"Scorpions! Red-Tail Poison Scorpions!"
A terrified shout rang out from the northern irrigation ditch just after moonrise.
Two young herders who had arrived with Old Shepherd Ma that afternoon came stumbling back from the edge of the two-acre potato field, dropping their pine torches on the ground as they pointed wildly toward the dark slope of Scorpion-Tail Gully.
"There's hundreds of them!" one of the boys screamed, his voice cracking. "They're crawling out of the rocks like a red river! They're heading straight for the giant potatoes!"
Instantly, the hundred and fifty newly registered refugees—who were resting under the temporary canvas awnings around the square—scrambled to their feet in panic.
"Red-Tail Poison Scorpions?!" Widow Sun clutched her chest, her face turning pale under the torchlight. "When a swarm of those red devils crawled through Salt-Pool Town three years ago, they stung twenty people to death in one night! Their shells are hard as iron plates, and one sting makes a grown man's leg swell up and rot before morning!"
"Everybody grab torches and dry brushwood!" Stone roared, snatching a blazing pine branch from the fire-pit and running toward the northern edge of the potato field with twenty village men and One-Eyed Jack's debtor crew right behind him. "Don't let those bugs touch His Lordship's potato field!"
By the time Pei Xuan walked out to the north ditch flanked by Old Wei, Hong Ling, and Old Guo, Stone and One-Eyed Jack had already tossed bundles of dry thorn-twigs along the dry outer bank of the irrigation trench and lit a hundred-foot wall of fire.
Beyond the crackling flames, the sand slope was writhing like a living red blanket.
Five hundred Red-Tail Poison Scorpions—each one as big as a grown man's fist, with shiny blood-red shells, snapping pincers, and curved tails dripping dark-purple venom—were crowded along the edge of the fire line!
Drawn by the rich, sweet mutton-and-starch aroma of the second batch of [Meat-Belly Giant Potatoes] ripening in the field behind the trench, the scorpions hissed angrily at the flames, clicking their pincers with a bone-chilling clack-clack-clack sound as they looked for a gap to crawl through.
Old Yellow strolled up beside Pei Xuan, looked down at a big scorpion that had managed to scuttle around the end of the brushwood fire, and let out a disdainful snort.
Ptooey!
A heavy glob of yellow camel spit smacked the scorpion flat against a rock, gluing its eight legs to the stone so it couldn't budge an inch.
"Young Master, the brushwood fire won't burn for long!" Old Wei frowned, using the tip of his broadsword to flick two scorpions back into the ditch. "There are at least five hundred of them! If we tell the men to smash them with hoes and shovels, the purple venom inside their tails will splash everywhere, and someone is bound to get stung in the dark!"
Pei Xuan didn't look worried at all. Instead, as he stared at the five hundred fat, fist-sized red scorpions hissing beyond the fire line, his eyes lit up at the blue tooltip floating in his vision:
[ Wild Pest Swarm: Red-Tail Poison Scorpions (512 Units) ] * Grade: Rank 0 Peak Desert Insect * Danger: Tail gland contains "Burning-Sand Venom" (Causes severe swelling, fever, and numbness). * Hidden Culinary Value: Fed on desert minerals and subterranean heat for three years! Their white tail-meat is packed with pure Yang-Blood Protein! * [FUSION CUBE DETECTED]: Fuse a cooking vessel with fire-stone and bronze to create a [Detox Spirit Wok] that turns 100% of scorpion venom into permanent Strength Essence! (Cost: 30 LP)
Turns scorpion venom into permanent Strength Essence?!
Pei Xuan swallowed a laugh. Other villages saw a terrifying plague of five hundred venomous monsters; Pei Xuan saw five hundred walking protein bars that had crawled two miles over the sand just to jump into his frying pan!
"Old Guo!" Pei Xuan called out. "Unstrap that forty-pound black-iron wok from your back!"
"Right here, Young Master!" Old Guo unhooked the massive, thick-bottomed iron wok he always carried like a turtle shell and set it down on the ground with a heavy thud. "Are we going to use my wok to scoop sand onto them?"
"Scoop sand? That would ruin the seasoning on your pot," Pei Xuan grinned. He turned to the newly registered blacksmith refugee, Uncle Tie. "Uncle Tie, bring me that cracked bronze shield we looted from the bandits' baggage cart this morning, a fist-sized piece of red Desert Fire-Flint, and three bundles of long dry willow sticks!"
"Right away, my Lord!"
Uncle Tie ran back to the tool shed and returned in less than a minute carrying a dented bronze buckler, a chunk of red fire-flint stone, and three thick bundles of two-foot wooden sticks.
