There is no one everywhere in the wilderness, so there is no need to deliberately look for any hiding place. After walking for a long time, everyone came to a small valley.
There has been a severe drought for more than two years, and all the vegetation has died. There is no food to be found, but there is no shortage of dead trees and firewood. Soon, a bonfire is set up.
Beside the campfire, Qin Si was preparing the necessary medicinal materials, Zhao Kun was meditating boredly, and Yang Yu got up and came to the hill.
In the hot wind, he looked into the distance.
Wherever he could see, he saw only dry bones and no people, and an unspeakable desolation made him feel uneasy.
"Qingnu..."
Yang Yu said to himself.
Even at this time, he still had some doubts that the birth of Qingnu would cause such a terrible natural disaster.
There is a saying in the Tao Fruit Miscellany that Tao Fruit is a collection of the essence of the laws of heaven and earth. Any Tao Fruit contains power that ordinary people cannot imagine.
The five types of Taoist fruits, whether gods, Buddhas, immortals, or demons, can all be controlled by people. If they were born, they would cause such a big disturbance. Who can control them?
Therefore, he prefers another explanation in Daoguo Zatan.
Those who can obtain the recognition of Dao Fruit and successfully control it are often called 'strangers' and 'people with supernatural powers', while those who use other methods to forcibly refine Dao Fruit and fail are called 'devils'.
This 'demon' does not refer to the 'demon-like Taoist fruit', but a person who has failed in refining and has lost his original intention.
The current situation in Deyang Mansion does not look like a normal ritual, but more like the result of forcible refining and the backlash of the Dao Fruit.
Because demons often cause disasters once they appear in the world, therefore, throughout the dynasties, whenever such traces are discovered, they will be killed as soon as possible.
Such a huge commotion in Deyang Mansion could last for more than two years. If there was no ghost involved, he would never believe it.
And just as he expected, there was really someone behind this who was manipulating, covering up, and just sitting back and watching such a disaster happen. He must have been prepared to be discovered.
With the arrival of Xu Wenji and a group of Jin Yiwei, they may face a crazy counterattack by the people behind the scenes.
As his thoughts rolled around, Yang Yu increasingly felt that it was possible. Whether it was the birth of Dao Fruit or the birth of a demon, if there were no extremely powerful people to cover it up, the disaster in Deyang Mansion would never have reached this level.
But he was in trouble at this time, and he was motivated but unable to do so.
"We can only place our hope in Mr. Xu."
Yang Yu sighed in his heart, sat cross-legged on the top of the mountain, closed his eyes slightly, and entered the Cauldron of Gluttony.
Arrange the harvest, hone your martial arts, and wait for the energy of the Cauldron of Gluttony to be filled again.
…
…
"ah."
After a mouthful of porridge and rice, Li Dashan breathed a long sigh of relief and patted his dry belly with satisfaction.
Finally, I had porridge instead of a thin soup that didn’t even have enough water.
Thin soup can kill you, but it can't satisfy your hunger at all. There are not many people who have survived after drinking the thin soup for two years, including him.
Of course, he has also gone from nearly 340 pounds two years ago to 60 pounds now. If the porridge hadn't suddenly become thicker in the past few days, he might not be able to hold on.
"Line up and come one by one. Each person has a bowl, enough porridge and rice."
Listening to the shouts coming from under the porridge shed, Li Dashan licked the broken bowl again. How could one bowl be enough?
He wanted to go up and ask for another bowl, but he still backed down. In the past two years, he had seen many hungry people who were beaten to death for their greed. With this bowl, he thought that although he was not full, at least he would not die of hunger.
"How nice would it be if we had another bowl at night?"
Next to them, hungry people were moaning and talking.
Li Dashan didn't feel noisy.
In the past, there was deathly silence outside the city. Even though there were more than 100,000 refugees gathered together, no one had the strength to shout under the extreme hunger.
At this time, listening to the sporadic sounds, he felt that he was alive.
"Why is An Papi so generous all of a sudden? The last time I saw such thick porridge was before the drought..."
With strength, people will start to think wildly.
Many refugees started talking, but most of them remained indifferent and lay on the ground or under trees to avoid the harsh sunlight and reduce all consumption.
In order to survive.
"I heard that a big shot came to provide relief. Maybe An Bapi is afraid?"
Some refugees struggled to sit up and carefully talked about the news they had heard elsewhere.
"Is the big shot coming to provide relief?"
"Officials protect each other, who is different? A few days ago, wasn't it said that a high-ranking official came? What's the use!"
"So what if he's here? An Bapi's uncle is a high-ranking official in Daocheng. Who can do anything to him?"
"I want to eat meat, I want to eat meat..."
…
There were more and more discussions, but most of the hungry people scorned any kind of disaster relief.
Two years ago, a year ago, and half a year ago, some people might still hope that someone would come to save them, but now, few people still have such thoughts.
A bunch of hungry people, who cares?
Officials wear fine hats and fur coats, enjoy fine wines and delicacies, and are accompanied by beautiful women. Who would care about their life and death?
"Eat meat? Who doesn't want to?"
