Chapter 373: Walking Toward the Distance

After Xiong and his group set out, they replenished their supplies once more at New City, then rested for a night before continuing their departure the next day. They could only spend half a day traveling, as the rest of the time had to be spent searching for food and water sources.

Even though they could have reached the abandoned Kexiaozhan by evening if they had increased their speed that day, Xiong still strictly followed the prescribed pace, stopping midway to let everyone set up camp.

Most of the men took their Bow and Arrow and water canteens, splitting up to hunt and fetch water. Although most of them had not hunted for a long time, the instinct for hunting remained in their bodies; as long as they could still find and track prey, everything else was not a problem.

The Bow and Arrow and Crossbow they carried were their greatest assets for hunting, stronger than the savages who had hunted their entire lives while holding only Spear and stones.

By dusk, they returned to camp with abundant game, including two deer alone. A small herd of deer had no chance of escape when faced with dozens of bows. As for why they only hunted two, it was because they only wanted to hunt two.

They strictly adhered to the regulations of Sustainable Development. These wild beast populations were targeted purposefully, selecting suitable targets to hunt in small numbers to avoid wiping out the entire population. In the end, it would be their Huaxia that suffered, otherwise, they would face a predicament where there were no animals left to hunt in the future.

However, they still hunted a large quantity of various birds and rabbits, as they had many people, after all.

In the end, the meat was not completely finished. Aside from the smaller, brittle bones, the rest was distributed to the hunting dogs after being cooked. They had shown restraint today, but in the future, they would certainly hunt as much as possible to ensure they had enough to eat for today and a surplus for tomorrow.

The next day, they arrived at the original Kexiaozhan site. Because there were no horse herds in the entire Wasteland, the Grass grew exceptionally lush, but this also attracted other herbivores. Eventually, a portion of them became food for the team led by Xiong.

The team had originally intended to rest in the wooden cabin at the Kexiaozhan so they would not have to set up a Tent, but when they entered, they discovered that wild boars were actually living inside. Upon seeing people, they charged wildly, and sharp tusks scratched the lower leg of one team member.

However, this litter of wild boars could not escape. With the team having already hunted enough game, they had an extra meal, but the entire wooden cabin was no longer fit for living.

The floor was covered in various animal feces, and dense swarms of bats hung upside down from the roof. The smell inside was pungent and foul; staying for even a moment longer made one feel dizzy.

The situation in the other rooms was much the same. Although there were no wild boars, they were equally filthy and chaotic, and even the massive rats had thoughts of attacking people, so they had to abandon the plan of staying inside.

That team member had injured their lower leg. Although there was no major issue after emergency treatment, the wound was relatively large and required stitches, so there was a high risk in continuing the journey with them.

Faced with an inauspicious start, Xiong did not feel discouraged. For the sake of the team member's safety and to ensure their marching speed, he decided to send the wounded back to the city. Since they were relatively close to New City, this was still feasible; if they had traveled further, they would have had no choice but to bring the person along.

Two days after Xiong set out, he released the first batch of carrier pigeons, asking New City to send people to pick up the wounded. They also sent people to escort them, meeting on the road so as not to delay their itinerary.

Subsequently, Xiong dispatched ten people riding cows, traveling as fast as they could with the wounded to meet the people from New City. In the evening, they would have people meet these ten on the road to ensure they could return to the camp safely.

However, their food today was overly abundant; this family of wild boars alone was enough for them to eat for two days.

But because the temperature was still relatively high, if not processed quickly, it would definitely rot soon. Thus, of all the meat, only the parts with better texture and flavor were kept, and the rest was discarded far away from the camp.

They ate what they could, and what they could not finish was smoked overnight. After leaving the city, the dogs had a long-awaited taste of meat, and this situation would continue for a long time.

Everyone had also not experienced this life of eating pure meat every day for a long time, but their stomachs had already been conditioned for light food. On the first day out, many people were vomiting at night because they ate too much meat. Today, seeing the meat, they did not have much appetite; they only ate a few bites and then drank tea to cleanse their palates.

When everyone talked about this, they all laughed, saying that life had been too good, to the point where they could not even handle eating meat.

That night, those few people returned to the camp successfully. They did not arrange for night watch, and after eating, they rested early.

The next day, they continued their departure. By the time they reached the camping point, it was territory they were completely unfamiliar with, but they found no signs of human activity. The cartographer drew routes and terrain on paper, and the researchers searched around the camp for usable things.

Xiong followed their consistent tradition, finding a very conspicuous large tree and carving the words "Huaxia State Territory" into the trunk to assert sovereignty.

In the following days, they moved further and further away from Huaxia. Although they did not find anything good, their animal skins accumulated more and more. To reduce weight, they had to discard the poor-quality ones directly, while keeping things like soft deerskin, which still had relatively high value for trade.

Along the way, they also discovered some ripe wild fruits, which served as a supplement to their food; everyone preferred eating fruit over meat.

They did not understand why they were fine before, but now they were actually suffering from some constipation and indigestion.

However, these troubles were resolved after they found a patch of hawthorn trees. Hawthorn was the best medicine for digesting meat, and it was very effective. For the sake of their future happiness, they picked all the red fruits on that patch of hawthorn trees, leaving not a single one, which provoked the monkeys watching from afar to keep cursing.