The old man looked around as if he was guarding against a thief. He quickly tidied up the things in the house and called out twice. The frogs that were originally lying quietly on the ground by the door all jumped away. Some ran into the forest, while others ran towards the river.
After tidying up, the old man pulled Shao Xuan in one direction. While walking, he explained to Shao Xuan in a low voice, "You want frog poison, so naturally you want frog poison with good effects. My grandson can get it for you. You can have whatever you want."
The old man was afraid that Shao Xuan would change his mind and turn around to leave, so he kept talking to Shao Xuan.
He was afraid that Shao Xuan would find it troublesome and go to other people's houses to buy. After all, there were many people in the Pu tribe who sold frog poison. For example, many people in the Drumming tribe liked to buy tools that had already been smeared with frog poison. They would directly wrap it up, stuff it into a basket, and leave after paying some water moonstones.
What the old man wanted to do now was to take Shao Xuan to get it on the spot. Compared to other people, it was a bit more troublesome.
Shao Xuan didn't think much of it. As long as he could get what he wanted, he didn't mind if it was a bit troublesome. Moreover, after seeing the things that the old man scraped from the frogs, he was quite curious.
In the past, when he was in the Yanjiao tribe, when he went out to hunt, the warriors also liked to use some things that came from animals. They used those poisons to smear the weapons in their hands, such as spearheads, bows, and so on. Among them, there were various kinds of poisons. Frog poison was more commonly used.
When the Yanjiao tribesmen took frog poison, they would first kill the frog, then roast the dead frog over a fire. As they roasted, the poison would slowly seep out from the frog's glands.
After the frog poison came out, as long as they took the weapon and smeared it back and forth on the frog's body, the desired effect would be achieved. For poisonous frogs, the warriors only needed to smear a bit of frog poison on their weapons to hunt prey. Generally, wild beasts that were poisoned by frog poison would die very quickly. Ferocious beasts had stronger resistance and wouldn't die, but their movements would be affected.
"We're almost there. Don't worry," the old man said hurriedly.
Shao Xuan was not in a hurry, but the old man next to him was. He pulled Shao Xuan to a place by the river. Looking at the big lotus leaves in the river, he shouted, "Hey, are you there?"
The lotus leaves on the surface of the river swayed with the wind. Some frogs in the river croaked, but there was no human voice.
The old man was so angry that his beard trembled a few times. He said again, "Come out, I see you!"
Still, no one answered.
The old man took a deep breath and roared, "Get out here! I know you're here! "
Finally, a helpless reply came from a cluster of lotus leaves not far away. "Yes, Grandpa. What's the matter?"
A figure jumped out from the lotus leaves and landed on a large lotus leaf by the river bank. He glanced at Shao Xuan and then looked at the old man. "Grandpa, you can sell whatever you want. Why did you call me? I'm still sleeping!"
"Why are you sleeping!" The old man's eyes bulged as if they were going to pop out. "Come here, this young man from another tribe wants to buy frog poison."
"There are so many frog poisons in the tribe. It doesn't matter where I buy them. Grandpa, I remember you collected several jars at home." Zhao yawned and said.
The old man stopped breathing and mumbled. He didn't look at Shao Xuan and wasn't afraid of the thorns on the stem of the lotus leaf. He bent his arm and picked up the stem. "Come down! Sleeping all day, are you in a hurry to get through the winter?! "
Zhao had no choice but to jump down from the lotus leaf. His eyes were half closed as if he hadn't woken up yet. He looked at Shao Xuan. "You want to buy frog poison? What kind? "
The old man slapped him and then looked at Shao Xuan with a smile. "Young man, what kind of frog poison do you want?"
Shao Xuan thought for a moment and said, "Can I take a look at those frogs first?" He didn't know how different the frogs here were from the ones in the Yanjiao tribe.
"Of course, of course!" The old man didn't wait for Zhao to answer and quickly answered.
Zhao whispered "Trouble" and then jumped on the lotus leaf. His cheeks puffed up and he made a few "Gu Gu" sounds before returning to the shore.
After a while, Shao Xuan saw some frogs jump out from the forest and a few from the river.
Most of these frogs were brightly colored, but there were also some that didn't look very conspicuous.
Each frog was no bigger than a palm. After jumping over, they surrounded Zhao and didn't run away. They just stood there and occasionally moved their hind legs to wipe away the mucus on their bodies to keep their skin moist.
"These are all dead. This frog's poison can relieve pain and it's very effective. I used it on the wild beasts on the mountain over there." Zhao said.
"And then?" Shao Xuan asked.
"They died."
Shao Xuan: "…"
"If you use too much, even if it can be used as medicine, it's poison." Zhao said.
If you use poison well, it's medicine. If you don't use it well, it's poison. Shao Xuan naturally knew this.
"This one, this one, and this one's poison is not bad. Just a little bit can kill the wild beasts in the forest." Zhao introduced a few of the frogs to Shao Xuan and then asked, "What kind of poison do you need? Poison blind? Poison mute? Numb all over? Rotten? "
After asking a lot of questions, Zhao stopped and looked at Shao Xuan. He usually didn't like to participate in transactions, but since his grandfather had pulled him over, he naturally had to do his part. Otherwise, if he didn't get this deal done, his grandfather would nag him again when he went back.
