Chapter 37

"Fish bone? Where?" Su Zhenqiao was taken aback.

"It's here." Su Jing pointed to the inside of the dog's mouth. It was no wonder Su Zhenqiao hadn't noticed it; the fish bone was stuck between the back teeth. If you didn't look closely, you wouldn't see it. And who would normally look inside a dog's mouth for no reason?

"Really? No wonder it's been growling and baring its teeth at us all day, looking like it wants to bite. I thought it had gone mad." Su Zhenqiao let out a sigh of relief and put down the kitchen knife. He was just too angry before; he didn't really want to kill his own dog. The blood on the dog wasn't from Su Zhenqiao's knife but from the dog's fall when it tried to escape.

"Hehe, if we remove this fish bone, it will be fine." Su Jing said.

"But how do we pull it out?" Su Zhenqiao was troubled. Pulling a bone from a dog's mouth could hurt the dog, and it might bite. As for taking it to a vet, that was something people in the countryside generally wouldn't consider.

"Let me try. Ah Tu, I'm going to remove the fish bone stuck in your teeth. You need to bear with it for a moment. It will hurt, but it will be over soon. Don't bite me." Su Jing stroked Ah Tu's neck as he spoke.

Ah Tu immediately relaxed, lying still and opening its mouth wide, ready to cooperate. This left Shi Qing and Su Zhenqiao staring in amazement. Could the dog understand human speech?

"Try to bear it, and don't close your mouth." Su Jing said, already reaching into the dog's mouth. Fortunately, the dog's mouth was big enough for his hand to fit. As soon as he touched the fish bone, Ah Tu's body twitched, and its mouth moved slightly, but it didn't close. Su Jing used his index and ring fingers to grip the fish bone and pulled it out quickly.

"Wang wang!" Ah Tu yelped in pain.

"It's done. The fish bone is out." Su Jing smiled.

"Wang wang!" Ah Tu got up and affectionately licked Su Jing's face, which left Shi Qing and Su Zhenqiao even more surprised. Although Su Jing was helping the dog, dogs usually don't understand that; they only know that you hurt them. But this dog clearly understood, showing a remarkable level of intelligence.

"Thank you, Su Jing. I didn't expect you to be so good with dogs." Su Zhenqiao looked admiringly at him.

"Being kind to animals is the key. Chasing them with a kitchen knife definitely won't work." Su Jing laughed, and Su Zhenqiao scratched his head awkwardly while Shi Qing giggled.

"I'll take Ah Tu back now." Su Zhenqiao patted Ah Tu's head guiltily. Fortunately, dogs don't hold grudges against their owners. Ah Tu whined pitifully and licked Su Zhenqiao's hand.

"Take good care of it. Don't let it eat fish again. Dogs aren't like cats; they don't know how to pick out bones." Su Jing said.

"Got it." Su Zhenqiao left with Ah Tu.

Su Jing first escorted Shi Qing home, then hurried back to his own house. He took out the jade pendant from his pocket and tried to communicate with the dog in the yard, but it didn't work. He couldn't understand dog language, and the dog couldn't understand him.

"Is it not because of this jade pendant?" Su Jing frowned. Suddenly, he started rummaging through the pile of garbage. After a while, he found some tattered papers, one of which had a few characters—Yu Hua Men.

"Yu Hua Men? Eternal World?" Su Jing was taken aback, then his eyes lit up. He suddenly became very sure that he could understand dog language because of this jade pendant. In the Eternal World, there was a magical artifact called the Ten Thousand Beast Pendant, which allowed communication with animals. Powerful cultivators had inscribed it with a great array, and a drop of blood could activate it.

Back then, Fang Han, as a servant, was brought to Yu Hua Men and was appointed to take care of the immortal cranes. He received such a Ten Thousand Beast Pendant. Without it, Fang Han couldn't communicate with the cranes or control them.

This Ten Thousand Beast Pendant was magical, but in the Eternal World, it was one of the lowest-level magical artifacts. Powerful cultivators didn't care about it, only ordinary people treated it as a treasure. Therefore, it could be inferred that the three corpses were of low status.

"If this is the Ten Thousand Beast Pendant, why can I only communicate with Ah Tu and not others? Could it be... because of the blood?" Su Jing's eyes brightened as he figured out the key. He took a needle, grabbed a stray dog, pricked its leg, and dripped a drop of blood onto the jade pendant.

"Don't prick me, don't prick me, it hurts!" A voice, sounding like a little girl's, complained.

"Ha ha, it worked. This is indeed the Ten Thousand Beast Pendant." Su Jing was overjoyed. He continued to experiment with the animals in the yard, finding that as long as he dripped a drop of blood, he could communicate with them without any barriers, not just dogs, but also cats and birds.

"Wang wang, master, I'm hungry, I want to eat meat."

"Ji ji, such a big worm, don't fight with me for it."

"Miao miao, the sun is so nice today, I'll take a nap first."

What Su Jing heard was no longer barking, meowing, or chirping, but various human voices.

Suddenly, Su Jing heard a conversation between a few dogs and perked up his ears.

"Just now, that tree went crazy, it was so scary!"

"That eagle was also very fierce, they fought so hard."

Su Jing was stunned and quickly turned to look at where the man-eating vine had been. He was shocked to find that the man-eating vine was gone, leaving only the ropes and stakes that had tied it down and a pile of loose soil.

"Where did that tree go?" Su Jing asked the tabby cat.

"It got up and ran, ran away." The tabby cat, with low intelligence, clearly didn't understand why it could understand Su Jing's words, but it meowed in response, acting cute.

"Which direction did it run?" Su Jing asked.

"That way." The tabby cat looked toward the wall by the sea and meowed.

"Damn, I hope nothing bad happens." Su Jing turned to look. When he saw the soil and vine marks left on the wall, his face changed. He quickly ran out of the yard, following the trail left by the vine. He remembered that in the One Piece world, many man-eating trees could move using their roots, almost like animals.

The trail of soil left by the man-eating vine was clear. It led down the slope in the back yard and disappeared at the sea. Looking up, he saw the golden eagle circling in the sky, making a loud call. Su Jing could tell it was the eagle's battle cry.

"Did the man-eating vine escape into the sea?" Su Jing breathed a sigh of relief. It was better that it escaped into the sea; otherwise, if it had escaped into the village, it would have been a big problem. Currently, the man-eating tree couldn't eat people, but its appearance would shock the world.

"I need to hurry and tame the man-eating vine. If that doesn't work, I'll have to destroy it. I can't delay any longer." The escape of the man-eating vine made Su Jing realize the severity of the situation. He suddenly whistled, and the golden eagle immediately glided down from the sky.