I'm Allergic to Mutton

Stepping out of the narrow mountain valley, Yu Ziqing gazed at the thin mist ahead and realized that this Jinlan Mine was probably already quite different from what he had learned before.

The temperature here was at least relatively warm. It was not as likely to freeze someone to death.

But when he thought of the female ghost he had encountered earlier and that man-eating forest, neither of which those few traffickers had mentioned in the slightest, he felt that, given their temperament, they probably could not have made it out of the Abyss of Despair.

In other words, those bandits probably had not encountered such a change the last time they came. It had only appeared within the past two months.

As for the other people who had appeared in that illusion, judging by their appearances, they clearly bore the aspect of cannibals, yet there was no sign that they practiced evil arts.

From this, he could make a guess. Two or three months ago, a major upheaval had occurred here, making it difficult for the place to sustain itself. The most basic necessity—food—was certainly in short supply.

No, it should have been in severe shortage.

Otherwise, unless people had been driven out of their minds and were on the verge of starving to death, there was no reason for so many people with the aspect of cannibals to appear together. Nor would that female ghost have so decisively thrown the child in her arms off the bottomless cliff before she died.

Yu Ziqing slowed his pace and gazed into the distance. He made up his mind again. No matter what, he had to go.

As he had said before, people at least should not be starved to death.

Even being hacked to death by a mob or swallowed alive by a demon was better than freezing or starving to death in the frozen wilderness.

He had had enough of the cold. He had had enough of hunger.

He would first find a place to settle down at the mine. If Jinlan Ore was important to certain great figures, someone would surely brave the biting wind to come here.

Using those few invulnerable evil cultivators as a reference, even their strength only allowed them to work as traffickers in this remote wilderness. Then, in the southern Great Gan Divine Dynasty that the old man had mentioned so many times, anyone who could come here would certainly be even stronger.

Adding in the changes that had appeared across a thousand li of wilderness, regardless of what the situation had been before, there would certainly be people trying to take advantage of the opportunity to get their hands on Jinlan Ore. And those who came here would certainly number more than one or two.

By then, he would find a way to leave the wilderness with them and head south to a warmer place. That was the best choice. In any case, Yu Ziqing had had enough of weather that nearly froze him to death every day.

That was his new short-term plan. For now, however, he had to figure out how to establish himself at the mine.

While Yu Ziqing was still pondering, Old Yang bit down on his cloak. He glanced at the road ahead, then shook his head at him.

"Old sir, do you mean I shouldn't go? Or that I should be more cautious and scout around first?"

Old Yang was silent for a moment, then shook his head.

Yu Ziqing understood Old Yang's concern. Not going was impossible. They had already come this far, and there was nowhere else to go. As for scouting around first, that was even more absurd. He was alone, physically weak enough not to be able to truss a chicken, and half-starved and half-frozen.

There was no chance of him hiding his tracks and scouting the unknown ahead. If there were still living people inside, then once he was exposed, it would be tantamount to announcing that he harbored ill intentions and lacked confidence.

Considering what had happened to the female ghost ahead, showing weakness was equivalent to delivering himself on a platter.

After weighing everything, Yu Ziqing decided to walk in openly. No matter what the situation was, he had to put on a confident front first.

Yu Ziqing pulled Old Yang along and continued forward with the remaining flock.

After they left the valley before them, the temperature rose again. Suddenly, the clanging of metal rang out ahead. It was as if the mist had been pushed aside, and a burst of life had appeared in the dead world.

The land looked somewhat barren, with sparse dry grass dotting its surface. On slightly higher ground, there were openings one after another, and people were going in and out of them.

Farther away, he could see hollows dug into the slopes, with chunks of earth piled outside. At first glance, they looked like crude earthen kilns.

He smelled burning flames, as well as the fragrance of hot food steaming in the air. He saw people carrying Sheep-Horn Picks and walking toward somewhere deeper inside, and he heard people speaking in all kinds of accents, shouting about something.

Yu Ziqing stopped in his tracks. To be honest, he had never expected this place to look like this.

It was so harmonious that it seemed like a dream.

Yu Ziqing had stood there for no more than a few breaths when someone in the distance spotted him.

"Newcomers!"

The shout, drawn out at the end, instantly overwhelmed all the other sounds.

Those who seemed to be heading out to work all turned around in unison. They quickened their steps and charged toward Yu Ziqing amid cheers.

Their expressions were like those of simple country farmers preparing to plow a field who had suddenly seen their beloved grandson after several years away. Their delight could not be contained. Before their minds had even reacted, their bodies were already hurrying over with light footsteps, afraid that if they were even a little late, their most cherished grandson would vanish again.