When Shao Xuan heard this series of questions, he was stunned. When he was in the Yanjiao tribe, he also used a lot of poisons, but he had never differentiated them so carefully. It seemed that the young man in front of him was very good at this.
Seeing Shao Xuan staring at the frogs and not saying anything, the old man standing next to him became anxious, "If you don't know which one to choose, you can buy some of them and try it out." Then he turned to Zhao with a stern face, "Hurry up and make some poisonous stingers!"
Zhao scratched his head and helplessly said, "Okay."
Then he walked towards the forest, and the old man eagerly pulled Shao Xuan to follow him, "Although this kid in my family is a little lazy, but his understanding of poisonous frogs, this old man doesn't dare to say that he's the best, but he's definitely ranked in the front of the tribe."
Shao Xuan followed them into the forest. These two people didn't have any malicious intentions, and they weren't like the Pu tribe traders who had a bellyful of ulterior motives. Moreover, Shao Xuan also wanted to see how the Pu tribe people would extract poison from the frogs.
Shao Xuan believed in Zhao's understanding of poisonous frogs. Around Zhao's eyes and eyelids were a dazzling bright yellow pattern, which was very similar to the poisonous frog that had just jumped out. What kind of pattern would be drawn according to one's preference. From this, it could be seen that Zhao was very fond of poisonous frogs, so naturally he understood them better.
While walking in the woods, when passing by some plants with long thorns, Yu would break off some hard thorns from them. When he had a lot of hard thorns in his hand, Yu would stop. Then, he used the stone knife that the old man carried with him to chop a piece of wood. He split it in the middle and placed the wood on the ground. Yu croaked a few times. After waiting for the frogs to come over, he took out a hard thorn. Yu held it between his index and middle fingers and rubbed it on the body of the nearest frogs with blue patterns.
Some transparent liquid was secreted from the frog's body. This was the frog's poison that could kill an entire deer.
The long hard thorn was smeared with the poison, but it did not hurt the frog at all.
After smearing it, Zhao turned his wrist, palm facing down, and slapped the wood he had just split open.
When he retracted his hand, the poisoned hard thorn had been firmly nailed to the wood. The tip of the hard thorn was facing up, and the one that was nailed into the wood was the broken end. Just like when nailing a nail, the other end was nailed into the wood, not the tip of the nail, but the other end.
From this series of actions, it could be seen that Zhao was very proficient in this. He had done this many times before.
One by one, the hard thorns smeared with poison were firmly nailed to the wood. There were five thorns for each type of frog poison. When one type of frog was finished, he would change to another frog and continue to apply the poison.
"Although this frog's poison may not be able to kill people, but this is its main effect." Zhao used the hard thorn to smear on a dark blue frog, and then smeared the poison on the hard thorn onto the leaves of a nearby plant.
With a sizzling sound, a hole was quickly corroded where the poison was smeared on the leaf. There was still smoke coming out, and it smelled a little pungent. When the poison was smeared, there was no smell at all.
It was hard to imagine that this kind of poison was taken from a frog that was not even the size of a palm.
As for the hard thorns used by Zhao, because the surface of the thorns had a layer of corrosion-resistant hard skin, they would not be corroded by the poison.
Zhao continued to nail the hard thorns smeared with poison onto the wood. When the poison on the thorns dried, he took them off the wood and wrapped them in something. When he needed to use them in the future, he could just take them out. The effect of the dried poison would not weaken much, but there was a time limit. The longer the poison was left, the weaker the poison would be.
Shao Xuan watched as Zhao nailed the hard thorns into the wood with his bare hands. He knew that many frog poisons could only work through the blood. If they did not cut, the poison would not have much effect. Many of them would only cause a rash on the fingers, and would not be fatal. When the warriors of the Yanjiao tribe caught animals with poison, they would take certain protective measures. They would either wrap their hands with something or use other tools to catch them.
But now, there were many frog poisons here that could work directly through the skin. There was no need to cut, but the person who made the hard thorns was very calm and used his fingers without any protection. If even a little bit of poison came into contact with the skin, it would corrode the skin and create a hole or be poisoned.
Especially when the thorns smeared with poison were nailed into the wood. Many people were worried that the poison on the thorns would slide down to their fingers. But Zhao was always able to pull back the moment the poison dripped down, so the poison did not touch his fingers at all.
What surprised Shao Xuan even more was that after there were no more thorns nailed into the wood, Zhao would directly hold the remaining thorns in his mouth. His teeth would bite the end of the thorns that was not stained with poison. As long as even a little bit of poison touched his lips, he would feel better.
This was a very dangerous thing to do, but the old man next to him was not surprised. He had seen it many times and was not worried.
After the thorns were smeared with poison, the poison on the thorns gradually dried. Zhao then pulled out the thorns with poison. Of course, this time he did not do it with his bare hands, but with the help of leaves.
Passing the wrapped thorns to Shao Xuan, Zhao said, "Well, you can try these. If you think they are good, you can come again. Just find this old man. I'm going to sleep."
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