Chapter 856: Rich Wolf Household

The Python Pool was not large in area, but it was very deep. The boulder Xia Qing had thrown into the water landed more than sixty meters below the surface, blocking the underground river tightly shut.

On the stone wall a little over fifteen meters below the pool, there was a naturally formed fissure, its widest point over two meters across. The stones on both sides had been rubbed very smooth, not a single waterweed growing on them — clearly that black loach passed through here often.

Looking inward, nothing could be seen at all.

Xia Qing swam upward, poked her head out of the water, gave a word to the northern Xiong Qun members guarding the pool's edge, then, amid the bared-teeth roars of the evolved wolves in reply, drew a deep breath and dove back under.

After diving to a depth of fifteen meters, Xia Qing gripped her black short blade and, without the slightest hesitation, swam into the cave. After advancing more than ten meters she turned right, then followed the winding waterway upward at an angle for over twenty meters, arriving at a Shi Dong above the water's surface.

Discovering a Shi Dong above the water did not surprise Xia Qing in the least. Because pythons are amphibious animals that breathe with lungs and cannot live in water for long, their dens must necessarily be above the waterline.

In this stretch of pitch-dark cave, besides the sound of dripping water, there was also the rustling of snakes slithering.

Xia Qing, with her head above the water to breathe, pinched a fast-swimming crimson qiang snake on the surface and held up her diving flashlight to look around.

After confirming no great python was hiding inside, she carried the qiang snake out of the water onto the damp, slick stone, took a beast-hide pouch from the waterproof bag at her waist, stuffed the qiang snake inside, and carefully observed this underground Shi Dong — a bit smaller than the Number Fifty Xiong Dong.

The spot in this stone cavity farthest from the water was a snake nest piled from branches, leaves, and earth.

Pythons are animals that greatly fear the cold, which is why they seek out a warm place to hibernate in winter.

Xia Qing was not certain whether this was the python's hibernation spot, because it was summer now, and she was no geology expert — she could not judge from the environment here what temperature this cave might hold in winter.

Still, she could confirm this was where the python shed its skin, because right beside the snake nest lay several shed skins of varying sizes. The shed skin of that giant black-loach python was fairly well preserved — it had likely come off just these past few days.

So one reason the black loach had not left here might be that it had entered its shedding period and needed to finish shedding before moving on. If that were the reason, there couldn't possibly be anything good inside the cave.

Shed snake skins are a medicinal ingredient and can be exchanged for points. Xia Qing pulled a large packaging bag from the waterproof bag at her waist, bundled up all the shed skins, set them aside, and continued searching.

Because snakes often rub around inside this cave, there were no plants within. If there were still any gains to be had, they were most likely hidden in that nest made of branches and leaves.

Xia Qing took up a stick and carefully poked through the branches and leaves in the snake nest. She didn't poke out any white python eggs, but she did — not entirely unexpectedly — poke out half a piece of black-and-white-striped yi stone.

When Broken-Waist Wolf had traded with her the day before yesterday, finding one piece of yi stone wasn't enough, it had quickly fetched two more. At that time Xia Qing had guessed there might be yi stones collected by the wolf pack here, or a yi stone mine.

After confirming that black loach was a brain-domain evolver, Xia Qing had guessed it might have yi stones in its den.

Because she hadn't brought a qiang-element detector, Xia Qing couldn't tell whether this cracked yi stone was still releasing yi element. But whether it was releasing or not, it was high-value material and had to be taken.

Eyes shining, she tucked away this half-walnut-sized piece of yi stone and kept poking through. After she'd poked through the entire enormous snake nest, she actually found eleven fragments of yi stone — and…

Three uncracked, walnut-sized pieces of yi stone!

Xia Qing hefted the heavy bag of yi stones and felt the likelihood that this mountain held a yi stone mine was very high — which was why the wolf pack, the Xiong Qun, and the python had all fought over this place.

It is said that yi stones are an accidental product of Blue Star's evolution, or what you might call a gift from nature. The conditions under which yi stones form have still not been figured out, and no one knows what a yi stone mine even looks like.

Could there be a large quantity of yi stones here?

Xia Qing, a Grade Nine visual evolver, shone her flashlight at the damp stone wall, searching for traces of yi stone.

Hmm?

Xia Qing blinked, then moved her flashlight back, shining it on the section of wall that had just flashed past.

Calm, calm!

Xia Qing drew a deep breath, commanded herself to calm down, shone her flashlight on the ground at her feet, and carefully walked forward, leaning close to the stone wall ahead to observe it in detail.

Her eyes grew wider and wider!

If she weren't a high-grade visual evolver, and if she didn't often use a flashlight to observe these colorless, transparent little plants, she would never have noticed — in that brief flash of the light — that this precious, scarce medicinal herb was actually growing in a crevice of the stone wall.

Qiang Ruoggrass!

This…

This…

This…!!!

As the saying goes, where venomous snakes roam, the antidote is within ten steps. Since there are qiang snakes in this Python Pool, it's normal for qiang ruoggrass to grow here, right?

Wrong! Not normal at all!

Qiang ruoggrass can only grow in places with unpolluted spring water! The fact that qiang ruoggrass grows here means the water slowly seeping down this stone wall is unpolluted spring water!

No wonder…

No wonder the wolf pack didn't care about Territory Three, which has an unpolluted spring; no wonder last May, when Yang Jin tracked the head wolf to Mountain Fifty-Two, Broken-Waist Wolf ran off to the wild boar breeding center and bit a boar to death to warn Yang Jin not to advance any further;

No wonder the wolf pack, the Xiong Qun, and the python all fought over this mountain!

Damn it — compared to Mountain Fifty-Five, which has both unpolluted spring water and a yi stone mine and qiang ruoggrass, that tiny spring on Mountain Forty-Nine isn't worth mentioning at all!

Xia Qing reached out, pinched a qiang snake that had poked out, stuffed it into the bag at her waist, and began counting the qiang ruoggrass.

One plant, two plants, three plants…

Nine plants, ten plants…

Fifteen plants, sixteen plants.

On the thin layer of soil and crushed stone accumulated in the hollows and crevices of this over-four-meter-wide rock, there were actually six clusters totaling sixteen plants of qiang ruoggrass growing!

At fifty thousand points per leaf, this patch of qiang ruoggrass was worth more than the three intact yi stones Xia Qing had tucked into her pocket.

So it turned out that the increasingly stingy head wolf and Broken-Waist Wolf were actually damn rich wolves — with a mine, herbs, and a precious water source right at home!

"Awoo — owooo —"

Xia Qing, in her excited state, heard the head wolf's anxious call coming through the stone crevice. She immediately tilted her head up and answered, "my lord, I'm here, I'm fine, I'll be out in a bit."

"Awoo —"

"Owoo —"

"Awoo-woo-woo —"

Before Xia Qing's reply had even faded, she heard several yips of wolf pups and the startled bark of an adult wolf — Broken-Waist Sister.

"Owoo —"

The head wolf's deep, majestic growl came down from above, thick with warning in its voice.

"my lord, I haven't hurt the pups, I'm in the python's den, coming out right now." After answering, Xia Qing immediately packed the yi stones and shed skins into her waterproof bag, passed through the waterway into the Python Pool, and surfaced.

Under the head wolf's majestic gaze, she climbed ashore.