Chapter 338: The Wolf That Carries Supplies

After the Broken-Waist Wolf went out, it didn't bring the head wolf back, but instead carried a pigeon-egg-sized yi stone in its mouth and placed it in front of Xia Qing, using gestures to tell her that its protective suit was torn and needed a new one.

Seeing the Broken-Waist Wolf's expression, Xia Qing knew it didn't understand how deadly the Qi-Severing Snake's venom was.

Or maybe it did know, but it thought the human standing before it was impressive enough to cure Qi-Severing venom, which was why it was so relaxed.

With mixed feelings, Xia Qing took out the sealed Qi-Severing Snake and showed it to the Broken-Waist Wolf. "Your protective suit can be exchanged for a new one, but it'll take some time. The snake with this kind of bulge on its head is called a Qi-Severing Snake, and it's extremely venomous. If you get poisoned, I can't guarantee I can cure you, so in the future, never let it bite you."

Hearing that it could get a new protective suit, the Broken-Waist Wolf narrowed its eyes and opened its mouth, revealing two small, snow-white tips of its upper canines, and smiled.

Xia Qing...

This is really exhausting, forget it, she's going out to see why the Queen hasn't come in yet, then pack up and leave.

Seeing that Xia Qing wasn't taking the yi stone, the Broken-Waist Wolf closed its mouth and stopped smiling, wearing a thoughtful expression.

"I won't take the yi stone now. Once I get the wolf-sized protective suit, I'll trade it with you." After explaining, Xia Qing slung on her heavy backpack. "I'm leaving?"

When exiting the cave mouth, Xia Qing greeted the giant wolf lying nearby that had worked so hard to carry her over. "Big guy, I'm leaving. If your wound bursts open, you can come to the territory to get it treated."

Broken-Tail Wolf? That guy had long since bounced off somewhere.

The Broken-Waist Wolf didn't stop Xia Qing from leaving the cave. The injured wolf limped along behind her, clearly intending to return to the territory with her. Xia Qing smiled. Regardless of how fierce last night's battle was, regardless of the casualties, the wolves she cared about were all still alive, the wolves she was familiar with were all still alive, and the wolf pack had also successfully recaptured Mountain 60 from the python. That was something worth being happy about.

How did Xia Qing know Mountain 60 had been occupied by pythons? Because she had found a shed snakeskin in the cracks of the cave, and the cave was dark and damp inside, exactly the kind of environment snakes liked.

After the catastrophe, autumn and winter temperatures on Blue Star dropped. These past few days, the nighttime temperature at Hui-3 Base had already fallen below 15°C, and last night it even reached 6°C.

When temperatures drop below 10°C, snakes' mobility decreases. The wolf pack choosing this moment to raid the snake group was excellent timing.

As for whether the bear heard the snake and wolf fighting and ran over from Mountain 61 to help, or whether the bear had been living in the high ground of Mountain 60 all along, Xia Qing couldn't determine right now.

But one thing was certain: this mountain must have something special about it to make three types of animals fight fiercely over it. Xia Qing suspected there might be an unpolluted spring and a yi stone mine on this mountain.

So, out, when walking out of the cave, Xia Qing opened her eyes wide and looked carefully.

By now it was fully light. Outside the cave mouth, the snake and bear corpses had already been divided up and cleared away. The bloodstains soaked into the soil and the broken trees and rubble remained, still reminding Xia Qing of...

Hmm...

Hmm?!!!

Xia Qing blinked and stared at one of the fallen trees, looking closely. Those egg-sized, ridged, green-skinned fruits growing on the huge tree crown—why did they look so familiar?

Weren't those... hickory nuts?!

Xia Qing was overjoyed. She didn't even notice the Queen slowly walking toward her and the giant wolf behind her. She rushed to the fallen tree, pulled out her Qi element detector, and tested this tree's Qi element content.

Green light—this was a huge tree of green-light hickory nuts with thin shells, thick flesh, and good flavor! Damn, this trip was so worth it!

"Handsome Broken-Waist..."

Xia Qing turned around holding the hickory nut and saw the Queen walking over, dripping wet. The giant wolf that had stood on the mountaintop last night howling to intimidate the wolf pack stood quietly five meters away. Not far off, more than a dozen evolved wolves were playing around.

That wolf was even bigger than the brown-gray giant wolf that had carried Xia Qing over, and it was much more pleasing to look at. Xia Qing felt the word "handsome" suited it far better than it suited the Broken-Waist Wolf.

Its fur was a bit longer than the other wolves'. The fur on its back was gray mixed with black hairs, while its belly and legs were mostly white. This coloring made it stand out, and also looked very clean and distinguished.

Its face had the same color combination. Two distinct black eye lines divided its face into upper and lower halves. Above the eyes was a mix of black and gray fur, with some excessive gray fur under the eyes. Its mouth was snow-white—very pleasing to look at.

The giant wolf sensed Xia Qing's gaze and raised its pale blue eyes to stare at her.

Meeting the handsome wolf's gaze, Xia Qing felt her heart skip a beat involuntarily. This one was very, very, very formidable.

Can't mess with it. This wolf, she absolutely could not afford to provoke.

Xia Qing looked away, led the head wolf into the cave first, and re-applied medicine and bandaged its four blood-soaked legs. Because she had to take it through sixty miles of wet evolved forest back to the territory, she still used waterproof bandages.

Then, Xia Qing walked out of the cave, picked up a hickory nut that had fallen on the ground, and made a trade request. "My lord, I want all the fruits on this tree. Can I trade for them?"

This was territory the wolf pack had fought desperately to recapture. Every blade of grass and every tree here belonged to the wolf pack. Xia Qing needed the fruits, so of course she needed to trade with the wolf pack.

Wolves are carnivores and aren't interested in hickory nuts. Xia Qing felt the chances of reaching a trade agreement with the wolf pack were very high.

The head wolf's amber eyes, though not as bright as usual, were still spirited. It turned its head to look at the cave, then turned back to stare at the fruit in Xia Qing's eyes.

"Sure. When those wolves inside need their medicine changed, my lord can bring them to my territory." Xia Qing agreed immediately, then reached out as if to pick the hickory nuts. "These fruits are mine now? I'm picking them?"

Seeing the head wolf didn't object, Xia Qing immediately pulled out a large, thickened packaging bag and quickly picked the green-light hickory nuts.

The injured wolf, used to farm work in the territory, also wanted to help, but was stopped by Xia Qing. Xia Qing took out a piece of jerky and handed it to the wolf, speaking softly. "The outer skin of this fruit is poisonous. I'll pick them myself. You eat the jerky and rest for a bit. We have a long way to go later."

Seeing there was jerky to eat, the Broken-Leg Wolf, which had been playing with its wolf companions, immediately darted in front of Xia Qing, interrupting her nut-picking.

Xia Qing sent it off with a piece of jerky and continued picking.

This tree was at least twenty meters tall. If the crown hadn't been knocked down to the ground, Xia Qing wouldn't have had it this easy to pick the fruits.

After picking the entire tree, Xia Qing harvested a full six large bags of hickory nuts, weighing at least eight hundred catties with the shells on—far exceeding her expectations.

These hickory nuts, plus the supplies in her backpack and the firearms on her body, added up to over a thousand catties. Even if Xia Qing could barely carry it, she didn't have enough strength to haul over a thousand catties of supplies over mountains and through 60 kilometers of evolved forest.

She needed wolves to help carry the supplies.