They Pushed Me Too Far

Yu Ziqing stood in place for a long time, chuckling to himself, unsure if it was self-mockery or sarcasm.

The more he thought about it, the more he understood. No matter what the people fighting outside were fighting for, it was ultimately irrelevant to them.

After a long while, he took a step forward and shouted.

"Er Han, where the hell are you? Go check on the people buried underground. They've all started Body Refining, they can't possibly die that easily underground. If you're slacking off, then you deserve to die now."

After speaking, he glanced at the butcher beside him, whose eyes had already gone a little vacant and bewildered.

"What are you looking at? Hurry up and help, see if anyone is injured!"

Turning his head, he looked at another kitchen aunt, who was equally bewildered.

"And you, what are you standing here for? Go quickly check our food inventory, and see if the Mushroom Forest underground has been buried, and the water source..."

"What are you all standing around for, are you scared silly? The earthquake is over, get moving, quickly, don't just stand there like idiots."

The group of people, who had no idea what to do, immediately sprang into action upon hearing this. They didn't need to think about anything else; with someone giving them orders, they just needed to follow them, which helped alleviate their fear and calm their panicked hearts.

Yu Ziqing helped the Village Chief to a seat on the side, then brought over Old Yang, who had been greatly shaken.

Old Yang's eyes were somewhat dim. He said in a low voice, "Ziqing, I know how to find a way back, but it requires at least Qi Refining to the Void Comprehension Realm, or Spirit Refining to the Yang spirit. And the longer it takes, the further and deeper we get lost, and the slimmer the hope. Moreover, we can't practice Qi Refining here, and the resources here probably won't last long..."

Yu Ziqing crouched down, meeting the eyes of the two elders, and gently waved his hand to interrupt Old Yang's words. His gaze became increasingly calm, and he said softly, "Don't worry, the sky isn't going to fall. The more so now, the more you two elders cannot falter, cannot panic. If you panic, this place will descend into chaos, and chaos will only lead to self-destruction."

"I really didn't expect this, none of us expected that we would be affected in this way in the end."

"Let's stabilize the villagers' morale first, and then we can talk about other things."

Seeing Yu Ziqing's composure, Old Yang came back to his senses and shook his head with a self-deprecating laugh. The Village Chief also regained his composure and nodded at Yu Ziqing.

"You're right, we can't give up first."

The Village Chief stood up, his eyes regaining their sharpness. He strode towards the village, beginning to direct the villagers.

Yu Ziqing sat with Old Yang, talking to himself.

"You told me before that whether it was Da Gan or Great Li, the larger the faction, the more they cherished their reputation. Even if there was a conflict, they would avoid ordinary people and fight in the wilderness.

At that time, I thought, in a world where power belonged to the self, how could it be more peaceful and more orderly.

Now it seems that it doesn't matter which it is, they are all the same. When you are weak, sometimes you die without even knowing why.

Today, I truly understand what it means to not know who killed you even as you die, or even for the other party to not know who they killed."

Old Yang opened his mouth, speechless, not knowing how to refute.

After a long while, he could only sigh helplessly. He knew that Yu Ziqing was right. Similar incidents must have happened often, but the dead never spoke. Those who could make their voices heard and tell others were always the living, and specifically, the living with the biggest fists.

Yu Ziqing stood up and walked into the village, starting to help others.

More and more people in the village were practicing Body Refining, and the manual excavation work proceeded quickly. They dug down along the collapsed mine tunnel, following their memories.

Soon, they reached some of the miners who had been buried inside. As Yu Ziqing had predicted, given the short amount of time and the fact that they were mining underground, their Body Refining levels were considered relatively high in the village. The first ones dug out were all still alive.

While reinforcing the mine tunnel, everyone continued to dig downwards, and more and more people were rescued.

Seeing everyone carrying out the rescue in an orderly manner, Yu Ziqing didn't pay further attention and went to check on the Mushroom Forest.

The cave where the Mushroom Forest was located had also collapsed. Fortunately, this cave was not too deep, and they could dig down quickly.

The number of injured people in the entire village was not large. They were mostly affected when leaving the village. Given everyone's physique, none of the injuries were fatal, which was a rare piece of good news.

Everything was proceeding in an orderly fashion. When it was time for dinner, Yu Ziqing also organized the kitchen aunties to prepare a steaming hot meal.

In the village, nothing could comfort panicked and lost hearts more than food.

The village's water source had not collapsed; it was all hard rock. Although the water was no longer flowing, there was still a large inventory, so there was no immediate worry.

Everything seemed to have temporarily recovered, but on the third day, the Village Chief, along with Yu Ziqing, followed a kitchen aunt to the reopened Mushroom Forest.

The area was filled with Jinlan Mushrooms that had been crushed by the collapse. Some people were already salvaging the broken Jinlan Mushrooms. If they were processed quickly after being dug out today, they could still be used as preserved food; any later, and they would be inedible.

However, the kitchen aunt quietly called the Village Chief and Yu Ziqing over, showing them something other than these destroyed Jinlan Mushrooms.

They walked to the depths of the Mushroom Forest, where some areas had not collapsed, and stood intact Jinlan Mushrooms.