Pei Xuan placed Old Guo's forty-pound black-iron wok on the ground, laid the cracked bronze shield and red fire-flint inside the wok, and piled the bundles of wooden sticks beside the rim.
He rested both hands on the edge of the iron wok and activated the [Supreme Fusion Cube]!
==================================================================== [ SUPREME FUSION CUBE — CULINARY ARTIFACT RECIPE ] -------------------------------------------------------------------- [Slot 1]: Old Guo's 40-lb Black-Iron Wok (20 Years of Kitchen Qi) [Slot 2]: Cracked Bronze Shield (Even Heat Distribution & Toughness) [Slot 3]: Red Desert Fire-Flint + 3 Bundles of Willow Sticks -------------------------------------------------------------------- >> Fusion Cost: 30 LP (Remaining Balance: 130 LP -> 100 LP) >> Result: Merges kitchen craft with fire-flint energy to create the [Lv.1 Red-Hot Detox Chef Wok] + 50 Pairs of [Two-Foot Venom-Proof Wooden Tongs]! >> [CONFIRM FUSION? YES / NO] ====================================================================
Confirm!
CLANG—WHOOSH!
Thirty Loyalty Points vanished. A burst of fiery red-and-bronze light wrapped around the heavy iron wok and the bundles of sticks!
When the light faded three seconds later, Old Guo gasped and rubbed his eyes.
His battered black-iron wok had grown six inches wider and deeper. The outside of the wok was now reinforced with gleaming bronze dragon-scale patterns, while embedded right into the bottom center of the pot was a glowing red fire-flint core that radiated waves of dry heat even without firewood!
And beside the wok sat fifty neat pairs of two-foot-long, reddish-brown wooden tongs with grooved pincer tips!
==================================================================== [ ARTIFACT: RED-HOT DETOX CHEF WOK (Lv. 1) ] ==================================================================== * Bound Chef: Old Guo (Grants +30% Cooking Speed & Wrist Strength) * Function 1 — [Instant High-Heat Core]: Tap the base with an iron ladle to heat oil to 500 degrees in 10 seconds! * Function 2 — [Venom-to-Vigor Law]: Any poisonous insect, snake, or beast deep-fried in this wok has 100% of its lethal toxins instantly converted into fragrant, golden Yang-Blood Vigor! * Dish Effect — [Crispy Deep-Fried Red-Tail Scorpions]: - Crunchy as shrimp crackers, tastes like spicy roasted crab! - Every 10 Fried Scorpions eaten permanently grants +10 Jin of Physical Strength (+1 Strength Point)! (Max benefit: 30 Scorpions per person). ====================================================================
"My wok... my old iron wok turned into a treasure pot!" Old Guo stroked the warm bronze rim of the wok with trembling fat fingers, looking happier than if someone had handed him a bride.
"Old Guo, set the wok on that stone fire-pit right now!" Pei Xuan ordered, his voice ringing out over the crackling brushwood fire. "Dice up thirty Meat-Belly Giant Potatoes and toss them into the wok to render out a full pot of boiling golden lamb oil! Throw in crushed rock salt, wild sand-garlic, and those dried red chili-peppers from your spice bag!"
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"Yes, Young Master!"
Old Guo hoisted the gleaming [Red-Hot Detox Chef Wok] onto the stones and tapped the bottom twice with his iron ladle.
FOOM!
The red fire-flint core at the base of the wok lit up like a miniature sun! As Old Guo tossed thirty diced Meat-Potatoes into the pot, the rich mutton-fat marbling inside the potatoes melted out with a loud SIZZLE, filling the wide wok with three gallons of bubbling, crystal-golden lamb oil in less than twenty seconds!
Pei Xuan picked up the fifty pairs of two-foot wooden tongs and tossed them into the hands of Stone, Uncle Tie, One-Eyed Jack, Rat-Whiskers, and forty-five of the strongest men from both the original village and the new refugees.
"Listen up, everyone!" Pei Xuan pointed at the five hundred Red-Tail Poison Scorpions hissing behind the fire line. "Why are you looking at them like monsters? Those aren't poison bugs—those are Five Hundred Spicy Deep-Fried Crispy Crabs that walked all the way here to feed us!"
The whole crowd blinked in confusion. "C-Crispy crabs?!"
"Old Guo's new Treasure Wok neutralizes all scorpion poison the moment they hit the hot oil!" Pei Xuan announced loudly. "And eating ten fried scorpions will permanently increase a grown man's strength by ten pounds! Grab your two-foot wooden tongs and empty buckets! For every ten live scorpions you clamp and toss into Old Guo's bucket, you get three crispy fried scorpions for yourself!"
