918 Poisoned

"Pardon my question, but this one can be used to kill people, right?" Lu Xiufeng asked with a smile.

Miao Qingfeng was stunned.

"This one? Of course, it can."

"Ha-ha, I was just casually asking about it. Don't take it too seriously." Lu Xiufeng smiled as he patted Miao Qingfeng on the shoulder. The latter just smiled. He would not take it seriously. They would never use that kind of thing to kill people there. It was too boorish. Of course, he could only keep that kind of information in his heart. He could not tell them that.

They chased after their prey. They kept venturing deeper into the jungle.

"What is that smell?" Yang Guanfeng suddenly stopped in his tracks.

"Smell?"

Lu Xiufeng and Miao Qingfeng stopped to smell the environment.

It was a very familiar smell. That is… It's the stench of a corpse!

The three of them searched toward the direction the smell was coming from. In the weeds under a tree, deep in the deep jungle, they found a rotting corpse. Although the body had begun to smell, they were able to see that there were two obvious wounds on the body. One was on the abdomen, and the other was on the neck.

"What happened?"

The three men went forward.

"The time of death was about seven days ago," Lu Xiufeng said after examining the body. "The fatal injury was on the neck. His throat was sliced with one move. It had to have been fast and accurate."

"Is this someone from your stockade?"

Miao Qingfeng looked carefully and said, "No."

"If I remember correctly, there are no other stockaded villages in this area, correct?"

"That's right. Our stockade is the only one."

"Now, another death case has happened near your stockade. Obviously, he didn't commit suicide," Lu Xiufeng said.

"We are willing to cooperate with the investigation," Miao Qingfeng said.

The sudden appearance of the body had disrupted their original arrangements, including Lu Xiufeng's and Yang Guanfeng's original plans.

"Sorry, but we need to discuss this for a bit."

They went to one side and talked in low voices for a while. They felt that this was a good opportunity instead of a bad one. Since this body had suddenly appeared, they could use this as an appropriate reason to continue to go deeper into the jungle, especially to the place the secret message had indicated.

"Search around to see if you can find other clues first," Lu Xiufeng said to Miao Qingfeng.

"We need your cooperation with this. After all, we are not familiar with this area."

"Sure." Miao Qingfeng agreed without any hesitation.

They began to search the jungle and soon found a dagger with dried blood on it.

Lu Xiufeng leaned down and looked at the dagger blade carefully before he exclaimed, "This is the murder weapon!"

"Continue."

They continued their search.

Miao Qingfeng suddenly said, "Wait a minute."

"What's the matter?"

He looked at the jungle ahead of them and said, "Try not to go on ahead."

"Why?"

"There are poisonous creatures in there," Miao Qingfeng replied. "The extremely terrible kind."

"Even the people in our stockade seldom go in. Some of them have been seriously injured when they went in by mistake."

"Is that so?" Lu Xiufeng and Yang Guanfeng looked at each other.

According to the information they got, the place where they were experimenting was somewhere in the jungle in front of them, but Miao Qingfeng had stopped them. Either he told the truth and there was something terrible in it, or he was afraid that they would go in and see those things. Obviously, the possibility of the latter was higher.

"Not even you can go in?" Lu Xiufeng asked.

"No way." Miao Qingfeng shook his head decisively.

"How about this, we'll go in and have a look," Yang Guanfeng said after a moment of thought. "If we detect any abnormalities, we will return immediately."

"Is it too dangerous?" Lu Xiufeng wondered.

"It is indeed too dangerous." Miao Qingfeng agreed.

"Let's all go back to the stronghold first. I'll report the situation to the chief and ask him to send people from the stronghold to accompany you. They can prepare all the medication needed to get rid of the poisonous insects. It will be safer that way."

"Let's go in and have a look?" Yang Guanfeng continued walking forward. Lu Xiufeng followed.

"Captain Yang!"

After a short walk, they found a bloody shirt. The blood on it had dried up. "There is a discovery!"

Lu Xiufeng squatted down and looked at it carefully. He gestured as he estimated the measurements of the shirt.

"It's not from the dead man just now. The body shape is not the same. This person is much shorter and thinner than the man just now. He is also hurt."

"I see it. There are bloodstains here." Yang Guanfeng found bloodstains among the weeds on the ground.

"Be careful."

The three of them had slowed down a lot. They followed the intermittent blood trail for a long time. After quite a while, the blood trail suddenly stopped and never connected again.

"What happened?"

"He simply bandaged his wound over here," Yang Guanfeng said. "he blood from the wound did not fall anymore." There were some torn clothes with bloodstains under the trees.

