Chapter 236: A Rotten Dog’s Fortune
The cave was damp, dark, and smelled like mold and old blood. But to Lang Yao, it was the only thing keeping him alive.
He had dragged himself here after escaping the beast tide. Not walked, literally dragged himslef. His legs barely worked, his back was torn open from a fall, and every inch of his skin burned with bruises and dried cuts. The path he left behind in the forest was nothing but streaks of blood and smeared filth.
And worst of all... he still reeked from the dung.
The beast dung he had rolled in to mask his scent clung to him like a curse. Even the flies didn’t want to come near. He had tried rubbing it off with clean soil, but there was only so much he could do with dry dirt and weak arms. His skin had absorbed the stink. It had settled in his hair, his nails, his tongue.
When he finally collapsed inside the cave—an old emergency shelter he remembered from months ag...he thought he might die.
But fate wasn’t done playing with him yet.
On the second day, he woke up with a groan.
His eyes blinked open slowly, and the pain hit him all at once—sharp, burning, and unrelenting. His entire body ached like he had been trampled by stampeding beasts. Which, in a way, wasn’t far from the truth.
His throat was dry, and his lips cracked from lack of water. Hunger twisted his belly like a knife.
He lay there for a while, staring at the jagged ceiling of the cave, breathing through his mouth because the stink on him was still too strong.
"I smell like hell’s asshole..." he muttered hoarsely, coughing.