This was the first time Yan Mo’s leaving the tribe, and also the first time he really looked at the surrounding world.
The first time he opened his eyes didn’t count, he only knew that staying there was dangerous, in order to survive he struggled to crawl up the grassy shore. Getting there already used up all his energy, how could he have the spare energy to observe his surroundings?
He looked back to the location of the tribe. Sure enough, it’s on a small mountain, flatter on front and steeper on the back. The hill itself was not that big, about one hundred metres tall.
There’s an open space at the hill foot, some slaves were doing work, grinding a piece of stone, or sharpening the wooden lances. Some others were breaking beast bones.
These slaves were all males, the age looked between 30 to 50, of course, this guess might not necessarily be accurate.
The slaves had a lazy expression, no one put effort into their work and there was no one coming to manage their progress.
To the side, there’s a pit on the ground, probably naturally occurring or manmade. They put a huge rock on the hole’s opening, inside were many living herbivores.
Yan Mo poked at Yuan Zhan who carried him, quietly asked, “What do you do during heavy rains? Won’t the beasts inside drown?”
“No beast there in summer.”
“You’re saying that it only rains heavily in summer, other seasons have little rain?”
“En.”
Yan Mo noticed someone’s gaze on him. He turned his head to see that it was Bing, who was also carrying a slave with him on this journey.
He finally remembered why this name felt so familiar, before, to complete his act, he asked Cao Ting about the slave who peeked at them, and Cao Ting told him that he was Yang She, the slave of level three warrior Bing. That slave offended her master and Da Shan, so he was killed.
Cao Ting also repeatedly warned him to not talk about it outside, to just keep it buried in his stomach.
Who knows what this Bing Daren thought when he came back and couldn’t find his slave? Did he think Yang She ran away? Offended someone and was killed? slaughtered by other slaves and eaten?
He heard that a level three warrior can have two slaves, then was the one with him his other slave?
That slave was also secretly watching him. He seemed to wonder how could his master be willing to carry him, instead of dragging him along by his leg.
Yan Mo ignored the pair of master-slave, he also didn’t specially look back at them. Right now their group hadn’t completely left the tribe ne.
They kept walking until a large stone wall was in sight. The stone wall isn’t exactly laid in a tight fit, but the gaps between the boulders were not big. The largest gap was only as big as a palm’s width. Judging from the grasses below the stone wall, the boulders had been there for a long time and no one had disturbed it for a long time.
On top of the wall, there were warriors crouching and standing, they looked like guards of the wall.
Yan Mo guessed that the stone wall should be the tribe’s gate, bt this gate was not like gates as you understand it, without fences on either side, the only meaning to this gate was to tell others, the territory after this gate was occupied already.
And sure enough Lie didn’t take them towards the stone wall, but went around the wall’s left side. There’s thin dirt roads on both sides of the wall, it looked like people often walked through it.
The warriors on the wall had already noticed them from before, when they got closer to the wall, everyone on the wall stood, greeting them by beating their chest with their right hands.
Lie and everyone paused a bit, but because the luggages on hand was more than usual, they didn’t return the greeting.
Yan Mo was being carried by Yuan Zhan and was in a relatively relaxed mood up until they were on the other side of the wall. Yan Mo looked around and was faced with the cruel barbaric reality of this world.
Yan Mo’s whole body suddenly stiffened.
Next to him, below the wall, was a heaping pile of human skulls! There’re four long spears stuck to the ground next to the skull pile, each piercing through a dried corpse!
There were at least a thousand skulls! The dried corpses still had its face and hair, though its skin was shrivelled, you can still see that they were in pain before death.
Yan Mo had a hunch that the four corpses were most probably impaled alive, then left here to dry over time.
Those who had never come face to face with this scene can’t understand how he felt at this moment.
Yan Mo might be scummy in certain aspects, but he was not from a chaotic war period. He was just a doctor, born in the era of peace, grew up during a time of abundance. Even if he was used to seeing death, even if he can dissect a corpse while eating braised pork, it didn’t mean that he can maintain his calm when seeing so many skulls and mummies.
Who were these skulls and mummies? Invaders? were they put here as a threat and deterrent?
Other people may not be able to tell, but Yan Mo can tell from the skulls’ color and level of decay that the skulls were relatively new bones. It seemed like these were accumulated in a large scale killing during the recent few years. At the same time he noticed that most of the skulls were not intact, the heads had clear signs of smashed and pierced cracks. The worst thing is, some of the skull surfaces, either back or front, had bite marks.