"Brother Miao, is this local cloth from your stockade?" Lu Xiufeng asked as he picked up the torn pieces of clothing.

The people in the Valley of Thousands of Medicine wore different clothing from people on the outside because they did not have much connection with the outside world. They were self-sufficient regarding everything. They ate the grains they planted and livestock they reared. They wore clothes made of the cloth textile they had spun and made. This kind of cloth could not be bought outside, and the people outside would not wear this kind of cloth.

"Yes, it's the local cloth from the stockade." Miao Qingfeng confirmed after he reached out and touched the cloth.

"Is he someone from your stockade?" Lu Xiufeng asked.

"I'm not sure about that either," Miao Qingfeng said.

"Shall we keep looking?"

They continued to search among the trees. They walked on for a while and found a mountain with many rocks.

"What is that smell?"

"It stinks like the smell of a corpse," Lu Xiufeng said.

"Huh?" Yang Guanfeng suddenly felt a contracting pain in his lower leg. Upon looking down, he saw that a 4-inch centipede had bitten his leg. Its black exoskeleton was like steel.

"No!" Miao Qingfeng exclaimed in shock upon seeing the situation. He quickly pulled out a dagger from his waist and pried the centipede away.

"Captain Yang, how do you feel?"

"It's numb here," Yang Guanfeng said. "I'm a little dizzy."

"This centipede is highly poisonous," Miao Qingfeng anxiously said.

"Eat this." He took a pill out of his pocket and asked Yang Guanfeng to take it. He quickly picked him up, put him on his back, and started to go back.

"We have to get back to the stockade quickly," Miao Qingfeng said. "It will be bad if we take too long."

"Let's hurry up!" Lu Xiufeng exclaimed.

At this stage, they could not go on with their plan. They could only go back to the stockade to cure Yang Guanfeng's injury.

Miao Qingfeng was very fast. He shuttled through the dense jungle like an agile leopard. Lu Xiufeng was behind him. He was alone and the other person was carrying a person on his back, yet he could just barely keep up.

He thought, Phew, this guy is a trained martial artist! He could see something from the other person's steps.

"Captain Yang, Captain Yang?" Miao Qingfeng called Yang Guanfeng constantly while running.

Yang Guanfeng was extremely dizzy and felt cold. He had begun to shiver.

"He's shivering," Lu Xiufeng said.

"I know," Miao Qingfeng said. "That is one of the symptoms of poisoning."

"Can you hurry up and go back to treat him first?" Lu Xiufeng asked. He was really worried about his good friend. "You don't have to care about me."

"No, I can't leave you here alone," Miao Qingfeng said. "It's too dangerous. Any poisonous snake or centipede may kill you. Don't worry. I've given him the antidote. It can suppress the toxin so it won't spread so fast."

They sped through the jungle. After a while, Lu Xiufeng was sweating and out of breath. Miao Qingfeng, who had Yang Guanfeng on his back, was still running just as fast and breathing evenly.

Finally, they arrived at the stockade. Upon reaching it, Miao Qingfeng kept on carrying Yang Guanfeng straight to the residence of Miao Xihe.

"Chief."

"What's the matter?" It was another person who came out. He was the young man who often accompanied the chief.

"Captain Yang has been poisoned," Miao Qingfeng said.

"Come in, hurry!" Miao Xihe's voice sounded from inside.

They hurriedly carried Yang Guanfeng into the house.

"Chief."

"What happened?" Miao Xihe asked.

"Captain Yang was bitten by a centipede," Miao Qingfeng said.

Miao Xihe took a look at the wound. He saw that the position where he had been bitten was already red, swollen, and blue.

"Was it a red-headed centipede?" he asked.

"Yes."

"Why were you so careless?" Miao Xihe asked.

"It's my fault for not taking care of them," Miao Qingfeng said.

"Go get me the medicine," Miao Xihe told the young man beside him. The young man quickly brought a small gray-brown mud jar over. Miao Xihe took it. After opening it, there was a kind of black and blue ointment inside. He took a little with the tip of his finger and applied it to Yang Guanfeng's wound. He next dabbed a little warm water on it and melted it before he fed it to him.

"All done," Miao Xihe said. "Help him back to rest. He will be fine in two days."

"Thank you so much, Chief Miao," Lu Xiufeng said.

"It's no problem," Miao Xihe said. "This is because we did not take proper care of you."

"Umm, he won't have any sequelae, will he?" Lu Xiufeng asked.

"No," Miao Xihe said with a smile. "I have detoxified this kind of poison more than once."