Chapter 34: A Pool of Blood

  "Damn it, we're back again?" The evil bird scratched its head and said irritably to Shen Shou.

  The gods did not pay attention to him, they were a group of twenty people, all men, except for the night watchman, only two came to the side of the gods, it seemed that another meeting was about to be held, but this time they did not deliberately isolate me. I sat not far from them, listening and observing those four people at the same time.

  The two of them, on the other hand, didn't draw much attention to themselves over the past couple of days. They didn't say much, one was thin and the other was fat, I don't know their names, but they seemed to get along well.

  As they were talking about the ghost hitting the wall again, I suddenly heard a chuckle in my ear. It turned out that Da Bao had unknowingly floated out and sat down beside me, saying: "There's no ghost here at all, where did this ghost hitting the wall come from?"

  I turned to look at him, just about to speak, but suddenly saw Da Bao's face turn pale and somewhat ferocious. I was startled for a moment, then immediately asked in a low voice: "Da Bao, are you okay?"

  "What's wrong with me?" Da Bao looked at me strangely and asked doubtfully.

  "Your complexion doesn't look good, it's better for you to stay in these days!" Although Da Bao can help me a lot, nothing is more important than my brother's safety.

  "Doesn't look good?" Da Bao touched his own face, seeming to sense something was off too, and said dejectedly: "I feel like something is really not right here, Feng Ci, you have to be careful!"

  "En." I smiled at him, and Da Bao reminded me a few more times before disappearing.

  I sighed, glanced at the cloth strip on the branch, and suddenly had an epiphany. It's been two days, whether Lemon can see it or not, I should leave a signal for him anyway. Thinking of this, I took out a small knife from my bag, cut off the left pant leg, but since the pant leg was too short to tie around such a thick tree trunk, I had to pick up a nearby branch and stick it into the mud beside the tree. Finally, I carved two characters on the tree and signed with the name "Zi", only then did I feel satisfied with my masterpiece.

  "Alright?" The voice behind me, still rough and sarcastic, came from the evil bird. I calmly turned around and lay down on the tree, smiling: "What's up? Finished the meeting? Found a way out?"

  "Why should I tell you!?" The evil bird rolled his eyes at me, then plopped down beside me. Before I could even speak, he drawled, "You'd best not keep muttering to yourself over there. If you disturb my beauty sleep, just watch how I'll teach you a lesson."

  I glared at him without saying a word, although he still liked to be rude to me, but it wasn't as hostile as when we first met. Especially after I beat him up, his attitude towards me became even stranger. It's not that he was being malicious or anything, but women's tempers are always hard to grasp, and this dead bird's temper is just as unpredictable.

  Perhaps because there were more bonfires tonight, nothing dirty appeared, and after a comfortable sleep, I followed them to continue on the road with a clear mind and spirit. This time we only walked for a few hours, but by afternoon, we miraculously returned to our original location!

  Looking at the marks I left there that were completely intact, I didn't know whether to be happy or sad, in short, this feeling of being lost was unbearable.

  "Bai Lao Er, I told you it wasn't a ghost hitting the wall!" The evil bird said to the slightly fatter man.

  Bai Lao Er put down his backpack, and that somewhat chubby face didn't show any unusual expression, calmly replying: "Even if it's not a ghost hitting the wall, we're still trapped here."

  The evil bird didn't bother with Hei Lao Er, but instead asked another thinner man: "Kong Quan, do you have a rope in your bag? How long is it?"

  Kong Quan, I still think it's better to call him Kong Juyan, I think he has already guessed the evil bird's idea, seeing and hearing him expressionless said: "No matter how long the rope is, you can't forget that we walked for several hours to get back here."

  Kong Duan said so, the evil bird was choked and after a while, he squeezed out a sentence: "Then what should we do? Can't stay in this broken place forever, mission..."

  "Evil Bird." Evil Bird had not finished speaking, when Shen Shou faintly called out to him. It seemed that only then did Evil Bird react to what he had just said, and he gave me a glance. I suddenly felt wronged - it wasn't as if I was holding a knife to his throat forcing him to speak! All I heard was Evil Bird laughing and saying to Shen Shou: "How about this? We tie the rope around our waists and head in different directions. Whoever can go the farthest, wins. At least that way we'll be able to find some clues."

  I didn't want to waste too much time in this godforsaken place, so I gave the evil bird a sideways glance and said, "Although I think this method is a bit unorthodox, I can also help you guys give it a try."

  "What are you up to now, you little scamp?" The evil bird asked suspiciously.

  I rolled my eyes at him and said, "I'm not here to waste time, I'm just a lone person with no power or influence, what can I possibly do?"

  "Alright." Before the evil bird could continue speaking, Shen Shou had already agreed and said to me: "You and Kong Quan form a group, Bai Lao'er and Ouyang each form a group, now let's move out."

  "Divine hand, what about me?" The evil bird asked with a somewhat awkward expression.

  "Who?" God Hand glanced at him and said irresistibly: "Stay where you are."

  Although he was very unwilling, the evil bird still nodded reluctantly and didn't forget to glare at me fiercely, apparently thinking that it was because I suddenly intervened that he lost this opportunity to gather information.

  I raised an eyebrow and glanced at him with a mixture of sympathy and schadenfreude, then walked over to Kong Guayan under his envious, jealous, and resentful gaze. He had already taken out the rope from the bag, which was not thick but consisted of two intertwined strands. I asked, "Can this rope be untied?"

  Kong nodded silently and didn't say a word. I had made a fool of myself, watching him skillfully untie the rope, putting half in his bag and tying the other half to the tree trunk, then preparing to explore the road ahead. Seeing this, I quickly picked up my backpack from the ground and followed him.

  This rope is very long, over a hundred meters long. When two are connected together, it reaches up to 200 meters. A distance of 200 meters, whether you say it's long or short, in any case we continued walking slowly forward. Not only did we not meet anyone else, but also didn't discover any other clues. The surroundings were trees and more trees, the leaves had gradually turned yellow. In this dense forest, I felt a strong chill for the first time. Even though I was wearing a relatively thick jacket, my whole body got goosebumps.

  "Shall we go back?" I asked tentatively, seeing that the rope was no longer usable here.

  Kong spoke little and just nodded, but suddenly seemed to see something, even throwing down the rope, running straight forward. I looked at the rope and then at him, finally sighing and following him to run past.

  Kong spoke little and ran for about five meters before stopping. I looked at him crouching on the ground, perhaps finding some clues, so I also squatted beside him. Just as I was about to ask what he had found, I saw a puddle of blood on the dry leaves.