From beasts? Or… Yan Mo didn’t dare to continue his line of thought, and didn’t want to continue his observation.
As for those four dried corpses, they were hanged there for a year at most.
At this time, Yuan Zhan spoke next to his ears ill-intentionally, “Do you know what those bones are? They were other tribe’s warriors. They attacked because they couldn’t find enough food in winter. They wanted to rob the tribe’s food, prey on us, but in the end they were killed and eaten by us! So you have to behave, or I’ll eat you.”
Bro, how old are you? Using that threat is so juvenile, alright? Yan Mo’s thoughts were interrupted by Yuan Zhan, he didn’t continue thinking about the horrors of this world. In any case he’s already here, so no matter how scary, what can he do? He can’t go back even if he dies!
Lie, Yuan Zhan, and everyone stopped again when they’re about a hundred steps from the stone wall. They stand there, looking back to where they came from, not at the pile of bones, they’re looking at the tribe’s territory behind that wall.
Yan Mo retracted his eyes from the pile of bones, and swept a glance through the faces of Da Shan, Diao, and others.
These people had a slightly complex expression.
They knew that what’s waiting on the other side could only be death, nearly everyone was prepared to die, including Yan Mo.
Yan Mo didn’t know if he could die, but he was bound to be in many dangerous situations on this trip. How can surviving in the wilderness be easy? Even if it’s the special forces with modern gadgets who trained in the wild all year round, not all of them would survive in every type of land and weather.
Not to mention that in comparison to his last life, this world had who-knows-how-many several times vicious beasts, poisonous insects, poisonous plants and cannibals!
Before, to experience living in the wild you would have to spend some money, but here wilderness was just outside of your door. No, if you’re talking about culture, material and morals, even the places where people resided was uncivilised!
He was more curious about what they were thinking, why did they agree to set out with Yuan Zhan? Lie even brought his whole family with him, he brought his little bother Meng and his only female slave with him.
If Lie and Meng had to support Yuan Zhan because they’re all Xi Rang clan, then what about Shan and Diao? What about Bing, who was forced into this suicide mission bunch by the chief, what could he be thinking?
“We have to figure out a direction to head to.” Lie looked at Yuan Zhan.
Yuan Zhan hadn’t spoken yet, Bing already spoke first, “Lord Priest already told us which way to go. Can’t head north, there’s heavy snow. Large fire in the west, can only go to east and south. But there’s God Hasa’s mountain to the south. Shan Yi tribe was seen at the mountain foot and their people are very fertile, right now we don’t know if they had settled on the Hasa plains, or if they’re only passing by to hunt. If the first, we can’t go to that direction. Those short Shan yi people are as annoying as ants, they attack with all of their colony!”
Que Ya nods, agreeing with Bing’s words, “Lord Priest’s god’s eye had never been wrong. We can’t go north, west and south, only east is left. Lord Priest also saw Bai Ying people are watching Tu Long fighting with Yao Peng at east. Though he didn’t say how far they are from us, I think when we get there the fight should have ended. Bai Ying would have picked what they want and returned home, it should be safest to go east.”
Yuan Zhan glanced at Yan Mo.
Yan Mo was also hesitating, he didn’t know which way to go in order to find salt in the first place. He can only go with the most obvious reasoning for normal people — to get salt, you had to find the ocean. Moreover food in sea was abundant, in this age where human population was not as many as the dinosaurs, the food in the ocean should be ample enough. Even if it’s only settling near the ocean, it won’t be a problem to provide for a tribe.
But which way was the sea? From his body’s memory, the people here didn’t even have the concept of ‘sea’, so they should be living in a deeper part of the land, if they want to reach the sea, they would have to go through a long arduous journey.
Yan Mo didn’t know this planet’s continental terrain, so there’s no way he can tell where they should go from Yuan Ji tribe to find sea the fastest.
God knows exactly how big the continents on this planet were, whether this continent was whole or separated, or even how big was the ocean area. Choose the wrong direction and he might cross to another continent. If so, it’s better to find a place with water and mountains with rich lands to stay.
And so, Yan mo chose to head south.
Because of the weather in the south, the amount of beasts, plants and water sources were guaranteed. If you go further south, maybe you won’t even need to worry about the biting winter. Though the benefit came with more dangers, for a traditional chinese doctor, south meant having a rich storage of medicinal herbs. There’s also more food available in the south.
