Chapter 14: Seven-tailed Snake Vulture
"Hahaha!" Bai Yi couldn't help but laugh upon seeing the interactions between Sharpei and Woolf. While he was laughing, Bai Yi happened to glance at the rear mirror and suddenly his face changed completely. He abruptly turned his head and above the roof of the villa a head of a bird that was at least as big as half a car stretched out.
"HUO QIU YANG, RUN!" Bai Yi immediately shouted.
What?
Everybody was unable to react in time and suddenly, a giant bird more than 6 meters in wingspan dived down from the air. Huo Qiu Yang's expression froze and with a 'kacha!', the giant bird's mouth closed. Huo Qiu Yang's head was instantly torn off and blood spurted out like a fountain from his neck.
"AHHHHHHHHH…!" Countless screams rang out among the group and those who were more quick-witted instantly started the car and prepared to escape.
"Hold on tight!" Bai Yi said, abruptly reversing the car and ramming into the giant bird. Initially Bai Yi just wanted run into the bird to buy some time for the rest, but a giant claw violently grabbed onto the roof of the car before the car could hit the bird's leg,.
'KUANG!" The car shook violently and the glass window shattered and fell onto the floor.
At this moment, one of the seven snake tails…no, one of the seven snake heads attached to the back of the giant bird stretched over, sticking out its forked tongue at Bai Yi and the others in the car.
"AHHH!"
"WOOF! WOOF! WOOF!" Momo's screams and Sharpei's barking filled the car.
Just when the snake head stopped in preparation for a bite, Woolf viciously sent a punch towards it. Previously, Woolf discovered that his physical strength has multiplied by several times but he was unsure by how much exactly. With this punch, the snake's head instantly bent, giving off an ear-piercing shriek and spraying out a cloud of green mist.
"Momo hold your breath!" Bai Yi shouted.
At this moment, Bai Yi frantically floored the accelerator and the wheels of the car continuously skidded against the floor almost to the point of producing sparks. The strong pushing force allowed the car to slowly separate itself from the giant bird's claw. From the tip of the claw of the giant bird, deep tears appeared on the roof of the car, almost splitting it into a few segments.
Come on, move!!
Bai Yi roared in his heart and with a sudden pushing force, the car was freed from the claw of the giant bird, speeding out of the courtyard. At this moment, almost the entire roof of the car was ripped off and a few deep tears could be seen on it. Thanks to Bai Yi delaying the giant bird, everybody else had already gotten into a car and had long since reached the road. However, when the prey in its claws escaped, the giant bird instantly let out a few strange shrieks and abruptly flew up.
"Fuck, another monster!" Woolf looked behind the car, seeing the entire appearance of the bird.
Seven-tailed Snake Vulture - possessing a wingspan of more than 6 meters with multicoloured feathers. It appears to be very beautiful, but at the back of this bird were seven snake tails. Not tail feathers, but tails formed by 7 snakes. The colours of these snakes were all different, twisting and stretching continuously, appearing extremely disgusting.
At this moment, when everyone was frantically trying to escape, they discovered the giant bird chasing them behind.
"I told you we should have left last night but you guys insisted on finding a place to rest for the night! See! The monster is right on our tail!" Tang Ping said with incomparable fear in his eyes. It was an emergency so nobody cared about whether they were mutated or not; Tang Ping, Hong Qi Hua and Dai Yu Yao all sat in the same car.
"Shut up!" Hong Qi Hua said fiercely and took off her glasses.
After removing her glasses, she was shocked for a moment, but very quickly she realised that her vision was even clearer than when she was wearing glasses. As expected, it was not only Bai Yi and some others who changed but she was also changing. It's just that her changes weren't as obvious as theirs.
Vision had always been a wound in her heart. As an orphan, she studied very diligently for the sake of going abroad, but ruined her own vision in the process. She never expected that there would be day when her vision would recover. Tang Ping wanted to retort but suddenly, he stopped and stared blankly at Hong Qi Hua. He never thought that after taking off those big and old-fashioned glasses, Hong Qi Hua would actually be so beautiful!
The giant bird apparently only managed to reach this place last night and found the rooftop to rest on by chance. None of them had realised it and due to the commotion from splitting cars, it had awoken from its sleep.
Hong Qi Hua looked at the giant bird and then at Dai Yu Yao beside her.
At this time, Dai Yu Yao's expression was extremely nervous and frightened; although she was driving the car, Hong Qi Hua realised that her hands were trembling. This was pure fear, fear coming from the depths of the heart. Dai Yu Yao was just an ordinary girl, she was unable to suppress her fear and remain calm. If it was normal times, Hong Qi Hua would try to console and reassure Dai Yu Yao, but now was not the time. Now they were in the car and more importantly, Dai Yu Yao was the one driving.
"Dai Yu Yao, swap places with me, I'll drive." Hong Qi Hua said without offering any explanation. With the mental state of Dai Yu Yao now, it was likely that they would get into an accident at any time. She didn't want to die because of something like this.
"Are you crazy! That giant bird is still chasing us, stopping the car is equivalent to death!" Tang Ping shouted.
"No need to stop, we can just swap. It's a straight road in front of us. I'll hold onto the steering wheel and then you climb into the back," Hong Qi Hua said, but the fear on Dai Yu Yao's face just increased.
"I-I don't dare to do it!"
"Hurry up and switch! With your mental state now, do you want to kill everybody?!" Hong Qi Hua shouted at her.
The stretch ahead was straight so it didn't require any complex maneuvering; if she held onto the steering wheel then the car wouldn't veer off-course. Dai Yu Yao took the chance to climb into the back and Hong Qi Hua smoothly took her place in the driver's seat. Hong Qi Hua's face was extremely calm and the car also drove steadily. Even Tang Ping had to concede that she looked much more reliable than Dai Yu Yao who was a nervous wreck.
Without needing to drive, Dai Yu Yao's expression became a bit better and she just stared at Hong Qi Hua blankly with Tang Ping.
Hong Qi Hua was very quietly normally and always wore that pair of big, old-fashioned glasses. There was nothing outstanding about her, but her reaction now was much more mature and calmer than theirs. Why? Could it be that she wasn't scared at all? Bai Yi and Yu Han were also the same, they couldn't help but feel that these three became much more outstanding than usual.
This is probably because some people belonged to certain times!
Some people can only release their own brilliance when undergoing different experiences. When they were in an era that did not belong to them, many outstanding people were like precious stones buried underneath the rock, only able to stay buried forever and remaining ordinary for the rest of their lives. Apparently for Hong Qi Hua, she was more suited for this changed world.
……
This is bad!
Bai Yi felt his head getting dizzier and these words appeared in his heart. He felt that things were bad when the snake sprayed out the green mist just now, so he shouted for Momo to hold her breath. However, because of that shout he held his breath a bit too late and breathed in a bit of the mist.
Without needing to think about it, it was obvious that the mist was some kind of poison. Luckily, the poison was not the kind that was instantly fatal, but with how dizzy he was feeling, driving could prove fatal for all of them.
"Daddy, can I breathe now?" Momo suddenly asked tenderly.
"Ah…yes you can." Bai Yi's dizzy brain was surprised for a moment, but then he laughed. His daughter was really silly, but from the looks of it, Momo didn't inhale any of the mist. It was already a great fortune within the misfortune.
"Woolf, you didn't inhale any of the mist? Why do you appear to be so energetic?" Bai Yi asked.
