"Their numbers have increased again."
Wu Chen looked around, observing the countless flickering green lights, and his heart sank.
Since the first night of traveling with Liu Linshan and his daughter, he had noticed deep green eyes in the darkness, watching the refugees under the cover of night.
Undoubtedly, these were the corpse demons Liu Linshan had mentioned.
And they were corpse demons with martial cultivation.
From three on the first day, to five on the second, and now in total...
Wu Chen roughly counted the flickering eyes.
More than twenty!
The number had increased dramatically.
But fortunately, the refugees in this area all had some martial arts foundation for protection.
This made the corpse demons cautious, hesitating to breach the night's veil. They only watched from afar, occasionally appearing only to devour those who fell behind the group.
"Master Wu, don't worry. As long as we stay close to the group, these monsters won't dare to attack the crowd rashly."
Liu Linshan naturally knew about the corpse demons in the darkness, having traveled with the refugees all this way, watching them being eaten all along the way. Seeing Wu Chen's concerned expression, he spoke reassuringly.
Wu Chen shook his head: "Master Liu, what worries me isn't the corpse demons."
"Not the corpse demons..."
Liu Linshan thought he was complaining about the father and daughter being burdens and was about to apologize.
But then he saw Wu Chen, still gazing into the distance, making eye contact with the corpse demons, speaking in an indifferent tone:
"Earlier, when there weren't so many corpse demons, I planned to confront them."
"But now, I'm not so confident."
He waved his hand, not saying anything more, and simply led the father and daughter forward.
Wu Chen was telling the truth.
Ever since learning from Liu Linshan that these corpse demons were transformed from evil martial artists, his mind had been active.
Wu Chen estimated that these corpse demons must have the martial arts manuals that these practitioners had learned during their lifetime.
Not everyone was like him, able to master martial arts just by seeing them once. Most would carry the manuals with them, reviewing them frequently to refresh their memory.
So killing monsters for martial arts seemed quite reasonable.
But Wu Chen didn't dare gamble. If he went to kill those few corpse demons initially and no martial arts dropped,
Leaving the helpless father and daughter to be harmed by villains, with all their possessions plundered, that would truly be a great loss!
"Martial arts, where can I get martial arts?" Wu Chen sighed deeply in his heart.
"Alone... killing demons?"
Wu Chen spoke casually, leaving the father and daughter behind him stunned.
They had witnessed how formidable these corpse demons were, especially Liu Linshan.
Having suffered at the hands of the corpse demons, he vividly remembered their methods.
If he hadn't been a hunter, battling with wild beasts in the mountains for most of his life, with physical prowess far exceeding martial artists of the same realm,
He might have lost his life to the corpse demons during their previous attack, rather than just being injured.
For ordinary martial artists who only knew flowery moves, the outcome would be even worse—being torn to pieces by corpse demons wouldn't be surprising.
"Young people, aren't they just like this, silver-tongued, fond of boasting."
Looking at Wu Chen's back, Liu Linshan kept shaking his head, clearly not believing a word of what Wu Chen had just said.
He couldn't be blamed for thinking this way.
During rest times these past few days, he often saw Wu Chen practicing with the steel saber.
His swings were powerful, but his movements were clumsy, without any discernible technique, obviously lacking any knowledge of saber methods.
With such skills, killing humans might be possible.
Killing demons? Difficult!
Time flew by, and another two days passed.
In the night, they saw the outline of an abandoned village in the distance and quickened their pace.
The village contained forty to fifty simple dwellings, with walls made of yellow earth mixed with dry grass, and roofs covered with wheat straw for protection against wind and rain.
The construction was not sturdy, barely sufficient to shelter from wind and rain.
After years of erosion by wind and rain, many exterior walls had begun to peel and crumble, some even appearing on the verge of collapse.
The drought had clearly affected this place too, with the original villagers having fled long ago.
Now, those resting here were refugees like them, traveling south in groups.
"We won't continue tonight, we'll rest here for the night."
Wu Chen stopped in front of a courtyard gate, and the father and daughter following behind naturally nodded in agreement, having no objections.
But seeing the gate locked from the inside, it was clear someone had already claimed the place, which made Liu Linshan hesitate.
He understood the rules of the jianghu.
In such ownerless places, whoever arrived first became the master.
For latecomers to enter uninvited would be breaking the rules.
