The three of them looked at the dirt ball Lu Shiyu was holding. From every angle, it looked like nothing more than ordinary mud.
“This is the treasure you were talking about? A ball of dirt? How is this a treasure?” Shao Xingyang pointed at the ball, sounding bewildered.
“Won’t you know once it’s cut open?”
Lu Shiyu carried the dirt ball back to the camp. Seeing them return, Yan Hong asked if they had found the item.
“We found it. Here, this is it.”
Yan Hong looked at the dirt ball in Lu Shiyu’s hands and wore the same confused expression as Shao Xingyang.
Lu Shiyu carefully carried the dirt ball over to her backpack. She took out a slightly larger bowl and a spoon, brushed away as much loose soil as possible from the surface of the ball, and then placed the bowl flat on the ground. After lining it up carefully, she used her dagger to slice into the dirt ball.
A drop of crystal-clear liquid slowly dripped out. As Lu Shiyu sliced deeper, more of this transparent liquid flowed out.
“This is…” Chen Yunliang pushed up his glasses, a theory already forming in his mind.
“Tang Zeyu, help me hold this.”
Lu Shiyu handed half of the dirt ball to Tang Zeyu, and the internal structure finally became clearly visible to everyone.
Inside the ball were countless water-drop-like spheres, packed tightly together one after another, fitting as perfectly as the seeds in a pomegranate with no gaps at all. However, the protective membranes of these spheres were very fragile; with just a gentle scoop of Lu Shiyu’s spoon, a large number of the spheres burst, and the liquid inside flowed out, eventually filling the bowl she had placed below.
Lu Shiyu used the spoon to scoop out all the spheres inside the dirt ball until only a small portion remained along the inner shell. Worried that digging further might break through the shell and cause it to crumble, she abandoned the idea of scraping those last bits of liquid into the bowl.
But this liquid couldn’t be allowed to go to waste. Lu Shiyu poured half a bowl of warm water into the shell, and the half-sphere of dirt instantly became a clay bowl. She stirred the water with the spoon, allowing it to dissolve as much of the liquid as possible. When she was finished, she handed the half-bowl of water to Yan Hong and the others who were watching.
“Here, try it and see how it tastes.”
“Taste it?” Yan Hong looked uncertainly at the clay bowl. The liquid inside didn’t seem much different from ordinary water and smelled normal. Yan Hong took a sip. A mellow sweetness flowed down her throat, and within the threads of sweetness, there was a faint, hard-to-detect floral fragrance. The clear, sweet taste rippled across her tongue, and it felt as if even the breath she exhaled became fresher.
“It’s sweet, like honey water.”
Yan Hong described the taste truthfully, but couldn’t help but feel puzzled. “But why would a honeycomb be inside a dirt ball? Don’t bees build nests with beeswax? Is mud supposed to be sturdier?”
Lu Shiyu took the other half of the dirt ball from Tang Zeyu and continued scooping out the honey, not forgetting to answer Yan Hong’s confusion.
“No, this isn’t bee honey. You could call it ‘ant honey.'”
“Ant honey,” Yan Hong instantly understood what it was, her voice hitching slightly. “So, these come… from ants.”
“Exactly.” Lu Shiyu gave the spoon a final turn, having perfectly collected the last bit of ant honey. “I read about this kind of ant in a book. They feed on nectar and, like bees, they collect and brew honey. Once the finished product is ready, it is concentrated together. The ants seal the granary with a hard soil shell, eventually forming this kind of dirt ball to serve as their reserve food supply.”
“The person who could write that kind of book must be a bit mentally ill,” Yan Hong commented. “Who would dig up an ant nest just to see if there’s anything inside?”
Lu Shiyu didn’t pour the excavated ant honey directly into a jar. Instead, she took a small sifter from her bag and began a filtering process, straining out the membranes and any bits of debris that had accidentally fallen in, leaving only pure ant honey.
After bottling the ant honey, Lu Shiyu held it up to admire the fruits of her labor. Unlike bee honey, ant honey was not white or amber; it was transparent. The honey in the bottle contained a few small air bubbles, looking just like liquid candy.
“Should the rest be soaked in water too?” Tang Zeyu asked, holding the remaining half of the dirt shell.
“I won’t soak this part. I have another use for it.”
Lu Shiyu took the dirt shell and added a spoonful of flour and a spoonful of warm water into it. After stirring and mixing, a lump of unformed dough appeared.
“What is she doing?” Shao Xingyang asked curiously while drinking the honey water.
Lu Shiyu scraped the dough out and put it into another glass jar. The jar had been sterilized with hot water and wiped with a paper towel, keeping it in a clean, oil-free, and water-free state.
Once the dough was in the jar, Lu Shiyu put it away immediately, leaving the others—who were expecting a more exciting follow-up—hanging. Fortunately, there was still a bit of ant honey water left in the bowl.
Having resolved the sudden ant crisis, everyone could finally rest and sleep in peace. For people who had to travel every day, time was always tight; rest was exceptionally precious and brief. They closed their eyes, and in a blink, it was the next day.
Following the antics of the previous night, the group had clearly not rested well. When they woke up in the morning, they were yawning non-stop. Since there was no chance to catch up on sleep, they had to continue pressing toward their goal.
They hadn’t walked very far when Yan Hong suddenly felt as though she heard a sound, but she couldn’t hear it clearly. She stopped in her tracks to find the source. Seeing her stop, the others asked what was wrong.
“Didn’t you hear a sound?”
“A sound?” Tang Zeyu also began searching the surroundings for any strange noises, but he heard nothing.