"Of course I inhaled some, it even sprayed some onto my face. How could I not inhale any? But it doesn't seem to have any effect on me; I'm not sure why either." Woolf replied dim-wittedly.
Bai Yi shook his head as if trying to shake out the dizziness. Really… so it was only him who got poisoned? What bad luck. Woolf wasn't affected by the poison, maybe because the genes he fused with were from some poison-resistant life form. However, it was not the time to think about this now.
"Woolf, I got poisoned and now my head is very dizzy. In front of us is a straight road, you must come and hold the steering wheel steady and I will climb into the back. You will drive." Bai Yi said. Bai Yi and Hong Qi Hua's decisions were similar, just that one was taking over the driving seat and the other was giving it up.
"Hey hey, Bai Yi, you are too crazy, changing drivers at this speed! If there are any mistakes, we could die!" Woolf shouted in shock.
"We could die if we don't change now; my vision is already starting to blur." Bai Yi laughed bitterly.
When Woolf heard Bai Yi, he couldn't help but hesitate for a moment before gritting his teeth. Woolf knew that Bai Yi was a practical and realistic person; if it wasn't absolutely necessary he would never say such things. After agreeing, Woolf stretched out his hand from behind to take hold of the steering wheel and Bai Yi carefully compacted his body and climbed behind.
The car wasn't big from the start. Not only was it uncomfortable compacting his body and trying to swap seats, they had to do it at high speeds as well. Along the way there were quite a few near misses; the car almost crashed a few times and killed all of them. Luckily, by this time, everyone nearby had already escaped other than themselves. Otherwise, it wouldn't have went so smoothly.
Sitting in the back seat, Bai Yi panted heavily and stared behind him. With just a look, the giant bird seemed to overlap with itself, chasing them from behind. Bai Yi breathed heavily for a while then took out his phone and tried to focus, calling Martin's number.
"Martin, I got poisoned. Do you know how to cure the poison from this monster?"
Martin was shocked when he received the call from Bai Yi. He got poisoned… Bai Yi got poisoned. Even Martin, who had just joined, could see that only with Bai Yi's presence could the team remain stable. If Bai Yi died, then this team would very quickly break apart.
"There is. This monster is called a Snake Vulture. They are categorised according to the number of tails they have, ranging from one to nine. Normally the poison in every tail is different, and the poison is very difficult to cure. Luckily, the snake gall of the particular snake head that poisoned you can remove the poison," Martin told Bai Yi.
Bai Yi couldn't help but laugh bitterly. Now they couldn't just try to run away, he had kill this monster too in order to survive!
Chapter 15: Heart-stopping Confrontation
Very quickly, everyone knew about Bai Yi getting poisoned and how the only way to remove the poison was to kill the Seven-Tailed Snake Vulture and eat its snake gall. However, nobody responded after finding out. It's true that Bai Yi helped them a lot, but to risk their lives trying to kill the bird for his sake was something that they wouldn't think of doing.
Bai Yi laid on the back seat of the car with his eyes closed, faintly gasping for air.
He did not feel much resentment towards the rest as their actions were very normal. From the start, they didn't have any special or close relationship with him, to expect them to risk their lives for him was just being unrealistic. In the end, this wasn't something that could be done so easily; any carelessness while trying to kill the Seven-Tailed Snake Vulture would easily result in their deaths.
The speed of the Seven-Tailed Snake Vulture wasn't too fast and the shadows of the first few cars that left couldn't even be seen anymore. Only Woolf slowed down slightly to bait the Seven-Tailed Snake Vulture. If Bai Yi wanted to live then he had to kill that monster, what was the point of just running away?
"I'm sorry, but could you guys describe to me any special characteristics of the road in front? Such as tunnels, bridges, and things like that." Bai Yi held his heavily giddy head and spoke into the phone.
"There is a bridge in front of me here, but it's very small and probably not of much use."
"There's an accident scene here blocking half of the road, but we can still go through it. There's also an abandoned heavy truck here."
"I just checked the online map, this is a ring-shaped road." Randt said.
"4.5km from Fushui Bay there is a tunnel, roughly 200m long." Qin Kai Rui who drove the fastest also described what she saw. Everybody knew Bai Yi was trying to gather information to find a way to kill the Seven-Tailed Snake Vulture. Of course, nobody would reject such a simple request, but none of them thought that Bai Yi would succeed.
Bai Yi held his head and panted heavily. Suddenly, an idea shot through his head and he hung up the phone. At this time, the others were also trying to come up with a safe way to kill the Seven-Tailed Snake Vulture. However, no matter how much they thought, to kill such a monster without any weapons was simply a fantasy.
"Woolf, do you trust me?"
"Of course I trust you! Bai Yi, do you have an idea?" Woolf gave Bai Yi a big thumbs up.
"Just a last attempt to save myself, I'm not sure if it will succeed." Bai Yi smiled gravely.
"Woolf, later when we reach the accident scene, slow the car down and I will get out of the car. After that, bring the Seven-Tailed Snake Vulture along the ring-shaped road and make one round back. You must continue to bait it and let it follow behind you, so it'll be rather dangerous. Most importantly, you must create a chance for it to grab onto the car and that must happen when you are about to enter the tunnel. Of course, it would be best if you were able to lure the Seven-Tailed Snake Vulture into the tunnel itself." More and more cold sweat appeared on Bai Yi's face.
"When entering the tunnel, keep to the left side; upon entering the tunnel immediately move towards the right. I will be on your left driving the heavy truck out." A hint of green surfaced on Bai Yi's face now.
"Bai Yi this is too dangerous!"
"Listen!" Bai Yi shouted. "I know that this is very dangerous, but I have no choice now. I can feel that the poison inside my body is extremely fierce; even though I only breathed in a small amount, I'm already at my limit. Remember all this well, I don't have many chances so I'm relying on you. Also, if I die…please take care of Momo for me." It sounded like he was delivering his will.
"Daddy, Daddy! Please don't abandon Momo." Momo held Bai Yi's hand, tears already streaming down her face.
Bai Yi intimately rubbed his forehead against Momo's forehead and then said: "Momo you have a mission as well, if you want to save Daddy then you must do as I say ,ok?"
"Later when you enter the tunnel, you must use the phone to coordinate the timing with me. Count '5, 4, 3, 2, 1;' ideally the moment when the countdown hits 1 is the moment the car enters the tunnel, got it?" Bai Yi told Momo.
"Daddy, wuuuuu, Daddy!"
"Remember well, Daddy's life is in your hands, Momo." Bai Yi said. At this moment, the car just happened to pass by the accident scene.
Before Woolf could react, Bai Yi abruptly opened the car door and jumped out. The strong forward momentum caused Bai Yi to roll continuously on the road and smash into a heap of ruined cars. From the friction against the floor, countless abrasions appeared on his body and the impact caused his organs to bleed.
This is just seeking death!
Woolf cursed in his heart, but he knew very well that even if it was like seeking death, this was the only method that could save him. Seeing that Bai Yi did not die there but got up swiftly and hid under a damaged car, Woolf took a deep breath. Since Bai Yi was already risking his life out there, what more was there to think about.
"Momo, sit tight." Woolf told Momo.
"En!" There were still tears on Momo's face, but she still took out her phone.
Woolf slowed down the car to allow the Seven-Tailed Snake Vulture to catch up and there were quite a few close shaves where the giant bird almost grabbed hold of the roof of the car. This was also what Bai Yi wanted, to continuously bait the Seven-Tailed Snake Vulture to follow them and not let it to think that there was no hope of catching them.
