Chapter 68. The scholar, still somewhat skeptical, saw the elaborate brush...
Jian was skeptical, but seeing that Fan seemed completely unconcerned, she temporarily agreed to the suggestion of searching for the person together.
The two tribes cooperated for the first time and arrived at the place where Jin had lived. Following the traces he left behind, they gradually approached the mountain where Jin was hiding.
"Reporting, Chief! We smell the scent of those women and their cubs on this mountain."
The two witches who went to search returned and told Fan and Jian that they had arrived earlier.
Fan and Jian exchanged a glance. This mountain was quite far away. Those women must have had help when they ran here. Could it be that some demons had actually infiltrated?
"search!"
The two ordered a search of the mountain. The mountain was only so big; as long as the women were still there, they couldn't escape.
Jin was in the cave with about twenty women and thirty children. Cang Li had been gone for a day and a night. For some reason, Jin's heart suddenly started to pound, and she felt a little scared, as if something bad was about to happen.
Ah Qi nestled beside Jin, her eyes filled with longing. She had been able to remember things since she was three years old, and she had never had a happy moment in her life. Every day she was busy struggling for food, and she was often beaten and scolded. Now a great chief had come and saved her. He had also given her a lot of food. Before long, they would be able to go back to their mother's original home with the great chief.
Her mother said that there was plenty of food there, so they didn't have to go hungry or cold. As long as they worked, they would get food, and no one would beat or scold them. It was a very, very good place.
The people hiding in the cave had hope in their eyes; they were finally about to escape this nightmarish life.
Jin's heart was pounding harder and harder. She couldn't sit still any longer, so she pushed Ah Qi away and stood up, saying:
"You guys stay hidden, I'm going out to check."
Ah Qi held Jin's hand, and Jin patted Ah Qi's head: "Be good, I'll be right back."
She felt uneasy, as if something bad was about to happen. The chief had said he would be back in ten days at most, and she was afraid that something unexpected might happen in those ten days, and they wouldn't be able to wait for the chief.
Jin emerged from the cave entrance, which was blocked by thick vines, and crouched down as she walked through the bushes, her eyes wary. She felt that the witch people would not let them go easily. She had heard the witch people say that they wanted them to have many children, so that when the witch and demons went to war, those children would be used to fight the vanguard and weaken the demons' strength.
Jin took a deep breath. They couldn't afford to fall into that situation, so they had to hide well until the chief returned from his business!
The mountain was quiet, with tall trees concealing many dangers. Jin, with a grim face, used her stone spear to cut off the poisonous snakes hanging from the trees and continued to move carefully down the mountain. She wanted to observe whether there were any traces of the witch clan at the foot of the mountain.
Jin climbed to a slightly open high place and looked down the mountain. After only two glances, his face changed, and he scrambled down the mountain, stumbling and running back.
Upon returning to the cave, he immediately ordered everyone to head deeper into the cave and hurriedly gathered a lot of dry grass to try and cover them up.
However, with so many people, how can they be covered up simply by hiding them?
Jin was extremely anxious. He took a deep breath and said to Ah Qi:
"Ah Qi, take your younger siblings and run now, towards the Kunlun Mountains behind the mountain. Don't look back, and take some food with you!"
While they were talking, Jin had already brought in a lot of vines and wrapped them around each child to make them look camouflaged. With these vines, the children could have more cover when running in the mountains.
Other women also came over to help disguise the children.
Ah Qi looked at Jin in panic: "Mother, why?"
Jin kept moving, his speed increasing, and soon all the children were covered in vines. Jin said to Ah Qi:
"They're here. You guys run first. My aunts and I will hold them off for a bit. We'll meet up with you soon. Don't be afraid, just keep running."
Ah Qi didn't want to leave, but Jin and the other aunties had already pushed the children out of the cave, pointing towards the back of the mountain and saying:
"Run that way, once you get down the mountain, run towards the Kunlun Mountains. The Kunlun Mountains are in the west, where the sun sets. Don't stop, and don't look back."
Ah Qi wiped away her tears and, together with the older children, carried the children who hadn't yet learned to walk and ran towards the direction of the golden finger.
Once the children had disappeared into the dense forest, Jin and the women who remained headed in the direction from which the witch clan had come looking for them. They wanted to buy some time so the children could run far away.
Jian and Fan arrived with their men. Fan wasn't too concerned about the women who had escaped, but he was concerned about how the six dead witches had died, so he had to capture those women and find out the truth.
"You all search up that way, the rest of you follow me. Search the entire mountain to find them. Our people cannot have died in vain!"
Fan Shuo spoke with righteous indignation, and all the witches searched the mountain with great momentum.
Jin took a step back in fear, and quickly ordered the women to scatter. As long as it got dark, the children could run away.
Soon the witch clan found them. Seven or eight women who had been running around the mountain trying to attract their attention were quickly captured. The captured women knelt trembling in front of Jian and Fan, remembering Jin's words.
Jane kicked a woman to the ground and asked violently, "How dare you run away!"
Fan stopped Jian, stepped forward, squatted down, and pinched a woman's chin, saying:
"Who helped you escape?"
