The giant lizard before me gave me a feeling of intelligence.
Its eyes, when meeting mine, seemed like those of an aged elder, filled with a sense of weathered experience.
I didn't know if this was merely my perception, but I was certain this lizard king was no ordinary creature. If Fatty had opened fire with that barrage, our chances of survival would have truly diminished to zero.
"Brother Xiang, what are we waiting for?" Fatty asked, his voice laced with impatience.
I didn't know what we were waiting for either. As the lizard king approached us, I took a deep breath and surprisingly, began to speak to it. "My name is Xiang Fei, and this is Fatty... We are new to this place and inadvertently injured one of your kind just now... It was not our intention. We hope you can grant us passage. As the saying goes, it's better to resolve enmity than to foster it..."
Fatty stared at me, conversing with a lizard, his expression momentarily stunned. Then he blurted out, "Brother Xiang, have you gone soft from fear? It can understand what you're saying?"
I told Fatty to shut up. Then, I noticed the lizard king glance at the guns in Fatty's and my hands.
I pursed my lips and motioned for Fatty to put his gun down. He blinked, "Brother Xiang, are you kidding me? This gun is our only hope of getting out of here alive..."
"Stop the nonsense, put it down when I tell you to!" I retorted.
Fatty was reluctant, but he followed my instructions and placed the gun on the ground. I, too, dropped my handgun, adopting a gesture of surrender.
The lizard king's eyes shifted. It then moved to the side, picked up the lizard that Fatty had killed, and brought it before us.
Seeing this, Fatty asked, "What does the lizard king want?"
I replied, "It seems it wants you to pay with your life..."
Fatty’s face contorted, "No way? Is that really what it means?"
Truthfully, I had no idea what the lizard king intended. If only I could communicate with it.
The reason I said that was to try and scare Fatty.
"Brother Xiang, I killed that lizard to save you just now. It's not fair if I have to pay for it alone," Fatty protested.
"Nonsense! How were you saving me? That lizard wasn't doing anything to me. You just opened fire with a burst!" 138 Reading Net
"That's not how it was. We need to be reasonable... the situation at the time..."
Before Fatty could finish, the lizard king nudged the injured lizard in front of us with its claw.
It was then that I noticed, despite Fatty's burst, the injured lizard was still alive.
Could it be that the lizard king wanted us to perform surgery on it?
With that thought, I quickly told Fatty to get the medical kit and then went to examine the lizard on the ground.
I discovered that the bullets Fatty had fired hadn't hit any vital organs. Several bullets were lodged in its scales.
Only two of the bullets had actually struck its body, both in its abdomen.
I used tweezers to remove the bullets from the lizard's abdomen and then applied some hemostatic medicine.
I wasn't sure if this would work, but soon the lizard stirred, appearing to have improved significantly.
At this point, the lizard king extended its long tongue and spat out something black from its mouth. The substance resembled jelly, soft and gelatinous, with some liquid clinging to it.
After it was expelled, the moribund lizard extended its tongue and swallowed the substance. Immediately, the injured lizard could move, and within moments, it crawled back into the throng of lizards.
Fatty and I were dumbfounded. From the look in Fatty's eyes, I knew what he wanted to say.
He probably wanted to ask: Brother Xiang, has this lizard become a spirit?
That was precisely what I wanted to say as well.
This was simply unbelievable. Although the old saying goes that all things have spirit, what was before us was clearly more than just spirited!
And what was that substance it had spat out?
My mind felt like it was struggling to keep up.
The lizard king stared at Fatty and me, baring its teeth as if issuing a warning.
After a few minutes, it turned and walked towards the exit. As it moved, the other lizards also retreated like a tide.
Once all the lizards had left, Fatty and I felt utterly drained, collapsing onto the ground, drenched in sweat.
"Brother Xiang, what did that big lizard mean when it stuck out its tongue at us at the end?" Fatty asked.
I replied, "It was probably warning us to mind our own business..."
Fatty looked dejected, "Damn it, this is the first time I've met a lizard that could talk sense. That guy must have been hanging around with the tough crowd..."
I retorted irritably, "You have the nerve to say that! If you hadn't been greedy, would we have provoked them?"
"You can't blame me for that! If I had known they understood our human ways, I never would have fired my gun..."
I sighed, "We should leave this place quickly and try to meet up with Brother Yang and the others."
Fatty nodded. Just as he stood up, he yelped in pain. I asked him what was wrong, and he clutched his stomach, "I need to... go!"
"You never accomplish anything, only make things worse! I told you not to eat that meat earlier, and now look at you!" I said, exasperated.
"I can't help it, stop scolding me. I need to relieve myself first..."
Fatty scurried off to a corner, and soon I heard the sounds of his flatulence. I quickly covered my nose and waited by the doorway.
After a few minutes, Fatty emerged, looking relaxed, "So refreshing..."
I looked at him and said, "Will you dare to eat random things again next time?"
"Don't worry, I promise I'll never eat anything randomly again..." Fatty grinned at me.
I shook my head in resignation and said, "Give me a piece of paper."
My hands were covered in the lizard's blood and some sticky residue. I was about to ask Fatty for paper to wipe them clean, when he said, "Where would I get paper?"
"Then what do you use to wipe your backside?"
As soon as I asked, I realized one sleeve of his shirt was missing.
"You scoundrel, you're really something else!"
"I'm just improvising. I had no choice..."
When we returned to the main passage, we bumped into Yang Hanxue and Guan Zhenwan.
It turned out they had come over after hearing the gunshots and asked us what had happened.
I recounted the incident with the lizards. Guan Zhenwan found it incredible, while Yang Hanxue remained unfazed. "Any animal that lives long enough will develop some intelligence; it's not that strange. However, what you mentioned about the substance it spat out, it sounds like some kind of medicine."
"Medicine?" The thought of that dark, sticky substance made me feel a bit nauseous.
"Yes, it's similar to how bat droppings are a type of traditional Chinese medicine, known as 'Night Shining Powder'," Yang Hanxue explained.