Chapter 75.2

Bonus chapter—(1/1)

Editor: Kat

Proofreader: Junyans

Ji Hongcai rinsed his mouth several times before finally spitting out clean water. He was in better spirits, and although his voice was hoarse, he was barely able to express himself. Wei Xun tasked Jiang Hongguang and Fang Yuhang with holding Ji Hongcai’s face towards the campfire again. He added a hot charcoal to burn in the fire, put a piece of human skin wrapped around the claw clippings of the snow leopard on top, and continued to “smoke” Ji Hongcai’s throat.

This time, the situation was obviously much better than the first time. There was no red or yellow pus in Ji Hongcai’s throat and when he spat out the water after gargling, there were very few eggs floating in the water. Other than that, there was almost nothing. When Wei Xun used the third and last piece of human skin to “smoke and roast” his throat, Ji Hongcai’s throat was no longer itchy or painful. He just had one nostril that he couldn’t breathe from and it seemed to be blocked.

Wei Xun asked Jiang Hongguang to shine a flashlight at Ji Hongcai’s nose. Squinting his eyes, he took a look at his nostrils. Then, he leaned back slightly and waved to Yin Baitao.

“You can use tweezers to get what’s in his nose.”

Wei Xun said in a friendly tone as if he was acting like a good senior to Yin Baitao, “This is also a training opportunity for you.”

Yin Baitao’s eyes lit up, and she was grateful to Wei Xun from the bottom of her heart. From the time she first started studying for her doctorate to the time she started doing research with her advisor, she knew how important it was to have a chance to learn. This experience would build up her medical experience! Moreover, if she successfully helped him, Ji Hongcai and his small team would definitely remember the good deeds she did for them.

“I’ll do it.”

Yin Baitao was solemn, but her thanks towards Wei Xun was stuck in her throat, and she was unable to speak. At this moment, she really regarded Wei Xun as her senior. Previously, she had just been trying to build ties with someone more familiar since they were at a strange place and she had no support. Wei Xun was someone she had never met in reality, so how could she have any ties with him?

But Wei Xun was willing to give her this opportunity!

Wei Xun stepped aside so that Yin Baitao could do it. To tell the truth, the thing in Ji Hongcai’s nose was really disgusting. People who watched ear cleaning videos on the internet might have a better understanding of what it looked like. Even with tools, it was not something that ordinary people could do.

But Yin Baitao was extraordinary. She was calm and her hands were very steady. Jiang Hongguang shone a light towards Ji Hongcai’s nostrils. Originally, he was worried that Yin Baitao would make a mistake, but now he was a little relieved when he saw her being so calm.

After a while, Yin Baitao pulled out an unknown object from Ji Hongcai’s nose. It was like a small piece of black-colored flesh the size of a sesame seed, and wrapped in nasal mucus. The flesh was covered with black hairs, which appeared particularly shocking.

Wei Xun asked Yin Baitao to throw the piece of black-colored flesh into the fire and burn it to bits. Ji Hongcai’s crisis was finally averted. But after this encounter, his originally strong body that was like an iron tower was much weaker and his voice was completely hoarse. However, Ji Hongcai immediately struggled to get up, knelt in front of Wei Xun, and gave him three kowtows.

Jiang Hongguang and Fang Yuhang also stood with him, remembering Wei Xun’s kindness in their hearts. This was a life-saving grace.

As for the other tourists, who had been tense all the time, they were finally relieved. They had rarely been so anxious about their teammates’ predicaments in the past, and they were mostly worried about whether they would fall into such a situation after seeing the miserable predicament of their teammates. But this time, no one thought about anything else, and they were all worried about Ji Hongcai.

This matter took up some time, and it was now six o’clock. It had been overcast the whole day, and the sky didn’t clear up. The wind felt even colder in the evening. They lit a fire, boiled hot water, and gathered around the fire. They subconsciously wanted to sit closer to Wei Xun, as if they had a stronger sense of security when they were closer to him. It was just like in the past. Even if the tourists were afraid of the tour guide, they would subconsciously approach them.

It was very strange. Obviously, Wei Xun was just a newcomer tourist who didn’t have the special means bestowed by the Travel Services to the tour guides, but he made the tourists feel more at ease. Everyone sat around the fire wrapped in blankets and roasted the tsampa. Everyone held cups of hot water in their hands and listened carefully to Wei Xun.

“In the Qinghai Tibetan Medicine Cultural Museum, the longest thangka in the world is stored there. It can be considered the treasure of the museum.”

Wei Xun said, “In one corner of the thangka, there is an image of three animals chasing and devouring each other. There is a blue-backed bird chasing a snake. The snake bites a wild boar, and the wild boar’s mouth clamps onto the bird’s tail. The three original sins of life are greed, hatred, and being delusional.

“In the legend of the Bon religion, above all sins is the Insect of Evil that was born from eggs. It devoured all sins, became the greatest evil, and was swallowed by the golden garuda.”

According to the legend of the Bon religion, the world was originally a huge egg. Later, the eggshell became a sacred mountain, the egg white became the sea, and the yolk became eighteen medium-sized eggs. Various animals and evil spirits representing all evils were born. The Insect of Evil, which represented everything evil, and the Garuda which represented everything sacred and holy was born as well.