After the Seven-Tailed Snake Vulture followed the car and left, Bai Yi got up while holding his left arm. His left arm hung limply from his shoulder, fractured, and his face also chafed severely against the floor, leaving an abrasion so deep that you could practically see the bone. However, Bai Yi did not mind all this now as these were all superficial wounds. Although it looked gory, it wasn't fatal; what was fatal was the poison inside his body.
Bai Yi came to the truck and opened the door, only to find that there was no key inside.
"FUCK!" With a bang, Bai Yi violently punched the dashboard and cursed loudly. Bai Yi shook his head in frustration, but there was no point being anxious now, he could only learn from the movies and try to hotwire the car. He pulled open the cover and continuously touched two wires to each other, hoping that the heavy truck would start .
Perhaps heaven was taking pity on him today; after trying for 2 minutes, he finally got the truck to start.
Bai Yi let out a breath of relief and drove the heavy truck towards the tunnel. At the same time, Bai Yi took out his phone and called Momo. "Momo, tell Woolf that I have already positioned the heavy truck; he can lure the Seven-Tailed Snake Vulture over now."
"Daddy, rest assured, I will do well!" Momo guaranteed with tears in her eyes.
"Good girl Momo, I know you will do well." Bai Yi encouraged Momo. In truth, even Bai Yi didn't know how well his 4-year-old daughter could do.
The severe pain from the injuries he suffered when jumping off the car served to help Bai Yi focus his hazy mind. Bai Yi silently started the heavy truck again, the low rumbling sound like the roar of a metal monster. Not long after, Momo's voice came from his phone.
"10"
"9"
……
The heavy vehicle started and Bai Yi begin to accelerate. When Momo counted to 3, Bai Yi drove the heavy truck into the tunnel from the other side. When the countdown reached 1, the Seven-Tailed Snake Vulture happened to dive down, grabbing onto the roof of Woolf's car at the edge of the tunnel. However, due to the strong momentum, it lost its grip on the car and instead the giant bird was pulled into tunnel.
Now!
Woolf fiercely swerved to the right as Bai Yi instructed. At this time, the headlights of a heavy truck whizzed by. The two vehicles practically scraped past each other and the heavy truck brutally smashed into the Seven-Tailed Snake Vulture with tremendous force.
The Seven-Tailed Snake Vulture tried to fly in a panic, but it was stuck inside the tunnel and got hit by the heavy truck with a loud 'BOOM!'. Even if it was a monster, in that instant, the eyes of the giant bird were filled with fear as the heavy truck crushed it.
Go and die for me!
Bai Yi's expression at that moment became incredibly malevolent, as if he was merging with the vehicle, forming a single body. In an instant, the head of the giant bird was smashed like a watermelon. Even the head of the truck became dented. An airbag instantly burst out from the inside of the truck.
The truck continuously pushed the Seven-Tailed Snake Vulture out of the tunnel and eventually squashed it against the side of the mountain wall (TN: tunnels are usually built through a mountain, if you are confused about where the mountain came from) and finally stopped. At this time, Woolf also stopped his car and looked outside while panting heavily. Slowly, Woolf turned his car around and came out of the tunnel, finally seeing Seven-Tailed Snake Vulture squashed against the mountain wall. The Seven-Tailed Snake Vulture was still twitching, but it clearly wouldn't be alive for much longer.
Woolf opened the car door but Momo was even faster, running to the side of the heavy truck and shouting "Daddy!".
Woolf opened the door of the heavy truck and helped Bai Yi down. Only then did he discover that Bai Yi's state wasn't very good and that he had almost lost consciousness. He really had to give it to this guy, to be able to do something so dangerous in such a state. Woolf gave a thumbs up to Bai Yi whose eyes were slowly starting to lose focus.
"Snake…gall!" Bai Yi said.
"En, I will find it for you immediately." Woolf said, heading towards the Seven-Tailed Snake Vulture.
At this time, Sharpei was barking loudly at the giant bird but didn't dare to approach too closely. This giant bird had shocking vitality, even after being smashed to this state it was still not completely dead. The 7 snake heads on its rear were still slowly moving around, their deaths approaching swiftly.
Woolf did not go over immediately as this guy wasn't completely dead yet. It would be a huge loss if he accidentally got bitten from approaching too closely now. After a short while, the giant bird completely lost all signs of life and Woolf dissected a snake gall from the snake that he had punched before. He then let Bai Yi swallow the snake gall.
At this time, nobody was thinking about the issue of gene fusion; it wasn't like they had the luxury of cooking the snake gall first.
Bai Yi swallowed the noxious, fist-sized snake gall and gave a bitter smile. At this moment, Momo was already hugging Bai Yi's left arm and bawling her eyes out. Bai Yi didn't say anything but gently stroked Momo's head with loving tenderness in his eyes.
Chapter 16: Preparing Food
"Bai Yi, those students cannot be relied on," said Woolf, stopping beside Bai Yi.
"I know!"
Bai Yi sat on the floor breathing slowly. Ever since he ate the snake gall, the dizziness in his head had receded by quite a bit. Apparently, Martin's words could be trusted, but the poison needed time to be removed completely. However, with the poison receding, the injuries on his body became more pronounced and the pain became hard to bear. Ever since yesterday afternoon, Bai Yi had suffered from numerous injuries, just that they weren't that obvious. Now, after risking his life again, all the injuries and pain came crashing down at once.
Abrasions, bruises and internal bleeding!
However, apparently the activated cells could enhance the physiological functions of the body. Bai Yi could still survive even with injuries as serious as these.
"I know that a lot of them aren't dependable, but for now it's best that we group together. Let's follow our initial plan and acquire the drug to regain human form. Though from now on… we can be a bit more selfish. How laughable; initially I just wanted to ram into the strange bird with the car to buy some time for the rest, but in the end I almost lost my life." Bai Yi said, grabbing Woolf's right hand and slowly standing up.
"I'm just reminding you. It's good as long as you know, in case we end up throwing our lives away."
"En, got it." Bai Yi nodded.
"What do we do with this guy?" Woolf asked.
"Food! Haven't you realised that our stomachs are almost empty now? This big fellow just happened to deliver itself to us. Come, help me to find two branches to be a splint, my left arm fractured from the impact just now." Bai Yi said to Woolf. Woolf couldn't help but tap on Bai Yi's left arm lightly, causing Bai Yi to twitch from the pain.
"This fellow, I still thought that you weren't in pain."
"Rubbish! I'm in so much pain I wish I could die right now!" Bai Yi scolded.
At this moment, sounds of cars driving could be heard coming from the tunnel, a small car soon came rushing out and braked sharply. Hong Qi Hua was astonished upon seeing this scene. She tried thinking of many ways to kill the giant bird, but they just did not have that capability right now. The solution she thought of was to make use of external forces and immediately thought of the tunnel. She didn't expect that when she came back here she would find the Seven-Tailed Snake Vulture already dead.
"Hey, we can't kill that monster, so don't throw away our lives, did you hear me?!" Tang Ping shook the seat in a frenzy.
At the start, when Hong Qi Hua was driving, both him and Dai Yu Yao were quite at ease, but when she decided to turn back it frightened the two of them to death. Did Hong Qi Hua go crazy? She really planned on trying to kill that monster! They did not even have guns with them; going up against the giant bird was the same as throwing away their lives. Of course, even normal firearms may not have been able to kill the Seven-Tailed Snake Vulture.
