Back to the Peak

Chapter 60: Ant Eggs

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Shi Qingyang had taken good care of his body over the past two years.
Although he was injured, he felt that his physical strength recovered greatly after a short rest.

Although he now had to take care of two people, things were much better than they had been in the past.
At that time, he had been alone in this small nest room, surrounded by darkness, and there were monsters all around that would eat him outside.
One could only imagine the fear and despair in his heart then.
Now, at least someone was with him.

After a short rest, Shi Qingyang sat up.
There was no way to stand up straight in this place.
He had another injury on his leg, so he simply shifted his body, and then put all the ant eggs in the middle of the nest next to him.
Then he let the unconscious Gu Changjin lie in the middle and looked at Cheng Ran: “Ranran, you should also sleep here for a while.”

“What about you?” Cheng Ran asked.

“I’ll watch the entrance,” Shi Qingyang said.

“Will those ant beasts outside come for us? Ant beasts have great strength…” 

“Don’t worry, those ant beasts don’t take us seriously.
In their view, we may be food reserves.
Even if they want to deal with us, those ordinary worker ants won’t know how to remove the stones.
On the contrary, we’re the ones to watch out for.
Once I’ve taken a rest, I can open a hole that’ll only let one ant beast in at a time, and then deal with them one by one.”

In the dark, Cheng Ran couldn’t see Shi Qingyang’s expression clearly, but Shi Qingyang’s determination made him relax.

“You have a good sleep.
When you wake up, we’ll kill the ant beasts together,” Shi Qingyang said again.

“Alright,” Cheng Ran answered and lay down in the dark.

Shi Qingyang touched the water and food on his body and sat down against the rock at the entrance of the cave.
He used to sleep here for a long time.
At that time, what he hoped most was to escape and never come back.
Unexpectedly, here he was sitting in this position again.

After running so long and walking so far, he was already hungry.
Cheng Ran should also be hungry, but he only let Cheng Ran sleep and didn’t have him eat, for nothing else than because he didn’t know how long they would need to stay here.

Now that they were outside the city, there was no way for them to communicate with others.
Maybe someone would arrive for them soon, but the wild area was so vast, wouldn’t it be difficult for rescuers to find them? It’d be fine for him.
In the beginning, he had survived by eating mutant beast meat, so this time, he wouldn’t die easily.
But it was different for Cheng Ran.
Now, Cheng Ran’s survival counted on the food they’d brought with them.

Shi Qingyang suddenly regretted that although he had the habit of bringing food, he didn’t bring much, and he didn’t know how many days’ worth was left for Cheng Ran to eat…

There was also Gu Changjin.
There were many ant eggs in the nest.
In his previous life, this was the food he ate first, but this time he didn’t eat them immediately.
The reason was because he was thinking of Gu Changjin.
Gu Changjin’s state was very poor.
If he hadn’t been a level-5 rad-energy warrior with strong adaptability, he might have died long ago.
Like this, he couldn’t eat ant beast meat directly.
Instead, these ant eggs could be brought to him after he broke them open.

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Although Shi Qingyang was stronger than in his previous life, there were too many ant beasts outside.
He’d be surrounded the second he went out, so naturally  he couldn’t leave to scavenge ant eggs.
These had to be saved.

After rebirth, Shi Qingyang was not so hungry.
He touched his stomach and slept next to the rock.

In this cave, there was no day or night at all.
After sleeping and waking up, Shi Qingyang looked at the time and found that the next day had come.

At this time, people in the city should have found out about their disappearance.
He didn’t know how they would deal with it…

Xing Ou must be full of regret at this time.
He was also the first suspect; after all, he was the one who hired the mobile town.
Cheng Xuze must be very anxious to find them now, but it was a pity the wilds were so vast that it wouldn’t be easy to find them…

There was also those who plotted against them this time… Although those people had been clamoring to exchange Cheng Ran for the prescription of the Almighty Elixir, they hunted them down with no intention of catching Cheng Ran alive.
Shi Qingyang was convinced that the so-called exchange for Almighty Elixir was just a cover they used to divert others’ attention.

The culprit who made this move was most likely the Yin family.
They had operated in Spark City for so many years, it was easy to install several of their people around Xing Ou.
Naturally, Xing Ou could be persuaded to arrange a mobile town for them, where the Yin Family could arrange people to intercept them along the way.

Moreover, after the Yin Family did this, others would certainly not doubt them.
You know, the Yin Family only had two level-5 rad-warriors, they were just a small family in Spark City.
How could they order about another level-5 rad-warrior? The Yin Family did have a little conflict with him, but he was really just a small opposition.
And the Yin Family had been very calm in the past two years…

Who would think that the Yin Family dared to fight them? Who would have thought that the Yin Family could make such a big scene? When Cheng Xuze checked, he might directly check those big families in Yangtze City!

At the same time, Spark City was under the management of Xing Ou.
If something like this happened, Xing Ou would be held accountable while the Yin family would benefit the most.

