This Damned World!!!
On the vast, boundless plains,
Countless refugees are fleeing.
They were pale and thin, dragging their families along, like a swarm of homeless ants, walking under the scorching sun.
The Prince Ning of Zhenning Prefecture rebelled.
The imperial army arrived to quell the rebellion.
The entire land of Ji Province was engulfed in war, with smoke and fire everywhere.
Regardless of whether the imperial court wins this great battle or Prince Ning is defeated, it is always the common people from the lower classes who suffer.
Leaving their homes and becoming displaced
Hungry and cold, they toiled and struggled, barely able to fill their stomachs.
Nobody cared about them, nobody paid attention to them.
They are like roadside weeds, sand on the ground, insignificant and worthless.
This escape journey,
I wonder how many people will die from exhaustion, from the heat, and from starvation.
But they had no choice.
Because they had no choice but to run away.
What can you do staying at home?
Was their home broken down by mutinous soldiers who looted all their food, raped their wives and daughters, and then forced them to serve as cannon fodder and perform forced labor?
Their lives were cheap, but they didn't want to die.
They just wanted to live a life of cautious survival, like ants.
They are content as long as they have enough to eat to keep them alive.
But God...
Why can't they even fulfill such a small wish?
Besides sand and loess,
There's nothing left.
The wild grass was dug up, the tree bark was gnawed away, and even the water in the rivers and ponds had dried up due to years of drought, exposing the cracked riverbed.
But this place is still very, very far from Dingzhou City.
Can they really hold on?
They didn't know,
I wouldn't even think about it.
Hunger and dehydration had left them dizzy, weak, numb, and exhausted.
If it weren't for the news that Immortal Church was setting up tents and distributing porridge to help refugees in Dingzhou City, they probably wouldn't have been able to hold on and would have collapsed on this hot, dry plain.
"Grandma, I'm hungry."
A little girl, about five years old, looked up at her thin, sallow face covered in dust and spoke weakly to her grandmother, who was holding her hand.
The old man beside him had a wrinkled face, gray hair, and a hunched, emaciated body. He leaned on a withered tree branch with one hand and held the hand of a little girl whose clothes were covered in patches with the other.
"Good Niu Niu 're not hungry. There will be food when we get to the city."
Upon hearing her grandmother's words, the little girl's expectant gaze gradually dimmed, and her thin, sallow head drooped slightly.
She was so hungry.
My stomach was growling loudly from hunger.
But she is very well-behaved and sensible.
I've been enduring it all.
They didn't complain of being tired or hungry.
Because she knew that her grandmother hadn't eaten much for several days, and that her grandmother had secretly fed her all the food.
But now she seems to be unable to hold back any longer.
So I mustered up my courage and asked timidly.
But Grandma didn't secretly feed her anything like she used to.
It seems like all the food is gone.
There wasn't a single drop left.
The little girl is too young
Perhaps they don't understand what this means.
But the old lady knew very well that...
If they don't find something to eat soon, she and her granddaughter will starve to death on this plateau.
No,
It's not just about starving to death.
Last night,
She saw several people secretly carrying away the body of someone who had starved to death by the roadside under the cover of darkness.
That wasn't collecting the body, nor was it a burial.
That's cannibalism.
She cannot fall down, nor can she let her granddaughter fall down.
She had promised her son and daughter-in-law that she would make sure Niu Niu lived a good life.
This damned world!!
God, you have no eyes!
The old woman's withered, tree-bark-like hands gripped her granddaughter's small hand tightly, as if afraid that if she let go, her granddaughter would be snatched away by those around her.
Those were pairs of eyes glowing green, filled with cruelty and greed, coldness and bloodlust.
They are no longer human.
It's a beast, a man-eating beast.
But she was about to give up; several days without food or water, coupled with exhaustion, were almost draining the old woman of her life force.
But her strong will kept her from collapsing so that her only child wouldn't become someone else's food.
No matter how strong a person's will and potential are, they cannot escape birth, aging, sickness, and death, nor can they defy the cycle of Heavenly Dao.
The old man finally collapsed.
She collapsed in front of her granddaughter.
When the oil runs out and the lamp goes out, life is extinguished.
The little girl was stunned.
They were stunned.
"Grandma, wake up, wake up! Don't sleep, Niu Niu is scared."
She squatted on the ground, shaking the old man's body repeatedly, her voice trembling with anxiety and worry, like a child's.
But her grandmother, who had always been by her side and taking care of her, lay motionless on the ground like a piece of wood.
The little girl cried.
But the tears wouldn't fall.
The hoarse, dry sobs failed to awaken the sleeping grandmother, but instead brought forth three jackals with gleaming green eyes and ferocious faces.
Looking at the delicate and tender little girl, their mouths were practically watering.
But the little girl was unaware that she had become a piece of fat in other people's eyes.
But the fear and dread in my heart grew stronger and stronger.
Like a fawn that has just lost its mother's protection, suddenly discovered by a pack of hungry wolves, who are slowly surrounding it.
None of the surrounding refugees dared to step forward to stop them.
Because they were already too weak from hunger, they were no match for the three strong, Sha Qi- looking jackals.
Powerless and helpless.
If they insist on standing up for themselves, the only outcome will be that these three hungry wolves will have another sheep's carcass in their mouths.
They had a family to feed, so they dared not step forward or take any risks.
That's all,
Three hungry wolves surrounded the fawn, seemingly discussing how to divide the delicious fawn among themselves, their shadows obscuring and enveloping the bewildered and helpless young fawn.
Then...
Boom--
A bolt of lightning struck from the blue.
With overwhelming power that shook the very soul, it cleaved a ferocious, restless wolf into ashes, leaving not even a trace.
The other hungry wolves nearby were stunned by the sudden lightning punishment; their eyes lost all ferocity and savagery, leaving only panic and terror.
A living, breathing person, or even a familiar, living person.
Right before his eyes, he was struck by a bolt of lightning.
Vanished into thin air, leaving no trace of their remains.
This horrifying scene was so shocking that it was a testament to their courage that they weren't scared to death on the spot.
Even if they weren't scared to death, they were terrified out of their wits, their livers and gallbladders shattered.
Boom--
Another bolt from the blue struck.
It hacked the other jackal, who was standing there dumbfounded, into black smoke.
The last jackal was so scared that his pants got wet.
His face was deathly pale, and his eyes were filled with terror.
It felt as if a pair of eyes were staring intently at it from the scorching sky, ready to unleash lightning and annihilate it the moment it dared to move.
"Gods above, I dare not do it again! I beg you to spare my life!"
The last jackal knelt on the ground, crying out madly, repeatedly banging its forehead heavily against the ground until it was covered in blood, but it didn't stop.
However,
Its remorse, its pleas for forgiveness, its confession,
The gods wouldn't accept it.
Boom--
Another thunderbolt descended from the heavens.
With boundless divine might to punish evil and eradicate wickedness,
They eradicated the last remaining trace of sin in this place.