"It's already dead!" Hong Qi Hua said and opened the door, walking downwards.
"Dead?" Tang Ping looked in Hong Qi Hua's direction and found that at an angle towards the front was a heavy truck pressed against the mountain wall. Between the truck and the mountain wall… wasn't that thing the strange bird? Tang Ping was in shock and opened his mouth wide, completely unable to believe that that frightening guy died just like that.
"I'm sorry Uncle Bai, I just thought of a way but didn't expect that you would have already killed this strange bird."
"No, it's nothing much, my luck is just good. Since you are here, come give me a hand to prepare this bird, this is a good quality ingredient." Bai Yi didn't blame Hong Qi Hua. If they were to swap places, he wouldn't have taken the risk either if he did not have a safe way to kill the bird.
"I don't know how to handle food," Hong Qi Hua said seriously.
"It's a small matter, I'll teach you. My left arm is broken now, so it's inconvenient for me to do such things," Bai Yi reassured. Suddenly, Bai Yi creased his eyebrows and walked to the snake that Woolf had removed the snake gall from. He discovered a shade of green rapidly spreading upwards from the head of the snake.
"Woolf, quick, bring the chopper here and chop off the snake at this area!" Bai Yi said anxiously.
Woolf now had an almost blind trust in Bai Yi; after hearing his words he unhesitatingly did what Bai Yi told him to do. Right after chopping off that part of the snake, the green colouration spread all over the chopped off part in less than 10 seconds. Just by looking at it, you could tell that the meat was already inedible.
"What happened?" Only now did Woolf have the chance to ask what happened.
"The poison spread; I think you accidentally ruptured the snake's venom sac when you were searching for the snake gall. If we were a bit slower, not just this snake but the entire body would have become inedible." Bai Yi looked carefully at the chopped off snake head and explained.
"Qi Hua, come and try cutting the snake," Bai Yi said to Hong Qi Hua, realising afterwards that she didn't have a knife in her hands.
"Woolf, take out the kitchen knives that I prepared." Bai Yi instructed.
"Why are you always telling me to do things…" Woolf complained, but still went to get the kitchen knives. Along the way, Bai Yi had passed a shopping mall and specially went inside to find a set of cooking tools. Kitchen knives were indispensable tools for any chef.
"I'm injured and Qi Hua is a beautiful girl."
"Yes yes yes, I got it." Woolf pulled out a small case from the car. After opening it, a row of more than 10 knives of different shapes and sizes could be seen.
"Use this. This is a Willow Leaf Knife, suitable for precise dismantling of meat," Bai Yi said to Hong Qi Hua.
Hong Qi Hua blankly held the Willow Leaf Knife in her hands and stared at it. In Hong Qi Hua's eyes, kitchen knives were just kitchen knives, how were there so many different types? However, in the area of culinary skills, Hong Qi Hua was just a novice and completely incomparable to Bai Yi. Since he already said so, she could only follow.
"The way you hold the knife is wrong!" Bai Yi said again when Hong Qi Hua lifted the knife. Hong Qi Hua could only cry inside, there were even requirements for holding the knife?
"I have never handled an ingredient like this before, but from the spread of the poison, the position of the venom sac is different from normal venomous snakes. If we were to make a mistake in the preparation, the poison would spread very quickly. With no way to counteract the poison now, the entire ingredient would become unusable after the poison spread." Bai Yi explained.
"At this spot, cut down 2cm deep and then make an incision vertically while maintaining the depth." Bai Yi pointed at a place and did a demonstration.
Hong Qi Hua wasn't even nervous when speeding with the car but she started to feel nervous now. Woolf, Momo, Sharpei and even Tang Ping and Dai Yu Yao who just got out the car, held their breath as they looked at her, afraid of disturbing her focus. When Bai Yi saw how the rest acted, he couldn't help but laugh; did he subconsciously put such great pressure on everybody?
"No need to be this nervous, this is a snake head that has already been tainted by poison, letting you practice on it is just to train your ability to control the knife precisely and also to determine the position of the venom sac. Only after that would you prepare the other 6 snakes, so even if you make a mistake, it's fine." Bai Yi explained.
After Bai Yi gave his explanation, Hong Qi Hua could finally calm down and made the cut following his instructions.
Maybe because she was relaxed or maybe because she didn't have to be worried, Hong Qi Hua's hands were exceptionally steady. Her only flaw was not being very accurate when it came to the depth of the knife and control of her strength. However, that wasn't something a first-timer could grasp. If there really was such a person, then 'genius' wouldn't be enough to describe him; 'monster' would be a better word.
Following Bai Yi's instructions, Hong Qi Hua dissected the snake and the muscle grain she produced was orderly and clear. Other than the faint green coloration, Hong Qi Hua couldn't believe that this was the ingredient that she prepared.
"Long shaped poison gland, longest point is 141cm below the teeth of the snake, judging from the size of the snake's mouth," Bai Yi said, meticulously looking at the muscle grain pattern of the dissected meat. At this time, Hong Qi Hua was like a student following behind Bai Yi, listening seriously to his every word.
"After this is the true ingredient preparation. Cut down from here and make a horizontal slice." Bai Yi said.
"Horizontal slice?"
"Yes, horizontal slice, directly cutting away the poison gland and discarding the brain portion. Why, did you really want to remove the poison gland?" Bai Yi smiled and told Hong Qi Hua. "If you want to practice, you can use the snake head that you removed, but now you can't. I can't let you use edible ingredients to practice."
"Ok, I know." Hong Qi Hua nodded.
Bai Yi wasn't wrong, now wasn't the time for her to practice. She also knew that when she was trying to dissect the poisoned snake head, she made dozens of mistakes while cutting. That was the nature of the poison gland; any mistake and the poison would be completely released, leaving nothing left to eat.
"Remember to change the knife." Bai Yi reminded.
"En!" Hong Qi Hua nodded, the Willow Leaf Knife had already been used to dissect the poisoned snake head, of course it couldn't be used to prepare the remaining six snakes that were still in good condition.
As Hong Qi Hua was carefully preparing the ingredients, the rest of the group also drove back one after the other. Honestly speaking, they were all very curious as to how Bai Yi and Woolf managed to settle that Seven-Tailed Snake Vulture.
Upon seeing the marks left on the mountain wall by the heavy truck, all of them suddenly got it. So it was like this; he used the heavy truck to ram into the giant bird in the tunnel? After realising that, they took it lightly as if it was a simple solution, but even if they knew of this method, would they dare to actually carry it out?
Only Martin was astonished when he saw Hong Qi Hua preparing the ingredients seriously and Bai Yi explaining in detail beside her.
"Hey hey Bai Yi, what are you planning on doing? Are you going to eat this fellow?" Martin questioned.
"Of course, now we don't have much food left, what do we eat if not this fellow? Unless…there's some chemicals in its body?" Bai Yi immediately thought of a problem; this guy escaped from the laboratory, could it be that it contained poisonous compounds within it?
"There are some hormonal compounds in it, but they aren't poisonous as they're just for the sake of accelerating growth. There's nothing much inside it that will have an influence on us, I just didn't expect that you would think of eating this big guy." Martin shrugged.
"So it's edible?"
"It's edible!"
"Then that's fine." Bai Yi nodded. After Hong Qi Hua heard the conversation between Bai Yi and Martin she also continued to prepare the Seven-Tailed Snake Vulture.
