The Terror of 36

"I'm saying, Fourth Brother, isn't it a little too strange for us to go like this?" Zhao Yuncheng asked as he looked at the carriages before him.

These carriages appeared to be loaded with goods, but in truth they were filled with dried rations, weapons, and bows and arrows.

According to Mo Dao's plan, they would disguise themselves as traveling merchants and enter Qing Province, investigating traces of that bandit group along the way.

If they used this method within Xingyuan Prefecture, there naturally would not be any problem.

But the place they were heading to now was Qing Province, which had been suffering from drought all this time. Not only were there no birds to foul the land there—even the birds were gone.

Yet they were going there to do business. No matter how they looked at it, something about them seemed off.

Unless they were enemies of their own money, who would engage in a business that was doomed to lose money?

"We're not going there to find that bandit group. We're only looking for their traces. If they find us suspicious and avoid us, then we'll be even safer.

"If they don't avoid us and instead try to rob us, we'll take out our weapons and fight if there are only a few of them. If there are too many, we'll run."

Mo Hu explained Mo Dao's arrangement.

What they sought were the traces of that bandit group, not to wipe them all out.

And in that godforsaken place where not even birds shit, anyone who passed through would certainly leave traces behind.

They only needed to enter and carefully inspect the area. Whether they encountered the bandits or not was unimportant. Not meeting them would actually be safer.

Mo Dao nodded with a smile. His younger brother was right; this was indeed what he had planned.

"Let's hurry. We brought enough water on the carriages, right?" Chen Mo slowly spoke as he looked at the barren, desolate, and still rather parched land ahead.

It seemed that although he had fled to Xingyuan Prefecture in Ding Province for so long, the drought in Qing Province still had not eased in the slightest.

The only strange thing was that the drought seemed to have stopped within Qing Province alone. Small Well Town, less than twenty li away, still had abundant rainfall, and the wheat seedlings in the fields were growing vigorously.

Such a sharply divided drought truly seemed rather abnormal.

"Everything's ready. It's all boiled water that's been cooled. The waterskins are sealed tight, so nothing will go wrong. There's enough for our people and horses to drink for half a month," Ma Cai reported.

The group set out together. After traveling more than thirty li, they each drove a carriage, took out their maps, and gradually split up.

Their task was to investigate. A group gathered together would have too large a target and would also be far too slow.

Scattering separately would be more efficient, without increasing the risk.

If they encountered a small number of bandits, they would fight. If there were too many, they would run at once.

Those bandits absolutely could not outrun them. Even if they had horses, they could have no more than two or three.

There was simply nothing here for horses to eat. Of the food on Chen Mo's carriage, not much was actually meant for people; most of it was horse feed.

Since those bandits roamed this place, they were destined not to have many horses. They might not even have a single one.

Therefore, unless the bandit group contained a marksman like Mo Dao, capable of firing a seven-dan heavy bow from a hundred paces away and hitting the mark every time, they would not be in much danger.

If there truly was such a bandit, then encountering him could only be blamed on their own bad luck.

The group dispersed and traveled in their assigned directions.

The road Chen Mo took was the easiest. It was generally quite flat, which was also Mo Dao looking after him.

After all, among the few people leading troops this time, Chen Mo had the least seniority. Though his strength was sufficient, he lacked experience.

Thus, he had been assigned the easiest and most convenient road. This would save him from getting lost and allow him to finish investigating his assigned area more quickly.

Chen Mo was not actually very familiar with this road. He felt that he should have traveled it before, but at that time, he clearly had not been in the mood to remember such things.

Many large trees stood along both sides of the road, long since dried up. Spring had arrived, yet they still remained as they had been before.

The farther Chen Mo went, the stronger his sense of familiarity with the area became. More than half a year had passed, but nothing here had changed. It was still withered, yellow, and dead, without the slightest trace of life.

Chen Mo drove the carriage slowly forward, while Ma Cai and several soldiers followed behind at a brisk pace.

The area they were responsible for investigating was not large. It consisted only of the section near Xingyuan Prefecture, and even that section had been divided by Mo Dao into several smaller areas.

Chen Mo was mainly responsible for only one small section. After making a rough circuit, they could leave whether they found anything or not.

As for the situation on the Anyang Prefecture side, the garrison there would naturally handle the investigation. It had nothing to do with them.

If traces of the bandits appeared over there, there were only two possibilities.

First, they were preparing to raid Anyang Prefecture. Second, they had just finished raiding Anyang Prefecture and were returning.

The former had nothing to do with them. They did not need to interfere.

As for the latter, the Anyang Prefecture garrison would certainly send intelligence, and they would inevitably learn of the bandits' movements.

Although Chen Mo was driving the carriage, his eyes continued to observe the ground around him. This road was an official road that had long gone unrepaired, but it was still far better than a country dirt road.

If bandits had passed through here recently, they would certainly have left traces.

Ma Cai and the others were also searching all around nervously. They had never been on a battlefield, much less killed anyone.

Even though this mission was only to search for traces of bandits, it still left them both nervous and excited.

The reward for killing bandits was not as high as that for killing barbarians on the battlefield, but killing one bandit still earned three taels of silver.

If they killed three bandits, they would have a chance to rise from ordinary personal soldiers to Squad Leaders.

All of them were still thinking about earning merit.

After driving the carriage for two consecutive days, a low, familiar thatched shack gradually appeared before them.

Chen Mo merely felt familiar with the surrounding environment and had no particularly deep impression of it. But he remembered these thatched shacks extremely well.

He had eaten in this thatched shack. He had fled from famine for a very long time and could no longer remember exactly how many people he had killed or how many roads he had traveled, but he remembered every time he had eaten.

Compared to other things, meals had been exceedingly rare during the famine. They were therefore more worth remembering.

"Let's hurry. We'll rest at that shack around noon today." Chen Mo gave the soldiers an order, then raised the reins and urged the horses onward.

After traveling another several dozen zhang, Chen Mo hurriedly reined in the horses. He saw a dark figure inside the shack, covered in layer upon layer of clothes and seemingly dressed like a refugee.

But as far as Chen Mo knew, ever since the New Year had passed, not a single refugee had escaped from Qing Province.

It was not because the drought had eased. It was because everyone had died. No one could escape anymore.

Yet the other person did not look like a bandit either. Could there truly still be a refugee who had not escaped?

Puzzled, Chen Mo slowly climbed down from the carriage and drew his weapon—a steel spear nearly seven feet long.

"What's wrong, Mo-ge?" Seeing him rein in the horses, Ma Cai hurried over.

"There's someone ahead. Take your weapon and come with me to have a look." Chen Mo gave his instructions cautiously and slowly walked toward the shack.

Although it was only one person, and that person looked extremely frail, even a lion needed to use all its strength to fight a rabbit.

There was absolutely nothing wrong with being a little more cautious.

As he drew closer to the shack, Chen Mo finally saw the person's face clearly. In an instant, his entire body turned cold and every hair on his body stood on end.

Chen Mo considered himself no coward. During his flight from the disaster, he had even seen people eating their own kind. At first, he had felt fear and disgust, but after seeing it often enough, it had seemed like nothing special.

Later, after falling into the Gray Mist, he had also encountered bizarre creatures such as the Blood Monkey.

Those things had frightened him before, but never to the extent of today. He felt terror in his heart, and even the hand gripping his weapon began to tremble.

Because he clearly remembered that face. That person had obviously been killed by Zhao Yu earlier.

The dagger had been plunged three inches into his eye. There was no way he could have survived.

Yet the other man was now standing alive and well right before him!

He was even smiling at Chen Mo—smiling while drooling!