Xuanxia

Chapter 356: Gourmet
Night rain, small building, dim lights.

The ground was covered with corpses, broken swords and arrows, pools of blood, and a heavy murderous intent.

In the small building, a man huddled in a corner, looking at the corpses all over the building, fear written all over his face.

But this fear gradually turned into excitement and joy!
There were still tears in his eyes, but he began to laugh. The laughter became louder and louder until it turned into a wild laugh!
The wild laughter stopped abruptly when that figure appeared.

It was a red dress and a sword as slender as rain.

"Remember, I am the one leading the team on the mission today, Wu Yan. Please go to any base of Xiyu Pavilion within seven days, report my name, and hand over the remaining half of the secret book that I promised you."

"Otherwise, Xiyu Pavilion will come out in full force to target every member of your Huang family until there is no one left to kill."

The dim light illuminated half of the visitor's face.

This is Wu Yan.

He was badly injured, his body was covered with horrible wounds, he was stabbed at least thirty times, and there were at least twenty arrows stuck in his body, but he didn't care.

Of course, he was not the only one coming... Behind him, there were several killers in red, but they were all hidden in the shadows and did not say a word.

Hearing what he said, the man in the corner laughed wildly again.

"Okay! Okay! No problem! I know the rules, of course I know!"

He stood up, kicking the corpses around him like crazy, laughing loudly, "You bunch of evil ghosts! You have bullied our Huang family for so many years, and now you are finally dead! Finally dead! A bunch of secret manuals can buy your lives, it's worth it! It's worth it!"

"It's worth it that our Huang family endured humiliation and hardship over the years! You are finally dead, finally dead! Hahahaha!"

Wu Yan had no interest in their grudges.

He calmly pulled out the arrows from his body and turned around and said, "You go back first."

The killers in the shadows seemed to be very familiar with his style of doing things. No one objected, and they all broke out of the windows of the small building and disappeared into the night rain.

Only the last killer who left stopped, turned his head and said one more word before leaving.

"We shouldn't have habits."

Wu Yan looked at him without saying anything, his expression showing no fluctuation at all.

Seeing him like this, the killer said no more and jumped out of the window like the other killers.

Seeing that his colleagues had left, Wu Yan swung his rapier to wipe off the blood beads on the sword and put it back into the sheath.

Then, he walked towards the crazy man and pulled out all the arrows from his body.

The man was no longer satisfied with just punching and kicking the corpses around him; he even pulled out a dagger and slashed at the corpses frantically.

"You, give me your clothes."

Wu Yan spoke calmly, blood gushing out from the holes and knife wounds on his body.

The man paused for a moment and was stunned: "Clothes?"

"Ah."

Wu Yan pointed to the wound on his body and said, "I want to bandage it."

The man finally understood and took off his shirt and threw it over without hesitation. Then he swung the knife again and vented his anger on the corpses of his enemies.

Wu Yan ignored him, tore his clothes into strips, and bandaged his wounds carefully.

Of course he didn't feel any pain and didn't care.

But he remembered that last time in Luoyi, the man named Fu Qingzhou found him by following the water stains.

There are water stains like this, but also blood stains?
In the past, Wu Yan didn’t care about these things.

Because in past missions, his men never left anyone alive.

Before the relatives and friends of the dead come looking for him, he will go very far away and no one will find him.

But now... things seem to have changed.

Is the task given by the Lord more difficult? Is it that I am weaker?
Wu Yan didn’t think about these things, he just felt a little hungry.

This is a villa deep in the mountains, about forty or fifty miles away from the nearest town. If he wants to go there to eat... it's too far.

Originally, he had some steamed buns with him, but the fight today was so brutal that the buns had been chopped into pieces and could not be eaten.

What should I do?
It doesn't matter, he remembered. There was a hunter's hut about five or six miles away from here. That kind of hut didn't belong to anyone but was shared by hunters in the mountains. When they went into the mountains to hunt, they always needed a place to rest temporarily, and this kind of hut was the one.

There is always some food in that hut.

Those were left behind by passing hunters. What I leave behind today may save a hunter who is dying of hunger someday; similarly, what others leave behind today may save my life someday.

Day and night, there was always food and drink, and even a pot and a stove, in the hunter's hut.

If he wanted to fill his stomach in such a close place, he naturally needed to hide himself.

It didn't take much effort for Wu Yan to arrive at the hunter's hut.

As he expected, there were plenty of ingredients here.

In late autumn, many wild animals in the mountains are preparing for winter. They will eat themselves fat and thick from summer to autumn, so this is also the season when hunters have the most harvests.

