Just One Lick

In fact, there was no need to wait even a moment.

After Dodder Vine juice was smeared over its wound, the Windbird Lizard Beast, which had been struggling violently just moments ago, began to droop almost instantly. Then its head tilted to one side, and it collapsed onto the ground.

"It's not dead. It's fallen asleep." Seeing the Windbird Lizard Beast's belly rise and fall rhythmically, Du Ke understood the effect of the Dodder Vine juice. It had to be some kind of powerful anesthetic.

He slapped the Windbird Lizard Beast hard, but unfortunately, the creature was sleeping too deeply to wake up. Up close, he could even hear its heavy breathing. To determine the anesthetic effect of the Dodder Vine, he took the Windbird Lizard Beast with him and continued on his way. By then, the temperature had soared to 38°C. On Earth, that would count as scorching summer weather, but according to the flower fairies, it was still spring in Fantasy World.

It was truly hard to imagine what Fantasy World would be like once summer arrived.

High temperatures easily caused fires. Would this Great Blue Forest burn in summer... Probably not. If it burned once every year, it likely could not have grown into such a vast forest.

Ahead of him, an orange-yellow flower as large as a washbasin on a tree caught his attention. When he approached for a closer look, he discovered that it did not seem to be part of the tree itself, but rather some parasitic plant attached to the trunk. It had five petals, each as large as a basketball. At the center of its stamens was a round ball the size of a soccer ball, though he had no idea what was inside.

"Let's poke it."

He swiftly manifested a face shield in front of his Nano Armor, then manifested a long needle and jabbed it into the round ball at the flower's center.

Bang!

With a tremendous explosion, the round ball burst apart. The blast scattered the strange pollen across a wide area, and before long, orange-yellow smoke shrouded the entire forest. Birds and small beasts dwelling in the canopy fled in panic. Even from the piles of dead leaves on the ground, things that might have been small animals or insects darted out and crawled past Du Ke.

"What the hell was that?!" Du Ke quickly inspected his Nano Armor. It was covered in yellow powder, but it did not seem to have suffered any damage.

He immediately cut off his external breathing and switched to the internal circulation of his Mind Armor. Then he manifested a gust of wind to blow away the yellow smoke in front of him, intending to look at the parasitic flower on the tree again. But where was the flower? It had long since been blown to pieces in the explosion. Even a large chunk of the trunk had been blasted away, nearly snapping the tree in half. In other words, merely touching that flower made it explode.

That was ridiculous.

Du Ke waited quite a while before the yellow smoke finally began to disperse. However, the yellow powder had already spread over a huge section of forest, temporarily turning the blue forest pale yellow.

Suddenly, he thought of something and looked at the Windbird Lizard Beast hanging from his armor.

The sight stunned him. There was no Windbird Lizard Beast left. All that remained tied to the rope was a skeleton that was melting away. No, more accurately, it was a yellow skeleton. The yellow powder was like the bone-dissolving powder from novels, rapidly melting the Windbird Lizard Beast's bones until only some residue fell to the ground. Meanwhile, countless tiny orange-yellow flowers had silently sprouted from the ground.

"Is this how it reproduces?"

"That's terrifying."

These strange flowers, capable of exploding and corroding skeletons, made cold sweat stream down Du Ke's back. If he had not been protected by Nano Armor, he probably would have died on the spot when he boldly poked that flower.

Fantasy World was too terrifying.

Du Ke suddenly missed Earth terribly. "I want to go home."

Fortunately, the fear was only temporary. With the Mind Armor protecting him, he was safe for the time being. After thinking for a long time, he named this strange flower the Devil Explosion Flower. Its bizarre method of reproduction was scarier than any devil. However, newly sprouted Devil Explosion Flowers did not seem to possess explosive power. Du Ke crushed a whole patch underfoot, yet nothing happened.

"It probably needs to mature first. Once its stamens swell into a round ball, it can unleash its explosive power. Looking at it that way, it doesn't seem as terrifying as it did earlier."

