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墨書 Inktalez
There was one thing that Xiao Qiang overlooked: the miasma was all-pervasive. Although he had a body that was immune to all poisons, he could not withstand the long-term invasion of the miasma.
Feeling fatigued and weak, he mistakenly thought it was due to hunger from not having food in his stomach. Thus, he was even more eager to catch a Strange Fish to fill his belly, hoping it would give him enough strength to leave this place.
The creatures in the Spring Pit were equally stubborn. Using a dead bird's intestine, Xiao Qiang managed to catch the Strange Fish that had stubbornly clamped onto the bait. Not to mention, this Strange Fish had nothing but flesh aside from its backbone, which meant he could fill his stomach with its meat, and there would be enough for the hyena as well.
The hyena was small; perhaps it had inhaled less miasma, but it was still very weak. Xiao Qiang used the Time Machine Box as a makeshift wall, with three sides made of stone. He confined the hyena inside while he went to fetch clean water from the Spring Pit for it to drink. The little creature lay lazily on its side, extending its tongue to lap up the water. Its uncolored, fluffy tail swayed lazily, as if thanking him for saving it!
This was how the little hyena behaved in its weakened state. Xiao Qiang noticed that it was different from the hyenas that had attacked him; regardless of size or disposition, there was a clear distinction. To Xiao Qiang, this little hyena was not as fierce and brutal as its parents; this change was likely due to environmental factors affecting its genes.
With a little hyena now depending on him and signs of poisoning appearing in himself, Xiao Qiang decided against leaving and instead sought to understand the cause of the miasma. He used the spine of the Strange Fish as a whip to fish for a Mud Monster.
The little hyena could not recover its strength; it was too deeply poisoned. He needed to find a way to expel the toxins from its body quickly if he wanted to save it; otherwise, it would meet the same fate as its parents.
Fishing turned out to be quite simple. Holding onto the end of a blood-red Strange Fish's spine, Xiao Qiang nervously stared at the muddy water's surface. Three bubbles emerged: gurgle, gurgle, gurgle—he successfully hooked a Swamp Monster.
So this is what a Mud Monster looked like? It had teeth, a sharply pointed mouth with a diamond-shaped head, a long neck, an arched back, and a tail that stood high.
On its tail were two scythe-like weapons that sprayed mist when rubbed together. However, Xiao Qiang was not harmed by the mist; the Swamp Monster did not pose a threat to him yet.
Xiao Qiang began to unravel the mystery of why large Giant Hyenas died so easily at the hands of Mud Monsters. It turned out that Mud Monsters possessed scythe-like stingers and venomous attacks. When they bit down on a Giant Hyena, their tail stingers simultaneously sprayed venom that paralyzed the Giant Hyena's nervous system, leaving it helpless and unable to resist as it was dragged underwater and devoured by the Mud Monster.
These monsters living in the mud resembled scorpions from a future world; their tails had similar structures. However, over time they had evolved into another form that provided greater concealment and protection. One could imagine them crawling out of the mud and then entering deserts to become desert assassins in their evolutionary process.
Xiao Qiang dealt with the ancestor of this scorpion, the Swamp Monster. He carefully opened its abdomen, extracted its back tendons, and removed the venomous fangs from its stinger. He then drew some of the Mud Monster's venom into the stinger and attached it to a slender, resilient tube as thin as a wire. Using the stinger, he pierced the surface of the hyena's skin, employing a method of poisoning to expel the toxins within.
The hyena struggled weakly, merely letting out a few symbolic whimpers. After the venom was injected, it lay still and motionless.
Once he had taken care of the hyena, Xiao Qiang gritted his teeth and injected himself with a certain amount of venom. As he withdrew the stinger, a stream of dark blood flowed out. Suddenly, everything went black, and he collapsed onto the ground, unconscious.
In his sleep, Xiao Qiang dreamed of Lin Yu. Dreaming was common for him, nothing particularly strange about it. However, the scenes in this dream left him bewildered and filled with dread.
Lin Yu's dark eyes and pale cheeks devoid of color were haunting. She cradled a baby in her arms, a strange smile curling at her lips. Suddenly, she leaned down and bit into the baby's neck...
The dream was too bizarre; Xiao Qiang jolted awake, acutely aware of the pressure on his heart caused by fear, which instilled a sense of psychological distress. Anxiously, when Xiao Qiang woke up again, night had already enveloped Taiyin Valley.
Even though he had distanced himself from the mud pit where the hyena had been, he could still smell a foul odor in the air—an unpleasant scent that seemed to arise from numerous decaying animal carcasses.
This was the source of the miasma; after expelling the toxins from its body, the hyena that had narrowly escaped death was now lively again. It bounded around within Xiao Qiang's designated area, making hissing sounds as it playfully demanded attention.
Under the hyena's gaze, Xiao Qiang realized that he was once one of its kind; he too possessed eyes that sparkled in the darkness.
Xiao Qiang knew it must be hungry. He got up to fetch some entrails from Strange Fish and tossed them to it. The creature seemed to understand gratitude; as he threw in the food, it wagged its long tail joyfully like a blooming flower.
"Go away! Don't try to win my favor. If I weren't lonely and bored, I wouldn't have bothered to save you," Xiao Qiang grumbled irritably but watched intently as the hyena happily devoured its meal.
The hyena regaining strength might not be a good thing; it could even push against the Time Machine Box in an attempt to escape. Xiao Qiang picked up a stone to prop against the Time Machine Box before lying back down in his original position. Noticing that there was still time left, he decided to rest a little longer.
No one knows if anyone has ever tried to wake up in a dream by a wet tongue licking their face. If it were to happen at home, it would usually be a pet.
However, in this remote wilderness, especially during the ancient times of the New Era, when Xiao Qiang was abruptly awakened by the wet licking, he nearly drew his dagger to kill the damned hyena.
The little creature licked his face while wagging its tail. As he rubbed his sleepy eyes and tried to gather himself, he felt soft all over. Looking around, he noticed that dawn was breaking, and the objects around him were shrouded in mist, appearing hazy.
It had been two days and two nights since he left the Sun Tribe. He had no idea what the scheming Sun Tribe Sage was plotting. There was no point in worrying about distant troubles; he needed to assess his current situation first.
Xiao Qiang got up and secured his dagger to the skeleton of a giant animal before confining the hyena within a designated area. He left his resting place with swift strides, while the poor little creature, mistaking his departure for abandonment, howled loudly and tried to break free.
Xiao Qiang wondered why he was wasting time on such trivial matters. Was he foolish? Or had something short-circuited in his brain? He had no time to ponder these thoughts.
On the opposite bank of the muddy pit stood an artificially constructed staircase. Where did this staircase lead? Perhaps this was the main reason he remained in Taiyin Valley.
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