Chapter 14: Seven-tailed Snake Vulture
"Hahaha!" Bai Yi couldn't help but laugh upon seeing the interactions between Sharpei and Woolf. While he was laughing, Bai Yi happened to glance at the rear mirror and suddenly his face changed completely. He abruptly turned his head and above the roof of the villa a head of a bird that was at least as big as half a car stretched out.
"HUO QIU YANG, RUN!" Bai Yi immediately shouted.
What?
Everybody was unable to react in time and suddenly, a giant bird more than 6 meters in wingspan dived down from the air. Huo Qiu Yang's expression froze and with a 'kacha!', the giant bird's mouth closed. Huo Qiu Yang's head was instantly torn off and blood spurted out like a fountain from his neck.
"AHHHHHHHHH…!" Countless screams rang out among the group and those who were more quick-witted instantly started the car and prepared to escape.
"Hold on tight!" Bai Yi said, abruptly reversing the car and ramming into the giant bird. Initially Bai Yi just wanted run into the bird to buy some time for the rest, but a giant claw violently grabbed onto the roof of the car before the car could hit the bird's leg,.
'KUANG!" The car shook violently and the glass window shattered and fell onto the floor.
At this moment, one of the seven snake tails…no, one of the seven snake heads attached to the back of the giant bird stretched over, sticking out its forked tongue at Bai Yi and the others in the car.
"AHHH!"
"WOOF! WOOF! WOOF!" Momo's screams and Sharpei's barking filled the car.
Just when the snake head stopped in preparation for a bite, Woolf viciously sent a punch towards it. Previously, Woolf discovered that his physical strength has multiplied by several times but he was unsure by how much exactly. With this punch, the snake's head instantly bent, giving off an ear-piercing shriek and spraying out a cloud of green mist.
"Momo hold your breath!" Bai Yi shouted.
At this moment, Bai Yi frantically floored the accelerator and the wheels of the car continuously skidded against the floor almost to the point of producing sparks. The strong pushing force allowed the car to slowly separate itself from the giant bird's claw. From the tip of the claw of the giant bird, deep tears appeared on the roof of the car, almost splitting it into a few segments.
Come on, move!!
Bai Yi roared in his heart and with a sudden pushing force, the car was freed from the claw of the giant bird, speeding out of the courtyard. At this moment, almost the entire roof of the car was ripped off and a few deep tears could be seen on it. Thanks to Bai Yi delaying the giant bird, everybody else had already gotten into a car and had long since reached the road. However, when the prey in its claws escaped, the giant bird instantly let out a few strange shrieks and abruptly flew up.
"Fuck, another monster!" Woolf looked behind the car, seeing the entire appearance of the bird.
Seven-tailed Snake Vulture - possessing a wingspan of more than 6 meters with multicoloured feathers. It appears to be very beautiful, but at the back of this bird were seven snake tails. Not tail feathers, but tails formed by 7 snakes. The colours of these snakes were all different, twisting and stretching continuously, appearing extremely disgusting.
At this moment, when everyone was frantically trying to escape, they discovered the giant bird chasing them behind.
"I told you we should have left last night but you guys insisted on finding a place to rest for the night! See! The monster is right on our tail!" Tang Ping said with incomparable fear in his eyes. It was an emergency so nobody cared about whether they were mutated or not; Tang Ping, Hong Qi Hua and Dai Yu Yao all sat in the same car.
"Shut up!" Hong Qi Hua said fiercely and took off her glasses.
After removing her glasses, she was shocked for a moment, but very quickly she realised that her vision was even clearer than when she was wearing glasses. As expected, it was not only Bai Yi and some others who changed but she was also changing. It's just that her changes weren't as obvious as theirs.
Vision had always been a wound in her heart. As an orphan, she studied very diligently for the sake of going abroad, but ruined her own vision in the process. She never expected that there would be day when her vision would recover. Tang Ping wanted to retort but suddenly, he stopped and stared blankly at Hong Qi Hua. He never thought that after taking off those big and old-fashioned glasses, Hong Qi Hua would actually be so beautiful!
The giant bird apparently only managed to reach this place last night and found the rooftop to rest on by chance. None of them had realised it and due to the commotion from splitting cars, it had awoken from its sleep.
Hong Qi Hua looked at the giant bird and then at Dai Yu Yao beside her.
At this time, Dai Yu Yao's expression was extremely nervous and frightened; although she was driving the car, Hong Qi Hua realised that her hands were trembling. This was pure fear, fear coming from the depths of the heart. Dai Yu Yao was just an ordinary girl, she was unable to suppress her fear and remain calm. If it was normal times, Hong Qi Hua would try to console and reassure Dai Yu Yao, but now was not the time. Now they were in the car and more importantly, Dai Yu Yao was the one driving.
"Dai Yu Yao, swap places with me, I'll drive." Hong Qi Hua said without offering any explanation. With the mental state of Dai Yu Yao now, it was likely that they would get into an accident at any time. She didn't want to die because of something like this.
"Are you crazy! That giant bird is still chasing us, stopping the car is equivalent to death!" Tang Ping shouted.
"No need to stop, we can just swap. It's a straight road in front of us. I'll hold onto the steering wheel and then you climb into the back," Hong Qi Hua said, but the fear on Dai Yu Yao's face just increased.
"I-I don't dare to do it!"
"Hurry up and switch! With your mental state now, do you want to kill everybody?!" Hong Qi Hua shouted at her.
The stretch ahead was straight so it didn't require any complex maneuvering; if she held onto the steering wheel then the car wouldn't veer off-course. Dai Yu Yao took the chance to climb into the back and Hong Qi Hua smoothly took her place in the driver's seat. Hong Qi Hua's face was extremely calm and the car also drove steadily. Even Tang Ping had to concede that she looked much more reliable than Dai Yu Yao who was a nervous wreck.
Without needing to drive, Dai Yu Yao's expression became a bit better and she just stared at Hong Qi Hua blankly with Tang Ping.
Hong Qi Hua was very quietly normally and always wore that pair of big, old-fashioned glasses. There was nothing outstanding about her, but her reaction now was much more mature and calmer than theirs. Why? Could it be that she wasn't scared at all? Bai Yi and Yu Han were also the same, they couldn't help but feel that these three became much more outstanding than usual.
This is probably because some people belonged to certain times!
Some people can only release their own brilliance when undergoing different experiences. When they were in an era that did not belong to them, many outstanding people were like precious stones buried underneath the rock, only able to stay buried forever and remaining ordinary for the rest of their lives. Apparently for Hong Qi Hua, she was more suited for this changed world.
……
This is bad!
Bai Yi felt his head getting dizzier and these words appeared in his heart. He felt that things were bad when the snake sprayed out the green mist just now, so he shouted for Momo to hold her breath. However, because of that shout he held his breath a bit too late and breathed in a bit of the mist.
Without needing to think about it, it was obvious that the mist was some kind of poison. Luckily, the poison was not the kind that was instantly fatal, but with how dizzy he was feeling, driving could prove fatal for all of them.
"Daddy, can I breathe now?" Momo suddenly asked tenderly.
"Ah…yes you can." Bai Yi's dizzy brain was surprised for a moment, but then he laughed. His daughter was really silly, but from the looks of it, Momo didn't inhale any of the mist. It was already a great fortune within the misfortune.
"Woolf, you didn't inhale any of the mist? Why do you appear to be so energetic?" Bai Yi asked.
