With hope comes strength.
But Zhang Xiaozu did not rush towards the light of hope. Instead, he suppressed his inner impulse and moved forward a small distance. The brighter and brighter light hurt his eyes and made him cry. He must advance a short distance and then stop and rest for a while to let his eyes adapt to the gradually increasing light. Otherwise, if he suddenly rushes into the strong light, his eyes will be blinded.
This was the wilderness survival knowledge taught by Niu Yao after entering the mountains, and he remembered it verbatim.
It took Zhang Xiaopou a full day to walk the distance of several hundred steps. When he walked out of the cave, it was already late at night.
Survival from desperate situation.
Zhang Xiaozu cried with joy.
Lying on the soft, dry sand and gravel, looking at the stars in the sky, he felt as if he was in another world.
The crescent moon hanging in the night sky made him sigh with emotion. It was the fifteenth full moon when he entered the bottom of the cold pool, and the time from full moon to crescent moon was only ten days at most, but he felt that it was as long as ten years.
However, although there are only ten days, the suffering of these ten days is definitely not something that ordinary people can bear. There was no food or drink, and he had to use up his energy and keep traveling, but this was nothing, because the mental torture was the most terrifying, causing Zhang Xiaopou to collapse several times, and even committed crazy acts of self-mutilation.
Fortunately, he persisted in the end. Although his whole body was tortured to the point of being out of shape, and his strong and plump body became as thin as dry wood after ten days, he still survived.
Zhang Xiaozu glanced around with the help of the faint moonlight and found that he was lying on the bed of a dry river. This river originated from the cave he had just walked out of, and it was unknown where it flowed. The surrounding flowers and trees were all withered and yellow, and even the tall trees six or seven feet high were withered.
Zhang Xiaopou was stunned for a moment by the withered scenery around him, and then he felt happy. The vegetation in the Black Forest was crisp and lush, so this place was definitely not in the Black Forest. He suddenly thought in his mind: "No wonder I walked for so long, it turned out that I was walking along the underground path. The river leads out of the dark forest.”
However, he soon became worried. It had only been a month since he entered the Black Forest. At that time, although the vegetation had withered, a little green could still be seen in the tall trees in the mountains, and now even the trees growing in the All the big trees six to seven feet high by the river have withered, which shows that the drought has become more serious this month.
I wonder how Liujia Village is doing?
The water in the big well should have dried up long ago, right?
Zhang Xiaozu frowned, feeling very worried.
Fortunately, the sky favored him. Although he suffered for ten days, it was equivalent to telling him that there was a source of water deep in the cave next to him.
"You have to go back to the village quickly. If the water in the village has been cut off, let the big guys take the others to get water here."
Zhang Xiaozu made a decision in his heart and was about to get up and go on his way when he suddenly heard a hissing sound behind him. This sound was familiar to him, it was the sound of a snake spitting out a message. He hurriedly turned his head to look behind him, and sure enough he saw a big snake, hunching its upper body and spitting a message at him.
Whoosh!
When the big snake saw Zhang Xiaopeng turn around, it suddenly launched an attack. Its head shot towards Zhang Xiaopeng like an arrow, its mouth opened wide, revealing its long and pointed fangs.
"Well done, good bastard!"
Zhang Xiaopeng was not surprised but overjoyed. He reached out his left hand and grabbed the snake's head directly. He slashed the snake's body with his right bone knife horizontally, and the snake's body was immediately separated.
Blood spurted out from the snake's body, and Zhang Xiaopou hurriedly opened his mouth to catch it. At the same time, he put down the bone knife with his right hand, grabbed the snake's tail and raised its body up, so that as much blood as possible could flow out.
Zhang Xiaozhu was really thirsty. The smelly snake blood flowed into his mouth. Instead of feeling unpleasant and disgusting, it felt as sweet as nectar. It wasn't until the last drop of snake blood was trapped that Zhang Xiaopou smacked his lips with unsatisfied content. Although he was not happy with the drink, it relieved his urgent need.
