Chapter 10: Escape

Chen Mo grabbed that piece of Red Blood Stone; the stone was extremely translucent, much like a gemstone.

However, in but an instant, the entire stone rapidly dimmed and turned gloomy, no longer possessing its previous color.

Chen Mo could not figure out the change in this stone, but he still put it away for the time being.

"Clang!" A crisp sound of a gong rang out from near to far, followed immediately by two more strikes.

Chen Mo remembered clearly that the night watchman in the military camp was beating the gong to announce the time.

The gong sounding three times meant it was now the third watch of the night.

Although Chen Mo had never understood why the military camp had to arrange for people to beat gongs to announce the time, hearing the gong sound now made him feel incomparably at ease.

But he immediately realized something was wrong; if he were inside the military camp, then everything that had just happened would surely have woken many people up—why did no one come out to check the situation!

Yet as the gong sounded, the Grey Mist before his eyes dissipated rapidly; in just two or three blinks of an eye, the entire military camp appeared before his eyes once more.

And he was currently located in the haystack, the very same haystack he had just used to hide.

Looking at everything before him, he felt truly dazed, were it not for the wounds on his body and the Red Blood Stone still present in his Huai.

Chen Mo would even suspect that his recent experience did not exist, and that everything was merely his hallucination.

But whether it was the bloody wounds on his body that were still transmitting pain, or that dimmed Red Blood Stone, both proved that everything that had just occurred was indeed real.

Chen Mo looked toward the outside through the gaps in the haystack; the Grey Mist had vanished completely, and the entire military camp remained quietly where it was.

After roughly scanning his own tattered clothing, Chen Mo took it off directly and bandaged his wounds for the time being to stop the bleeding.

Aside from his thumb, his other four fingers on his left hand all had varying degrees of damage, but he could roughly feel that they were all flesh wounds and did not damage the bones.

As for his legs, they had been clawed quite a few times by that Blood Monkey; with his clothes acting as a barrier, he hadn't bled, but dozens of purplish-blue palm prints were left behind, which would need time to heal slowly.

Rebirth of the body not only increased his strength, but it seemed his own ability to withstand blows had also improved significantly.

These injuries looked quite serious, but they only damaged the skin and flesh; at most, they would heal in ten days or half a month.

It was just that this sudden injury would likely affect the upcoming Personal Soldier Selection.

The military camp was naturally short of medicine, but that was for ordinary Soldiers; there was no shortage of good medicine for the horses. Once he secretly used some tomorrow, his wounds would heal even faster.

He just had to find a way to cover them up, otherwise, he wouldn't be able to explain the origin of the wounds.

After briefly bandaging his wounds, Chen Mo gritted his teeth and stood up from the haystack, carefully moving toward the barracks under the cover of night.

Originally, he had intended to just make do for the night in the haystack after his rebirth, to avoid being discovered by sentries.

Now, even if he were discovered by sentries, he wouldn't dare to make do in the haystack.

Being discovered by sentries didn't necessarily mean death, but if he fell into the Grey Mist again and encountered other strange creatures, he would likely really die.

Carefully returning to his barracks, Ma Cai was snoring thunderously, sleeping extremely soundly.

Chen Mo was already used to this; he lay back on his bed with a tense body, and only then did he dare to relax.

He finally had the mental energy to think about everything he had experienced earlier.

From the fact that he heard the gong, it could be determined that he had never left the military camp, and might have even stayed in the haystack the entire time.

But everything he encountered in the Grey Mist could absolutely not be fake.

He might have been swallowed or taken away by the Grey Mist for some reason, and because the haystack was close to him, it was taken away as well.

During this process, he was not completely swallowed or taken away by the Grey Mist; only a portion of him entered the Grey Mist.

And as the gong sounded, the Grey Mist that wanted to take him away was dispersed, and he appeared in the real world again.

And the reason why they had to beat gongs in the military camp was because someone knew this mist would appear, so they had to arrange for people to beat gongs every day to prevent people from being swallowed by the mist.

Of course, this was just his guess; he did not know the specific situation.

Whether the Grey Mist was a natural phenomenon that appeared in this world, or if it was because of his own rebirth that led to him being swallowed by the Grey Mist.

And the gong beating might not be able to disperse the mist; it was just a coincidence that he heard the gong when the mist was about to recede.

He couldn't be sure if these were the circumstances; everything was based on his guesses, and he lacked too much information.

However, one thing was certain: that during the day, and at night when he was lying in the room with others, he would never fall into the Grey Mist.

Otherwise, when he got up at night before, he would have entered the Grey Mist long ago, and would never have entered it for the first time only after being in this world for so long.

However, although he could determine this, he still retrieved the only weapon he possessed—a Dagger no longer than five inches—and kept it in his Huai, only then daring to sleep peacefully.

After a peaceful night, the next day at dawn, Chen Mo woke up early as usual.

Rebirth of the body indeed had miraculous effects; the wounds on his hands had scabbed over in just one night.

At this rate, his wounds would likely heal before the Personal Soldier Selection.

Taking advantage of the dim light, Chen Mo found a set of clothes with longer sleeves to put on, covering the wounds on his hands.

Although this looked a bit strange, it was still better than letting people see the wounds directly.

Not many people paid attention to grooms like them; as long as he could deceive the few people around him, it would be fine.

Anyway, according to the speed at which these wounds were healing, he estimated the scabs would fall off in the next day or two.

As for the purplish-blue marks on his legs, they had also faded by more than half in one night; they would be better by tomorrow at the latest, and he wouldn't have to worry about people seeing them when he put on his pants.

"You say, our military camp isn't in the county, what kind of blind thief would dare to steal from us. It's fine that the Colonel arranges for people to beat gongs in the morning to wake us up, but why arrange for people to announce the time at night? It doesn't even let people get a good night's sleep."

Chen Mo complained as if casually; if the Grey Mist was a normal phenomenon in this world, then Ma Cai, a native, might know more.

"Who knows, this is a long-standing rule; who would dare to change it." Ma Cai shook his head.

In fact, he also didn't understand why, with both visible and hidden sentries on duty, they still had to beat gongs to announce the time in the military camp at night.

The main purpose of arranging for night watchmen to beat gongs to announce the time in towns was to prevent and deter thieves and bandits.

It also served to remind the common people to be careful with candles; if a fire suddenly broke out somewhere at night, the night watchman would also beat the Copper Gong to remind the sleeping people to wake up.

While it was normal to arrange for people to announce the time morning and night in a military camp with visible and hidden sentries on duty, arranging for a night watchman at night seemed somewhat redundant.

It was just that this rule had been in place for a long time and was set in stone, so no one dared to change it.

Chen Mo nodded slightly without saying anything, but he had a guess in his heart: the gong sound was most likely a means to disperse the Grey Mist.

Otherwise, this matter could not have been executed so well.

They were not the Border Army; their military discipline was a complete mess, and the Commandant, aside from drinking the soldiers' blood and pocketing pay for ghost soldiers, clearly had no great enthusiasm for managing the camp or drilling the troops.

Under these circumstances, if this rule was still being well-enforced, it meant that the rule had a necessity for existing, and not enforcing it might lead to problems.

It seemed that the Grey Mist might be a relatively common occurrence in this world, and the sound of the Gong and Drum could indeed disperse the Grey Mist.

Of course, these were only his guesses; given his current status and position, it was impossible for him to come into contact with more detailed information.

All he could do was stay put securely for the next few days and wait for the arrival of the Personal Soldier selection.

(End of this chapter)