Chapter 27: Gluttony Fangs

Fortunately, the front claw had only just grazed his chest before he kicked the Gluttonous Dog away.

The Gluttonous Dog curled up on the ground, twitched twice, and then slowly stopped moving. A Spiritual Source emerged from its body, darting into Su Li’s forehead like a white flash of lightning.

Su Li felt a thermal current surge through his body. The pain from the wounds on his shoulder, leg, and chest immediately began to subside. The wounds contracted, and the bleeding stopped. The three wounds were enveloped by the heat current, and their rate of healing was visible to the naked eye.

“It’s incredible. This Spiritual Source can speed up injury healing ten-fold, even a hundred-fold.”

Su Li looked at the contracting wound on his leg. Though he had seen it before, he was still astonished.

A message appeared in his mind.

“Level 2 Spiritual Source Wielder: Spiritual Source 2/20”

Sensing the information in his mind, Su Li’s physical strength was also slowly recovering. He sat up from the ground: “It seems that killing the Elite species of a Level 2 Spiritual Source Beast grants two Spiritual Sources at once. I wonder how many Spiritual Sources killing the One-Eyed Frog would count for now.”

Su Li slowly stood up and looked at the Gluttonous Dog’s corpse. He suddenly noticed that the nearly ten-centimeter-long claws on its left forelimb were beginning to retract and peel off. His heart stirred.

The retracting and peeling claws on the left forelimb dissolved into a white line that instantly shot toward Su Li’s left hand.

The white line sank into the back of Su Li’s left hand. At the same moment, new information appeared in his mind.

“Acquired Special Ability: Gluttony Fangs (Left).”

Su Li immediately felt something new in the back of his left hand, a tingling, itchy sensation, as if new fingers were growing inside his hand.

The feeling was very strange. He had a connection to this newly growing thing in the back of his hand, as if it were connected by flesh and blood.

He couldn’t help but clench his left hand into a fist. On the back of his fist, four small fleshy bumps protruded. Immediately after, white claws, the same material as teeth, broke through the center of the bumps and emerged.

The white claws continued to extend outward. When Su Li felt they had reached their limit, the four white claws were about ten centimeters long.

He could feel the power contained within the claws and the sharpness of the tips.

“Is this the Gluttony Fangs?” Su Li took a deep breath. He slowly scraped the four claws across the concrete floor of the corridor.

A grating sound was heard, and four white marks appeared on the concrete floor.

He raised the back of his left hand again, looking at the four sharp, pointed white claws extending from his skin. Su Li thought of Wolverine from the X-Men.

Then, the four white claws slowly retracted into the back of his hand. The four small protruding bumps also vanished, and the back of his hand returned completely to its normal state.

Su Li stood up. Although killing the Gluttonous Dog had been a frightening ordeal and left him seriously injured, the reward was significant. He looked up at Xu Xuehui, who had also slowly stood up. Her small face still carried a look of fear; she clearly hadn’t fully recovered from the recent shock.

“Don’t be afraid. It’s over now.” Su Li comforted her. He desperately wanted to ask if the Gluttonous Dog was the killer of her father, but after thinking it over, he held back, unwilling to upset her further.

Xu Xuehui’s small face was pale. She nodded slightly, walked over to the Gluttonous Dog’s corpse, and suddenly kicked its head with her small leather shoe. Although she didn’t use much force, it showed her deep resentment toward the Gluttonous Dog.

Su Li watched, amused, thinking that this little girl, who looked so delicate, actually had quite a bit of character.

Since food was not an immediate concern, and the Gluttonous Dog’s muscular body was simply too repulsive, Su Li decided not to bother with its corpse and left it there.

He took Xu Xuehui to the apartment he had first entered and began a detailed search for useful supplies.

“Remember, we need all edible food, all drinks, and all useful items like nails, wire, and rope,” Su Li explained to Xu Xuehui.

Xu Xuehui nodded, indicating she understood.

“By the way, when did you first notice that the outside was submerged by the flood?” This question had been lingering in Su Li’s mind for a long time. He hadn’t asked before for fear of distressing Xu Xuehui, but seeing her appear more stable now, he finally couldn’t resist asking.

He had gotten drunk the night before and woke up the next morning to find the city submerged. What about Xu Xuehui? What had her experience been?

Xu Xuehui lowered her head when she heard the question. After a long pause, she replied with just two words: “The day before yesterday…”

“The day before yesterday? Did you wake up in the morning and it was already like this?”

This time, Xu Xuehui looked up and nodded at him.

Su Li thought: The day before yesterday was the 15th. I also woke up on the morning of the 15th to find the outside world submerged. It seemed her situation was similar to his.

“After you woke up that morning, was it just you and your father left? Where is your mother? What about the neighbors?”

This time, Xu Xuehui shook her head at Su Li. Seeing the confusion on Su Li’s face, she added three more words: “They disappeared.”

Su Li gave a slight wry smile. He didn’t know if she had a communication difficulty or if she was naturally a person of few words. He realized that communicating with her would involve a lot of asking and guessing. He said, “Are you saying your mother and the neighbors all disappeared?”

Xu Xuehui nodded again.

“Alright.” Su Li didn’t want to press her about what she had endured afterward; communicating with her was genuinely difficult.

Based on the scene, he could roughly guess that the father and daughter had been attacked by Corpse Beasts, Xu Xuehui had hidden in the wardrobe, and her father had been killed by the Gluttonous Dog.

Seeing Xu Xuehui still looking at him, seemingly waiting for him to continue his questions, Su Li smiled slightly and said, “That’s all for now. Let’s go look for things.”

The two then split up to look for useful supplies. Their haul this time was considerable. In the kitchen, Su Li found a bag of rice—a 50-jin bag that was still over half full, no less than 30 jin (approx. 33 pounds). He also found half a bag of flour and some noodles, which delighted Su Li.

Xu Xuehui found several boxes of iron nails, a coil of thin iron wire, and two bundles of electrical wire.

The apartment had not been decorated long ago, so these were likely leftover construction materials.

“Perfect,” Su Li said, his eyes lighting up. He showed his appreciation.

His next step would be to find a more suitable, secure location. Then he would further reinforce the raft, and these items would be very useful for that purpose.

Su Li began carefully moving all the collected materials out the window, one by one, onto the raft moored tightly outside the window.

Although the raft was not small, as more and more items were piled onto it, the raft rode lower in the water. Su Li realized he couldn’t add any more cargo for the time being.

(End of Chapter)