The rooster let out a loud, piercing crow.

Samuel Grant said in a deep voice, “The hour of You has arrived.”

At that moment, a chorus of buzzing echoed throughout the cave.

They were coming—a massive wave of greasy insects surged forward, mixed with thick, murky poisonous fog that filled the entire cavern.

Big Charles was shocked: “Such obvious poisonous fog?”

Samuel Grant said, “It’s similar to a locust plague. Swarms of locusts produce foul, toxic gas that birds dare not eat. And at this scale, they’ll recklessly throw themselves into the flames like moths to a flame…”

As he spoke, he lit the outermost fire trench. Blazing oil flames shot up, forming a ring of fire around the high platform. Then, with a wave of his hand, a cannon blast of thick smoke erupted, and the oily smoke once again filled the entire area.

—System prompt: Warning! More than five demon-beast level poisonous insects detected!

Five at once! Big Charles shuddered all over, immediately forgetting his hunger, just like when playing a game and you can go a whole day without eating or drinking.

Sure enough, the insect wave ignored the ring of fire and charged forward, quickly filling and crossing the outermost wall of flames. Samuel Grant then lit the second ring, finally halting the advance of the insect tide.

Just then, a shrill buzzing erupted from the swarm. Samuel Grant raised a bamboo tube and blasted out a ball of oil fire!

The flames pierced the poisonous fog—he could see it clearly! Another demon insect, as big as a tire, was rolling and struggling in the oil fire. Its thrashing ignited and disrupted even more of the surrounding swarm, causing the ferocious assault to falter for a moment.

However, a single oil fire bomb wasn’t enough to kill it. The demon insect soon struggled free and fled the battlefield.

Big Charles panicked: “Isn’t that a waste of ammo?”

Samuel Grant replied, “No! It’ll be eaten by the other demon insects—there’s no escaping death!”

Sure enough, in the firelight, a group of demon insects immediately chased after the burning one. At the same time, a shrill, miserable howl seemed to echo from the distant cave.

Big Charles shuddered: “Is that the general star fragment?”

Samuel Grant said, “During the Dragon Boat Festival, the vice effect greatly weakens the demon insects’ strength. They’ll devour any valuable food to recover as quickly as possible. So now it’s entered the ‘raising gu’ mode: injured demon insects will be eaten by others, and in the end, only a few of the strongest will remain. As long as we can kill them, the fragments we get will far exceed what we’d get now!”

Big Charles hurriedly asked, “Will we have enough ammo by then?”

“Not sure! If we really run out, switch me to general mode for one last stand.”

One last stand, huh…

Fight, then! All Big Charles could do was lengthen the handle of his shovel, scoop up insect corpses from outside the fire ring, and hurry to refine oil and replenish ammo.

The assault of the swarm didn’t let up; more and more insects poured into the fire field.

Samuel Grant fired shot after shot to drive them back! The entire cave was turned into a sea of blazing fire. The scorching oil smoke baked Big Charles’s eyes dry, his nose blocked, sweat streaming down his face. Even though there was a vent at the top of the cave, Big Charles still felt suffocated and unbearable.

The physical pain made it impossible for Big Charles to ignore his hunger any longer. Starving! It felt like there was a hole in his stomach—this was nothing like the hunger from working overtime all night. Big Charles looked at the rooster beside him!

Damn! That’s the spirit beast fighting cock I’m supposed to raise—what am I even thinking! And even if I was starving to death, I wouldn’t even know how to—

Wait! Big Charles suddenly realized that in his whole life, he’d never even killed a chicken! How could someone like him shamelessly survive in the world of the Three Kingdoms?

Samuel Grant spoke: “In your current state, you must eat something, or you won’t be able to sustain the general talisman’s combat.”

So I can’t protect my spirit pet after all? Big Charles asked in a trembling voice, “You… can you roast chicken?”

Samuel Grant repeated, “I am only a general talisman. I can only roast insects according to the recipe!”

Big Charles panicked: “Will eating them kill me?”

Samuel Grant answered, “Not sure!”

How can you not be sure at a time like this!!?

Samuel Grant added, “Barbarians start eating them from a young age—their bodies adapt. If you don’t die, it might increase your cultivation.”

Increase my cultivation? That’s right, eating poisonous insects to boost cultivation is a common trope!

Big Charles’s heart pounded! But looking at the various charred mosaics outside the fire ring, Big Charles was overwhelmed by nausea and fear, a powerful urge to vomit…

Claims not to fear death, but is afraid to eat poisonous insects? What the hell…

Chapter 8: Immortal Arts, Out-of-Body Spirit

Big Charles finally chose a scorpion, because it looked the most like a crayfish. And apparently, it’s even a Shandong dish, though it has to be soaked in salt water and then deep-fried to remove the poison. But now, he was just roasting it straight from the fire to eat…

Whatever, this is Shandong cuisine!

Big Charles closed his eyes and held his breath, refusing to look at whatever Samuel Grant handed him, refusing to smell anything, just snapped it open, dug out the hot, steaming mass inside, and tossed it down his throat!

Gulp! Swallowed it whole!

Don’t think about anything! No, think! This is just crayfish!

Shrimp!

Shrimp!!

Ugh!!!

Just as he was about to vomit, Big Charles grabbed his own throat and forced himself to swallow! Tears and snot streamed uncontrollably down his face!

That’s the benefit of an empty stomach—if there’d been anything left in there, he’d definitely have thrown up.

Then Big Charles’s stomach felt like it was burning with hot coals, his intestines twisting in pain! This must be… poisoning?

Big Charles collapsed to the ground, curled up in a ball, trembling uncontrollably.

Samuel Grant said, “The process of resisting poison is the process of tempering the spirit.”

Big Charles wept, “I… I need to have diarrhea!”

Samuel Grant said, “No problem! I am only a general talisman, there’s no need to worry about gender differences.”