Chapter 403: Where are the pursuers?

Afterwards, everyone arrived together beside the shed, squeezed inside, and began searching the body of Lanzai, which had turned into rotting flesh. Finding nothing, they pushed the corpse aside to search underneath, finally finding one under the leather clothing. Then, everyone began to scramble for it, but they all restrained themselves from using force; whoever grabbed it, it was theirs.

Caressing the Iron Arrowhead, everyone felt incredibly excited; in the past, these were good things they couldn't even catch a glimpse of.

Thinking that there should be more over at Gongxia's place, the group did not linger, rushed over at top speed, and began scrambling again.

After each had grabbed their share, no one had time to pay attention to who got more or less, or whether they had taken everything clean. The first people to cross the river had already reached the bank and started heading into the forest; they dared not delay any longer, as they would only be safer if they stayed with the main force.

Thus, one by one, they began to sprint toward the river, and after entering the water, they endured the cold and swam frantically.

The army stationed in the distance had not heard any movement from the Leader's side for a long time, but everyone was not the least bit panicked. No one had the guts to attack their main force of twenty thousand, and it was even more impossible to silently wipe out the several thousand people stationed in front.

Everyone was doing their own tasks: some were constantly chopping trees and splitting firewood, some were clearing the ground to prepare the camp for the final unit led by the Tribal Chief that was about to arrive, and others were hunting or collecting various Grass Seeds and fruits. Everyone was busy with their own work, and only when the two Leaders suddenly sent people to arrange tasks for them could they infer what had happened in front.

It was only when it was time for dinner in the evening that they sent people to deliver food, but the tragic scene at the site scared the dozens of Soldiers carrying the porridge buckets out of their wits. They were not afraid of dead people, but it depended on who those dead people were.

None of them could make a decision; they threw the porridge buckets onto the ground and then ran back frantically. After returning, they not only told their small Leaders, but the big-mouths also shouted it to everyone. Before long, after fleeing and dying, the team of nearly twenty thousand people completely exploded into chaos.

However, the vast majority of the soldiers only felt surprised and did not feel very afraid, because if something happened, it wouldn't fall on their heads. If Heaven collapsed, there were still tall people to hold it up. Furthermore, they hadn't even seen what that Lanzai or Gongxia looked like.

And so, after the surprise, they each ate their thin, meager porridge as usual, chatting about the matter with the people next to them and speculating about what would happen next.

But those small Leaders, who originally had nothing to do with them, now felt like their heads were twice as big, because they themselves had no way to command so many people, and their own immediate superiors were now of unknown life or death—though death was more likely than life.

They didn't even eat their meal and took some people over to investigate. Sure enough, their immediate superiors, and their superiors' superiors, were already thoroughly dead. However, what made them strange was that the number of corpses here did not add up; the several thousand people who should have been there were gone, not even leaving a speck of dust behind.

They also had no ideas. Fortunately, according to the timeline, the Tribal Chief would arrive here tomorrow morning. As long as nothing happened tonight, everything would be easy to talk about tomorrow. As for this crime, it shouldn't fall on their heads, right?

Thinking of this, these small Leaders suddenly had a guess: did the others flee for fear of punishment? Or did they go to pursue the enemy? If they were pursuing the enemy, they should have come to notify them, but everything was without a clue. They didn't know how the people died, who killed them, or where the remaining people went.

The villagers who were first forced to cross the river were now like headless flies, not knowing where to go. They hadn't eaten for too long, so after traveling for a while and discovering that no one was following them, they simply stopped in place and began to search for anything edible in the surroundings. They had no fire, so they just stuffed it directly into their mouths.

The Huaxia Soldiers did not move very fast, fearing that they would lose the Suiren people, causing their mission to fail. But even though they walked and stopped along the way, they did not discover anyone pursuing them from behind. Everyone felt it was very strange; logically speaking, a large tribe like the Suiren, who were also battle-hardened, shouldn't have such low-quality Soldiers.

Because it was almost evening, everyone didn't plan to travel in the dark, as the Suiren would be even harder to find that way. Thus, they chose a relatively hidden location to camp, but because they were truly curious about what the Suiren were doing, they sent a team back to see what the situation was.

That team of over twenty people wove through the forest, observing their surroundings closely, fearing that a massive Suiren force would suddenly jump out. However, everything in the forest was as usual; except for the sounds of various animals, insects, and the wind blowing through the leaves, they couldn't hear anything related to humans.

Just as they had retreated for a long time without finding their target and inferred that the Suiren might not have sent anyone to follow them at all, the wind from afar brought the faint sound of human conversation.

Everyone immediately fell silent and then slowly crept forward. When they heard the human voices getting louder, they finally saw those people.

It was a massive group—in any case, it couldn't be considered an army, but rather more like refugees, because they saw men inside, but also women and children. This was simply not the configuration of a combat unit.

And they were actually eating grass and wild fruits, just like a family wandering about. If the population hadn't been so large, they really would have suspected it was a group of wandering savages.

But after getting closer, they discovered that these people were actually those Suiren villagers, and there were no Weapons to be seen by their sides, nor were there any Suiren Soldiers around them. A conclusion instantly formed in everyone's minds.

Although these people should be considered on their side, they didn't know the inside story of how they killed those village leaders and might be hostile toward them because of it. Plus, there were too few of them now; if they rushed out rashly, even if the other side threw stones, they could be smashed to death.

Thus, after noting the location, the few began to return to the camp at top speed, preparing to let the Captain make the decision. They dared not act without authorization.

The Captain was also startled upon hearing this news, but he also believed that this team of Soldiers had done the right thing. He then decided to set off first thing tomorrow morning to communicate with those people and try to explain the full story clearly.