Chapter 8

Yuan Ming stretched his limbs and found that the muscles around his wounds still ached when moved, but it was much better than yesterday.

After a moment's thought, he decided not to risk hunting beasts for now and planned to set some traps to see if he could catch small animals like rabbits or field mice.

Once he had eaten and regained his strength, he would go out to hunt beasts.

With this in mind, Yuan Ming began to gather sturdy vines and branches from the surroundings while looking for suitable locations to set the traps.

He had little experience or memory of hunting beasts, so he could only rely on vague impressions to make some snares and traps. Whether he could catch any beasts would depend on luck.

However, while setting the traps, he also collected some wild fruits.

Some were as big as apples, entirely purple and plump, some were as small as marbles, bright red and appealing, and there was another kind that looked very much like raspberries, with tiny granules all over, looking very tempting.

Yuan Ming did not recognize any of these wild fruits, but he picked them because the hunger in his stomach had become increasingly intense, and he could not wait for his traps to work.

He was very hesitant when picking them, fearing that he might pick poisonous ones. He could only make a judgment by observing whether the fruits had been eaten by wild animals.

The few kinds he brought back to the cave had all been carefully selected.

After blocking the cave entrance with tree roots, Yuan Ming hesitantly picked up the smallest red fruit, which looked like a raspberry, and put it in his mouth, taking a bite.

The sweet juice instantly filled his mouth, making his eyes widen in surprise.

After a small taste, Yuan Ming found nothing unusual and continued eating.

After finishing the small red fruit, he only satisfied his taste buds, but his hunger was not relieved at all.

So, Yuan Ming began to try the second kind of fruit, which was bright red and as small as cherries.

This fruit was even more vividly red than the red raspberry, looking crystal clear and very plump and smooth, and it seemed to taste good.

Yuan Ming picked one and put it in his mouth. The moment he chewed, he was greatly disappointed.

A sour and numbing juice mixed with hard flesh spread in his mouth, the sensation was even stronger than chewing a handful of Sichuan pepper.

Yuan Ming spat out the fruit residue and stuck out his tongue.

When he wanted to taste the raspberry-like fruit again, he found that he had already eaten it all without realizing it.

Unfortunately, the numbness in his mouth did not lessen with time but became even stronger, even spreading to his cheeks.

He had no choice but to take a bite of the last kind of fruit, which was as big as an apple and purple-red.

With a "crunch," the skin of the purple-red fruit was broken, and a slightly sweet and slightly sour taste immediately covered the numbing sensation, replaced by a hard-to-describe fragrance.

It was like a mix of orange and apple, the more you smelled it, the more it made you feel like it was rushing to your brain, making you unable to stop.

"Delicious!"

Yuan Ming couldn't help but take a deep sniff. The moment the rich aroma rushed into his nostrils, his vision suddenly blurred, and his body became stiff, and he fell straight to the side.

"Poison, poison, poisoned..."

Yuan Ming's stiff tongue could no longer accurately say the word "poisoned," and he fainted with a roll of his eyes.

When he woke up again, it was already evening. The sunset outside could not shine into the cave at all, making the cave appear somewhat dark.

Yuan Ming supported himself on the ground and sat up, moving his limbs. He found that apart from a slight soreness, there was no obvious abnormality, and his head did not feel dizzy, as if he had just slept.

He rubbed his forehead, looked at the uneaten wild fruits on the ground, and his stomach growled.

"I can't go on like this. Otherwise, I'll be starved to death and become food for the beasts before I can kill a beast and take its essence blood."

After a moment's thought, Yuan Ming stood up and walked out of the cave.

Seeing the approaching night, he quickened his pace and returned to the river.

Since wild fruits could not be eaten randomly and were hard to fill his stomach, it was better to catch some piranhas to satisfy his hunger.

Yuan Ming walked to the shore and looked at the muddy waves, thinking about how to catch them when he suddenly heard the sound of beast roars coming from the forest behind him.

He immediately became tense, ran a few steps, and leaped up, jumping two zhang high, grabbing a branch of an old tree, and climbing up.

He lay flat and looked in the direction of the sound from a high place, but his view was blocked by the mottled branches and leaves, and he could not see anything clearly.

After some hesitation, Yuan Ming swung his arms and carefully moved toward the sound.

