Cannon Fodder Chapter 23: Phoenix Awakened 23: Delicious

Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: Sulo

 

Long Yuan and the zombie beast instantly fought, the two attacked so fast that a glance at them showed only their shadows. Yu Ze stood on the sidelines and watched nervously, he wanted to help but couldn’t find the opportunity to do so.

After he was successfully Awakened as an Advanced Awakened, his physical quality was much stronger than before but the combat skills could not be learned overnight.

Long Yuan’s combat power was high. He was good at both boxing and kicking, and his aura was fierce. Although the zombie beast was only on an intermediate level, it had wings, attacked and retreated quickly, and was always able to avoid Long Yuan attacks.

Long Yuan punched towards the side of the beast’s face. The beast bent down to dodge and its body drew a semicircle, long black nails steeply emerging from the left rear to attack Long Yuan’s neck. Long Yuan bowed to dodge and quickly transformed his fist into claws. While the zombie beast moved forward with the inertia, Long Yuan fiercely grabbed the zombie beast’s right shoulder. The zombie beast’s right shoulder suddenly dented and its right hand weakly hung down.

The zombie beast screamed in anger but it did not retreat, and its long black nails on the left hand thrust toward Long Yuan’s eyes.

Long Yuan reacted quickly, dodged sideways and raised his left hand to grab its hand. The zombie beast grunted lightly, faked a move and immediately aimed at Long Yuan’s wrist. Long Yuan hurriedly withdrew his hand but could not avoid it. His left wrist was cut from the side by the nails of the zombie beast and folded inward.

Yu Ze cried out in shock but hurriedly shut up, worried about the impact on Long Yuan.

Long Yuan’s white porcelain face was filled with anger. He ignored the wound on his hand and kicked the beast in the abdomen. As the beast staggered, long black nails emerged from Long Yuan’s fingers and were aimed straight at the beast.

The zombie beast panicked to avoid it and only saved its eyes, but it’s neck had a large piece of flesh torn off. His head immediately became abnormally crooked.

“Jie…” The zombie beast let out a sharp, piercing cry and swept backwards with a fierce flap of its wings, glaring indignantly at Long Yuan. It thought Long Yuan had only become a zombie beast and even if he was advanced, it would still be able to fight him. But it did not expect to meet a hard scum.

The zombie beast gave a strange cry of indignation again, and its fond gaze fell on Yu Ze. Long Yuan stared at it grimly, his toes moving slightly. The zombie beast’s wings flapped and it turned to fly away, disappearing in the blink of an eye, fleeing.

Long Yuan lifted his finger and pointed in the direction it left, and let out a sound of disdain.

Yu Ze rushed to Long Yuan’s side and looked worriedly at his left wrist, “Does it hurt?”

Long Yuan replied, “No,” his face was filled with anger but he casually waved his hand, the folded wrist following in a swing, “It won’t affect the attack.”

Yu Ze looked alarmed and hurriedly grabbed his arm, “Don’t move.”

He held Long Yuan’s hand and carefully examined the wrist, which was almost half cut by the nails of the zombie beast. There was a neatly cut fracture and a black section, not at all like a human hand.

He pursed his lips and his heart contracted violently, such a Long Yuan made him uncomfortable.

He must hurry to get an antidote!

Long Yuan looked down, the sunlight came through the leaves and sprinkled on Yu Ze’s forehead. Yu Ze’s fair skin was covered with a layer of light, looking pure and beautiful.

Long Yuan’s gaze moved slightly, and when he reacted, he was already holding Yu Ze’s hand too, “It doesn’t hurt at all.”

Yu Ze snapped his head up to look at him, “Did you remember something?”

Long Yuan’s silver eyes were clear, “No.”

Yu Ze’s fingers tightened, “It’s okay, you’ll be fine. Your hand, it needs to be bandaged.”

He was worried that Long Yuan would be careless and accidentally break his hand.

“No need, just…” Long Yuan paused, but his head went blank when the words came to his mouth.

Yu Ze’s heart was happy, Long Yuan knew how to handle it?

He asked, “Just what?”