"Of course I inhaled some, it even sprayed some onto my face. How could I not inhale any? But it doesn't seem to have any effect on me; I'm not sure why either." Woolf replied dim-wittedly.
Bai Yi shook his head as if trying to shake out the dizziness. Really… so it was only him who got poisoned? What bad luck. Woolf wasn't affected by the poison, maybe because the genes he fused with were from some poison-resistant life form. However, it was not the time to think about this now.
"Woolf, I got poisoned and now my head is very dizzy. In front of us is a straight road, you must come and hold the steering wheel steady and I will climb into the back. You will drive." Bai Yi said. Bai Yi and Hong Qi Hua's decisions were similar, just that one was taking over the driving seat and the other was giving it up.
"Hey hey, Bai Yi, you are too crazy, changing drivers at this speed! If there are any mistakes, we could die!" Woolf shouted in shock.
"We could die if we don't change now; my vision is already starting to blur." Bai Yi laughed bitterly.
When Woolf heard Bai Yi, he couldn't help but hesitate for a moment before gritting his teeth. Woolf knew that Bai Yi was a practical and realistic person; if it wasn't absolutely necessary he would never say such things. After agreeing, Woolf stretched out his hand from behind to take hold of the steering wheel and Bai Yi carefully compacted his body and climbed behind.
The car wasn't big from the start. Not only was it uncomfortable compacting his body and trying to swap seats, they had to do it at high speeds as well. Along the way there were quite a few near misses; the car almost crashed a few times and killed all of them. Luckily, by this time, everyone nearby had already escaped other than themselves. Otherwise, it wouldn't have went so smoothly.
Sitting in the back seat, Bai Yi panted heavily and stared behind him. With just a look, the giant bird seemed to overlap with itself, chasing them from behind. Bai Yi breathed heavily for a while then took out his phone and tried to focus, calling Martin's number.
"Martin, I got poisoned. Do you know how to cure the poison from this monster?"
Martin was shocked when he received the call from Bai Yi. He got poisoned… Bai Yi got poisoned. Even Martin, who had just joined, could see that only with Bai Yi's presence could the team remain stable. If Bai Yi died, then this team would very quickly break apart.
"There is. This monster is called a Snake Vulture. They are categorised according to the number of tails they have, ranging from one to nine. Normally the poison in every tail is different, and the poison is very difficult to cure. Luckily, the snake gall of the particular snake head that poisoned you can remove the poison," Martin told Bai Yi.
Bai Yi couldn't help but laugh bitterly. Now they couldn't just try to run away, he had kill this monster too in order to survive!
Chapter 15: Heart-stopping Confrontation
Very quickly, everyone knew about Bai Yi getting poisoned and how the only way to remove the poison was to kill the Seven-Tailed Snake Vulture and eat its snake gall. However, nobody responded after finding out. It's true that Bai Yi helped them a lot, but to risk their lives trying to kill the bird for his sake was something that they wouldn't think of doing.
Bai Yi laid on the back seat of the car with his eyes closed, faintly gasping for air.
He did not feel much resentment towards the rest as their actions were very normal. From the start, they didn't have any special or close relationship with him, to expect them to risk their lives for him was just being unrealistic. In the end, this wasn't something that could be done so easily; any carelessness while trying to kill the Seven-Tailed Snake Vulture would easily result in their deaths.
The speed of the Seven-Tailed Snake Vulture wasn't too fast and the shadows of the first few cars that left couldn't even be seen anymore. Only Woolf slowed down slightly to bait the Seven-Tailed Snake Vulture. If Bai Yi wanted to live then he had to kill that monster, what was the point of just running away?
"I'm sorry, but could you guys describe to me any special characteristics of the road in front? Such as tunnels, bridges, and things like that." Bai Yi held his heavily giddy head and spoke into the phone.
"There is a bridge in front of me here, but it's very small and probably not of much use."
"There's an accident scene here blocking half of the road, but we can still go through it. There's also an abandoned heavy truck here."
"I just checked the online map, this is a ring-shaped road." Randt said.
"4.5km from Fushui Bay there is a tunnel, roughly 200m long." Qin Kai Rui who drove the fastest also described what she saw. Everybody knew Bai Yi was trying to gather information to find a way to kill the Seven-Tailed Snake Vulture. Of course, nobody would reject such a simple request, but none of them thought that Bai Yi would succeed.
Bai Yi held his head and panted heavily. Suddenly, an idea shot through his head and he hung up the phone. At this time, the others were also trying to come up with a safe way to kill the Seven-Tailed Snake Vulture. However, no matter how much they thought, to kill such a monster without any weapons was simply a fantasy.
"Woolf, do you trust me?"
"Of course I trust you! Bai Yi, do you have an idea?" Woolf gave Bai Yi a big thumbs up.
"Just a last attempt to save myself, I'm not sure if it will succeed." Bai Yi smiled gravely.
"Woolf, later when we reach the accident scene, slow the car down and I will get out of the car. After that, bring the Seven-Tailed Snake Vulture along the ring-shaped road and make one round back. You must continue to bait it and let it follow behind you, so it'll be rather dangerous. Most importantly, you must create a chance for it to grab onto the car and that must happen when you are about to enter the tunnel. Of course, it would be best if you were able to lure the Seven-Tailed Snake Vulture into the tunnel itself." More and more cold sweat appeared on Bai Yi's face.
"When entering the tunnel, keep to the left side; upon entering the tunnel immediately move towards the right. I will be on your left driving the heavy truck out." A hint of green surfaced on Bai Yi's face now.
"Bai Yi this is too dangerous!"
"Listen!" Bai Yi shouted. "I know that this is very dangerous, but I have no choice now. I can feel that the poison inside my body is extremely fierce; even though I only breathed in a small amount, I'm already at my limit. Remember all this well, I don't have many chances so I'm relying on you. Also, if I die…please take care of Momo for me." It sounded like he was delivering his will.
"Daddy, Daddy! Please don't abandon Momo." Momo held Bai Yi's hand, tears already streaming down her face.
Bai Yi intimately rubbed his forehead against Momo's forehead and then said: "Momo you have a mission as well, if you want to save Daddy then you must do as I say ,ok?"
"Later when you enter the tunnel, you must use the phone to coordinate the timing with me. Count '5, 4, 3, 2, 1;' ideally the moment when the countdown hits 1 is the moment the car enters the tunnel, got it?" Bai Yi told Momo.
"Daddy, wuuuuu, Daddy!"
"Remember well, Daddy's life is in your hands, Momo." Bai Yi said. At this moment, the car just happened to pass by the accident scene.
Before Woolf could react, Bai Yi abruptly opened the car door and jumped out. The strong forward momentum caused Bai Yi to roll continuously on the road and smash into a heap of ruined cars. From the friction against the floor, countless abrasions appeared on his body and the impact caused his organs to bleed.
This is just seeking death!
Woolf cursed in his heart, but he knew very well that even if it was like seeking death, this was the only method that could save him. Seeing that Bai Yi did not die there but got up swiftly and hid under a damaged car, Woolf took a deep breath. Since Bai Yi was already risking his life out there, what more was there to think about.
"Momo, sit tight." Woolf told Momo.
"En!" There were still tears on Momo's face, but she still took out her phone.
Woolf slowed down the car to allow the Seven-Tailed Snake Vulture to catch up and there were quite a few close shaves where the giant bird almost grabbed hold of the roof of the car. This was also what Bai Yi wanted, to continuously bait the Seven-Tailed Snake Vulture to follow them and not let it to think that there was no hope of catching them.