If they can’t find the sea then they should head south. If they can find sea in the south, that’s even better. If they can’t, they had a bigger chance of survival than living in the north. This was the basic reasoning in Yan Mo’s mind.
As for whether the southern part had a tropical forest with more or less the same dangers as the other places, he won’t think that far first.
“Head south first.” Yuan Zhan saw that Yan Mo didn’t say anything and thought that the boy didn’t want to reveal anything because the tribe was still close to where they’re standing. He made the decision on the spot.
“Why go South? Lord Priest had told us east is the best choice.” Bing immediately refutes.
“Lord Priest didn’t say that we will find salt in the east.” Yuan Zhan said coldly.
“And we’ll find it in south?” It’s unclear if Bing was purely because unable to accept Yuan Zhan’s arbitrary decision or if he would reject anything as long as it was Yuan Zhan who said it.
Seeing Bing on the verge of fighting Yuan Zhan to determine who’d be followed, Lie beat the ground with his spear, saying with faint anger, “Go!” and took big steps toward the south.
Lie had moved, Que Ya didn’t hesitate anymore and quickly followed after him, other people had even less scruples. Bing was left behind the group. He was stunned for a while before following behind everyone.
Slowly, the tribe behind them can no longer be seen.
As they walk, there were more and more wild vegetation around them. After they crossed a sandy meadow and found a small river, the group stopped again.
Yan Mo suspected that this river was the one she saw from the back of the tribe’s mountain.
The river extends to a long distance, winding here and there, the beginning and end of the stream can’t be seen. But the river capacity was not much, not only narrow, it’s also shallow. The riverbed had traces of erosion, telling Yan Mo that this was once a big river.
“This is one of the biggest water source for the tribe. I heard that when Yuan Ji tribe just decided to settle here the river was wide and deep, but later it became smaller and smaller, until one day it was gone. Even a drop of water can’t be seen. Lord Priest said that when the new slaves we exchanged crossed the river they offended the river god. So every slave we got back that year was brought to the river and killed. The blood was spilled to the dried bottom, meat and bones chopped and buried in the dried soil at the bottom of the river.”
That’s really… not even on level of being barbaric. At the same time, Yan Mo had a sense of how scary a priest’s influence can be.
Yuan Zhan continued to scare his little slave, “Not few days later, the river water really came back, from then on Lord Priest doesn’t allow the tribe’s slave to draw water here, and even more for them to touch the water. But even then, this river would still run dry from time to time. We only don’t lack water in winter, because of the snow.”
Yan Mo really wanted to tell Yuan Zhan, this was not caused by some angry river god, but by the river’s natural change. Under this grass plain there should be a complex underground waterway. Sometimes when a thousand years old river suddenly disappear, it’s because it entered the waterway underground. It’s no use fretting about this kind of thing, you can only wait until it resurfaces by itself. Some of them will come back, others will disappear.
But Yan Mo didn’t understand a lot about hydrology nor geography. If Yuan Zhan asked him what to do to make the water come back like the original big river, he definitely won’t be able to do it. Then this guy will 100% look down on him. Since it’s like this, it’s still better to say nothing, just let him believe there was a river god.
“Then when Cao Ting and others draw water they go to the other water source? Where?”
“Behind the mountain, in the middle of the wet grassland. It’s closer, usually everyone goes there to get water. But the water there is weird, sometimes it becomes muddy out of nowhere, we need to use Lord Priest’s holy dust to purify before drinking.”
“Have you drunk the purified water?”
What natural phenomenons that can make water naturally become muddy? Yan Mo can think of several possibilities after thinking about it, but for now he can’t decide which was the case for Yuan Ji tribe’s water.
“Haven’t. There’s only so much holy dust, Lord Priest doesn’t easily take it out. Don’t step on the water, sit here and wait for me.” Yuan Zhan put down Yan Mo and the big roll of animal skin on his back to the ground.
Other warriors also did the same, they quickly put down their luggages and made their slaves stay put, then ran towards the river. From Yuan Ji tribe to this river was still a relatively safe area. After crossing this river, the road ahead won’t be as uneventful.
It’s only the routine drinking and washing for the warriors who were leaving the tribe, but the sharp Bing noticed the clear excitement and eagerness on the faces of Da Shan and others.
Yan Mo stared at the river in front, he really wanted to jump into the water and bathed like those warriors!
