Longzang

Chapter 357 Methods of Destroying Strongholds
Wei Yuan was in a daze that night, sleeping and waking up repeatedly.

Suddenly the door opened again, and the woman returned.

She carried a few pieces of firewood, and in her pocket were two things that looked like potatoes. Her hands and face were blue from the cold. She went into the house and warmed herself by the fire. It took her a while to stop shivering.

After burying two pieces of firewood in the charcoal fire, she went to bed, burrowed into the straw and fur, and squeezed together with Wei Yuan.

Despite adding firewood, the room grew even colder; night had fallen. On such a cold winter night, the two of them had to huddle together tightly to keep warm.

Wei Yuan felt inexplicably at ease and fell into a deep sleep.

Not long after, the woman got up, fetched a bucket of water, dissolved the mud, added chopped straw to the mud, and then sealed the cracks in the wall.

After sleeping for a day, Wei Yuan felt somewhat better, but his body was even weaker. He knew that his injuries wouldn't heal if he continued like this, and he needed to eat.

But the woman only gave herself a bowl of soup all day, and she didn't eat much else, which suggests that food was extremely scarce in this place.

Wei Yuan said, "Could you take me out for a walk?"

The woman didn't ask any more questions. She helped Wei Yuan off the bed, wrapped him in the only old animal skin on the bed, and then took him out the door.

As soon as he stepped out of the room, a blast of cold wind hit him, almost freezing him to death. He barely managed to release his divine sense, only to find that it seemed to be strongly suppressed here. The range he could perceive was very small, just a few feet around him, and even then, it was blurry and indistinct. He could only vaguely sense some outlines and physical properties.

While reaching out and feeling around, Wei Yuan secretly released his divine sense to scan the surroundings.

This is a small house built on a hillside, surrounded by a stone wall. There's also a small courtyard with a dilapidated stone wall around it, offering little protection against wild animals. Within the area of ​​one's spiritual sense, there's only an old tree; there are no other inhabitants.

The courtyard walls were covered with a thick layer of snow, and some snow had been cleared from inside the courtyard. The hillsides outside were mostly rocky, and at this time of year, they were covered in snow everywhere, with hardly any vegetation.

"Are there any wild animals nearby, or pine cones or sweet potatoes?"

"There are wild animals in the forest, including wolves. If you're lucky, you might find sweet potatoes in the forest, but you can only go in to dig them at noon. No one can approach the forest except for one hour at noon, or they will be captured by monsters."

"A monster?" Wei Yuan asked.

“They are terrifying. The village elders say they have actually been dead for thousands of years. But the longer they have been dead, the more terrifying they are. Fortunately, they never approach the village and they don’t run very fast. If you do encounter them, just run fast enough to get back to the village and you’ll be safe.”

This place is indeed extraordinary, Wei Yuan thought to himself.

Places where undead monsters appear often have extremely yin underground caves. Since these undead monsters can live for thousands of years, the cave must be incredibly powerful, perhaps even reaching the level of a deep burial pit. The fact that undead monsters dare not enter villages suggests that the villages likely possess treasures capable of subduing them.

As far as Wei Yuan knew, an immortal monster that could exist for more than a hundred years was already extremely terrifying, so how could there be one here that was a thousand years old? However, considering the remoteness of the mountain village, it was very likely that people had exaggerated.

What kinds of wild animals live in the forest?

"There are more wolves, and I heard there are also snow leopards. A few years ago, a child in the village was carried off by a snow leopard. In addition, there are deer and wild boars."

Are there hunters in the village?

"The two village elders used to be hunters, but they are both sick and haven't been to the mountains for half a month."

After listening, Wei Yuan felt that the forest was probably inhabited by ordinary wild animals.

Wei Yuan then said, "Help me walk around the courtyard twice. I have a very keen sense of smell and can detect if any wild animals are lurking nearby."

"You have this skill?" The woman was very suspicious, but she still helped Wei Yuan walk around the courtyard twice.

The courtyard was small, but the terrain was uneven. Wei Yuan had no feeling in his left leg, so he dragged one leg and moved one step at a time, with half of his body weight on the woman.

Although the mountain women were thin, they were quite strong and managed to lift her up. After walking around the yard twice, Wei Yuan had a general idea of ​​what was going on, and then casually pinched the woman's waist.

The woman wasn't annoyed and said, "What, you can't wait that long?"

"No, look at your muscles and bones." After pinching her, Wei Yuan knew there was no trace of body tempering on the woman's body. Her muscles and bones were only at the strength of an ordinary person. Based on this, he deduced that the creatures roaming the mountains and forests were probably ordinary wild animals.

Back in the courtyard, Wei Yuan was exhausted. He sat down to rest for a while before saying, "Do you have any tools? I'll make some hunting traps so we can go hunting in the mountains tonight."

"I have a machete and an axe, I'll go borrow them. But hunting is only allowed during noon. Undead monsters appear at other times."

"Then tomorrow at noon. We need the axe."

"Then you wait here, I'll go borrow it." The woman left hurriedly. After she walked a few feet, Wei Yuan could no longer sense her whereabouts. When she returned, Wei Yuan picked up a few stones and smashed them one by one. Relying on his control over his body and his understanding of the properties of objects, he quickly smashed out two stone spearheads.

At this moment, the woman returned with the axe. Wei Yuan took it, rummaged through the woodpile in the yard for a while, pulled out two long pieces of firewood, used the axe to trim off the excess branches, and then tied the stone spearhead to them.