The woman swallowed hard and said fearfully:
"We couldn't stand being bullied and starving there anymore. We came here because we wanted to have enough to eat!"
Fan scoffed; he didn't believe that explanation at all.
"You'd better tell the truth, don't try to pull the same tricks as those beasts. If you really wanted to run, you would have run already. Why wait until now? And who killed those six witches? What did they use to kill them?"
Fan's goal was to find out what had killed the six witches, and he was very uneasy about it.
The woman's eyes widened: "We didn't kill anyone! We didn't!"
Fan threw the woman aside: "Keep searching, catch all those little bastards, and kill them all in front of these women if they don't talk."
Soon the other women were all captured. Fan questioned them one by one and found that everyone gave the same story: they ran away because they couldn't stand it anymore, and they refused to admit that they killed the six witches.
Fan began to have doubts. Could it be that he had really made a mistake? That the deaths of the six witches had nothing to do with these women?
Jin stubbornly refused to admit it. As long as she didn't admit it, no one would know of the Great Chief's existence. She didn't know why the Great Shaman insisted on asking how the six Shaman men died, but she instinctively realized that this question was detrimental to the Great Chief.
Fan squinted, still refusing to believe that the deaths of the six witches had nothing to do with these women.
"Continue the search of the mountain!"
After giving the order, Fan threatened Jin:
"Jin, you'd better tell me honestly where you hid those brats. Those brats also have the blood of my Wu clan, so of course I won't harm them. Tell me, and I'll take you back, provide you with food and drink, and protect you from now on."
The cubs don't keep their mouths shut; if you catch one, ask it a few questions and you'll find out everything.
Jin shook his head: "I don't know. When we found you just now, we had all scattered. I don't know where the children went."
She didn't believe Fan's words, though she had believed them before. When she first arrived, she had been with this great shaman named Fan for a few days, but Fan quickly grew tired of her and abandoned them outside the Jian tribe to fend for themselves.
Fan curled his lips and walked toward the woman behind the golden statue: "Whoever tells me the whereabouts of those children, or tells me how those six witches died, I will give you enough food, houses and a stable life."
Jin remained silent. The women behind him exchanged glances. They had accepted the food given by the chieftain, but they did not believe in the witch tribe.
Seeing that no one spoke up, Fan's patience ran out, and he wiped his hands in disgust: "Hang them all up, find those little bastards and leave one who can talk, the rest... kill them all."
Jin's heart pounded, and she prayed to the Mother Goddess, hoping that the children could run far enough.
Fan ordered Jin and her group to be hung in a very hot place to be exposed to the scorching sun. The weather was already getting hot, and if they were left to bake like this without water, the women would die from the heat.
However, these witches showed no sympathy whatsoever; instead, they watched with great interest the pain on the face of the woman who was hanging up.
Jin's lips gradually became dry and chapped, and her head drooped limply. She thought she would never be able to return to the land where she was born.
As the sun gradually set behind the mountains, and Ah Qi was still not found, Jin felt a weight lifted from his heart. The fact that Ah Qi hadn't been found for so long meant that he had escaped far away.
Just as Jin was about to lose consciousness, he vaguely saw a tall figure riding a sword towards him.
Cang Li flew very fast, and because of her lack of flying experience, she was a little unsteady. She was very anxious, feeling that something had happened to Jin and the others, since she had promised to take them back.
When Cang Li saw the mountain, he saw the cubs stumbling and falling on the ground. Cang Li's heart sank; something really had happened.
Cang Li landed and hurriedly stopped Ah Qi:
"What happened?!"
Ah Qi was holding a little girl in her arms, and when she saw Cang Li, she couldn't help but cry in grievance.
"Waaaah... Chief, Mother... Mother said someone is chasing us... She told us to run... Mother is gone..."
Cang Li gripped the sword in his hand tightly, quickly found a sheltered spot nearby to settle the children, and then instructed A Qi:
"Wait here for me, I'm going to rescue them."
Ah Qi nodded obediently. After seeing Cang Li, she felt inexplicably at ease. The Great Chief was omnipotent and would definitely be able to save her mother and the others.
Cang Li thought the clouds weren't fast enough, so he taught himself to fly on a sword. He stepped on the sword and flew up the mountain in a flash. Before long, Cang Li saw the person hanging there, barely alive.
And those laughing and joking witches, and two witches who were clearly different from ordinary witches, who were probably the great witches of the witch clan.
Cang Li landed on his sword, sending a circle of Wu Clan members flying, and looked coldly at Fan and Jian, who had instantly stood up.
Fan warily watched the cultivator who had descended from the sky. This person was quite powerful, and Fan sensed danger the moment they met. Even if he and Jian combined their strength, they couldn't defeat this person.
Thinking of this, Fan secretly became wary, then stepped forward and politely inquired:
"I wonder where you come from, Immortal? This is a matter within our Wu clan, and I hope you will not interfere."
Cang Li put Jin and the others down with a backhand sneer:
"Your clan's affairs? When did the people of my human race become members of your witch clan?"
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