Chapter 35: Chapter 35: Pingding Mountain Village
The city gates were silhouetted against the rising sun as the curtain of early morning slowly lifted.
Ren Qing and the others grabbed their packs and left Sanxiang City together.
They eyed the lush forest beside the main road, smearing themselves with insect-repelling lotion. Some even swallowed a few strange Elixir Pills.
Although their destination wasn’t far, they still had to travel on mountain paths, so thorough preparation was necessary.
This was the first time Ren Qing had left the city since arriving in this world.
The others were hardly any better. All were born and raised in Sanxiang City, which meant that the most experienced among them was, surprisingly, Xiaowu.
Ren Qing took a simple map from his robes. It marked the path to the rendezvous point where they would meet up with the Forbidden Guards.
However, they were still a long way from the actual Disaster Mitigation Forbidden Area. The Government Office wouldn’t leak information about the Forbidden Area so easily.
Ren Qing thought for a moment, then said, "Let’s get going. We should try to reach Pingding Mountain by nightfall. There’s a village there where we can stay."
As a constable and the eldest of the Government Constables, Wang Wen had little faith in Ren Qing and couldn’t help but repeatedly caution him.
"Make sure you read that map right. Don’t you dare get us lost."
"I won’t."
Ren Qing paid Wang Wen’s opinion no mind and directed the group to follow the main road.
The Fireworkers were positioned in the middle of the group, with the constables at the front and rear to guard against any sudden dangers.
Xiaowu nudged Ren Qing with his elbow and whispered, "Brother Qing, are you sure your body can handle this continuous travel?"
Ren Qing shook his head. "I’ll be fine. Besides, if all goes well, we’ll be there in two days."
"Mm."
Xiaowu was still worried. Ren Qing’s health really had been poor just a few days ago. ’I just hope he can hold on.’
The group moved farther and farther away from Sanxiang City.
But the situation was far from reassuring. The roars of wild beasts could be clearly heard from the forest flanking the road, and something was even stirring in the undergrowth.
"Constable Ren, there’s a body..."
The speaker was Guo Qing, another constable about the same age as Ren Qing. He seemed very ill at ease in the unfamiliar environment.
Ren Qing walked over to where Guo Qing was pointing to take a look.
He found a corpse lying crookedly in a mud pit. The man was sallow and emaciated, dressed in tattered linen clothes, and had multiple stab wounds on his chest and abdomen.
"It’s likely the body of a mountain bandit, chased here by Official Soldiers."
Ren Qing was slightly puzzled. ’It seems the life of a mountain bandit is rather poor.’
’It makes sense, I suppose. Caravans rarely set out from Sanxiang City, leaving the bandits with nothing to plunder. How do they even survive day to day?’
Zhu Ding couldn’t help but ask, "Constable, aren’t all corpses supposed to be cremated?"
Ren Qing explained, "The Official Soldiers don’t deal with lone corpses. It would be too easy to start a wildfire that could spread through the mountains."
Understanding dawned on the others, and they turned their attention away from the body.
Unbeknownst to them, as Ren Qing nudged the corpse aside with his foot, he noticed a large, blackened patch on its back.
He instinctively followed the blood trail with his eyes and saw, deep within the dark forest, the faint glimmer of several pairs of blood-red eyes.
They belonged to a pack of gaunt, gray-furred wolves.
According to legend, Mountain Wolves are exceptionally cunning by nature, even tailing their prey for days and nights on end.
’They’re practically turning into demons.’
Ren Qing realized the Mountain Wolves had likely dragged the corpse out of the forest. They were using the body as bait to lure prey, a clear sign of their intelligence.
Of course, Ren Qing had no intention of letting them target him. While the others weren’t looking, he opened his narrowed eyes and activated the Divine Sutra.
A terrifying aura emanated from him. Xiaowu and the others couldn’t sense it, but the wild beasts were a different story.
The Mountain Wolf Pack let out a series of low whimpers and scrambled frantically back into the forest.