After leaping over seven or eight trees, Yuan Ming stopped on a huge towering tree. Although it was still about ten zhang away, he could already see the situation through the gaps in the branches.

"Bang"

A dull thud sounded, and in the forest ahead, a blue wolf was knocked over by a larger gray wolf, crashing into an old tree, causing the tree to shake violently, and leaves to fall.

After getting up, the blue wolf did not hesitate, leaped up, and pounced on the gray wolf, tearing and biting together.

Seeing this, Yuan Ming frowned.

The blue wolf that had knocked down the tree had a strange movement that seemed awkward no matter how he looked at it.

Before he could figure it out, the fight between the two wolves was already coming to an end.

Long before Yuan Ming arrived, they had already severely injured each other. Now, both were almost out of fighting strength. The gray wolf had bitten the blue wolf's throat, but its own abdomen was also torn open, with blood and intestines spilling out.

In the center of the scene, only the dying whimpers of the two wolves remained.

"Search high and low, and find it without effort. It seems my luck is not bad." Seeing this, Yuan Ming was overjoyed.

As long as he could get the blood of these two wolves, wouldn't that count as completing the task?

"I need to act quickly; if they die completely, the blood will coagulate and won't be usable." Yuan Ming hurriedly swung over.

However, the moment he leaped, he saw a scene that made his spine chill.

The blue wolf, whose throat had been bitten, began to shrink in size under his gaze. From the wide wolf skin, two human feet appeared, followed by legs, and finally, a complete human body.

The blue wolf was one of the wild people he had traveled with, transformed into a fur-covered beast.

Seeing this, Yuan Ming's movements froze, and he stopped on an old tree, feeling a sense of sorrow.

This brief pause saved his life.

The underbrush below rustled, and a group of brown, shaggy hyenas rushed out from all directions, moving incredibly fast, and immediately tore into the gray wolf's body.

Soon, one of the hyenas discovered the human body, bit its ankle, and dragged it out from under the blue wolf's skin, immediately attracting the attention of two other hyenas.

The three hyenas tore the human body apart and quickly devoured it, leaving only a pile of bones.

Yuan Ming watched the gruesome scene below, grateful that he had not gone over, as he would have had no chance of survival against the pack of hyenas.

Unfortunately, the gray wolf's blood was definitely out of reach.

Yuan Ming continued to lie flat on the tree, watching the entire feast of the beasts, not daring to make a sound.

After about the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, the hyenas finished their feast, eating the two bodies completely, even the internal organs, leaving only a pile of bones, before leaving together.

Yuan Ming waited patiently on the tree for a long time, and when he saw no other beasts appear, he swung over.

After landing, he saw the mess on the ground and smelled the blood in the air, but surprisingly, he did not feel nauseous. Instead, he found a hint of sweetness in the bloody smell.

He found some bones that had not been completely gnawed from the gray wolf's skeleton, picked them up, and climbed back up the tree. Once he felt safe, he began to gnaw on them.

At this moment, Yuan Ming's mind was incredibly calm. He no longer thought about useless things but calmly considered how to complete the task and return alive.

Tomorrow was the last day, and he had little time left.

After eating the gray wolf's flesh and blood, Yuan Ming threw the bones down the tree. When he stood up, he felt a warm current spread from his abdomen, warming his entire body.

"This blood and flesh are so nourishing, and my strength has recovered a lot. It's much better than those river fish and wild fruits." Yuan Ming was delighted, jumped down from the tree, and landed steadily on the ground.

He went to the gray wolf's skeleton, picked out a few sharp ribs, and selected two or three-foot-long leg bones, tying them together with a vine.

On his way back, Yuan Ming saw the scattered bones of the human body. After some hesitation, he gathered them together and covered them with soil, stones, and leaves.

"Dust to dust, ashes to ashes." Yuan Ming muttered.

After that, he stood up, looked at the blue wolf's fur that had been left behind, but resisted the urge to take it and left with the bundle of animal bones.

Not long after he left, a figure stood at the top of the old tree, towering above the forest canopy. It was the tall figure of Elder Huhuo.

He lightly stepped down from the treetop, bent down, and picked up the blue wolf's fur.

"This Central Plains person is quite interesting." Elder Huhuo looked in the direction Yuan Ming had left, and the corner of his mouth twitched.