Zhang Xiaozu looked at the snake's body and found that the snake was much bigger than he thought, a foot long. It's just that she is too thin, and the thickest part is only as thick as a baby's arm. Cut open its skin with a bone knife and found that its stomach was empty. It was obviously suffering from drought and starving to the point of being skinny and bones.
"Orochi, Orochi, you are hungry and so am I. If you fail to eat me, I will capture you, so you deserve to be eaten by me. In your next life, reincarnate as a human being. The weak will eat the strong, and people will always want to--"
Zhang Xiaozu wanted to say, 'Humans are always better than beasts', but the figure of the black giant ape suddenly appeared in his mind, and he stopped talking when he reached his mouth, and said angrily: "Maybe you can reincarnate into a beast like the black ape, it's so powerful. Incomparable and fearless.”
There was no shortage of firewood on a dry day, so Zhang Xiaozu resisted the urge to eat snake meat raw and built a small fire on the river bed. He wrapped the skinned snake around a stick and grilled it on the fire. After a while, the aroma of meat wafted up.
Zhang Xiaopeng couldn't bear it any longer when it was only cooked until it was done. He put it to his mouth and ate it in big gulps. He didn't want to spit out the bones, so he chewed them up and ate them.
The snake meat is fine and extremely delicious.
However, he only ate a third of it and stopped, wanting to take the remaining two-thirds back to the village and share it with everyone.
Zhang Xiaozu found a finger-thick rattan and tightened his belly to make his hungry belly feel better. He tied up the remaining snake meat and held it in his hand, then ran towards Liujiacun.
His current speed and strength are far beyond what he had when he entered the mountain. He can climb over a large mountain in less than a quarter of an hour. But after climbing over one mountain and then over another, and so on, he climbed an unknown number of mountains until the sky was white, and he didn't see the mountains he was familiar with, let alone Liujia Village.
"Help - help -"
"ah--"
Zhang Xiaozu was standing on a mountain peak and looking around, hoping to find the direction of Liujia Village. Suddenly, he vaguely heard calls for help and screams coming from the right front. The sounds were vague and seemed to be far away. Looking around, I didn't see anyone calling for help.
After confirming that he heard it correctly and that it was indeed a cry for help, Zhang Xiaozu could not help but guess whether someone was in danger in the mountains. He immediately did not dare to delay and hurriedly ran in the direction of the sound, hoping to help the person in distress.
"ah--"
The screams were so pitiful that Zhang Xiaopeng couldn't help but feel horrified. He felt that the victims must be suffering inhuman pain, otherwise how could they let out such ghostly cries and howls.
Running all the way to the bottom of the mountain, the screams became much closer. Zhang Xiaozu quickly confirmed the direction and ran towards the valley ahead.
After turning a mountain bay, a valley with a wide view jumped into Zhang Xiaozu's field of vision, and at the same time, a strong smell of blood hit his face.
As soon as Zhang Xiaozu's eyes fell on the valley, his pupils suddenly shrank, his scalp was numb, goosebumps appeared all over his body, the hairs on his body stood on end, and a chill ran up his spine. For a moment, he even wondered if he had accidentally entered the Infinite Hell.
I saw eight wooden stands that were as tall as one person in the valley. There were more than a dozen naked people whose hands and feet were bound and hung head to foot on the wooden stands. There were wooden basins or barrels placed under each person. Blood was gurgling from the heads of these people and falling into the wooden basins and barrels below.
There were more than a dozen shirtless men around the wooden shelf, all of them with ferocious faces and fierce eyes.
What made Zhang Xiaopou extremely frightened was that the dozen or so shirtless men were actually using wooden ladles to scoop out the hot blood in wooden basins and barrels to drink.
There were several piles of burned-out fires not far away. There were many bones beside the fires, all of which were human bones.
"Help-help!"
"Hero, help!"
Not far behind the shirtless man, there were four people who were tied up. One of them saw Zhang Xiaopeng appearing at the entrance of the valley and immediately shouted to him for help.
