Cao Ting and Yang Wei’s feet were injured to begin with, and yesterday they had to move faster all afternoon. Their feet not only did not improve, it’s gotten more swollen.
Today, Cao Ting could still walk while Yang Wei was obviously having a hard time. But he didn’t dare to mention it, afraid of getting slaughtered when he became a burden.
There were so many stimulating things happening yesterday that great doctor Yan almost forgot about these two’s injured legs. As a result, when he woke up in the morning, the guide started shining as a way to remind Yan Mo it still exists.
When Yan Mo saw the guide lit up on its own he just knew it couldn’t be something good. He was about to check, but then Meng came over. Only once Yuan Zhan drove Meng off did he have the opportunity to lower his head and look at his right palm.
Because he ignored patients near him while knowing that they were hurt, the guide judged him to be negligent and added 4 scum points to him.
Fortunately it’s not like ‘only look on as someone die’, adding 10 scum points per person… or he’d really want to kill someone.
Yan Mo felt a little wronged. This time he really didn’t neglect them on purpose, he really forgot. He had thought of checking their legs. Otherwise there would be three people that couldn’t move well in the team, what a pitiful picture that’ll be. Unfortunately the scum points were already added, now he could only try to make up for it, bring it down again.
Lose a little, get a little…… What a waste ah!
“Can’t you give me a reminder before?” Yan Mo grumbled at his right hand.
The guide didn’t respond.
Yan Mo sneered. He muttered lazily, “I know. I know. You want me to keep a doctor’s duty in mind at all time, not needing reminders to remember, right?”
The guide, of course, was still unresponsive.
Yan Mo caught Yuan Zhan’s eyes looking at him weirdly and immediately stopped saying his thoughts out loud. He looked up to the two people and called out to them, “Yang Wei, sister Cao Ting, come here, I’ll look at your legs.”
“My leg is okay.” Yang Wei refuted him almost unconsciously. In order to hide his injury, he even deliberately stood up and walked a few steps despite the pain. Though walking these two steps instantly drenched his forehead cold sweat.
If not because you might slow us on the road and drag me down, why would I care about your damn leg! Yan Mo’s mouth twitched, “Cao Ting-jie, come here. Foot sprains had to be treated quickly. It’ll worsen the longer you let it be. Not to mention we will keep relying on our legs for the trip ahead.”
When Cao Ting heard Yan Mo say he’d look at her leg injury, her face looked pleasantly surprised, but she still turned to her master, seeking his approval.
Naturally Diao nodded. He also carried her up himself to Yan Mo’s side.
Meng packed up quickly. He took his brother’s backpack from where his brother camped and put it over his own shoulder. He was all ready to set off, but then he heard the little slave saying he’d look at Cao Ting and Yang Wei’s sprain, so he rushed back to the teen’s side and crouched down.
When Yuan Zhan noticed the situation, he could only walk up a hill Lie was standing on to tell him they’d have to set off later.
Lie frowned at a place far from them, “Something’s watching us. If we can’t bring them, just leave them here.”
Yuan Zhan knew what Lie was saying. On his night shift, he had found those grey things lurking in the thicket far from them. “Let Yanmo try treating them first. The little guy had many ideas, maybe he really had a way to make them run again. If he can’t…… leave them on the way, so they can hold off those beasts as well.”
At the hill’s foot, Yan Mo felt Cao Ting’s left foot. He then confirmed that there’s no fracture, it’s just sprained. The swelling of the foot was not serious as well. She only felt pain when the ankle was pressed or moved around.
“Your condition is not severe. First I’ll help you reduce swelling and stop the pain. Since we’ll be walking for a long time afterwards, I’ll settle your ankle in place. When you walk, try not to use force with this foot. I suggest that you make a walking crutch.”
Cao Ting let out a breath. She felt like her sprained ankle was not a serious injury, but they’re not in the tribe. They couldn’t leave her to rest in a tent. They’d have to keep moving until they reach their goal. All that walking and running might break her leg. She was lucky that there was kind hearted Xiao Mo with them who can treat them when they’re hurt.
Yan Mo explained the terms ‘ankle’ and ‘crutch’.
Diao who was listening on the side immediately went to look for suitable materials nearby.
When it’s time to help lessen Cao Ting’s swelling and pain, Yan Mo looked at Meng and said, “I need to use the Yanshan priest’s technique. You are not one of my people, you can’t look at it, or you will suffer the curse of my past priest spirits.”
Meng looked disappointed but no matter how powerful a warrior is they will have an entrenched sense of fear towards priests from any tribe. It didn’t matter if those priests had died. So when Yan Mo said that, Meng could only leave even if he really wanted to stay.
