Unedited chapter
73. Unexpected Encounter
During the next few days, every morning Jones and Ian would set off from where they lived and go exploring everywhere.
They found a shallow small pool and brought back a little water, but the water was very muddy, and they did not have any filtering tool, so they did not dare to drink it recklessly, for fear that it contained harmful substances. In the end, the water was merely used for cleaning Edgar's uninjured abdomen.
The climate in the desert was dry. Although Edgar, as a snake beastman, did not need to live in the water, but he still liked a damp environment. In the past few days, he had been baked by the sun every day, which was a bit painful to watch. Sponging his body with a little water could make him feel much better.
Shu Shu cut off a section of a sleeve, moistened it with water, and carefully sponged Edgar down. As he sponged Edgar down, he saw Edgar's tail tip move, and his face instantly sported a happy expression.
While Shu Shu was cleaning Edgar, Jones and Ian ate something and then tidied up the hole that Shu Shu had dug out.
Shu Shu had not given up digging a hole in the past few days. As long as his body had no problem, he would dig and dig and dig incessantly. The hole had become very big now and could even accommodate Edgar. They planned to put Edgar into it today.
A few days ago, Jones and Ian brought back some plants to cover Edgar’s body. After two days of being exposed to the scorching sun, the plants had been sun-dried. After they spread them on the bottom of the hole, the interior of the hole became much more comfortable.
"Let’s move Edgar in." Ian climbed out of the cave and spoke to Shu Shu.
As an empress, even if Ian was not a stunning beauty, but his skin had been very good. Yet now, after several days, his face was red from getting sun-burnt and peeling off, and his lips were so dry and cracked, he could taste blood when licking them. With his current appearance, other people who saw him certainly couldn’t have guessed that he was an empress. And Jones was even worse than him. He gave his clothes to cover Shu Shu’s body, so his own body was sunburned and red.
By comparison, Shu Shu actually looked slightly better. Although the wounds on his body had not been completely healed because of insufficient spiritual power, but at least the sun’s rays could not burn him, this daemon.
Hearing Ian’s words, Shu Shu nodded and stood up. Then he, Jones, and Ian grabbed hold of Edgar and rolled him into the hole.
Shu Shu now basically had no spiritual power that he could utilize, while Ian and Jones had little strength and could not lift Edgar. Consequently, they had no other choice but to roll Edgar.
After some ruckus, Edgar was finally rolled into the hole. Both Ian and Jones breathed a sigh of relief. They stood up and said to Shu Shu, "We’re going to go to the north side to take a look today. Shu Shu, you stay here and look after Edgar and the egg."
Shu Shu nodded. Edgar and the egg needed someone to watch them all the time, and he was also reluctant to leave them to go with Ian and Jones.
Shu Shu went into the hole to take shelter. On the other hand, Jones and Ian put on straw hats to shield them from the sun and then focused on heading north.
In the past few days, they had not had any idle day. Checking all over the place every day, they even got blisters on their feet from the continuous walking.
Ian, having been an empress for years, had not suffered such an ordeal for a very long time. Some days ago, when he was reading a book, he accidentally got a paper cut. Chris then grabbed his hand and felt sorry for him for half of the day. Now though . . . .
Looking at the tragic sight of his blister-covered feet, Ian laughed bitterly and said, "These are all filled with water. What a waste.”
Nowadays, they relied on the drinks and fruits that Shu Shu brought with him to get some hydration. Their bodies were severely dehydrated; with so many blisters produced now, weren’t they even more dehydrated?
"Once I return to the capital star, I must soak in the bathtub for a whole day." Jones said.
"Hydrating facial mask and so on also must be done. I’m definitely very ugly now. If I don’t take care of myself properly, Chris might turn his back on me." Ian said again.
"He dares to ignore you? Beat him up!" Jones laughed. They talked a little to brighten up the atmosphere, but then they stopped talking and immersed themselves in walking forwards instead—they opened their mouths when they talked and were liable to lose more water.
A few days ago, the two men had already walked past this direction once. Today they walked in this direction again because they had seen some plants at some distance away. Planning to take another look at those plants, they went a little farther.
In order to go farther, the two men’s travel speed hastened. At noon, they really went a lot farther than before, and they finally saw a group of succulent plants that looked a little like cacti.
The plants grew very tall. Jones was delighted when he saw them; he wanted to go over and examine them. He wanted to check whether they were poisonous or not by relying on his own experience. Unexpectedly, at this moment, Ian who was beside him suddenly fell headlong to the ground.
"Ian!" Jones cried out in fear. Supporting Ian with his hands, he looked at Ian and realized that Ian most probably got heatstroke.