Thinking of this, Shi Qingyang felt something was wrong again.
How could the Yin Family give orders to a level-5 rad-warrior? Level-5 radiation warriors, even in the Cheng family, were highly valued.
If Gu Changjin hadn’t committed a crime, he would never just be a housekeeper.
His strength was more than enough to be the dean of an academy, like You Liangping.
How could such a person be willing to help the Yin Family? How could such a person be willing to offend the Cheng family to the point of murder?

Shi Qingyang became more and more confused, and suddenly thought of the mobile town of the Yin family that Liu Qilin had been paying attention to.

There was no doubt that the Yin family did a lot of illegal things in that mobile town.
Since they didn’t even care about killing people, they naturally dared to take in some criminals.

There were many wanted criminals in the country, many of whom were strong.
After they broke the law and committed crimes, they would escape from the city in order to avoid legal sanctions.

In the wild, it was difficult for humans to survive for a long time.
For them, the best way was to find a mobile town to settle down, and some private mobile towns would also accommodate these people.

In this way, the whole thing made sense.
The Yin Family had always wanted to overthrow Xing Ou and regain control of Spark City.
Both the Cheng family and Xing Ou were thorns in their eyes.
This time, they could simply kill two birds with one stone.

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The people who chased and killed them should be the criminals found by the Yin Family who had fled from a city.
Shi Qingyang once heard that there were special murderers outside the city who could help people kill outside the city bounds.
Most likely, those people who had hunted them down belong to that group.

Cheng Ran was an ordinary person, Shi Qingyang was only a level-2 rad-warrior, and was only eighteen years old.
Although Gu Changjin was powerful, he was now more than sixty years old…

In the eyes of those people, the success of killing the three of them should have seemed very likely.
They must have never thought that they would have eaten so many losses in the end…

Gu Changjin hadn’t woken up yet.
Shi Qingyang didn’t know what happened to the level-5 rad-warrior who chased them, but even if that man hadn’t died, he would certainly have been greatly injured.
There were also those who had been cheated by Shi Qingyang and left stranded on the road… They probably hated the driver of their car.

Shi Qingyang made up his mind that after he went out, he must practice his driving skills well, and then buy two of the best armored vehicles to keep handy!

Of course, the most important thing now was to find a way out.

Shi Qingyang thought through everything, and then, he felt a chill in his heart.
The problems with the Yin Family was caused by him.
If it weren’t for him, Cheng Ran would have had nothing to do with the Yin Family.

Even the excuse that those people made when they wanted to kill Cheng Ran, to exchange Cheng Ran for the Almighty Elixir, was caused by him.
If he hadn’t gone looking for Cheng Ran after his rebirth, Cheng Ran would have been safe right now…

Shi Qingyang punched the stone next to him until his hand was in severe pain, and finally calmed down a little.
No one would have been able to predict something like this.
The only thing he could do now was to do his best to protect Cheng Ran and Gu Changjin.

“Qingyang, are you awake?” Hearing the sounds from Shi Qingyang, Cheng Ran asked.

“I’m awake.
What’s the matter?” Shi Qingyang asked, opening the contact terminal at the same time, which made the cave a little brighter.

“Grandpa Gu has a fever,” Cheng Ran spoke anxiously.
He was carrying a lot of small things, including a detector to detect a person’s physical condition.
He didn’t sleep well, and he was afraid to disturb Shi Qingyang’s sleep, so he didn’t come to Shi Qingyang’s side.
But from time to time, he would test Gu Changjin’s body.

After each test, the detector would light a red light and ask him to send the patient to the hospital as soon as possible.
Just now, he detected a very high temperature.
He wanted to try to wake up Shi Qingyang, but he didn’t expect Shi Qingyang to wake up himself.

“Let me see,” Shi Qingyang said, and when he saw the temperature, the expression on his face became as ugly as Cheng Ran’s.

Gu Changjin’s temperature was too high now.
If it went on like this, he would burn to death!

“Qingyang, is there still water?” Cheng Ran asked.

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“Yes.” Shi Qingyang took out all the water and food on his body.
Even if he liked to bring food, he didn’t bring much.
Now there were four bottles of specially packaged water, five bottles of liquid nutrients, and some packaged dried meat.
He originally intended to leave all this for Cheng Ran, since as long as Cheng Ran didn’t move much, this could barely last him for a period of time.
“Give Grandpa Gu a bottle of water first.”

Gu Changjin had taught him many things, and had been taking care of him.
His parents were now very far away from him, and Gu Changjin had taken the place of an elder in his family.

Neither he nor Cheng Ran could watch Gu Changjin die.

Cheng Ran knew how much food Shi Qingyang brought, and what’s more, he knew Shi Qingyang’s appetite.
He hadn’t eaten anything for so long before that even if Shi Qingyang ate up all of the food they had here now, it probably wouldn’t be enough to fill him up.
But now, Shi Qingyang hadn’t eaten anything since they left the mobile town yesterday.

Without them, Shi Qingyang might not be involved in this matter at all, and he would certainly be better off.
Without them, Shi Qingyang would not have to drag two deadweights with him now.