Just as Liu Linshan wondered how Wu Chen planned to explain their intentions to the occupants to gain entry,
He saw Wu Chen bend his legs, push off, and use his hands to climb over the courtyard wall with both hands and feet.
Click!
The crisp sound of the bolt being undone, and the gate opened.
By the time the father and daughter entered the courtyard, Wu Chen had already strode toward the inner room.
A few moments later, he came out and said briefly to the two outside:
"Bury the bodies in the backyard."
His cold voice sent a chill down the spines of the father and daughter.
Seeing their troubled expressions, evidently misunderstanding his meaning, Wu Chen had to explain:
"The people inside starved to death a while ago. Besides, do I look like someone who would kill innocent people?"
"No, no," the father and daughter shook their heads repeatedly.
Liu Linshan secretly cursed himself for being stupid.
Other courtyards had various sounds coming from them, but this one was completely silent, obviously indicating that the residents had met with misfortune.
Perhaps due to the fatigue from days of travel, he, as an experienced hunter, had failed to notice such a detail.
How careless!
Having lost face by failing at his specialty, Liu Linshan turned red and said to his daughter:
"Liu Wei, you stay and look after Master Wu. I'll go bury the bodies."
With that, he hurried into the inner room.
The two emaciated figures on the bed inside appeared to be husband and wife, embracing each other, having passed away peacefully in their sleep.
"In these times, perhaps this is a decent way to die."
Liu Linshan muttered, quickly carrying the bodies to the backyard, where he began to dig a grave, panting with exertion.
In the front courtyard, Liu Wei used dry firewood gathered along the way to light a bonfire.
The warmth from the flames dispelled the coolness rising from the ground at night.
Wu Chen sat quietly for a while, feeling warmed, and was about to rise to practice with his saber.
"I wonder if I accidentally perform some technique, would it trigger the Crimson bonus points?"
These few days, whenever he had spare time, he would practice with the saber. Although the status panel never showed any change, he hadn't given up.
But before he could stand, he saw Liu Linshan, having finished burying the bodies, excitedly running into the front courtyard with a wooden bucket.
"Master Wu, there's some water in the backyard well. I've tasted it, and it's fine, just a bit cloudy."
"And there's an unexpected harvest!"
Hearing this, Wu Chen's eyes lit up as he looked at the wooden bucket Liu Linshan offered.
But when he saw clearly what was in the bucket, he was completely disappointed.
This half bucket of water wasn't just "a bit cloudy"...
What was in the bucket could better be described as mud rather than water.
Seeing Wu Chen's expression, Liu Linshan carefully placed the wooden bucket in a cool corner of the inner room, saying:
"Don't worry, Master Wu. Just let it sit for a while, and once the mud settles, it will look much better and be drinkable."
Wu Chen nodded, not dwelling on the water issue for too long.
He grabbed a handful of wheat and soybean grains from the food bag, stood up, and walked toward the door:
"Master Liu, I'm going outside for a bit. I'll be back soon."
"That's fine, take as long as you want, Master Wu. My injuries have recovered well enough now that ordinary people won't get the better of me."
Liu Linshan was somewhat grateful that before fleeing, he hadn't been stingy with his silver and had bought the best blood-replenishing pills.
Otherwise, he really would have lost his life on the way.
"..."
At the village entrance, Wu Chen leaned casually against an earthen wall, his steel saber tucked carelessly under his arm, his whole posture lacking any formality.
Every now and then, his fingers would pull out a grain of wheat or soybean from his pocket, toss it into his mouth, and chew with a 'crunch,' eating quite contentedly.
As he swallowed and breathed, puffs of white mist emerged from his mouth and nose.
The scorching sun during the day killed all things, while at night the cold wind blew, carrying a bone-chilling coldness.
"Damn days, truly a living hell."
"Not giving people any way to survive."
As the cold wind brushed past, Wu Chen couldn't help but curse.
He wrapped his layered clothes tightly around himself, but his gaze remained firmly fixed on the darkness outside the village.
Out there, beyond the drought, extreme heat and cold, and lack of food and water, lay an even more terrifying disaster.
From a distance, they appeared like enticing flickering fireflies, constantly blinking in the darkness.
In reality, they were man-eating, life-claiming countdowns.
"Now there must be fifty of these corpse demons gathered..."
Looking at the eyes flickering eerily like fireflies or candles in the darkness, Wu Chen took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing the unease in his heart.