Chapter 456: Forming Up and Setting Out

Because today she had to leave the territory to carry out a gathering mission in the Evolution Forest, Xia Qing decided to eat a good breakfast.

She would drink rice and sweet potato porridge and eat pumpkin snake-meat pies; Sick Wolf would have snake-meat balls in pumpkin soup; Sheep Boss would have pumpkin and cabbage concentrate feed.

Pumpkins had a high yield and were easy to store, could be used in dishes or made into pies, and more importantly, the people, sheep, wolves, chickens, and rabbits in the territory could all eat them — truly a wonderful food.

Xia Qing decided to plant Green Lantern Pumpkins in the vegetable bed where she had removed the high-Yi-element spinach. Even if pumpkins couldn't grow in the middle of winter, she could still use the wildly growing pumpkin vines to feed the sheep, chickens, insects, and rabbits.

After kneading the dough, putting the porridge and pumpkin on to cook, Xia Qing greeted the Broken-Back Wolf that was still pedaling the bicycle to generate electricity in the living room, and went out to patrol the territory.

The dutiful Sick Wolf was carrying a small basket in its mouth, searching for bugs among the building ruins in front of the courtyard. Seeing that its basket held over a dozen evolved scorpions longer than a finger, Xia Qing quickly checked its limbs and paws and asked, "Wolf Lao Er, you weren't stung by the scorpions, were you? Does anywhere hurt?"

The Broken-Back Wolf, with ice chips clinging to its paws, grinned at Xia Qing, showing it was perfectly fine.

This wolf was really so sensible and well-behaved. Xia Qing rubbed its head, immediately turned back home to fetch its shoes, wiped the ice chips and dirt clean from its legs and paws, put the shoes on for it, and carefully instructed, "It's gotten cold now, so Wolf Lao Er has to wear shoes when you come out. It's fine if you can't learn to put them on yourself — when you go back inside to rest, I'll take them off for you, and put them back on when you come out."

Sick Wolf nuzzled Xia Qing's leg with its body, then continued digging through the ruins looking for scorpions.

When Xia Qing patrolled to the edge of the farmland, Xiao Jiang rushed over chattering away, "Sister Qing, those two giant wolves last night were so cool! Are they part of the Queen's wolf pack too? The Queen isn't a giant wolf — how did she keep those two wolves in line? That's amazing!"

Xia Qing was curious too, but she really didn't know. After chatting with Xiao Jiang for a bit about the giant wolves, she asked about last night's situation, "Was everything alright last night?"

Xiao Jiang shared the latest information: "Nothing happened in our territory. The wind was too strong last night — two of the makeshift houses in Territory No. 2 got blown down, and there was a huge ruckus. I doubt anyone will go hunting in the Evolution Forest today. Oh, and the base is sending people over today to investigate the helicopter bombing in Territory No. 2. Captain Tan will issue a notice soon asking everyone to cooperate with the investigation."

Xia Qing nodded. "If the investigation team arrives and I haven't come back yet, please ask Captain Hu to open the south gate and deal with them — don't let them into the territory."

"Understood!"

Xia Qing walked a full circle without seeing any other wolves, so she and Sick Wolf fed the animals in the breeding greenhouse together, then returned home to eat.

After the tough snake meat was ground into paste, half was squeezed directly into balls and dropped into the cooked pumpkin for Sick Wolf to eat. The other half was mixed with seasoning, pumpkin cubes, and chili, stirred into a filling and made into flatbread — for Xia Qing herself.

Once the flatbread was cooked, Xia Qing began cleaning the house.

She laid a new grass mat on the tatami, and put the grass mat by the fireplace out in the courtyard to air-dry. She wiped the table, chairs, and floor all clean with a damp cloth, then added two more logs to the fireplace to make the fire burn stronger, restoring the first-floor living room to a clean, warm, and bright state.

