Sword drawn from the constellations, poison as its edge.

Chapter 45 Ashore

One day, two days, three days, four days...

The waves beneath our feet sometimes surged, sometimes receded, sometimes narrow, sometimes wide, winding and meandering.

The scenery before my eyes changes constantly, from mountains to barren beaches, then to snow-capped mountains, and finally to forests filled with ancient trees.

Jiang Mingzhe and Azi have spent several sunrises and sunsets on the back of the Flying Centipede King.

Having eaten most of their dry rations and finished drinking all the water in the gourd, Azi found the water too dirty, so she tied a rope to the gourd and threw it far away to drink from the clean river water.

It would also occasionally ride the giant centipede to surge through the waves, startling the fish to leap out of the water and reach out to catch them.

The two also learned to quickly exchange gloves when the giant centipede was off guard, with one person controlling the giant centipede while the other took the opportunity to cultivate their inner energy.

Before setting off, Jiang Mingzhe carried the remaining Five Treasures Flower Honey Wine in his backpack. He took it out to share with Azi. Over the next few days, Azi opened four acupoints, but she was still sulking, hitting her head and complaining that she was stupid.

Without comparison, there is no harm; Jiang Mingzhe has opened seventeen more acupoints in the past few days.

Including the twelve acupoints opened previously, and the three opened on the day of the poison dissolution, a total of thirty-two acupoints were opened.

Apart from the five acupoints on the Ren meridian that were initially opened, the remaining twenty-seven acupoints are all of the metal element.

In addition to opening acupoints, he also used all the centipedes he obtained from Centipede Mountain to dissolve the poison and enter the acupoints.

This time, however, they didn't use the clumsy method of having a centipede bite their hand to force out the poison.

Previously, the Xingxiu Sect used living people to dissolve poison, not caring about pain or death. However, Jiang Mingzhe took a different approach and came up with a method to dissolve poison using his own blood, which was even more effective.

After looking at it, Azi seemed to be thinking. She did not have Jiang Mingzhe's innate poison body. If she were to fuse the poison in this way, she would absorb more poison and would inevitably go astray. However, after thinking about it carefully, if she was afraid of too much poison, wouldn't it be better to apply less poisonous blood?
Moreover, seeing that Jiang Mingzhe would rather endure the pain than harm a living person, she was also vaguely worried that her use of the old method to dissolve the poison would displease Jiang Mingzhe.

Of course, he would never utter these thoughts aloud, nor would he even admit them to himself.

Later, she suggested that Jiang Mingzhe dissolve the venom of the flying centipede king. Jiang Mingzhe said he was afraid that it would bite off his hand. Azi suddenly thought of a brilliant method: cut out the venom sac of the poisonous creature, mix it with human blood, and make "artificial poison blood" to dissolve the poison!

When Jiang Mingzhe heard this, he praised her for being clever. Then, Azi took the knife, cut out the centipede's venom sac, squeezed it into a jade bowl, and Jiang Mingzhe cut out the blood and mixed it with the venom. He then applied it to his palm and tried it out. It worked!

Azi did the same thing, dissecting the venom sacs from the red centipedes she had caught, mixing them with her own blood, and gradually integrating them into her body. Although it was much slower than Jiang Mingzhe's method, it was far more efficient than her previous method of using other people's blood to dissolve the venom. She was overjoyed and said, "At this rate, in two or three years at most, even Zhaixingzi might not be my match. Haha, I'm going to be the senior sister!"

In his spare time, Jiang Mingzhe also told Azi two stories: Hou Yi shooting down the sun, Chang'e stealing the elixir, and Zhu Bajie getting married, which introduced new characters such as Tang Sanzang, Sun Wukong, and Gao Cuilan.

Azi enjoyed listening more and more, and Jiang Mingzhe, unable to withstand her persistent questioning, had no choice but to recount the entire Journey to the West from the beginning—

He hadn't read the original novel, so he was naturally referring to the TV series version. They were currently on the story of the Women's Kingdom. After speaking, he struck a pose and sang a verse for Azi: "Mandarin ducks swim in pairs, butterflies fly in pairs, the spring scenery in the garden is intoxicating..."

Azi had never heard such a tender and lingering tune before, and was immediately amazed: "Big Ginger, you are truly a great talent. You can write poetry and compose music. My God, is there anything you can't do?"

Jiang Mingzhe has already taken on the role of Guan Guan Jujiu, and now he has added this poem, "Daughter's Love," to his collection, yet he remains completely unmoved.

He skillfully engaged her in a business-like flattery: "Senior sister is an extremely intelligent woman. Just by innovating this method of poison dissolving, once it becomes widespread, how many people will die less every year? Writing poems and singing songs are nothing compared to what Senior sister has done, which is truly meritorious."

Azi didn't care about any great merit; she was just pleased to see Jiang Mingzhe's genuine joy.

Taking the opportunity to act coquettishly, she urged him to sing "Daughter's Love" seven or eight times in a row until he had completely mastered it before she was satisfied.

Ah Zi was also extremely fascinated by that kingdom full of women, and she began to imagine with great enthusiasm: If I were the queen of the Women's Kingdom, I wouldn't want that silly monk Tang Sanzang. I would take this big ginger as my queen, make him drink more of the Zimu River water, and give me a few chubby babies, wahahahahaha!

