"Curry sauce! Although it's a yellowish paste made of various aromatic seasoning plants with a peculiar smell, it may not be enough to drive away some animals that don't like it!"
"That makes sense."
Tang Xiaoguo pondered: "Perhaps it could evoke terrifying memories for them."
Lin Qianqian shook her head: "That seems like a stretch! Or why don't you sing a bride's wedding song, the groom isn't me! Let's see if they run away!"
"I don't even know that song..." Tang Xiaoguo sighed. "Come on, think of a sensible way to get rid of these disgusting creatures!"
Lu Zhe shook his head: "As fellow members of nature, animals have equal rights to survival as us. We need to find a way to coexist peacefully with them."
Lin Qianqian nodded: "Lu Zhe is so kind."
Tang Xiaoguo sighed: "Boss, is being kind enough? How do we get rid of them?"
"Why don't... I go talk to them!"
"Negotiate with Komodo dragons?"
"Yeah, from their orderly steps and friendly eyes, I can see they yearn for peace. Don't worry, I'll talk to them properly. Even if negotiations fail, they can't catch me! You two go hide first."
"Be careful..."
"Got it!"
Lu Zhe pulled out a paratrooper knife and walked over.
The lizards seemed confused when they saw Lu Zhe, tilting their heads in unison to one side.
Lu Zhe then noticed all the lizards had cloudy right eyes, as if sharing the same physiological defect.
That's why when Lu Zhe approached, they tilted their heads slightly to one side, observing him with their functioning left eyes.
Unfamiliar with humans, they didn't attack outright, only surrounding him while flicking their bifurcated tongues and hissing.
Tang Xiaoguo and Lin Qianqian watched anxiously from afar, palms sweating profusely.
They saw Lu Zhe saying something to the lizards, then waving his arms.
The lizards became agitated, seemingly swaying along to Lu Zhe's gestures.
Soon after, as if actually comprehending Lu Zhe's words, they turned and crawled away one by one.
Lu Zhe thoroughly rinsed his paratrooper knife before walking back.
"They actually left?"
"Were they that reasonable?"
"Not exactly! They wanted to eat me at first, but got distracted by my charming personality and didn't dare make a move."
"Then they suddenly saw the error of their ways and turned vegetarian?"
"It wasn't that simple! Even though we shook them off for now, they can still track us down by our scent and cause trouble later. Knowing their keen sense of smell depends on those forked tongues, I took the chance when they stuck out their tongues and swiped my knife, severing them in one swift motion."
As he spoke, Lu Zhe slashed out swiftly with his arm, precisely striking a passing insect with blinding speed and reflexes that left the two girls awe-struck.
"As I was leaving, they even gave me their tongues as souvenirs. I figured I had no use for them so threw them away. Now we can rest assured they won't be able to track us."
You see, not only did I get rid of their pursuit, but did so without harming their lives. That is the ultimate respect one can show nature!"
Tang Xiaoguo asked incredulously: "Will their tongues grow back?"
Lin Qianqian pondered: "They...they should, right? Doesn't a lizard's tail grow back when severed?"
"Do Komodo dragons have that ability too?"
Lin Qianqian shook her head: "I don't know. Lu Zhe, do you?"
"Well..." Lu Zhe suddenly redirected, "I noticed all the lizards share another trait - cloudy right eyes!"
"Special breed?"
Lu Zhe shook his head: "More like a physiological defect."
"How strange they all share the exact same defect?!"
"At first I also found it odd, but then realized there's a possibility - this island may have originally only had one lizard!"
"Just one?"
"Yeah!" Lu Zhe nodded thoughtfully. "Maybe a few hundred years ago, some voyagers captured a few giant lizards. Halfway through the journey, they discovered a defective female and dumped it on this island."
"One lizard could reproduce? Hermaphroditic?"
"I've seen the 1998 Godzilla film where it laid a bunch of eggs by itself. But Komodo dragons aren't hermaphroditic. Rather, there's another reproductive mode in the animal kingdom called parthenogenesis. Simply put, some female animals can reproduce without male fertilization, creating genetic clones of the mother."
"There's actually such a thing?"
Lin Qianqian pictured a bunch of baby Tang Xiaoguos crawling all over herself and murmured in delight: "How cute..."
Whereas Tang Xiaoguo pictured a horde of little Lin Qianqians swarming towards her, turning deathly pale.
We still have to rely on Boss Lu Zhe!
"Alright, enough imagining parthenogenetic lizards, let's get back to tracking that wounded billy goat!"
The three continued into the jungle.
Soon they reached a shallow river estuary.
There were no more specks of blood or any scent related to the goat.
Lu Zhe nodded.
"Lu Zhe, we've lost it!"
"Stay calm. African hunters lack acute hearing and smell, so what's their secret to being the greatest trackers?"
