Chapter 134: Departure, Slave Village
Many years later, whenever Tang Wen stood on high and gazed out at the endless wilderness, he would always remember the morning he left Flame Camp.
At the camp entrance stood a crowd to see them off.
To the south of the camp, the howls of four Sand Wolves echoed.
They varied in size—one was huge, two were large, and one was small.
The large ones were High-level Exotic Beasts, while the small one was a Middle-level Exotic Beast.
And the huge one was the Sand Wolf King.
The camp had offered sufficient benefits, so the Sand Wolf King was willing to take a few of its Sand Wolves to escort the trio to Ganshan City.
Tang Wen walked over to a familiar High-Level Sand Wolf. He ruffled its fur a few times, gave its chin a scratch, and swung himself onto its back.
Bai You Ruo and Bai Xue followed his example. The Sand Wolves didn’t refuse them, but they weren’t exactly enthusiastic.
Four eyes were fixed solely on Tang Wen.
It was as if they were complaining that he hadn’t chosen to ride one of them.
"Take care, everyone! We’ll meet again someday!"
"Take care, Miss Bai!"
The ones heading to Ganshan City were just Tang Wen, Bai You Ruo, and Bai Xue.
Bai Ying remained at Flame Camp, preparing to depart with Commander Qian’s long-distance merchant caravan and travel by water to Sanlian City.
The wind howled in their ears as the Sand Wolves began to run.
Tang Wen glanced back. The camp gradually shrank until it was the size of a matchbox, and the people at the gate were no longer visible.
Suddenly, he was reminded of the first time he’d left home years ago, when he had boarded a train to attend university in Nanzhou.
During that long summer vacation, he had always thought that leaving home to go to school would be a joyous occasion.
The very thought filled him with anticipation.
But when he actually stepped onto the train and it began to move, watching the scenery recede rapidly through the window, he was suddenly overcome with an indescribable sense of panic.
At the time, he’d thought it was fear.
Looking back on it many years later, he realized it had been a turning point in his life.
From that day forward, his hometown was a place of only winter and summer, for he would never again see its spring or autumn.
’Is this the same feeling of leaving home?’
The Sand Wolf crested a southern hill.
Tang Wen looked back again, but the camp was completely out of sight.
He had the Thousand-Mile Telescope tucked in his clothes, but in the end, he didn’t take it out.
That feeling became sharp and clear once more:
’A crossroads in my life!’
Unlike the naive ignorance of his university days, he knew with certainty now that the choice he made today would inevitably shape his future.
After a few seconds, Tang Wen turned forward again. With a kick of his heels against the wolf’s flanks, the Sand Wolf shot forward like an arrow released from a bow, charging into the boundless wilderness.
"Let’s keep up!"
Bai You Ruo shouted.
「A day passed quickly.」
The Talent Ability of the Sand Wolves was the manipulation of wind.
Even with the complex, undulating terrain of the wilderness, the three people and four wolves had covered a good several hundred li in a single day.
And that was with Tang Wen’s new tamed beast, a mere Middle-level Sand Wolf, whose speed and stamina significantly dragged down the party.
Otherwise, they could have covered a thousand li in a single day.
By now, the Sand Wolves were starving. Guided by the Blood Crow, they went off to hunt.
With eyes in the sky, hunting was convenient. It didn’t take long.
The High-Level Sand Wolves returned with two wild boars.
The Sand Wolf King and the Blood Crow were nowhere to be seen, having gone off to hunt somewhere on their own.
Tang Wen carved off several dozen pounds of ribs, and the rest became the Sand Wolves’ dinner.
’They run hundreds of li a day, hunt at night, and even bring food back for me.’
’Where else could I find such good "employees"!’
’They’re eco-friendly, fuel-efficient, and they even bring their own rations.’
’They charge headfirst into danger... A nineteenth-century capitalist would weep at the sight!’
Tang Wen smiled, ruffling the wolf’s head.
The High-Level Sand Wolf wagged its tail and ate ravenously.
Tang Wen and the two women took shelter in the corner formed by two massive boulders to rest.
The sand, baked scorching hot by the sun, had not yet cooled in the night air.
"I’m going to Ganshan City. Are you two going there as well?" Tang Wen asked as he cut the pork ribs into small pieces, placed them on a Stone Slab, and handed it to Bai Xue.
He then took out the meat buns his sister had made, wrapped in Kraft Paper, from his bundle and shared them with the two women.
Bai You Ruo replied between bites, "About three hundred li from Ganshan City, there’s a small settlement called Star Camp. That’s where we’re headed."
Tang Wen felt relieved. It was one thing for him to go adventuring in Ganshan City, but based on what Elder Ya had told them about the situation there yesterday, if he also had to worry about protecting two exceptionally beautiful women, the whole venture would be a joke.
