Chapter 1181 The Incredibly Ugly Giant Toad!

Qiao Ran picked a small portion of the red berries and then stopped, her bamboo basket now more than half full.

She wanted to take it back to her family to eat, and also to study the medicinal value of the fruit.

She felt a strange sense of familiarity with the sensations the fruit caused, but couldn't quite place them. She decided to think about it again when she got back.

Just as they were about to leave the cave, they found that only they and Little Snow Tiger remained inside.

"Huahua? Huahua, where are you? We want to go back! Come out quickly!"

She called out a few times, but only her echoes and the sound of the little snow tiger happily eating fruit filled the cave.

After a while, Qiao Ran didn't see Hua Hua come over, so she guessed that it must have gone off to play somewhere again, and called Xiao Xuehu to go back together.

As the man and the tiger emerged from the cave, they saw a chubby black and white figure emerge from a clump of bushes not far away.

That clump of bushes grew by a mountain stream, and I wonder what Huahua was doing there.

When the chubby little bear ran up to her, Qiao Ran realized that it had something in its mouth again.

Hua Hua stuffed the thing in her mouth into her hand, and she felt a sticky sensation in her palm. Upon closer inspection, she almost threw the thing out of her hand.

What she was holding in her hand was actually an incredibly ugly toad!

Qiao Ran had seen many toads, but this was the first time she had ever seen one that looked like the one in her hand.

This toad is about seven or eight centimeters long, with a dark brown back and fine warts that are common to toads, which is not unusual.

Strangely, its mouth was wide and flat, with a ring of keratinous spikes growing on its large mouth, just like a man's mustache.

Qiao Ran remembered that the medical book mentioned that this kind of toad was called "Horned Monster" or "Bearded Toad".

The word "髭" means beard. The ring of spikes above its mouth is like a beard, and the sharp points are like horns, which is the origin of its name.

However, only male bearded toads have these "whiskers," while female bearded toads have orange-red or beige spots.

The call of this bearded toad is a loud "ang ang," which sounds very strange, like the low growl of a wild beast. People who don't know the truth will be frightened when they first hear such a sound, thinking there is a monster.

However, this "monster," despite its strange and ugly appearance, is an extremely rare poisonous creature.

The liquid secreted from the warts on its back was highly poisonous, more so than the poisonous toads she caught on the mountaintop during her escape from famine—the kind of poison that could kill instantly.

However, the liquid secreted from the ring of "whiskers" around its mouth is a holy antidote, capable of curing all poisons in the world.

While ordinary poisonous toads can be caught in certain specific environments, this mustache toad is truly a rare find.

Because of its extremely demanding growing environment, it can only grow in densely forested mountainous areas at altitudes of 700 to 1,800 meters, and must live in virgin forests where the water quality is completely unpolluted, in rock crevices, earthen caves, under tree roots, or in grass beside mountain streams.

Moreover, their reproductive capacity is extremely low. In their previous lives, they were already listed as a national second-class protected wild animal and a world-class endangered species, which shows how rare they are.

In her previous life, she had only seen it in medical books and had never seen it with her own eyes.

Unexpectedly, this rare bearded toad was actually in a neighboring mountain less than ten kilometers from her home.

Qiao Ran looked at the ugly toad in her hand, her eyes shining with excitement.

She looked at the chubby panda, who was pleading for praise, and quickly gave it a string of red berries as a reward.

After Hua Hua took the fruit and happily ate it with her two front paws, Qiao Ran stroked her big head and asked softly:

"Huahua, you're amazing! You've found another treasure! Where did you find this ugly thing? Are there any more? Take me there to see."

Hua Hua finished the bunch of red berries in a few bites, stretched out her paw to tug at her trouser leg, and turned to walk back in the direction it had come from.

Qiao Ran quickly followed, feeling both nervous and expectant.