Chrysalis 21

  Woo~, brothers and sisters, fire support! Votes, I'm still one short of getting on the list! Endless gratitude!

  －－－－－－－－－－－－－－－

  The autumn wind carries a piercing chill.

  Ye Qin's hands and feet moved nimbly as he grasped the rope, climbing up along the steep rock wall. Before the sky was completely dark, he had ascended to the top of the mountain and returned to his temporary dwelling under a massive boulder at the summit.

  Mountain top, night wind is biting cold.

  Ye Qin picked up some dry firewood and wild grass, struck the flint to ignite it, and lit a bonfire under a huge rock. He set up a small iron pot and boiled some water for drinking. In the light of the fire, he could clearly see that his blue coarse cloth shirt had been torn open in several places, with several scars on his arms and body, and not a few hard black scabs.

  Looking at his injuries all over his body, he smiled bitterly again, revealing a hint of bitterness.

  A wave of fatigue washed over his body. However, he couldn't rest yet, so he cleaned the wound, found a low-grade hemostatic herb from the large grass basket, chewed it up, and applied it, gritting his teeth in pain.

  After finishing all this, he tidied up the small grass medicine basket and counted today's harvest. This is his greatest harvest after a busy day, and also his happiest time.

  Ye Qin Qing finished counting the herbs and was so excited that she almost cheered on the spot.

  Today, the herbs picked on the cliff are worth hundreds of copper coins, which is equivalent to three or four days of picking herbs in ordinary times. And that doesn't include the rare little green grass picked at the edge of the overhanging rock. It seems that taking risks also has its benefits.

  All the herbs were sorted and put into a large herb basket.

  Ye Qin finally picked up the small green grass, which after being dug out did not wither like other herbs, but remained fresh and tender. The dew drops were still on it, and even emitted a faint fragrance of herbs, making him have an intense urge to swallow it in one gulp.

  Ye Qinjiang endured this urge, lovingly looked at it again and again, but still couldn't identify its accurate value, and couldn't help feeling a little frustrated. It seems that he can only wait until he returns to the medicine hall in the county town and ask those experienced pharmacists to appraise it.

  Carefully use a leather bag to pack the roots of that small grass, including mud and root hairs.

  Gulu.

  Ye Qin rubbed his belly and felt a little hungry in his stomach.

  He pulled out the gray egg from the small grass medicine basket, and he couldn't help but laugh, revealing a vicious expression. In his heart, he thought: You damned flat-haired beasts, dare to catch me, almost got me killed, I'll eat your eggs.

  He carefully wiped off the smelly mud and withered grass leaves on the eggshell with his clothes.

  The shell of this gray egg has some strange marks on it, which seem to be faint scratches, like the gray eagle inadvertently scratched out a grayish-white mark, or a mysterious ancient inscription. Occasionally, a thrilling purple light flashes from the depths of the marks.

  Unfortunately, Ye Qin's stomach was almost starving to death, and the mountain top was pitch black again. Where could he go back to figure out what was strange about this gray egg?

  Ye Qin picked up the egg and gently tapped it against the edge of the pot, causing the shell to crack open with many fine cracks, but the thin membrane inside held everything together, not a single drop of yolk spilled out, showing off his skillful technique.

  Ye Qin cracked the eggshell, carefully peeled off a piece of the broken shell, poked through the thin membrane, and with the shell still attached to his mouth, he tilted his head back and sucked in hard. Whoosh! The entire egg white and yolk were swallowed whole, followed by a burp. Finally, he meticulously licked the inside and outside of the shell clean, not leaving behind even a single strand of egg white, and even swallowing the membrane. When it came to food, he would never waste a single bit.

  "It's really delicious, and those flat-haired eggs taste pretty good too!"

  He licked his lips with an unspoken implication.

  The sky had darkened, and Ye Qin hadn't noticed that the shell of this gray egg was ordinary, but the egg white and yolk inside emitted a faint gray glow, like a spirit or an illusion, light as if it were nothing, yet heavy as a mountain range. It slid into his abdomen and disappeared without a trace.

  A clean eggshell was casually discarded by him beside the bonfire.

  Ye Qin ate the ash egg and felt contentedly patted his little belly.

  He spread some straw under the giant stone on the mountain top, extinguished the bonfire, and was about to lie down to sleep. Suddenly, he felt a mighty breath in his abdomen, like the sea stirring up thousands of feet of crazy waves. His small body was like a small lake, which could not accommodate such a wild impact at all.

  What's going on?

  Ye Qin was shocked greatly.

  Did I eat poison at some point?

  With his experience of studying herbal medicine in recent years, only after eating highly toxic substances would he suddenly feel severe abdominal pain like a knife.

  But I didn't eat anything special tonight either.

  Isn't it that eagle egg?

  It's unlikely.

  No matter what kind of beast or poisonous insect lays eggs, it's almost impossible for the eggs to be toxic. Eagle eggs are even less likely to be toxic; he had never heard anyone say such an absurd thing before. If we rule out the egg itself, then the only possibility is that there was some highly toxic mud or poison on the shell of the egg that wasn't wiped clean and was eaten along with it.

  Ye Qin's mind instinctively and quickly analyzed various possibilities.

  He was in so much pain that he crawled towards the large grass medicine basket, wanting to find some detoxifying herbs to eat. Although he didn't know what kind of poison he had been poisoned with, there were many antidotes in the grass medicine basket. There were also herbs that could make him vomit, vomiting out the poison he had eaten and reducing its potency.

  But he couldn't crawl past, already in so much pain that he almost rolled on the ground, just wanting to scream loudly and vent out the overwhelming waves inside him, lest he faint from the pain.

  Mustn't panic, mustn't faint, otherwise if can't get antidote in time, will definitely die!

  Ye Qin gritted his teeth and crawled desperately towards the most important place in his consciousness, reaching the large grass medicine basket and stretching out his hand. It was precisely this calmness and will to survive that had kept him alive all these years.

  He clung to his last will, grasped a handful of herbs, and could no longer see what it was, just wanting to desperately stuff it into his mouth. But a strong gust of air struck his forehead, let out a miserable cry, and fainted.

  Everything has not stopped.

  Ye Qin's skin emitted a hot aura, and soon his entire body was enveloped in a white misty vapor. His whole body's veins bulged out, his face contorted in pain and ferocity, his meridians constantly expanding and contracting. A mysterious power wildly surged within him, his blood boiling, and threads of fresh blood flowed from his five senses.

  Even his surroundings produced a whirlpool, this vortex was windless, yet automatic, countless withered grass, mud, broken stones, and the unburned dry branches in the bonfire heap, the twinkling embers, were brought into motion by the whirlpool, flying around Ye Qin, gradually wrapping him into a tight cocoon of withered grass.

  Ye Qin's whole body fainted inside the sealed cocoon, his hand still tightly grasping that tender and delicate little grass.