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墨書 Inktalez
As Xin Yi watched Roxy and the leopard quickly disappear from his sight, he suddenly sprang up. At the same time, he noticed a piece of clothing slipping off his body. He bent down to pick it up, realizing it was a woman's garment, still carrying a faint fragrance. Xin Yi paused for a moment before understanding that Roxy must have draped her clothes over him while he was asleep. Ah, this mysterious woman! He placed Roxy's clothing on a nearby dry branch and then hurried in the direction where the person and the leopard had vanished.
Before long, Xin Yi heard the low growl of the leopard not far away and caught a glimpse of a flickering light. He agilely climbed a tree, using the dense branches and vines to move forward. Finally, he could see the scene illuminated by the light: the leopard was being directly illuminated by Roxy's Powerful Flashlight, anxiously scratching at the ground with its front paws, growling continuously. However, the beam of the Powerful Flashlight prevented it from discerning where its prey was located, making it hesitant to pounce. Meanwhile, Roxy had completely concealed herself behind the light, revealing only the glinting tip of her Triangular Bayonet, intimidating the restless leopard.
Suddenly, Roxy's flashlight flashed and flew straight toward the leopard's head. The leopard nimbly leaped aside, causing the flashlight to miss and fall onto the ground covered with dry branches and leaves. At that moment, Roxy sprang forward toward the leopard, her Triangular Bayonet darting like lightning toward its ear. However, Roxy clearly underestimated the creature's reflexes; it swiftly jumped aside to evade her lethal strike. Without pausing for a moment after landing, it crouched low and lunged at Roxy. Seeing that Roxy was in imminent danger, Xin Yi unhesitatingly threw two flying daggers at the leopard. Unfortunately, from his position, he could only hit its tail. The two daggers pierced into the muscles of its hindquarters like meteors. The leopard let out a howl of pain and slowed down slightly; this brief hesitation sealed its fate. Roxy quickly crouched down as her Triangular Bayonet pierced into the leopard's throat with a swift motion until the tip emerged from its neck. This Triangular Bayonet was made of carbon steel, with a needle-like tip and three sharp edges that were incredibly sharp. After stabbing into the leopard's throat, Roxy immediately rolled aside as it fell to the ground, opening its mouth in an attempt to let out one final roar but could produce no sound—only blood foamed from its mouth as it writhed on the ground covered with dry branches and leaves.
Seeing this, Xin Yi knew that the leopard was doomed and that Roxy was no longer in danger. He gracefully descended from the tree and returned to camp along his original path, draping Roxy's clothing over himself to continue feigning sleep.
After struggling on the ground for a while longer, the leopard finally lay still after a series of convulsions. Roxy picked up the flashlight from the ground and walked over to extract her Triangular Bayonet from its throat. She wiped it clean on its beautiful cloud-patterned fur before turning back along her original path. As she walked, she reflected on how difficult this beast had been to deal with; if that last pounce had struck her instead of missing, she would have been dead by now—her body possibly torn apart by its sharp teeth. It truly was a life-and-death situation. To allow that person to rest a little longer, she had taken such a risk; she wondered if it was worth it. If she had been torn apart by that leopard, would that person have felt sorrow? Would he have understood that she had willingly put herself in danger just to avoid waking him? No one could provide her with an answer.
Suddenly, an idea struck Roxy as she recalled how the leopard had hesitated during its last pounce; she remembered that in all that chaos she hadn't noticed something suspicious at that moment—the leopard seemed to slow down briefly and emitted a howl different from its growl just before attacking her. It was precisely when she seized that moment of hesitation to strike with her Triangular Bayonet into its throat. But why had it hesitated? No, something was definitely amiss!
Determined to find out more, Roxy turned back again and used her flashlight to search for evidence on the leopard's corpse. Finally, she discovered two small dagger handles embedded in its hindquarters; each handle measured only a few centimeters long while their blades were completely buried in muscle—quite difficult to spot against its patterned fur. Recognizing them as flying daggers made by Xin Yi during their preparations in Zhengkang County before entering the jungle, she sighed softly as she pulled them out and wiped them clean of blood before tucking them away securely. She then strode purposefully back toward camp.
Everything remained unchanged except for the dying fire; Xin Yi was still sleeping soundly under Roxy's garment as if he were in deep slumber. Roxy added some dry branches to rekindle the fire which flared back to life brightly. But if someone did something wrong, would they get another chance at revival? Roxy pondered as she gazed at Xin Yi’s face illuminated by firelight.
