What on earth was this evil bug?

Through the intermittent narration of the surrounding flowers, plants and gra.s.s, Dongfang Minghui learned a bit, the devil beetle is also called the iron beetle. It was ranked as grade one, but it was also a ranked as a high risk encounter. This kind of insect is a bit like a beetle. The sh.e.l.l was so hard that it couldn't be penetrated by a knife or gun. Once the insect makes its way into human skin, it would climb into the human skin tissue and nibble its flesh until only white bones remained.

The major thing to note was that these sort of monsters were the type to live in groups. That is to say, if you offend one of them, you'll have to suffer the wrath from the entire colony.

Dongfang Minghui broke into a cold sweat, what kind of place did she fall into!? A single bug could slaughter people! She hurriedly began to pack her baggage, stood up, and took a few steps. She paused.

"Seventh sister is still in there."

Recalling the heroine's hatred of the immoral, combined with her ruthless character, Dongfang Minghui made a slight retreat.

"Is there anything this monster is afraid of?"

A small seedling of gra.s.s jumped out in joy, "Memememe!"

Minghui stared incredulously, the tip of her nose gently making contact with the tip of the gra.s.s, "You?"

This wasn't any ordinary type of gra.s.s. This was the corpse gra.s.s, often found growing near burial sites, it could emit a foul stench. The Iron beetle had sensitive smell, so even a tiny whiff of its odor could send them in the other direction.

"Eugh——"

Dongfang Minghui leaned her body toward to the other side, almost vomitting out everything she'd eaten today. She'd dared to believe there was a dead body underneath her and she had intimately touched the smelly corpse gra.s.s. Instinctively, she found something springing up in her throat again, "Ugh, urgh——"

As she puked, her face was pale and her legs turned soft and weak. Helplessly, she tore off the leaves of the corpse gra.s.s used them to rub a nasty scent onto on her body. She held her breath and took the leaves with her.

"Eeeee! I'm bald now!" the corpse gra.s.s cried as it hid away.

Minghui now carried the foul smell of the corpse gra.s.s. Though she was holding her breath, she still couldn't stand the odor. Taking two breaths caused her face to twist.

"Cough, cough, seventh sister."

As soon as Minghui appeared, the scent of the corpse gra.s.s could be smelt from miles away. The iron beetles didn't waste time detecting their natural enemy and panicked right away, running from the battlefield one by one.

Several people in the besieged area had already killed many of them, but the iron beetles surrounded them like they were a wall of iron. No matter how they tried, escape was impossible.

But now, they watched as the iron beetles slammed into each other as they swiftly fled. Having been left to ponder, one of the surprised members concluded, “This is bad, our blood must be attracting a higher-level monster, everyone run!”

Once Minghui spotted the protagonist, she sprinted to her cheerfully, "Seventh sis!"

The faster she ran, the faster the beetles fled, in a few breaths, no iron beetle was seen in a hundred miles.

Once everyone realized the source of the stench, all of them took a step back. Dongfang Wan Yu was stiff, “What happened to your body, why do you smell so bad?”

“Corpse gra.s.s, their smells a nemesis to them.” Minghui, pale, threw the leaves she carried to the side, holding her nose, peering at them, she suggested maliciously, “If you don't want to be afraid they'll come back, it'd be best for everyone to use this.”

Although, so long as she was around, the chances of the iron beetles returning was next to nothing. This bit, she'll absolutely never say aloud.

"This person is——"

Six people were present, with the addition of the protagonist and herself adding up to eight. Looking at their interactions, they must've known each other.

"I'm her-"

"He's my ninth brother." Dongfang Wan Yu took the lead to introduce herself.

Dongfang Minghui glanced at her own attire from top to bottom, breathing a sigh of relief. She almost fell into a pit.

"Many thanks to the little brother for your help."

"It's really fine."

Dongfang Minghui waved her hand, she couldn't stand the formalities, it was fine when they were in society, but now that they were in the wilderness, was it necessary to keep up an image?

“Ah, seventh sister, you're hurt.”

There was a red scratch on her arm, most likely made on accident while she was in battle. She hadn't noticed it until now. “It's alright, nothing major.”

Minghui wanted to look at the medicinal herbs that could stop the bleeding, but when she looked at the baggage that was thrown on the ground and filled with the scented gra.s.s, she screamed, “I left our bags back there!”

Because she filled her baggage with valuable items such as clothes and silver, she was afraid the aroma of the corpse gra.s.s would infect her valuables, so she hid them in a tree. With this in her mind, she instantly turned around and hurried.

Dongfang Wan Yu caught up with her, “I'll come with you.”

When the two returned to the original spot, Minghui circled the tree and scratched her  head, “Weird, where'd it go?”

Their baggage had all of their belongings, but now they couldn't see a thing. Minghui lowered her head and thought this would be her end. She guessed she'd incur the heroine's wrath and might even be deported.

What brush of good favor could she do, she shouldn't even think on it.

Wan Yu directly jumped on top of the tree and scrutinized the area carefully, there was nothing to be seen, yet the smell of barbecue faintly emitted. Having smelled the aroma, a wave of comfort washed over her, she figured out who dared to steal their luggage.

She hopped off from the tree and stated, “The thief took it.”

“Ah?” Dongfang Minghui made a confused face, unsure on believing the protagonist's words.

There were thieves in this place?

“It's a greedy one, but if you were to continue roasting delicious food, it might return them.” Dongfang Wan Yu gave a purposeful nudge in her statement.

Minghui c.o.c.ked her head, perplexed, before reaching enlightenment on what the heroine was trying to imply.

“Forget it, let's go back first.”

