Chapter 223: Acquiring Monster Materials, the Particularly Gluttonous Huimao Hu Li

After feeding his warhorse, Jier finally came to the carriage containing the corpse of the Water-Spraying Crocodile, which he had arranged for Warriors to guard specifically.

"My Lord, everything is normal!"

"Do you wish to continue processing the corpses of these Monsters? Do you need everyone to come over and help?"

The armored Warrior responsible for guarding the two carriages asked proactively. Last night, Jier had been busy with the Monster's corpse for a good part of the night, hacking with swords and axes, which was quite noisy.

Although Jier did not say much about the subsequent processing of the Water-Spraying Crocodile Monster's corpse, everyone knew that anything Knight Jier would handle personally and process alone must prove that this difficult, powerful, and massive Monster—let alone when it was alive—was certainly very valuable even as a corpse.

While traveling during the day, everyone guessed that the giant claws, the sturdy, thick, scaled, and bony hide, and the mouth full of massive teeth of the crocodile Monster could probably be sold for a good price. Because it might be very valuable, Jier specifically handled this thing alone.

But the Warriors were wrong; Jier did not let others intervene simply because he was afraid that ordinary people would accidentally get the Monster's flesh and blood into their bodies, thereby leading to related diseases. It was not that he intended to sell the valuable-looking parts of the Monster's corpse and therefore kept others from intervening.

"No need, you all cannot do this work. Take out that huge black cloth captured last night and spread it on the ground; leave the rest to me."

After Jier finished giving instructions, while the Warriors were fetching the huge black cloth, he moved the severed torso of the Water-Spraying Crocodile out of the carriage. Last night, he had worked through the night to dissect the Monster's abdomen with the Yue Shui Tou Lu and remove the Monster's Viscera.

It was at that time that he discovered the semi-digested human remains inside the Monster's huge stomach.

Jier took off his armor and clothing, wearing only a pair of loose leather trousers while barefoot, and continued the work of processing the Monster's corpse, holding the Hunting Sword and the Yue Shui Tou Lu.

Continuing the work left unfinished last night, Jier placed the eviscerated torso of the Water-Spraying Crocodile on the huge black cloth. First, he found a wooden pole to prop open the giant crocodile's mouth. He measured it and found the Long Sword was not easy to use, so he used an axe to cut the opponent's entire flat tongue out bit by bit from the foul-smelling oral cavity.

This tongue was full of vitality and would bounce back when pinched. Jier brought a wooden bucket that had originally contained Cured meat, took this tongue, which was over half a meter long, to the side of the bucket, and squeezed the entire tongue with force, letting the large amount of Monster blood still inside the tongue be squeezed out, dripping bit by bit into the wooden bucket.

As Jier worked, the Warriors who had nothing to do after settling down wandered around the inn. This was just a merchant inn right next to the Shanglu, only doing business for overnight stays. There was nothing else around except fields, and the nearest Village was hundreds of meters away. With darkness approaching, the Warriors had nowhere to go.

Thus, they either invited familiar companions to the inn's backyard to practice martial arts, or sat on the steps of the backyard, watching Knight Jier busy dismembering the giant Monster alone.

To be honest, having been with Knight Jier for a while, everyone had fought quite a few enemies, but this was the first time they had seen a Monster as massive as this Water-Spraying Crocodile that looked like it was covered in valuable treasures.

Everyone knew Jier would not let them help, or even let them get close, so they sat around curiously to watch. Some heavy-tasted fellows even held wooden bowls in their hands, eating while watching Jier work.

It was truly a wonder they could still eat; after all, although the Water-Spraying Crocodile was said to be full of treasures, the smell of blood was overwhelming when Jier was dismembering it.

Furthermore, there was a carriage in the same courtyard loaded with more than twenty Bandit corpses, and that smell was also quite pungent.

After draining the blood from the Water-Spraying Crocodile's tongue, Jier dropped it on the ground, stepped on it with one foot, and then scraped the surface of the tongue hard with the sharp blue axe edge of the Yue Shui Tou Lu. He scraped off the mucus still present on the tongue's surface along with the entire surface layer. After the entire tongue looked as if its outer layer of skin had been scraped off, Jier used the Hunting Sword to cut vertically through the thick meat of the Water-Spraying Crocodile's tongue.

