Shen Yuanzhou followed his gaze and then nodded in understanding.
“Is there a way to lure it out?” Xie Ji crouched down and touched the damp soil.
For a moment, everyone fell silent.
After a long while, Yan Yu’an finally said: “It won’t let us in because it wants to stop us from finding God-Slaying Grass—so why don’t we just use God-Slaying Grass to lure it out?”
“Where would we get God-Slaying Grass?” Ning Bingque frowned. “We don’t even know what it looks like.”
“Pure white all over, with three to four leaves growing on a single branch.” Shen Yuanzhou said blandly. “That’s all we know so far.”
Yan Yu’an pressed his lips together. White grass wouldn’t be easy to find.
“Even a monster has to eat.” After thinking for a while, Yan Yu’an said, “Then why don’t we just put poison in its food.”
“Right.” Shen Yuanzhou immediately understood Yan Yu’an’s idea. He got off Yan Yu’an and shifted back into human form. “There’s a kind of berry that, if eaten, makes you diarrhea nonstop.”
As he spoke, the purple-red berries appeared in his hand.
Ning Bingque’s eyes flew wide open. He looked at Shen Yuanzhou in horror. “So that’s why my stomach hurt so much that time! It was this guy!”
Shen Yuanzhou glanced at him mockingly, then tossed the berries to Xie Ji. “You’re fast. Ning Bingque will go attract the monster’s attention, and you take the chance to squeeze the berry juice onto the monster’s food.”
Xie Ji nodded. He took the berries and examined them carefully before saying: “Then what will you do?”
“Me?” Shen Yuanzhou raised an eyebrow and leaned closer to Yan Yu’an. “I’ll naturally be protecting my Snake Queen.”
“I don’t want to go attract the monster’s attention.” Ning Bingque spoke up. “If we run into danger, I can just carry him and fly off—no one could catch us.”
As Ning Bingque spoke, his gaze landed on Yan Yu’an.
He likes me this much—he’ll definitely choose me to protect him.
Ning Bingque thought happily.
Xie Ji pressed his lips together and leaned in, wanting to say something, but Ning Bingque and Shen Yuanzhou unanimously cut him off.
“You’re fast. There’s no one better to go put the poison in.”
Yan Yu’an quickly nodded, then praised him: “You’re fast. You definitely won’t be noticed by the monster.” He didn’t want these three to start arguing.
“Fine then!” Xie Ji pretended to look unhappy, but in truth, the moment he heard Yan Yu’an praise him, his tail was already about to curl up to the sky.
“Then who will you choose?” Ning Bingque was a little impatient. He glared viciously at Shen Yuanzhou, found that Shen Yuanzhou wasn’t looking at him, and so had to withdraw his gaze.
“Hmm…” Yan Yu’an squinted. “Then let’s do rock-paper-scissors.” He thought about it and finally decided to use the simplest method.
“Rock-paper-scissors?” The two were a little puzzled.
Yan Yu’an immediately explained how to play rock-paper-scissors.
“Come on!” Ning Bingque rubbed his hands together eagerly.
Though Shen Yuanzhou didn’t speak, a look of certain victory flashed through his eyes.
“Rock, scissors…”
“Paper!”
One round to decide the winner—Ning Bingque threw rock, Shen Yuanzhou threw scissors.
Ning Bingque won.
“Hmph.” Ning Bingque was delighted. He looked at Shen Yuanzhou smugly, his wings flapping again and again behind him.
Shen Yuanzhou’s face darkened at once. He glanced at Xie Ji, who was watching the show from the side, and said somewhat unhappily: “Oh…”
“It’s fine, Shen Yuanzhou. You’re amazing—among us, only you can fight that monster to a standoff.” Yan Yu’an immediately said.
“Fine then.” Though the task of protecting Yan Yu’an hadn’t fallen to him, well—he’d gotten Yan Yu’an’s praise.
“Now all we have to do is wait for that monster to go hunt.”
“Where would it hunt?” Xie Ji was a little puzzled. “There’s no prey left for miles around here.”
Hearing this, Yan Yu’an squinted and let his gaze fall on the mountain of corpses. He said quietly: “Aren’t those prey right there?”
Everyone followed his gaze, and after a long while Ning Bingque finally said: “How old is this prey? It still wants to eat it?” As he spoke, a look of disgust appeared on his face.
“Eat—it’ll definitely keep eating.” Yan Yu’an nodded confidently. “Most of this meat rotted because it didn’t have time to eat it. Xie Ji said just now that there’s no prey for miles around. If it can’t leave this place, then it can only choose to eat these.”
“When we went in just now, there were animal corpses all along the road. So it piled them up here to use as stored rations.” Yan Yu’an said quietly.
Ning Bingque nodded to show he understood.
“It’s started eating.” Ning Bingque’s ears twitched. The sound of the monster dragging its prey reached his ears.
Shen Yuanzhou and Xie Ji exchanged a glance, then said: “You two wait here for us to come back. If there’s any danger, Ning Bingque, take An’an and go directly—don’t worry about us.”
Yan Yu’an pressed his lips together. “You two must be careful. As soon as you drip the berry juice on the prey, come back quickly—whatever you do, don’t fight it more than necessary.”
Xie Ji nodded and made a reassuring gesture, then followed Shen Yuanzhou into the thick fog.
“Don’t worry. They’ll definitely succeed.” Seeing Yan Yu’an’s worried expression, Ning Bingque comforted him in a low voice. “Shen Yuanzhou’s strength is above mine and Xie Ji’s. As long as he holds the monster off, Xie Ji will definitely succeed in dripping the berry juice onto the food.”
Yan Yu’an nodded. Actually, this plan wasn’t perfect.
What if the monster noticed something wrong with the poisoned prey? What if the monster, after being drawn away by Shen Yuanzhou, switched to other prey?
Yan Yu’an was a little nervous—this really was a gamble.
On the other side, Xie Ji asked: “Do these berries really work?”
Shen Yuanzhou didn’t answer him.
“Why did you say An’an is your Snake Queen?”
Shen Yuanzhou still didn’t answer him.
“You…”
“Can you be quiet for a bit.” Shen Yuanzhou said.
Xie Ji shut his mouth.
They didn’t know how long they’d walked before Xie Ji suddenly stopped. “It’s right ahead. I smell it.”
Shen Yuanzhou’s brows furrowed slightly. He glanced at Xie Ji, and Xie Ji immediately understood and hid in the bushes nearby.
“Roar!” The monster let out a strange cry and put down its prey. It looked around warily and spotted the figure standing in the thick fog.
Shen Yuanzhou gave a cold laugh. Watching the monster charging at him at flying speed, he then shifted into snake form and charged up without hesitation.
The monster was already furious because one of its eyes had been clawed by Ning Bingque, and now, running into Shen Yuanzhou, it threw in every ounce of effort it had.
“Looking for death.” Shen Yuanzhou sneered. He secretly glanced to the side, found that Xie Ji’s figure was already gone, and immediately lunged forward, wanting to bite the monster’s other eye.
The monster’s whole body was covered in sharp barbs, but Shen Yuanzhou wasn’t afraid in the least—the snake scales on his body were enough to withstand those spikes.
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