Yu Ziqing sensed no malice, yet a sense of unreality lingered in his heart.

He lowered his head and glanced at Old Yang beside him.

"Old sir, I haven't fallen into an illusion again, have I?"

Old Yang shook his head. At the same time, he raised a forehoof and stomped hard on Yu Ziqing's foot.

Yu Ziqing cautiously took the cookbook from his robes and glanced at it, confirming that he could still recognize all the characters inside. He had heard that people could not read in dreams, so he should not be dreaming. Then the sharp ache in his toes came rushing in from where he had been stepped on. For now, it seemed real.

The flock that had followed behind them also burst out all at once, rushing to snatch up the scraps of dry grass left on the ground.

The black-faced man at the very front pounced on a scrawny mountain goat. He pinned down its head with one hand and lifted its hind leg with the other. After taking one look, he immediately grinned. His right hand brushed his waist, and a short dagger was already pressed against the goat's jaw.

The short dagger sliced downward from the jaw. In the blink of an eye, it opened a gash more than a foot long. Scalding blood gushed out. The frail goat bleated in terror, but it could not break free at all. The black-faced man's right hand did not stop as he continued cutting open the goat's belly.

In the space of one or two breaths, he had already skinned the goat. With a flick of his wrist, the short dagger returned to the leather sheath at his waist.

He gripped the separated hide with both hands and forcefully tore it apart. The sound of flesh and skin ripping split the air as blood gushed out.

The goat let out a miserable cry. Its head lolled to one side, and it went still.

Seeing that the goat had stopped struggling, the black-faced man moved even faster. He forcibly tore the goat's hide away, then lifted the bloody skin and gave it a hard shake. The last bit still clinging to the head finally came loose.

In an instant, the skinned goat fell to the ground and transformed into a thin woman covered in blood, naked from head to toe.

The black-faced man threw his head back and laughed. He hoisted the woman, who might or might not still be alive, over his shoulder and ran off to the side with the wind at his heels.

"Hey, Hei Wa, you damned bastard, don't run!"

Angry curses came from behind. An old man carrying a Sheep-Horn Pick was so furious that his beard stood on end and his eyes bulged.

Unfortunately, the black-faced man had already ducked into an Earth Den and vanished. The old man cursed and grumbled a few times, but showed no intention of continuing the chase. The people who had arrived behind him did not seem to find it strange either. Some even laughed and cursed a few times.

What left Yu Ziqing even more bewildered was what happened next. Some people carried wooden poles, while others held hemp ropes. As soon as they reached the spot, they swiftly assembled a frame.

Some people herded the flock. Some sharpened knives. Others bound the mountain goats' four limbs and hung them from the wooden frame.

They were hoisted up, skinned, and transformed into human forms. Those who endured the agony of being skinned alive were carried away.

Those who could not endure the pain and died on the spot were also carried aside and piled together like garbage.

In that short while, the scene had become bustling and feverish, like a village market.

But Yu Ziqing felt it looked more like an orderly assembly line—efficient and smooth.

Those who survived being skinned were greeted with cheers, and people even fought over them. Those who died were tossed aside. Even the few real mountain goats mixed in among them were skinned and slaughtered. Someone immediately lit a bonfire and set up a huge pot large enough for bathing.

It seemed that no one thought there was anything strange about the scene.

No one except Yu Ziqing.

Yu Ziqing unconsciously extended his arm and clamped it tightly around Old Yang, preventing him from running off and keeping him from being caught and skinned as well.

The mountain goats that had died from being skinned during this short while had all been rather old.

Given Old Yang's current condition, he probably could not withstand the agony of being skinned.

Clutching Old Yang, Yu Ziqing stood there, expressionless—or rather, too shocked to feel much of anything—as he watched scene after scene unfold, as if he had only now seen the real world for the first time.

Even the past few months, when he had seen human lives treated as worthless as grass, had not overturned his worldview as thoroughly as this.

Under a disaster, struggles and slaughter were a perfectly normal development in Yu Ziqing's eyes.

The appearance of traffickers who killed without batting an eye was also a normal development.

When resources ran out and cannibals appeared, he had been shocked, but he could still find those words to match it: "In years of great famine, people ate one another."

But what he saw before him was completely different.

The people here were like ordinary people—just like the residents of an ordinary village.

There was no viciousness on their faces and no murderous fury in their eyes. If one ignored the mountain goats, it was simply the scene of a simple mountain village celebrating a major festival.

No one thought there was anything wrong with brutally skinning those "mountain goats" alive. If one died, the person doing the work would merely sigh that their luck was bad.

