Yu Ziqing stood where he was for a long while, then let out a laugh that might have been self-mockery or mockery of others.
The more he thought about it, the clearer it became. Whatever the people fighting outside were after, it actually did not matter to them at all.
After a long while, he stepped forward and shouted.
"Er Han, where the hell did you die off to? Hurry up and check on the people buried underground. Most of them have already started Body Refining. How could they die underground so easily? If they were slacking off and died now, they would have it coming."
After saying that, he glanced at the butcher beside him, whose eyes had already gone somewhat blank and who seemed completely at a loss.
"What are you staring at? Hurry up and help. Check whether anyone's injured!"
He turned his head and looked at another kitchen auntie who was just as bewildered.
"And you, what are you standing around for? Hurry up and check our food stores. Also see whether the underground Mushroom Forest got buried, and check the water source..."
"What are you all standing around for? Are you scared witless? The earthquake's over. Get moving, all of you! Hurry up! Stop standing there like idiots."
A whole crowd of people who had no idea what to do immediately sprang into action at his words. They did not need to think about anything else. With someone directing them, they only needed to follow orders, which eased their terror and calmed their panicked hearts.
Yu Ziqing helped the Village Chief to the side and sat him down, then brought over Old Yang, who had taken a heavy blow.
Old Yang's eyes were somewhat dim as he said in a low voice,
"Ziqing, I do know a way to find our way back, but it requires at least reaching Qi Refining's Void Comprehension Realm, or reaching the Yang God stage through Spirit Refining. And the longer it takes, the farther and deeper we'll become lost. Our hopes will grow ever slimmer. Besides, Qi Refining is impossible here, and the resources here probably won't last us very long..."
Yu Ziqing squatted down and looked the two elders in the eye. He waved gently, cutting Old Yang off, and his gaze grew increasingly calm.
"Don't worry. The sky isn't going to fall. The more it comes to this, the less you two can afford to collapse. You can't panic. If both of you panic, this place will descend into chaos. And once it does, we'll only bring about our own destruction."
"I really never imagined this. None of us imagined that, in the end, we would be caught up in things this way."
"Let's stabilize the villagers first. We can worry about everything else afterward."
Seeing how calm Yu Ziqing was, Old Yang came back to himself and shook his head with a self-mocking smile. The Village Chief also recovered and nodded at Yu Ziqing.
"You're right. We can't be the first to give up."
The Village Chief stood up, his eyes sharp once more, and strode into the village to direct the villagers.
Yu Ziqing sat beside Old Yang and muttered to himself.
"You told me before that whether it was Great Qian or Great Li, the more powerful a force was, the more it cherished its reputation. Even if they fought, they would avoid ordinary people and battle in the wilderness instead.
"Back then, I thought that in a world where great power belonged to the self, how could things become more peaceful and more orderly?
"Now I see that no matter where you are, it's all the same. When you're weak, sometimes you die without even knowing why.
"Today, I finally understand what it means to die without knowing who killed you. The other side might not even know whom they killed."
Old Yang opened and closed his mouth, tongue-tied and utterly unable to refute him.
After a long while, he could only sigh helplessly. He knew Yu Ziqing was right. There had surely been countless incidents like this. It was just that the dead could never speak. The only ones who could make their voices heard and tell others what had happened were always the living—and the living with the bigger fists.
Yu Ziqing stood up and walked into the village to help the others.
More and more people in the village began Body Refining, and the manual excavation proceeded quickly. Following their memories, they dug down along the collapsed mine tunnels.
They soon dug out some miners buried within. Just as Yu Ziqing had expected, not much time had passed, and those capable of venturing underground to mine were among the village's stronger Body Refiners. The first people they dug out were all still alive.
As they reinforced the mine tunnels, they continued digging downward, rescuing more and more people.
Seeing everyone conducting the rescue in orderly fashion, Yu Ziqing stopped keeping watch over it and went to look at the Mushroom Forest instead.
The cavern where the Mushroom Forest had been was also collapsed. Fortunately, it was not too deep, and they would soon be able to dig down to it.
There were not many injured people throughout the village. Most had simply been caught in the disaster while leaving the village. Given everyone's physiques, their injuries were not fatal. That was rare good news.
Everything proceeded in orderly fashion. When mealtime arrived, Yu Ziqing organized the kitchen aunties and had them prepare a steaming hot meal.
In the village, nothing could soothe frightened and bewildered hearts better than food.
The village's water source had not collapsed. That place was filled with solid bedrock. Although the water had stopped flowing, there were still ample reserves, so they did not need to worry for the time being.
Everything seemed to have temporarily returned to normal. But on the third day, the Village Chief brought Yu Ziqing, following a kitchen auntie, to the Mushroom Forest that had been excavated anew.
The place was filled with Jinlan Mushrooms crushed by the collapse. Someone was already trying to salvage the Jinlan Mushrooms whose stalks had snapped. If they were dug out and processed quickly today, they could still be used as reserve food. Any later, and they would no longer be edible.
But the kitchen auntie had quietly called the Village Chief and Yu Ziqing over to see something other than those ruined Jinlan Mushrooms.
They made their way deep into the Mushroom Forest. Some areas had not collapsed, and Jinlan Mushrooms that looked perfectly intact still stood there.
Yet at first glance, Yu Ziqing knew that these Jinlan Mushrooms had also developed a problem. Their condition was completely different from the ones he chopped down and saw every day.
