On the first day of the new year, Li Qing woke up very early. He still had to train. Before going to sleep, he kept telling himself not to sleep in.
Li Qing got up quite early; most people in the cave were still asleep. Instead of waking them up, Li Qing lifted his foot and walked out of the cave.
That night, Li Qing wanted to apologize to Jie Wu and explain his thoughts, but Jie Wu seemed to give him no chance at all. Several times when Li Qing took the initiative to find him, he ignored Li Qing and turned away.
Li Qing felt somewhat helpless, but he could understand the feelings of the witch.
"Let him have some peace and quiet for a few days. Once we've wiped out the Black Wind Tribe, we can have a proper talk with him. Maybe then he'll listen."
Li Qing thought to himself.
He stepped out of the cave and looked outside.
The weather outside was still not very good. It was foggy, and the sun could not be seen. There was a damp and uncomfortable smell in the air. The heavy rain that night had left small puddles on the ground, and there was a cool morning breeze from time to time.
Even though the rain had stopped, Li Qing felt inexplicably irritable. He felt that he wasn't in the mood to train under the weather.
Chu didn't wake up, and Li Qing had no intention of going back to sleep. So they just sat at the cave entrance, gazing at the scenery outside.
It must be said that the scenery at this time has a unique charm. The lush vegetation in the distance of the village seems to have grown even more luxuriantly overnight after a night of heavy rain. The water droplets on the leaves seem to add to the beauty of these plants, and every now and then a few drops of rain fall, as if playing a silent, sacred melody.
Li Qing stared ahead, not knowing how much time had passed, when he suddenly heard Dahei let out a whimper beside him.
Big Black spent the night in the spot closest to the cave entrance. Could it have caught a cold after a night's sleep?
Li Qing's heart skipped a beat. He hadn't paid any attention to Dahei this morning, and it was only when he heard Dahei let out such a whimper that he suddenly remembered this matter.
Yes, there's no heating or air conditioning here. The places in the cave that can provide warmth are very limited. Big Black has been spending the night in the coldest and darkest place, so it's very likely that it will catch a cold!
Li Qing walked towards the big black dog that was stuck in the corner. As soon as he squatted down, his expression changed.
Big Black's skin was torn open and bleeding profusely; there wasn't a single unscathed spot on its body... This was the first time Li Qing had ever seen Big Black so badly injured. It was several times worse than the injuries Big Black had sustained when he was first seen in the Qingye tribe!
Big Black seemed to have been awake the whole time. After Li Qing came to its side, it struggled to open its eyes, knowing what kind of pain it had suffered that night. It opened its eyes and stuck out its tongue at Li Qing, but its eyes and mouth were also full of blood!
It tried to stand up, but as soon as it did, its limbs made a series of crisp cracking sounds, and it eventually fell to the ground.
"Big Black, don't move!"
Li Qing said in a low voice.
"I'll go and figure something out for you!"
Li Qing tried to comfort himself, but he was still very confused. He didn't know what had happened to Dahei. Ever since Dahei's wounds healed, it had never experienced a life-or-death struggle again. How could it get injured for no reason? Could it be that someone from the Red Flower Tribe attacked Dahei at night? But that explanation was even more absurd. Not to mention who did it, why would they have a reason to do it? Even if they really did do it, how could Dahei and the other people in the tribe be completely unaware and not make a sound?
"What's wrong, Mai Zi? You woke up so early. Are you so eager to train?"
The sound of Chu breathing heavily could be heard from beside Li Qing; he seemed to have just woken up.
Li Qing had his back to Chu, but as soon as Chu opened his eyes, he saw Big Black lying in front of Li Qing. Chu was so startled that he scrambled to his feet and asked, "What happened to Big Black?"
“I don’t know…” Li Qing said, “Dahei was like this when I first got up today. I don’t know what happened to Dahei.”
Chu's next words were astonishing: "My God, isn't Dahei just a small mongrel? How come its teeth have grown so big!"
Chu excitedly walked to Li Qing's side, patted the still somewhat dazed Li Qing, and pointed ahead, saying, "Look, its teeth are almost the same as the saber-toothed tiger's pair of saber teeth. Am I seeing things?"
Previously, Li Qing had been immersed in grief and confusion. He even wondered if the thing given to him by the Qingye tribe had combined with something that Dahei had eaten the night before, causing a side effect. When Chu reminded him, he suddenly shuddered and exclaimed, "How could this be? No way!"
"...Oh my god!"
Li Qing was stunned, because he did see that a pair of long, sharp, barbed teeth had grown from the corners of Da Hei's mouth!
Its teeth, of course, couldn't compare to the majesty of a saber-toothed tiger, but they had detached from the corners of Big Black's mouth and grown outside, forming a stark contrast with the other densely packed rows of teeth inside its mouth.
Li Qing swore that no matter how distracted he was, he had never seen Da Hei's teeth like that before. Just as he was about to say something, something even more surprising happened.
Big Black's body began to convulse violently, and its limbs and body began to grow at a slow but visible speed... as if it were evolving!
This "evolution" process was extremely painful for Dahei. Its body was lying face down on the ground, its body was raised high, its head was completely buried in the soil, and it began to struggle desperately, shaking its body.
This approach did not make Dahei any better; on the contrary, it exacerbated its pain, forcing it to stagger to its feet—at this point, Dahei had the ability to stand up independently.
It stumbled and rushed towards the cave wall, ignoring Li Qing's attempts to stop it.
Thump!
A muffled thud.
Big Black let out a mournful howl.
However, it did not stop this almost self-destructive behavior.
It struck the cave walls again and again.
With each impact, the stone wall would emit a muffled thud, and a trace of blood from Da Hei's forehead would appear on it.
And along with that came... Big Black's mournful howls, one after another.
This was extremely painful for it.
All aspects.
Both physical and mental.
This "evolution" was foreign to Dahei. It seemed to dislike this change at all and wanted to get rid of the pain quickly by self-harming.
Chu swallowed hard. He dared not speak rashly, nor even help Dahei stop what it was doing: "Maizi, keep an eye on Dahei for now, don't let it do anything foolish, but no matter what, we absolutely cannot stop it in this state, otherwise the consequences will be extremely serious!"
"...I'll go find Cang and Jiewu to see if they know what's wrong with Dahei."
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