Their own luck was bad.

Not the mountain goat's luck.

Yu Ziqing came back to himself. Now, he suddenly felt that the place's current appearance was different from what he had imagined. Instead, it seemed quite normal.

Only this way could they maintain a seemingly harmonious and peaceful scene even after the upheaval of the past few months.

On the other hand, when Yu Ziqing was the one person different from everyone else, the abnormal person was him.

He watched as the flock was cut open one after another and the evil arts were dispelled. More than half of the people survived, while those who died were carried away one by one.

As for the genuine mountain goats, apart from the first one, all the rest were chopped up and carried toward the high slope to the side. The cold wind blew fiercely there. In a few days, the mutton would be dried by the wind, and it would be difficult for it to rot even if it wanted to.

Everything proceeded in an orderly fashion.

To be honest, Yu Ziqing had once guessed that there would be a way to undo the evil arts here, but he had never imagined it would be this simple and brutal.

Only then did an old man leaning on a cane slowly walk toward Yu Ziqing from behind.

The old man's eyes were cloudy. He squinted and leaned his neck forward, as if his eyesight was poor and he was trying his hardest to see who had come.

"The Shepherd is here, huh? Why are there so few this time?"

"Things have changed outside. It's too cold, and there aren't many living creatures left." Yu Ziqing paused briefly, then continued, "All the Shepherds died. This is the last time."

Upon hearing this, the old man was slightly startled. The people behind him also stopped and all turned to look at Yu Ziqing.

Yu Ziqing's expression did not change. He pointed behind him.

This old man, who looked as if one foot was already in the coffin and who seemed at first glance like a muddle-headed old fool, had set a trap for him with his very first sentence.

Those Shepherds had never discussed the mine's internal situation while chatting. Besides, with the special natural barrier at the entrance, how could those heartless evil cultivators who killed without batting an eye and ate people have gotten inside?

As his thoughts raced, Yu Ziqing felt that the best way to respond to the other party's test was to be frank. It would save trouble and prevent him from being exposed later.

"I was a cook who was kidnapped. They wouldn't have survived many more days outside, so I brought them all in. I also need to rest here for a few months and leave when spring arrives. That won't be a problem, will it?"

The old man looked Yu Ziqing up and down, then suddenly revealed a faint smile.

"Good. Then stay here until spring. However, we don't keep idlers."

"Of course."

The old man did not ask how the Shepherds had died, nor did he concern himself with Old Yang, whom Yu Ziqing kept holding onto. He simply had someone arrange an Earth Den for him.

The Earth Dens scattered across the wind-sheltered slope each had a space roughly fifteen feet across. Their lighting and ventilation were poor, and they were cramped enough that a tall person would have difficulty standing straight. But none of that mattered. They could keep out the wind and cold, and with dry grass inside for warmth, they were already quite good.

Curled up in the Earth Den and resting, Old Yang lay on the dry grass with drooping eyelids, utterly exhausted. Yu Ziqing, however, continued forcing himself to stay awake.

"Old sir, I feel that something isn't right. They didn't ask anything at all, yet they dared to let me stay."

Old Yang did not respond. Yu Ziqing lowered his head to look and saw that Old Yang had already fallen into a deep sleep.

Yu Ziqing let out a soft sigh. He took several dirty robes from the luggage he had scavenged and draped them over Old Yang.

At that moment, a voice came from outside.

"Hey, little brother, come have some soup."

Yu Ziqing crawled out of the Earth Den. A short man stood there holding a wooden bowl. It contained more than half a bowl of watery mutton soup and two slices of mutton streaked with fat. The pungent smell of mutton and its savory fragrance both burrowed fiercely into Yu Ziqing's nose.

The man kept swallowing as well, his gaze seemingly locked onto the wooden bowl in his hands.

Yu Ziqing shook his head.

"I'm allergic to mutton."

"What?"

"Eating mutton upsets my stomach. Brother, you all eat it. Just give me some boiled water."

"Oh, what a pity." The man's face was filled with regret. Getting an upset stomach here could kill someone.

The man carried the bowl away with both hands and went to the old man with poor eyesight.

"Grandpa, he won't eat it. He says mutton upsets his stomach. What should we do?"

"Heh..." The old man was somewhat surprised. He grinned. "He doesn't eat mutton? Then let him stay for now. Later, go ask what he can do. We don't keep idlers here."

My status has already been changed to contracted, so monthly votes and tips are now available. Please give me some monthly votes. Getting monthly votes during the public-release period is still taking some getting used to.

The second update is still a four-thousand-word chapter.