A line of twelve people, carrying their members with bad legs, were running quickly through the thickets.
Behind them, a huge leopard lied on the ground. A large hole bore through its neck and its belly cut open, its blood spilled all over the ground.
More than twenty hyenas surrounded and gorged on the stiff dead leopard.
There were some hyenas that seemed reluctant to let go of the prey they had followed all this way. But when they raised their heads, another hyena quickly filled in the empty spot they left, so they quickly buried their heads back, snatching more bites of fresh meat in front of them.
The smell of blood attracted more hungry animals, including the large birds in the sky. There’s only one bird with strange movements. While all the birds fixedly stared at the bloody meat below, it left the big group and chased after twelve humans, as if there was something over there attracting it.
There were rumbling steps getting close to the pack of hyenas, but the characteristically greedy hyenas were reluctant to let go of the fresh meat they just got in their mouths. They didn’t react until the leader, a female hyena, issued a warning roar again. But that warning is already too late……
Yan Mo, who had left with his companions, didn’t know that the place they just left was starting a new round of hunting and killing.
Yan Mo covered his face. His face was clawed by the leopard, it felt like he only had half a nose left now.
That scary giant leopard. The spear had obviously penetrated its neck, but it still had strength left to greet his face with a claw.
Now he and Yang Wei had become claw scars brothers. Though his situation was much worse than Yang Wei, half of his face was disfigured!
A lot of blood flew out from his injury, not only attracted a few wild beasts to follow their team but also attracted more flying insects to his face.
Yan Mo was in so much pain his whole body trembled. Just now, he thought he would die.
Even when Yuan Zhan put him on his back, Yan Mo didn’t react.
Everyone followed Lie at the very front and kept running without looking back. Didn’t know how long they’ve been running, they only stopped their feet when they had arrived at the feet of a big tree with an enormous canopy.
“pant, pant.” Most people started to take in big breaths. Wen Sheng directly bent down, ”his, he was so tired he couldn’t straighten his back. The sorriest figure must be Xia Fei, once their running stopped, she collapsed to the ground.
Three slaves with bad legs were either thrown or placed down on the ground. Bing was not happy being forced to run carrying Yang Wei, he threw Yang Wei to the ground then couldn’t help giving him a kick.
Yuan Zhan turned around and grabbed Yan Mo’s face as soon as he was put on the ground, “Let me see, how deep is it?”
Yan Mo had gradually recovered from the intense fear, he slowly put down his bloody left hand and slowly raised his face.
Grabbing his chin, Yuan Zhan’s eyes suddenly contracted, but soon he raised his palm and spitted two times. He carelessly and forcefully smeared the saliva to the little slave’s face, it looked very offhanded. As he smeared it, he said like it’s not a big deal, “It’s fine. Just a lot of blood, the cut is not that big. Not as bad as Yang Wei’s claw wounds. Put saliva on it and it’ll be good in a few days.”
No way! He clearly felt the attack……
Yan Mo quickly felt his face. The nose he thought was clawed open was completely fine and still perching on his face. Half of his face he thought had been disfigured felt like it only had some small scratches left that hadn’t healed.
His healing ability seemed to have become faster?
Could it be that what affected his healing ability was not only the nutrients he absorbed, but also the number of times he was injured? Is it that each time he got injured… his healing ability would get better?
What a pit! In that case, could he still allow himself to get hurt afterwards?
And with that rapid recovery, why didn’t his body and brain react at all? What about the law of conservation of energy? Did the dog eat it? Or, was hunger the resulting reaction for it?
These things, he didn’t have to consider them for the time being, Yan Mo waved the thoughts away. What’s important now was… how was he going to cover this up?
If it was in his original world where it was safe he wouldn’t need to worry about his superhuman healing ability being found but in this world, it’d be strange to get through a day without any wound.
Someone would notice how he didn’t heal like other normal people. He had to think of an excuse to explain this thing, he obviously didn’t want to be burned into ash or ground into a powder and become some miracle medicine!
On another note, fortunately, he had subconsciously covered his face when that leopard clawed his face, .
“Is the little slave okay?” Meng scurried over to see Yan Mo, “I thought his face was scratched out, that leopard’s last attack looked really fierce.”
“It’s okay. The spear went through its neck, when it got to me it’s already much weaker. I was just scared stiff and didn’t dodge, if not I won’t even get this little scratch.” Yan Mo bent over and grabbed a bunch of grass, rubbing it to remove the blood that had basically dried on his hands.
Meng still wanted to check his wound but Yuan Zhan grabbed him by the neck and pushed him to the tree, “You’re the most agile, go climb the tree and look from the top.”
