Chapter 447: Broken-Leg Girl Heals

Xia Qing greeted Beard Feng's squad, then headed to Zone 3 of Mountain 49 with a big bag to collect pig droppings, and along the way removed the leg brace from Wolf Lao Er's little sister to check on the recovery of her hind legs. If all was well, she could return to Mountain 61.

After Beard Feng confirmed there were no ambushers in the northern isolation belt of Territory 3 and no surveillance above Mountain 49, Xia Qing left Sick Wolf and Sheep Boss to guard the territory while she hurried to Wolf Valley herself.

Xia Qing had originally planned to give the broken-legged girl a shot of anesthetic before removing the brace and checking her recovery, but by sheer luck, the Alpha Wolf happened to be here today.

The Alpha Wolf was eating pork. Although she hadn't tested it, Xia Qing felt certain it had to be green-light or yellow-light wild boar.

So Xia Qing didn't rush to collect pig droppings. Instead, she cleared fallen leaves inside the valley and stuffed them into her big bag to take back and fill the cold-proof trenches. The wind had been strong these past two days, blowing a thick layer of fallen leaves into the valley.

The biggest danger in gathering leaves was guarding against poisonous insects and small animals hiding inside for warmth, to avoid being scratched or bitten.

Although Xia Qing was wearing hardened evolved snake-skin gloves, she still didn't dare let her guard down. She used her long blade to rake through the leaves and check them first. Evolved tree leaves came in all sorts of colors, and fallen leaves weren't all withered yellow—black, purple, red, and yellow were just as common, piled together like a richly colored oil painting that looked distinctly dangerous.

Sure enough, after a few rakes Xia Qing uncovered a large curled-up hedgehog. This hedgehog was very confident in its camouflage—or rather, in its spines—pretending to be nothing but a ball, not moving at all.

This thing's meat wasn't good eating, so without testing the meat quality, Xia Qing raked it aside into a crack in the rocks and kept raking. A small snake, bright green all over but with vivid red eyes, sprang up from the leaves and shot straight at Xia Qing's neck to bite.

Xia Qing immediately smacked it down with her blade and observed it carefully.

Most snakes, when they attack, strike at whatever's nearest. This snake hadn't gone for Xia Qing's feet or calves, but for her neck. What did that indicate?

It meant this was very likely a brain-domain evolved snake.

Xia Qing had been in the territory for almost a year and had killed no fewer than three to five hundred snakes, yet she had never encountered a brain-domain evolved snake. After so many years of the Catastrophe, she had still never run into one, and had assumed no brain-domain evolved variety existed among snakes.

Now that she'd come across a suspected brain-domain evolved one, she was very interested.

With other kinds of animals, Xia Qing could judge whether they were brain-domain evolved by their facial expressions. But a snake's bare head had nothing but two green-light-sized eyes—no expression to speak of—so Xia Qing really couldn't be sure whether this little snake, just over a meter long, was actually brain-domain evolved.

She heard the Alpha Wolf finishing her meal and coming over. Xia Qing casually scooped up the little snake and stuffed it into the bag hanging at her waist, then greeted her, "Queen, my lord, eaten your fill?"

The Alpha Wolf stood beside Xia Qing and shook her thick fur. She'd had a medicinal bath two days ago, so her coat was clean, fluffy, and soft. Xia Qing couldn't resist reaching out a paw to rub it a couple of times, thoroughly enjoying it.

The Alpha Wolf glanced at her, then hopped onto a rock to sun herself. The broken-legged girl walked out of the cave and started eating. Although her hind legs were still fixed in the brace, she could already stand and eat meat. This wolf had stayed with a herd of wild boar to recuperate for a month, and her waist had grown a full size thicker.

Xia Qing kept gathering leaves. Only after the broken-legged girl had eaten until her belly was round did she go over to test the boar the two wolves had left. Finding it was yellow-light, she drew her dagger, cut away the parts the wolves had gnawed, and packed the rest into a food bag, sealed it, and stuffed it into her backpack. Although she had green-light python meat, whenever edible meat was available, Xia Qing never wasted it. She and Sick Wolf both ate meat, and their consumption was huge.

