Prison to Pinnacle: Ex-wife's Eternal Lament

Chapter 17 Who's there?

Edward looked up at the massive tiger, still lying on the ground to recover.

“Looks like you’re weak. Rest here and I’ll look for the other herb we both need.”

Yellow old usually adapted itself to a relatively cool climate.

About it Edward knew very well.

It would usually grow on forest edges, in thickets or under sparse forests. He decided to go to the edge of this woods to look for it since it was afraid of heat and waterlogging.

Edward was confident that he had a better chance of finding it there.

Before long, Edward arrived where Yellow old should be growing.

On the edge of the woods, he discovered miracle of the season had the grass there greener.

Even some lilacs were found in bloom in purple, mauve and white.

“Unbelievable!”

The beautiful scenery simply took his breath away.

“I’m sure there will be Yellow Old here.”

He was right. Beside a snowdrift-like white fallen flowers stood a herbal plant.

It was about seventy centimeters high, weighted with pinnately compound leaves.

“That’s it!’ whispered Edward with a hint of excitement.

To his surprise, he found it with great ease.

Yet, before he held out to reach it, he heard something whistling in the air.

He had Pavlovian effect on almost potential attacks. Instinctively, he sidestepped and let slide numerous brown rocks as big as pebbles.

As he turned back, he saw a brown pheasant to his astonishment.

“Is this the legendary Stone Pheasant?”

It seemed Edward was whispering to himself or to the pheasant.

Interestingly, the creature before him cackled as if it was answering his question.

“It’s purported that you’re the guardian creature of Yellow Old. You’re trying to kill me, aren’t you? Can’t we be friends? You know I just need some Yellow Old, that’s all!”

As Edward once again tried to reach out for the plant, the pheasant cackled loudly and furiously, warning him not to do so.

It even started to flap its wings, feathers on its body standing up.

Then with a violent shake, it suddenly dived into the ground and disappeared.

“Good,” Edward gloated, “I’m glad I’m eloquent, even talking a Stone Pheasant out of attacking me again. I’m proud of myself.”

As he stepped forward, the pheasant suddenly dashed out of the ground, carrying a thick layer of brown soil all over. It struck Edward that it was like a brown dinosaur egg at first sight.

At second glance, it was like an animal in a brown full-length cloak.

Suddenly, it shook itself violently. Then the brown soil immediately had cracks and turned into little rocks, which were hurled straight at Edward.

Edward quickly did a few backflips and dodged the attacks.

When steadying himself again, Edward sneered,

“Nice move! Since you want to fight, let’s fight. You know I’m famished. I decide to roast you into a delicious dish.”

Probably the pheasant was irritated by Edward’s words.

It suddenly shook its body more violently than before, its feathers standing up higher.

Only when some feathers fell off it and flew like sharp daggers toward him did Edward realize it was its stupid stunt—it was trying to launch a round of weapon-like feather attacks.

Edward immediately took out two daggers and spun them as fast as he could.

In a few moments, as the dagger-like feathers came to meet the martial chrysanthemum the two daggers were spun into, Edward was surprised to see they were quickly flown askew and deeply stuck straight into a big tree trunk standing quite close by.

“You can shake off all your feathers, stupid bird, then I don’t have to bother to pluck them by myself before I cook you!” Edward sneered.  

Hearing that, the pheasant went into a flapping frenzy. More feathers were shaken off and went to attack Edward like daggers.

Yet, none of them landed on Edward.

Just like Edward said, there were sparse feathers on its body after several rounds of attacks. Seeing it was impossible to win the battle against Edward. The pheasant wanted to escape.

“It’s my show time now!” Edward exclaimed.

As the pheasant was trying to dive into the ground, Edward hurled his dagger straight at it. The dagger pierced through its leg and pinned it firmly to the ground.

“I didn’t mean to kill you, but you just don’t listen. It’s all your fault!”

Edward came over to it and gave it a quick slash across its neck with the other dagger in his hand.

Blood gushed out like flood, making the ground beneath it a red sea. After struggling for a while, it turned into an inert one.

Edward picked it up and then collected some of Yellow Old he needed.

After that, Edward returned to where the giant tiger was.

The tiger was much better, though still lying on the ground.

‘See what I’ve got!” Edward showed the dead pheasant to the tiger, ‘I’ll treat you roast pheasant.”

Edward looked around, discovering a small pond not far away from him.

He quickly strode toward it and soon gutted the pheasant, washed it clean in the water.

When all this was done, he wrapped it with a large around lotus leaf floating on the surface.

‘I know you like mud, Stone Pheasant. I’ll get you covered with it.”

Edward later plastered it with a thick layer of mud. Then he started an open fire and put it over the fire.

An hour later, the aroma of delicious roast pheasant wafted in the air, making Edward and that tiger salivate.

After peeling off the outer layer of hardened mud, a more pleasant aroma greeted his nostrils.

Edward tore off a half of it and threw it to the tiger before he started to eat it like a wolf himself.

“Wow, nice!” he exclaimed, “It must be food from heaven. What do you think of it?”

The tiger was too busy eating the food to give him any response, but palpably it enjoyed his food and bounced back a lot now that it could stand up.

Seeing the open fire was still burning fiercely, Edward quickly fetched several thick lotus leaves from the pond and placed them over the fire as a pot.

Then he lay licorice, Yellow Old and other ingredients on the leaves and started to refine the antidote pills he needed.

Before long, with several loud popping sounds, nine shiny yellow pills were successfully refined.

“Great. I’ll neutralize the remaining toxin inside my body with the pills now!”

After swallowing three yellow pills, he instantly exhaled something black out of his mouth.

Then he sat cross-legged with his eyes closed and began his meditation.

After a careful internal observation, he found there was no more Lockthroat inside him.

“Finally. I’ve got rid of this terrible poison completely!” he turned to the tiger. “Now it’s time for me to help you!”

He fed three of his yellow pills to the giant tiger.

In a few minutes, the pills worked as the tiger started to exhale something red out of its mouth.

It was nothing else but Shadow Crystal 77—the radioactive element that would make it grow unstoppably.

And the tiger was shrinking until it was of his normal size.

“Look, my pills have worked! Now you’ve fully recovered. I’ve got to go!”

But the tiger suddenly knelt down before him.

Obviously, it hoped Edward could ride on its back. It decided to give Edward one last ride before they parted.

“All right, since you want to see me off, I’ll let you. I have to say sometimes a beast can be much more reliable than a human!”

Half an hour later, Edward arrived at the entrance on the back of the tiger.

“Looks like we have to say goodbye now, buddy!” Edward whispered.

Yet, just as he took off the tiger, a bullet flew into the tiger’s head.

Before it could utter any sound, it fell to the ground and died on the spot.

“Who’s there!?” shouted Edward, the volcano inside erupting violently and its lava ready to burn away anything.