CHAPTER 850: CHAPTER 571: THE LEGACY OF THE ERAKOS SAND WORM (PART 2)

"Crack!"

The overburdened sawtoothed butcher knife was completely shattered, while Liu Zheng successfully returned to the tank cabin.

He looked at his hoof, only to find Niu Daji tightly shutting his eyes and biting down hard.

Except for the parts protected by the ancestral treasure armor, Niu Daji’s entire body had been compressed and deformed.

Especially its head, which was almost flattened from three-dimensional to two-dimensional.

"Don’t worry, he’s just passed out; he won’t die for now."

The driver said.

"Not dead from this?"

Liu Zheng exclaimed in surprise.

Of course, he wasn’t wishing for Niu Daji to die, just found it bewildering.

"This Minotaur’s vitality is quite strong. But that’s not the main reason, pry open his eyes and take a look."

The driver said.

Following his words, Liu Zheng pried open Niu Daji’s eyelids, only to find the pupils had turned blue.

"I don’t know whether it’s good luck or bad luck, but it accidentally ingested the sand worm’s blood, which can extend life and heal, but it’s highly addictive and causes mutations in the user’s body and spirit."

The driver said.

"Is there a way to quit it?"

He asked.

"It’s hard to say, the ’Hound’ doesn’t have the appropriate equipment. When we get back, I’ll bring out ’El’ and run a proper test on this Minotaur. If the ingested blood hasn’t exceeded the critical value, there’s hope, but if it has..."

"Then it can’t be quit?"

Liu Zheng pressed on.

"No, it can still be quit, but the price is very high. Frankly, I don’t think this Minotaur is worth it."

The driver said coldly.

"I don’t need you to make judgments, Colonel, I just need you to give me a plan."

His tone was even colder than the driver’s.

"Alright, since you insist. If the test results do exceed the critical value, I will tell you the solution."

The driver shrugged.

"Thank you very much, Colonel. Now what do we do?"

Liu Zheng asked.

"Nothing, just wait. With the size of this sand worm, it shouldn’t take more than five minutes."

The driver made a judgment.

"You seem to know more about sand worms than just a hunting enthusiast."

He couldn’t help but probe a little.

"What do you think makes a perfect soldier?"

The driver asked in return.

"Good conduct, able to win battles?"

Liu Zheng recalled slogans seen on TV.

"Correct, but too broad."

The driver assessed.

"A perfect soldier should fear no pain, no death, be loyal and obedient, knowledgeable, exceptionally talented, resilient, flexible, and adaptable."

He explained his understanding of a perfect soldier.

"You might as well say you want a group of great men as your soldiers."

Liu Zheng rolled his eyes.

Even a five-star youth like him only met some of the standards, not to mention those of varying qualities.

"As long as there’s blood from the Erakos sand worm, mass-producing such perfect soldiers isn’t impossible."

"Could it be that Erakos sand worms became rare animals because of this?"

He squinted his eyes.

"That’s just because of practical needs. If we had won the war, we’d start protecting them too."

The driver defended himself.

"But unfortunately, there’s no ’what if’ in reality."

Liu Zheng shook his head.

"Yeah, no ’what if’.

The driver ended the conversation disinterestedly.

Soon, the potion’s effects began to take hold, and the sand worm started to struggle violently.

This time, Liu Zheng protected Niu Daji with his body, preventing it from getting hurt again.

After about four and a half minutes, the sand worm finally stopped moving.

The slackened inner walls could no longer block the tank, and the ’Hound’ forcibly drove forward.

Soon, a glimmer of light appeared in the periscope.

The driver slammed on the pedal, and the tank broke open the closed mouthparts, bursting out from inside the sand worm.

Liu Zheng climbed out of the tank cabin to look outside, and not far ahead was the vermillion Bird House of Bathhouse Street.

"Looks like this sand worm was originally planning to visit Bathhouse Street, but ran into us halfway."

The driver said.

"Should we thank it for giving us a lift then?"

He pursed his lips.

"No need, didn’t you give it a ride too?"

The driver chuckled.

"Wow, Colonel, that joke is colder than the kitchen’s freezer."

Liu Zheng shivered.

After getting off the tank, he began inspecting the sand worm’s corpse.

He found the flesh had entirely turned into weathered stone, and with a gentle squeeze, it crumbled into real sand.

"Colonel, is it supposed to look like this after a sand worm dies?"

Liu Zheng asked.

"No, that should be the effect of the deteriorated potion. Check its teeth."

The driver said.

"Okay."

He checked the sand worm’s teeth, finding most had become brittle stone like the flesh, with only about ten remaining usable.

"What a pity, the teeth of the Erakos sand worm, known as Crystal Teeth, can be used to make weapons and fetch a high price. A single Crystal Tooth can sell for at least a thousand.

The driver said.

"Damn it!"

Liu Zheng looked at the at least thousand Crystal Teeth, as if he was watching countless green bills flying past him.

"I guess it’s the same for other parts. Take this."

The driver tossed him a headset-like ear cover.

"Put it on and head back inside the sand worm, then move slowly towards its end. If you feel a spiritual attack, search around and dig out something similar to a sphere."

The driver said.

"What if I don’t feel anything?"

Liu Zheng asked.

"Then those are all your gains."

The driver pointed to the Crystal Teeth he was holding.

"It’d better leave me some inheritance, otherwise I’ll grind its body into powder and brew it as tea to get some capital back."

Liu Zheng said fiercely.

"No need for that. You could sell it to sculptors or stone masons, maybe get some price."

The driver suggested a way.

"Forget it. I feel like the earned money wouldn’t even cover the shipping cost."

Liu Zheng pursed his lips, put on the ear cover, and went back into the sand worm’s mouth.

Following the driver’s instructions, he crawled through the sand worm’s body at a speed of five centimeters per second (exaggerated rhetoric).

The inside of the sand worm was still dark and gloomy, and the space carved by the tank wasn’t spacious.

Fortunately, he didn’t have claustrophobia, or he’d be losing sanity by now.

After crawling for who knows how long, Liu Zheng’s eyes suddenly lit up like several flash bombs exploding in his eyeballs.

"Damn!"

He instinctively cursed, and before he could react further, a series of spiritual attacks erupted in his mind.

Liu Zheng couldn’t quite describe what it was, countless fragmented images flashed through his mind, but there was a logical connection between them.

But when he tried to grasp and think about them, they slipped through his brain and flew away.

"Warning, player subjected to strong spiritual attack, loss of sanity gauge will be evaluated if the threshold is exceeded."

"Player subjected to spiritual attack exceeding threshold, loss of sanity gauge will be evaluated."

"Sanity decrease immunity successful."

A series of system prompts echoed in Liu Zheng’s mind, anchoring his thoughts like a point.

He shook his head, every nerve feeling like it was being scorched by flames and frozen by liquid nitrogen.

He touched the wet area below his nose, unsurprisingly finding a mess of liquid.

"You’ve beaten me this hard, you’d better afford my medical fees, or I’ll come after your relatives and friends."

Although Liu Zheng knew nothing about the social structure of Erakos sand worms, he bantered to relieve his mind.

He groped around with four tentacles, soon finding the spherical object the driver mentioned.

He drew ’Anger’ and carefully pried the sphere free.

Clutching the sphere, he continued to crawl down, this time speeding up, but he didn’t encounter any further spiritual attacks until he reached the end.

So he held the sphere tightly and quickly crawled towards the exit.