For two seconds, nobody moved.
Then Stone looked at the two-foot wooden tongs in his hands, looked at the fat red scorpions by the fire, and remembered every miracle Pei Xuan had pulled off in the last two days.
"Plus ten pounds of strength?! And they taste like fried crabs?!" Stone's eyes turned bright green with excitement. He let out a wolf-like howl and leaped right over the low brushwood fire with a wooden bucket in his left hand and the two-foot tongs in his right!
"Get in my bucket, you little red snacks!"
Clack! Snatch! Plop!
Stone's tongs moved like lightning, clamping a fist-sized Red-Tail Scorpion right behind its pincers and tossing it into his deep wooden bucket before its tail stinger could even swing around!
"Hey! Leave twenty for me! I want to get stronger too!"
One-Eyed Jack roared, grabbing a pair of two-foot tongs in his right hand and another pair in his left! With his Rank 1 Peak Martial speed, both pairs of tongs snapped like machine guns—clack-clack-clack-clack!
Within ten seconds, One-Eyed Jack had plucked twelve hissing scorpions off the sand and dumped them into his bucket!
"Brothers! Don't let the yellow-vest debtors grab all the meat!" Uncle Tie yelled, leading the fifty new refugee men forward with their tongs and buckets!
"Mine! That fat one by the rock is mine!"
"Rat-Whiskers, you rat, I saw that scorpion first!"
The scene along the northern irrigation ditch turned completely upside down!
Just three minutes ago, the villagers had been terrified that the five hundred fierce Red-Tail Poison Scorpions would sting them to death. Now, fifty grown men armed with two-foot wooden tongs were chasing the scorpions across the sand like starving men fighting over the last dumplings on a plate!
Out on the sand bank, the five hundred Red-Tail Poison Scorpions were completely bewildered.
For centuries, whenever they crawled out of Scorpion-Tail Gully in a swarm, every jackal, camel, and human within five miles ran screaming for their lives. Why were these two-legged hairless apes running at them with wooden sticks and drooling?!
Clack-clack-clack!
Three hundred scorpions were scooped into deep wooden buckets in the first three minutes!
The remaining two hundred scorpions finally realized something was horribly wrong. Lowering their tails, they turned right around on their eight legs and tried to scuttle back up the dark slope toward Scorpion-Tail Gully as fast as they could run!
"Stop! The snacks are running away!" Rat-Whiskers shrieked as if someone were robbing his wallet.
"Cut them off! Don't let a single pound of strength escape back into the gully!" Stone vaulted over a boulder with a wide hemp fishing net and flung it down, trapping forty fleeing scorpions at once!
Back by the stone fire-pit, Old Guo was having the time of his life.
SPLASH—SIIIIIIIIZZLE!
As Stone dumped the first bucket of fifty live Red-Tail Scorpions into the three gallons of 500-degree golden lamb oil inside the [Red-Hot Detox Chef Wok], a magical golden ring of light flashed across the bronze rim of the pot!
Instantly, the dark-purple venom inside the scorpions' tail stingers melted away and transformed into drops of fragrant, amber-gold Yang-Blood oil!
Old Guo swung his big iron slotted spoon with one hand and shook the forty-pound wok with the other, tossing the fifty fist-sized scorpions three feet into the air through a shower of crushed gray salt, minced wild garlic, and spicy red chili powder!
Crack-pop! Crunch!
As the scorpions tumbled in the roaring hot lamb oil, their dark shells turned a bright, glossy candy-red, and a mouth-watering aroma of deep-fried soft-shell crab, toasted sesame, and spicy roast lamb burst across the entire square!
"First batch of fifty Spicy Deep-Fried Scorpions—UP!"
Old Guo scooped the fifty sizzling, golden-red scorpions out into a huge bamboo sieve lined with clean potato leaves to drain the excess oil.
Every scorpion was puffed up, bright red, and dusted with sparkling salt and red chili flakes.
"Who dares try the first one?" Old Guo grinned, holding out the bamboo sieve.
"I will!"
Stone wiped his hands on his shirt, picked up a steaming, fist-sized fried scorpion by its crispy tail, and bit the entire body and pincers straight in half!
CRUUUUUNCH!
The sound was so crisp and loud that everyone within twenty feet heard it!
"Mmmmm!" Stone's eyes widened until they nearly popped out of his head.
The shell wasn't hard anymore—it had been fried until it was as light, flaky, and crunchy as a thinly baked shrimp cracker! And inside the crispy shell was a mouthful of snow-white, piping-hot scorpion meat that tasted richer than lobster and juicier than roasted chicken, completely soaked in spicy garlic lamb oil!
