Chapter 66 Xuandu hurriedly leaves Kunlun Mountain…
Xuandu hurriedly left Kunlun Mountain. Duobao then instructed Guangchengzi to restrain the junior brothers and sisters below. Putting aside everything else, the most important thing was that they were not allowed to disturb their senior uncle and to avoid his cave!
Cang Li is in a bit of trouble. She should have already arrived at Kunlun Mountain by now, finished her business, and was preparing to return, but an accident happened, preventing her from reaching Kunlun Mountain yet.
After flying for two days after leaving home, she indeed saw a towering mountain peak. However, the spiritual energy on the mountain seemed ordinary and not like Kunlun Mountain. Cang Li cautiously approached to take a closer look, and only when she got closer did she realize that the mountain peak was indeed very tall.
Looking up from the foot of the mountain, there was no end in sight. Cang Li sighed and was about to continue walking when he heard cries for help.
Cang Li paused for a moment, telling himself that this was the primordial wilderness and he shouldn't meddle in other people's business and get himself into trouble, but his feet moved towards the direction from which the sound came from.
After walking about ten meters, Cang Li saw four or five people who were obviously from the Wu tribe chasing after a little girl who was holding something in her arms. The little girl did not look like a Wu tribe member, but rather more like a human.
Cang Li drew the Xuanyuan Sword faster than he could think and charged towards the Wu Clan members chasing the little girl.
Caught off guard, the witches suffered large cuts on their arms from Cang Li's stabs. Seeing Cang Li's extraordinary aura, they immediately turned and ran.
Cang Li did not chase after them. She still felt that since the other party had not provoked her, there was no need to go so far as to kill them.
The little girl was lying on the ground, tightly clutching what she was holding. She looked to be about the same age as Yu. Cang Li sheathed his sword and walked over, not getting very close, stopping a meter or two away to ask:
"How did you get chased by them? Aren't you of the same race?"
Does the Wu tribe have a habit of killing each other?
The little girl slowly raised her head, her face covered in mud like a kitten's. You could vaguely see that her features were more delicate than those of the witch tribe. Her hair was messy, and she was only wearing a piece of animal skin. She was so thin that her bones were protruding, and she looked like she had been malnourished for a long time, unlike the plump and fair-skinned cubs of the human tribe.
Cang Li couldn't bear to see children suffer. If she hadn't been so soft-hearted, all five of Ji Hejie's children would have starved to death.
"Can you stand up?" Cang Li slowly squatted down and looked into the little girl's eyes to ask.
The little girl's eyes gradually changed from wary to confused. She thought that this handsome fairy had come to steal her food, even though hers was also stolen from the witch master. But if she didn't steal it, everyone would starve to death.
Seeing that the little girl didn't speak, Cang Li thought he had frightened her, so his expression softened and he showed a friendly smile:
"Don't be afraid, I won't take your things. Where do you live? I'll take you home. Otherwise, if I leave, those people will probably come after us again."
The little girl's name was Aqi. Looking at Cang Li's face, Aqi felt a strange sense of familiarity. She slowly got up from the ground, still tightly clutching the thing wrapped in leaves in her arms. After a long while, she lowered her head and whispered:
"Thank you... I live not far away, with my aunts and grandmas."
Cang Li nodded after listening and said, "Okay, I'll take you back first."
As he spoke, he followed behind the little girl. Ah Qi gradually relaxed a lot, and his expression became visibly happy.
Cang Li asked from behind, "Why are they chasing you? Aren't you from the same clan?"
Ah Qi's cheerful steps slowed down, and she lowered her head, looking somewhat dejected, and said:
“I have no food, I’ve been starving for days. I stole their things, and they wanted to take them back. They said I’m not one of their kind, that I’m… I’m… um, a bastard!”
The last two words were spoken a little louder, and Cang Li's brow twitched. He took a handkerchief and wiped the mud off A Qi's face. After looking her over for a while, he couldn't see any characteristics of the demon race on the girl's face. Although she was more delicate than the average witch, she didn't have any animal features.
Why did these witches say the little girl was a bastard?
Children wouldn't say such things; they must have overheard the witches' discussions to be able to utter this word.
Ah Qi let Cang Li wipe his face clean. After walking for half an hour, Ah Qi pointed ahead and said, "We're here!"
Cang Li looked in the direction A Qi was pointing and saw two or three tattered and simple thatched huts made of leaves. There were about a dozen women sitting or lying outside, as well as some children crawling around on the ground and children about the same age as A Qi.
This place looks like a tribe, but it doesn't quite, because it's so rudimentary compared to other places. There's no food, no clean water, and no hunting tools; there are only women and children who are starving and dizzy.
This was the first time Cang Li had ever seen someone so starved; they were emaciated and barely recognizable as human.
The strongest-looking woman among them was no match for the smallest human woman. The woman struggled to her feet and called out to the little girl:
"Ah Qi! Where have you been?! If you run around like that and get caught and eaten, I won't come looking for you!"
Ah Qi timidly carried the food over and placed it in front of the woman:
"Mom, I've found some food and come back."
