Chapter 71
Chapter 71
In this world, every creature has its natural predator, just as the Toad is the bane of the Fei Yi.
Four Toad Venom Pills were tossed into the fire, throwing the entire swarm of Fei Yi into a state of panic.
The primal fear of a powerful natural enemy was so overwhelming that it even overrode the Hanba’s control over the swarm.
The Fei Yi, which were not naturally social creatures to begin with, fell into utter chaos in an instant.
Those at the front of the swarm tried to flee backward, while those at the rear surged forward. When they encountered their own kind blocking the path, they snapped and bit without hesitation.
In moments, they were tangled into a writhing ball of snakes.
The Fei Yi were packed so densely that their ugly, humanoid heads were squeezed together.
They looked like gristle meatballs, only the raw ingredients were snakes with mouths full of fine scales that crunched when chewed.
“Ugh…”
Qin Ying had a bad habit of automatically associating anything she saw with its potential texture and mouthfeel.
After mentally slapping herself for her own morbid curiosity, she urged, “Hurry up and burn them all!”
From her vantage point in the sky, she had seen them preparing things that looked like Molotov cocktails; they were surely meant for dealing with these creatures.
Sure enough, Han Lie gave a low grunt of affirmation and ordered the attack.
Wu Er, Wang Chang, and the relatively quiet Cheng Xuan and Zhang Fang simultaneously pulled out several Leather Sacks.
These Leather Sacks were made from the stomachs of Monstrous Birds. They possessed excellent elasticity and could hold a great deal once tied shut.
Han Lie and his men had filled them with Fire Oil. Using a standard shot-put technique, they hurled the oil-filled Stomach Sacks into the fray.
*Splat, splat, splat.* One by one, the sacks burst open amidst the swarm of Fei Yi.
Next, they threw in lit torches.
Since they only needed to ignite the Fire Oil, they hadn’t spent much effort crafting specialized torches; they simply used the Cotton Swab Heads Qin Ying had provided.
One torch after another landed among the snakes, causing the Fire Oil to erupt into a violent blaze upon contact.
Upon the orange dunes, the roaring flames reflected against the sky.
Acrid black smoke billowed upward as countless fat snakes writhed in the fire, their tongues hissing incessantly.
In theory, Qin Ying shouldn’t have been able to smell anything, but when she accidentally focused her senses, she caught a whiff of a stench like burning tires.
She covered her nose and took half a step back, looking away to let time accelerate inside the box.
A few minutes passed in the world outside the box before Qin Ying looked again.
She saw the yellow sands littered with charred snake carcasses, with only a few embers still flickering.
Han Lie and the others were clearing the bodies.
Fei Yi were ferocious and highly venomous, but their meat could treat leprosy and kill parasites within the human body.
With one head and two bodies, each snake possessed two plump gallbladders.
Wearing a thin pair of sheepskin gloves, Han Lie picked up a half-dead Fei Yi.
With a flick and a gouge of his Wrist Blade, he extracted the pitch-black gallbladders and placed them into a waterskin filled with wine.
If anyone developed back carbuncles from being stifled in leather armor during the upcoming journey, these gallbladders could be ground up and applied to clear heat and drain pus.
Han Lie was not greedy; once he had harvested about a dozen gallbladders-enough for their needs-he stopped.
Coincidentally, Wu Er and the others had also finished carving off a small portion of snake meat to eat on the road.
The group packed their gear once more and set off.
While the Jade Balance Army’s method of cleaning the battlefield was standard procedure, Aman, who was traveling with them, was overjoyed.
He hadn’t expected that such a troublesome and terrifying swarm of Fei Yi could be dealt with so easily.
A sliver of hope rose in his heart-if they could do this, could they perhaps deal with the Hanba in Golden Saddle Mountain that was causing the drought?
At this thought, he became quite cheerful and optimistic on his own.
After they departed, Qin Ying’s gaze did not continue to follow their movement.
Instead, it remained fixed on the scorched Fei Yi corpses covering the hillside.
Since they were already dead, she couldn’t let them go to waste, no matter how disgusting they were!
The thrifty Supreme Deity pulled out a Preservation Box lined with disposable ice packs and used Barbecue Tongs to pick up a cluster of the charred Fei Yi from the dunes.
She looked into the Preservation Box; the scorched Fei Yi were tangled together like a ball of yarn, emitting a heavy scent of burnt protein.
Sensing the smell, the Fuzhu dozing in the Fish Tank flicked its ears and stood up.
