I woke up to find myself transmigrated into a disabled child.

Chapter 39 Spotted Caterpillar

If someone were nearby, they would see Maoqiu and Lezhi, one human and one bird, maintaining the same posture, staring at Maoqiu who was still struggling to move its body and try to enter the battlefield, their speechless expressions almost overflowing.

From tension to shock, and now numbness, Lezhi couldn't convince herself to go into battle mode in the face of such an "enemy." Slowly standing up, Lezhi stretched her legs, which had gone numb from squatting for so long, and stood behind Maoqiu with her hands on her hips, waiting to see how things would unfold.

Compared to Lezhi's relaxed attitude, Maoqiu, as the first person on their side to fight, maintained a good combat mentality. Although the enemy did not seem to pose a great threat, Maoqiu simply folded its wings but did not move its body at all, still protecting Lezhi in front of it as a protector.

After a long wait, the enemy finally entered the fray. Facing an enemy much smaller than itself, the caterpillar didn't hesitate for long and immediately unleashed its most powerful attack.

Maoqiu and Lezhi, who were standing directly opposite it, watched helplessly as the large green worm suddenly opened its blood-red mouth and sprayed an unknown liquid at them.

Having anticipated this, Lezhi and Maoqiu swiftly dodged. Maoqiu, seeing that this large worm dared to fight back, gleamed with cunning. Taking flight, Maoqiu used its nimble movements to attack the worm from all directions, drawing its attention.

Painfully attacked by the furball, the worm could only repeatedly fire out an unidentified liquid stored within its body, but the furball evaded each time. The liquid spilled onto the grass, causing the plants it touched to turn yellow and wilt.

Lezhi, who was hiding in the distance, noticed the situation and quickly shouted to Maoqiu, "Maoqiu, be careful not to get sprayed, there's something wrong with that liquid."

"Tweet~"

The furry ball, engrossed in its battle, took a moment to bark twice, indicating that it had heard Lezhi's reminder.

Even without Lezhi's warning, Maoqiu's combat instincts told him not to touch that liquid. The worm moved slowly, but its spraying speed was fast, but that was all; it had no other effective means of attack.

The fluffy ball skillfully engaged in guerrilla warfare with the flesh worm. Its attack angles were wide, and it would launch attacks from any opening in all directions, leaving the flesh worm completely defenseless. Helpless, it could only repeatedly launch the fluid from its abdomen, but the fluid secreted by its body was not inexhaustible. Soon, after launching a dozen or so times, the flesh worm felt its abdomen empty and had no more strength to continue.

The perceptive furball immediately realized that the enemy's counterattack had failed. Without letting its guard down, it located the vital part of the worm's head and launched a fierce attack on that spot.

Lezhi, nestled in the distance, stared intently at Maoqiu's attack posture, trying to learn some of the native creatures' fighting methods from this real battle.

The head is the most important part of almost all living things, and the worm is no exception. It is still some time before it spins its cocoon and develops wings, a stage that is inherently the weakest in its life. If it had wings, it could at least try to escape, but now, it can only surrender helplessly to the attack of the furball.

Before it could struggle for long, the hairball broke through the worm's head, and after the worm's plump body twitched back and forth a few times, it became completely still.

Maoqiu stood on the worm's body, repeatedly confirming that the worm was completely dead, before calling out in the direction where Lezhi was hiding.

"Chirp chirp~ Chirp~"

"Here it comes, fluffy ball, is it dead?"

"Chirp~"

Receiving the familiar call from Maoqiu, Lezhi emerged from its hiding place and slowly approached the flesh worm's body. Looking at the worm's head, which was the size of a millstone, with a large hole pecked open and oozing green fluid—likely the worm's brain tissue—it was clear that it was a large, pierced hole.

Unable to bear looking at it, Lezhi looked away and saw the hairy ball studying how to eat and break down the worm. She decided that she must give the hairy ball a full bath service when she got back today.

Just as Lezhi was lost in thought, Leyou's voice called out to him from afar. It seemed that Leyou had finally realized that Lezhi had run away and had come looking for him by following the trail he had left behind.

"Lezhi, where are you?"

Sensing the urgency in Leyou's voice, Lezhi composed herself and quickly called out in the direction of the sound, "I'm here, Leyou..."

With the sound as a guide, Leyou quickly found the right direction and ran over. Seeing Lezhi standing there safely, Leyou breathed a sigh of relief. He had thought he had lost Lezhi, and his heart had almost stopped beating.

"Lezhi, I finally found you! You scared me to death... Wait, what's this spotted caterpillar here?"

"Oh, I'm sorry, I was so engrossed in picking them that I didn't notice where I was. By the time I realized what was happening, I was already here."

Seeing that Lezhi readily apologized, Leyou didn't say much to him. He scanned Lezhi's entire body to make sure that Lezhi was alright and unharmed before he had time to observe the spotted caterpillar that was clearly dead.

"This caterpillar was made by Hairball?!"

Although it was a question, Leyou was almost certain that it was the correct answer. Seeing Lezhi nod in confirmation, Leyou nodded in satisfaction.

"Hmm, very good. It seems that feeding Maoqiu so much meat all the time wasn't for nothing."

"chirp"

Seemingly recognizing Leyou chirping, Maoqiu glanced at Leyou with displeasure and let out a protesting chirp.

"Okay, okay, it's my fault. I won't say anything more. Maoqiu is the best. We can trust Lezhi to you completely."

"Tweet~"

That's more like it. Only after receiving Leyou's apology did Maoqiu call for a ceasefire.

"Leyou, do you recognize this insect?"

Lezhi, who had been watching from the sidelines, quickly spoke up to divert Leyou's attention after they finished arguing, so as to prevent him from starting another fight with Maoqiu.

"Ah, this is a spotted caterpillar, the larva of a winged mealworm, it's very common."

Since there's no threat right now, Leyou simply stood there and started explaining things to Lezhi: "The spotted caterpillar has to go through a long juvenile period, spinning a cocoon before winter arrives. After surviving the cold winter, it emerges from the cocoon when the Cangling arrives, and that's when it enters adulthood. By the way, the wings of the winged mealworm are very beautiful, I'll show you sometime."

After listening to Leyou's introduction, Lezhi observed the large caterpillar in front of him and thought that the winged mealworm that Leyou mentioned should look a lot like a butterfly.

"The young spotted caterpillars aren't very strong fighters. They move very slowly and only spray acid. As long as you're careful not to get sprayed, they're basically no threat. They just eat a lot." Leyou pursed his lips, and when he mentioned that spotted caterpillars eat a lot, he seemed to have thought of something.

"However, its meat is also very tender, unlike the meat of the mealworm, which tastes very strange. Okay, since this is Maoqiu's spoils, let's make this for it for lunch today. Lejing just called for everyone to gather and prepare lunch."

"Okay, but how are we moving over? My space is full, Leyou, can you fit it in?"

"Uh..." After Lezhi pointed out the key point, Leyou checked his space, raised his hand and scratched his head embarrassedly, "Hehe, there is, but there is only a little bit left. It's okay, let Maoqiu guard here, you come with me to call people to help."

Now there really is only one way. Lezhi communicated with Maoqiu and left it here. He then followed Leyou back to the valley tribe's settlement in the direction they came from to fetch reinforcements.