Chapter 37 The Land of Freedom (Part 4) The Vanished Tribes.
The temperature at night was much lower than during the day, and with the kitchen damaged, the night wind took advantage of the situation without mercy.
Fortunately, there was a fireplace in the living room, and it was always in working order. The family thoughtfully provided them with dry firewood and fire starters.
Xia Zhu lit a fire and moved the sofa next to the fireplace, where the warm firelight allowed her to examine the documents in her backpack.
The cool glow of the stars shone through the sheer curtains onto the living room carpet, rivaling the firelight from the fireplace.
Feng Mian sat on another double sofa, closing his eyes to rest, while the two chatted casually.
"So your identity is that of a paleoclimate geologist?" Feng Mian sank into the soft sofa. After a day of life-or-death races, his voice sounded light and airy, as if even the occasional sparks from the fire could startle him.
“It seems so.” Xia Zhu held the notebook. “The study was almost entirely filled with meteorological observation data. There was also a folder on the computer named ‘Countdown.’ I took out all the materials that I thought were useful, and then the disaster happened.”
The "countdown" seems to have a specific meaning.
Xia Zhu also told Feng Mian about the dream of the celestial maiden she had before opening her eyes.
After listening, Feng Mian opened his eyes and stared motionlessly at the fire burning in the fireplace. The wildly dancing flames reminded him of meteors falling from the sky.
"It sounds like your character foresaw the disaster long ago, and some kind of spiritual symbol guided you in your dreams?" He ran his fingers through his hair, combing it back to try and remove the remaining ashes. "The West? Is it really a safe place, a sanctuary?" His expression was thoughtful, and the fire in his eyes shrank to a tiny point.
"Well, it seems I'm just an ordinary fast food restaurant employee." Feng Mian shrugged, looking at Xia Zhu helplessly.
She paused for a moment, then looked down at the notebook in her hand again.
"Don't say that. At least you provided the most important combat readiness resources."
Feng Mian chuckled softly, leaned back, and sank into the sofa again.
The notes in her hand were too messy. Xia Zhu tried hard to analyze the information, but most of them seemed to be just illogical venting.
She put the notebook back in her backpack, took out the map of the sacred mountain and lake again, and spread it out on the carpet.
map?
“Perhaps we need a map of this world,” she muttered to herself as she knelt on the ground.
"Alright, I'll take care of this simple task." Unexpectedly, Feng Mian wasn't asleep. He stood up and began searching the room.
Xia Zhu lay on the ground, carefully studying the map full of Tibetan, looking for any details that might have been overlooked.
As she had previously judged, the map was indeed too exquisite and drawn with great detail. Every mountain and river was artistically marked, and the paper had a rich texture, making it easy to hide some key information.
The firelight flickered, and Xia Zhu looked at it inch by inch. Her eyes would get tired easily, so she straightened up, rubbed her eyes, and then lay down again.
Sure enough, in the lower left corner of the map, in an inconspicuous spot, a circle was faintly marked with red ink.
There is a string of tiny characters next to this location, which is probably a Tibetan place name. The details are too small to see with the naked eye and require a magnifying glass.
"I found a simple map of the country in the children's room. It only has a rough outline and not many details." Feng Mian held up the map he had torn from the children's room wall and handed it to Xia Zhu. "Take a look, is it useful?"
She took the children's map and spread it out to one side.
Judging from the outline, the structure here is the same as in reality, so the west that the celestial maiden refers to is the western region of the real world.
It was indeed a holy place for refugees.
Xia Zhu compared the two maps side by side and indeed it was clear that the Thangka-style map in her hand was an enlarged version of a certain region in the west, which explained why the map was marked in Tibetan. However, she wasn't geographically proficient enough to accurately state the name of the destination.
Fortunately, they have now confirmed that the West is their destination, although they cannot be certain whether they will face a crisis or absolute safety once they reach the designated location.
Of course, it is unknown whether the spirits are in the West. That is their ultimate goal. This world is no different from reality. It is quite difficult to blindly find one person from millions of people. It is better to change the strategy and complete the tasks assigned by the spirits first.
She put all the maps away and put them in her bag.
They were both exhausted from the day, and neither of them spoke again, curling up on their respective sofas.
The three moons still hung indifferently outside the window.
"Do you think the sun will rise again?" Feng Mian's voice was muffled, as if it came from a very far place.
We'll know tomorrow.
Xia Zhu's eyelids were too heavy, and her mind began to shut out all sounds, with only the sound of fire cracking wood slowly passing by her ears.
When Xia Zhu opened her eyes, she saw Feng Mian coming out of another room. When he saw that Xia Zhu was awake, his expression seemed to be that he was about to greet her, but he was attracted by something outside the window, his expression changed, and he ran towards the door.
Xia Zhu immediately jumped off the sofa and chased after Feng Mian to the door.
The sun rose, along with the enormous Saturn and the three moons, its brilliant light scorching the world, while the stars were temporarily hidden in the sky. In the courtyard stood a tall sycamore tree, the wind scattering fallen leaves everywhere; some fluttered past the window, shimmering like fragments of sunlight.
Feng Mian stood in the courtyard, his shoulders slumped, seemingly pondering for a few seconds before walking back towards the house.
"It's getting windy." He smiled at Xia Zhu, then brushed past her shoulder and slipped into the room.
A five-pointed sycamore leaf blew to Xia Zhu's feet, and she hoped to see golden veins on it.
The two ate some cold pizza, rummaged through the house for anything useful, and then set off again.