"Bring water!" Jier ordered.

Immediately, a Warrior with nothing to do fetched clean water from the well in the backyard.

Jier repeatedly scrubbed the Monster's tongue with clean water until the tongue had been rinsed twice and was clean. Only then was he satisfied, wiping it with a dry cloth and hanging it aside for later use.

Next, Jier began to use the Hunting Sword to pry out the massive teeth in the Water-Spraying Crocodile's mouth. Each of these things was thirty centimeters long. Although they looked round and dull at first glance, they were actually extremely sturdy. When the teeth were opposed to each other, they could not only firmly bite the prey but also crush the prey's body entirely during the tearing process.

How sturdy was this thing? Jier used the Hunting Sword to dig down along the crocodile's gums, cutting off their connection to the Monster's lower jawbone from the bottom, only then taking the teeth out one by one.

After cleaning the large amount of blood and flesh stained on the roots of the teeth, Jier wiped them clean and had someone call Xueya Site to find a special Wooden Box to store them.

The Warriors who had been watching were all guessing what use such huge, not-very-sharp Monster teeth could have. They were not very experienced, and after discussing it, they did not know what use these teeth could have.

If they were slightly smaller, it would be fine; they could be mounted on a Metal Helmet as a Ram Horn or on shoulder armor to assist in combat, and they could even understand them being equipped on a Shield. But the Water-Spraying Crocodile's teeth were too big, thirty centimeters in length, and the tips were not sharp, though they were very sturdy.

They talked back and forth but could not figure out the use of such hard-to-utilize Monster materials.

Jier smiled: "It's not necessarily that we have to keep them for our own equipment. It is also possible to take these Monster materials out and sell them to specialized people for Silver Coin. Just because we can't use them doesn't mean others can't. I think in some big cities there must be Merchants who specialize in purchasing Monster materials; when the time comes, we can just sell the whole box to them."

"My Lord, how much do you think these big crocodile teeth can sell for?" someone asked.

Jier leaned against the torso of the Water-Spraying Crocodile, which was over a meter high even while lying down after being eviscerated, and answered while resting: "That's hard to say. After all, there are no similar Monsters back in my hometown. In fact, I saw this kind of Monster called a Water-Spraying Crocodile for the first time last night. However, the size of this Monster's teeth is too large to be of much use, and being sturdy enough is its only advantage. I guess one could sell for at least one Silver Coin? I'm just guessing."

One Silver Coin—that was not much. With more than twenty teeth of various sizes on the entire Water-Spraying Crocodile, this money did not seem significant compared to the huge risk of fighting it.

At this time, Mr. Zuojigela, who had finished eating with his family, came to the backyard. Unlike the other Warriors, Jier invited Mr. Zuojigela to help process the Water-Spraying Crocodile's corpse.

The Herbalist could not help with the physical labor that required extraordinary strength, so he could only barely borrow a sturdy Steel Dagger to assist Jier.

Jier had Mr. Zuojigela carefully dig out the two huge Monster eyeballs, which Jier had smashed with the Hunting Sword, from the Monster's sturdy skull. Along with them were two damaged eyelids of each type.

One layer was the thick outer eyelid with hard skin, and the other was the translucent waterproof eyelid skin. Although tattered, Mr. Zuojigela said this thing still had some use, so he also carefully cut it repeatedly with the Dagger and removed it together.

It was much easier with someone helping. Jier started from the wound at the severed tail of the Water-Spraying Crocodile, used an axe to cut under its thick skin and scaled bony plates, and followed the edge of a layer of extremely thick, robust, fatty meat. It took quite a while to remove the entire crocodile skin from the Water-Spraying Crocodile's torso.

Subsequently, he turned over the crocodile skin, which could be the size of a room when spread out, and scraped off the excess flesh on the outer skin with an axe. Of course, this could only be called simple cleaning. The scraped-off bits of meat were all thrown by him into a special bucket, and together with the clean water used for cleaning earlier, he had someone send them to the back of his carriage.

