Before long, a unique scent of cooked meat began to waft through the air.
Yuan Ming's nose wrinkled, and it seemed as if his stomach was responding with hunger, rumbling in cooperation.
Hu Tu, enduring the heat, pinched a golden-browned insect off the stone slab and popped it into his mouth. With a crisp "crack," the savory and oily fragrance immediately filled his mouth.
He didn't bother to call Yuan Ming over, just kept eating one after another, with a continual "crunching" sound.
"It doesn't look that disgusting, does it?" Yuan Ming's stomach grumbled with craving; he found the appearance of the insects not so abhorrent anymore and approached with a chuckling "heh heh."
"Stop, stop, stop! Who was it that said these things are disgustingly foul and would rather die than eat them?" Hu Tu protected his food and shouted at Yuan Ming.
"Who said that? That's ridiculous. You know, 'practice brings true knowledge.' Those who have never tried have no say. Here, let me give it a try for them." Yuan Ming swallowed and reached for an insect.
Seeing that Yuan Ming didn't care the slightest about face, Hu Tu didn't stop him but watched with a smile that wasn't quite a smile.
Yuan Ming grabbed a golden insect, closed his eyes, and shoved it into his mouth.
"Crack"
A crisp sound echoed, and rich meaty juice instantly filled his mouth.
At that moment, deliciousness overwhelmed him!
Once he overcame his mental barrier, he had no more reservations, grabbing the roasted insects off the stone slab as fast as he could, eating all of them in no time like a whirlwind.
Hu Tu watched, dumbfounded, at his side.
Afterward, the two of them boiled some mountain stream water, and Hu Tu added some dried mushrooms he'd picked up from who knows where, creating a cup of unique tea that cut through the richness.
When Hu Tu got up to fetch the charred kettle, he didn't notice at all that a poison snake, with a greyish color similar to the rocks, suddenly raised its head from a crack nearby and struck at him.
Just as the snake was about to bite his arm, Yuan Ming, who was also at an angle to the snake, tossed an eggstone.
"Swoosh"
The eggstone shot through the air like an arrow, and with a "thud," it hit the snake.
Shocked, Hu Tu turned to look and saw not far from his feet a venomous Gray Rock Snake, whose vital seven inches had been smashed by the stone, now flopping weakly on the ground.
"How did you do that?" He looked at Yuan Ming incredulously, feeling deeply shaken.
Because from where Yuan Ming had been standing, it was very difficult to spot the poison snake, let alone casually throw a stone and hit the snake's weak spot precisely, killing it.
Hu Tu pointed at the dead snake, and Yuan Ming also looked surprised.
"Talk about good luck, I didn't expect a stone thrown at random could actually kill a snake."
"That's some incredibly good luck. Are you very skilled or something?" Hu Tu couldn't help but swallow his saliva, "With such skill, how did you get injured?"
Though he thought the episode might really have been an accident, recalling the knife wound on Yuan Ming's leg, Hu Tu couldn't shake the feeling that Yuan Ming's combat abilities were far from simple.
"Can't remember," Yuan Ming, touching the injured area on his thigh, shook his head.
Having said that, he went forward to pick up the Gray Rock Snake, planning to throw it a distance away.
"Hey, don't throw it away, don't throw it away. The flesh and blood of this Gray Rock Snake is a nourishing substance, just right to replenish your depleted Qi-Blood, it's a rare delicacy," Hu Tu hastily stopped him.
In no time at all, he had cleaned the venomous snake and put its tender flesh into a tin pot, along with some broth of mushrooms that cut the greasiness, turning it into a pot of snake meat soup.
Hu Tu moved aside, grabbed a whole Snake Gallbladder, tilted his head back, and threw it down his throat, swallowing it in one gulp.
After eating, he came back to sit, and the two of them began to eat the snake soup.
"Yuan Ming, being bitten by a Gray Rock Snake can be fatal, you saved my life," Hu Tu said while eating the snake meat.
"It's nothing," Yuan Ming waved his hand, focusing on eating and not really caring.
"Yuan Ming, someone as powerful as you, how did you end up injured and stranded here? And even brought to the cemetery by a corpse collector," Hu Tu stopped chewing and looked at Yuan Ming, tentatively asking.
"If I knew that, I wouldn't be sitting here," Yuan Ming replied in a muffled voice.
After hesitating for a moment, Hu Tu then recounted the circumstances of how Yuan Ming was brought by Old Smoke Bag.
You say a word, I say a word, chatting and eating until the snake soup was finished before Hu Tu continued, "Our food is now gone, and we can't stay in the woods any longer, but you..."
"My memory may take a while to recover, but I want to go back to the Central Plains. Is there any way?" Yuan Ming understood what he meant and asked.
"There is a way," Hu Tu said finally, as if he had made some significant decision, raising his head.
"What way?" Yuan Ming asked curiously.
"Join the military, enlist," Hu Tu said.
"Join the army? What's the logic in that?" Yuan Ming was a bit puzzled.
"A couple of years ago, the Central Plains closed the trade ports, not allowing those merchants to do business in the Southern Border. The Southern Border also prevented various tribes from going to the border, to prevent them from smuggling into the Central Plains. Da Jin Country even built High Walls at the border passes to stop the people of the Southern Border from crossing. Other than soldiers, it's difficult for ordinary people to get near the border," Hu Tu sighed.
"The border line between the Central Plains and the Southern Border is very long; there must be loopholes somewhere in the middle. Can't we find a way to smuggle across?" Yuan Ming asked.
"Easier said than done. Without knowing the routes, if you just blunder in there, I'm afraid you'd be chopped into pieces as a deserter or spy before you even reach the border. How would you smuggle across?" Hu Tu looked at Yuan Ming as if he were looking at a fool and retorted.
"If we don't have a known route, we look for someone who does," Yuan Ming said nonchalantly.
"You mean find a smuggling caravan? Those guys live life on the edge, licking blood off their knives. If you meet a somewhat honest one, they might just strip you clean and leave you alive. But if you meet a dishonest one, hmm hmm..." Hu Tu's voice trailed off, but Yuan Ming understood the consequences would be dire.
"So it seems that enlisting is the only way to legitimately get to the border, and then maybe sneak into the Central Plains?" Yuan Ming stroked his chin, pondering aloud.
"Some in the army do this as a business, only they charge more than the caravans but are relatively safer. After all, they don't act lawlessly like the caravans do," Hu Tu said with some confidence.
"I think this method could work. Will we have to go back to your tribe later on?" Yuan Ming asked.
"That's impossible to go back to now," Hu Tu shook his head repeatedly.
"Is that really necessary...?" Yuan Ming said in surprise.
"Is it necessary? You have no idea. If I hadn't saved you back then, you would have been sold with the other corpses to the Black Fire Sect to be turned into refined zombies, they wouldn't care whether you were dead or alive. Leaving there, even leaking their deal with the Black Fire Sect, if they catch me, won't they beat me to death?" Hu Tu raised his eyebrows, raising his voice a few notches.