C4

In the end, the coldness in Chen Zhentian's eyes gradually disappeared. His grip on the sword loosened. "Brother Jiang, please wait."

Jiang Shuo turned around, his eyebrows tinged with impatience and his fists clenched involuntarily. He was especially wary of the man who kept hindering him over and over again.

Chen Zhentian walked in front of Jiang Shuo. "There are many wild beasts in this forest, and danger lurks in all directions. From the looks of it, you must have suffered a lot because of them." It would be better to go with us. At the very least, there will be more people, and there will be another way for us to take care of each other. "

"Brother Chen, thank you for your kind intentions. I accidentally entered this forest, and even went out to search for my village." Seeing that they wanted to go deeper, Jiang Shuo tactfully refused Chen Zhentian's invitation, not revealing a single drop of water in his answer.

Hearing this, Yang Jun jumped out and mocked: "The Young Lord is personally recruiting and yet he doesn't appreciate it. He is really a country bumpkin. You don't know how many people are fighting in the martial arts world over who wants to join my Xuan Ming Sect!" He was considered one of the top figures in the Mystic Mist sect. To be defeated by a nameless nobody was like being struck by a boat in a ditch. It was inevitable that he would feel indignant and resentful.

"Senior Yang!" Chen Zhentian turned his head to shout for an end, Yang Jun bitterly retreated, looking at Jiang Shuo with the same cold eyes.

"Everyone has their own ambitions. Since Brother Jiang is unwilling, then I naturally won't force you." Chen Zhentian raised his hand and pointed at Jiang Shuo's back, "Follow this direction and you will be able to leave this forest. The nearest city is the elm forest." Seeing your injuries, I suggest that you can go to the Yu Lin Baihua Sect to seek medical attention to avoid any potential problems. "Also..."

Chen Zhentian took out a command medallion and handed it over. "This is the Profound Golden Medallion. Take good care of this, Brother Jiang. If there are any difficulties in the future, Brother Jiang can use this token to find me at the Mysterious Ming Sect. "

Seeing this scene, the expressions of all the disciples of the Xuan Ming Sect, including Yang Jun, slightly changed. Jiang Shuo took it and looked at it carefully. It was a rhombus shaped command medallion, its entire body golden, with the word "Ming" engraved in the middle. Seeing the reaction of others, it was obvious that this Xuanming Gold Token was very valuable. Jiang Shuo hesitated for a moment, carefully putting it away, slightly reducing his hostility towards Chen Zhentian.

Next, Chen Zhentian brought water bags and dry rations from his fellow sect members and gave them to Jiang Shuo. "You will need them."

After doing all of this, Chen Zhentian didn't waste any time. He waved his hand and gathered the disciples of the Xuan Ming Sect and went deeper into the forest.

Jiang Shuo waited for Chen Zhentian to disappear into the crowd before frowning. He couldn't understand why Chen Zhentian would treat him so well.

"Although the only place in the Nine Tripod Commerce worthy of outsiders' attention is the Crimson Cloud Stronghold, their initial intention in searching for the Crimson Cloud Stronghold wasn't bad. Could it be that I've really misjudged him?" Jiang Shuo shook his head to clear his thoughts, put away the dry food and water bag, and returned to the side of the pool.

Until now, Jiang Shuo hadn't found the time to check his injuries. The giant condor, the wolf, and Yang Jun had left countless wounds on his body. Everyone in the Crimson Cloud Village had grown up from fighting in the wild, and Jiang Shuo was no exception. After a long illness, Jiang Shuo had become familiar with many of the trauma treatments. He took out the water and cleaned his wound. Then, he bent over to search for something. Suddenly, his eyes lit up. "Found it."

In front of him was a clump of seemingly ordinary plants. The leaves were long and oval shaped like hearts, and the follicles were long and lanceolate. If a normal person saw it, they would just treat it as ordinary grass, but Jiang Shuo would recognize it as the best medicine to stop inflammation. Jiang Shuo plucked a large amount of fruits, peeled them open, and took out the white silk hair from within, spreading it evenly over his wound.

Jiang Shuo had suffered too many injuries. Very soon, this bunch of black crows were all harvested, and he had no choice but to look for them again.

As he struggled to get up, just as he took a step, Jiang Shuo suddenly felt something strange under his feet. He lowered his head to look, and his line of sight was caught by the piece of paper that was as thin as a cicada's wing.

The silk had fallen out of the bag when Jiang Shuo had pulled out the 100 pieces of bone. The silk was tough, and once when he accidentally fell into the bonfire, it didn't burn. Jiang Shuo had always thought it was used to protect the bones. However, the silk was a bit different now — during the fight with the wolf, blood had splashed onto the silk. The red stained part, the already thin piece of paper was so transparent that it seemed as if it would break upon contact, and lines of dark veins began to appear.

The blood had only soaked the corner of the silk, and the dark veins were not complete. Curious, Jiang Shuo laid out the silk paper on a rock, tore off a corner of his tattered shirt, dipped it in the scattered blood, and evenly spread it over his clothes. In the end, some parts were clear and some parts were blurry. The effect was very bad.

"Could it be that only human blood is useful?" Jiang Shuo noticed the difference and laughed at himself. Right now, he was not lacking in human blood.

Jiang Shuo did as he was told, squeezing his wound and letting his blood drip onto the silk. Just as he expected, after the blood seeped into the paper silk, it was attracted to something. It moved slowly and regularly, gathering into one vein after another and forming all kinds of complicated patterns.

"This is …" At the top of the silk, Jiang Shuo saw the word "nine". He was extremely familiar with the totem engraved on the ancestral flag.

