167: Chapter 167 The Last Breath

Liu Feifei had just pushed the firewood inward when her entire body suddenly recoiled backward.

"Ah…!"

Her shriek startled everyone so much that they all shivered.

Lin Fan asked impatiently, "Big celebrity, what's wrong with you again?"

Liu Feifei pointed beside the grass mat, her voice cracking.

"A centipede! Such a huge centipede!"

Under the firelight, a black and red striped creature crawled out from the edge of the mat.

It was as thick as a thumb, with a glossy carapace, and countless red legs clawing at the ground, moving quite fast.

Just as it was about to scurry into a rock crevice, Zhang Tao's heart almost missed a beat.

The firewood in Wang Lan's hand also paused for a second.

Lin Fan raised his foot.

Snap.

That centipede was stepped on the stony ground, its head and tail still flailing wildly.

Lin Fan ground his heel down twice, shattering the hard shell, and dark red bodily fluid squirted out.

Liu Feifei covered her mouth and retreated behind Song Ya.

"Mommy, can this thing really kill someone if it bites?"

Lin Fan looked down at the lump beneath his foot.

On his retina, red text popped out.

[Mutated Black-Ghost Centipede.]

[Nocturnal, prefers high humidity, low light, rotting leaves, and cave rock crevices.]

[Highly sensitive to the smell of blood, rotting flesh, and human body heat sources.]

[When startled, it will burrow into grass mats, clothing, and crevices.]

[Attack method: Clamps down rapidly after getting close to the skin, releasing a neuroparalytic mixed hemolytic toxin.]

[Natural migration distance is limited.]

After reading the last line, Lin Fan moved his foot away from the centipede's corpse.

The Karst Cave was very quiet.

Only the firewood in the bonfire cracked softly.

Such a large centipede—if it had been inside the cave, it would have bitten someone long ago.

It definitely wouldn't have waited for over two months. It didn't bite earlier, and it didn't bite later, but it just had to be tonight—the answer was self-evident.

Lin Fan bent down and used a branch to flip the centipede's corpse into the fire.

The flames swallowed it up, burning the shell into a pungent smell.

Lin Fan looked around.

Song Ya was lingeringly fearful, Liu Feifei was trembling, Su Qingxue was frowning, and Zhou Kai was in so much pain he was about to pass out.

Zhang Tao lowered his head, and Wang Lan watched the fire.

Everyone had their own position.

He didn't flare up on the spot.

Right now, Zhou Kai was still clinging to life. Even if he wanted their lives, he had to let them exert their final wave of residual heat first.

"Everyone sleep."

Lin Fan spoke.

Liu Feifei froze. "Can we still sleep?"

Lin Fan looked at her, and Liu Feifei immediately changed her words, "We can sleep. I was sleepy just now, sleepy in a particularly healthy way."

Song Ya supported Zhou Kai and moved him to a position closer to the bonfire.

Zhou Kai was in too much pain to sleep, so he could only half-lie down, twitching from time to time.

Before Su Qingxue returned to her compartment, she glanced at Lin Fan.

"That centipede…"

"We'll talk about it tomorrow."

Lin Fan put away his dagger.

Su Qingxue didn't ask any further.

Wang Lan put the rattan basket against the wall and lay down against the stone cliff.

Zhang Tao lay far away from her, turning his back to everyone with his eyes open.

The firelight reflected on the cave walls, brightening and dimming alternately.

That night, no one truly slept soundly.

Zhou Kai had a fever in the middle of the night, and Lin Fan changed his medicine again.

The purplish-blue color didn't continue creeping up to his knees, but the swelling didn't recede either.

It could be considered dragging half his life back from the jaws of death.

As dawn approached, the sound of waves came from outside the Karst Cave.

It was lower and more muddy than usual.

Lin Fan came to the cave entrance; the sea surface was gray and hazy.

The tide line had receded very far, exposing a large area of reefs that lay wetly in the morning light.

On his retina, familiar red text popped out.

[High-Risk Natural Disaster Warning.]

[The second tsunami will arrive today.]

