Chapter 7: The Mysterious Encounter at the Cliff Bottom (Part 1)
He ran to the edge of the cliff and was pounced on by a tiger, rolling down together. In his haste, he grabbed a piece of the tiger's fur, holding it tightly, and thought gloomily: "This time I'm going to end up in pieces, I wonder how Yan'er and the others are doing?" Just as he was thinking this, he heard a loud "thud" beside his ear, and Xiaotian lost consciousness.
Time was approaching dusk, in a deep and secluded nameless valley within the depths of the forbidden forest.
By the brook at the bottom of the valley, on a pile of ruggedly protruding rocks, a huge tiger lay horizontally, its head drooping, with a large pool of fresh blood underneath, staining the stones below red. What's even more eerie is that there was also a young boy's body lying on its back, his two hands still tightly grasping the tiger's fur.
The little sky woke up on the tiger's back, dazed for most of the day. As soon as he opened his eyes, he saw the striped tiger skin in front of him. Little Sky was shocked and wanted to jump up, but a severe pain hit his body, and he fell back onto the tiger's back. Little Sky found it strange that the tiger didn't move at all, even though he was struggling on its back. Upon closer inspection, he saw that the large pool of blood under the tiger had dried up, and only then did he realize that the tiger had been dead for a long time. The heart that had been hanging in his throat finally returned to his stomach.
Xiao Tian looked at the tiger's corpse and couldn't help but sigh: This old tiger came to eat me, to take my life, but who would have thought that it ended up falling off the cliff with him, and even more unexpectedly, it landed under him, allowing him to pick up his life again. He really was lucky!
Sitting on the tiger's back for a moment, Xiaotian endured the severe pain and climbed down from the tiger's back to stand up. The patchwork clothes on his body had been torn to shreds by the branches during the escape in the forest that afternoon, and the exposed skin was covered with bloodstains. Although he had the tiger's back as a cushion, the huge impact of falling from such a high cliff still made Xiaotian feel like his body was coming apart, and his whole body ached all over, but fortunately, it seemed that there were no serious injuries.
He tidied up his tattered clothes, and Xiao Tian began to observe his surroundings. It was already near dusk, and with the misty clouds in the sky, the light at the bottom of the valley was very poor. He could only vaguely see that there were steep cliffs on all sides, and not many large trees in the valley. The wild grass was long and dense everywhere, with a few flowers scattered on top, giving the entire valley a sense of quietness and mystery. Below the cliff where he had fallen, a small river flowed from beside Xiao Tian's body, making a "tingling" sound.
One day, Little Tian had only eaten half a piece of salted fish. At this moment, he was both hungry and thirsty. The package that wrapped the salted fish had long been lost somewhere. Little Tian struggled to move his feet and walked to the riverbank, where he lay down and gulped several big mouthfuls of river water. He didn't know if it was because he was extremely thirsty or if the river water was really delicious, but Little Tian felt that this was the best-tasting water he had ever drunk in his life - cool, sweet, and refreshing to the heart.
Lying on his back on the grass by the river, Xiaotian rested for a while, slowly regained some strength, and then got up to find something to eat.
"Huh? What's this?" Xiao Tian suddenly turned around and saw half of his harpoon sticking out from under the tiger corpse. "Hmm, how did my harpoon end up here? This is strange!" Xiao Tian used all his strength to pull out the harpoon that was stuck in the tiger's abdomen, his mind filled with confusion, because he knew that when he had thrown the harpoon at the fierce tiger, it hadn't hit the mark.
Xiao Tian didn't realize that his harpoon hadn't actually hit the tiger, but rather the tiger had accidentally stepped on the handle of the harpoon while chasing Xiao Tian. The harpoon sprang up and, propelled by the tiger's momentum, was deeply embedded in the tiger's abdomen. This was also why the tiger was furious, roaring loudly, and relentlessly pursuing Xiao Tian. Of course, it couldn't be said whether this unexpected turn of events was a misfortune or a blessing for Xiao Tian!