Without the fire meteor, Feng Mian's little electric scooter moved forward at a steady speed, with Xia Zhu on the back seat looking at the map and navigating for the two of them. They planned to head west, first to the next city with a large population, searching for Feng Feng and Ying Ya along the way.
Everywhere they went was devastated. Occasionally, they would see other refugees. Xia Zhu and his companions were unsure whether the West was safe, so they did not offer any advice to others.
After passing through vast golden wheat fields and destroyed farms, the two people and their car re-entered the urban area.
The ruins still hint at its former glory, though the city was largely destroyed in yesterday's disaster and is now deserted. The sun, as always, slowly sets at the end of the road, leaving behind a fiery sunset that seems to illuminate the decaying city once again.
Xia Zhu and Feng Mian stopped in front of a large supermarket. The security glass door was shattered. They threw away the rest of the pizzas in their bags and split up to search for usable food and daily necessities in the supermarket.
The supermarket was also in a mess, as if it had already undergone a major cleaning. Xia Zhu took some canned goods and compressed biscuits that could be stored for a long time from the shelves in the food section.
The disaster caused a complete blackout in the city, and once the sun had completely set, the corners of the buildings where no starlight could penetrate would be shrouded in darkness. Unsure if the shadows offered absolute safety, she quickened her pace to meet up with Feng Mian.
She found Feng Mian and saw him picking out a backpack for himself in the luggage section. Just as she was about to call out to him, she suddenly saw a hand holding a dagger emerge from a dark corner behind Feng Mian.
"Fengmian! Behind you!" she shouted, and quickly jumped over the collapsed shelves and ran towards him.
Upon hearing Xia Zhu's shout, Feng Mian instinctively turned around and used his bag to shield himself. The person who rushed out from the shadows seemed to have lost his mind, frantically stabbing at Feng Mian with a dagger, quickly piercing the cloth backpack and the sharp tip cutting his arm.
Feng Mian winced in pain and kicked the man in the groin with all her might. Taking advantage of his moment of vulnerability, she pushed him to the ground with both hands. Only then, in the dim light, could she see that he was a disheveled man with a fierce expression.
The man was about to get up and attack Feng Mian when a short sword was pressed against his throat. He instantly lost his strength and dared not make any rash moves, because the coldness of the blade seemed to penetrate his skin and into his flesh.
Xia Zhu gripped the man tightly with her arms, the tip of her small sword lightly touching the throbbing spot on his neck. Feng Mian breathed a sigh of relief and squatted down in front of the man.
Why are you attacking us?
The man's eyes were glazed over, his beard was unshaven, and his clothes reeked of a nauseating sour smell. He seemed somewhat delirious and did not answer Feng Mian's question directly, only muttering "mine" and "mine" repeatedly.
It seemed as if Xia Zhu and the other person were the ones who had offended him and invaded his territory.
Judging from his clothes, one could guess that he was a homeless man who had been wandering around the supermarket for years. When disaster struck, it disrupted the order of human society. Normal people abandoned everything and fled in all directions, which gave him the opportunity to openly enter this place for the first time. The food here was plentiful, and it was warm, sheltered from the rain and wind. He used to be blocked by a transparent glass door and could not reach it. Now he was the only human surviving here.
At Feng Mian's prompting, Xia Zhu released the man, who then stopped showing aggression and instead buried his head in a nearby bag, tightly clutching the scattered items as if he were holding some lost treasure, repeatedly saying "mine" and "mine".
The two ignored him. Feng Mian's arm was injured, and they happened to need some first-aid supplies, so they went to the medicine section together and gave his wound a simple disinfection and bandage.
After using anti-inflammatory medication and wrapping the gauze to isolate dust and bacteria, Feng Mian wrapped the gauze herself. All Xia Zhu needed to do was take out her small sword, cut it, and tie a knot.
The small sword was so sharp that it snapped in two with the slightest touch. She placed the sword at her feet and then tied a crooked bow around Feng Mian's wound.
"May I see your sword?" As Xia Zhu held the sword to the vagrant's throat, he noticed a flash of light on the hilt.
Xia Zhu nodded and handed the sword to Feng Mian. The sword seemed to lose its sharpness and become dull in his hand for a moment. She saw Feng Mian frown at the comet symbol.
Is there a problem with the sword?
"There's nothing wrong with it, it's just..." He hadn't paid much attention the day Xia Zhu bought the small sword, so he only noticed it now. Feng Mian returned the sword to Xia Zhu, tapping the lively and dazzling comet on the hilt with his fingertip. "It's just that this totem is a bit strange..."
“I once heard my mother say that there was once a tribe on the land of the Shaohao clan. They accepted all crippled bodies and demon gods without a clan, and practiced education for all, which was actually very similar to the political philosophy of the Feng family. However, they were defeated in the later war, and the entire tribe ceased to exist. Most of the surviving tribesmen submitted to other families.”
"The Shaohao clan only came into being after this tribe disappeared, so the two clans share the same surname, but they are different from the Shaohao clan. Their element is metal, and they are good at finding mineral veins and making weapons."
"The leader of this vanished tribe was Chi You, the God of War, and the comet was the totem of Chi You's tribe."
“Ah Zhu, this sword of yours is most likely a product of the Chi You Ying family.”
-----------------------
Author's Note: There's a bug here. Xia Zhu could have directly healed Feng Mian, but I forgot about that when I was writing. I was only thinking about showing off the little sword. Please forgive me, I won't change it. Just pretend Xia Zhu forgot about it too, hehe. [Heart emojis]
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com