The sudden commotion made Guo Qing tremble all over.
He hastily drew the saber at his waist, only to find it was a false alarm. The wolves’ howls grew distant, moving away from the main road.
Everyone realized they had just had a close brush with danger, and an instinctual fear washed over them.
After that incident, the group subconsciously quickened their pace, even making do with dry rations for a hasty lunch.
They wanted to follow Ren Qing’s plan and reach the open terrain of Pingding Mountain before dark.
Ren Qing snatched a moment of leisure amidst the hurry. Under the guise of a yawn, he used his Abnormal Mouth to stuff some pig eyes into his stomach, and a wave of heat immediately spread through his body.
’The Taotie Technique is certainly convenient, but the one year of Lifespan it consumed means my promotion to the Ghost Envoy Realm will have to be postponed again.’
’There are pros and cons, I guess. But for now, at least, I’m quite satisfied with it.’
After traveling peacefully along the main road for over an hour, the earlier encounter with the Mountain Wolves seemed like nothing more than an insignificant interlude.
Soon, a fork appeared in the road, with a new path leading into the mountain forest.
With trepidation, they left the flat main road for the muddy, difficult mountain path, which hid countless venomous snakes and ferocious beasts.
They would just have to be even more careful.
Ren Qing checked the map several times to confirm their route. Once he was sure, Wang Wen, saber in hand, was the first to step into the dense, boundless mountain forest.
The canopy of leaves blotted out the light, and strange sounds could be heard faintly in the distance.
Ren Qing periodically glanced up at the sun to confirm their direction, trying to avoid any deviations that could get them lost, all while staying vigilant for approaching beasts.
’I thought my Half-Corpse Realm Cultivation would be more than enough to handle the wilderness with ease,’ he thought. ’I didn’t expect that just continuously operating my Double Pupils would already be taking such a toll.’
’And these are just the mountains near Sanxiang City. If I went to those places riddled with Forbidden Areas, I wouldn’t survive more than a few days.’
’Still,’ Ren Qing considered, ’this is a good opportunity to get a better grasp of my Magic Techniques.’
The group continued their journey deeper into the mountain forest.
By the time the sun began to set, they could already vaguely see Pingding Mountain in the distance.
The mountaintop was encircled by trees, but a clearing had been left in the center, dotted with a dozen thatched huts that looked no bigger than sesame seeds from this distance.
This small, sparsely populated mountain village was actually home to mostly Hunters, who would travel to Sanxiang City every few days to sell their local wares.
Guo Qing’s spirits lifted. ’Once we get to the village, we can get a comfortable night’s rest,’ he thought. ’We won’t even have to eat these dry rations we’ve been carrying.’
He was also on good terms with the Hunters from the village and would occasionally share drinks with them in the city.
"Hold on."
Ren Qing called the group to a halt with a strange expression on his face, then found a thick tree and began to climb it.
Xiaowu’s jaw dropped in astonishment. ’What happened to being weak and frail?!!’
Wang Wen was slightly annoyed, but seeing that everyone else was waiting patiently, he knew better than to say anything.
Ren Qing paid the others no attention. He stood on a high branch, gazing at the distant village as the rotation of his Double Pupils quickened once more.
But Repeaters were not good at seeing things from a distance. He could only vaguely make out a dozen or so figures in the village stepping into the mountain forest.
Then, they vanished from sight.
"What is it, Constable?"
Guo Qing couldn’t help but shout. Seeing the sky grow darker, all he wanted was to hurry to the village and rest.
"It’s nothing."
Ren Qing leaped nimbly down from the tree. ’Maybe the villagers suddenly had something to do,’ he thought. ’They’ll probably be back in a bit.’
’In any case, it’s better than camping out in the deep mountains.’
He heightened his vigilance and took the lead position from Guo Qing.
After seeing Ren Qing’s agility, the others didn’t have any major objections.
The distance slowly closed, and the isolated Pingding Mountain Village came into view.
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