Early the next morning, Yanming Shop Elder went out claiming he would prepare breakfast for everyone. Roxy appeared somewhat unwell; fatigue marked her face indicating she hadn’t rested well last night—something only she knew about. During the latter part of the night when Xin Yi "woke up," having already slept some hours himself he didn’t call Topology to take over his watch duty but instead told Roxy to rest since she was awake; however, her mind was restless so she hadn’t truly slept at all. Topology noticed Roxy’s poor state and recalled how Xin Yi hadn’t called him either; feeling embarrassed he said to Roxy: “Sorry! I didn’t realize I slept through until dawn! Haha! Also… wasn’t Brother Xin supposed to call me? Why did he let you take my shift instead? Well… half of this is Brother Xin’s fault too.” Topology didn’t forget to shift some blame.
Xin Yi laughed and scolded: “Oh you Topology! You’re taking advantage while pretending innocence! I haven’t even mentioned you yet! Can’t you build another Shack? Roxy is a girl; how can she squeeze into one Shack with us? How can you expect her to rest?”
Topology finally realized his mistake and quickly apologized: “I’m sorry! I really forgot you were a girl when we built that Shack yesterday! I won’t forget tonight!”
“Haha…” Seeing Topology’s sincere yet somewhat comical expression made Roxy unable to suppress her laughter as she replied: “Do I really look so unfeminine? That you could forget I’m a girl? Looks like I need to prove my femininity more often.”
"That's not it, that's absolutely not it!" Topology quickly waved his hands and said, "You definitely look like a girl! And a very beautiful and charming girl at that! What I mean is, I forgot you were a girl... No, no, what I mean is I just forgot about that... No, you see, the more I talk, the more confused I get."
"Hahaha..." Everyone laughed, and thus a pleasant day began!
At this moment, Yanming Shop Elder returned. The unusual breakfast he brought back was a small bag of tiny grains. The group gathered around to look at it and asked, "Is this the unusual breakfast you brought back? What are these things? They look like some kind of insect eggs; can we eat them?" "Yeah, these things look quite unsettling; can we really eat them?" "What exactly are they?"
Seeing everyone asking questions one after another, Yanming Shop Elder chuckled and said, "This is indeed a type of egg; they are ant eggs from a species of yellow ants that live in trees. Our Dai Ethnic Group has a tradition of eating ant eggs. In fact, ant eggs are a great source of nutrition. It's just that they are hard to come by nowadays, especially these yellow ant eggs which are large and uniform; they are considered the finest among ant eggs. Today you all are in luck; you can enjoy a feast!"
"Well, I've eaten ant eggs before, but they weren't this big. It was when I was leading troops in battle; one of my guards gave them to me. At that time, I often had back pain for some reason, and that guard mentioned a remedy from his hometown: eating ant eggs. The taste wasn't bad; it was somewhat similar to bee pupae," Xu Maogong also chimed in.
The taste of the ant eggs was indeed good. Yanming Shop Elder ate them raw while the others roasted them slightly over the fire before eating. They were truly delicious. However, due to the small quantity, Topology felt he hadn't eaten enough and insisted that Yanming Shop Elder take him next time to find more so he could indulge himself. Yanming Shop Elder laughed heartily at his enthusiasm but said that next time they wouldn't eat ant eggs again; they would find something else instead. After all, in the jungle, they could eat different things for about twenty days without repeating any meals. The species in the jungle are quite rich; about seventy to eighty percent of the world's species can be found there, so naturally, they could eat things that one wouldn't even see elsewhere.
After finishing the ant eggs, everyone had some compressed biscuits and water before continuing their journey. Meanwhile, about a thousand meters behind them, Border Station Chief Lei Xu led his remaining four soldiers as they set off as well. Yesterday, they had lost two soldiers while finally killing that Jungle Python with explosives. Now Lei Xu continued to pursue the smugglers with his surviving four soldiers. This time Chief Lei Xu was truly unlucky; he hadn't even seen a shadow of the smugglers before losing twelve soldiers. Of course, he didn't care much about losing men; what worried him was whether he could catch the smugglers with just five people since he heard there were also five smugglers on the other side. If they had weapons too, it would be troublesome. However, he was unwilling to return empty-handed; capturing the smugglers and demanding a hefty ransom motivated him to keep pursuing them. He urgently needed money to bribe higher-ranking officers so he could be transferred away from this remote and harsh place sooner.
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