Ian was just an ordinary sub-beastman. These past few days, because they had not found any water source, they drank less and less water. Under such circumstances, it was very normal to get heatstroke. Ian being able to hold up for so long and only collapsing now already showed that he had an amazing willpower.
Jones, seeing Ian’s appearance, took a juicy fruit from Shu Shu out of the bag he carried on his body and peeled the skin, and then he fed all the juice inside to Ian’s mouth. As an afterthought, he covered Ian's face with a straw hat. After that, holding a knife made of a fragment of the lifepod, he came to the side of the main body of the plant they had just found and cut off a piece of the plant with the knife.
After the plant was cut off, it began to drip water. Jones touched the juice with his hand and saw that his hand did not look red and swollen from an allergy. Then he sniffed at the juice.
It smelled very good, and there was no stink at all . . . . Jones circled around these plants to check again.
Under one of the plants, he finally saw the traces of animals having gnawed and fed on it. He breathed a sigh of relief and then put a little juice into his mouth to moisten it.
His tongue was fine and had no problem at all. In this case, even if the plant somewhat had a small amount of toxin, it also wouldn’t be too poisonous.
Looking pleasantly surprised, Jones then cut a piece of the plant and used it to wipe Ian's body.
Ian’s body temperature was very high, but he constantly shivered. The situation was obviously not very good. Jones clenched his teeth, hauled Ian up his back, and started to walk in the direction they came from. Of course, he also didn’t forget to bring back a large piece of the plant.
Even if this plant could not be eaten, it also could be used for wiping Edgar’s body.
Jones was not really strong, so he walked particularly slow during the whole journey. When he returned, the sky had become completely dark.
"You two are fine, right?" Shu Shu looked at Jones worriedly.
"He has heatstroke." Jones said, putting Ian down and taking him into the dugout.
It was very hot during the day, but the temperature dropped sharply in the evening. Ian’s condition was getting worse. In addition to heatstroke, Jones also found that the blisters on Ian’s feet were broken and had begun to become inflamed.
Jones was a doctor, but even the cleverest doctor would not get anywhere without any equipment. There was nothing at all in this place, and there was simply nothing he could do to help treating Ian’s illness. He could only feed Ian as much high-water-content food as possible.
As a result, the high-water-content foods that Shu Shu brought were getting less and less and could not even last for a few days. Fortunately, after Shu Shu had seen the plant brought back by Jones, he confirmed that it could be eaten—as an animal, he also had a bit of instinct that could be used to distinguish which ones could be eaten and which ones could not.
However, although they could eat it, it did not mean that they would be fine eating it . . . . Who knew if the plants on this planet had trace elements that were harmful to sub-beastmen?
Jones held Ian and slept near Edgar for a night. When he got up the next morning, Ian’s situation did not improve and was even more serious instead.
Seeing this, Jones pursed up his cracked lips and said to Shu Shu, "I’ll go back and get this plant again. You look after Ian."
"Teacher Jones, don't go." Shu Shu said, frowning at the same time. If Jones went out alone and also suffered heatstroke halfway, then surely no one could bring him back!
"Ian won’t get better for a while, and we can't really just sit idle and use up our resources." Jones said.
"Then I’ll go with you." Shu Shu said again, "I’ll find something to cover this dugout, and it’ll be fine."
"It won’t be fine. Leaving them here is very dangerous. Moreover, your stomach always hurt recently. Don't think I don't know." Jones continued, "Your child isn’t stable. If you’re exposed to the scorching sun outside, maybe you’ll die."
Shu Shu’s face changed. Jones said again, "Give me some more fruits. I’m a doctor; I won’t let myself have an accident.”
Shu Shu thought about it and eventually agreed. He gave the few remaining fruits with the highest water content to Jones.
Jones ate one and put the rest in the bag he carried on his person, and he also carried two of Edgar's dropped scales on his body. Only then did he set off.
Jones had experience surviving in the wild and knew about how terrible wild animals were. Because of this, every time he went out these days, he would carry Edgar's scales on his body, letting his body carry the scent of a powerful beastman, so that the predators would not dare to start with him.
After leaving the dugout, Jones followed the road he had walked past yesterday and walked toward the area where those plants were located.
He had already recognized the road, so today he walked faster than yesterday. When he finally arrived next to those plants, it was also earlier than yesterday.
When he was on the road, he did not eat the fruits that Shu Shu gave him. Now, as he cut the flesh of the plant and saw the dripping juice, he only felt that his throat was terribly parched. He wanted to swallow some saliva, but he discovered that his mouth was dry. What saliva did he still have?
Jones thought about it, and in the end, he still caught some of the dripping juice and drank a little mouthful of it.
