Chapter 413: 406: Meeting an Acquaintance

She had no idea that not far from here, a man was clutching his waist, with a grim look on his face. He was wearing a camouflaged outfit that was so worn out it was hard to discern its color. He was leaning against a large tree, occasionally gasping for air. He opened his eyes, and his dark pupils were as deep as a black hole.

There was the sound of footsteps rustling leaves in the distance. He quickly pulled a dagger from his leg. As he brandished his dagger, another man’s voice followed the rustling of the leaves.

“Don’t get agitated. It’s me.”

Only then did Gu Ning return the dagger to its sheath in his boot. Meanwhile, the other man approached. His outfit was not in much better shape, covered in various colorful stains. Who knows what he had gotten on it?

“Are you okay?” The man came over, worriedly looking at Gu Ning’s waist, “You’re still bleeding.”

“I’m fine,” Gu Ning stood up, surveying their surroundings, “We need to leave here as soon as possible.”

“But, your wound…” the other man was anxious.

If all his blood was lost, the man feared he might have to carry a corpse out of there. It would be better to cremate and bring back the ashes instead.

“I said I’m fine,” Gu Ning got up again. This time it wasn’t just the wound on his waist that pained him. It seemed as though the pain had seeped into his bones, making him gasp for breath. Despite having undertaken various missions and endured all kinds of pain, this particular agony seemed unbearably intense.

“Let’s go,” He walked forward, hand covering his still-bleeding waist. They arrived by a large tree where he sat down to contemplate their next course of action. They needed a plan and couldn’t just wander around aimlessly.

He

He pointed to an area they hadn’t yet explored. Taking a stone, he marked it on the ground, “We’ve been everywhere else. This is the only place left. If I’m not mistaken, we should head here.”

“Yeah, I think so too,” the other man nodded in agreement, “We need to find it as soon as possible otherwise I won’t be able to survive here.” He complained about his current predicament. Drinking blood and eating raw meat— he wasn’t a caveman. He missed cooked food.

Suddenly, he turned around and his eyes widened in shock as he saw a snake lunging towards his face. In that moment, he froze.@@novelbin@@

Gu Ning reached into his boot for his dagger to strike, but an unexpected hand shot out, grabbing the snake by its tail. The snake was then swiftly coiled, pulled, rolled, tied, and finally slammed to the ground, its body restrained.

The man swiftly produced a small knife and, with a twist of his finger, drove it into the snake’s gallbladder. He quickly removed the snake gallbladder and placed it into a small cup he had brought out.

“Finally found you, you sure know how to run. I have been chasing you for quite some time,” Tang Yuxin kicked the dead snake. She had been hunting this snake for two days and two nights. Despite many close encounters, the tricky snake always managed to escape. It seemed to sense that she posed a threat and, despite initially trying to bite her, soon started to flee whenever it encounter her. If she hadn’t smeared something on the snake that left a red froth as it slithered, it would have been much more difficult to track down.

She placed the cup back into her backpack, letting out a sigh of relief. As she looked up, she caught sight of a familiar face.

“Uncle Gu, what are you doing here?”

At this point, Gu Ning was still holding the dagger, his face paler than ever. He was filled with a murderous intent.

The other man was so scared that he started to sweat profusely.

“Oh my god, that scared me!” he exclaimed, hurriedly wiping the sweat off his forehead. This was downright terrifying. But where did this little girl come from, he wondered. And her snake-catching skills – were those professional? He realized that the girl seemed to know Gu Ning.

“Tang Yuxin, what are you doing here?” Gu Ning put his dagger back into his boot, returning it to its original place. But at that moment, he really wanted to strangle Tang Yuxin.

Why had she left her studies to come to such a dangerous place? Tang Yuxin properly packed her backpack and casually tossed the dead snake away.

“Don’t throw it away!” The man with Gu Ning hurried to pick up the snake, “We can still eat it.”

“It’s poisonous,” Tang Yuxin kicked the snake into the bushes, “If you see this kind of snake again, run as far away as possible and don’t eat it, especially not its flesh. If you do, you could get infected.”

When Tang Yuxin said this, she wasn’t joking. With snakes like these, one shouldn’t touch them or eat them.

Upon hearing this, the man retracted his hand in fear, incredulous that one could contract a virus from a snake’s meat.

At this point, Gu Ning squinted at Tang Yuxin, causing her to feel a shiver down her spine. Despite that, she gathered her courage and walked over to him.

“Uncle Gu,” she called out.

Her calling him Uncle Gu didn’t alleviate his grim expression, nor did it lighten the tense atmosphere.

Gu Ning placed his hand on Tang Yuxin’s hair, which was now tangled into knots, “When’s the last time you washed? Why are you here?”

“It’s been quite long I guess?” Tang Yuxin wanted to hide in embarrassment. She had never been this dirty in her life.

Gu Ning’s expression grew colder, “Tang Yuxin, you didn’t tell me yet, what are you doing here?”

Tang Yuxin touched the bottle inside her backpack, “Chengcheng was bitten by a snake. I came here for the antidote.”

“Antidote?” Gu Ning furrowed his brow, “What kind of antidote would make you come to such a dangerous border area?”

“It’s the gallbladder of that snake,” Tang Yuxin pointed to the snake that she had thrown into the bushes, “This is a tropical snake, it shouldn’t be found in our area. To find a snake like this, we had to come all the way down here.”

At that moment, pain shot through Gu Ning’s waist, causing Tang Yuxin’s eyes to fall upon his injury.

“Uncle Gu, are you hurt?”

“More than just hurt?” The man beside Gu Ning rushed over to support him, “He was scratched by a wolf, there’s a gaping hole in his waist. You can even see his intestines through it.”