Enemies Are All Nourishment for My Fungi-Chapter 167: Finding Brother Xiao Ma’s Team Stricken with Serious Illness (2)
This method was indeed effective; the majority of the parasites were driven out by the strong saline solution. The remaining few were strangled within the body by the spores, breaking down the protein into nutrients to nourish the patient.
This was considered lucky for them because they encountered parasites that could be dealt with by saltwater. Furthermore, the physique of an Awakener was stronger than that of an ordinary person. Had it been an ordinary person, they would have died during the days-long process when the mature parasites laid eggs and the larvae burst out of the host’s body.
As daylight broke, Brother Xiao Ma and his team, who had recovered from their fevers, wrapped themselves in cushion covers as makeshift clothing. They leaned against the side of the vehicle, slowly sipping the newly cooked porridge, accompanied by the plump Spider Legs Meat as a side dish.
"I finally feel like I’m coming back to life. These past few days have been so muddled. I didn’t even know how we managed to run this far," Brother Xiao Ma said under the cover of the cushion covers, holding his hot porridge, blowing on it, then taking a sip, still managing to joke with Sister Cao and Brother Xiao Ni who came to see him.
"No wonder we couldn’t find your vehicle yesterday. We walked until it got dark and still didn’t see it," Sister Cao glanced at the parasite scars covering their bodies and quickly averted her gaze. Looking any longer would cause mental disarray.
"Our vehicle was left behind days of driving away. It’s definitely not coming back. We were all delirious with fever; the fact that we even knew how to drive is thanks to muscle memory," Brother Xiao Ma said, his somber news cast a shadow over the mood.
"If we can’t get the vehicle back, the loss will be borne by your team," Brother Xiao Ni kindly delivered the bad news.
The deputy team leader in charge of finances had such a dark expression as he frantically calculated how much liquid funds they had available to replace the vehicle.
"That’s it, we’re bankrupt," Brother Xiao Ma exclaimed as though struck by lightning, but his hands held the bowl steady. They could lose anything but the bowl. "Who has connections for second-hand cars? Introduce them quickly."
Sister Cao and Brother Xiao Ni exchanged looks, their eyes unanimously shifting downwards.
Following their hints, Brother Xiao Ma’s gaze landed on Ye Nai, who was below, busily feeding a heap of plants to the deer. His eyes lit up.
Before long, Ye Nai, who was feeding the deer, was taken by the hand and led onto the trailer.
"Brother Xiao Ma, did you want to see me?" Ye Nai asked.
"Xiao Yezi, Sister Xiao Ye, do you have any second-hand cars?" Brother Xiao Ma asked with a flattering face, shamelessly leveraging his position as the financial manager of the team.
"What kind of second-hand car?" Ye Nai turned around, scanning the area. She had been focused on saving people the day before and hadn’t paid attention to other news. Realization dawned, "Did you lose the vehicle?"
"We left it too far away and we were delirious with fever. Even now, we’re in no condition to go back and look for it," Brother Xiao Ma replied.
Ye Nai nodded. "We have cars. The question is whether we have enough and whether you’ll be satisfied with them."
"Let’s see what you have first," Brother Xiao Ma quickly finished his porridge. "We’re down to just three vehicles now; we can’t do anything with so few."
"You want to see the cars now? Not in a rush to depart?" Ye Nai questioned.
"No worries, just a quick look at the cars won’t take long," Brother Xiao Ma reassured her.
"Alright then, I’ll just settle the deer first, and if you all can move, it’s best to gather on one trailer," Ye Nai instructed.
"Sure, see you later," they agreed.
Ye Nai went back to tending to her deer while others busied themselves packing up the camp for departure. After breakfast, logistics distributed everyone’s fresh clothes from the Space. Once dressed, they gathered, despite their weakened bodies, onto one trailer. Ah Qi drove the tractor unit and connected it to the trailer, so they didn’t have to pull two trailers separately.
All the necessary preparations were made. On the large empty space vacated by the packed-up tents, Ye Nai brought out the second-hand off-road vehicles she had accumulated.
The amount was quite significant, over ten vehicles, drawing everyone to gather around and watch.
A cursory inspection was all it took to tell they were the kind of modified vehicles that the team liked.
"Are the cold storage trucks for sale?" Sister Cao suddenly asked, pointing to the three cold storage trucks parked separately on one side.
"Yes," Ye Nai nodded. She had no use for trucks and was willing to let them go.
The expressions in the eyes of the three team leaders changed as they inspected the cold storage trucks, communicating silently through glances and finally reaching an agreement that each team would take one.
Cold storage trucks aren’t exactly essential; having them is great, but life goes on without. So, during times of financial abundance, they hadn’t seriously considered buying any, but now the opportunity had presented itself, and it’d be false to say they weren’t tempted.
Brother Xiao Ma and several other physically fit team members took a look at the off-road vehicles, and then Ye Nai packed them up, planning to pick more carefully once back home.
The group broke camp and set off.
Before leaving, Ye Nai released a large number of spores to find their vehicles left behind in the wilderness.
Prioritizing beyond her personal belongings left in the vehicles, she couldn’t bear to just abandon the well-maintained military off-road vehicles, which had been modified and maintained scrupulously.
She wanted to try an experiment, to see if the command she issued this time would yield any results the next time they entered the Secret Realm.
Spores had the advantage when it came to finding vehicles; they could track by following biological traces left behind by people.
Not to mention traces that were several days old, dogs can trace the route a criminal has passed, let alone the more potent spores.
After half a day’s travel and hitting the highway, Ye Nai rode her motorcycle transporting a team medic, hurrying to the nearest rear town to coordinate with the military hospital.
An entire squad infected with parasites was cause for alarm for the hospital, which set up an emergency treatment pathway for these special patients. As soon as the injured arrived, they were immediately brought into the scanning room.
Those who had injured ribs were treated similarly.
The others went to handle accommodation details. After the hardships in the wilderness for so many days, they were in desperate need of a bath to relax and planned to buy new clothes for Brother Xiao Ma’s entire team, getting two sets each for changing en route.
When they were found, their clothes were infested with bugs. After stripping them off, a Space team member would collect them into their own "Space" and then take them out again. This in-and-out process killed all the bugs clinging to the clothes, which would fall off when the clothes were shaken out.
Just to be safe, they also soaked the clothes in a strong saltwater solution before rinsing them thoroughly with clean water, drying, and bagging them. When Brother Xiao Ma’s whole team woke up, these clothes were handed over to their logistics.
However, no one wanted to wear these hastily washed clothes again, so new clothing was urgently needed. Fortunately, the military garrison in the town had reserves.
Over two hours later, having showered and feeling refreshed, Ye Nai followed two team medics to the hospital to pick up the medical reports.
All the scan results were in, and all the patients were doing very well.
Those with rib injuries were healing nicely and didn’t need to lie down all day; they could sit up for short periods of time, although it was still best to lie down while traveling to avoid aggravating their condition with bumps and jolts.
The doctors were surprised by their healing speed and asked if they had consumed any special foods.
Learning that they had eaten Spider Legs Meat from a pre-oviposition female spider as a meal for the sick, the doctors looked envious, intuitively attributing it to the nutritious food they ate.
Brother Xiao Ma’s entire team was also in good shape, clean inside and out, with the scans revealing no foreign bodies – not a single unhatched parasite egg. The doctors praised them for their proper handling the previous night and considered the patients lucky; infections and high fevers alone could have been fatal. In this respect, Awakeners and Ordinary people aren’t much different; at most, an Awakener might just endure a few more hours before death.
This chapt𝒆r is updated by frёewebηovel.cѳm.
