The Divine Starry Sky World, Northern Liang Star Domain, Great Desolation Star!
A mountain path in the wilderness of Ping Mountain County, Wei State. Thick fog hung in the air, and dew still clung to the grass along the roadside.
Groups of refugees in tattered clothes trudged along the path, their faces gaunt and their bodies skeletal. ...
Far away, wisps of smoke drifted over the plains beneath the mountains, stretching into the distance...
The refugees were so hungry they could barely speak. They walked like the walking dead, their stomachs rumbling incessantly.
An old man with graying hair stooped over as he walked, using a broken wooden stick—who knew where he'd snapped it off—as a cane. With his other hand, he held on to a little girl in her early teens.
The girl was thin and wan, dressed in rags. Though her face was dirty, it couldn't hide her delicate features. Her large eyes were full of life, and her arm was tightly wrapped in strips of cloth, not a sliver of skin showing.
"Grrr..."
The girl's stomach rumbled again and again. She tried to hold it in, but couldn't...
She looked up at the old man with her big, pleading eyes.
"Grandpa... I'm hungry..."
The old man with the cane smiled and took a cloth bundle from his shirt. Inside were some grass roots he'd dug out of the ground...
The girl chewed the bitter, fibrous roots.
"I ate them. What will you eat, Grandpa?"
Her grandfather kept smiling. "I'm not hungry. We'll be all right once we reach the county town. Come on, be good and eat..."
Even though they were only grass roots, the refugees stared at them with shining eyes, swallowing hard, their gazes full of longing...
Afraid the other refugees might snatch her food,