[Specific time: Unknown.]

Lin Fan turned around and walked back into the depths of the Karst Cave.

Only a circle of white ash remained in the bonfire, exuding residual warmth.

Zhou Kai lay on the mat, panting heavily.

He had a high fever, his lips were dry and peeling, and his right leg was swollen like a shiny purple radish. That pool of venomous blood was pressed at his ankle by herbs and plant ash, and the venom line ultimately didn't cross his knee pit.

His life was barely hanging on, but he was no different from being crippled.

Lin Fan came to the supplies area.

Not enough. The water brought back yesterday was far from enough.

The stored water in the cave now, even if consumed sparingly, would only last everyone for a little over ten days.

After the second tsunami, there would still be many uncertain factors; he had to stockpile enough supplies once again.

"Wang Lan."

Lin Fan walked over and kicked the empty plastic bucket on the ground with his toe.

Wang Lan stopped her hand movements and turned her head.

"Take the back basket, pack the plastic bottles, and bring Zhang Tao." Lin Fan pointed outside the cave with the tip of his knife. "Go to yesterday's ravine, fill it with water, and carry it back."

Hearing this, Zhang Tao, who was pretending to sleep against the stone wall, suddenly opened his eyes.

Wang Lan didn't go to get the back basket.

Her gaze circled around Lin Fan; this arrangement wasn't right.

According to the plan she and Zhang Tao made last night, Zhou Kai, that fierce dog, had been crippled, leaving Lin Fan without any capable fighting helpers by his side.

Today, entering the woods to get water, as long as Lin Fan was isolated, Zhang Tao could find an opportunity to stab him in the back, and this matter would be settled.

Wang Lan turned this chessboard over and over in her head several times.

No matter how useless Zhang Tao was, he should at least know how to smash someone with a stone from behind.

As long as Lin Fan fell, the supplies and right to speak on this Deserted Island could be reshuffled.

Yet Lin Fan simply didn't play by the rules.

"You're not going?" When Wang Lan asked this sentence, her tail end carried a hint of dryness.

"There is something on the beach." Lin Fan was holding his combat dagger.

He didn't intend to mention the tsunami.

Releasing such panic would allow a petty villain like Wang Lan to loot during the chaos.

He had to guard the beach; if there were any survivors, he would deal with them without hesitation.

Then he would collect the dropped supplies. This tsunami would bring danger, but it would also bring supplies.

Wang Lan fell silent.

Lin Fan wasn't going, so the entire plan was nullified.

Letting her and Zhang Tao, two empty-handed people, go fetch water was no different from sending them to their deaths.

"Lin Fan, that place…" Wang Lan spoke hesitatingly, stopping herself midway.

Lin Fan stopped what he was doing and looked at her.

Wang Lan met Lin Fan's gaze. "Yesterday when we butchered the wild boar, all the internal organs were thrown there. After a night, that fishy, foul stench drifted with the wind, and carnivorous animals within a radius of several miles will all smell it and go over."

She pointed in Zhang Tao's direction.

"The two of us together can't even deal with a stray dog. Without you leading the way, we'll have the life to enter that forest, but no life to bring the water back."

What Wang Lan said was the truth. Hearing this, Zhang Tao nodded repeatedly from the side, ignoring his aching face, and quickly chimed in, "Brother Fan, Wang Lan is right! That place is full of the smell of beasts, going there now is just throwing our lives away!"

Lin Fan ignored Zhang Tao. He took a step forward, closing in on Wang Lan.

The distance between the two of them was less than half a meter.

Lin Fan was a head taller than Wang Lan, and his dark shadow cast down, perfectly enveloping her whole person.

"Did you eat a few days of full meals and forget what this Deserted Island is named today?"

Lin Fan spoke, every word drilling into the gaps of their bones.

"You're calculating combat power with me?"

"I brought you back, shared water with you, shared meat with you, and let you sleep peacefully in this cave—did I invite you here to act like a young mistress?"

"Have I given you too many pleasant faces, making you dare to bargain unscrupulously?"