This was for the shapeshifter under his command. He had no use for these things, nor would he drink or eat this dirty water containing Monster blood, or the whole bucket of scattered Monster meat scraps.

The shapeshifter Ruier'erui was quite pleasantly surprised. Although eating the entire brain of the Water-Spraying Crocodile yesterday had already given it a huge harvest, it did not expect Jier to give it these scraps of Water-Spraying Crocodile flesh and a large amount of clean water containing blood today.

It was not picky about these things looking bad; to it, as long as it was the flesh and blood of other Monsters, it was good stuff! It looked around from the cage behind Jier's carriage and found that everyone was attracted by the 'performance' of Jier and the other man processing the Monster's corpse outside. Thus, its entire fox body easily passed through the metal cage like flowing water. After landing, it lay by the edge of the wooden bucket and opened its mouth to eat the Monster's meat scraps in the way a fox eats. Eating until it was dry, it even stretched its head into the two wooden buckets containing the mixed sewage on the side and licked and drank the water in large gulps.

Don't look at its small size, but its continuous eating actually finished all two buckets of sewage and a whole bucket of Monster meat scraps, which were several times its own size!

It can only be said that no one saw this abnormal scene, and the shapeshifter's body was quite peculiar. After all, it looked like the size and weight of a Huimao Hu Li at this time, but in reality, it could change into a giant Lizardman over two meters tall, nearly three meters, and weighing over two hundred kilograms at any time.

When the shapeshifter transformed, not only would its size change, but even its weight would undergo magical changes.

It can only be said that the magical otherworld still had many magical aspects.

The huge Water-Spraying Crocodile skin, several meters long and wide, was finished. Jier cleaned the side that connected to the body, washed it clean, carefully wiped it dry, and had someone hold it up on the roof of the carriage nearby to dry.

Subsequently, it was time to process the Monster's body, which was white, solid, and thick after being skinned.

Jier started from the fattest part of the Monster's meat, repeatedly cutting with the sharp edge of the Yue Shui Tou Lu, cutting off whole chunks of the Monster's prime meat—dozens of centimeters thick, bouncy, and rich in grease—and after washing them clean, carefully placed them in a clean wooden bucket on the side.

While Jier was removing chunks of Monster meat from the Monster's body, Mr. Zuojigela, according to Jier's request, processed the large amount of Viscera removed from the Monster's abdominal cavity yesterday.

As for most of the Monster's intestines and the contents inside, Jier had dug a pit near the camp last night and buried all these things he did not even want to touch deep in the soil.

As for the Water-Spraying Crocodile's stomach, although this thing disgusted Jier the most, it was quite peculiar. First of all, it was incredibly tough; the Yue Shui Tou Lu could not cut it. In the end, he used the Dwarf Soldier Spear, stained with blood and activating the Dwarf Sharp rune, to cut open the top and bottom ends of the stomach and squeezed out the human remains inside.

Besides being very tough, the elasticity of this thing was also very strong. Pulling it with his hand could easily stretch it like rubber, but it would slowly return to its original shape as soon as he let go.

In addition to this, Jier also discovered a large number of Blood Vessels on the surface of the stomach, which were arranged in a regular, mysterious pattern. This made Jier feel amazed; this was the first time he had made such a discovery!

So even though he really did not like this thing, Jier still kept it. Mr. Zuojigela was now first cleaning the inner and outer surfaces of the stomach. Although Jier had explained that this thing was very tough and could not be damaged at all, he still carefully cleaned and dried it.

The Water-Spraying Crocodile's liver was also very huge, half the size of a person, and foul-smelling. When it was taken out of the wooden bucket, the people around it took several steps back. Mr. Zuojigela was used to similar things from collecting and processing various Herbs, so he covered his face with a cloth, breathed carefully, used a Dagger to pierce the Monster's liver, and collected the liquid inside separately.

Subsequently, he used the Dagger to cut the Monster's liver into small pieces without washing it.

