The shadows sped through the woods. Three of them. One was slim, and the other was plump. The last of them was bald and his stout muscles were visible under his sweating clothes—the skinny guy was at the very front and his speed was unbelievable. The second was a muscular one, and the last was the plump man, trying to catch his companions, as he breathed heavily.
They were none other than Qin Meng's roommates: Yan Yunjie, Wu Hui, and Zeng Hong. And behind the trio was a group of wolves, eager to dig their fangs into the flesh of three different varieties of meat.
"How much more?!" shouted pudgy Yan Yunjie, as the saliva dribbled around his cheeks and off his mouth.
"Just a bit more!" replied Wu Hui, veins popping on his forehead.
Zeng Hong was the only one who wasn't sweating. "Stop!" He halted, suddenly. His companions collapsed around him. The wolves didn't care, only savageness remained inside their eyes. They strode towards the trio. However, just as the creatures took a few strides towards their prey, they caved into the ground.
"Hahaha! We have done it," came a voice from behind one tree, and a group of people revealed themselves. At the front of them was a man with white hair and brown eyes. He Chen. While Li Hong was laughing in ecstasy as he looked at the pack of wolves in the pit. He grinned wider when he turned towards the three bait they had used to capture these monsters. His former companions.
"This is so much fun," he said, laughing. Though soon he fell silent when He Chen waved his hand at him.
He grabbed a bow in his hand and aimed at a wolf in the pit. Then again, and again. Until all the wolves in the caved ground had died. He looked at the bracelet and nodded in satisfaction. Three hundred.
"Lord," said one of the men from behind. "Others must be rushing towards us. What should we do?"
"What do you mean by 'what should we do'?" He Chen said coldly. His icy—arrogant—tone sent chills through people's spines. "We'd beat each of them down until they stop bothering us."
Yan Yunjie and his companion looked at each other with glittering eyes. A chance to escape from this terrible situation was about to come. They knew how arrogant and insufferable He Chen was. He would not admit defeat until he was defeated, and when the chaos arrived, they would flee at the first sign of it.
——
It was night. The occasion howls and roars of monsters reverberated in the darkness. The cold breeze blew amidst the rustling trees.
Gildor and Elyria tried to infiltrate behind the shadows of the trees, but were unable to succeed. The darkness prevailed inside the forest.
The fire burned in a dark cave. Two shadows were sitting around it. The fragrance of finely roasted doe permeated the surroundings. The oil melted in the campfire and the aroma of cinnamon and other spices mixed with the fragrance of the meat.
"Can I eat it now, Big Brother Qin Meng?" asked an eager voice as his stomach growled and mouth watered.
"Yes—"
As soon as he saw Qin Meng nodding, Tan Liang grabbed a leg of the doe and tore it off with shining eyes.
Qin Meng shook his head before taking another leg out of the animal for himself.
"Hmmm… delicious!" praised Tan Liang as he enjoyed the meat. "Who would have thought that you are such an amazing cook, big brother?"
Qin Meng smiled nonchalantly. He had developed that skill after spending months in the desert of Burning Wilds. Where he had no spices or salt. One could learn a lot from his previous mistakes. He needed to search for medicines in the desert to neutralise the poison of scorpion meat. Or to make the crocodile flesh a little bit more soft so he could chew it. Or to control the disgusting stench coming from one of the bugs.
Most of the time he would fail to find any medicine, and needed to eat the meat without any salt or spice to quell his hunger—whether it was bitter or hard or disgusting or filled with stench.
Here, however, he had come prepared. With all kinds of spices.
His roasting skill was already top-notch, and after practicing a bit, he considered himself fairly good at applying spices as well.
Tan Liang finished his first piece in no time and grabbed another one. It had been an entire day since they had eaten. Qin Meng could still resist the hunger, he had seen far worse, after all. However, Tan Liang was too tender.
——
Tan Liang belched satisfyingly as he rubbed his bloating stomach. "Are we going to stay here tonight, big brother?" he asked.
"Yes," nodded Qin Meng. "It is not safe to wander in the forest at night. All kinds of monsters would roam, ready to pounce at you, in the darkness.
Tan Liang nodded and laced his back against the cave, and sat on his butt. "I wonder how Sister is doing?"
"Don't worry," Qin Meng said, sitting on the other side of the cave as the campfire crackled amidst the duo. "She is strong and clever. Not many could outdo her."
"I hope so," nodded the boy. "I miss her."
Qin Meng eyed Tan Liang but remained silent. Tan Liang continued to blabber. How his sister supported him when his parents died. How many things she had sacrificed for him, and still was sacrificing. Qin Meng started to feel his eyelids turning heavy, and as he closed his eyes, all the tiredness from the day returned, and he fell asleep.
A few hours later, when the campfire had turned cold, and the darkness had engulfed the cave, a shadow moved towards Qin Meng. It removed a knife from the belt at the waist and shoved it towards Qin Meng.