What made Jiang Shuo curious was that at the position where the nine words were placed, there was also the word "one". Other than knowing the word, Jiang Shuo knew nothing about it.

Below the "Nine" and "One" were layers of abstract ancient paintings, and Jiang Shuo could only see a few of them.

The first picture contained a human and a beast. It was not drawn using any ordinary method, but was split into small pieces, as if it was pieced together by a small tree branch. The beast bone on one leg was clearly darker than the previous one. In the second picture, the different beast bones were removed and buried in the ground between the human and beast bodies. With the third stroke, the beast bone disappeared from the spot and appeared on his body.

The three diagrams formed a complete line, as if describing an ancient ceremony. As he looked at it, Jiang Shuo's eyebrows creased deeper, realizing the importance of this piece of paper.

What was written on it was shockingly the unique healing method of the Crimson Cloud Village – Bone Changing!

People only know how to make decisions, and when it comes to big things, it only breaks, loses, and consumes. In fact, there is a profession in the world that can replace the bones and bring them back to life.

His name was — Bone Changing Master!

This was all because Jiang Shuo had relied on his identity as the young lord to secretly sneak into the Scarlet Cloud Village's altar, flipping through ancient books. However, ever since he was young, he had never seen his clansmen change their bones before. He hadn't even heard any news about them. Because the Crimson Cloud Stronghold clearly forbade entry into the altar, Jiang Shuo didn't dare to ask the Great Elder. He could only hold it in, knowing very little about how to change bones.

"So those wolves' bones are different. It's actually because they changed their bones. Could their extremely fierce transformation have something to do with it?" Jiang Shuo shook his head without thinking. Ye Zichen continued to look down, and saw that the bottom half of the paper was covered with dense words. Rather than calling it a character, it was more like a symbol. A few simple strokes without any pattern, like spots scattered with ink, or like tadpoles swimming in the pond.

Jiang Shuo turned the silk upside down, still unable to see the content, or rather what it meant, and had no choice but to give up.

"What does father mean by leaving me this stone and this piece of paper?" Jiang Shuo carefully put away the two items, found some herbs to treat his wounds, and ate some dried food to replenish his energy. He waited until he had recovered most of his strength, and then continued on his journey.

The sun rose higher and higher, the warm sunlight dispersed the humid air, and the remaining mist filled the lush foliage, adding to the dreaminess. The unknown bright flowers were adorned with a lovely smile, swaying along with the wind while emitting a soothing fragrance, as if every corner was filled with beauty. Jiang Shuo had mixed feelings. He had imagined walking out of the Crimson Cloud Stronghold countless times, but he didn't expect it to be this way. After all, the Scarlet Cloud Village was a place he grew up in. It was inevitable that he would be reluctant to part with it.

The Nine Tripod Mountains were much larger than Jiang Shuo had imagined. It wasn't until the third day that he finally succeeded in leaving this vast forest, as the ground beneath his feet became slower and slower.

An endless plain appeared in front of him. The scorching sun was scorching the earth, tearing it into pieces of yellow-brown cracks. The scorching heat wave rubbed against Jiang Shuo's face, as if the water in his body had evaporated, and the sweat had no time to drip to the ground before turning into wisps of smoke.

"I didn't expect the Nine Tripod Commerce to be so beautiful, and the outside world to be so vile." In the Crimson Cloud Village, the Great Elder had taught Jiang Shuo how to read and write, and how to learn ancient books. He knew a lot about China and thought that this was one of the different terrains. He didn't think too much about it and directly charged into the steamer-like world.

After walking for two days, he experienced the effects of his recklessness – the surroundings were still like the Blazing Mountain. The scorching heat intensified his energy consumption, and in the vast world, it seemed that he was the only one left.

Most importantly, he had already seen the bottom of the rations.

It was not long before Jiang Shuo came across a forest. He was lucky enough to find a few weeds with mud roots that allowed him to eat a little. The drought resistant poplar trees weren't killed by the sun – their bark was stripped clean, and there were traces of teeth and nails on them. This discovery made Jiang Shuo frown.

Jiang Shuo next found the burnt up farmland, the abandoned village, and then ran into the dead bodies by the roadside. Although he had predicted all of these, he still found it hard to hide his surprise when he saw the corpses.

It was the corpse of a man. Loess covered his sunken eye sockets, and his wrinkled skin was tightly stuck to the bone. Only his tendons and veins were able to support him, making him look like a skeleton. His body twisted in a weird way, his hands tightly gripped his throat, and his mouth opened to the limit. There was a protrusion on the throat as thick as a person's wrist, and through the skin, one could see the gray-yellow lump. It was definitely not a plant, but pure earth. He was really hungry, so he stuffed a handful of dirt into his mouth and choked to death. Just by looking at the shape of the shriveled corpse, Jiang Shuo could imagine the pain he had suffered before dying, and could not help but get goosebumps.

The Scarlet Cloud Stronghold paid attention to the safety of those who were buried in the ground. After death, the dead would be put to rest while the living would feel at ease. Jiang Shuo really couldn't bear to see him expose his corpse in the wilderness, so he found a shallow pit and hastily buried him. In the beginning, he still insisted on burying every corpse, but later, he didn't even have the strength to move them anymore, so he had no choice but to give up as he didn't have the strength to do so.

He was originally rushing on the road to survive, but he gradually became like a walking corpse, not even bothering to calculate the time that had passed. The following day was torturous, hot, hungry, thirsty, and sleepy, constantly eating away at Jiang Shuo's life. In the end, he didn't even dare to sleep, afraid that he would never wake up again if he closed his eyes.

Just when Jiang Shuo's spirit was on the verge of breaking down, he saw a large number of victims, as well as the idol of the city in the distance.