Best of all, when Stone chewed up the crispy tail stinger and swallowed it, a ball of hot, pure heat burst in his stomach and rushed straight into his arms and back!
"It's delicious! Even the tail is sweet and crunchy!" Stone roared, grabbing nine more fried scorpions with his hands and stuffing them into his mouth one after another—crunch, crunch, crunch, crunch!
The moment Stone swallowed his tenth fried scorpion—
BOOM!
A muffled pop echoed from inside Stone's broad shoulders and spine!
His sunburned skin flushed bright red as a surge of hot Yang-Blood Vigor washed through his muscles and tendons. Before everyone's eyes, the muscles on Stone's arms swelled by half an inch, turning tight and hard as cured bull-hide!
Stone grabbed a four-hundred-pound granite boundary stone sitting beside the ditch, roared "UP!", and lifted the massive rock right up to his chest!
==================================================================== [ CITIZEN BREAKTHROUGH ALERT! ] * Citizen: Stone (Shi Tou) * Consumed: 10 Crispy Deep-Fried Scorpions (+100 Jin Strength!) * Realm Upgraded: Rank 0 Mortal -> RANK 1 EARLY MARTIAL! * Daily LP Contribution: +1 LP -> +10 LP / DAY! ====================================================================
"Stone broke through to Rank 1 Early Martial just from eating ten fried scorpions?!"
Old Wei's jaw dropped. Back in the Marquisate's army camp, a mortal recruit had to train for two years and eat three silver taels' worth of Blood-Boiling Herbs to toughen his skin and muscles into Rank 1 Early Martial!
"Eat! Hurry up and fry the rest, Uncle Guo!"
With Stone as living proof, the whole village went crazy for fried scorpions!
Old Guo fried ten full batches—all five hundred and twelve scorpions—in half an hour. Pei Xuan ate ten himself, feeling his Rank 1 Mid Martial strength jump from 800 Jin to 900 Jin, right on the doorstep of Rank 1 Peak!
Meanwhile, Pei Xuan had Hong Ling distribute the bulk of the five hundred fried scorpions to the strongest young farmers, herders, and artisans who were already close to the martial threshold.
CRUNCH! CRUNCH! BOOM! BOOM!
Across the torchlit village square, one burly man after another finished his tenth fried scorpion and let out a thunderous roar as hot blood-Qi burst through his skin and muscles!
First was the blacksmith Uncle Tie, who punched an old wooden post in half as he broke through to Rank 1 Early Martial!
Next were two of Old Shepherd Ma's tallest sons, followed by twelve of the strongest young farmers from Dry-Well Village!
In a single night of snacking around the fire-pits, fifteen mortal citizens broke through to Rank 1 Early Martial (+10 LP/day each instead of +1 LP/day), and every single remaining refugee and bandit debtor in the village shot past 60+ Loyalty!
==================================================================== [ TERRITORY STATUS UPDATE: MIDNIGHT PRE-CHECK ] -------------------------------------------------------------------- * Total Population: 284 (100% Loyal — All 284 Citizens & Debtors are now at 65+ Loyalty!) * Realm Breakdown: - 21 Rank-1 Martial Fighters (Old Wei, Hong Ling, Old Guo, One-Eyed Jack, 2 Bandit Veterans, + 15 Newly Promoted Citizens led by Stone & Uncle Tie!) x 10 LP = +210 LP / day - 263 Rank-0 Loyal Citizens & Debtors x 1 LP = +263 LP / day -------------------------------------------------------------------- >> NEW DAILY INCOME: +400+ LP / DAY! (Exact: +473 LP at Midnight!) >> CURRENT BALANCE: 100 LP ====================================================================
Just as everyone was laughing and licking the spicy garlic salt off their fingers, one of the newly loyal Rank-1 bandit veterans—a tall rider named Black-Mole whose Loyalty had just hit 76/100 after eating eight fried scorpions—suddenly froze.
He looked up at the bright full moon rising over the eastern dunes, and the color drained completely from his face.
"B-Boss Jack! Lord Pei!"
Black-Mole dropped his wooden tongs and sprinted over to Pei Xuan and One-Eyed Jack, dropping to his knees in terror.
"My Lord! I just remembered something terrible!" Black-Mole shouted, pointing up at the full moon. "Before we rode out of the Sand-Jackal Oasis three days ago, our Chief—Scarface Wolf—made a pact with Boss Jack! He said if Boss Jack didn't return to camp with Dry-Well Village's tax silver before the full moon rose tonight, Scarface Wolf would think something went wrong and lead all one hundred elite riders of the Sand-Jackal Gang here at dawn tomorrow to slaughter the whole village!"