Unless they hid themselves away and never showed their faces to the powerful experts in Ganshan City.
Otherwise, the moment someone laid eyes on their faces and figures, it was doubtful if the three of them could even escape the city.
As they ate the slightly gamy pork ribs, the three of them chatted idly.
It was mostly Bai You Ruo talking and Tang Wen listening.
Above them, the night sky was a deep, clear blue, blanketed with stars.
Beneath the vast celestial dome, the three humans, four wolves, and their few bonfires seemed utterly insignificant.
「Flame Camp.」
"Your spear work is a mess! Stop practicing! Come on out and have a drink! This is wine your dear auntie has been secretly hoarding for ages!"
The Queen carried a string of wine gourds, which she shook lightly, making them slosh.
In the past, she was always afraid of being caught by Elder Xia whenever she carried her wine gourds around.
But today, she was completely unabashed.
’My dear Bing’Er is so upset. If I, the great and mighty Queen, can’t even have a drink with her, is there any justice in this world?’
"HUUFF!"
Zhou Bing racked her long spear on the weapon stand. She looked at her carefree, devil-may-care aunt and shook her head with a smile.
"Alright, let’s drink!"
"Hehehe, that’s more like it! What’s the point of Martial Arts Training when you could be drinking instead!"
The Queen pulled her into a secluded room.
Tangtang was bustling about inside with Xiaoliu and two other maids.
Little Taotao wasn’t running around like she usually did.
She sat on the steps, her little face cupped in her tiny hands, lost in thought.
In her lap lay the rag doll Tang Wen had made for her.
Even a little girl could have her own worries.
All the women, save for the Queen, were feeling down.
Only the Queen was genuinely happy. How could she not be, when she could drink this much, out in the open and without reproach?
This was the kind of treatment usually reserved for holidays!
That night, the women all got drunk.
In their dreams, they kept muttering the same person’s name.
In this world, traveling far from home was tantamount to suicide.
Unless one was exceptionally powerful, most ordinary people who embarked on a long journey never returned.
Travel, travel, and more travel.
The wilderness sun was vicious. The Sand Wolves expended far more energy running during the day.
So, Tang Wen switched their schedule to resting by day and traveling by night.
With this change, they surprisingly managed to cover even more distance.
"CAW CAW CAW!"
The Blood Crow circled down.
"Halt!"
Tang Wen, at the head of the group, raised a clenched fist.
The Sand Wolf Pack immediately slowed its pace, gradually coming to a stop.
"What is it?"
"The Blood Crow says there are people up ahead. In that direction," he said, pointing.
"Let’s go take a look."
Tang Wen, Bai You Ruo, and the Sand Wolf King crept closer for a look.
After covering a few li, they spotted a group of people in the wilderness. They were toiling in a muddy patch of earth, their upper bodies nothing but skin and bone, their lower bodies clad in what looked like loincloths.
Even the Scavengers on the outskirts of Flame Camp seemed to live ten times better than these people.
They were scooping sludge out of a well, packing it into cloth sacks, and then squeezing the sacks together to force the muddy water into wooden buckets.
This was their method of drawing water.
"It seems there’s a village nearby. These people are slaves."
A warm, fresh breath tickled Tang Wen’s ear.
The speaker was Bai You Ruo.
Tang Wen asked, "You think they’re slaves because there are no women working out here?"
"You should go and see for yourself. Some things you can only understand once you’ve seen them."
Tang Wen, who had originally intended to bypass them, understood her meaning. "Alright, let’s go have a look."
He had spent his whole life in Flame Camp and hadn’t seen much of the outside world’s cruelty.
He had certainly never seen a slave village before.
The two of them went back to get Bai Xue.
By the time the three of them returned, the workers had already filled their wooden buckets with the muddy water.
They worked in pairs, one bucket per two men, carrying it on a wooden pole. They staggered unsteadily back the way they had come.
The Blood Crow followed from the air.
Tang Wen’s party, along with the Sand Wolf King, took a wide detour and spotted a crude structure enclosed by a stone wall.
"This place doesn’t look like it can house many people."
"Mmm, that indicates the slave owner’s power is limited. Perhaps it’s a Martial Artist, or maybe a few Martial Artists."
"Huh?" Tang Wen looked at Bai You Ruo.
"What, you look down on Martial Artists? Want to make a bet?"
"Bet on what?" Tang Wen asked casually.
"How about the loser has to grant the winner one request?" Bai You Ruo said with a smile, raising an eyebrow.
Tang Wen looked at her lovely face and quickly cut in, "Alright. I bet it’s a Martial Artist."
"Eh?"
"It’s settled, then."
His intuition wasn’t screaming at him; the level of danger in the village had to be limited.
Not giving Bai You Ruo a chance to back out of the bet, Tang Wen was the first to dart forward.