Chapter 75 – White hairs
Translated by Sunyancai
A drop of cold sweat slipped down from Shao Xuan’s forehead.
If he had not raised his head, would one of his eyes have been stabbed?
Undoubtedly, it seemed to be some harmless white fur, yet they could pierce through the thick leaves and pierce themselves into the enclosed space. If the leaves weren’t that thick and the white fur pierced right inside, Shao Xuan would have been wounded anyway, even if he had moved his head.
No wonder Ah-Suo and the others mentioned that it was more than dangerous in this place, and carelessness meant death sometimes.
Thinking about earlier when they were besieging the jumping fruit tree, Shao Xuan realized that if any warrior had hesitated when withdrawing, he would totally have become a white haired hedgehog, for there would’ve been no chance for him to arrive at the shelter in time. There was no suitable object that could be used as a shelter anywhere near the jumping fruit tree.
Shao Xuan smelled some blood in the air, which meant that some warrior was hurt. However, there was no scream at all. everyone’s breathing was regular, except for two people, who were breathing faster than the others.
After a while, Ta said, “You go out and check, Ah-Suo.”
“Okay.”
Ah-Suo opened a crack between the two leaves, and checked outside, “We can go out now.”
“Open it.” Ta told the others to open the enclosed leaves.
Ka, ka, ka!
There were sounds like cracking wooden planks, and their vision became brighter with the light.
The white fur that almost wounded Shao Xuan’s eye was not the only one that had pierced through the leaves. There were quite a lot of them, some were pierced deep while the others were not that deep. The blood that Shao Xuan smelled came from the hands of two warriors.
Since they had to pull the leaves together with their bare hands, their hands would be the first to bear the brunt. When not lucky enough, they would bleed because of the pierced white fur.
Five warriors were pulling the leaves, while two of them were wounded. It was already a good circumstance.
However, the white fur carried poison on its tip, and the poison would cause long-term anticoagulation. Even if it was only a small wound, warriors still couldn’t heal and stop the bleeding by relying on their own healing ability. Those two warriors who were wounded already had numb arms. The others quickly poured the light green liquid from the gourds on their wounds. Later on, the wounds stopped bleeding.
“How are the others?” Ta asked.
“We have three people injured. Who else has the water? Come here!” a warrior from the other plant shouted out.
“We’re good in here! Only one was hurt!”
All of them were busy dealing with the wounded people, and Shao Xuan contributed some of the liquid in his gourd as well.
Seeing the surroundings, Shao Xuan couldn’t help but gasp in horror.
The whole place was filled with white hairs. In some places there were more hairs, while in some places there weren’t that many of them. However, the attacking range of the white hairs was quite large, thanks to which it also cost the lives of some insects and birds. white hairs could be seen all over the giant trees, plants, and vines.
Such a wide range of indiscriminate attack could only be considered as a devastating disaster.
There were not many giant animals in the woods, for giant figures equaled to giant targets. In this place ruled by the plants, giant animals had relatively less advantages. Even ferocious beasts such as the Thorn Black Wind, they probably would not have the ability to survive in here. So, aside from little animals or insects such as the giant dragonflies and the tearers, that could well adapt to the environment, other animals would keep their distance away from this land. After all, the indiscriminate attack’s lethality was too big, and the one that Shao Xuan just experienced was merely one of those attacks.
On the ground, there was a one-meter bird with a huge beak. It got stabbed by two white hairs, and was flapping its wings powerlessly. However, the flapping did it no good, for all his muscles were becoming numb, and it could not control its talons.
Whoosh!
A blood-colored vine reached out from the tall bushes and rolled the bird over before dragging it back. The bird struggled fiercely, but it was of no avail.
In the end, the vine and the bird both disappeared in the depth of the bushes, and only sounds of flapping could be heard.
Then there was a slight ‘puff’ sound.
Then it was all quiet again.
Since they entered the woods, Shao Xuan had seen no remains of any creature. So it seemed that perhaps there were a lot of “cleaners” in these woods, that could drag away all those dead or disabled creatures, and then digest them into nourishment
“Let’s take a break, we’ll hunt for those jumping fruits later.” Ta said to everyone.
The rain of white hairs was a large scale of attack, it had driven away most of the threatening creatures. At least for a short period of time, no invasive herds such as the tearers could be seen in this district. That was also the reason why Ta told the warriors to rest for a bit.