Qin Ying poked around with the Barbecue Tongs and discovered a few that were half-charred but not yet entirely dead. They were hissing in panic, thrashing about inside the Preservation Box.
Qin Ying carefully picked up a live one, using a Cell Clamp to examine the deformed thing under the light.
The Fei Yi held in the tips of the sharp Cell Clamp was slightly smaller than the redworms used for fish food. Terrified by the presence of the Dragon Bone in Qin Ying’s room, it writhed incessantly.
Its single-headed, double-bodied serpentine form twisted, and its useless, malformed claws and wings trembled like tumors.
Qin Ying’s free hand instinctively reached to adjust her glasses, only to meet empty air.
She felt a twinge of regret now-why hadn’t she bought some specimen-making tools earlier?
As she was thinking, the Fei Yi clamped in the tips of her Cell Clamp succumbed to its heavy injuries and the shock, dying in a final convulsion.
Qin Ying tossed the snake into a Preservation Box lined with ice packs. She felt she needed to purchase two new refrigerators to store these fresh novelties, separating the meat from the vegetables.
In the Fish Tank, the Fuzhu stomped its hooves restlessly. As a Disaster Beast of water, it was naturally at odds with creatures like the Fei Yi and the Yong Bird.
Seeing this, Qin Ying dropped a Fei Yi into the Fish Tank.
The gluttonous Fuzhu didn’t try to eat the snake like a piece of spicy jerky. Instead, it reared its front hooves and crushed the Fei Yi Qin Ying had thrown in into a pulp of scales, flesh, and bone.
Qin Ying ignored it and first put away the small Preservation Box containing the Fei Yi corpses.
She scanned the box twice more, finally spotting Han Lie and the others in the shadow of a mountain rock.
Under the guidance of the local, Aman, the shade they had found was quite excellent. Qin Ying abandoned her plan to set down the Dollhouse.
She was just about to sprinkle some water to cool them down and replenish their water supply when she heard a series of rhythmic *smack-smack-smack* sounds.
Qin Ying’s hand paused. Following her old habit, she squinted to get a better look.
In the shadow of the rock, no scandalous scene was unfolding; they were simply eating lunch, albeit with a bit of a commotion.
They were eating the roasted Fei Yi meat they had gathered earlier and…
“Hahaha! This is a specialty of our Chixia Mountain-it’s called the Delicious Mushroom!”
“The flesh is thick and very tasty, but they’ve got a lot of strength and love to hit people.”
Aman laughed heartily, the name of the specialty being rather haphazardly chosen.
Just as he said, these mushrooms had quite a temper.
Even when sliced into pieces and placed on a wooden plate, they could still jump up to strike people.
Wang Chang, who had greedily taken the largest piece of mushroom, gripped it with both hands, his head swaying back and forth to dodge.
But every time he dodged, he was slapped squarely in the face by the mushroom’s stalk, the *smack-smack* sounds echoing.
Before long, his sun-peeled, dark face began to swell and turn red.
Wu Er and the others were more than happy to watch the show. Only Han Lie showed some humanity, helping Wang Chang out with his Wrist Blade.
The mushroom, now dismembered into small squares the size of mahjong tiles, tried to burrow into the sand.
Aman quickly snatched them up and stuffed them into his mouth, chewing with great relish.
With Wang Chang’s antics providing entertainment, the lunch during this dangerous journey was considered a happy one.
It was certainly an eye-opener for Qin Ying outside the box.
After they left, the Supreme Deity wanted to pick one up to plant in a Succulent Pot for fun, but even after leveling the sand dunes with her Barbecue Tongs, she couldn’t find a single one of these so-called Delicious Mushrooms.
She had no choice but to give up for the moment.
Somewhat displeased, she sprinkled a bit of water over the heads of Han Lie and his group.
Mounted on Sand Lizards, Han Lie and the others continued toward Golden Saddle Mountain.
They encountered several attacks from Monstrous Beasts along the way, but with ample supplies, Han Lie and his team handled them with ease.
After traveling for about two or three days, they entered a mountain range that was entirely crimson.
It was the first time Qin Ying had seen mountains as red as roses.
But that wasn’t the point. The point was… the crimson mountains were covered far and wide with a dense, swarming mass of various beast eggshells.
*Crackle-crackle-*
Amidst the faint sounds, slime-covered infant Fei Yi snakes broke through their shells.
In an instant, the slime on their bodies was dried by the wind and sand, their scales hardening as they turned their heads to glare at Han Lie and his group.