Chapter 150: Crossing the High Mountains

The region where their Xiling tribe was located was full of rocky mountains. For the sake of safety, they tried their best to choose small, open plains to walk through, following this direction all the way north, keeping as far away from the mountains as possible. If they absolutely had to walk through the mountains, they would certainly choose areas with dense vegetation.

They had been very silent since they set out, and there was no sound along the way. It was not until they had walked a very long distance and saw the Xiling tribe in ruins that the crowd suddenly realized something and began to cry loudly.

This place was completely damp, especially during this period, as it had been raining lightly day and night without seeing the sun. It was foggy everywhere, and they were always surrounded by countless mosquitoes. There were also many leeches on the trees, poking their heads out, ready to land on people and suck their blood to their hearts' content.

Night came quickly, and the ground shook from time to time along the way. Although it was not as severe as the previous few times, it made everyone very panicked and afraid. Before the sun set, they found a very open flat land that was relatively dry with no water seepage, and they set up camp there.

What Leizu cared about most was the Heavenly Worms in her jar. These were the foundation of their Xiling tribe's survival. Fortunately, although the journey was bumpy and they had changed locations, their vitality was still very tenacious, and they still ate the mulberry leaves thrown inside completely clean.

Their Xiling tribe was just like this; because of the natural disaster, they had gone from a vast and extremely prosperous tribe to a tribe wandering in the wilderness. They did not know where their destination was, but they just followed the results of the divination and walked north, bypassing high mountains when they encountered them.

Although they had suffered disasters and were fleeing, fortunately, their foundation was still strong, with excellent Weapons, experienced hunters, and powerful Soldiers. Therefore, the wild beasts they encountered along the way could only end up as their food, and they walked safely like this for more than ten days.

Sure enough, as they walked, they felt the tremors of the earth becoming smaller and less frequent, and they believed that this escape was the right choice.

Because there were very few mulberry trees to be found along the way, Leizu abandoned more than half of the Heavenly Worms to ensure that the remaining portion had enough food. Moreover, these worries were almost over. According to her experience, in another six or seven days, these Heavenly Worms would stop eating and begin to spin silk and form cocoons. After that, Leizu would not need to worry too much. Even if there were not many cocoons, as long as the moths laid eggs, the number of their Heavenly Worms would soon be able to recover.

She only hoped that before the next batch of Heavenly Worms hatched, they could find a place to live with enough mulberry trees; otherwise, she did not think she had such good luck to raise the next batch of Heavenly Worms to the point of forming cocoons.

Leizu led the people all the way north. If they really could not find mulberry leaves, she would use elm leaves to feed the Heavenly Worms instead. Although the silk spun by Heavenly Worms that ate elm leaves was not as good as those that ate mulberry leaves, Leizu did not care about that anymore; as long as the Heavenly Worms could live until they formed cocoons, it would be fine.

They walked to the foot of a tall mountain range, which was far taller than any mountains they had seen before. It felt completely impossible to bypass it. The entire mountain range lay across their path to the north, and the two sides were so far away that the end could not be seen.

Gui had no choice but to divine again, and the conclusion was to continue north. As long as they crossed this mountain range, they would reach the place they were supposed to go.

Leizu had no choice but to follow suit, because they had no other options. Judging from the situation along the way, Gui's divination was correct; they had not felt the shaking of the earth again, and they did not dare to turn back.

The Heavenly Worms formed cocoons, but unfortunately, they were not white; the color was a bit dull and not good-looking. It was a pity, but Leizu had no way to change it. However, this also reduced her worries; at least she did not have to worry about the food problem of the Heavenly Worms anymore.

After forming cocoons, they still had to pupate and then turn into moths. The time in between was sufficient, and perhaps they would be able to cross this terrifyingly high mountain range.

This mountain was unusually difficult to walk on. Not only was it steep, but the vegetation was so dense that they had nowhere to step. As they walked, the path would disappear, and the trees blocked out the sky and the sun, making them almost lose their sense of direction. All they could do was climb toward the heights.

It was not only difficult to walk, but there were also many wild beasts. Although they basically did not see elephants or rhinoceroses after entering the mountains, tigers, wolves, lynxes, and all kinds of wild beasts they had or had not seen were everywhere, and wild boars were also in groups.

However, those that generally approached became their food. The losses among their people were mainly due to poisonous snakes and poisonous insects, especially the blood-sucking leeches. If one was not careful, by the time it was discovered, the person would have been almost sucked dry. Leizu wrapped her body in cloth woven from Heavenly Worm Silk, which allowed her to escape a disaster.

The higher they climbed, the colder it got. They had never felt it would be this cold. Clearly, it was humid and sultry at the foot of the mountain, but it was unbelievably cold at the heights. Moreover, they were not wearing much, so they were so cold that they began to doubt life. The benefit was that there were no leeches in these places.

They had lost nearly a hundred tribesmen along the way, and everyone was almost numb. What supported everyone to keep going were the Heavenly Worms that had formed cocoons on Leizu's back, which meant that the gods of their Xiling tribe were still protecting them and had not completely abandoned them. Another thing was Gui's divination result—once they crossed this mountain range, they would be at their destination.

At the highest point, they finally saw the scene in the distance. Beyond the rolling mountain range was an endless plain. On this mountain range, there were a few higher mountains, and the peaks were actually white. They guessed that it might be a salt mountain, with endless salt on it, and the salt they brought was already running out.

Everyone saw a clear future and was more motivated. It was said that going up the mountain was easy but going down was hard, but to truly cross a mountain range, going down the mountain was relatively easier in some places.

On the way, the moths hatched. These two days were extremely important for the moths, and they dared not have the slightest slack. So they chose a place to camp, and then used the cloth woven from Heavenly Worm Silk—the thing they called Silk—to enclose a small space, and found many tree barks for them to lay eggs.

The other tribesmen knew that this period of the Heavenly Worms was very important, but few had seen it with their own eyes. This time, almost all of them witnessed the whole process of the Heavenly Worms from eclosion to mating and egg-laying.

For the same batch of Heavenly Worms, the time of eclosion and egg-laying was almost the same. In two days, these moths ended their lives. After Leizu performed a sacrifice for the Heavenly Worms that had reached the end of their lives, she took the Heavenly Worm eggs on the tree bark and stepped on the road north again.

Finally, they walked out of the mountain range and arrived at the plain they had seen. The lack of high mountains blocking their way made their hearts much more cheerful.

Now they did not know exactly where to go, but thinking carefully, even though so many people had died, the nearly one thousand people remaining now could be considered a very large force. Even if they occupied a piece of land here, it would be completely fine.