Since he couldn't think it through, Xiao Tian stopped thinking about it and washed the fishing spear in the river water, preparing to catch something to eat. Unfortunately, Xiao Tian held the spear and stared at the river water for half a day, but didn't see any sign of fish. Otherwise, with Feng Lao Er's teachings, Xiao Tian's fishing skills were still not to be underestimated.
"Let's find something else to eat?" Along the small river, Xiao Tian hobbled and searched for food in the grass by the riverbank. "Huh? Purple stem and vine, oval leaves, isn't this mountain medicine? The stem is straight and round, the leaves are like a needle, this is Huang Jing! Hmm, this vine with yellow and white flowers is He Shou Wu?" Xiao Tian found quite a few medicinal herbs and was somewhat excited. These were all high-quality medicinal herbs that had been aged for many years, and most importantly, they could be eaten!
It's thanks to Feng Qingru that Tianyi was able to recognize these things. Under Feng Qingru's guidance for five years, Tianyi almost finished reading all of Feng Qingru's collection, which naturally included many medical books, so recognizing these famous medicines was a piece of cake for Tianyi who had read extensively.
Xīng xī de xiǎo tiān bǎ zhè xiē yào cái dì xià de kuài jīn dōu wā chū lái, yòng xī shuǐ xǐ gān jìng, jiù láng tūn hǔ yàn qǐ lái.
Translation:
Excitedly Little Heaven dug up all the rhizomes of these medicinal herbs, washed them clean with stream water, and then wolfed them down.
After eating and drinking, Xiaotian finally recovered most of his strength. He found a relatively flat stone slab by the river and sat down against it, with the fish spear placed beside him in case of an emergency. The sky had already completely darkened, and at the bottom of this desolate valley, Xiaotian did not dare to wander around blindly. He thought about waiting until dawn to make further plans.
The tattered clothes could no longer cover Xiao Tian's body, and as he sat on the edge of the stone slab, he noticed through the torn fabric that his abdomen had emitted a faint glow again. "Heh heh, not bad, not bad, there's still light." Xiao Tian thought to himself with self-mockery. In this mysterious valley filled with unknown dangers, it was truly rare for this optimistic and strong-willed young man to maintain such an attitude.
There was not a single breeze in the air, and the entire valley was eerily quiet. There wasn't even the sound of an insect chirping in the grass. In this absolutely silent environment, Xiao Tian couldn't sleep, constantly looking around him. At this moment, what he was thinking about most was not his own safety, but rather Yan'er and the others.
"Yan'er, Shouhóu, Dàtóu, where are you guys? You mustn't get into trouble!" In his heart, Xiao Tian secretly prayed that if Yan'er and the others could escape danger and return safely to Fengjiazhuang, then his efforts would be worth it.
As he pondered, Xiao Tian suddenly noticed a faint light shining through in front of him. He thought it was just his eyes playing tricks on him, so he closed them to calm himself down and took another careful look. Indeed, there was some light coming from ahead. Xiao Tian's heart began to beat faster: "Is this someone's home up ahead or something else that's emitting light? Should I go take a look now or wait until dawn?"
"Whatever, whether it's good or bad fortune, the misfortune can't be avoided! Anyway, I couldn't sleep, so I'll just go take a look!" Xiaotian made up his mind, stood up, grabbed the fish spear beside him, and stumbled towards the direction of the light.
"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!" The sound of rushing water, "Swish, swish, swish!" The rustling of grasses parting. The light ahead grew clearer and clearer, and Xiao Tian's heart slowly lifted up. He crouched down, gripping his fish spear tightly, gently brushing aside the weeds in front of him, and looked inside.
Great calamities bring great blessings! Xiao Tian's "blessings" are about to begin! Please pay attention to Chapter 8 "Cliff Encounter (II)", the turning point of Xiao Tian's life is in the next chapter.
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