He waited for a while, and there was no discomfort. But just when he was going to drink a little more, a huge lion suddenly appeared from behind the plants.
"Rowr!" The lion roared and rushed over to pounce on Jones. Jones cried out in fear, but where could he hide from a lion attack? In the end, he was actually bitten by the lion.
Jones thought he would certainly die when the lion's big mouth bit him, but unexpectedly, he did not feel too much pain. As it turned out, although the lion bit him, but it actually didn’t bite him to death. It just held him with its mouth, like holding a cub, and then it ran away with him.
In response to this, Jones immediately breathed a sigh of relief. And it was at this moment that he suddenly realized that this lion was not quite right.
This was not an ordinary lion at all. This . . . looked like a beastman!
Jones had been extremely afraid before, but now that fear had already changed into joy—there was actually a beastman on this planet! This was really great!
"You . . . you’re a beastman!" Jones grabbed the hair on the edge of the lion's mouth, practically crying tears of joy.
It was the lighter-colored lion Bruno who was holding Jones with his mouth. The fur on the edge of his mouth was grabbed by Jones, and it was a little unpleasant for him. He could not help but want to dump Jones on the ground. Reminding himself that this was a sub-beastman and that throwing the sub-beastman down would likely make the sub-beastman fall to his death, he still endured it in the end and also nodded.
Even though Jones was not young anymore and was usually calm, but when he eventually saw an opportunity to live after giving up all hope, his emotions were inevitably stirred up, and his tears immediately fell down. "You put me down. I have something to tell you."
Jones wanted to have a proper chat with this beastman; Bruno, however, did not have any notion to chat with him. Holding Jones with his mouth, he ran in the direction he came from at lightning speed and even gave Jones, whose upper body was dangling from his mouth, a mocking glance.
He wasn’t really a beastman; he was a fallen beast, and now he was going to bring this sub-beastman to the fallen beasts' den!
Sub-beastmen were all very timid. As soon as this sub-beastman saw so many fallen beasts, he would definitely be scared to death! Hahaha!
Bruno was still young when he became a fallen beast. He was harmed by some people and became a fallen beast. He was overwrought at that time. As a result, his mother was even more terrified and even showed a frightened expression when looking at him, basically abandoning him . . . . Before he was sent to the Fallen Beast Planet, his mother had never come and seen him. He absolutely had no good opinion of sub-beastmen, so he naturally wouldn’t listen to Jones’ words now.
When Jones discovered this detail, his previous joy disappeared, and he instantly became terrified.
This beastman seemed to have no goodwill toward him?
This planet was very primitive; he reckoned that it was not classified as a habitable planet by the Beastman Empire. In this case, was it possible that this was a planet secretly occupied by the star pirates or some criminal gangs?
If they fell into the star pirates’ hands . . . he was afraid that they would be treated inhumanely, since the star pirates lacked sub-beastmen the most!
A beastman who wanted to settle down and have children with a sub-beastman would cultivate his feelings with said sub-beastman and then wait for the sub-beastman to eat the beast bead before getting intimate. However, some beastmen plainly didn’t care to do things this way!
Even if it was a sub-beastman who had eaten another man's beast bead, the star pirates would not care about it. In any case, they could still vent their desires on the sub-beastman, couldn’t they?
The whole journey was very desolate. There was no shadow of any communication device on this lion’s body. Jones was more and more afraid and at once started to struggle fiercely. “You let me go! Do you know who I am? My partner’s very powerful. If you hurt me, you’ll definitely end up badly!”
Bruno snorted hearing Jones’ words. He did smell the scent of a powerful beastman on Jones’ body, but what about it? Even that powerful beastman had to be well-behaved and obedient once he arrived on their Fallen Beast Planet!
Moreover, even if that beastman was powerful, he certainly couldn’t compare with their boss. Their boss had been the Empire’s great general, a nine-star beastman!
Holding the constantly struggling Jones with his mouth, Bruno went all the way to the area where their patrolling fallen beasts had set up camp. When he distantly saw the white wolf, who was lying face down on the stone and being bored, he briskly ran over while issuing a smug howl.
"Boss, look! I brought back a sub-beastman!" Bruno was very excited. Catching sight of him, all the fallen beasts around also came over to see.
A group of beastmen! A group of beastmen whose bodies were full of murderous aura!
Jones punched Bruno's eye. "Let me go! Or else my partner will definitely kill all of you!"
The white wolf lying face down on the stone suddenly heard a man’s voice and subconsciously looked up to see.
Author’s note:
Lion: Boss, boss, look, I caught back a sub-beastman for you!
Jones: Bastard! My partner won’t let you get away with this.
The white wolf . . . the white wolf flattened the lion with a slap.