“What sound? Maybe you just didn’t sleep well last night.” Shao Xingyang didn’t hear anything either.
“There really is something. Why is it gone again?” Yan Hong frowned, absolutely certain of what she had heard.
“Wooo~”
“Listen! There really is something!”
This time, everyone heard it. But the sound kept echoing through the woods, making it impossible to tell where it was coming from.
“Everyone, get your weapons ready.” Upon Tang Zeyu’s command, the members of the Flying Eagle Squad instantly drew their weapons.
Lu Shiyu looked left and right, then finally pulled out the dagger Yan Hong had given her last time, gripping it in her hand just like the others.
They advanced with weapons drawn. The strange sound came from time to time; they couldn’t tell what kind of creature was making the cry, but it sounded like someone sobbing softly. The sound echoed through the desolate woods, looking very much like a scene from a horror movie.
“What on earth is making that noise? It sounds like a ghost wailing.” Shao Xingyang looked around but couldn’t find anything suspicious.
“Don’t worry, it’s not like it’s actually haunted,” Chen Yunliang said half-jokingly.
“Who knows? Maybe after the biological mutations, ghosts really do exist.”
“Eww, stop talking nonsense. Biological mutation isn’t a supernatural haunting. Where would a ghost come from?”
They tried to ease the atmosphere through conversation, but as they walked further, the sound became clearer.
At first, they could joke around to distract themselves, but later the cries became louder and more frequent, and their conversation gradually died down.
Finally, they saw several black dots in the distance. As they got a bit closer, they could see that it was actually a large flock of snake-tailed chickens.
Shao Xingyang roughly counted the number and said in surprise, “There are so many of them?”
“Maybe they’re social animals, though I don’t know if wild chickens live in flocks,” Chen Yunliang said.
“Should we detour? It feels like there are a bit too many of them,” Yan Hong suggested.
Shao Xingyang scratched his head and said, “Is that really necessary? It’s just a flock of chickens. Let’s just go straight through.”
Everyone’s gaze fixed on Shao Xingyang. He hadn’t realized what he had said wrong yet.
“What?”
The next second…
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAH!”
Shao Xingyang was kicked out from behind a tree trunk by an unknown foot, completely exposing him to the snake-tailed chickens. The chickens, which had been busily pecking at ants on the ground, all looked toward him in unison.
“Uh… hi…”
“Woooooo~!”
The snake-tailed chickens erupted into a riot upon seeing the intruder. Letting out strange, deafening cries, they flapped their wings and lunged at Shao Xingyang.
Shao Xingyang was instantly swarmed. He was nearly buried under the chickens as he scrambled away, leading the gathered flock away in the process.
“Hah, he’s got decent combat power,” Chen Yunliang smiled and pushed up his glasses. “While an individual attack isn’t that impressive, a number like that is enough to be a headache.”
Lu Shiyu asked Tang Zeyu with some concern, “Is he going to be okay? Letting him lure that flock away like that… isn’t it a bit bad?”
“He’s fine. He’s used to being unlucky.”
The group’s plan was simple and crude: Shao Xingyang would lure the snake-tailed chickens away, and the rest would pass straight through. Once Shao Xingyang shook off the chickens, he would catch up. This allowed more people to take the direct path—except for Shao Xingyang.
Just as they were about to cross the area while the chickens were gone, Yan Hong suddenly pulled them back, her expression grim.
“What’s wrong?”
“Something’s not right,” Yan Hong said, her ears searching the air. “Wait, in this area…”
The sound of rustling feathers came from above.
“There are more snake-tailed chickens nearby!”
As she spoke, several snake-tailed chickens dropped from the sky, surrounding the group.
Unlike the ones on the ground earlier, the feathers of these chickens looked dusty gray and thicker. However, their wariness toward intruders was exactly the same.
Lu Shiyu looked up and saw bird nests over half a meter in diameter on some of the branches. She speculated that these chickens had flown down from there. She hadn’t expected their nests to be built in trees.
“Wooo~”
Yan Hong realized that the cries from the chickens in front of them were a closer match to what she had heard earlier.
“These snake-tailed chickens are likely female, and their voices have strong penetration. We must deal with them as quickly as possible, or it’ll be a disaster when they call the males back.”
As soon as Yan Hong finished speaking at high speed, she and Tang Zeyu flew out like arrows from a bow, intending to finish off the females as fast as possible. Chen Yunliang was responsible for protecting the non-combatant Lu Shiyu and preventing any sneak attacks from behind.
Snake-tailed chickens possessed a certain ability to fly; otherwise, it would be impossible for them to nest in trees. Consequently, their attack range was much larger, as they could even strike from above. Furthermore, they possessed extremely sharp claws, which served both as tools for gripping branches and as weapons for attacking enemies.
These “weapons,” useful as they were on a normal day, were not enough when faced with the Flying Eagle Squad. Both of their blades were extremely fast; a single strike could smoothly sever a chicken’s head. However, watching this rapid slaughter made Lu Shiyu anxious.
“Wait! You can’t kill them all, or this population of snake-tailed chickens might disappear entirely!”
“This is no time to worry about that!” Yan Hong said, but in action, she and Tang Zeyu reached an agreement. They began using the backs of their blades to knock the chickens unconscious. Since the chickens would fly erratically, they sometimes missed.
Although this caused their efficiency to drop significantly, it ensured that the female snake-tailed chickens were not wiped out in one go.
Lu Shiyu had just let out a sigh of relief, completely failing to notice a snake-tailed chicken attacking from behind. Seeing the sharp claws about to rake across her back, a short arrow whistled through the air and struck the chicken directly in the head.