Long Yuan’s blank mind suddenly flashed with something. His eyes fell to the side of Yu Ze’s neck and the knot of his throat gently rolled. He lifted his intact hand and his fingers pressed Yu Ze’s carotid artery, “Supplemental nutrition.”

The neck was already sensitive, and when his cold hand pressed against it, Yu Ze shivered. When Yu Ze understood the meaning of his words, his face turned white.

He hurriedly said, “I’ll go hunting for you.”

In the panic, he even forgot that he had just returned from hunting.

Long Yuan’s fingers unconsciously pressed hard on Yu Ze’s carotid artery, knowing instinctively that his injury would soon recover if he cut through it.

Yu Ze’s breathing was so unsteady from the pain that he spoke urgently, “Don’t.” His eyes were slightly red, “Do you want me to die?”

Long Yuan’s fingers moved, slightly relaxing the force.

If you die, there will be no more delicious food to look at.

Yu Ze sensed his reaction and breathed a sigh of relief, his thoughts clearing up, “You eat the animal I hunted, it might be nutritious and good for your injury.”

Long Yuan let go of him, looked at the animal thrown aside, and walked over.

Yu Ze turned his back on him and did not turn around until there was no movement.

Long Yuan ate well but was not satisfied, “It’s not good.”

Yu Ze examined his wrist. The wound was better than before, but there was still a large gaping hole that looked alarming. He frowned, “I’ll bandage it for you.”

He looked around but saw no plant stems or leaves that could be used as a bandage, so he lifted the hem of his shirt and tried to tear a long strip of cloth from the bottom edge of his shirt.

He tried tearing it a few times, but the direction of the torn clothes were vertical and all wrong.

Long Yuan raised his hand and his long nails emerged, scratching the side of his torn opening, “I’ll do it.”

Long Yuan said as he moved his hand to the side and made another cut.

As he was about to make a third cut, Yu Ze grabbed his hand, “Not like this.”

The corners of Yu Ze’s mouth twitched as he looked at the hem of the cloth.

He carefully avoided Long Yuan’s fingernails and traced his hand around the hem, “Two fingers wide, just cut around the bottom edge.”

Long Yuan nodded and used his nails as a knife, circled around him and managed to cut out a long strip of cloth and then handed it to Yu Ze.

Yu Ze carefully wrapped Long Yuan’s wrist with the cloth and tied it in a tight knot, “Don’t use this hand for now.”

Long Yuan looked at him and nodded his head.

Yu Ze thought that with Long Yuan’s resilience, the wound would heal quickly, but after two days, things got worse.

On that day, Yu Ze turned his back on Long Yuan as usual and nibbled on the wild fruits he picked in the forest.

Long Yuan’s wrist was cut by a tusk while he was fetching boar meat. He looked at the rag on his wrist and said to Yu Ze, “It’s broken.”

Yu Ze turned his head. Long Yuan’s face was lifelessly pale, his mouth was stained with blood, his left hand raised and his wrist was unnaturally crooked. The cloth hung from his hand in tatters, not falling off.

There was a strong sour feeling that hit Yu Ze’s heart very hard.

The Long Yuan he remembered was a young man with his hands in his pockets, walking around the school road in a dangling, energetic manner.

It was not like that! He ignored the smell of blood that made him uncomfortable and went to Long Yuan’s side to check his wrist. The more he looked at it, the more his brows knitted together. The wound had barely healed, and the skin around it was even darkening gradually.

Long Yuan slowly approached him while he was examining the wound. He placed his chin on Yu Ze’s shoulder, his lips pressed against his neck and said with a vague tone, “Still not as good as you.”

He finished and licked Yu Ze’s neck.

Yu Ze’s body trembled lightly and he took a step backwards, but Long Yuan grabbed his waist, “I want to eat some.”

Yu Ze’s back chilled, “I will die.”

“No, just a little.”

Yu Ze reached out and pushed him, but Long Yuan grabbed his hand and sniffed at his neck, then suddenly turned his head and pulled down his collar.

The collar was pulled down to his right elbow, exposing a large area of skin. The bruises on his right arm were visible, and blood was faintly seeping out of the middle where the skin had been worn.