When the two came back to the party of six, they returned to find one of them injured, lying on the floor unconscious. The metallic smell on their bodies were cleaned up, along with the fact they used the leaves of the corpse gra.s.s, the scent of blood couldn't be detected at all. Next to the man was a woman who nervously guarded him. She was staring at him closely, never taking her eyes off of him, the frown on her lips never leaving. It seemed like the they were on good terms.

There was also a brutish looking man cutting up the bodies of iron beetles, the rest of the three were starting a fire to boil water, none appeared fearful of being in the Purple Devils Mountain.

When Minghui saw them cooking, her stomach started to rumble. On the other side, Wan Yu glimpsed at her, rumaging through her pockets for rations. Her complexion slightly darkened, before settling back into her expression.

“The iron beetle can also be cooked and eaten, wanna try?”

Compared to Minghui, Dongfang Wan Yu seemed to be more able to adapt to live in the wilderness.

Even if she didn't want to eat, she couldn't bear the hunger that made her feel dizzy and her four limbs weak. If she encountered another demonic beast, she couldn't escape no matter how much she ran.

Minghui clenched her teeth, holding back her nausea and approached the man breaking down the armored beetle, “Elder brother, would you mind giving me a few of those beetles?”

Though this man appeared tough and barbaric, he was actually pretty kind, pointing to one of the beetles on the floor, “You're a gentleman, had you not driven away those bugs, we'd all have died here. This is all your credit, take as many as you'd like.”

Oriental Minghui immediately selected ten large ones. When she attempted to remove the sh.e.l.ls, she quickly found that the sh.e.l.l was as hard as iron, the dagger made no progress in cutting it open. 

She turned the iron beetle's body all over again, until she found a soft spot located on its abdomen. 

“This will work!”

Minghui used the dagger to strip the armor on its abdomen. She didn't mind using a tree branch to roast it directly in the flames.

“Zssszsszs——”

As fire cooked the beetle, she saw oil leaking out of its sh.e.l.l, the meat of the beetle's abdomen started to shrink, leaving it half-exposed.

The fragrance attracted everyone's attention.

Minghui picked off a piece with the knife and caught sight that the meat was soft. She nibbled on it. There wasn't any fishy sort of smell like she imagined, on the contrary, it was a little fragrant.

“Iron beetles aren't supposed to be cooked like this,” One of the six took a pouch from the female's body and sprinkled some sort of spice onto the meat, “Try it now, it should taste a little better.”

Dongfang Minghui tried a small bite, it had a better flavor than before, the seasoning must've been salt and the like.

"Seventh sister, have a taste too."

Dongfang Minghui split a piece and gave it to the female protagonist to try.

Glancing back, the uninvited girl was ignorant of the method she used to shave off the sh.e.l.l of the iron beetle. The whole flesh and skin of the beetle was peeled off. Her swift movements made it hard for her eyes to follow her workmans.h.i.+p.

She threaded the insect meat, placed it on the fire rack and roasted it over and over. In a short time, the white and tender insect meat turned into golden meat. Then she sprinkled some of the condiments she brought, and the odor dispersed.

Repeatedly, Minghui observed what she had done three times,  gradually figuring out the essentials. She made two or three attempts to shave off the pieces of insect meat.

The girl barbequed the meat continuously five times, sprinkling seasoning on and handing them out one by one.

“Ninth brother,  I didn't know you were so capable?” Wan Yu sat beside her, speaking mindlessly on the subject.

Minghui flinched, then explained with a smile, “Seventh sister must be joking, I just learned it from the girl a while ago.”

Dongfang Wan Yu looked towards her meaningfully, accepting the food handed over to her and said nothing more.

Dongfang Minghui roasted and ate simultaneously, purposely leaving two leftover and wrapping them in green leaves, shelving them for future use.

“Let's rest for today, I'll watch for the night.”

Hearing that the female protagonist was going to guard them, she confidently went over to look for a big tree to sleep on.

Six people were present, with the addition of one of them being fatally injured, the other  four had their eyes closed, recharging their energy.

“Hey, girl, thanks for the help today.” The leader of the mercenary group, Zhao Sanqi, came over to Dongfang Wan Yu to express their grat.i.tude.

“No need to thank me, I didn't do much.” She was being sincere, had Minghui not jumped in to a.s.sist her, it  would've taken a lot more effort for her to put down those iron beetles.

As she thought of this, she looked back at the sleeping figure of Minghui, who was smiling in her sleep.

“You're too modest, without you two, I'm afraid today would've had us leaving our last words.”

Dongfang Wan Yu nodded, accepting their grat.i.tude, “Iron beetles aren't normally this aggressive, why'd they attack you?”

Zhao Sanqi lamented, “We took the employer's task to take the eggs of the King iron beetle here. Who would've known that just as we just got ready to steal the eggs, we'd be discovered.”

“No wonder.” Dongfang Wan Yu replied. She didn't plan on prodding any further, after all, King iron beetle eggs were precious treasures, if raised well, they could later form a contract and summon other iron beetles in battle in the future. They could be your right and left hand man.

"Ah——"

The man who rested on the ground and was fatally injured suddenly widened his eyes, streaks of blue veins appeared on his neck, his eyes reddish and his face fierce.

"Fifth brother, what's wrong?" The girl guarding him worriedly gripped his shoulder, and was shocked when she was flung away unprepared.

"Not good, seize him!"

The author has something to say:

Seeking to collect, will sell my body(^o^)/~

TL rambles

I missed out on translating author notes, would you guys prefer if I went back to  tranlate them?

Also, my translations are finally stolen on a pirate site uvu

does this mean my s.h.i.+tty translations are worth giving me money for?~ Does that mean I could shameless ask for free money with my current work? :3c

If so, might as well be a shameless sc.u.m and post it here.