The cry for help attracted the attention of the shirtless men, who all looked at Zhang Xiaopeng. Several of them threw away the wooden ladles in their hands, grabbed the steel knives lying beside them, and walked towards Zhang Xiaopou with a sinister smile.
"Boy, I give you two ways, either join us or become them." A shirtless man pointed a knife at Zhang Xiaopeng and said.
"Beast! Beast! Beast!" The fear in Zhang Xiaozhu's heart suddenly turned into boundless anger, and he roared at the shirtless man: "You-how-how could you-"
He wanted to question, but those terrifying words could not come out of his mouth.
The shirtless man knew what Zhang Xiaozhu wanted to say and said indifferently: "Isn't it just drinking human blood and eating human flesh? Young man, don't be afraid. You only need to bite the bullet and eat it once and you won't be afraid anymore. Haha, you haven't eaten human flesh." Come on, I’m telling you, it’s very delicious—”
"Shut up! Shut up!" Zhang Xiaozu interrupted the man's words with an angry roar, and shouted coldly: "It is not a pity to die if your conscience is gone!"
"Young man, don't toast me and you'll have to drink wine as a penalty!" the shirtless man said ferociously.
"Death!" Zhang Xiaozu spit out one word from between his teeth.
Yinluo raised his sword, and the shirtless man walking at the front was the first to bear the brunt. He felt a figure flash before his eyes, his throat felt like a mosquito bite, and then he saw bright red blood spurting out from his neck. He was busy using it. I tried to cover it with both hands, but I couldn't cover it.
He fell to the ground, making a grunting sound in his throat. He seemed to be in pain, but a strange smile appeared on his face.
One sword at a time, no one is an enemy of Zhang Xiaopeng.
Everyone had a smile on their face after death, and Zhang Xiaozhu thought it should be a smile of relief.
Zhang Xiaozu checked one by one and found that all the people hanging upside down on the shelf were dead. He couldn't help but regret that he was a step too late, otherwise he might have been able to save their lives.
He apologized and took off two pieces of clothing from the corpse, a short-sleeved open-breasted jacket and a pair of loose linen trousers. He also found a pair of walking shoes that fit his feet and put them on himself one by one. Then he walked over to the four tied people and untied them one by one.
The four people shed tears and knelt down to thank Zhang Xiaopeng.
After that, the five people worked together to dig two big pits, threw all the corpses and bones into the pits, and filled them with soil. No graves were built, and no tombstones were erected.
After doing this, the five people did not want to stay in this valley that was comparable to hell on earth for a moment, and hurriedly left the valley.
They walked in silence for more than an hour and climbed two mountains. They were so exhausted that they could no longer walk. Only then did they stop to rest.
"Dare I ask my benefactor's name, so that I can keep it in mind in the future and remember my kindness every day." As soon as he stopped, the oldest old man among the four people immediately saluted Zhang Xiaopeng and asked.
"No need to be polite, old man." Zhang Xiaozhu responded politely, "My name is Zhang Xiaozhu, you can just call me Xiaopeng. I just have a few questions that I would like to ask."
"My benefactor, just ask. I know everything I know and can tell you everything." The old man said hurriedly.
"What time is it today? Where is this? Which direction is Liujiacun?" Zhang Xiaozu asked three questions in a row.
After hearing Zhang Xiaozu's question, the old man couldn't help but frown and replied: "Today is April 25th. This is Baihuang Mountain, which belongs to the boundary of Longduo County. As for Liujia Village, I have never heard of this village. Do you three know?"
"I don't know." The three of them shook their heads in unison.
"Baihuang Mountain? Longduo County?" Zhang Xiaozu had a question mark on his forehead. He had never heard of these two place names. A bad premonition arose in his heart and he hurriedly asked: "Does the old man know Fengshui County?"
The old man frowned and thought, and finally shook his head and said, "I don't know."
"Where is Baiyun City?" Zhang Xiaozu asked again.
"I don't know." The old man shook his head again.
"Then - then which city is under the jurisdiction of this?" Zhang Xiaozu asked.
"Yancheng." The old man replied.
"Yancheng?" Zhang Xiaopou became even more confused.
