Chapter 17: Mountain Living

Deep Mountains

Song Cheng rose, and Tong Jia was naturally brought to wakefulness as well.

Hearing her man call out, her sleepy eyes slowly regained clarity, and she realized what had happened.

Thus, she looked left and right, only to see the gray mountains shrouded in mist, with icy winds howling like a whistle.

In this kind of weather, and deep in the old forest, it was impossible for a girl like Yun E to have run far.

Tong Jia suddenly exclaimed in alarm, "Sister-in-law Yun E wouldn't have... thought... thought of ending it all, would she?"

She knew the truth, and naturally, she also knew of Yun E's suffering.

To Yun E, this Tanghe Village was nothing but a living hell.

But what puzzled her was why the villagers hated Yun E so much; especially when she recalled the scene of the pig cage drowning, she felt lingering fear. She only felt that the villagers had all gone mad.

Song Cheng gripped his Fine Blade and tapped it lightly against the ground; the ripples that spread revealed the cold branches on the earth.

He bent down to pick up the cold branches and piled them into the embers of the extinguished campfire.

Tong Jia rose quickly.

Sleeping in a cave, naturally, meant sleeping in one's clothes.

She fished out the fire-starter she had carefully stored away and went to light a fire.

After a few attempts, the campfire flared up.

The light brought warmth, forming a soft yet fragile Domain, resisting the icy cold and desolation that filled the mountains and plains.

The two drew close and sat together.

Tong Jia took out a flatbread to heat up and eat, saying, "Brother Cheng, didn't you notice anything last night? Also, you should tell me now why we had to flee into the deep mountains, right?"

Song Cheng naturally did not hide these matters from his woman, so he spoke of the "formation principles of a Taboo" and the fact that "Ding Jia San Lang colluded with bandits," then concluded, "I estimate that the moment we left the village, the village was already being ransacked by bandits, and Sister-in-law Yun E had already turned into a Taboo, or rather, a terrifying filthy thing."

Tong Jia's delicate body trembled; she was bright and clever, and suddenly said, "Is the reason the villagers seemed to have gone mad also due to the influence of the Taboo? I remember that although they were xenophobic, they were never that mad... never to the point of completely losing their reason."

Song Cheng nodded and said, "That is the seed of evil, blooming in the soil of the Taboo."

Tong Jia said, "Then we..."

Song Cheng said, "The core of the Taboo is Sister-in-law Yun E. Think about it, at that time... how many people in the whole village were still good to Sister-in-law Yun E?"

Tong Jia suddenly understood.

At that time, only she and Song Cheng were still good to Yun E.

Perhaps it was Yun E's power that had subtly protected her and him.

It was just that, hearing this, she was already so terrified that her whole body felt cold.

Song Cheng wrapped his arm around her shoulder and pulled her into his embrace; suddenly, he felt an inexplicable itch in his eye sockets, and some kind of cold, extreme, eerie flow was emerging from his skull, then wrapping around and stuffing itself into the eyeballs in his sockets.

He rubbed his eyes.

The itch added a sensation of swelling.

"What's wrong, Brother Cheng?" Tong Jia noticed the abnormality.

Song Cheng suddenly widened his eyes, revealing those orbs like turbid white jade, and deep within the pupils, wisps of cold black tadpoles suddenly emerged; these tadpoles quickly condensed toward the center of the pupils, forming two black eyeballs.

The scorching red flames, the gray-black branches dancing in the fire, the pale rock cave, the gray mountains, the ghostly mist, the petite Young Mistress wrapped in cotton clothes beside him... everything appeared, everything became clear.

"I... I... I can see."

Song Cheng could not believe it.

He kept looking at his surroundings; although he had seen them every day in his past life, opening his eyes at this moment felt indescribably fresh.

Tong Jia said, "It must have been Sister-in-law Yun E who helped you; we must thank her.

Since she has become a Ghost, we can set up a spirit tablet for her and burn incense to worship her daily.

If we have money in the future, we can even build a temple for her."

Song Cheng sighed softly and nodded.

For breakfast, the two ate the flatbread and began to discuss their way out.

