36: Chapter 36 Hong-ge, how did we become lizard people?

"Our own people?"

Listening to Chu Hong's reply, although Wang Suming didn't understand why the other party could have such an absurd thought,

at this moment, he still unswervingly chose to trust him.

"Brother Hong, I don't know about any clan members or not, but in a moment that Lizardman is going to patrol onto the bridge. Shouldn't we take advantage of this time to cross the bridge quickly?"

"Cross the bridge? Cross my damn foot!" Without the slightest hesitation and without explanation, Chu Hong immediately pulled Wang Suming and retreated to hide in a patch of bushes beneath the cliff behind them.

"Shh—"

Chu Hong picked up a stone from the ground and weighed it in his hand.

Then, under Wang Suming's shocked gaze, right as that patrolling Lizardman Warrior was about to step onto the bridge,

with a "swish," he hurled the stone directly at one of the Lizardmen.

The stone bounced off the Lizardman's hard horny scales with a "bang," failing to cause even the slightest bit of damage to the Lizardman.

"Ooh ooh ooh~~~"

Wang Suming was dumbfounded, watching as Chu Hong hit the Lizardman Warrior with a stone and instead of running away, loudly let out monkey-like cries from within the bushes.

"Brother Hong, you..." With a somewhat pale face, looking at the two Lizardman Warriors rushing over this way in anger, he hurriedly gripped the quality-blue [lizardman warrior spear] that Chu Hong had given him before entering the map.

Running was out of the question!

Besides, they couldn't outrun them anyway. Since Brother Hong did this, he must have his reasons.

Wang Suming clenched his teeth, cold sweat breaking out on his forehead from tension. However, Chu Hong gave him a look telling him to stay calm and not be impetuous.

His mouth continued to emit monkey-like calls.

"Damn stinking monkey! What on earth are those guys at the outpost doing? (Lizardman language)"

That Lizardman Warrior who had been hit by Chu Hong's stone let out an indignant low curse. After taking a few steps closer, it fiercely and accurately hurled its spear, blasting it straight toward the bushes where Chu Hong and the other were located.

"Boom!"

"Ahhh!" Chu Hong let out a sharp, miserable screech, as if a real monkey had been pierced through by the spear. The vivid and lifelike imitation effect made even Wang Suming widen his eyes in disbelief.

Chu Hong shook the bushes in front of him.

Rustling sounds rang out, as if a monkey hit by a spear was truly struggling on the brink of death inside the bushes.

The Lizardman Warrior relaxed its vigilance, still cursing as it walked toward the place where Chu Hong and Wang Suming were.

However.

right when it just walked up to the bushes,

without even seeing clearly where the monkey actually was,

"Clang!"

Amidst a sharp sword ring, its final memory froze upon the vaguely visible, sharp blade.

Looking at the Lizardman Warrior killed with a single sword strike by Chu Hong,

"Brother Hong, are you planning to lure the monsters one by one like this, and then clean up all the patrolling Lizardmen?" Wang Suming asked with an expression of admiration.

Chu Hong glanced at him sideways. "Dead fatty, do you look down on me that much?"

He curled his lip speechlessly, quickly stepping forward to grope around the wounds on the Lizardman Warrior's body.

Then, amidst Wang Suming's startled cries, he grabbed the blood from the Lizardman Warrior and smeared it onto his body.

"Ah! Brother Hong, what are you doing? Blech..."

"Don't move! Time is tight and the task is heavy!"

Soon, just as Wang Suming was almost about to pass out from the stench, Chu Hong also finished smearing the Lizardman Warrior's blood all over his body.

He waited.

When the sounds of battle successively came from the cliff outpost above their heads and the watchtower on the opposite cliff,

his expression immediately turned solemn.

"Let's go! Take advantage of the fact that it hasn't attracted attention yet to cross the bridge! Don't stop for anything you see along the way, stay close behind me!"

Above the turbulent river, on a small bridge connecting the southern riverbank and the core area of the [Thunder-Horned Lizardman] tribe, Chu Hong and Wang Suming ran for their lives.

At this moment, the outpost on the cliff above had already transmitted the Lizardmen's alert warning.

Even the core area emitted obvious commotion.

However.

Right at this critical juncture, Chu Hong and Wang Suming had already rushed across the small bridge.

In the blink of an eye, they arrived at the edge of the core area, in front of the [Ancient Totem] located at the bridgehead.

"Brother Hong, wh-what are we here for? There isn't a single searchable container in this place." Wang Suming looked around anxiously, especially worried that the two of them would be discovered by the Lizardmen at the cliff outpost overhead.

Hearing this, Chu Hong gave a mysterious smile.

"Stop talking nonsense. Quick, hurry up and follow me, hug this totem, and make the Lizardman blood on your body fit tightly against the totem as much as possible."

As he spoke, he had already taken the first step to action.

Like a koala, his entire body directly hugged onto that rough and savage Lizardman totem.

The very instant the Lizardman blood on Chu Hong's body made contact with the totem, an absurd scene that almost made Wang Suming's eyeballs pop out instantly began to manifest on Chu Hong's body.

On the skin that had previously been smeared with the Lizardman's blood, a layer of cyan-gray scales unexpectedly grew out rapidly. In merely the blink of an eye, Chu Hong, who originally still looked human, actually transformed into a Lizardman!

"I-I-I! Holy shit!!!"

Wang Suming uttered a shocked exclamation that overturned his worldview.

Under his gaze, a Lizardman tail even extended out from behind Chu Hong.

"Brother Hong, y-you, how come?" With a pale face, he looked nervously at Chu Hong, who had already come down from the totem. Seeing that the latter had no intention of attacking him, and instead wore an enigmatic, anthropomorphic expression on his now fully transformed Lizardman face,

the fear in his heart eased slightly.

"Hurry up, don't dawdle. The strength of the people who entered the secret realm this time is definitely not low. Once they finish clearing the Lizardmen in front of them, they will soon start searching for our whereabouts."

Wang Suming's expression changed, and he no longer dared to hesitate, stepping forward to similarly embrace the totem.

A few breaths later, when Wang Suming came down from the totem and looked at his hands and arms, which were now completely indistinguishable from a Lizardman's paws, he couldn't help swallowing nervously.

"Br-Brother Hong, can we still change back?"

With a single sentence, Chu Hong completely dispelled Wang Suming's final doubts: "Have you ever seen anyone missing arms and legs inside a secret realm who remains disabled after going outside?"

Immediately following that, as if thinking of something,

Wang Suming's cyan-gray Lizardman face revealed an expression of excitement.

"Brother Hong, we shouldn't be attacked by Lizardmen now, right? Wouldn't that mean we can feast with ease?!"

He recalled the previous round, when Chu Hong led him through the core area with almost no combat needed, allowing them to gorge effortlessly. He still vividly remembered the four-grid big gold [dog-head gold nugget] he had looted himself.

Wang Suming could hardly wait to charge straight toward the direction of the major safe box.

He was grabbed by Chu Hong.

The latter gave a faint smile, his already transformed Lizardman face carrying an even more cunning and deceitful grin at this moment.

"What's the rush? The map hasn't been cleared yet. If we don't clear the map, even if we go out later, there'll inevitably be some reckless people tailing them into the map... Let's go, time to join the organization!"