“After some time, can you help get some cuts of leather? Doesn’t need to be very big……”
Meng turned again at once, his reply shot off his mouth, “I have that, I got some in the bag. Wait, I’ll bring it to you!” He said as he took off the backpack and rummaged through his luggage to get a few small pieces of leather, before handing them over to the boy.
“Thank you.” The boy smiled gently, “Please help me tell the others, so that they won’t look over here.”
“Okay.” Meng nodded with a silly laugh. He put on the backpack again and hopped away until he was far from them.
Yan Mo turned to Cao Ting, he hadn’t even opened his mouth when Cao Ting asked smilingly: “I also can’t look at you, right? I’m closing my eyes now. I promise I won’t open them before you say so.”
Cao Ting closed her eyes, she even turned her head to the other direction. Yan Mo nodded, pleased to see Cao Ting following his words obediently. When he swept a glance around him he found Meng had gone around and told everyone about his warning. After confirming no warriors nor slaves dared look his way, he took out his golden needle in a quick motion.
When Diao came back carrying two 1.5 m long woods that was clearly from a shrub’s main body, Yan Mo had completed the acupuncture therapy. He was in the middle of wrapping multiple leather pieces around Cao Ting’s sprain to support it in place.
Cao Ting moved her left foot a little, and was happy to find the result of the treatment. “Ah! Really doesn’t hurt anymore. Xiao Mo, you’re really good at this!”
Diao handed Cao Ting wooden sticks he had shaped roughly with a stone knife. Cao Ting stood up with the help of Diao and the wooden crutch. She tried walking a bit, and felt that there wouldn’t be a big problem as long as she didn’t walk too fast. She immediately expressed high praises to the young boy.
At the higher hill, Lie hit Yuan Zhan’s shoulder, “Where did you find this little slave of yours? Tell me, I’ll make sure to look around there.”
Yuan Zhan smiled smugly.
Lie hit him hard with his palm, saying enviously, “Little brute, the Earth God really dotes on you!”
Yang Wei now regretted it. He looked at Cao Ting smiling like a blooming flower, jealous and envious of her. If he knew that Cao Ting would say yes, he wouldn’t have said no.
The cowardly young man kept peeking at his master, hoping his master could help him speak to Yan Mo.
Bing didn’t feel like caring about him in the slightest. This guy brought it on himself! If this guy dared to drag everyone down again today… he’ll kill him!
Fortunately, the “good hearted” boy gave the cowardly slave another chance, “Yang Wei, do you want your right foot to be completely destroyed?”
Yang Wei didn’t say his leg was okay again this time. As the slave boy’s words fell, he nearly couldn’t wait for his master’s permission anymore and dragged his leg as fast as he could towards the boy.
Bing’s face turned green from anger. He stared at Yang Wei’s back, full with killing intent.
Yan Mo suppressed his loathing towards Yang Wei, maintaining a normal expression, he talked to the young man sitting in front of himself, “Take off those grasses.”
Yan Mo didn’t know if it’s for pain relief or to hide his injury, Yang Wei had wrapped layers upon layers of dry grasses on his right foot ankle.
Hearing his words, Yang Wei immediately reached out to tear off the grasses from his foot.
“Is, is my bone broken? I feel like it hurts a lot, even just stepping on the ground hurts a lot.”
Yan Mo thought that this man was both pitiful and sad, at the same time, he had little admiration for him. After being hurt like this, he could still follow the group for so long without saying a word, last night he also hadn’t shouted from pain that much. There wasn’t just one place on him that was hurting. Aside from his right ankle, he had many bruises from when his master Bing beat him. His body was black and purple all over, only his face could barely be shown to other people.
Could a ‘cowardly person’ endure everything like he did? And if he’s really cowardly, would he have the guts to pull down Cao Ting and step on his own master to climb out of the quicksand?
“Lie flat, I’ll check if you have any internal injuries.”
Yang Wei laid down at once. He also squeezed out a flattering smile to the boy.
Yan Mo actually didn’t want to respond, but his face smiled back involuntarily at Yang Wei.
Yang Wei seemed like he’s reassured by the smile, his body became less tense.
While sneering at him internally, Yan Mo’s sight fell on Yang Wei’s body. After a full examination (sight, hearing, inquiries, palpation, feeling), he now understood Yang Wei’s condition clearly.
Bing seemed to have beat him within the limits. Yang Wei looked as if he’s heavily injured, but it’s actually just on the skin. He’d feel a lot of pain, but not to the point of killing him.
After Yan Mo explained Yang Wei’s physical condition to him, he told him to close his eyes like Cao Ting. But he didn’t feel at ease with this person after all. Since there’s some leather pieces left around him, he used one to cover Yang Wei’s eyes, only after that did Yan Mo start to treat his injuries.