However, the moment Yu Ziqing saw these Jinlan Mushrooms, he knew they had a problem. Their condition was completely different from those he cut every day.

The opened caps were slightly withered, and the thick stalks had also shrunk a bit. If he didn't come to cut them every day, Yu Ziqing might not have even noticed such a subtle change.

He crouched down and dug away the soil, immediately seeing that the underground parts of these Jinlan Mushrooms had begun to wither.

After digging up several more, including those that seemed unchanged for the moment, their underground parts had all begun to wither.

Yu Ziqing's expression became somewhat grave. If these Jinlan Mushrooms were similar to the fungi he remembered, then the underground parts were actually the important ones, while the parts above ground were merely fruiting bodies grown for reproduction.

This meant that the village was about to run out of food.

"How long will the village's stored food last?"

"It's enough for everyone for at least three months. If we're frugal, it can last longer," the Village Chief replied.

Ever since Yu Ziqing had developed a method for long-term food storage, the kitchen aunties had been busy without a break, preserving food every day without stopping.

By today, enough provisions had been stored to feed several hundred people for several months.

But even so, after a few months, the supplies would completely run out. At that time, either everyone would starve to death, or another human tragedy would unfold, with the inevitable outcome being the death of everyone.

Yu Ziqing's expression was somewhat dazed. He stood there for a long time before suddenly murmuring, "Keep the villagers calm. Don't panic."

"I'm going to do something. You don't need to look for me. Trust me."

"Remember, no matter what happens, stay calm first. Don't panic."

"Even if I have to die, I don't want us to die like this."

Yu Ziqing left these words, and without waiting for the Village Chief's reply, he proceeded deeper into the ground through the sinkhole. With each step he took, the path behind him collapsed, and in an instant, he vanished from everyone's sight.

His expression was dazed as he blindly pushed deeper. He walked until he reached the end and saw the collapsed passage. He then dug through the passage with his bare hands and continued to advance deeper.

After an unknown amount of time, the underground was filled only with hard rock. Yu Ziqing turned back, collapsed the path he had come from, and sat down against a rock.

In his increasingly calm eyes, a hint of madness and determination emerged.

"If I were to fight someone and couldn't win, and got killed, I'd accept it."

"But I'm not resigned to being treated like an ant and killed off like this. They don't even know who they killed, and I don't even know who is killing us."

"All of them will die here, eventually starving to death here."

Starvation.

It was the death Yu Ziqing least desired.

"Since that's the case, then no one will have an easy time."

"They've pushed me too far now."

"Push me too far, and I'll do anything!"

Yu Ziqing leaned against the rock wall, muttering to himself.

Day and night blurred, and he couldn't feel the passage of time. He just sat there.

After an unknown amount of time, he felt hungry and realized it was time to eat.

But he showed no reaction, merely changing his position and lying down.

In the village, the Village Chief looked at Old Yang.

"After he said that, he disappeared into the sinkhole. I don't know what he's going to do."

No one suspected Yu Ziqing had escaped. The mine had become an isolated island in the void, with nowhere else to go.

Old Yang gazed in the direction of the sinkhole.

"What else did he say?"

"He told us to trust him, and no matter what happened, we shouldn't panic, but stay calm."

Old Yang guessed that Yu Ziqing intended to find a way to escape. But he couldn't fathom how they could escape given the current situation.

It was already too late for anything...

However, upon hearing the Village Chief's words, his inner hesitation gradually turned into resolve.

He had been proven wrong many times recently. Things that exceeded his expectations and his knowledge were not just one or two instances.

He at least believed that Yu Ziqing was not the type of person to give up on himself.

Similarly, he believed that Yu Ziqing was a trustworthy person.

"Let's trust him. We'll keep the village stable."

The Village Chief nodded, then shook his head.

"You're right, but no matter what happens, we'll face it together. He's one of us. I need to find him. Even if it means death, I won't let him die before me, this old man."

Time passed day by day. Despite the current situation, the village was still well-managed by the Village Chief. While the villagers felt some panic, the overall atmosphere remained as usual.

The Village Chief hadn't given up, but he had no idea what method Yu Ziqing had used. No matter how they searched, they could no longer find him.

Deep underground.

Yu Ziqing could feel his stomach burning as if on fire. He could no longer distinguish between hunger and anything else.

The surging and restless blood essence within him had become weak, and the acupoints he had opened were now completely empty.

He had forgotten about time, unable to feel its passage. He only felt that time was passing incredibly slowly. His body grew weaker and weaker, but the hunger had disappeared.

Lying there, he no longer felt like talking to himself. His mouth was dry, and he didn't even have the energy to move his tongue to lick his lips.

His consciousness began to blur, and he even started hallucinating.

After another unknown period, he felt a taste in his mouth. He reached into his embrace and felt the small cloth bundle containing several strips of beef jerky. It had already been opened.

The beef jerky inside, at some unknown time, had been eaten until only the last strip remained.

Yu Ziqing twitched the corner of his mouth slightly. He had forgotten he was carrying food, but his body hadn't.

At this moment, he looked at his arm, which had become noticeably thinner. His once bulging biceps had returned to a state of being skin and bones.