The girl found it increasingly amusing. She filled a gourd with river water and forced Jiang Mingzhe to drink a few mouthfuls. Then she became lost in her fantasies, occasionally glancing at Jiang Mingzhe's belly with a wicked smile: "Your Highness, why isn't your belly getting bigger?"

But even such fun days can't be perfect. The main problem is that nature calls.

Peeing was manageable; although the space on the back of the Flying Centipede King was limited, at least there was a distinction between front and back. Those in front were not allowed to turn around, while those behind took advantage of the high waves and strong winds to splash around. The sound was masked by the water, and the smell was hard to preserve due to the headwind. If you had a thick skin, you could simply pretend nothing had happened.

Pooping became a huge problem.

No matter how close Azi was to Jiang Mingzhe, she couldn't bring herself to do this in front of him.

Even though Jiang Mingzhe is thick-skinned, he's unwilling to defecate in public.

Fortunately, both of them had mastered internal energy, so eating less and calming their stomachs wasn't difficult.

After seven days, both of them had lost weight.

Jiang Mingzhe frequented drinking parties and, although he hadn't gained weight due to his youth, he still had some extra flesh. After losing weight, his jawline became clearly defined, his features became more three-dimensional, and his physique became more lean and fit. His already high looks were taken to an even higher level, causing A Zi to stare at him absentmindedly from time to time.

Ah Zi was already rather thin, and now that she's so thin, even a strong wind could blow her away. Her two big eyes looked even bigger, and what used to make her look playful and clever now made her look pitiful.

Jiang Mingzhe felt that they couldn't drift any longer and had to get ashore so they could have sex and eat properly, otherwise Azi would really become a paper doll.

He figured his skills had improved greatly in the past few days, and the giant centipede was currently weak and powerless. With the combined strength of the two of them, they might be able to put up a fight.

Having made up his mind, he was about to discuss it with Azi when suddenly, from the basket behind him, came the restless screams of Little Ginger.

Ah Zi exclaimed happily, "Ah, this troublemaker has finally woken up!"

In the battle at Centipede Mountain, this monkey displayed its might, single-handedly intimidating all the poisonous insects on the mountain and eating until its belly was full. It is likely that since the existence of the slow loris species, no other slow loris has ever eaten as much as it has.

In particular, he ate only rare and highly poisonous centipedes, and even more extravagantly, he only ate the most poisonous head. He ate so much that he couldn't take it anymore and fell asleep, only waking up at this moment.

This monkey must have accumulated good fortune in its past life, for as soon as it opened its eyes, it smelled the scent of the Flying Centipede King. To it, this was an unparalleled delicacy, and its eagerness was ten times greater than when it first saw the Six-Winged Iron Centipede.

The giant centipede's tentacles were tightly gripped by Jiang Mingzhe. By a stroke of luck, it wasn't immediately paralyzed by the young Jiang Mingsheng, but it sensed the presence of its natural enemy and suddenly went berserk. Its dozens of long legs thrashed wildly, and just as it encountered a bend in the current, it crashed headfirst onto the shore.

Jiang Mingzhe and Azi had been taking turns steering the ship for the past few days without incident, which made them relax. Unexpectedly, the giant centipede suddenly went berserk and Jiang Mingzhe was thrown off, crashing into Azi behind him, and both of them fell off the centipede's back.

The giant centipede flicked its golden whiskers and regained its freedom. It immediately tried to escape, but the little ginger kept shouting. The giant centipede rushed out less than three meters before its body trembled and it went limp.

Azi laughed heartily and tossed a small knife to Jiang Mingzhe: "You cut out his poison sac, squeeze out the venom, and mix it with your blood. That should dissolve the poison."

After saying that, he disappeared into the dense jungle—most likely to go to the toilet.

Jiang Mingzhe stepped forward with his knife, pressed down on the giant centipede's two large fangs, and with a series of sharp cuts, forcibly sliced ​​open its hard armor, skillfully twisting and pulling it out.

Behind each fang is a bluish-black sphere about the size of a date, which is the centipede's venom sac.

The two sharp, blackened fangs of the centipede are not actually teeth, but rather mutated forelimbs with venom sacs located behind them. When the forelimbs pierce the flesh of their prey, they can continuously inject venom.

As soon as the venom sacs were released, Little Ginger cried out even more urgently. Jiang Mingzhe ignored it, found a jade bowl, squeezed out the venom and bled it out, and then stuffed the two shrunken venom sacs into Little Ginger, saying, "Don't be fooled by the size of this centipede, it doesn't have much venom. Just eat it."

The little ginger grabbed a piece of ginger and smelled it, seemingly finding it insufficient. However, given its intelligence, it couldn't possibly have imagined such a bizarre human action, so it reluctantly stuffed it into its mouth and began to chew slowly.

Seeing that it didn't mind, Jiang Mingzhe chuckled, sat down cross-legged, and applied blood to dissolve the poison.

The venom of this flying centipede king was not only poisonous but also highly potent. Jiang Mingzhe bled several times, spending most of the day, before it was fully absorbed into his body.

He opened his eyes and saw that Azi had already returned. She said enviously, "The innate poison body is truly amazing. With so much poison, I'm afraid I wouldn't be able to dissolve it all in a month."

He then revealed an excited expression and said, "Big Ginger, I just saw a little girl catching a lot of poisonous snakes. Shall we go and rob her?"

(End of this chapter)