Chapter 229 I Want to Take a Gamble
"Silver Tiger".
Her voice wasn't loud, but it was like a cold scalpel, precisely dissecting all his anxiety and anger: "This is the first time we've disagreed on something that's a matter of life and death."
Silver Tiger was taken aback.
"So I hope you can put away your warrior mentality and listen to my judgment as a doctor."
Yueqing finally turned around, the firelight dancing on her face, making her eyes shine incredibly brightly.
She showed no fear whatsoever; on the contrary, she exuded an absolute confidence and authority that Silver Tiger had never seen before.
"Risk? I know more about risk than you do!"
Yueqing spoke slowly but clearly, as if she were giving a pre-operative explanation.
"The biggest risk right now isn't this tiger that can't even stand up, but the festering, oozing wound on its belly! That smell is like an invitation to a feast for all the hungry predators in the forest! And we are the main course of that feast!"
She extended a finger, pointing at the giant beast, and then at Silver Tiger himself and the child behind him.
“If we save it, it will live and leave on its own, and we will be safe. If we save it, it will die, but at least I can clean up the rotting flesh, temporarily seal the wound with wood ash and high temperature, cover up the smell, and buy us time to move away.”
Yueqing paused, her gaze sharp and piercing, straight into Yinhu's heart.
"Or, we can kill it now, let its blood soak the land, and then sit here and wait to be torn to pieces by hyenas, dire wolves, or whatever else that comes running. You choose."
Not a single word of these words was superfluous; they were like sharp stone spikes, shattering Silver Tiger's primitive logic that "threats must be eliminated."
He is a warrior, a top-notch hunter, who knows how to kill his enemies in the shortest possible time.
But he didn't know how to deal with those unseen, imminent, swarming threats.
Yueqing is right. Killing this beast king is not the end of the battle, but the beginning of another, even more brutal massacre.
Silver Tiger was breathing heavily, his chest heaving violently, and the veins on the back of his hand holding the stone spear were bulging like tangled tree roots.
He looked at Yueqing, this small, squirrel-like female, who at this moment seemed like an unshakeable mountain.
In the end, the struggle and rage in his eyes slowly settled into a cold and resolute determination.
He provided the answer through his actions.
"Fine, since you've made up your mind, you won't listen to anything I say. So I'll let you try."
Silver Tiger gritted his teeth, enduring the excruciating pain, and used his stone spear to support himself as he stood up.
He didn't walk towards Yueqing, nor did he try to stop her again. Instead, he staggered a few steps and stood steadily between Yueqing and the two children, forming a wounded but still unbreakable barrier.
"Just do your own thing, I'll protect you."
He forcefully plunged the end of the stone spear into the mud beside him, gripped the spear shaft with both hands, leaned forward slightly, and assumed a ready stance, poised to charge at any moment.
Those golden eyes were half warily fixed on the dying beast king, while the other half, out of the corner of their eye, was fiercely protecting the figure walking towards danger.
He compromised.
In the most domineering yet silent way of a warrior.
Yueqing's lips curved upwards almost imperceptibly.
She knew she had won the argument.
Without further hesitation, she turned and strode quickly to the saber-toothed tiger's side. The pungent stench assaulted her senses, almost suffocating her. Suppressing the churning in her stomach, she crouched down, her gaze falling upon the deep, bone-revealing wound.
"Don't move. I'm saving you. If you don't cooperate, I can't guarantee what will happen."
The fur around the wound was stuck together with blood and pus, the black rotting flesh rolled outwards, and you could even see white maggots wriggling inside.
This former king of the forest is now awaiting death in the most humiliating way.
Yueqing took a deep breath and extended her hand.
The giant beast simply watched her silently, its murky green eyes seeming to hold an even stronger plea.
There were no sterile gloves, no scalpels, not even a clean gauze.
In Yueqing's medical kit, there were only a few of the sharpest pieces of obsidian picked up from the riverbank, a clay pot that had been scorched by fire and used to hold water, and a small packet of crushed hemostatic herb powder brought from the tribe.
This was all her possessions.
A prehistoric level of surgery is about to unfold in the tiny hands of a squirrel-like beastman.
"Go and gather some dry firewood, the more the better."
Without turning her head, Yueqing gave instructions to the two children behind her, her voice calm and without a trace of emotion.
The two little ones were already pale with fright at the scene before them, but out of their instinctive trust in their mother, they immediately sprang into action, running towards the depths of the forest.
In Yueqing, they deftly set up a few stones, placed the pottery jar on top, lit a fire, and boiled water.
Flames licked the bottom of the earthenware pot, and steam quickly rose. She threw a piece of animal hide, the softest one she carried with her, into the boiling water, stirring it repeatedly as a way to sterilize it with high temperature.
Silver Tiger stood not far away, like a silent statue.
Are you confident?
"It's alright, I don't think it's too difficult."
He watched Yueqing perform all of this with practiced ease, his eyes filled with incomprehensible bewilderment. This female's behavior and logic were completely beyond his comprehension.
Facing a dying beast king, she was neither afraid nor ran away. Instead, she prepared the meal methodically, as if she were preparing a dinner.
When Yueqing fished out the scalding hot animal hide, wrung out the water, and then took a thin piece of obsidian and squatted down next to the giant beast again, the silver tiger's pupils suddenly contracted.
He saw through her intentions.
She didn't just want to clean it; she wanted to cut it.
Yueqing held her breath, pressed her left hand against the still relatively intact skin at the edge of the wound, and with her right hand holding the obsidian shard, she made a precise cut without the slightest hesitation.
"hiss--"
The rotting flesh was easily cut open, and a stench ten times stronger than before, mixed with the smell of blood, exploded like a bomb.
Black pus and blood gushed out instantly, mixed with disgusting bits of flesh and wriggling white maggots.
Yin Hu felt a churning in his stomach and instinctively took a half step back.
He had killed countless prey and seen countless wounds, but no scene had ever shocked him more than the sight of this tiny female scraping the rotten flesh of a beast king with a stone.
That wasn't a battle; it was blasphemy. A blasphemy against death and the king, a blasphemy so chillingly calm.
"Yueqing, you are really different."
But the beast king that was "desecrated" did not put up any resistance except for letting out a suppressed, painful roar and its huge body trembling violently.
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