"What is it?"
"Their minds!"
Lu Zhe tapped his temple. "They observe the surroundings - footprints, feces, torn spiderwebs - to track prey. When all signs disappear, they stick out two fingers to mimic a goat's horns and perform an ancient ritual!"
"What ritual is that?"
"Imagining themselves as the goat and guessing which direction it would flee!"
"Why don't you try that then?"
"I'm already visualizing it in my head!"
Lu Zhe surveyed the area. The right led to marshlands with open visibility - not an ideal hiding spot.
The front left had uneven, rocky terrain that would be difficult to traverse. Under normal circumstances that's where the goat may have fled, but with its injured testicles even running and jumping would be excruciating. It likely didn't go that way.
That left the front right area of dense woodlands - perfect concealment with abundant foliage for recuperation.
Lu Zhe smiled. "Let's go this way!"
The trio carefully picked through the woods until finally hearing the goat's bleating.
Lu Zhe crouched low and slowly approached the goat.
It seemed to be writhing in immense agony, neither eating nor drinking, just endlessly crying out.
At this moment, it had not a single companion by its side.
Lu Zhe readied another marble, taking aim at its remaining testicle!
lan, the Luo family, tracked him down - along with the babies in their arms. Mo Xuan stared pensively at the paternity test results from over a dozen top institutions, both domestic and international, showing a 99.99% match between himself and the two baby girls. At 23, Mo Xuan, a doctoral student, had become the father of two three-year-old children. The kicker? The mothers weren't even the same person! He gradually realized he was being lured step by step into an elaborate trap designed by these two yandere sisters. "Be good, little Xuan. Sister's life belongs to you entirely." "Brother, if you try to run away, I'll have no choice but to tie you up." Mo Xuan: "Do whatever you want, ladies. I give up."
iaobai: "Councilor Dad, front me some funds. I want to hire ten thousand professional miners for a project!" [Five-Star Mission Issued: Capture the leader of the Blood Heaven Pirate Gang, who is on the run in the Radiant Star Sector. It is said the gang has over a hundred members. Proceed with caution.] Lu Xiaobai: "Councilor Dad, lend me the family's hundred-thousand-strong Lu Army!" [Seven-Star Mission Issued: Subdue a juvenile Void Dragon Beast.] Lu Xiaobai: "Councilor Dad, I'm taking your tamed Void Dragon Beast King out for a family reunion!" I said, System, don't you have any slightly more challenging missions? You're just not up to par! [Nine-Star Mission Issued: Become the Human Councilor.] Lu Xiaobai: "Dad, there's a small matter I'd like to discuss with you..."
grated, and just when he finally managed to get into an elite academy, he discovered that he actually had a system, and the way to earn rewards was extremely ridiculous. So for the sake of rewards, he had no choice but to start acting ridiculous as well. Su Cheng: "It's nothing but system quests after all." But later, what confused Su Cheng was that while he was already quite ridiculous, he never expected those serious characters to gradually become ridiculous too. And the way they looked at him became increasingly strange... (This synopsis doesn't do it justice, please read the full story)
e bizarre and supernatural had descended. The previous emperor was a thoroughgoing tyrant; no longer satisfied with human women, he had set his sights on a stunningly beautiful supernatural entity. He met his end in his bedchamber, drained of all his vital essence. As the legitimate eldest son and crown prince, Wang Hao was thus hastily enthroned, becoming the young emperor of the Great Zhou Dynasty. No sooner had he awakened the "Imperial Sign-In Intelligence System" than he was assassinated by a Son of Destiny—a classic villain's opening. The Great Zhou, ravaged by the former emperor's excesses, was in national decline. The great families within its borders harbored their own treacherous schemes, martial sects began to defy the imperial court's decrees, and border armies, their pay and provisions in arrears, grumbled incessantly against the central government. Fortunately, the central capital was still held secure by the half-million Imperial Guards and fifty thousand Imperial Forest Army who obeyed the court's orders, along with the royal family's hidden reserves of power, barely managing to suppress the realm. As the Great Zhou's finances worsened and supernatural activities grew ever more frequent, the court sat atop a volcano. Ambitious plotters everywhere dreamed of overthrowing the dynasty, and even some reclusive ancient powers emerged, attempting to sway the tides of the world. At the first grand court assembly, the civil and military officials nearly came to blows, fighting tooth and nail over the allocation of fifty million taels of silver from the summer tax revenues. The spectacle opened Wang Hao's eyes—the Great Zhou's bureaucracy was not only corrupt but also martially proficient, a cabinet of all-rounders. Some officials even had the audacity to suggest the emperor release funds from the imperial privy purse to address the emergency. Wang Hao suddenly felt weary. Let it all burn.