The Alpha Wolf and the broken-legged girl had no objections at all to Xia Qing taking their leftovers. They were full and wouldn't need to eat again for two days, while Sick Wolf was still in this human's territory and needed food.

After packing the meat, Xia Qing had the Alpha Wolf use her aura to pin the broken-legged girl down, then quickly removed the brace from both of the girl's hind legs. After a thorough check, she withdrew her hands. "It's healed. Just be careful..."

Before Xia Qing could finish, the broken-legged girl shot off like a streak, leaping and bounding all over Wolf Valley in a frenzy, startling the wild boar and sending the cold-birds flying. This wild energy and speed were no less than Broken-Leg Wolf's, if not more.

Watching this familiar scene, Xia Qing laughed. "Queen, my lord, this wolf is Broken-Leg Wolf's own sister, right?"

The Queen stared at the broken-legged girl for a while, seemingly very satisfied with her recovery, and moved her head closer to Xia Qing.

Xia Qing saw clearly what she wanted to do, took off her protective mask, turned sideways, and bumped heads with her—a little celebration of the broken-legged girl's recovery. Then Xia Qing pointed at the wildly running girl and communicated with the Alpha Wolf. "Nine days from now, in the evening, Queen, my lord, you can bring her over for a medicinal bath. It'll be good for her bone recovery."

Xia Qing didn't know how to convey the concept of "nine days from now" to the Alpha Wolf. After thinking it over, she pulled out her phone, verified that November 29 was the 19th day of the 10th lunar month, then scrolled through her photos and found a picture she'd taken of the moon on the 19th day of the 8th lunar month. She showed it to the Alpha Wolf. "This is the moon. The moon in the sky."

The Alpha Wolf was very interested in the image on the phone. She sniffed it, turned the phone over to look at the back, then stared at the picture, and finally looked up at the sky, as if searching for the moon.

"Right, the moon in the sky." Seeing that she understood, Xia Qing was delighted, because she felt she'd found a way to communicate time with the wolf pack. "On the day Queen, my lord sees the moon look like this, after the sun sets, bring the broken-legged girl to my territory for a medicinal soak."

The Alpha Wolf stared at the picture a while longer, then lost interest, leaping up to chase the broken-legged girl. The two wolves chased, bit, and wrestled each other in the valley.

The cameras in Wolf Valley had already been smashed by the wolf pack, so no one could see what happened here. Xia Qing let the two of them play while she continued gathering fallen leaves.

When the two wolves had played enough, the Alpha Wolf came back to Xia Qing's side and circled her once, indicating she was about to leave.

Xia Qing quickly called out to her, pulled out a piece of python jerky and held it out. "Queen, my lord, the python you brought last time was a high-level evolved animal. Eating its meat is beneficial. Would you like this jerky?"

The Alpha Wolf sniffed it and wasn't interested. The broken-legged girl following behind her lifted her nose, sniffed, and showed interest. Xia Qing tossed the python jerky over, and the broken-legged girl leapt up, caught it in her mouth, and gnawed on it like a chew toy.

Xia Qing had long expected this outcome.

The wolf pack distributed food according to fighting ability—the strongest ate first, the weakest ate last. The Queen was the wolf king living in the Evolution Forest, with a vast hunting ground of her own. She ate first after every hunt, so she wasn't short on green-light meat, and had probably eaten plenty of high-level evolved green-light meat too. Eating more high-level green-light python meat wouldn't further promote her evolution.

Besides, she preferred soft, juicy meat and had no interest in tough python meat.

"If Queen, my lord doesn't like it, I'll save the snake meat to eat with Sick Wolf, Lao Er."

Sick Wolf had also been very strong in the past and must have eaten high-level evolved animal meat before. But after being parasitized, he hadn't yet recovered his peak condition. He needed to eat highly nutritious food to boost his resistance and promote the recovery of his bodily functions.

Xia Qing was very much looking forward to seeing Sick Wolf's combat level when he had fully recovered.