Chapter 388: The Troublesome Brother Duo

To be honest, Du Shanü feels completely at ease about Fu Cong Zi and Xuan Feixing.

However, facts show that some people indeed need to worry a bit.

For example, looking at Fu Cong Zi, who appears smart but is actually not.

Since that night when war erupted, over twenty days have passed......

But he, the future Celestial Master, is still lost!

Fu Cong Zi feels bitter inside, but quickly finds an excuse for himself——

First, the detailed map he carried was lost long ago; such a thing is highly sensitive anywhere, not easy to buy ordinarily, and cannot be replaced.

Second, war smoke fills all regions, roads were already blocked, walking there is already difficult, let alone that he still carries a heavy stone tablet he cannot easily discard.

Refugees and bandits, seeing him drive a cart, often suspect there are valuables inside, and from time to time come up to rob and harass him......

But where would he have any valuables!

He has been out for a long time; the gold and silver he brought when leaving were already scarce before Xuan Feixing even departed.

After Xuan Feixing left, bandits regarded him as a fat sheep; after just one or two raids, he now has empty hands, wishing to split a single cash coin into two to spend!

Nowadays, whenever he reaches a place, his first thought is not how to return to Yongzhou, but how to deceive... oh no, find someone to tell his fortune, to get some money and food to fill his stomach!

He doesn't know the way, cannot recognize the road, and each step is difficult.

He can only replace his horse with a thin, small donkey, and replace his still decent cart with an ordinary wooden cart......

Thus, he has a bit more money and food, and it's not conspicuous.

But that miserable, unfortunate feeling cannot be suppressed no matter what.

The poorer he gets, the more pitiful his life becomes; this journey can be called a life of displacement, and he is now hardly different from the refugees fleeing for their lives outside!

Fu Cong Zi doesn't know how long until he can return to Yongzhou, but the harder his life gets, the more he thinks of Xuan Feixing, who once rushed to the war——

When Ji Mao Ge was around, everything was so great!

Back then, although there were also bandits, Ji Mao Ge could drive them away in just two or three moves!

How could the situation have become like this now......

This morning, after great difficulty he found a market, took out five cash coins from his shoe soles wanting to eat a bowl of hot soup noodles, but before the bowl had even been set on the table, before he could take two bites, it was overturned by a refugee snatching a stall......

Fu Cong Zi squeezed out a bitter tear for himself, urging the slow old donkey, and missed Xuan Feixing more and more.

Around him, sparse dead trees, no bird traces, and occasionally bones of those starved to death lie exposed on the road.

However, heaven and earth seemed not satisfied, and thus arranged another calamity.

Fu Cong Zi only felt a chill on his eyelids, then suddenly realized what was happening, and looked up——

Thin flakes drifted down between heaven and earth, gradually covering all things......

Snow.

Snow.

War rages, people cannot make a living, food does not fill the belly.

Now, another snowfall has actually arrived!

Fu Cong Zi sighed in his heart, then raised his hand and patted the back of the old donkey, bony as a stick:

"Old buddy, hurry up. Otherwise, if the snow gets heavier, we'll both likely die here."

The old donkey, whether it understood or not, kept walking at its original pace, trembling but steady, neither fast nor slow.

Fu Cong Zi, unable to plea to heaven or earth, had no choice but to get off the donkey cart with a worried face, roll up his pant legs, and walk ahead of the old donkey, stepping deep then shallow.

The rusted copper bell on the old donkey's neck jingled, producing an unpleasant sound.

One person, one donkey, one cart, one stone tablet.

Today still, the sky does not grow old.

Long after the bell's sound faded, the snow finally settled on the little Daoist's trailing tone.

At the end of the long road, the little Daoist sighed:

"...... I don't know how Ji Mao Ge is doing......"

The little Daoist did not die.

But far away, Xuan Feixing, whom Fu Cong Zi misses, truly feels he is about to die.

Unlike Fu Cong Zi's temperament of feeling doomed at the slightest trouble,

the death Xuan Feixing feels is literally imminent death.

According to his judgment, at the latest one day, at the latest three days, he will surely not escape this calamity——

Because he truly has nothing left to say.

Over the past month and a half, he has talked about his hometown's customs, from birds and beasts to even scraping his intestines, and even the small, narrow, nearly transparent stream fish he touched as a child, he has brought up to talk about.

He Lian Bo Bo initially listened with enthusiasm for a few days, but the more he listened, the more weary he became; recently he occasionally yawns.

A hint of displeasure shown by a superior is always a threat to the subordinate's life.

Xuan Feixing thought left and right, but still decided to think of a way to leave——

This decision was not made rashly; he thought it through clearly.

First, He Lian Bo Bo is unpredictable in joy and anger, appearing cheerful but actually having an unfathomable mind.

Being beside such a person is like accompanying a tiger; a slight mistake and one's life is not safe.

Second, although his injuries are severe, he has nursed them for over twenty days and barely regained some of his former abilities.

Rather than wait for He Lian Bo Bo to find him boring and order his execution, it's better to act first, seize an opportunity.

Third......

Between heaven and earth, snow fell again.

This place belongs to the north; since winter began, there have been occasional snowfalls, but none as heavy as today's.

Fluffy snowflakes scattered like catkins, and soon they covered the distant mountains.

Although he was normally confined by He Lian Bo Bo in the commander's tent, even just a crack and the commotion outside as people scrambled to gather their belongings were enough for him to realize this was a rare opportunity.

Snow can bury lives, and it can also erase traces of people.

Under normal circumstances, no matter where he ran, he would leave traces on the ground.

However, as long as there is snow, it can conceal him.

Xuan Feixing's plan was to wait for the next maid who came to deliver medicine, then subdue her, bind her hands and feet, gag her, and place her in his usual lying spot.

He swapped clothes with the maid, left the commander's tent, and in the quickest motion found a horse still able to run.

Where the horse ran actually didn't matter, after all he didn't know the way.

What he wanted wasn't simply to escape those terrifying heavy cavalry on a single horse.

What he wanted was for the horse to carry him for a while, or at least temporarily evade the sight of this group of northern barbarians, after which he would dismount and whip the horse.

Thus the horse could keep running, drawing everyone's gaze, while he stayed put, covered himself in snow, and hid in place.

In the vast snowy wilderness, even though those barbarians were accustomed to heavy snow, they might not easily spot his trail.

In his life, what he had most of was patience.

As long as he could hide in the snow for one day, two days, three days, four days......

As long as he still had breath, even if he had to crawl, he could make his way back to Yongzhou and return to the Witch Ancestor's side.

Exactly, exactly.

That's right.

Xuan Feixing, that was indeed what he thought.

However, what he never expected was that the first person to lift the tent flap today was not the maid who came to change his medicine.

But rather, He Lian Bo Bo.

Outside, lethal goose-feather snow fell, yet He Lian Bo Bo still appeared youthful and vigorous, not even wearing a greatcoat, still in his autumn battle attire from last time.

A handsome youth's figure entered from outside the tent, his hair lightly dusted with snow, his smile like spring sunshine in March, but his words carried a chill that made Xuan Feixing startle.

"Southern lad, it's snowing outside, not good for training—I can only come listen to more southern stories......."

"To be frank, what you said last time was truly boring; if you can't come up with something interesting today, I'll have no choice but to kill you."