The woman was startled. She quickly parted the leaves and found that the so-called food inside was just a bone with some meat still inside. She covered her face and waited for a while before throwing the bone into a shell pot hanging over the fire. The pot was filled with water, and once it was cooked, everyone could get a sip of soup.
Cang Li slowly walked over. The children here still had the characteristics of the Wu tribe, but none of the adult women looked like Wu tribe members.
Ah Qi walked over and reached out to pull Cang Li, but seeing Cang Li's clean clothes, she withdrew her hand and whispered:
"Thank you for bringing me back..."
Cang Li shook his head, pointed ahead, and asked, "Is this your tribe?"
Before Ah Qi could speak, his mother came over and asked, "Ah Qi, who are you talking to?"
After saying that, the woman looked at Cang Li. When she saw Cang Li's face clearly, she froze, and tears streamed down her face.
Cang Li was somewhat at a loss: "You...you don't cry! Don't cry..."
The woman raised her hand to wipe away her tears, and for a while, she seemed to be both crying and laughing. Her expression was extremely distorted and she was very agitated. After a while, she could no longer support herself and knelt on the ground, sobbing and crying.
The women behind him, who were also exhausted, gathered around, all looking at Cang Li with identical expressions. In an instant, the small place was filled with the sound of weeping.
Cang Li gradually realized something and looked at these people in disbelief.
Yes, these women are all human.
Seeing their mothers lying on the ground crying, the twenty or thirty children of varying ages gathered around in fear, looking at Cang Li with unease.
Cang Li's expression was blank. In the first year of the emergence of the human race, those people she thought had died after being swept away by the flood actually appeared here.
This place is thousands of miles away from the human race and thousands of miles away from the Yellow River. How could people be washed here by the water?
The woman crying on the ground gradually stopped crying, raised her head and looked at Cang Li, saying:
"Great Chief..."
The familiar address brought Cang Li back to her senses. Cang Li took a deep breath. No matter how these people got here, she couldn't ignore them.
"Don't cry, come, sit down and talk slowly."
After saying that, Cang Li helped the person up, then walked to the fire where the soup was being cooked, took out rice from his backpack, put the rice into the pot, and then took out a clay pot to cook another pot of rice.
Then, turning to the expectant women behind him, he said:
"Don't be afraid. It's fate that I'm passing by here. Sit down and rest. We'll talk slowly after the food is ready."
The women nodded, and Ah Qi's mother wiped away her tears and said:
"Great Chief, my name is Jin."
Cang Li took out a lot of roasted chestnuts, as well as tofu and fish soup that he had previously kept in his backpack, and some other food, and asked Jin to share them with the people here to fill their stomachs first.
Jin gratefully kowtowed to Cang Li, and then asked A Qi to share the food with him.
With food available, almost everyone wolfed it down. However, Cang Li hadn't brought much food that could be eaten immediately, and after eating a little, everyone was still not full and could only wait anxiously for the rice to cook in the pot.
After the rice was cooked, people couldn't wait for it to cool down before reaching out to eat it, even pulling their hands back after being burned, but still unwilling to give up the clump of rice in their hands.
Cang Li took a deep breath and used a small spell to cool the rice down. By the time everyone had filled their stomachs and regained their strength, the rice in the pot was completely gone, and there was no need to wash the pot anymore.
Jin looked at Cang Li somewhat embarrassedly, awkwardly tidying her messy hair. She seemed to be acting too rudely in front of the chief.
Cang Li braided Ah Qi's hair again while thinking about the situation here. According to the statistics, there were hundreds of people swept away by the water, including men and women. Logically speaking, there shouldn't only be women here. Why is there not a single man?
After braiding Ah Qi's hair, Cang Li asked Jin:
"Jin, what happened here? After you were swept away by the water, everyone thought you had returned to the embrace of the earth. How did you end up here? Are you the only ones here? And what about these children?"
Fear appeared on Jin's face, as if he had recalled something extremely terrible.
"Great Chief, we...we were swept ashore by the water. Many of us survived. After we woke up, we wanted to go back along the river, but we encountered a group of witches. They tied us up here without saying a word and said this place is called Buzhou Mountain."
"After we arrived here, the tribal shaman who had brought us here questioned us a few times, then ordered all the men to be killed, leaving only us. Later... later we gave birth to a child of the shaman clan, and the tribal shaman drove us here."
“We had no food, so we could only go up the mountain to pick wild fruits to eat. The men from the Wu tribe would still come over from time to time to force us. Occasionally they would leave some food. After these children were born, the Wu tribe did not care about them. We were unable to raise them, and several children starved to death because of this.”
As she spoke, Jin covered her face, deeply saddened. When they were created, the Great Chief had made all the necessary preparations, ensuring their safe and peaceful existence. Why, then, did a mere downpour plunge them into such a state...?
Cang Li closed his eyes and then comforted Jin:
"Okay, don't be afraid, I'll take you home, don't be afraid..."
Jin nodded, sobbing. Yes, they would go home with the Great Chief.
Cang Li looked at the bewildered half-human, half-shaman children. These children were different from the shaman race and also different from the human race. Cang Li sighed. The children were still young. It wouldn't hurt to take them back and teach them.
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