Meng joked a bit before throwing his backpack to his brother and quickly climbed to the top of the tree like a monkey. As he climbed, his hands pulled out some of the leaves which he put in his mouth.
Far from them, a big bird was flying in a circle.
Meng’s eyes focused on the big bird for a bit. Then he determined that it had no intention to swoop down for the time being and swept his glance to the other directions while still being on guard about the bird.
Yan Mo found that everyone recovered faster than him from the dangerous encounter, including the only two women. It seemed that no one had taken the danger just now that seriously, everyone’s faces looked relaxed like they’d completely let go of what just happened because it’s all in the past now. Especially the warriors, each one of them were using their spears to hit the thick grasses, checking out the surroundings.
After he finished observing his companions, Yan Mo switched to looking at the scene around him.
The place around him looked interesting. They’re surrounded by waist-length grasses but there were some trees here and there. These trees had relatively stout trunks and very large canopies, but some of the trees had lost half of their leaves while others still have many branches and thick foliages.
This tree they were resting at, from the central point of the trunk, there were not a lot of wild plants in about 10 metres radius. All around was like this, the grasses only grew denser bushes twenty metres away from the big tree. He could see that it’s the same around the other trees.
When he looked farther away, he could see a range of mountains, short and tall. Some of these mountains were nearer and some farther. The ones closer to them looked like they could be reached within a day if they ran there. For the farther ones, there’s no way to measure the distance.
Yan Mo wiped the bloodstains on his face with saliva and weeds while turning his eyes around. Because his line of vision was very wide, he could make out that this large piece of grassland seemed to be surrounded by the line of mountains, making it seem like a basin.
But the climate around here didn’t seem like it. Why? Was it related to the mountains’ varying heights? Because the prairie was too big?
Was it another big flat land behind those distant mountain ranges, or……
Yuan Zhan walked back from the grasses around them with a very long bone in his hand, “There is no suitable wood, only this.”
“……Thank you, this will do.” Yan Mo received the thigh bone he didn’t know what animal was from. He used it to support himself standing, it seemed like it’ll do. Before, he “kindly” gave the support stick Diao prepared for him to Yang Wei, so he could only entreat Yuan Zhan to help make another stick for him with something nearby.
“Has anyone ever reached that mountain?” Yan Mo pointed at the farthest and highest mountain and asked.
Yuan Zhan’s gaze traveled up following his finger, “You mean Father-God Mountain? I haven’t gone there. No one in the tribe had been able to reach it. But I heard that there’s a Lower City at its foot. Once in a while, someone will travel from there, pass the Dragonback Mountain, walk through the grassland and Black Woods, and reach this place.”
“Have you ever thought that maybe the sea is behind those mountains?” Yan Mo said without much thought.
But who’d have thought that the idea will make Yuan Zhan’s eyes shine with zeal? “If I get to level four, I’ll definitely climb up the Father-God or Mother-God mountain, walk to the other side and see what’s behind them. Before, some people said that the land ends at the mountains, but the people in that Lower City have spread words that the end of the continent is not behind those mountains.”
Yan Mo looked at that mountain Yuan Zhan said was the Mother-God mountain, it’s another high mountain that happened to be opposite the Father-God mountain with a long stretch of grassland between them. Which was higher between Mother-God and Father-God mountain couldn’t be seen right now, because their peaks had pierced the clouds.
Coindidentally, Father-God Mountain was in the north and Mother-God Mountain was in the south. In front of the Father-God mountain was the Dragonback Mountain, while the Mother God mountain had the Dragonhead Mountain in front of it. Although God Hasa Mountain was also on the south, it was much closer to their group than the Mother-God Mountain.
The mountain looked relatively near, but it should be very far, he couldn’t build his base at such a far place, he could only choose somewhere nearby. What was the Fengshui like at the Duci people’s territory? If the Fengshui was good……
While Yan Mo was busy studying the nearby environment, Cao Ting walked over to the tree with her crutch’s support, reached out and plucked some leaves. The first person she gave them to was her master, Diao.
Diao who was cutting down grasses directly put it in his mouth and chewed.
Cao Ting held another leaf to give to Yan Mo who’s in the middle of thinking, “Eat it. You can drink it like water.”
Yan Mo thoughts turned back to the present time. He confusedly took the leaf. He didn’t know this plant, but looking at how Diao casual action, it seemed that they have eaten it before?
At this time, other people who were free also went to the tree to pick leaves one after another. They didn’t pick a lot, they would pick one and eat that one, then pick another and eat that one.
Cao Ting smiled when she saw Yan Mo’s hesitation. There was a sad and nostalgic look on her face, “This is the precious gift that the Earth God had given my clan, we call it the Water God tree. It never bears fruit and never blooms, but when you chew its leaves you can get a lot of water, and the leaves don’t fall no matter the season.”
