Chapter 213: Chapter 127: Shelter
Xiao Jiu kept trembling, her expression dazed. The shock of the past two days had clearly been too much for her; she hadn’t yet been able to process it all.
Just then, Xile came up to her and nudged her with its nose.
’...It still remembered the little girl who had played with it all day.’
Seeing Xile, a spark of life finally returned to Xiao Jiu’s eyes... She hugged Xile’s large head and slowly began to cry.
Soon, they reached the foot of Old Ox Back Mountain. Xiao Qi led them to the secret location he had mentioned.
...It was indeed well-hidden. Tucked between two peaks was a path obscured by overgrown weeds. Beyond it lay a dense bamboo forest, and further still, a flat, open space, completely concealed from the outside.
Nearby, the sound of rushing water could be heard. A short walk revealed a small waterfall, its stream dropping straight down and sending spray everywhere...
Qin Fang surveyed the area before letting out a long breath. "Master," he said, "this place is perfect. The bamboo forest is dense, so we can’t be seen from the outside. The entrance is hidden well enough... We could build a simple hut and live here... What do you think?"
His master nodded as well. "It’ll do. We’ll stay here for the time being. Let’s put up a simple shelter first, and we’ll figure out the rest later."
"Alright."
Qin Fang nodded.
The others sat on the ground, resting. They were exhausted from a full day of travel.
His senior brother sat on a rock, staring dazedly in the direction of True Martial County.
Master and Qin Fang then got to work. For two Anjin masters, building a temporary shelter was a simple task.
There was no timber, but the bamboo would suffice. Qin Fang borrowed his senior brother’s blade, and with a single horizontal slash, a stalk of bamboo as thick as a bowl was sliced clean in two.
...The Penetration Power of Anjin was proving immensely useful.
The proximity to the waterfall meant the air was heavy with moisture, and the ground was damp. It was fine for a short rest, but living here long-term would be harmful to their health.
The master and his two disciples would be unaffected, but the others would suffer greatly.
Fortunately, bamboo was plentiful. After a brief discussion, the master and disciple decided to build a raised floor, using bamboo for the planking...
Their senior brother helped too. Though injured, the mysterious liquid had worked wonders. To avoid reopening his wounds, he took on lighter tasks... such as splitting the bamboo stalks and fashioning them into bamboo nails.
For an Anjin master, a task like this was almost laughably easy.
Monkey and Xiao Qi took up blades to trim the excess branches from the bamboo.
The two girls and the master’s wife didn’t sit idly by either. Being more detail-oriented, they took on the task of laying the bamboo planks as tightly as possible, following Qin Fang’s instructions. They then used stones as hammers to drive in the bamboo nails and secure the flooring...
「In the blink of an eye, the sky had grown dark.」
After a full afternoon of work, the shelter was beginning to take shape.
At the very least, the floor was completely finished.
They wouldn’t have to sleep on the damp ground tonight.
Just then, Qin Fang heard stomachs rumbling all around him. He informed his master and the others that he was going to hunt for some game.
His master nodded and told him to be careful.
Qin Fang nodded and departed.
He first made a loop through the mountains and soon spotted a sounder of wild boars.
Qin Fang flicked his hand, and two Iron Nails shot out, killing two of the boars.
He hadn’t aimed for the large boars, just the smaller ones.
’...Old Ox Back really is a land of plenty.’
Hoisting the two small boars onto his shoulders, Qin Fang returned to the entrance of their hideout.
After a moment’s thought, he glanced in the direction of Li Family Ao, which Xiao Qi had mentioned...
The shelter had absolutely nothing. They could put off other things, but they desperately needed some basic necessities.
Things like pots and bowls, sheets and blankets.
He placed the boars just inside the entrance, made sure they couldn’t be seen from the path, and then headed for Li Family Ao.
And then... he saw a scene of carnage, the ground covered in blood and mutilated bodies.
He had seen the men in black commit their atrocities twice before... but always from a great distance.
This time, he was walking right into the aftermath.
The blood on the ground had already dried, coagulating into dark red clumps that covered the narrow village paths.
Bodies lay strewn everywhere. Most of the victims had withered faces and gray-white hair.
The stench of blood permeated the small village, where countless crows had gathered from one end to the other. There wasn’t a single human sound; only the intermittent cawing of the crows and a suffocating silence.
Even Qin Fang fell silent...
He saw the corpses, and just as Xiao Qi had described, all of their stomachs had been cut open... Their thoracic and abdominal cavities were empty. There was nothing inside.
He knelt for a closer look and discovered that the abdominal structure of these people had undergone a drastic transformation. Even with only an empty cavity remaining, he could see a dense network of blood vessels that seemed to converge on a spot that was now vacant...
’...It must have been that meat tumor.’
Qin Fang remained silent for a long moment before continuing deeper into the village.
Blood and bodies were everywhere. Finally, he reached the place where the bloodstains were thickest...
He saw a large area of scrape marks on the ground and could almost picture a round, rolling monster writhing about as it devoured the meat tumors...
After another moment of silence, Qin Fang let out a soft breath, looked up, and sought out the largest, most respectable-looking courtyard.
The courtyard was also covered in blood—smeared in chaotic patterns—and corpses.
Qin Fang walked straight into the house... which, surprisingly, was still relatively clean.
