Chapter 68: Why Wander

Heichang, the Tribal Chief of the Zhique Tribe, was gnawing on a child's arm in his mouth as he marched forward, surrounded by his tribespeople. They had originally been a foraging and hunting tribe, but during one harsh Winter, their tribe truly had no food left, so they decided to attack a small tribe nearby.

Although the two tribes occasionally had conflicts, because neither had too many tribespeople, they did not dare to launch an attack, and that territory was fully capable of supporting both tribes.

When the Zhique Tribe, unwilling to wait for death, arrived at the neighboring small tribe fully armed with all their tribespeople, they discovered that the people of that tribe were all already dead, having starved or frozen to death, their corpses stiff.

The people of the Zhique Tribe searched the entire tribe but did not find a single grain of food, and the tribespeople, who were already extremely hungry and exhausted from the journey, now had bloodshot eyes, with many of them collapsing in the Snow.

Heichang was truly at his wit's end, but he could not watch his tribespeople starve to death here; when he squatted on the ground in frustration, he discovered that some tribespeople were actually holding the legs of the dead and tearing at them.

He wanted to scold and stop those tribespeople, but as soon as he stood up, his vision went black and he fell to the ground; listening to the chewing sounds of his tribespeople, his stomach cramped slightly, and after swallowing his saliva, he struggled with himself mentally, then crawled over as well, closed his eyes, opened his mouth, and began to tear at the corpse too.

The cold, hard corpse was difficult to bite, but after melting the frozen blood dregs in his mouth and swallowing them, his stomach finally felt a bit more comfortable, and he felt an instant surge of strength, so he began to tear at it in larger bites, no longer closing his eyes, without any hesitation.

The other tribespeople had originally not dared to eat human flesh, but seeing that the Tribal Chief was already tearing at it in large bites, they instantly each found a corpse and rushed over to tear at it.

Even if their lips were stuck to the frozen corpses, it did not affect them in the slightest; they continued to chew with blood on their lips, while the children, who had never seen such a situation, cried incessantly, but no one paid them any mind, as everyone was eating for themselves to survive.

Only when their stomachs were full and they felt a sense of satiety did they stop and sit to the side, looking at the corpses that had been torn to pieces, and only then did they feel a bit of lingering fear, realizing they had actually become the Cannibal Tribe they once hated and feared the most.

In hindsight, one by one they began to cry; the children did not understand why they were crying, only crying louder along with them, but Heichang's mind remained clear, and he understood that once they had eaten human flesh, their tribe was no longer a foraging tribe but a Cannibal Tribe, and they would be unable to survive on this land in the future.

Even if no one knew they had eaten people, the creature known as human was now on their tribe's menu, and if they could not find food in the future, people would also become their target.

Heichang sighed, only hoping that in the days to come, there would not be such miserable seasons again, that he could find enough food for his tribe, and seeing if he could make the newcomers of his tribe forget the fact that they had once eaten people.

There was no need to return to their own tribe now; they would just camp here, as there were Tents, and plenty of branches broken by the Snow; now that the tribespeople had strength, they could go gather firewood.

They were full, but the children had not eaten yet; they were still resistant to the matter of eating people and were a bit afraid, so after the fire was lit, Heichang cut off pieces of meat with a Knife behind the children's backs, placed them on the fire to roast, and when they were sizzling with oil, he distributed them to the still-hungry children.

The children did not know what kind of meat they were eating, only knowing that there was food, so they ate very happily; Heichang knew that this Winter, the two hundred or so corpses here alone would be enough for them to hold out until Spring.

When Spring came and the Grass grew and the weather warmed up, they would return to their home, continue their foraging and hunting life, and slowly let the tribespeople forget this matter, and he did not intend to let the children know what kind of meat they were actually eating.

However, things did not go as well as he had imagined; that Winter was exceptionally long, and although they had the strength to cut enough firewood and no tribespeople froze to death, the food was almost gone.

When the last corpse had been smashed and eaten down to the bones, the Zhique Tribe fell into a state of having no food to eat again, and the bodies of the tribespeople, which had been well-nourished, grew thin day by day, yet the Spring that should have come still did not arrive; in the season when wild vegetables usually grew, it was still snowing.

Their gazes would sometimes scan their own tribespeople, which made Heichang feel panic from the bottom of his heart; if things continued like this, they might really turn on their own people, and he himself might one day become someone else's food in his sleep.

Heichang felt he could not sit and wait for death, so he gathered the tribespeople and announced that they were preparing to leave this place to search for food in the distance, to see if they could find where Spring was; this land might have been abandoned by the Spring God because they ate people.

The tribespeople had no objections, and taking their Weapons and empty bags, they began their journey of wandering.

At the beginning, when there was no food, they ate tree bark; every piece of tree bark and root that could be eaten was eaten clean by them like a plague of locusts.

But this still could not fill the tribespeople's stomachs, and some tribespeople even vomited blood and passed blood from eating tree bark and roots; Heichang himself did not feel well, his stomach bloated, but he could not pass anything, so he had to use his hands to dig it out to pass a little.

The tribespeople began to reminisce about the days when they ate meat, and the thoughts of turning on their own people, which had been suppressed with such difficulty, were now beginning to sprout in the Zhique Tribe again.

Heichang did not dare to be careless in the slightest, only saying that if they kept moving forward, they would surely find more food, telling the tribespeople to set their minds at ease, but he himself did not know what was ahead, only praying for the Spring God to hurry to this land so that his tribespeople would have a chance to continue surviving.

The tribespeople listened to his words for the time being and followed him, and although there was not much food along the way, fortunately, the weather began to warm up, they were able to catch prey, and some wild vegetables had grown.

The entire tribe finally looked like they once did when foraging and hunting, but there was still not enough food, and they could not stay in one place for too long before they had to keep moving, unable to find a suitable place to settle down.

It was not until Heichang and his group discovered a small tribe by a river; looking at the size from the mountain, it was about a hundred people, and at this time the Soldiers had all gone out to hunt, leaving behind only women and children, so they could easily kill their way over and snatch their food.

Looking at the hungry crowd, Heichang gave the order to use the forest as cover, crept up to the side of that tribe, and then quickly rushed over, occupying the entire tribe with almost no resistance.