Yu Ze’s heart was shocked. He wanted to pull up his clothes when a black shadow flashed in front of his eyes;Long Yuan had buried his head in his arm and was sucking. 

“Ah…” The strange, unprecedented feeling made his body tremble. He bit his lip so as not to make another sound that would make him blush.

This wound had been caused by friction when he fell while hunting a wild boar. The broken skin was not large and he had also specially cleaned it before returning, he did not expect to be detected.

Soon, the charming feeling dissipated and his arm became vaguely painful. Obviously, there was no more blood there, but Long Yuan was still trying to suck the blood.

“Hiss…” The canine teeth cut through the broken skin, and Yu Ze drew a cold breath.

Long Yuan stopped moving and turned his head to look at him, his cold silver eyes were amazingly bright, “Yummy, more.” He lifted his hand and moved his wrist, “Comfortable.”

Yu Ze looked over, the color of the blackened skin around the edge of the wrist wound seemed lighter, and the wound seemed to have also become smaller.

Yu Ze was surprised. No wonder the zombie beasts wanted to eat the Awakened, it was more than a great tonic! His thoughts were racing. So it seemed that his blood could help Long Yuan recover.

Long Yuan’s wounds had to heal quickly, or else encountering danger would affect his fighting ability. It was just that after Long Yuan had tasted his blood, he was afraid it would be harder to control him.

He still had to go back to school as soon as possible!

Long Yuan did not know what he was thinking, and when he stopped talking, his head went back to his arm wound.

Yu Ze came back to his senses when his arm hurt and he grabbed Long Yuan’s collar, “I have something to say to you.”

Long Yuan said, “I want to eat.”

Yu Ze replied, “I’ll give it to you, but you have to listen to me.”

Long Yuan took his eyes off his arm and looked at Yu Ze.

Yu Ze said, “The way you look now, you can’t appear in front of humans.”

In human cities, many locations were installed with zombie beast alarm systems. Once a zombie beast was detected, the alarm would go off, and there was no way for him to get a counter-detection device. He grabbed Long Yuan’s hand, “I have to go back to school so you must stay here and wait for me. I promise, I will come back as soon as possible.”

He had been afraid to release his wings in front of Long Yuan because he was afraid of what Long Yuan said about ‘eating the wings first’. He could only take advantage of hunting for medicine every day  and even though his wings hadn’t fully recovered, he could already fly. If he flew directly back to school, it would be much faster.

Long Yuan’s expression was gloomy, and because his hand was caught, the fire was slightly extinguished, “You want to escape?”

“No,” Yu Ze’s expression was very sincere, “you may not understand, but I am not running away. I’m going to find the antidote. You have the zombie virus.” He pointed to himself, “You used to have body heat and warm blood like me, so with the antidote, you will recover.”

Long Yuan held his hand back, “You can’t leave me.”

“I will come back,” Yu Ze said, “before I go, I will prepare food for you. You will have food every day, you will not be hungry.” He added after a moment’s thought, “I’ll leave when I’m closer to the city, and if I’m not back in ten days, you can look for me.”

Long Yuan was slightly relieved, and Yu Ze hastened to persuade him again, and reluctantly got Long Yuan to agree.

Yu Ze was relieved and smiled at Long Yuan, then the two of them continued their journey.

When they reached the edge of the forest, they walked further in and Yu Ze found a hidden valley for Long Yuan to stay. After choosing a good location, Yu Ze began to keep hunting and stored a lot of food for Long Yuan.

Long Yuan stared at the food pile, his white porcelain-like face cold.

All of them were very hard to eat!

Yu Ze looked at him, thinking he was wondering about what to eat for dinner. He picked up the mineral water bottle that he found in the forest and had washed, and walked to a position that Long Yuan could not see.

He set up the water bottle, then turned into a phoenix, cut the tip of his wing with his claw, and carefully filled half of the bottle with his blood.

The blood from his phoenix form made his heart much less stressful.

After Long Yuan recovered, if there was a shadow in his heart, Yu Ze could still persuade him — 

Consider it as chicken blood to drink.