After the Seven-Tailed Snake Vulture followed the car and left, Bai Yi got up while holding his left arm. His left arm hung limply from his shoulder, fractured, and his face also chafed severely against the floor, leaving an abrasion so deep that you could practically see the bone. However, Bai Yi did not mind all this now as these were all superficial wounds. Although it looked gory, it wasn't fatal; what was fatal was the poison inside his body.
Bai Yi came to the truck and opened the door, only to find that there was no key inside.
"FUCK!" With a bang, Bai Yi violently punched the dashboard and cursed loudly. Bai Yi shook his head in frustration, but there was no point being anxious now, he could only learn from the movies and try to hotwire the car. He pulled open the cover and continuously touched two wires to each other, hoping that the heavy truck would start .
Perhaps heaven was taking pity on him today; after trying for 2 minutes, he finally got the truck to start.
Bai Yi let out a breath of relief and drove the heavy truck towards the tunnel. At the same time, Bai Yi took out his phone and called Momo. "Momo, tell Woolf that I have already positioned the heavy truck; he can lure the Seven-Tailed Snake Vulture over now."
"Daddy, rest assured, I will do well!" Momo guaranteed with tears in her eyes.
"Good girl Momo, I know you will do well." Bai Yi encouraged Momo. In truth, even Bai Yi didn't know how well his 4-year-old daughter could do.
The severe pain from the injuries he suffered when jumping off the car served to help Bai Yi focus his hazy mind. Bai Yi silently started the heavy truck again, the low rumbling sound like the roar of a metal monster. Not long after, Momo's voice came from his phone.
"10"
"9"
……
The heavy vehicle started and Bai Yi begin to accelerate. When Momo counted to 3, Bai Yi drove the heavy truck into the tunnel from the other side. When the countdown reached 1, the Seven-Tailed Snake Vulture happened to dive down, grabbing onto the roof of Woolf's car at the edge of the tunnel. However, due to the strong momentum, it lost its grip on the car and instead the giant bird was pulled into tunnel.
Now!
Woolf fiercely swerved to the right as Bai Yi instructed. At this time, the headlights of a heavy truck whizzed by. The two vehicles practically scraped past each other and the heavy truck brutally smashed into the Seven-Tailed Snake Vulture with tremendous force.
The Seven-Tailed Snake Vulture tried to fly in a panic, but it was stuck inside the tunnel and got hit by the heavy truck with a loud 'BOOM!'. Even if it was a monster, in that instant, the eyes of the giant bird were filled with fear as the heavy truck crushed it.
Go and die for me!
Bai Yi's expression at that moment became incredibly malevolent, as if he was merging with the vehicle, forming a single body. In an instant, the head of the giant bird was smashed like a watermelon. Even the head of the truck became dented. An airbag instantly burst out from the inside of the truck.
The truck continuously pushed the Seven-Tailed Snake Vulture out of the tunnel and eventually squashed it against the side of the mountain wall (TN: tunnels are usually built through a mountain, if you are confused about where the mountain came from) and finally stopped. At this time, Woolf also stopped his car and looked outside while panting heavily. Slowly, Woolf turned his car around and came out of the tunnel, finally seeing Seven-Tailed Snake Vulture squashed against the mountain wall. The Seven-Tailed Snake Vulture was still twitching, but it clearly wouldn't be alive for much longer.
Woolf opened the car door but Momo was even faster, running to the side of the heavy truck and shouting "Daddy!".
Woolf opened the door of the heavy truck and helped Bai Yi down. Only then did he discover that Bai Yi's state wasn't very good and that he had almost lost consciousness. He really had to give it to this guy, to be able to do something so dangerous in such a state. Woolf gave a thumbs up to Bai Yi whose eyes were slowly starting to lose focus.
"Snake…gall!" Bai Yi said.
"En, I will find it for you immediately." Woolf said, heading towards the Seven-Tailed Snake Vulture.
At this time, Sharpei was barking loudly at the giant bird but didn't dare to approach too closely. This giant bird had shocking vitality, even after being smashed to this state it was still not completely dead. The 7 snake heads on its rear were still slowly moving around, their deaths approaching swiftly.
Woolf did not go over immediately as this guy wasn't completely dead yet. It would be a huge loss if he accidentally got bitten from approaching too closely now. After a short while, the giant bird completely lost all signs of life and Woolf dissected a snake gall from the snake that he had punched before. He then let Bai Yi swallow the snake gall.
At this time, nobody was thinking about the issue of gene fusion; it wasn't like they had the luxury of cooking the snake gall first.
Bai Yi swallowed the noxious, fist-sized snake gall and gave a bitter smile. At this moment, Momo was already hugging Bai Yi's left arm and bawling her eyes out. Bai Yi didn't say anything but gently stroked Momo's head with loving tenderness in his eyes.
Chapter 16: Preparing Food
"Bai Yi, those students cannot be relied on," said Woolf, stopping beside Bai Yi.
"I know!"
Bai Yi sat on the floor breathing slowly. Ever since he ate the snake gall, the dizziness in his head had receded by quite a bit. Apparently, Martin's words could be trusted, but the poison needed time to be removed completely. However, with the poison receding, the injuries on his body became more pronounced and the pain became hard to bear. Ever since yesterday afternoon, Bai Yi had suffered from numerous injuries, just that they weren't that obvious. Now, after risking his life again, all the injuries and pain came crashing down at once.
Abrasions, bruises and internal bleeding!
However, apparently the activated cells could enhance the physiological functions of the body. Bai Yi could still survive even with injuries as serious as these.
"I know that a lot of them aren't dependable, but for now it's best that we group together. Let's follow our initial plan and acquire the drug to regain human form. Though from now on… we can be a bit more selfish. How laughable; initially I just wanted to ram into the strange bird with the car to buy some time for the rest, but in the end I almost lost my life." Bai Yi said, grabbing Woolf's right hand and slowly standing up.
"I'm just reminding you. It's good as long as you know, in case we end up throwing our lives away."
"En, got it." Bai Yi nodded.
"What do we do with this guy?" Woolf asked.
"Food! Haven't you realised that our stomachs are almost empty now? This big fellow just happened to deliver itself to us. Come, help me to find two branches to be a splint, my left arm fractured from the impact just now." Bai Yi said to Woolf. Woolf couldn't help but tap on Bai Yi's left arm lightly, causing Bai Yi to twitch from the pain.
"This fellow, I still thought that you weren't in pain."
"Rubbish! I'm in so much pain I wish I could die right now!" Bai Yi scolded.
At this moment, sounds of cars driving could be heard coming from the tunnel, a small car soon came rushing out and braked sharply. Hong Qi Hua was astonished upon seeing this scene. She tried thinking of many ways to kill the giant bird, but they just did not have that capability right now. The solution she thought of was to make use of external forces and immediately thought of the tunnel. She didn't expect that when she came back here she would find the Seven-Tailed Snake Vulture already dead.
"Hey, we can't kill that monster, so don't throw away our lives, did you hear me?!" Tang Ping shook the seat in a frenzy.
At the start, when Hong Qi Hua was driving, both him and Dai Yu Yao were quite at ease, but when she decided to turn back it frightened the two of them to death. Did Hong Qi Hua go crazy? She really planned on trying to kill that monster! They did not even have guns with them; going up against the giant bird was the same as throwing away their lives. Of course, even normal firearms may not have been able to kill the Seven-Tailed Snake Vulture.
