eyes Raven's affection. Only after the White-Eyes Raven pulled its head back in did Xia Qing head back toward her own territory. Flat-Top immediately picked up a fourth strip of jerky in his mouth and trotted after her, huffing and puffing. Just as she got back to Section Three of Mountain Forty-Nine, Xia Qing saw a streak of white light flash past and land behind a rock.

She stopped and asked softly, "Little White-Fur, out hunting?"

Little White-Fur poked half its head out from behind the rock, hesitated a moment, then hopped onto a big rock nearby, set the mouse down, and leaned over to look at Xia Qing.

Xia Qing laughed. "Little White-Fur is so smart—putting the prey on the rock so Flat-Top can't reach it. You want to trade for an egg?"

Little White-Fur's whiskers trembled, and it gave a soft squeak.

Xia Qing fished an egg out of her backpack, walked over and set it on the rock, and casually picked up the mouse, whose corpse hadn't stiffened yet, putting it into a plastic bag. "This egg is yours now. Little White-Fur, did you see that raven in Section Five? It's a speed evolver too, really formidable—don't get any ideas about it."

After a couple more reminders, Xia Qing turned and ran back. Seeing the tiny human about to return to her territory, Flat-Top got anxious and chased after her relentlessly, huffing and puffing. After Xia Qing went through the first iron gate, she stopped and sternly lectured the pursuing Flat-Top. "Don't scratch the iron gate, or else…"

"Clang!" Before Xia Qing could finish, Flat-Top's claws raked viciously across the iron gate.

Xia Qing flew into a rage, swiped her face to get out, picked up Flat-Top, and with a flick of her arm slammed him onto the ground. "Are you treating my words like passing wind?! If you weren't a pack member, and if your droppings weren't still a little useful, I'd have skinned you, chopped you up, and stuffed you into dumplings long ago!"

Flat-Top was a dimwit, but his poison resistance was extremely strong—the pack kept him around to deal with venomous snakes. For Xia Qing, he had another important role: producing droppings.

This fellow's Shang element content was 4.3‰, and his Yi element was 7.1‰—a genuine high-Yi-element green-light animal. Whenever Xia Qing had nothing to do, she'd feed him some good meat, and during Shang-rain or Shang-snow periods she'd even put a Yi-stone collar on him, all to guarantee the quality of his droppings. Once fully fermented, high-Yi-element droppings were the premium organic fertilizer she used to grow premium green-light spinach.

Thanks to the ever-eating, ever-drinking Flat-Top, over the past half year Xia Qing had harvested ninety jin of dried high-Yi-element honey-badger droppings. The fermented organic fertilizer from these droppings was enough for her to grow one crop of spinach.

Seeing Xia Qing so violent, the plucked-chick youngster carrying a frozen-stiff little snake in its beak didn't dare come over to trade for an egg, and the White-Eyes Raven, which had followed to check on the situation, spread its wings and flew off.