"And it seems to need meat to grow."

Du Ke observed carefully. The patch of Devil Explosion Flowers beneath his feet had likely reproduced by devouring the flesh and blood of the Windbird Lizard Beast, while the scattered patches farther away had surely reproduced by devouring other small animals. The yellow powder clinging to plants and dead leaves showed no sign of sprouting. Du Ke considered scraping some off as a sample, but after thinking it over, he decided against it.

He worried that if he returned to Earth and the sample somehow leaked, it could cause enormous damage to Earth's ecosystem.

Just as he was about to leave, he suddenly spotted a group of familiar little animals. They moved in packs, sprawled across the ground, greedily licking up the yellow powder.

"They're Fire-breathing Golems. These things actually eat Devil Explosion Flower powder. Aren't they afraid of being turned into fertilizer?" Du Ke was greatly amazed.

Yet with the arrival of the Fire-breathing Golems, the small beasts, insects, and birds that had fled the area also returned one after another. They joined the scramble to lick up the yellow powder, competing with the Fire-breathing Golems. Some fearless creatures gradually ignored Du Ke's presence and came right up to his feet to lick the yellow powder. However, every animal deliberately avoided the newly sprouted Devil Explosion Flowers and only licked the powder.

"Can this stuff really be eaten?"

Du Ke raised his hand and looked at the yellow powder on his Nano Armor. He was starting to feel tempted himself. "If it were dangerous, these animals would never be gorging themselves on it. And they haven't shown any abnormalities after eating it. They're even excited. This seems like good stuff... Should I try it?" By then, some particularly bold insects had followed the trail of yellow powder all the way to his feet.

They even wanted to lick the yellow powder off his Nano Armor.

Naturally, Du Ke had no intention of letting insects lick him. With a stomp of his foot, he crushed the insect to death.

He stood there and watched the little animals celebrate. In just over ten minutes, the vast spread of yellow powder had been licked completely clean, without a trace remaining. Only a layer of yellow powder still clung to Du Ke's Nano Armor. Intimidated by him, the little animals no longer dared approach. Some of the smarter beasts had already turned and left.

Only a few lower insects still stubbornly tried to come closer.

"I'll just have one lick!" Seeing that the animals were truly unharmed, Du Ke finally could not resist. "The bold die of overeating, the timid die of hunger. What's one lick? At worst, I'll pump my own stomach!"

Back on Earth, he had learned how to perform gastric lavage during a hospital visit, precisely because he feared accidentally eating something poisonous in Fantasy World.

With the Mind Armor, he could pump his stomach whenever he wanted.

So, after taking a deep breath, Du Ke finally licked the yellow powder. It melted the instant it touched his tongue. A sweet-and-sour flavor bloomed over his tongue, then spread throughout his entire body. The dissolved powder did not seem to enter his stomach. Instead, it became a warm current that spread from his mouth and tongue, rapidly flowing through every part of his body. Not only did he feel no discomfort, he instead felt refreshed and invigorated.

After half a minute, the sensation faded, and none of the poisoning symptoms he had expected appeared.

"It's edible!"

His eyes lit up. He finally understood why all those little animals had rushed over to fight for it. The experience of eating the stuff was simply too wonderful. He immediately and carefully wriggled his Nano Armor, gathering the yellow powder stuck to it bit by bit until he had collected a piece about the size of a fingernail. He did not eat it immediately. Instead, he sealed it in a test tube, intending to wait until he confirmed it was safe and non-toxic.

Perhaps because the scent of the yellow powder had disappeared, the army of insects surrounding Du Ke finally scattered and left.

In this forest that had returned to blue, the only traces left by the Devil Explosion Flowers were clusters of newly sprouted little yellow flowers. The newborn flowers on the ground had already begun to wither. Only the lucky newly sprouted Devil Explosion Flowers growing on tree trunks remained standing strong and continued to grow.