Love and passion, cutting up the wasteland

Seeing his companion fall, Ariel was shocked and was about to throw himself forward.

To his surprise, his originally strong body was now a little weak in his steps and he couldn't exert his strength.

This sudden force almost brought him down.

Randomly, Ariel heard his stomach growl.

A feeling of hunger came.

'What? ’ He had just joked that Ah Sheng was a glutton, but now he was actually hungry too.

Unable to care about this at the moment, Ariel gathered his strength and walked to Ah Sheng to help him up: "Are you okay? Did you trip and fall?"

It didn't matter if he didn't help him. When he lifted him up and took a look, Ariel was startled.

This companion is considered a young man with strong skills and abundant physical strength in the village. In terms of body shape, he is actually stronger than Ariel, but his personality is a bit softer.

Otherwise, he wouldn't have been selected last time and would have gone out with Uncle Gen.

However, Ah Sheng's face was bloodless at this moment, and his originally bronze and healthy skin had also turned dull, giving off a dark air.

More importantly, his entire face has become thinner than when he first set off, as if he was dehydrated.

This is definitely not normal!

"I, I'm fine... I'm just a little dizzy..." Seeing Ariel, the young man smiled with his dry mouth.

"Stop talking!" Ariel scolded, "What happened? You don't look like you're okay..."

Only this time, Ah Sheng didn't respond to him.

The young man's pupils were dilated, his eyes gradually became dull, and he just kept mumbling something.

Ariel came forward and listened:

"Hungry...Brother Lie, I'm so hungry...it hurts..."

Hungry?

Ariel was stunned and remembered what Ah Sheng had said.

Could it be that he really didn’t eat and was malnourished?

But I have never seen such symptoms.

Ariel didn't have time to think about it, so he quickly took out the last few pieces of dry food and brought them to Ah Sheng's mouth. Worried that he would choke, he opened the bamboo water bottle around his waist.

Before he could bring the water, Ah Sheng seemed to be stimulated. He held the dry food in his hands and stuffed it into his mouth, chewing heavily.

Like a hungry ghost who hasn't eaten for days and nights.

Ariel quickly withdrew his hand. If he had taken a step too late, his fingers would have been chewed off, and the water bottle would have spilled on the floor.

Fortunately, after the young man finished eating, some color returned to his face and his breathing became much easier.

Are you really hungry?

Ariel did not relax his vigilance.

The dry food they brought was made of dumplings cooked with fine glutinous rice flour and mixed with palm oil, wild honey and other ingredients. One meal would keep you hungry for several days. If it wasn't for a mission, most villagers would be reluctant to eat it.

As a result, Ah Sheng stuffed several days' worth of food into it and regained his complexion.

At the same time, looking at Ah Sheng devouring his food, Ariel felt like he was getting hungrier.

Just when Ah Sheng was about to eat the last dumpling, he stopped and stuffed the dumpling back into Ariel's hand.

"You can eat, I'm not hungry." Ariel swallowed and shook his head.

"No, that's not right..." The young man forced the dumplings into Ariel's hands and gasped, "There's something wrong, Brother Lie."

"Look at my body, are there any..." He struggled to lift the corner of his clothes and motioned for Ariel to check.

"This, could it be..." Ariel was suddenly startled, reacted, and hurriedly took off Ah Sheng's shirt.

The moment he opened the linen clothes, a blood-red tail rope swished into the clothes.

Ariel was so frightened that he picked up a long-handled knife and slashed it, tearing the entire dress.

The young man's broad back was exposed, and Ariel's face instantly turned ugly.

I saw two palm-sized red worms lying on Asheng's back, with six legs nailed into the flesh, secreting slippery mucus.

What's even more terrifying is that they stretched out their long mouthparts and penetrated straight into Ah Sheng's flesh and blood, sucking in big gulps. As the red worms squirm and swallow, the sticky plasma is continuously sucked into their bodies from the mouthparts.

With each puff, the red worm seemed to grow larger and its body became more condensed.

Two blood-red bodies were leaning against each other. They were chubby and seemed quite uncomfortable, squeezing and squeezing each other.

"It's a blood spider!" Ariel lost his voice.

He confirmed the suspicion.

There are all kinds of poisonous insects and beasts hidden in the swamp, and there are many who can kill people.

However, the most terrifying one must be the blood spider.

It goes through several stages of growth throughout its life, and each stage is enough to kill a person.

"A Sheng, don't worry, it's just a larvae. I'll pick it off for you right now..." Ariel stretched out his hand tremblingly. The blood spider seemed to sense the threat and swung its sharp tail rope wildly.

——Those refugees who disappeared on the edge of the swamp were undoubtedly buried in the mouth of the blood spider.

In the juvenile stage, blood spiders will parasitize other animals and suck their blood and nutrients to survive.

In the final step, the host's entire body will turn into pus and be sucked by the blood spider.

Only shriveled shells of corpses remain, like those of missing refugees.

This is a slow process.

During this period, they inject venom into the host's body, paralyzing the nerves and preventing blood from coagulating. In order to obtain more food, the venom will also speed up the host's digestion and decomposition and desire to eat...

Ariel was stunned, and he slowly opened his clothes.

I saw a blood spider lying on his waist, but it was still somewhat transparent and small in size. There was only a trace of light red lingering around the body, which was obviously the blood that had just been sucked.

"Brother Lie, leave me alone, look at you..." At this time, he heard Ah Sheng speak with difficulty, "They live in groups..."

When the young man regained consciousness, he quickly realized what might have happened - only too late.

In the early stages of blood spider parasitism, the host's nerves are paralyzed, there is no pain or itching, and the larvae are small, making it difficult to detect its existence with the naked eye.

Once it starts sucking blood, it will grow in size quickly and destroy the host quickly.

Ariel struck hard at the waist, and the blood spider larvae turned into a pool of slurry.

His symptoms were relatively mild, and he was just a little hungry.

Looking at the two blood spiders on Ah Sheng's back, Ariel became fierce and picked up a long-handled knife to chop at them.

The blade accurately cut open the fat body of the blood spider larvae, and the yellow-green internal organs mixed with blood spattered everywhere.

"It's okay, it's okay, we'll go back to the village right now..." Ariel rushed forward and pulled out the mouthpiece that had completely penetrated into Ah Sheng's body. The pain made the young man tremble.

"It's useless..." Asheng smiled bitterly, "We can't go back."

"There are bugs on our bodies, and the old female bugs that gave birth to these babies must be nearby... We can't take them back to the village."

Blood spiders are social animals.

Ariel was silent, his expression gloomy.

He understands.

Although individual larvae are insidious, they are not difficult to deal with as long as they are discovered in time.

What’s really scary is that they will release pheromones, attracting all the surrounding adults to share the feast.

Three or two adult blood spiders are enough to kill a martial artist.

This was the real reason why Ariel was frightened after seeing the blood spider.

Ah Sheng initially told Lu Meng not to worry about the blood spider, which actually made sense.

Because they either get together to hunt other animals.

Or they'll come to your door, and there's no point worrying.

"etc……"

Ariel suddenly realized a problem.

Judging from the size of this blood spider larvae, it has been parasitic on the two of them for some time.

At least until they lead the way for the caravan.

During this period, the larvae will continue to call the adults...but why was the caravan not attacked by a swarm of spiders?

Before Ariel could figure it out.

He had already heard rustling sounds coming from everywhere in the forest.