“Only the little tip of the white fur is poisonous.” Tuo explained as he was treating the wound on a warrior’s palm. He pulled out the white fur, which was stabbed deep into the warrior’s hand, and presented it to Shao Xuan.
“They are not that dangerous now, as long as you do not touch the poisonous tip.” Said Tuo.
Shao Xuan gently pinched the palm-long white hair with his thumb and index finger as he observed it closely. It was a little thicker than a man’s hair, and very light in weight. The poisonous part was only on the tip, where there was a tiny cap in the shape of an arrowhead. The poison was contained in there.
Those white hairs looked soft, and indeed, they felt soft, too. However, they could pierce through thick objects in a moment like needles. Obviously they moved very quickly when they were flying out in the wind. Before they into the enclosed space made by the leaves, Shao Xuan had seen some things like the dandelions. They were formed by those white hairs.
After experiencing the white hairs’ tenacity, Shao Xuan pulled out a stone knife to cut off the poison cap on its tip. However, he found that normal cuts could not remove the poison cap at all. He had to keep cutting back and forth, and only by doing that could he successfully remove the poison cap.
Unexpectedly, such a thin hair was so hard to cut.
“Chi…. Ha-ha-ha!”
“It’s killing me, hey, look at that stupid kid!”
“Ah-Xuan, you can’t play with everything, understand? I’ll do you a favor and find you a vine if you want to play with ropes.”
“New warriors tend to think simple, and they all assume everything’s easy.”
“You are still too young to understand the things.”
The other warriors resting nearby couldn’t help but burst out into laughter. They felt like they were watching a comedy as they were watching Shao Xuan cut the white fur with the stone knife seriously. So, they decided to lecture Shao Xuan with a tone like the elders.
“Ah-Xuan, you see those white hairs are soft and thin, right? But in fact, they are very difficult to cut, and they’ll all disappear after ten days.” Said Tuo.
“I see…” Shao Xuan was not embarrassed by being mocked at all. Instead, he was more and more interested in the white hair.
Since now the team leader told them to take a break, Shao Xuan had nothing else to do. He pulled out quite a few white hairs pierced into the ground, and placed them together with all the poisonous tips on one end.
“What are you doing? Still want to play with it?” Keke was too curious, so he came to ask.
Shao Xuan did not answer right away, but he asked, “Can I make a fire in here?”
“No bonfire.” Keke shook his head hard, “The trees and grass nearby are not fond of fire. We won’t make a fire even when we spend the night in here. Otherwise we’d be attacked by the trees.”
“What about a torch?” Shao Xuan asked.
“Only the small ones.” Seeing that Shao Xuan was only making a small fire, Keke was relieved at once.
Ta was standing beside them, with a roll of animal skin in his hands. It had all the targets that they were trying to find in it. He looked up at Shao Xuan’s direction at the noise, but instantly he frowned. Ta did not expect that Shao Xuan would still think about playing with those little tricks after he invited him into the advance force!
Yes, in Ta’s perspective, all things related to traps and snares were considered as little tricks. Those were supposed to be performed by the weak and the disabled people. He had no appreciation for that. In his mind, a true noble warrior would just fight with his own ability, and real hunting meant slaying the prey by sword and spear! Aside from the real way, the ones performing the little tricks would never become real warriors.
He felt more unsatisfied as he thought about it. Seeing that Keke was helping Shao Xuan find a branch for the torch, Ta made a heavy humph.
Since the team leader showed this attitude, the others who planned to check on Shao Xuan’s deeds all had second thoughts. The team leader was the one who could determine their fate in the advance group. Why would they do something pointless to upset the team leader? Ah-Xuan was just a stupid kid who was invited by the team leader. Now he was still thinking about playing? Why bother?
Keke found a dead tree nearby, so he cut off a branch and lit a fire.
Shao Xuan used the fire to burn the end of the poison caps.
The white fur was blackened quickly when burnt, and it shrank fast as the ends rolled up. Shao Xuan burnt more from that poisonous end, just in case.
“Please help me with this.”
Shao Xuan passed the torch to Keke, and then took out a small stone knife. He put the patch of burnt white hairs on the trunk aside, and used the stone knife to stroke them.
The burnt end rolled up in a ball, was directly dislocated from the white hairs, since Shao Xuan used the knife to stroke along them. Meanwhile, only nontoxic white hairs remained in Shao Xuan’s hand.