After bringing the food to the table, Xia Qing gently and politely invited Sheep Boss, who was pedaling the bicycle, to eat, and courteously asked the Broken-Back Wolf watching Sheep Boss pedal, "Broken-Back, would you like some too?"

To Xia Qing's surprise, the Broken-Back Wolf really did follow Sheep Boss to the low table, ate a few slices of cabbage stem from Sheep Boss's food bowl, and mooched a few snake-meat balls from Sick Wolf. Judging by its expression, it seemed quite interested in cooked food.

Sheep Boss and Sick Wolf had no objections to the Broken-Back Wolf eating their food, and Xia Qing certainly had none either. She would love nothing more than for the Broken-Back Wolf to develop a taste for cooked food, and come over with the Yi Stone to trade for her boiled meat.

Sitting at her own table, Xia Qing first drank a few sips of fragrant Green Lantern rice porridge, then ate a boiled Green Lantern egg, and only afterward picked up the snake-meat flatbread.

The snake-meat flatbread didn't taste great, but its nutritional value more than made up for the lack of flavor. With every bite, Xia Qing silently recited in her heart:

Speed Evolution, I want Speed Evolution…

After finishing her meal and rolling up the insulating grass mats covering the greenhouse, Xia Qing gathered plenty of equipment, told Sheep Boss and Xiao Jiang and the others to guard the territory, and set off to gather peanuts.

After confirming there were no scout birds in the sky and no one watching the surroundings, Xia Qing led the two wolves quickly through the isolation belt and entered Section Three of Mountain No. 49. Then Xia Qing took out her phone to check the red squirrel's location.

The little fellow who had been busy for three of the four seasons was now in its tree hole, guarding its granary and sleeping soundly.

In winter, red squirrels reduce their activity and increase their sleeping time — this state is the squirrel's "hibernation," or what could be called "semi-hibernation."

Unless the food stored in the hole runs out, or is stolen by other animals, the squirrel will stay in its hole and spend the entire cold winter there.

The Speed-Evolved red squirrel in Section Three of Mountain No. 49 was extremely diligent, and had stockpiled enough food to last it the whole winter, so it wouldn't risk going out to gather Green Lantern peanuts on Mountain No. 50 anymore.

The rest belonged to Xia Qing!

Xia Qing called out to the lead wolf lying on top of Shi Dong in Wolf Valley, "My lord, we can set off. Where are the Broken-Back Wolf and the others?"

The lead wolf stood up, shook its thick fur that glittered with specks of sunlight, leaped down in front of Xia Qing, and greeted and played with the Broken-Back Wolf and Sick Wolf.

Xia Qing understood — the other wolves had already returned to the wolf pack's territory. Only the two wolves she had spoken to last night had stayed behind, to go with her to gather peanuts.

It seemed she hadn't made herself clear enough last night, making the two wolf pack leaders think she only wanted the two of them to stay. Mountain No. 50 had no large predators, and having two Brain-Domain-Evolved wolves accompany her was more than enough.

Xia Qing fed the three wolves the anesthetic-defense agent she had just traded with Zhang San. One dose of this agent would protect against inhaled and injected anesthetics for three days.

Anesthesia was the most commonly used method for humans to capture wild animals. Xia Qing teaming up with the wolves that had taken the agent — long-range attacks handled by her as the sniper, close combat handled by the Speed-Evolved lead wolf — even if a whole group came from Territory No. 9 or Territory No. 2, Xia Qing wasn't afraid in the slightest.

Sick Wolf led the way in front, and the three wolves and one person hurried quickly toward Mountain No. 50.

Winter was the season with the lowest danger rating in the Evolution Forest. Xia Qing followed the wolf pack, running swiftly through the valley along with them. After finishing her sixth medicinal bath, Xia Qing felt that her muscle and bone strength had both increased, as if she had been reborn, her whole body brimming with power.

The protective suits and protective shoes on her and the three wolves were quickly dampened by moisture and ice chips, but it didn't matter — the suits were all waterproof, and only the outer surface had gotten wet.