Wei Xun thought that there might be a kind of insect in the ancient Xiangxiong era that could multiply rapidly when it entered an animal or a human’s body, killing them without a trace. The ancients thought of them as “evil spirits” and called them “The Insects of Evil.”

The human skin thangka of the eminent monk and people with great virtue could suppress all evils, so perhaps the various secret medicines it had been soaked in could play a role in suppressing the Insect of Evil.

“I’ve obtained the title, [Archaeologist], and can see information about things related to the ruins.”

Wei Xun revealed some of his personal information, and also explained his previous modus operandi, “The murals in the cave you explored should record the history of how the Insect of Evil punished the sinner, and the insect was punished by the eminent monk’s human skin thangka.”

“It seems to be the case,” Qin Xinrong said.

The look in his eyes when he looked at Wei Xun was a little complicated. Qin Xinrong felt like he was watching a scene from the TV programme, “Approaching Science.” He said, “It turns out that it can be explained this way.”

Because they were talking about demons, evil spirits, demonic insects, and the like, and because they knew that the human skin thangka could suppress such things, normal people would think that this matter was related to something supernatural! However, Wei Xun just explained it clearly, and everyone thought it was quite reasonable after listening to it!

It was simply the same feeling as when they watched an episode of a crime program. [Why are the baby’s arms frequently injured with scratches? Why is a big hairy hand stretching out from under the baby’s crib in the middle of the night? The police pulled the hand out and saw that it was a smuggled snub-nosed monkey!]

But now, this was a Difficult-level tour where there were no supernatural elements, so that must be the explanation.

Hearing that there were no ghosts and spirits, most of the tourists were relieved. Today, they had gained a lot. The two teams that had gone out to explore had discovered the ruins. Everyone had a sense of propriety. After reaching the minimum goal of their task, they automatically stopped exploring.

Jiang Hongguang and the others came back early. They swapped with Yin Baitao and the others who were originally stationed there and asked them to go down to explore.

Fei Lezhi and Xu Yang were the only ones who hadn’t completed the basic tasks yet, but they were not in a hurry. The veteran tourists discussed taking them down again tomorrow, but Ji Hongcai’s incident had completely terrified them.

They had to admit that Ji Hongcai could be regarded as the strongest among them, yet after he had sucked in the bug, he had landed in such a predicament. If they continued to go down and explore, they would definitely meet with trouble.

This was just the first scenic spot, and it was already so difficult. At this moment, everyone in the tour group became salted fish. But inwardly, they were grateful to Wei Xun. Fortunately, he had chased IV-1 away. Otherwise, if IV-1 was still there, most of them would have to die here.

What would the Insect of Evil morph into after the difficulty limit was lifted?

The airtight bag containing the insect’s corpse arrived in Wei Xun’s hands. Just when Wei Xun thought about it, he expressionlessly stopped his mind from thinking about it.

No, I can’t think about it anymore, what if it’s something more disgusting than a maggot.

However, Wei Xun came to a realization while he was deep in thought, that the lackeys he conquered using the means he had as a tour guide seemed to be insects and the like, except Dog IV-1.

It stood to reason that by now, he should also think about how to completely separate his identity as a tour guide from that of a tourist, so that there was a stark difference.

For example, when he was a tour guide, he could make use of abyssal monsters, and when he was a tourist, he could bring around animals such as the ferret cub and snow leopard. This was a very distinguishable trait.

However, Wei Xun refused to do so.

This would make him feel that Dog IV-1 was better in comparison to his insects, because at least he was a mammal. Did this also mean that he had some kind of relationship with insects? Would he develop his abilities and prowess related to demonic insects? He could completely develop his tour guide abilities in the direction of summoning lower level creatures, but even if a tour guide mutated, they were still considered to be a tour guide. It was impossible for him to take Dog IV-1 into a tour, which was a problem——

‘Master, master, save me!!!’

When Wei Xun was deep in thought, he heard Dog IV-1’s heart-piercingly anxious voice in his mind.

‘Master, help me, I’m surrounded by a swarm of monsters, and I can’t beat them!’

He really couldn’t hold out. Those monsters were everywhere, and even rocks couldn’t stop them from swarming towards IV-1. IV-1 tried his best to escape, but he couldn’t run as fast as the insects and somehow, he fell into the swarm and was surrounded by insects.

Only Wei Xun could summon him and save him from this sticky situation. At the juncture between life and death, IV-1 didn’t care about his face, and threw away all his dignity to ask Wei Xun for help.

He waited anxiously for a few seconds. Wei Xun let out a faint sigh and seemed a little depressed.

‘IV-1, you are a dog. You can’t even beat the insects?’

The author has something to say:

Wei Xun: IV-1, you are a dog. You can’t even beat the insects?

Dog IV-1: I can’t beat so many bugs.

Dog IV-1: ?? No, I’m not a dog!

There will be another 6,000 Chinese character update in the evening, not counting the extra update that I’m going to publish due to the nutrient solutions you guys provided me. It can be considered compensation for yesterday’s update qwq.

Maybe I’ll update 3,000 Chinese character chapters twice. See you guys at 11 pm tonight!

T/N: Thank you, Ko-fi supporter, for your ko-fi!