Chapter 124 – Hallucinogenic Mushrooms
Taking advantage of its open mouth, Tu Ran quickly fired a few more shots into it.
There was no noticeable effect.
Instead, it became even angrier.
With its remaining good eye glaring at Tu Ran, it charged at her.
Tu Ran was forced to meet its attack with her knife.
Its assault was too fierce.
Tu Ran wanted to use the same trick again, luring it up a tree.
But she was so entangled that she couldn’t break free and had no time to climb.
She put all her strength into slashing the Pao Xiao with her razor-sharp blade, but all it left was a shallow mark without causing any real damage.
She was forced to retreat repeatedly.
The Pao Xiao’s earth-shattering strike sent Tu Ran’s knife flying, embedding it into a distant tree trunk.
Instantly deprived of her close-combat weapon, the Pao Xiao’s tiger-like claw descended on Tu Ran’s head once more, carrying a howling wind.
Pangpang, watching from afar, couldn’t bear to look and tightly closed its eyes.
“Boss, goodbye…”
On the brink of death, watching the claw come down like a mountain, Tu Ran refused to give up.
Summoning all her strength, she raised her mechanical arm and blocked the claw with her fist.
At the moment of impact, the circuits in the mechanical arm exploded with a crack, sending a flash of electricity.
In that brief moment, the exoskeleton arm was completely destroyed.
But it had taken the fatal blow for Tu Ran, and the Pao Xiao was pushed back a few steps by the sudden impact.
This gave Tu Ran a chance to catch her breath.
She quickly detached the ruined mechanical arm, and as the Pao Xiao lunged to bite again, she shoved the mechanical arm into its mouth.
The Pao Xiao, bewildered, tried to spit it out, but the arm was wedged in a very tricky spot. It gagged several times but couldn’t dislodge it.
During this moment of struggle, the mechanical arm exploded inside its mouth with a loud bang.
The Pao Xiao was instantly thrown to the ground, legs up in the air.
Several of its fangs were shattered.
Its remaining eye was now exposed.
Tu Ran seized the opportunity, jumping up to retrieve her long knife from the tree trunk, then quickly charging at the Pao Xiao.
She aimed for its intact eye and drove the blade in with precision and force.
The excruciating pain made the Pao Xiao thrash violently, roaring to the sky as it desperately tried to throw Tu Ran off its body.
Tu Ran was hurled ten meters away, crashing heavily into a giant cedar tree trunk.
The severe impact on her back caused her entire body to spasm with pain.
It wasn’t over yet; she then fell from a height of two meters down from the tree trunk.
A second wave of pain.
Tu Ran spat out a mouthful of blood, splattering it at the base of the giant cedar tree.
“Dammit, she never even spat blood when fighting Xie Xu.”
Behind the giant cedar, Pangpang was hiding.
A round head peeked out.
“Chirp chirp chirp.”
“How are you?”
“Not dead yet!” Tu Ran wiped the blood from the corner of her mouth.
Enduring the excruciating pain in her back, she struggled to sit up.
Just then, she saw a mushroom.
It grew right where she had spat blood, about the size of a fist.
Purple and pink, it constantly changed colors.
Tu Ran: “?!”
When did she get hit with hallucinations again?!
Was there a man-eating vine hiding here?!
Her heart leapt into her throat.
She quickly sat up and looked around.
Pangpang also saw the colorful mushroom and exclaimed, “Ah, a hallucinogenic mushroom! Are there bloodthirsty vines here?!”
Its tiny eyes darted around quickly.
“But this place has plenty of sunlight. How could there be bloodthirsty vines here?!” Pangpang questioned in confusion.
Tu Ran’s search for suspicious vines paused.
She had eaten an inner core of a man-eating vine.
Now a hallucinogenic mushroom grew here.
And it sprouted right where she spat blood.
Could it be possible that it wasn’t the hallucinations causing the appearance of the hallucinogenic mushroom, but rather the appearance of the mushroom causing the hallucinations?
She had previously tried controlling the flying insects without success. Could it have been because the hallucinogenic mushroom wasn’t present then?
Tu Ran wasn’t sure.
At that moment, the blinded Pao Xiao, hearing their conversation, charged toward them with full force.
Tu Ran focused on its approaching figure, silently chanting, “Stop, stop, stop…”
The Pao Xiao’s movements gradually slowed.
Finally, it really did stop.
Its emotions seemed to be calmed as well, standing there in a daze.
“Why did it stop?” Pangpang asked in confusion, speaking softly.
Tu Ran didn’t respond but continued to silently chant in her mind: Open your mouth.
The Pao Xiao obediently opened its mouth.
Tu Ran took out a bomb.
She silently commanded: Swallow whatever appears in your mouth.
Simultaneously, she tossed the bomb accurately into its mouth.
She quickly ducked behind the tree trunk, huddling with Pangpang.
After a loud “bang.”
Flesh and blood splattered everywhere.
Chunks of meat hit the tree trunk and the ground, making splattering noises.
When the bloody rain passed, Tu Ran emerged from behind the tree.
The Pao Xiao was gone, leaving only a gruesome scene of blood everywhere.
Tu Ran looked at the mushroom at the base of the tree.
It had been soaked in blood and shrank visibly, finally turning into a small black lump the size of a fingernail.
Tu Ran looked away.
With the Pao Xiao blown to pieces, there was no way to ask about the location of its clan’s inner core.
She glanced at the chunks of flesh on the ground but found no glowing beads.
Tu Ran returned to the back of the tree trunk where Pangpang was still sitting.
“We need to leave quickly. The noise might attract other aliens,” Tu Ran said.
“Aliens? What are aliens?” Pangpang blinked its small eyes curiously.
“You are an alien. Anything that doesn’t look like me is an alien!” Tu Ran said impatiently.
Her whole body hurt. She needed a place to rest, not to debate the definition of an alien with one.
Pangpang tried hard to understand her words with its tiny brain.
“So, to us Dang Hu tribe, you two-legged beasts are also aliens?”
Tu Ran was taken aback for a moment, then pressed her lips together.
“I suppose so,” she said quietly.
After all, weren’t humans also invaders, the aliens of this world?
“Wow, Pangpang is so smart.”
“Stop dawdling. Are you coming or not? If not, I’ll leave you here to fend for yourself!”
“I’m coming, I’m coming,” Pangpang flapped its wings anxiously, but then lamented, “but I can’t walk.”
“Then roll!”
There was no way she could carry it now.
“Roll…” Pangpang tapped its wing tips together, “but rolling makes me dizzy…”
Tu Ran: “Then stay here. I’m leaving.”
With that, she pretended to leave.
Pangpang quickly blocked her with its wing.
“Ah, ah, ah, I’ll roll, I’ll roll! Just don’t leave me behind.”
Tu Ran stopped, crossing her arms as she watched it.
Pangpang lay down flat, and because its belly was too fat, its head and claws were suspended in the air, unable to reach the ground.
It began to roll with effort.
One roll, two rolls, three rolls…
It was too slow.
Tu Ran was annoyed.
“Get ready. I’ll push you.”
Pangpang: “Huh?”
Omg lmao I love this novel soo much. Rolll, 😆😆