Tong Jia drew a map on the ground; she often frequented the mountains and forests, so she was naturally familiar with the environment here.

"Here, here, and then circling around like this, we can reach Shanghe County.

But if we don't go to Shanghe County and instead circle from the north, we will reach the Six Towns, but this road is very long.

If we don't go from the north and want to go to the Prefecture City, we have to turn south; this road... is not only long, but there are no mountain paths, and no one should have walked it." These three routes were very clear.

One goes to Shanghe County, where they might encounter bandits.

One goes to the Six Towns, but the road is long.

One goes to the Prefecture City, but the road is long and difficult.

Among them, Shanghe County was the "county seat" in the mouths of the Tanghe Village villagers.

The Prefecture City was the superior city under which Tanghe Village, Shanghe County, and others were administered.

As for the Six Towns, it was a rather special place, with the nature of a "military town," where the folk customs were fierce, there were many Martial Artists, and it was rumored to be full of gangs.

This place was originally the Great Wall for resisting foreign invaders, but recently it seemed to have undergone some strange changes. Previously, when a general came to Tanghe Village to press-gang men, he had taken them in the direction of the Six Towns.

"Brother Cheng, where are we going?" the Young Mistress asked.

Song Cheng looked at the route map on the ground, feeling that every route was full of danger; after a long while, he suddenly said, "Why not live in seclusion?"

"Seclusion?"

The Young Mistress counted on her fingers and said, "Then, in this deep winter, what will we eat?"

Song Cheng rose and said, "Since I have regained my vision, I can fully try to hunt in the mountains."

He could "see data through walls," and those hibernating animals were "living targets" to him, so food and such were theoretically not a worry.

If he and the Young Mistress were intimate, he could become stronger.

He could derive cultivation techniques; even if the success rate was only 10%, he could just derive them a few more times.

Song Cheng already had the White Snake Blade as his first pot of gold.

His only worry was that these deep mountains and old forests might breed a Taboo.

Without human presence, it is hard to fill the yin, and a Taboo will surely be born.

But if he saw a Taboo sprouting, he would just take the Young Mistress and run away in advance.

In his past life, he often saw things in novels like "the protagonist finishes one thing only to impatiently rush to the next place, then gets dragged into all sorts of bullshit events, thrilling and heart-pounding." Back then, he often thought, "Buddy, do you have ADHD or something? Can't you just stay peacefully in a stable place, use up all the resources you can use first, wait until you've grown strong enough, wait until your resources are no longer enough to support your improvement, and then go to the next place? Why are you in such a rush?"

Since there was room for progress, Song Cheng did not intend to leave.

His eyes were healed.

He wanted to cultivate in these deep mountains.

No sooner said than done, Song Cheng said: "Young Mistress, we must find a place with water so that life will be convenient."

The Young Mistress blinked her eyes as she looked at him and stammered: "Are we really going to live here?"

After saying that, she added to herself: "Fine, fine, since you are my man, who else would I listen to if not you?"

She began to pack the luggage again.

The luggage was piled up like a small hill.

Just as she was about to carry it on her back, Song Cheng grabbed it easily and placed it on his shoulder, his movements looking incredibly light.

After the two had walked for a while, Song Cheng suddenly saw a piece of data appear under the soil not far away: 【Strength: 0~0】.

He hurried forward, channeled his strength into his arm, and swung his blade down to stab.

Pfft! The blade broke through the soil, as if it had stabbed something.

The black 【Strength: 0~0】 turned gray and then disappeared.

Tong Jia shouted from behind: "Master of the house, what are you doing? You can still stab something through the soil?"

Song Cheng kicked the soil, kicked out a hole, and with a flick of his blade, he flicked out a fat rabbit.

He laughed: "We have meat to eat today. By the way... what did you call me?"

Tong Jia:... She suddenly looked at Song Cheng gloomily and said: "I called you master of the house."

After saying that, she added: "Master of the house, you... you fused with that lonely Ghost, you aren't just some Ordinary Disciple of a gang, are you?"

Song Cheng was startled.

Tong Jia said: "At the very least, you must be an Elite Disciple of a gang."

(End of chapter)