But what's done is done, and saying anything now is pointless. Life must go on, and right now I need to wash off the aconite venom on my hands as soon as possible.

If it accidentally gets on my flesh, I'll probably end up lying flat on the sand like the sand monster below.

Now that the Sand Beasts are dead and their leader has fled, no other predators should be coming here anytime soon.

I had Top watch over the meat from the tree, while I put the remaining aconite solution into a small bamboo tube and sealed it. This stuff is quite toxic; it should be useful to keep it.

I climbed down the tree, and those sand monsters that had been so arrogant before were now barely breathing.

They wouldn't survive anyway, so I couldn't be bothered to care. I took my bowl and wanted to find a water source to wash it, but after searching around, there was nothing but mud and grass.

Finally, I had no choice but to take out a bamboo tube of drinking water and wash my hands and the bowl clean. The residue from this stuff isn't strong; as long as you wash it off, the small amount won't have any effect on you.

It's still early, I need to deal with the corpses of those dead sand beasts.

I planned to use the carcasses of the sand monsters to attract the attention of other predators tomorrow, but these sand monsters weighed at least 300 kilograms, and it would obviously take me a lot of time to keep them all by myself.

So I did the same thing as the takin: first, I skinned it and kept the hide, then I removed all the fleshy limbs from the sand beast, and then I used hemp rope to hang it on a tree branch.

I couldn't be bothered with the rest of the bodies. The blood of these sand beasts already contained aconitine, so eating them was out of the question. I just left them under the tree.

At night, other predators will naturally come to deal with these corpses, and perhaps when we wake up tomorrow morning, there will be a few more predator carcasses under the tree to be used as bait.

After finishing all that, I climbed the tree to continue roasting the remaining jerky. Top sat beside me watching, and every now and then it would come over to help, handing me tools and gathering the dried meat strips.

We continued this assembly-line process of putting in meat strips, grilling them, and collecting them. We were busy until the sun was almost setting in the afternoon, and there were still a small portion of meat strips left to process.

Before it got completely dark, I climbed down the tree and collected a lot of dry branches nearby. I tied them into several bundles with rope and pulled them up the tree for later use.

While looking for firewood, I found some mugwort. When the raw mugwort burns, it produces a lot of smoke. In addition, mugwort naturally has a certain mosquito-repelling effect, so I chopped a large bunch of it and put it in the firewood to take back to the tree.

It should be safe in the trees tonight, but there are a lot of mosquitoes here. Without a campfire to keep them in check, they will become even more rampant.

Now that I have this mugwort, I think I should be able to sleep better at night.

Before it got completely dark, I tied the hammock I made of hemp rope to a tree branch next to the campfire. It would be a bit smoky at night, but it was better than feeding the mosquitoes in the jungle.

The meat strips were grilled until it was completely dark, and I was starting to doze off from sitting there until they were all finished.

All the meat strips were tied up, making a whole bundle of firewood. Thankfully, they were dried out beforehand; otherwise, it would have been difficult to bring so much meat back.

Even if it's completely dried, the jerky here would probably still weigh around 50 or 60 pounds, enough for Top and me to eat for a month.

Considering the possibility of sudden rain at night, I wrapped the dried takin hide around the jerky, tied the ends with rope to form a waterproof bag, and that was it.

I've been running all day, and I feel extremely exhausted.

I called out to Top, then climbed into the hammock and simply covered myself and my head with those sand-skinned animal hides.

The main concern at night is rain; I don't want to be woken up by a sudden downpour in the middle of the night. The thought of that wet, sticky feeling is unpleasant.

At night I heard some sounds coming from under the tree, the sound of teeth chewing and tearing bones. It looks like there will be more corpses under the tree tomorrow.

The night passed peacefully; it was much better than I had imagined.

It was a rare treat that it didn't rain. Thanks to the mugwort, the mosquitoes around me seemed to dislike the smell and didn't come near me all night.

The next morning, just as dawn was breaking, I got up early and woke up Top, who was sleeping next to me.

The journey we have to make today is still very long. Carrying such heavy food, we'll need to rest and stop along the way, which will only waste more time than if we had gone to the beginning.

I first used a rope to hang the dried meat strips and slowly lowered them to the ground. Then I also used the rope to lower other common items such as baskets.

After that, I divided the dried meat into two portions and packed them up. Then I found a shrub of suitable hardness, cut it down, and flattened it to use as a carrying pole.

The corpses of those sand monsters had all been gnawed into a mess.

Beside the sand monster were several medium-sized predators that had been poisoned. They looked like badgers, but their heads were more elongated, and they had a pair of three-centimeter-long fangs on the top and bottom.

These badger-like predators aren't very big. I already have five decent pelts of sand scavengers and one antelope pelt, so I'm too lazy to skin them anymore.

As for the sand monster legs I left behind yesterday, I scattered them in several places nearby.

This maximizes the number of predators attracted. The more predators I attract nearby, the safer my journey back will be.

It's just dawn, and predators usually like to hunt at dawn and dusk. They'll probably be out looking for food soon, so this is the perfect time to set up.

I stabbed the badger-like animals that were poisoned yesterday; the strong smell of blood will attract more predators.

After doing all this, I threaded the shrub-made carrying pole through the rope loops with the meat strips tied to it twice and then lifted it up. It felt okay; the weight at both ends was distributed on my shoulders, making it more suitable for long journeys.

This ancient method of human-powered transportation has been used for thousands of years.

Switching the carrying pole between the left and right shoulders, and the stride length while walking, all require a certain skill. I've been training in this wilderness for almost a year now, and my physical condition is vastly different from when I first arrived.

Now I can clearly feel the well-defined deltoid muscles on my back and the strong, bulging biceps on my arms. These are the result of long-term training by carrying heavy objects in a basket and moving things around.

Walking along this still somewhat hazy mountain path, my only worry was the sand monster that I hadn't managed to kill with my arrow.

I don't know how it is doing, but its strong desire for revenge, coupled with its cunning nature, still keeps me on my toes.

One hand rested on the loaded shotgun, ready to fire at any moment.