21 Leaving

The night grew heavier, and the stars twinkled.

Funiu Village was silent as a graveyard.

"Screeee~"

Accompanied by a teeth-grating sound of a door opening, the elder village chief's gate slowly swung open.

A man and a dog appeared outside.

Inside the earthen-wall courtyard, it was so quiet that a pin drop could be heard.

A long table was set in the courtyard, with an oil lamp and many rabbit bones on it.

The oil lamp had not yet been extinguished, its flame flickering.

In the light, the elder village chief's relatives, including Zhao Dahu and his three brothers, gathered around the table, each and every one present.

They were either lying on the table, slumped beside it, or lying on the ground not far away.

Each foaming at the mouth, their faces blackened, lips turned blue and purple, breath long gone.

"No need to look, they're all gone..."

Fang Zhixing's eyes flickered, his tongue clicking in disbelief.

"Hehehe, they drank problematic water, all ascended to heaven!"

Xigou gloated arrogantly, his contributions in this operation were undeniable.

Honestly, Zhao Dahu and his people essentially died at Xigou's hand.

Xigou's Bloodline had awakened, his sense of smell greatly enhanced. While frolicking in the woods, he accidentally found a kind of mushroom and precisely sniffed out its deadly poison.

Thus, things became simple.

"A family should stick together."

Fang Zhixing laughed happily, quickly tidied up the scene, and reclaimed the stolen arrows, retrieving a total of seventy-eight arrows in the end.

Moreover, he also found fifty-two Big Coins.

...

...

The next morning dawned clear and sunny, with blue skies and a vast expanse of rosy clouds.

Fang Zhixing got up early, made a fire, and cooked some rice porridge, adding four eggs.

After breakfast, the man and the dog began to pack up their travel bags.

Really, there wasn't much to pack up, just prying the iron pot off the stove and stuffing it into a broken bamboo basket along with the old hen, eggs, and other things.

Fang Zhixing shouldered the broken bamboo basket, donned his bow and Arrow Bag, and, leading a donkey and accompanied by Xigou, walked away from Funiu Village under the morning glow.

They followed the river downstream.

"If I remember correctly, reaching that market town from Funiu Village requires crossing four mountains," Fang Zhixing said telepathically.

Xigou said silently, "A total of eighty Li with four mountains between?"

Fang Zhixing nodded, "Funiu Village is very remote, eighty Li is actually the straight-line distance; if measured by footsteps, it could be two to three hundred Li."

Xigou couldn't help humming a song, "A long road ahead, for me to brave, with courage and passion I shall save..."

Man and dog gradually moved farther away, Funiu Village disappearing behind them.

The sun climbed from the horizon to overhead.

Fang Zhixing and Xigou walked along the riverbank without taking a break, covering about forty Li by noon.

By midday, they stopped, made a fire to cook, ate lunch, and also fed the donkey.

After resting for an hour, they set off again.

In the afternoon, after walking for more than two hours, a mountain appeared ahead, about two hundred meters high, blocking their path.

Man and dog climbed the mountain.

"Be careful, I smell a fierce beast," said Xigou, sniffing the air. "This mountain seems to be the territory of some fierce beast."

Fang Zhixing understood, took down his bow, and held it in his hand, always on alert.

Climbing up the mountain, then back down.

All was well.

After descending, Fang Zhixing saw a fork in the road and a sign.

To the left lay "Wozhai Village."

To the right led to "Xiaoqing River Town."

The sign was clearly marked.

Unfortunately, Fang Zhixing was illiterate and couldn't understand what was written on the sign.

But he could count.

The town he was headed for, "Xiaoqing River Town," should contain five characters.

Moreover, the town was to the south, which corresponded precisely to the direction on his right.

He and his dog did not linger and continued along the mountain path as the sun began to set.

They found no shelter to stay in, so they had to spend the night outdoors.

This was extremely dangerous.

Not to mention that many fierce beasts hunted at night, ready to strike unexpectedly; just being outdoors meant they were subjected to a relentless barrage of mosquito bites, which was horribly uncomfortable.

Should there be a strong wind or rain in the middle of the night, it would be even more miserable.

"Let's take turns sleeping tonight," Xigou suggested.

Fang Zhixing saw no problem with that.

However, their hopes were too optimistic.

After nightfall, wave after wave of mosquitoes swarmed them, making them so miserable they couldn't sleep at all.

Somehow, they made it until dawn, with Fang Zhixing covered in welts, his body dotted with red blood spots as if he had eczema, unbearably itchy, breaking open with each scratch, truly tear-inducing.

Xigou, with his fur for protection, fared much better.

In the morning, both the man and his dog were tired and weary, yawning as they crossed over the second mountain peak.

Fortunately, the journey was uneventful and smooth.

After descending, they followed the mountain path and after traveling around sixty or seventy li, they saw a village alongside the road ahead.

Fang Zhixing immediately became very alert, not approaching rashly, and telepathically communicated, "Xigou, you go and check it out."

Xigou had a second life; this sort of scouting was best suited for him.

"Okay!"

Xigou didn't refuse, nor could he refuse. If he didn't take this risk, there definitely wouldn't be a meal for him next time.

Thus, Xigou cautiously tiptoed into the village.

A moment later, Xigou came running back, telepathically saying, "It's a deserted village, no one's there."

A deserted village?

How could that be?

Fang Zhixing frowned and said, "There are several houses that clearly look newly constructed; didn't you notice?"

Xigou immediately responded, "I discovered skeletons scattered around the village, twenty or thirty of them. I suspect that the village was raided, and the villagers might have been killed or perhaps they fled for their lives."

Fang Zhixing asked, "Can you tell by the scent, like the smell of human sweat, that the village has been uninhabited for a long time?"

Xigou replied, "Yes, I am certain there is no fresh scent of sweat in that village."

Fang Zhixing then felt relieved, looked at the sky, and estimated it was about four in the afternoon. He mused, "Let's stay overnight in this deserted village tonight."

Xigou, also exhausted, immediately agreed, "Okay!"

The man and his dog then entered the village and chose a relatively good house to stay in.

Afterward, they thoroughly searched the village.

Skeletons were scattered on the ground, dressed in coarse linen cloth.

Fang Zhixing examined a few of the skeletons, and found that one of them had a broken skull, suggesting the individual could have died from a blunt force trauma to the head.