"It's already dead!" Hong Qi Hua said and opened the door, walking downwards.
"Dead?" Tang Ping looked in Hong Qi Hua's direction and found that at an angle towards the front was a heavy truck pressed against the mountain wall. Between the truck and the mountain wall… wasn't that thing the strange bird? Tang Ping was in shock and opened his mouth wide, completely unable to believe that that frightening guy died just like that.
"I'm sorry Uncle Bai, I just thought of a way but didn't expect that you would have already killed this strange bird."
"No, it's nothing much, my luck is just good. Since you are here, come give me a hand to prepare this bird, this is a good quality ingredient." Bai Yi didn't blame Hong Qi Hua. If they were to swap places, he wouldn't have taken the risk either if he did not have a safe way to kill the bird.
"I don't know how to handle food," Hong Qi Hua said seriously.
"It's a small matter, I'll teach you. My left arm is broken now, so it's inconvenient for me to do such things," Bai Yi reassured. Suddenly, Bai Yi creased his eyebrows and walked to the snake that Woolf had removed the snake gall from. He discovered a shade of green rapidly spreading upwards from the head of the snake.
"Woolf, quick, bring the chopper here and chop off the snake at this area!" Bai Yi said anxiously.
Woolf now had an almost blind trust in Bai Yi; after hearing his words he unhesitatingly did what Bai Yi told him to do. Right after chopping off that part of the snake, the green colouration spread all over the chopped off part in less than 10 seconds. Just by looking at it, you could tell that the meat was already inedible.
"What happened?" Only now did Woolf have the chance to ask what happened.
"The poison spread; I think you accidentally ruptured the snake's venom sac when you were searching for the snake gall. If we were a bit slower, not just this snake but the entire body would have become inedible." Bai Yi looked carefully at the chopped off snake head and explained.
"Qi Hua, come and try cutting the snake," Bai Yi said to Hong Qi Hua, realising afterwards that she didn't have a knife in her hands.
"Woolf, take out the kitchen knives that I prepared." Bai Yi instructed.
"Why are you always telling me to do things…" Woolf complained, but still went to get the kitchen knives. Along the way, Bai Yi had passed a shopping mall and specially went inside to find a set of cooking tools. Kitchen knives were indispensable tools for any chef.
"I'm injured and Qi Hua is a beautiful girl."
"Yes yes yes, I got it." Woolf pulled out a small case from the car. After opening it, a row of more than 10 knives of different shapes and sizes could be seen.
"Use this. This is a Willow Leaf Knife, suitable for precise dismantling of meat," Bai Yi said to Hong Qi Hua.
Hong Qi Hua blankly held the Willow Leaf Knife in her hands and stared at it. In Hong Qi Hua's eyes, kitchen knives were just kitchen knives, how were there so many different types? However, in the area of culinary skills, Hong Qi Hua was just a novice and completely incomparable to Bai Yi. Since he already said so, she could only follow.
"The way you hold the knife is wrong!" Bai Yi said again when Hong Qi Hua lifted the knife. Hong Qi Hua could only cry inside, there were even requirements for holding the knife?
"I have never handled an ingredient like this before, but from the spread of the poison, the position of the venom sac is different from normal venomous snakes. If we were to make a mistake in the preparation, the poison would spread very quickly. With no way to counteract the poison now, the entire ingredient would become unusable after the poison spread." Bai Yi explained.
"At this spot, cut down 2cm deep and then make an incision vertically while maintaining the depth." Bai Yi pointed at a place and did a demonstration.
Hong Qi Hua wasn't even nervous when speeding with the car but she started to feel nervous now. Woolf, Momo, Sharpei and even Tang Ping and Dai Yu Yao who just got out the car, held their breath as they looked at her, afraid of disturbing her focus. When Bai Yi saw how the rest acted, he couldn't help but laugh; did he subconsciously put such great pressure on everybody?
"No need to be this nervous, this is a snake head that has already been tainted by poison, letting you practice on it is just to train your ability to control the knife precisely and also to determine the position of the venom sac. Only after that would you prepare the other 6 snakes, so even if you make a mistake, it's fine." Bai Yi explained.
After Bai Yi gave his explanation, Hong Qi Hua could finally calm down and made the cut following his instructions.
Maybe because she was relaxed or maybe because she didn't have to be worried, Hong Qi Hua's hands were exceptionally steady. Her only flaw was not being very accurate when it came to the depth of the knife and control of her strength. However, that wasn't something a first-timer could grasp. If there really was such a person, then 'genius' wouldn't be enough to describe him; 'monster' would be a better word.
Following Bai Yi's instructions, Hong Qi Hua dissected the snake and the muscle grain she produced was orderly and clear. Other than the faint green coloration, Hong Qi Hua couldn't believe that this was the ingredient that she prepared.
"Long shaped poison gland, longest point is 141cm below the teeth of the snake, judging from the size of the snake's mouth," Bai Yi said, meticulously looking at the muscle grain pattern of the dissected meat. At this time, Hong Qi Hua was like a student following behind Bai Yi, listening seriously to his every word.
"After this is the true ingredient preparation. Cut down from here and make a horizontal slice." Bai Yi said.
"Horizontal slice?"
"Yes, horizontal slice, directly cutting away the poison gland and discarding the brain portion. Why, did you really want to remove the poison gland?" Bai Yi smiled and told Hong Qi Hua. "If you want to practice, you can use the snake head that you removed, but now you can't. I can't let you use edible ingredients to practice."
"Ok, I know." Hong Qi Hua nodded.
Bai Yi wasn't wrong, now wasn't the time for her to practice. She also knew that when she was trying to dissect the poisoned snake head, she made dozens of mistakes while cutting. That was the nature of the poison gland; any mistake and the poison would be completely released, leaving nothing left to eat.
"Remember to change the knife." Bai Yi reminded.
"En!" Hong Qi Hua nodded, the Willow Leaf Knife had already been used to dissect the poisoned snake head, of course it couldn't be used to prepare the remaining six snakes that were still in good condition.
As Hong Qi Hua was carefully preparing the ingredients, the rest of the group also drove back one after the other. Honestly speaking, they were all very curious as to how Bai Yi and Woolf managed to settle that Seven-Tailed Snake Vulture.
Upon seeing the marks left on the mountain wall by the heavy truck, all of them suddenly got it. So it was like this; he used the heavy truck to ram into the giant bird in the tunnel? After realising that, they took it lightly as if it was a simple solution, but even if they knew of this method, would they dare to actually carry it out?
Only Martin was astonished when he saw Hong Qi Hua preparing the ingredients seriously and Bai Yi explaining in detail beside her.
"Hey hey Bai Yi, what are you planning on doing? Are you going to eat this fellow?" Martin questioned.
"Of course, now we don't have much food left, what do we eat if not this fellow? Unless…there's some chemicals in its body?" Bai Yi immediately thought of a problem; this guy escaped from the laboratory, could it be that it contained poisonous compounds within it?
"There are some hormonal compounds in it, but they aren't poisonous as they're just for the sake of accelerating growth. There's nothing much inside it that will have an influence on us, I just didn't expect that you would think of eating this big guy." Martin shrugged.
"So it's edible?"
"It's edible!"
"Then that's fine." Bai Yi nodded. After Hong Qi Hua heard the conversation between Bai Yi and Martin she also continued to prepare the Seven-Tailed Snake Vulture.