Cheng Ran opened the package, put the water against Gu Changjin’s mouth, and fed him water little by little.
Shi Qingyang opened the contact terminal to cast some light illumination, and massaged Gu Changjin’s body over and over to help Gu Changjin swallow easier.

The two worked together and finally fed Gu Changjin all the water.
Shi Qingyang was relieved and worried–Gu Changjin obviously couldn’t eat ant eggs directly like he thought at the beginning.

After a moment of silence, Shi Qingyang opened another bottle of nutrient solution.

Cheng Ran fed half a bottle to Gu Changjin until Gu Changjin couldn’t swallow anymore.
Seeing this, Shi Qingyang took the bottle and screwed on the lid: “Ranran, this bottle of nutrient solution has been in contact with radiant energy.
It doesn’t matter if Grandpa Gu eats a little.
I’m afraid it’s harmful to your body.
You can open another bottle and eat it directly with the eating tube.”

“I’m not hungry, you’d better eat it,” Cheng Ran immediately said.
They had only so little food left.

“I don’t need it.
I can eat something else, but you must eat something, or you won’t be able to stand it,” Shi Qingyang said.

“Something else?” Cheng Ran subconsciously looked at the ant eggs.
There were ant beasts and ant beasts’ eggs in the nest room.
It was said that people ate them in ancient times, but now, because the ant nests were too troublesome to be destroyed without bombs, the price of ant eggs was still very expensive.

Although he had never seen anyone eat them, it was edible.

“I can eat the meat directly.” Shi Qingyang swallowed.
He was really hungry and thirsty.
He should find something to eat for himself.
Now the only food he could find was the ant beasts outside.

Shi Qingyang slightly removed the stone that blocked the hole, and immediately a crawling ant beast wanted to drill in.
Shi Qingyang attracted the radiation energy around him, lifted the knife and fell, and directly cut it in half from the joint.
He then killed two more  in the same way.
After simple processing, he took out only the edible meat, and the rest of the leftover materials were thrown down the hole.

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“Won’t they come for revenge?” Cheng Ran was a little surprised.

“As long as the queen ant doesn’t care, they won’t care about us.
What I just threw down should still enter their stomachs.
Moreover, even if they want to kill us, they can only get in from this entrance,” Shi Qingyang said.
In fact, the queen generally didn’t care about things like this, and was only responsible for giving birth to more ants.

Actually, he had good luck in his last life to hide in a place like this.
In the end, he grinded by killing ants one by one and inexplicably hit level-3.

Ant beasts didn’t have much to eat, but three ant beasts were enough for Shi Qingyang to eat, though the raw meat tastee bad.
He had gotten used to being fed delicious food by Cheng Ran and being raised by Gu Changjin, and he almost couldn’t swallow this.

He’d obviously thought it was delicious in his last life.

Although Shi Qingyang couldn’t be seen clearly in the dark, Cheng Ran didn’t need to think about it to know how bad meat without any treatment would be.
Gu Changjin had never bought ant beast meat before, for nothing else than because it was not delicious.

“Ranran, you drink the nutrient solution,” Shi Qingyang said again.

“I can try something else,” Cheng Ran said, “We only have so little nutrient solution.
If I eat it, what about Grandpa Gu?”

“The ant eggs…” Shi Qingyang hesitated.
Gu Changjin was in a very poor state now.
If they cooked the ant eggs, it may not matter to give them to him, but if they were raw, Gu Changjin was likely to be unable to digest them.
In contrast, the specially prepared nutrient solution was indeed more suitable for Gu Changjin now.

Cheng Ran thought carefully and guessed Shi Qingyang’s plan: “I can eat ant eggs.
Ant eggs are food with relatively less radiation.
I can drink some with a straw.”

“Take nutrients first,” Shi Qingyang insisted, “If you get sick, I’ll have tol take care of two people.”

Cheng Ran was sure that he was no different from being sick now: “I’ve been exposed to radiation before and just felt ill.
As long as the rescuer finds us, I’ll be all right.
Why not try?”

“No.” Shi Qingyang insisted, “If something happens to you, I…” He clenched his fist, the fingernails pinching into his the palm causing it to bleed.
Now, Cheng Ran had been put into such a dangerous situation because of him.

“I’ll be fine.
I think ant eggs are also good,” Cheng Ran said again.

“Next time we have Grandpa Gu drink water and nutrient solution, you can drink some first.
If it doesn’t work, I’ll go out and find help,” Shi Qingyang said.
If he took advantage of these days to kill more ant beasts, he might have a chance to escape.

“Qingyang, I want to eat ant eggs,” Cheng Ran insisted for the first time.
“I ate ant eggs in the city before.
I can just eat them raw now.
As long as I’m careful not to eat those contaminated by radiation, I’ll be fine, otherwise you can let me eat ant meat.” He shifted a little, already touching those ant eggs.
These football-like ant eggs hardly showed signs of hatching, and they seemed to be full of liquid.

For some reason, Cheng Ran had a strange feeling when he brushed against these ant eggs.