Yang Yangyang blankly nodded his head, and then suddenly realized, widening his eyes and saying, "Brother Man! You mean they aren’t human? Is that... is that true?"
Zhang Xiaoman looked at him, "That’s right, I condensed them using Dark Energy, you can consider them Elemental Puppets."
Yang Yangyang instantly perked up, scrambled up from the ground, and looked at the two Star Guards with gleaming eyes, "Brother Man, can I come closer and take a look? Oh, and can I touch them?"
He originally found these two intimidating with their imposing builds and murderous aura, always a bit too fearful to look more closely.
But now, knowing that they were actually Elemental Puppets summoned by Zhang Xiaoman, his courage had grown significantly, and he was no longer afraid. He quickly approached them, wanting to take a closer look.
Zhang Xiaoman knew this guy’s curiosity had kicked in again, so he didn’t stop him, allowing him to observe them closely for quite a while.
The Star Guards, having not received any orders from their master, stood there still, but those eyes emitting purple light closely watched the guy touching them all over.
"This armor, this texture, oh my God! It’s all real! Brother Man, how did you manage this! It’s so cool!"
At that moment, Yang Yangyang’s face was full of awe and fascination, seemingly having forgotten about earlier when monsters had chased him to a pillar.
"Sweater, what exactly happened here? Are there other monsters around? And where did everyone else go?" Zhang Xiaoman asked then.
Yang Yangyang snapped back to reality, his face changing color, "Oh no! My mind! Brother Man, Lord Bear is hurt, you need to go save him quickly!"
Zhang Xiaoman’s heart tightened, and he hurriedly asked, "Lord Bear is hurt? What happened? Come on, lead the way, and we’ll discuss it as we go!"
With that, the two of them ran southward one after the other, with the Star Guards maintaining their vigil nearby to prevent any further danger.
On the way, Yang Yangyang quickly explained the situation to Zhang Xiaoman. The story was actually quite simple: last night, while they were camping, they suddenly encountered the Werewolf that had just attacked.
They had hidden all night, but unfortunately were still found in the end.
Later, to cover their escape, Lord Bear got scratched by the monster’s claws from behind.
Yang Yangyang now also wanted to go back and find some bandages left at the camp to help stop the bleeding.
After hearing the full story, Zhang Xiaoman was surprised, knowing the speed of that monster, it was unexpected that they managed to escape.
Yang Yangyang then explained:
"Brother Man, you didn’t see it, but Lord Bear was incredibly brave! When the monster lunged with its mouth open, Lord Bear actually grabbed a handful of sand from the ground and stuffed it down its throat!"
Zhang Xiaoman exclaimed, "Oh? The monster didn’t bite him?"
"No, no, Lord Bear later said that this was a technique he used against tigers before. He once used it to escape from the mouth of a Bengal Tiger. When something is thrust into its throat, it can’t bite down properly and it also triggers a strong gagging reflex, which gave us enough time to flee."
Yang Yangyang spoke, though their speed didn’t slow down at all.
"That very instant, the monster immediately spit out his hand and then vomited on the ground for quite a while, allowing us to escape successfully."
Zhang Xiaoman nodded inwardly, Lord Bear truly lived up to his name. It took not only precise timing but also great courage to do that. The title Wilderness Survival Expert was indeed well-deserved.
As they talked, they had arrived at a collapsed ruin. Yang Yangyang pointed to the entrance, "Lord Bear is inside, let’s hurry in."
Having said that, he took the lead and crawled in, with Zhang Xiaoman closely following behind.
The entrance was tiny and inconspicuous, which surely would have been too small for the monster they had just encountered to enter.
Though unimpressive from the outside, the interior was surprisingly another world to Zhang Xiaoman, indeed a hidden sanctuary!
The space inside was vast, seemingly an ancient palace’s grand hall, dotted with numerous small crevices overhead through which sunlight streamed. Moreover, on one side of the hall, there was a small spring dripping water, which looked like a suitable sanctuary.
Lord Bear was now leaning against the wall; hearing the noise, he looked up in surprise at the arrivals.
"Lord Bear! I’ve come! I’ve found Brother Man! That monster was just slain by Brother Man! We’re saved!" Yang Yangyang hurried over.
Zhang Xiaoman looked around but didn’t see Xun You and Ji Xiaoqi.
Seeing his confusion, Yang Yangyang said somewhat dejectedly, "Dog friend and Sister Xiaoqi got separated from us during the escape. I’m not sure how they are now, whether they’ve encountered any danger..."
Zhang Xiaoman was silent for a moment, then said, "I’ll tend to Lord Bear’s wounds first, and then we can go out and search for them together."
Lord Bear gave him a weak smile at this moment; he had three main injuries, one on his back from a scratch, and the other two were on his shoulders where he had been viciously stabbed by the claws when he reached his hand into the monster’s mouth.
Compared to those, the cut on his arm by the teeth was merely a superficial wound.
"Zhang, thank you, I thought I was going to die..."
Lord Bear said weakly. As a wilderness survival expert, he was well aware of how dire his current situation was.
He had been ready to give his last words to Yang Yangyang, but unexpectedly, this mysterious Eastern Wizard had appeared, making him feel that he might still have a chance to be saved.
Yang Yangyang also looked hopefully at Zhang Xiaoman, seeing him as a powerful Transcendent who had just effortlessly slain the terrifying monster with a single sword strike without even moving a hand!
With such strong power, healing a wound shouldn’t be a problem, right?
"Don’t worry, I’m here; he won’t come to harm," Zhang Xiaoman reassured them.
Following that, he directly summoned the System panel, opened the store, found Baozi, and clicked purchase.
In midair, a distortion of space suddenly occurred, immediately drawing both their attention.
"What is this..." Yang Yangyang exclaimed in surprise.
No sooner had he spoken than a green steamer appeared out of thin air and was caught in Zhang Xiaoman’s hands.
Upon lifting the lid, a delicious aroma burst forth.
They were both flabbergasted.
Zhang Xiaoman flashed a smile: "Lord Bear, eat this, and you’ll be healed."