Li Dashan didn't hear anything clearly, only to hear someone muttering about eating meat, and couldn't help but swallow his saliva.
Even now, there are still hungry people who can eat meat.
As long as you have... and are willing to do so.
He didn't have it and couldn't bear to part with it. Therefore, he didn't eat meat for a long, long time. It was so long that he had forgotten what meat tasted like.
I just remember that it was the most delicious thing in the world.
"I do not want to live."
Beside him, a hungry man suddenly sat up, tears streaming down his face.
"Stay alive. If you die, I don't know who will kill you. I'm not afraid of death, but I must not die without a complete body!"
Li Dashan reluctantly said:
"Let's hang out, maybe there's some porridge for dinner."
In the past two years, he has seen many hungry people who don't want to live. In fact, among the tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of hungry people coming and going outside the city, there are only a few who don't want to die.
A large part of the reason why they are still alive is because they don't want to be roasted to eat.
People who die without a complete body will become a lonely ghost...
"I saw it, I saw that beast An Sizhi, he was riding a big horse, his face was shiny, he, he..."
The hungry man collapsed and hit the tree trunk hard.
No one stopped it, and no one would stop it. In fact, this movement attracted many people, and what flashed in their eyes was not pity but an indescribable and terrifying red light.
"If you want to die, give me your bowl!"
Li Dashan suddenly stepped forward, snatched the broken bowl from the hungry man's hand, licked it vigorously, and then sat down:
"You are going to die anyway, why don't you give me a bowl of porridge to eat before you die?"
"ah!"
The hungry man collapsed completely, turned around and started fighting with Li Dashan.
"beat!"
"kill him!"
"It would be better if they all died!"
There were more people around, and the cheers became louder.
"stop!"
Suddenly, a loud shout came from far away.
The sound was so loud that with just one sound, a large number of hungry people were frightened and fell to the ground. The two people who were fighting were separated.
The hungry people looked around and saw a group of vigorous knights galloping towards them, with tall horses, bright armor, and cold swords.
All this immediately frightened all the hungry people.
The two people who were fighting even knelt on the ground, kowtowed and begged for mercy.
"The little ones are guilty, the little ones are guilty! Please forgive me, please forgive me!"
Li Dashan kowtowed as if pounding garlic, and his heart was extremely frightened.
In this day and age, people who can ride horses and carry weapons are all important people who can decide his life or death. How can he not be afraid?
I regret even more that I was too busy.
Why save him?
Are you dead?
After a few knocks, an old hand suddenly held his arm, and Li Dashan raised his head in fear.
It was an old man with almost white beard and hair, wearing only white clothes, and looking a little rickety. He supported himself, and his face showed the complexity that he didn't understand.
"You have no sin, and you don't need anyone's forgiveness..."
He heard the old man in front of him say this.
"You are not guilty, and you don't need to die."
Xu Wenji looked at the hungry people lying outside the city for more than ten miles, like a carpet of human flesh, with indescribable sadness in his tone:
"The guilty one is me."
"Mr. Xu!"
Qiu Zhanyu's expression changed, and he turned over and dismounted. Before he could reach him, Xu Wenji was already kneeling in front of all the victims.
"I am Xu Wenji!"
The old voice echoed far away, Xu Wenji knocked hard, and his powerful inner energy surged:
"After today, if you can't eat enough, you will eat all my heart and soul!"
The rumbling sound echoed endlessly outside Deyang City. Outside the empty moat, thousands, tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of hungry people all looked at him blankly.
Few people could see him, but the voice resounded in everyone's ears after echoing again and again.
Whoosh!
The hot and cold wind ruffled Xu Wenji's thin clothes. His vitality had already dropped too much, but he wasted his breath to speak out again and again.
Finally, someone reacted.
"Xu, Mr. Xu!"
Li Dashan was stunned, his legs ached, and he knelt down again, wailing loudly, and no longer meant to be stingy with his insufficient physical strength.
"My lord!"
"Master Xu! It's his old man who's here!"
"Save us, save us!"
Shouting, crying, and wailing, after a short period of silence, almost rose to the sky like a reverse tide, and the huge sound even passed through the high city wall.
Echoed throughout Deyang City!
One call and a hundred responses!
Qiu Zhanyu and the rest of the Imperial Guards all felt their hearts trembled by the louder shouts. Tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of people were shouting hoarse. It was a shocking sound that was even more shocking than the roar of the Martial Saint.
On the city wall, in front of the city gate, and behind the city wall, countless people listened to this sound, their hearts trembled, and they were horrified.
"this……"
Qiu Zhanyu was shocked.
He knew that not all of the victims here could hear Xu Wenji's voice, and perhaps many of them had never heard of his name.
But they also want to live!
Even if no one knows their names, even in future history books, they may only be a cold and insignificant number.
They also want to live!
An Sizhi of Mu Shouyi Mansion never cared about them.
Nie Wendong, who was in charge of Yizhou, ignored them.
Even the nominal master of Longyuan Dao did not respond to them.
However, at this time, someone finally made a promise to them.
Keep them hungry,
Let them live!
－－－－－－Digression－－－－－
There are two, and the third one will probably be later, so everyone goes to bed first.