“Your clan?”
“En. My original tribe, Chun(spring) clan. But……it’s gone now.” Cao Ting eyes looked down before looking up again, “My tribe lived in this area before, and our clan territory had many Water God trees. But the greedy tribes nearby… not satisfied with wiping out my tribe, they also dug out the Water God trees, wanting to take them to their own territory.”
“But no other tribes can keep the Water God tree alive at their place.” Yuan Zhan, sitting cross-legged on the ground while grinding his spear with a stone, added to the story, “Our tribe also took some trees back, they all died.”
“Why don’t they just occupy this place?” Yan Mo found it strange.
“Because many tribes want this territory. But this place doesn’t lack water, the grass grows thick and many. If you can’t hold your claim quickly, you’ll be disturbed by countless predator birds and beasts and raided by other tribes.”
Lie who walked by gives a quick explanation. He also especially described to Yan Mo, “After this tree, and walk the distance of three spear throws, is the Duci clan territory. We’ll take a break here, a bit later, we’ll split up to find the Qianyang flock. No matter if you find them or not, everyone had to get back here before the sun is behind the mountain.”
“We’re walking so close to their place, will the Duci people attack us?” Seeing that no one asked, Yan Mo had to ask this himself.
Before Lie could answer, Bing’s sneer came out first, “You’ve never heard of these barbarians? They don’t know about guarding against enemy at all. They don’t have warriors like our tribe, too. As long as you don’t run into their home and don’t take their food from them, they won’t even look at you.”
Yan Mo ignored Bing’s provocation. He carried a handful of Water God leaves in his hand and left with Yuan Zhan, heading straight to where they thought was the west.
After walking about two hundred metres away from that place, Yuan Zhan determined the grass nearby was dense enough and put Yan Mo down, saying with certainty, “You can walk now, right?”
Yan Mo didn’t deny, “I can.”
“While walking, hit the bush with the bone in your hands, like this.” Yuan Zhan taught the boy how to push through the thickets, “There’s not a lot of beasts around here because there were Chun people before and later Duci people who settled here. So you just have to be careful, don’t have to worry some beast will suddenly pounce on you.”
No wonder Lie was not afraid of letting them spread out.
“Those Qianyangs like to eat the Water God tree leaves, so they’ll always come around here.”
“The Duci people and your tribe have been hunting here for many years, you haven’t killed all of them?”
Yuan Zhan looked back at him, his tone clearly looking down on it, “Kill them all? You idiot, if we kill them all what are we going to eat next year? Even the savages like Duci clan know they can’t kill all the Qianyang.”
“I understand that principle, I just thought…” you guys don’t understand.
“Principle?”
“It means the cause and reasoning. Later, when you hear me say something strange, don’t ask me. I’ll explain to you if you need to know. And sometimes there’s—”
“I understand. You mean those incantations in your tribe inheritance.” Yuan Zhan automatically gave him a very appropriate reason.
Yan Mo nodded in strong agreement[5] “Right.”
“Hey,” Yuan Zhan tapped his lower leg with a wooden spear, saying with disdain, “I say, future Lord Priest, can you not stomp your feet? Stomping around, do you want to announce that you’re her— Watch out! Get down!”
Yuan Zhan dashed to push down the boy, but the big bird stooped much faster than him. Before he could touch Yan Mo’s shoulder, the bird had clutched that shoulder and took him back to the sky.
Yuan Zhan hurled his spear, but the big bird could move agilely in the sky even with a person in his claws. With a flap of its wings, it dodged that oncoming wooden spear.
Yuan Zhan roared and beat his chest, desperate and anguished, he gave mad chase after that bird!
Yan Mo, being dragged away with pierced shoulders, was tearfully speechless.[6]
Why is it always me who gets hurt? I, Who did I offend?
Oh right I almost forgot. I offended God himself.
……But you do something like this then say you want me to reflect on myself? Or, does your grace want me to learn from Buddha, cut my flesh out, feed the birds to reduce the scum points?
“If that’s the case, it’s not like it’s unacceptable as long as the reward is right. Each time cutting my flesh out, can I get one thousand scum points in return? If not, can you make me die when I’ve cut out all my flesh? Completely dead, that ‘dead’ I can’t recover from.”
After Yan Mo was done crying, he chuckled grimly.[7] His laugh made the bird who caught him couldn’t help wanting to look at him——why do the prey this time scream like this?
The big bird suddenly soared up high, cutting off the sounds Yan Mo makes while sneering. The cold wind almost choked him. His face distorted in an instant. The violent cold wind cut his body like a knife. Yan Mo would scream if he could, but even breathing was difficult.
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