“There is a way, but a tough one to overcome.”

If there was a way to get out of the Land of Ruins, there would be a possibility of eating meat. Fine, I had no idea when I started to get so obsessed with meat. The longer it was, the more powerful this obsession became. The thought of it just made my mouth water like a toddler. Hunger just made me forget all the other possible dangers.

I swallowed a bit and asked, “What way, Grandpa Jin?”

He laughed, “Wings, of course!”

What!? Wings!?

He explained, “with those mountains, there is no other way but to fly over them. All it needs is the first pair of wings.”

Now I got why it was so important to have wings on the Aniesian Continent. Otherwise you couldn’t even eat one bite of that damn meat!

My dream just died after hearing this, because there was no way for a human to gain a pair of wings. All I could ever do was fly over those mountains in my dream, and enjoy a feast of steak, pork ribs, and chicken drumsticks!

The reality was just too cruel to handle.

The conversation seemed to use up all my energy, and my legs were super sore after a few days’ walking. I slowed down in pace, and Grandpa Jin looked back.

“LiNa, should we rest for a couple of minutes?”

“Okay……” I replied lethargically.

We found a huge rock, and sat there to take a drink of water. So far we hadn’t encountered any mythical creatures, which was pretty good. If there was one, it would be unfortunate because I had no magic power and Grandpa Jin only had his bow and arrows. He could grow anesthetic fruits, but certainly had no magic arts to fight at all.

“We are close to time, plus we still need to walk back which would take a few days as well. Even if we are able to find the snow lotus on the fifth day, it wouldn’t be enough time to make it back for the young man.” Grandpa Jin said.

I couldn’t help but drown in disappointment, but at least we tried and left no regrets.

Out of boredom, I used the walking stick to poke the snow near my feet.

Wait……weren’t those ladybug-like red berries?

I took a closer look at them, and confirmed that they were indeed the same berries. Although it was winter, the plant lost all its leaves, but the berries still were super flesh and vivid in color, as if stored in a refrigerator. To be more exact, a freezer would be a better word in this case.

I picked one up and examined it in my hand, when suddenly Grandpa Jin took that berry and threw it away!

Grandpa Jin said in a worrying tone, “Good thing we are wearing gloves, but if there is a wound on your hand and somehow comes into contact with its juice, soon the poison would take over the body.”

Oh gosh, that day I was playing with them in my own bare hands!

They were indeed poisonous!

“They are Death Berries, growing on the borderline of the village. These berries are lethal poisons to all living creatures, just a little one is more than enough to kill a full grown demon, even its juice could cause permanent damage in the body. We are glad to have so many of them here to keep the mythical creatures away from the village, but at the same time, they are fatal if unknowingly swallowed.”

Well……...that sounded scary enough.

My back sweated a little after recalling the details of the first day. I hurried and moved away from the berries.

“Grandpa Jin, we can’t find flower, so go back now?”

“Unfortunately we will have to go back, like I said before, finding the snow lotus is plain luck and fate. We might not have the fate of the snow lotus this time.”

I sighed, and stared at the Death Berries.

All of a sudden, I had this crazy idea. Well, that dude’s body already had a chronic poison, what if we gave him some Death Berries to fight against the existing poison, maybe he would somehow pull it through?

I sure watched a few wuxia dramas on the TV, and this was always the remedy to save someone who got poisoned. I communicated my idea with Grandpa Jin, and he looked very stunned. He probably thought I was crazy, and maybe I was indeed.

“Why not try to treat a dead horse? He’s gonna die, this might be only chance.” I said.

That was quite true. He was going to die anyways, so there was no risk of doing this. He couldn’t die twice. Even if it didn’t work, at least we had tried everything we could to save him.

Grandpa Jin nodded as if thinking deeply, “It sounds like in your world, poison against poison is a real remedy.”

Not really, not in my world, but in the wuxia world, and I had no idea how to explain this to someone.

At last he said, “Alright, we will try. It’s the last chance, we have nothing to lose.”

That being said, we hurried and got to work. We found a small bag, and with our gloved hands carefully picked a few Death Berries and put them in the small bag, and then kept it in a safe spot.

While we were doing this, there were some random oink-like sounds, and the sounds seemed to get closer bit by bit. It sounded like my dad’s snoring when he napped on the sofa on a warm summer day. Grandpa Jin became very alert, and slowly took out the bow and arrow, and looked 360 degrees around.

I was confused, because that sounded like a little piggy. What was so scary about it?

Suddenly out of nowhere, a ton of snow flew out, and a small creature jumped into the air and landed right in front of us!

Oh dear, it was a pig!

My mouth started to water, and swallowed a few times. I could already smell the bacon in the air!

Oh, I would sprinkle some salt on the bacon, and cook it in the bonfire. The oil and juice would drip down and sizzle with tiny bubbles. The air would smell like bacon, and soon after the piece of bacon would dance inside my mouth!

I would also roast some pork ribs in the fire, and roast all the other parts of its body without wasting anything. What a great night it would be spending the time with Grandpa Jin and Grandma Sha, and the yummy juicy roasted pig!

It would be like heaven!

As I was dreaming about how to cook this pig, someone pulled me back and I fell heavily in the snow.

It was Grandpa Jin! He was trying to protect me against………….

A pig!?

He pulled and aimed the arrow at the pig, and let go. The sharp arrow shot through the cold air, and damn, it missed! That pig was sure quick like wind. Grandpa Jin frowned and was serious. That was definitely not in a hunting mode, but more like life and death!?

His reactions were so similar to when I was being chased by the kirin, but that was just a pig. What could a pig do?

Once I dragged myself back to reality from the pork feast, I started to realize that this pig looked a little weird. Its skin was dark pink with black polka dots, and there were two dangling light bulbs on the head like an anglerfish. While it was fighting with Grandpa Jin, it was also chewing!?

Yes, I wasn’t mistaken! It was freaking chewing on some food!

It didn’t look exactly like a pig, but its appetite was surely the same as a pig’s. Red juice came out from the corner of its mouth like blood, and its eyes also shone in red light. All right, I would call it the angler angry pig!

It was glowing in pink, and super fierce, no better name could describe this pig.

“What is it!” I asked Grandpa Jin while running to catch up with him.

His eyes and arrow tip were still focused on that pig, “It’s the Spotty Boar! It might seem innocent and harmless, but it’s full of incurable toxins. We can’t let that thing come close to us. Even its slightest aura could poison us to death within a second!”

“Poison!?”

“Yes, poison, see the red juice from its mouth. Those were Death Berries.”

Huh?!

I thought the Death Berries kept us safe from the other mythical creatures. How could this little piggy eat the fatal berries?