The Fang Snake had almost finished expelling the poisonous gas, its entire body visibly shrinking from a dirty, mucus-covered deep pink to a faint grayish-white.
Submerged in the water, it thrashed uncontrollably from the pain. White, flea-like creatures repeatedly leaped from its body, only to burrow back into its depths to drink blood and consume flesh.
Seeing this, Zhang Qiling worried that the antidote might be damaged during the process. Seizing the moment, he instantly threw out his grappling hook, rescuing the Fang Snake from its torment.
"I'll be damned..." Wu Tianzhen leaned in for a closer look, then turned his head away, unable to bear it.
It hadn't been clear in the water, but now that the Fang Snake was ashore, every detail was exposed under the slowly rising morning light.
Its once plump and rounded surface was now covered in a dense network of small black holes, like a honeycomb. Faint red blood slowly seeped from within, quickly turning the Fang Snake into a bloody serpent.
White creatures occasionally poked their heads out from those dark holes. The Fang Snake, once arrogant, had now become a feast for these rice-sized entities.
Fatty, without time for pity, eagerly reached out to pry open the Fang Snake's mouth.
Just as he was about to touch it, a white creature that had just crawled out of the Fang Snake's mouth suddenly burst forth with bullet-like speed, heading straight for Fatty's hand!
"Holy crap!" Fatty tried to dodge, but inertia prevented him from retracting his hand in time. Fortunately, Zhang Qiling reacted swiftly, using his knife sheath to block it.
"I'll do it."
With a soft utterance, Zhang Qiling moved with great efficiency, squatting down and extending his left hand directly into the Fang Snake's mouth without any protective measures!
He had already removed half of the bandages. The deterrence of the Qilin blood caused the white creatures that had burrowed into the Fang Snake to retreat in fear, desperate to crawl back out the way they came.
Zhang Qiling felt around carefully. He couldn't tell what the Fang Snake had eaten before; its insides were a sticky mess. After a long search, he finally felt a familiar rough, round object.
As he pulled it out, mucus dripped down, emitting a foul odor. A white creature, trapped by the sticky fluid, couldn't escape and was pulled out along with the antidote.
Zhang Qiling extended a finger to pick it up. In the light, it was revealed to be a rice-sized worm!
Its tiny body was almost entirely taken up by a mouth lined with sparse, tiny teeth. Its overly transparent body made one wonder where the things it ate were actually stored.
Now surrounded by the terrifying aura of Qilin blood, the little worm struggled desperately for a moment before kicking its legs and dying on the spot.
Zhang Qiling momentarily thought he had crushed it with his grip. Disbelieving, he grabbed a few more small worms, only then confirming that these creatures had simply scared themselves to death out of sheer timidity.
...As expected, his control over his strength was perfectly fine.
Wu Tianzhen, not paying attention to Zhang Qiling's biological research progress, had taken a bottle of clean water from his backpack.
"Little Brother, come wash your hands quickly. We don't know what else is inside that Fang Snake!"
Zhang Qiling followed his suggestion, washing his left hand clean. He then meticulously rinsed the antidote several times before calmly presenting it to Fatty.
With a trembling hand and an excited heart, Fatty received not just an antidote, but also an unspoken brotherhood and an inexpressible warmth.
His eyes almost welled up with tears as he held the antidote up to his eyes with both hands. Then, he suddenly reached out, grabbed Wu Tianzhen's hand, and shook it vigorously. He then reached for—
He missed. Zhang Qiling had already moved away.
Fatty: ...
Abandoning the vulgar idea of shaking hands, he found an alternative approach and shot a flirtatious glance at Zhang Qiling in the corner.
Seeing Zhang Qiling's hand slowly moving towards the hilt of his knife, Fatty immediately regained his composure. Without another word, he tossed the antidote and tilted his head back, swallowing it in one gulp!
Under Zhang Qiling's calm, yet curious gaze, Fatty chewed with his eyes closed, his face gradually turning a kaleidoscope of colors.
His expression was a contorted mess of despair. He even instinctively tried to spit out the remnants in his mouth, but then quickly grabbed his lips, pinching them shut into a duck-like pout.
Wu Tianzhen, unaware of the potency of the Nine-Fragrance Worm, thought Fatty was improvising some performance art. It wasn't until he saw Zhang Qiling quietly walk over and offer him the remaining water that he realized. Fatty immediately snatched it like a lifeline and guzzled it down!
Half the bottle of water was gone in an instant. Fatty finally managed to swallow the substance, but that was just the beginning. The strange taste in his mouth still lingered around every tooth, constantly asserting its presence.
"I'll be damned, *gag*— fuck, *gag*!" Tears were about to stream down his face. These were real tears now.
"This damn thing, *gag*— why does it taste like shit?!"
Wu Tianzhen was startled by the tragic scene. Hearing Fatty's tearful declaration, he paused, then asked with disbelief and caution:
"You... you've eaten it before?"
"What have I eaten? I'm just—" Halfway through his shout, Fatty suddenly realized Wu Tianzhen was asking if he had actually eaten feces. For a moment, he felt his dignity was insulted!
"Holy crap, I haven't eaten it!!!!! I'm just, *gag*, I'm using a metaphor! Do you know what a metaphor is?!!!"
"Uh-huh, uh-huh, I know, I know!" Wu Tianzhen truly couldn't bear to disturb Fatty any further, nodding repeatedly and readily admitting fault.
After a while, Fatty had somewhat recovered and noticed the empty bottle in his hand. He suddenly remembered that Zhang Qiling had given him water just now!
Fatty: What's going on? Has the child of the family finally grown up and become sensible?!
"Little Brother!" He was about to express his positive emotions, adhering to the excellent principle of praise-based education!
"Thanks to your water just now, I really—"
Before he could finish, the taste in his throat suddenly surged back up. Fatty's words caught in his throat, and he almost gagged again.
Then, he saw a piece of compressed biscuit being offered to him. Following the pale fingers holding the biscuit, he looked up to see Zhang Qiling's expressionless face beneath his hood.
"Eat."
Concise and clear.
But Fatty was suddenly a little scared. It was as if... the child becoming sensible too quickly and too thoroughly was also quite unnerving.
"Um, Little Brother," he said with a dry laugh, pushing the compressed biscuit away.
"Don't be so thoughtful all of a sudden; I'm still not quite used to it..."
Zhang Qiling (actually feeling guilty for not telling Fatty about the Nine-Fragrance Worm): ...
He paused, then silently withdrew the compressed biscuit and hugged his Black Gold ancient sword again.