In the end, the leather pieces were not enough to wrap Yang Wei’s ankle. Yan Mo was asking Yuan Zhan for more when Bing overheard them. Cold-faced Bing grabbed some from Da Shan’s and threw them over to the treatment area ——It’s his slave, so it’s his responsibility to provide the items.
Yang Wei got one of Diao’s wooden crutches since he had an extra. Once Yang Wei could walk with the crutch’s support, the team set off again.
Not one hour later, the weeds around them had reached the height of their thighs. In some places, the weeds were even taller than a person.
“Slap!” Yan Mo swatted himself on the face.
Turns out that the things you’d find the most in a prairie were not plants, not animals, but insects. A certain someone thought numbly while looking at the insect on his palm.
They had just walked through a short distance but he had swatted more than twenty bugs that flew to his face and arms. As for his legs, he couldn’t take care of it anymore. He let them land on him, suck his blood, bite on his skin, lap the salt on his feet.
There were also a lot of bugs yesterday, but not to this point.
Is it because yesterday they were close to the dry, desert area, and now they’ve entered deep into the grassland? But the night here is very cold already, how do these bugs survive? Are they able to withstand hot weather as well as some degree of cold?
Irritated, Yan Mo kept swatting off various flying insects hovering over him. His whole body felt hot and itching. He could even feel some blood-sucking bugs, for example lice, crawling on his skin. But he couldn’t take off the beast coat. On one hand there’s no place to put it down, on the other hand at least this thing covered him from head to toe. It helped him block most insect attacks, leaving only a small portion of his skin exposed.
It’s just, it’s too hot. Even though it’s that cold at night. Last night he had seen that he got a few red bumps on his chest, abdomen and waist, he looks like he got prickly heat or folliculitis.
But the bugs were not very scary although they were annoying, at least now they’re not.
Yan Mo, lying on Yuan Zhan’s back, took a deep breath. He also made a show of wiping the boy’s sweat.
Right now their biggest enemies were the various wild beasts lurking around the thicket as tall as their waists.
Yan Mo was unclear if they were targeted as early as last night. The whole way into the prairie, they had been tailed by a pack of beasts. They looked a bit like wolves and a bit like hyenas.
Yan Mo only had a glimpse of them. That one glance didn’t help him distinguish what animal they were at all. He also didn’t know how many of them were targeting them, but seeing Lie and the warriors’ tense expressions, it couldn’t be a small number.
Both the warriors and slaves were high strung. From the setting off until now, the warriors held onto their wooden spears tight. The spears were all horizontal and sharp tips facing outwards. Bing and Que Ya in charge of the rear constantly switched between walking facing the group half of the time, and half facing the back. While Da Shan and Diao on the wings were always on guard against the left and right sides.
No one spoke. There were only non-uniform sounds of breathing. Because the entire way they’re on alert, they’re not very fast this time.
No one stood straight. Everyone pushed through the tall plants with their waists tucked in, including Cao Ting and Yang Wei with crutches.
Yuan Zhan carrying Yan Mo became the largest-sized human, and also the most obvious target.
Those hyenas—he’d call them hyenas for now— were very patient, surprisingly. One moment they’d come close, before pulling away again. As if scaring them on purpose, as if waiting for that moment when they get tired, sleepy, when they’d put down their guards.
Yan Mo’s heart beat quickly and loudly. He knew that it was fear. This situation was different from yesterday. Yesterday the movements of the hardback dragons were very sudden and ferocious, they only thought about running. But today, he truly felt the terror of being surrounded by danger, feeling threatened along the way.
“Huang——!”
Yan Mo, who was immersed in his own mind, got frightened by the low roar of the beast and trembled.
“That’s the Huang Shou. They’re about as large as a hardback dragon, long fur all over their bodies, they have a tail that looks like a scorpion’s. There’s a sharp horn on their heads. The gas sprayed from their mouth can kill you.” Yuan Zhan suddenly explains.
“They eat humans?”
“En.”
Yan Mo wiped his face, then wiped the other man’s sweat while he’s at it. He thought, that roar definitely didn’t sound like a herbivore, judging from the sound it wasn’t that far away from their team.
Yuan Zhan felt that the little slave was very considerate. Although piggybacking him felt very hot, the little slave would wipe his sweat for him and also fan him with his palm.
“Biu——!” Yan Mo didn’t know what type of bird was crying, the sound spread far through the vast land and sky.
Yan Mo looked up, above them, a lot of large birds were flying in a circle. Yan Mo’s heart jolted seeing the birds so close to them. were they also prey for these predators?