Their spread-open caps were slightly withered, and their thick stalks had also shriveled somewhat. If he had not seen them every day, Yu Ziqing might not have noticed such subtle changes.
He squatted down and dug into the ground. He immediately saw that the part of the Jinlan Mushroom underground had already begun to wither.
He dug up several more, including some that still looked unchanged on the surface. The underground parts had all begun to wither.
Yu Ziqing's expression turned grave. If these Jinlan Mushrooms were similar to the fungi in his memories, then the underground portion was actually the important part. The portion aboveground was merely the fruiting body that had grown for reproduction.
That meant the village would soon run out of food.
"How long will the village's food stores last?"
"At least three months for everyone. If we ration carefully, they can last longer," the Village Chief replied.
Ever since Yu Ziqing had come up with food that could be stored long-term, the kitchen aunties had never had a moment's rest. Every day, after finishing their other tasks, they began preparing food reserves. They had not stopped for even one day.
By now, they had stored enough provisions for several hundred people to eat for several months.
But even so, once those few months passed, they would still run out of food completely. At that point, either everyone would starve to death together, or another human tragedy would unfold. In the end, everyone would surely die.
Yu Ziqing's expression grew somewhat dazed. He stood there for a long while, then suddenly said in a low voice,
"Keep the people in the village steady. Don't panic."
"I'm going to do something. Don't come looking for me. Trust me."
"Remember, no matter what happens, stabilize things first. Don't panic."
"Even if I have to die, I don't want us to die like this."
Yu Ziqing left them with those words. Without waiting for the Village Chief's reply, he followed the cavern toward a deeper place. Every so often, he collapsed a section behind him, and in the blink of an eye, he vanished from everyone's sight.
His expression was somewhat dazed as he blindly advanced deeper and deeper. When he reached the end and saw a collapsed passage, he dug through it with his bare hands and continued onward.
He did not know how much time had passed. Underground, only solid stone remained. Yu Ziqing turned back, collapsed the path he had come by, and sat down against a stone.
A trace of madness and resolve appeared in his increasingly calm eyes.
"If I were fighting someone and couldn't beat them, and they killed me, I'd accept it."
"But I refuse to be treated like an ant and killed just like that. They don't even know whom they killed, and I don't even know who exactly killed us."
"Everyone will die here. In the end, we'll starve to death here."
Starve to death.
That was the way Yu Ziqing least wanted to die.
"Since that's the case, then none of you are going to have an easy time either."
"They've driven me to the brink."
"Now that they've driven me to the brink, I'm capable of doing anything!"
Leaning against the stone wall, Yu Ziqing muttered to himself.
Day and night lost all meaning, and he could no longer feel the passage of time. He simply sat there.
He did not know how long had passed before he felt hungry. It was time to eat.
But he showed no reaction at all. He merely shifted positions and lay down.
In the village, the Village Chief looked at Old Yang across from him.
"He left us those words and disappeared into the cavern. I don't know what he intends to do."
No one thought Yu Ziqing had fled. The mine had become an isolated island in the void, and there was nowhere else he could go.
Old Yang gazed toward the cavern.
"What else did he say?"
"He said we should trust him, and that no matter what happened, we couldn't panic. We had to stay steady."
Old Yang guessed that Yu Ziqing wanted to find a way out, but no matter how he thought about it, he could not imagine how they could escape their current situation.
It was already too late for anything...
But after hearing the Village Chief's words, the hesitation in his heart gradually turned into resolve.
Recently, he had been slapped in the face far too many times. There had been more than one or two things that exceeded his expectations and lay beyond the scope of his knowledge.
At the very least, he believed that Yu Ziqing was not the sort of person who would give up on himself.
Likewise, he believed that Yu Ziqing was someone worthy of trust.
"Let's trust him. We'll keep the village stable."
The Village Chief nodded, then shook his head.
"You're right. But whatever happens, we'll face it together. He's one of our own. I'll find him. Even if he has to die, I won't let him die before this old man."
Day after day passed. Even under the current circumstances, the village remained under the Village Chief's excellent management. Everyone was panicked inside, but overall they still maintained their usual routines.
The Village Chief never gave up, but he did not know what method Yu Ziqing had used. No matter how they dug, they could never find him again.
Deep underground.
Yu Ziqing felt as though his stomach were burning. He could no longer tell whether it was hunger or something else.
The restless Blood Essence surging through his body had grown weak, and the apertures he had opened had also become utterly empty.
He had forgotten time and could no longer feel its passage. He only felt that it was moving so slowly, so very slowly. His body was growing weaker and weaker, yet the sensation of hunger had already disappeared.
Lying there, he no longer even wanted to mutter to himself. His mouth was dry and his tongue parched, but he could not be bothered to move his tongue to lick his lips.
His consciousness began to blur, and he even started seeing hallucinations.
He did not know how much more time passed before he felt as though there were a taste in his mouth. He reached into his clothes, and the small cloth bundle containing several strips of dried beef had already been opened.
At some point, he had eaten all but the final strip of dried beef inside.
Yu Ziqing's lips tugged faintly. He had forgotten that he was still carrying food, but his body had not.
At that moment, he saw his arm. It had already grown a full circle thinner, and the biceps that had once bulged prominently had returned to looking like skin stretched over bones.
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