Though he would snitch some of that precious water to wipe himself everyday, he didn’t dare to make it too obvious. So right now if you scoop out the layers of dirt on his body, you can make a bowl of sweet dirt dumpling. Only primitive men won’t mind it and can still bed a ball of dirt. If it were modern men who saw him being this dirty, even if it’s a pervert who liked little boys, Yan Mo thought before their perverse ideas can be aroused their appetite will fall to the ground first.
Yuan Zhan and the rest of the warriors had already untied their skin skirts and rushed into the river. It’s cold as ice, but it didn’t affect them the slightest.
The young men laugh loudly and make splashes everywhere in the shallow water.
The slaves can only watch in envy. They’ve received their masters’ orders, so each slave was opening the roll of luggages and rearranging them neatly.
Yuan Zhan was standing in the water, shouting to Yan Mo to get a wooden dipper in the luggage and throw it to him.
After getting the item, Yuan Zhan fills it full of water before walking out of the river.
“For you, drink some water.” He gave the ladle to Yan Mo.
You’re making me drink your bath water? …Fortunately it’s from a flowing water. Yan Mo’s eyes were about same height as the other’s little brothers, that were reinvigorated because of the cold water, but he didn’t look at them. Yan Mo took the ladle, the water inside can be described as clear enough. He turned his gaze to the warriors who were now directly putting their heads into the water to drink, then cupped the ladle to his mouth, slowly drinking.
The other men also asked to be thrown ladles, and brought the water to their own slaves.
Yan Mo thought that they were in such a rush, otherwise he would’ve made containers for water no matter what. They’d be alright for some time even if they didn’t have food, but if there’s no water, that’d be the worst tragedy. But thinking that Yuan Zhan and others were not worried about drinking water, Yan Mo thought that at least for these men who often go out hunting, finding a water source within the range of 50 km radius was not an issue.
“How many more days until your legs are good? I’ll check how it’s healing.” Yuan Zhan said this as his hands were taking off the support plank hanging loosely on little slave’s legs.
Yan Mo hurried to stop him and said in a low voice, “Don’t do it in front of everyone, It-it’s all healed, more or less.”
Yuan Zhan’s hands immediately stopped, not only that, he also crouched and tied the loose straw rope tighter for Yan Mo.
“You’re really good to your slave. Is this little one legged boy good in bed?” Bing walked over, asking derisively while tying his skin skirt back on.
Yuan Zhan patted Yan Mo’s good left leg, got up and bet over to take the battle skirt that was on the largest piece of skin, then wrapped it around himself slowly.
Bing still wouldn’t let go of him, taunting, “Hey, Zhan. Bringing him along will only drag our hindlegs. Look, take advantage of water and salt we still have. Cut him up and cure the meat, you can keep all of it!”
Yuan Zhan didn’t reply, only sneered.
Lie frowned, then let out a low shout, “Bing, don’t pick fights.”
“…Yes.” At Lie’s words, Bing turned a lot more restrained.
To be honest, he didn’t dare to offend Lie who had been level three for so long and had a bit of prestige among the tribespeople. Moreover he only disliked Zhan, not all of the Zi Rang clan. He’s not a brainless fool, only he was from Hei Yuan clan in this team and he’s not on good terms with most of them. Only by obediently following Lie’s orders would he have a better chance of staying alive.
Bing knew that the priest probably had given up on him. Old priest insisted on pushing Zhan out in winter to look for salt, and he was the price the old priest had to pay.
The chief probably sent him out to give old priest a warning. Although the chief had put it in this way: no matter if the salt mine was found or not, the task can’t only be given to Xi Rang and Fei Sha people. Yuan Bing, as one of the leaders of young warriors like Zhan, had to show his skills. Otherwise the other young leaders, even Hei Yuan people won’t follow him.
Lie’s stance eased when he saw that Bing was behaving himself. He paused, then decided to make it clear, “That kid is a Yan Shan, whether we can find new salt mine or not depends on him, anyone can die, but not him.”
This startled Bing, “That little slave is a Yan Shan clansman?”
“En, and he had heard about a new salt source from their priest before.”
“What?! Really? Then he knows where the salt is? Why not tell the chief and priest about this?” Bing’s eyes lit up, eagerly pressing for the details.
Lie didn’t answer right away.
Bing’s attention was diverted a bit because then the warriors had all come up to the shore, but then Bing saw that Shan, Diao, and others were bending over their big bundles, busily looking for something, and he burst into anger.
What’s wrong with these guys? How can they be so unconcerned about such an important thing? Didn’t they hear what he and Lie said? Or did they already know about the slave’s identity? No, firstly, what was so important in their bundles?
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