After this cry, the bird looking similar to an eagle with wings longer than two metres at full length, suddenly made a dive. One moment later, it returned to the sky with an animal that looked like an antelope clutched in its sharp claws.
As the bird of prey flew back to its position with its prey, the other big birds drew closer to it but soon a bird that looked similar to it but smaller in size appeared. The smaller bird flew beside the bird with food, as if escorting it.
The other big birds, who originally wanted to wrench away the prey in the air, didn’t want to give up yet. They followed them for a while but were left behind in the end.
Suddenly!
Without warning, a leopard-like beast leapt from behind the grasses and pounced toward Da Shan.
Da Shan issued a low roar and the whole team stopped.
The huge leopard didn’t start attacking Da Shan. When Da Shan took a stance to stab it, it rushed into the gap between Da Shan and Bing, pouncing towards the limping Yang Wei inside the formation.
Yang Wei let out a desperate shriek, but he wasn’t so scared he couldn’t react at all. Although the huge leopard was scary, it’s not the same as with the hardback dragon, fighting back meant nothing in front of a hardback dragon.
He didn’t run away. Instead he held the crutch in one hand and crouched down with a broken bone in the other hand. He had lost his stone knife with his hide skirt. He picked up this sharp piece of bone in the camp, to use for defense.
Yuan Zhan threw Yan Mo off to the ground at Da Shan’s roar, grasped the spear and dashed towards the leopard. The transition of his stance was no more than two seconds.
Yan Mo was facing such a huge wild leopard for the first time. He felt so scared he was about to pee. At this time if anyone said some bullshit like you’re such a wussy or something, he’d hack them off with a stone knife. This was the human race’s genetic memory rooted in our system, an instinctual fear towards predators. It’s difficult to overcome it without getting special training.
He even felt this leopard scared him more than the hardback dragon! What you don’t know is scary. But something you know can make you curl up in fear before you can muster up your courage.
Now, except for Bing and Que Ya in charge of the rear guard, the others were making their move.
Only four people surrounded the leopard. Lie acted as support. He didn’t join the fight yet, there were four slaves with not much fighting ability beside him.
The slaves also pulled out stone hatchets and knives. They automatically formed a small circle, facing the enemy outside the circle. They didn’t have the strength to attack but they had to at least defend themselves.
He couldn’t just sit here on the ground like this. Yan Mo grabbed onto Wen Sheng’s arm so that he could stand up. Using only one leg to stand up and pretending the other one was still bad, he took out a stone knife and clenched his teeth, defending against one of the directions. He had to adapt to this world, not waiting for this world to adapt to him!
The leopard howled in pain, Yang Wei had cut into its claws with his broken bone.
At the same time, Yang Wei also took a slash of its claws in his face.
“Ah——!” Although Yang Wei’s posture and reaction speed let him avoid most attacks, he still couldn’t move his head away fast enough. There were two claw marks on his face and blood fell. The claws were just a hair’s breadth from digging into his eyes!
The hyenas behind them smelled the scent of blood and became excited. They abandoned their slow hunting mode and switched to surrounding the humans with a half-circle formation. They’d probably charge right in if not for the daunting huge leopard in front. Now they’re slyly waiting for the two sides to hurt each other or for one side to be defeated, so they could reap benefits without much work.
Yang Wei rolled to one side after avoiding the surprise attack. He covered his face and cried loudly until Bing yelled at him and made Yang Wei promptly shut his mouth. He wiped his blood then again tremblingly raised the stone hatchet in defence.
The leopard was flexible and moved fast. Although its claws were injured, the small injury didn’t affect it much. Even if there were three warriors facing it with their spears, the leopard moved like fish in the water. It even had the time to compare the humans, looking for more suitable and fatter prey for itself.
Yan Mo’s eyes accidentally came in contact with the leopard’s. He felt a chill in his heart. These wild animals were not even a fingernail as cute as the animals shown on the Animal Planet. Look at those eyes. Aside from being ice-cold and ruthless, only obsession for food was there.
And of all things, he unfortunately had seen a cheetah shred a man before. That moment…… he really didn’t want to recall a second time. Moreover, that experience had left him with serious trauma, he couldn’t control his fear when facing a large cat.
It’s said that animals can perceive various human emotions, and are especially sensitive to fear and killing intent.
The huge leopard swung its tail and made a posture to attack Da Shan. When it was close enough, it leapt onto Da Shan’s spear and jumped over his head.
Yan Mo was aware of the danger approaching, but it’s like his feet were nailed to the ground, he could only stare at the huge leopard charging towards him.
“Yanmo! Dodge!” Yuan Zhan roared, using all of his strength to throw his spear!
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