Reborn One Week Before the Apocalypse

Chapter 42: Chapter 36: Besieging the Giant Snake

’Perhaps...’

Tang Mo looked at the jutting cliff. The giant snake’s body was huge, coiled at the edge of the precipice with the mountain base directly below.

The jutting cliff was about 50 meters wide, and the giant snake was roughly 200 meters from the cave. If Tang Mo made a direct dash for the cave, she would most likely be intercepted by the snake.

’It looks like I’ll have to outsmart it.’

After running the plan through her mind to make sure it was foolproof, Tang Mo pulled the gasoline from her Space.

Clutching the gas can, she suddenly bolted out—not toward Qin Ling’s cave, but along the intersecting line between the cave and the giant snake.

For the current Tang Mo, a 50-meter distance was just a matter of seconds. She sprinkled gasoline on the ground as she ran.

A few dozen seconds might seem short, but for the giant snake with its keen senses, it was more than enough time.

It quickly realized a strange human had appeared nearby. Its body, which had been coiled like a rock, instantly stirred and began to give chase in Tang Mo’s direction.

But just as the giant snake reached Tang Mo and opened its bloody maw, a sudden burst of flame forced it to recoil several meters.

Seeing that her trick had worked, Tang Mo tossed the lighter and bolted for the cave.

Free from the snake’s pursuit, Tang Mo quickly entered the cave. Without even pausing to assess the situation inside, she pulled out a jar of realgar wine and splashed it across the entrance.

This little bit of fire and realgar wine wouldn’t be enough to kill an Intermediate Beast like the giant snake, but it could certainly slow it down and make it a bit wary.

The fire would die out soon, and with the realgar wine at the entrance, the snake would likely return to its perch on the cliff’s edge even if it didn’t leave.

With everything done, Tang Mo dusted off her hands in satisfaction and turned to survey the cave.

The cave entrance was small; a person had to stoop to barely squeeze through. This was a key reason it could keep the giant snake out.

But the inside was deceptively spacious, a whole different world. It was about a dozen square meters, with a stream flowing through it, making the air incredibly damp and cold.

And there, slumped in a corner of the cave, was Qin Ling, his face pale and his eyes closed.

Seeing Qin Ling was indeed here, Tang Mo rushed over to check on him.

’Good, he’s still alive.’

But even though he was alive, Qin Ling was not in good shape.

A bandage was wrapped around his thigh, but blood had already soaked through it. Between the blood loss, lack of food, and the damp, cold environment, his face was utterly devoid of color.

A normal person would have died long ago. It was a miracle that Qin Ling was still alive.

Tang Mo frowned when she saw that the water on the ground had soaked through Qin Ling’s clothes.

She took some foam floor panels from her Space, assembled them into a bed-sized mat in a clear spot, and spread a dry mattress pad over it. In a flash, she stripped off Qin Ling’s outer clothes and tossed him onto the bedding.

In her haste, Tang Mo’s actions were far from gentle. At one point, Qin Ling felt someone pulling off his clothes and instinctively tried to struggle.

But as soon as he opened his eyes and saw it was Tang Mo, he closed them again in relief.

’Let her do what she wants,’ Qin Ling thought. ’I don’t have an ounce of strength left anyway.’

Tang Mo unwrapped the bandage on his thigh, revealing the bloody wound underneath.

Though it looked gruesome, Tang Mo breathed an unexpected sigh of relief.

It was a scratch from a regular mutant beast. The wound looked severe, but it wasn’t a major problem.

She had been worried it was a bite from the giant snake outside. If its venom had gotten into his system, she really had no antidote.

Qin Ling’s wound had only been crudely bandaged. It was clear no medicine had been applied, and it hadn’t been treated for a long time. Not only was it not healing, but it was also starting to fester and rot.

Tang Mo took out a fruit knife, sterilized it with alcohol, and cleaned out the festering parts of the wound. Then she applied some anti-inflammatory and hemostatic medicine and re-bandaged it with clean gauze.

After dressing him in a set of men’s outdoor jacket and track pants, she finally let out a sigh of relief.

She rummaged through her Space again and, with a pained look, brought out a pot of steaming hot vegetable and shrimp congee.

There was water in the cave, but not a scrap of food to be found. Qin Ling had been starving for days, and Tang Mo felt bad about fobbing him off with instant noodles and compressed biscuits again. That would be a bit too inhumane.

The pain in his leg subsided, and the dampness beneath him was replaced by dry warmth. With his exceptional constitution, Qin Ling quickly regained a bit of strength and opened his eyes.

The first thing he saw was Tang Mo sitting beside him, holding a bowl of congee whose fragrant aroma wafted irresistibly into his nostrils.

”Are you an Angel?” Qin Ling couldn’t help but ask.

”I thought I was going to die. How did you get in? Did the snake let you in? Did you bribe it?”

Tang Mo rolled her eyes. ’He still has the energy to joke around. How can he be so nonchalant?’

She put the spoon in the bowl and shoved it directly into Qin Ling’s hands.

”Hurry up and eat. I haven’t seen you in days, and you’ve gotten so skinny you look like a skeleton. It’s ugly.”

This was a complete lie on Tang Mo’s part. Although Qin Ling was so thin there wasn’t an ounce of flesh on his face, the chiseled pallor only added a delicate air of a sickly beautiful man, inspiring an urge to protect and cherish him.

Qin Ling didn’t stand on ceremony. He polished off the bowl of congee in a few quick gulps.

After finishing, he licked his lips. ”I ate too fast, I didn’t even taste it. Can I have another bowl?”

”Wait until tonight. You haven’t eaten in a long time. It’s not good to eat too much at once.”

Qin Ling nodded obediently, took the water Tang Mo handed him, and drank it sip by sip.

”How did you end up provoking it?” Tang Mo asked, seeing that some life had returned to him.

”I provoked it on purpose, of course. It’s a treasure,” Qin Ling said with a grin toward the cave entrance, showing no awareness that this ’treasure’ had nearly killed him.

”So you came into the mist for it? An Intermediate Beast? Are you crazy?”

Tang Mo was in disbelief. Even Basic-level Mutant Beastmen were hard to defeat right now, yet Qin Ling had actively tried to hunt an Intermediate Beast.

He was just too unpredictable.

”If I hadn’t run into a group of crocodile heads that drained too much of my energy, making me lose my gear and get injured, it’s hard to say who would’ve won between me and that big snake.”

Qin Ling said it with a smile, and though it sounded like a joke, Tang Mo knew he was serious.

’Has Qin Ling really gotten this strong already?’

Tang Mo herself could barely handle a single Basic-level Mutant Beast, while Qin Ling could already contend with an Intermediate Beast. The gap between them was enormous.

’There’s always someone better.’ It was as if a bucket of cold water had been dumped over Tang Mo’s head, snapping her out of the smug satisfaction she’d been feeling about her own abilities and forcing her to calm down.