Knight Jier had already told him privately that most of the edible-looking materials of these Monsters would be eaten directly by Jier. This seemed to be a part of a rather primitive Knight Training. Although it was very different from what he himself had heard, thinking that Knight Jier was a young Knight from the distant Northwest Province, perhaps that was how they did things there.

So although it was strange and shocking, Mr. Zuojigela still followed Jier's request, cut the Water-Spraying Crocodile's liver into pieces, and placed them in a wooden bucket.

As for the other Monster Viscera, such as the heart, it was said that there had always been people willing to pay a high price for a complete one, so Mr. Zuojigela only used a needle and thread to sew the thick Blood Vessels on the Monster's heart shut and stored this thing separately in a wooden bucket.

These wooden barrels used for holding things were all originally sold by the inn where they were staying today; the price was not expensive, and one could buy a sturdy barrel with hoops for twenty copper coins. The inn certainly earned this bit of small change in full today.

As for other Monster Viscera that were not known to be edible, Mr. Zuojigela followed Jier's instructions, simply chopped them up, and packed them into waste barrels, which were then taken to another place by other onlookers, the Warriors, who could not help otherwise.

In fact, they were all eaten by the shapeshifter; it had a satisfying meal today, as all sorts of Monster Viscera with strange, fishy, and pungent odors, along with shredded meat containing fascia, all went into its bottomless stomach. Although it ate barrel after barrel of these "Monster waste," the Huimao Hu Li it had transformed into at this moment showed absolutely no change in weight or size.

This always made Sipulu, who brought the wooden barrels over, raise his eyebrows and eye the constantly eating Huimao Hu Li with a wary and vigilant gaze.

Sipulu, Weier, and the others all knew that this fox pet, which appeared to be Knight Jier's, was actually an extremely dangerous shapeshifter in the mountains and forests, capable of transforming into any person at any time, then secretly luring them away, launching an attack in an uninhabited place, and directly eating the person who had been deceived.

And then, it would transform into the person it had eaten, continuing to deceive the other relatives and friends of the person who had been eaten.

Sipulu did not like having such a dangerous thing in the team, but seeing that it usually made no moves, and the other few who knew its identity never said anything, he had no choice but to keep his mouth shut about it.

Once again placing a barrel of foul-smelling Monster Viscera behind the carriage, and watching this Huimao Hu Li eating without regard for its image, actually sticking its whole body into the wooden barrel to feast, Sipulu snorted and turned to leave.

At this moment, in front of the inn, a mounted troop of dozens of people was slowing down as they approached along the Shanglu of Duan Ya Cheng under the cover of night.

The person at the very front had a strange item on their body similar to a light source, and the horses of the others also had anti-vibration lanterns made of metal and glass hanging from them, so they were not afraid of the whole group riding at night.

The middle-aged man in the front row wore Merchant clothing with eye-catching, bright colors and a wide-brimmed hat decorated with a fiery red feather; while slowing his horse, he signaled for the others following behind to gradually slow down as well.

Beside this leader were two young men dressed as Merchant Guild Shop Assistants in attendant attire; one of them was exactly the Shop Assistant from the Sweet Fruit Merchant Guild who had been following Jier and the others for the past two days. Behind the three of them were four middle-aged and young men in official attire with impatient expressions; their horsemanship was poor, and it could only be said that they were trying their best not to fall off their horses.

At the very back was a line of ten Church Priests; from their dark Robes and the divine emblem on the Robes, one could tell that these were Church Priests of the God of the Dead. The closer these people got to the target inn ahead, the more they could perceive the Death Aura brewing within the inn, as well as the faint presence of Founengliang.

Clearly, the Bandit corpses had been dead for a whole day, and having been packed together while avoiding direct sunlight during the day, this caused these corpses to quickly undergo some bad transformations.

But fortunately, the Pastor leading the Priests rubbed his teeth hard; it was fortunate that the owner of this caravan knew to notify them to come first, otherwise, if these corpses were not dealt with, it was estimated that some bad situations would occur by the third day.