The poisonous bees in the Beast World were highly venomous. An Jin observed the injured beastmen and discovered that most of the Poison Needles embedded in their bodies still had the venom sacs attached.
This meant she couldn’t use tweezers, to avoid squeezing more venom into their bodies and worsening the reaction. She could only use the tip of a fine blade or needle to pick out the venom sacs and the stingers.
An Jin took a deep breath, her dark eyes growing solemn. She gripped the hilt of a knife that suddenly glowed with white light, washed it in the water bucket by the door, then walked over to the most severely injured beastman and knelt down.
She began carefully picking out the Poison Needles.
Half of the beastman’s body was covered in them, the wounds clustered with oozing, murky yellow pustules. ’Luckily, he isn’t in his beast form,’ An Jin thought, ’or I’d be looking at a completely hairless lion.’
The seconds ticked by.
The pile of blood-stained Poison Needles in the wooden basin beside the beastman grew larger.
An Jin’s face had grown pale, the veins on her hands faintly visible. ’There are just too many Poison Needles on these beastmen. I have to focus and remove them one by one, with the utmost care. If a Poison Needle breaks and a piece stays inside, it’ll be even harder to get out.’
After removing all the Poison Needles from one beastman, An Jin was on the verge of collapse from exhaustion. Her vision was blurry, and her fingers trembled.
’But the longer the Poison Needles stay in their bodies, the more critical their condition will become. Once they grow into the flesh, they’ll be even harder to remove.’
There was no time for An Jin to rest. She quickly cleaned her blade again and started removing the Poison Needles from the second beastman.
Then the third, and the fourth.
Only one left.
Outside, the sun had set in the west, and the twilight afterglow was fading. The better part of the day had passed, yet not a sound came from inside the thatched hut.
The beastmen outside paced back and forth, waiting anxiously.
An Jin hadn’t had a single drop of water all day, and her mind was stretched to its breaking point from the intense concentration. She pressed her pale, chapped lips together and blinked her dry, aching eyes.
When she stood up, her body swayed unsteadily.
’I can’t go on,’ she thought, acutely aware she was nearing her mental limit. ’If I keep this up, my hand might shake, and I’ll end up hurting the last beastman.’
’Fortunately, the last beastman is in much better condition than the others were.’
An Jin slowly cleaned the blood and pus from her blade. In those few short minutes, her mind regained some clarity.
She planned to push through and finish removing the last beastman’s Poison Needles in one go, but unexpectedly, the pain woke him up mid-procedure, and he cried out in agony.
An Jin grabbed his wrist and said in a cold voice, "Don’t move. If the Poison Needle breaks off inside you, there’ll be nothing I can do."
The beastman froze, terrified. Looking at his composed Female Clan Leader, he swallowed hard, enduring the excruciating pain that felt like a thousand needles piercing his body. "Clan Leader, rest assured, I... I won’t move!"
An Jin handed him a wooden stick.
The beastman let out a grunt and clamped down hard on it.
An Jin released his wrist. Focusing all her attention, she resumed the delicate task of removing the needles.
In the process, the beastman bit through the wooden stick. The muscles in his face trembled uncontrollably, but he stubbornly remained silent, his body as rigid and unmoving as a rock.
They both took a deep breath. Time seemed to pass with excruciating slowness.
Finally.
"Alright. Take it easy for the next few days and focus on healing. The wounds still need to be cleaned and disinfected."
An Jin set the basin, now half-full of Poison Needles, at a distance. She kept her head lowered as she sterilized her blade over the charcoal fire, her voice gentle as she gave her instructions.
Meanwhile, two of the other beastmen had woken up. They all nodded repeatedly, like chicks pecking at grain.
The beastmen’s respect for their Female Clan Leader deepened.
After cleaning her blade, she discreetly returned it to her System storage. An Jin walked over to the beastmen. After examining them for a moment, she frowned.
’The Poison Needles are out, but most of the venom is still in their systems.’
’The venom from the Beast World’s bees is too potent. Sucking it out is out of the question.’
’I can’t count on being as lucky as I was with the Gu Yin Snake venom.’
’Back then, it was the recklessness of a newcomer. When I first arrived in the Beast World, I wasn’t that attached to being alive, which is why I took such a risk.’
’But now, I’ve seen just how deadly the creatures in this Beast World can be.’
’I can’t just attempt that kind of near-death stunt again.’
’Cupping therapy might work, though. It can draw out the venom and reduce how much toxin the body absorbs.’
’But I don’t have the tools.’
An Jin was just about to ask Mirror Mirror if the System Mall had any cupping tools and if she could buy them on credit, when a pleasant, lilting voice called out from outside the door.