Chapter 3: The Evil Foe Blocks the Path
Chen Ming could not quite describe what he was feeling right now. He only felt as though a part of himself was missing. Whether it was pain or joy, all his emotions seemed to be covered by a layer of mist, leaving him with an indescribable sense of detachment from everything around him.
This was a natural reaction for a human facing a major disaster. In Chen Ming's previous life, it would have been classified as a form of psychological trauma.
But at this moment, that very sense of detachment, as if everything were separated by a layer of mist, had become the reason Chen Ming had to keep living.
He had no mood to mourn his former acquaintances, nor any time to grieve for everything around him. Right now, Chen Ming only had 1 clear and pure goal in his heart: survive.
Chen Ming knew that although his Martial Soul granted him extraordinary vitality and seemed to have made him completely immune to the plague and toxins carried by the Locust Fish, the surrounding environment had already been completely destroyed. Even if he could survive for now by gnawing on bark, there was no bark left for him to eat. On top of that, there was no nearby water source. Without any way to replenish moisture, even if he could hold on for a while, he would definitely reach his limit sooner or later.
He had to leave this place. He had to leave this barren land and search for water and food. No matter what, he had to live.
Because of his earlier frantic search for food, Chen Ming had already lost his sense of direction. The destruction caused by the Locust Fish and the drought had erased everything that could have served as a landmark. In order to avoid going the wrong way, Chen Ming had no choice but to wait until nightfall and use the stars to determine east, south, west, and north.
As time passed, the Locust Fish in Chen Ming's stomach were fully digested. Intense hunger and an instinctive craving for fresh flesh surged into his mind like a tide.
But this time, having at least prepared himself mentally, Chen Ming forcefully suppressed his instincts and, with his Martial Soul manifested, began running south.
Without water or food, even an ordinary Spirit Master would not be able to last very long.
However, with his Martial Soul manifested, although Chen Ming still felt overwhelming hunger, his body's need for all forms of nutrition seemed to have dropped to an extremely low level. Moreover, because his body could barely feel pain anymore, he was almost like a living undead.
Along the way, Chen Ming barely sustained himself by eating scattered Locust Fish. He passed through village after village in ruins, carefully inspecting anything that might contain food or water.
Fortunately, in one of the villages, a well had been dug extremely deep, and there was still a tiny amount of murky muddy water at the bottom.
Although such filthy muddy water would be difficult for an ordinary person to survive on, Chen Ming, whose digestive ability and vitality had been greatly enhanced under Martial Soul Manifestation, greedily drank it all, restoring his condition once again.
As he continued moving forward, Chen Ming gradually began to adapt to his current Martial Soul and state. Although his appearance under Martial Soul Manifestation was ugly, this strange Martial Soul gave him a tenacious vitality comparable to that of a cockroach.
After traveling for a long time, Chen Ming finally encountered the 3rd kind of living creature on this journey besides himself and the Locust Fish. Unfortunately, it was also something Chen Ming absolutely did not want to see.
It was a giant lizard.
Its body was covered in a layer of dried mud as it lay low against the ground in concealment, its eyes filled with a craving for flesh and blood.
The lizard was nearly twice as long as Chen Ming's current body. Its huge mouth looked as though it could bite off half of Chen Ming in a single gulp. Covered in dried mud like a layer of armor, its body was as thick as a water bucket.
Its overall appearance somewhat resembled the Komodo dragon Chen Ming had seen in videos in his previous life, though some of the finer details looked a little different.
Although it had clearly been weakened by dehydration, its eyes had grown cloudy, and even the mud coating its body as armor had hardened into heavy dirt, the lizard still carried the aura of a predator.
That was definitely not an ordinary creature. It was a genuine Spirit Beast.
Chen Ming saw the Spirit Beast, and the Spirit Beast also saw Chen Ming. Its pair of cloudy eyes were filled with hunger for fresh flesh and blood.
Fight, or flee?
If he could choose, Chen Ming would definitely flee.
But he was not the only one craving fresh flesh and blood. The moment he smelled the giant lizard, Chen Ming's barely functioning stomach began to churn violently, and the water he had drunk not long ago quickly turned into saliva that kept secreting in his mouth.
That intense hunger was like a raging fire, stimulating Chen Ming's stomach until it became nearly impossible for him to think.
During that brief pause, the giant lizard, which had been waiting for prey, suddenly charged straight at Chen Ming.
Driven by the instincts of a wild beast and by hunger, it squeezed out every last bit of its strength and rushed at Chen Ming in a desperate gamble, trying to turn this plump lump of flesh into food for its own stomach.
I can't escape, can I? Then I might as well fight!
Chen Ming smelled the scent of life from the lizard. The instinct of his Martial Soul told him, pounce on it, eat this lizard, and let this brute know who stands at the top of the food chain.
"I can do it! I've awakened my Martial Soul, I can do it!"
His mind muddled by the rush of instinct, Chen Ming let out a beast-like roar and charged straight at the giant lizard.
The lizard slammed into Chen Ming, and the huge impact sent him tumbling across the ground. Because Chen Ming's current form was too bizarre, the lizard could not find where his neck was, so it could only bite down on his abdomen, injecting venom through its syringe-like fangs into his belly.
It was a toxin with both paralysis and corrosive properties, one capable of instantly killing large livestock like water buffalo and making their bodies rot rapidly.
This was the final venom and final struggle of the Carrion Giant Lizard, a deadly poison refined from extracted life force. If injected into the abdomen, even a 1,000 year Spirit Beast would die from it.
But just as the Carrion Giant Lizard clamped tightly onto Chen Ming's balloon-like swollen belly, waiting for him to die, it saw Chen Ming, who felt no pain at all, suddenly force himself upright and bite down on the lizard's foreleg.
The foreleg, coated in broken yellow earth, was effortlessly crushed and torn apart by Chen Ming, as easily as biting into a cooked chicken claw. Wherever Chen Ming's saliva and blood splashed, everything dissolved without exception, as if corroded by a strong acid.
The venom condensed from the Carrion Giant Lizard's final reserves of strength and nutrition was actually less corrosive than Chen Ming's own bodily fluids.
While the Carrion Giant Lizard was still struggling to tear a piece of flesh from Chen Ming's tough, gelatinous belly, Chen Ming had already ripped apart and chewed through the lizard's foreleg, swallowing it down. Then he began smashing his elbows over and over into the lizard's head.