The two of them slept together again that night, and they only ate one meal that day.

The next day at noon, Wei Yuan and the woman arrived at the edge of the woods on the hillside. Wei Yuan smelled a faint scent of wild animals. Not long after, a wolf emerged from the forest and pounced on the two of them.

Wei Yuan tried to block with his left arm, but the wolf bit him. Wei Yuan immediately raised his right hand and thrust his spear, killing the wolf instantly. The wolf struggled to bite, but couldn't even break the skin on Wei Yuan's left arm.

Wei Yuan found a small tree about the size of a bowl, used the little bit of Dao power he had recovered to gently cut it down, and dragged it back.

That afternoon, the two of them had an extra large pot of meat soup, a half-finished wolf pelt, and a few more pieces of firewood added to the charcoal fire that evening. Sleeping together wasn't so cold anymore.

Wei Yuan slept soundly and peacefully that night.

With the wolf meat replenishing his strength, Wei Yuan regained some feeling in his previously numb hands and feet, and was able to use his Dao power more effectively. Wei Yuan then used the core of the small tree he had cut down the day before to make a straight four-foot-long wooden stick, which he then carried up the mountain with the woman.

This time, the two ventured a little deeper into the forest, walking several dozen feet into the woods before crouching down.

This time, a pack of wolves appeared deep in the woods. As the wolves charged, Wei Yuan shoved the woman face down onto the snow, then attached a gleaming bayonet to a wooden stick.

This was manifested by Wei Yuan using some of his restored Dao power; there were no other supernatural phenomena involved, it was simply the transformation of matter into steel.

Although the wolf pack was numerous, they were just ordinary wild beasts and couldn't even bite through Wei Yuan's hide. After switching to a bayonet, Wei Yuan relied on his instincts to kill them one by one, quickly dispatching more than ten wolves.

After returning home, the woman sent several wolves to the village and distributed them to the other villagers. While she was away, Wei Yuan conjured a sharp dagger and dealt with the remaining seven or eight wolves in one go.

For this dinner, Wei Yuan ate two wolves, while the woman ate two whole wolf legs.

The campfire blazed brightly that night, and the two slept nestled together, the woman's forehead glistening with sweat.

At dawn, Wei Yuan woke up.

After having a hearty meal last night, he felt better. His left leg could barely support his body, and he had regained feeling in his left hand. No longer having to drag one leg, Wei Yuan could move much faster.

At noon, Wei Yuan and the woman entered the forest again. This time, Wei Yuan carried a wooden stick in his right hand and held the woman's hand with his left, letting her lead the way.

As they ventured deeper into the forest, they encountered two lone wolves. However, once a wolf entered the range of Wei Yuan's divine sense, it was doomed.

This time, their exploration of the forest went smoothly, and they found a sweet potato field. While the woman was digging, Wei Yuan stood guard beside her. Just then, they suddenly heard the sound of rustling branches and leaves, and a ferocious beast was running through the canopy, circling around the two of them.

Its location was just outside Wei Yuan's perception range. Wei Yuan asked, "Where is it located?"

"Upper right, no, right, it's left now!" the woman cried out in a series of shouts, but Wei Yuan couldn't determine their location from her words at all. Just then, the beast suddenly pounced, attacking the woman and pinning her to the ground!
Wei Yuan immediately threw himself onto the beast, a sharp knife appearing in his hand, and stabbed it fiercely into the beast's body!
As the beast struggled in pain, Wei Yuan seized the opportunity to roll over and drag it off the woman. With a few hissing sounds, the beast's claws tore open the woman's clothes.

This wild beast weighed several hundred pounds and possessed immense strength; Wei Yuan was even struggling to hold it. Suddenly, it struggled violently, rolled over, and bit Wei Yuan's throat!

Four sharp canine teeth pierced Wei Yuan's skin, struggling to pry open his muscles, and then got stuck on his throat bone. With a forceful bite, several cracks appeared on the tips of his teeth, causing him to let out a mournful cry.

Wei Yuan then held another short iron pipe in his hand, pressed it against the beast, and with a bang, a large hole appeared in the beast's chest.

On the way back, Wei Yuan dragged the snow leopard with one hand and carried the woman with the other, moving step by step until they finally made it back to the courtyard.

The woman had four bloody wounds on her back, ripped open by the snow leopard's claws. Wei Yuan treated these kinds of injuries with ease. He had the woman lie face down on the bed, took some herbs she had gathered, ground them up, and sprinkled them on the wounds.

These herbs looked useless, and in fact, they were completely useless. Wei Yuan sealed the wound with his own Dao power, then took a little of the life force from the precious tree on Jade Mountain and sprinkled it on the wound.

Although Wei Yuan only extracted a negligible amount of life force, its effect on a mortal woman was equivalent to bringing the dead back to life and healing flesh and bones. Wei Yuan applied the medicine with one hand while stroking the woman's back with the other.

The women in the mountains are indeed naturally strong; the curvature of their spine is just right, and they can unleash tremendous power when they bend and spring back.

The woman suddenly said, "Stop!"

Wei Yuan didn't stop.

The woman immediately reached out and pinched the tenderest spot on Wei Yuan's waist hard!
Wei Yuan gasped in pain!
No matter how well he was cast, he couldn't withstand such a mysterious technique of lifting a small area and rotating it 180 degrees.

(End of this chapter)