Strings of dried meat were hung at the door of the hut, and a lot of dry food and meat products were placed inside the hut. There was even a small vegetable patch behind the hut, and the fruits on several small fruit trees next to the house were ripe.

A rare flash of excitement appeared in Wu Yan's eyes, and he soon started working skillfully.

He first moved some dry firewood from the corner of the house, piled them next to the stove in the middle of the hut, and then skillfully lit the fire.

Then he took a piece of dried venison from the shelf in the cabin. The meat was firm and had a light salty aroma.

Wu Yan put the venison into an iron pot, and picked a few fresh peppers and a handful of coriander from the vegetable garden behind the cottage. He chopped them up and put them into the pot, adding a bit of freshness and fragrance to the venison.

The venison in the pot gradually gave off an alluring aroma under the scorching flames. Taking advantage of this gap, he took out half a bag of flour from the wooden cabinet beside him, mixed it with water, kneaded it into dough, and rolled it into thin pancakes. When the venison in the pot was almost cooked, he put the pancakes on the edge of the pot and let them slowly cook in the steam of the stewed meat.

At this time, the hut was already filled with fragrance. Wu Yan scooped a spoonful of honey from the pottery jar beside him and spread it evenly on the dough. Suddenly, the sweet and salty aromas intertwined, making people salivate.

Finally, he picked a few ripe fruits from the fruit tree next to the house, put them in a wooden bowl, and crushed them gently with a wooden pestle to make a fresh jam.

Wu Yan brought the stewed venison, fragrant bread and fresh jam to the simple wooden table - although this was a meal for one person, it seemed particularly sumptuous in this hunter's cabin deep in the mountains.

He sat down, took a deep breath, and then began his dinner, or supper: the venison was cooked to perfection, with a slightly spicy taste in the salty aroma; the dough was soft and delicious, with the sweet aroma of honey; the jam was sweet and sour, adding a bit of freshness to the dinner. When traveling around the world, if there is a place where you can buy food with money, you can buy it with money; if there is no one to sell food, you can cook it yourself.

If you want to eat well, you can’t always rely on others.

A bite of venison, a bite of bread, and a bite of jam...

Wu Yan ate very contentedly, his eyes becoming more and more determined, as if he was carrying out a most important mission.

No...it's even more determined than that. You could even say it's pious.

Food is more important than life.

He has no life, no self, but still has a trace of humanity.

This bit of human nature comes from food.

Eating was the only time he could feel "alive", but he was not sure whether this was a curse.

He remembered it very, very clearly.

He was only five years old at that time.

At that time, he was not called Wu Yan.

He has a seriously ill mother, a father who loves drinking, and a dog who has been with him since he was a child.

The dog would stick out its tongue and wag its tail at him. No matter how far away it saw him, the puppy would run over and lick his face with its tongue, making him laugh.

Yes...at that time, he would still laugh, and he would always laugh.

But one day, when he woke up, his father was gone.

In fact, it is not surprising that my father disappeared. This father who loved drinking always disappeared from time to time. He might have run away with another woman, or been seriously injured while gambling with others, or simply died of drunkenness somewhere.

He doesn't care.

But before leaving, Dad would lock the door.

Because my mother was seriously ill and had no strength and could hardly move, there were always some wretched villagers in the village who would sneak into my mother's room and lock the door when my father was away... Later, my father found out and took his anger out on Wu Yan and beat him up.

From then on, whenever Dad went out, he would lock the door.

But this time, Dad never came back, and Wu Yan and Mom were both hungry.

All the edible food at home was eaten up in two days.

His mother had no strength, and neither did he, a five-year-old boy.

They couldn't break down the door or open the window, and no one responded no matter how they shouted.

The dog kept barking too.

After some time, neither he nor the dog could bark anymore.

The dog lay on the ground, having lost a lot of weight. Occasionally at night, he could see a green light in the dog's eyes.

Mother hadn't spoken for a long time. Wu Yan didn't know if that meant "death", but he could smell that she was starting to stink.

But no matter how smelly the room was, he was still hungry.

I'm so hungry that I'm dying!
He had gnawed on straw mats, bed boards... and even bit off the flesh on his own hands.

He was afraid to see his mother's appearance and quietly closed the door.

When closing the door, he looked at his mother lying on the bed. She tilted her head towards him, and the light in her eyes was indescribable. He didn't know if his mother was still looking at him, nor did he know what that light meant.

But he didn't dare to look again, he was afraid... He was afraid of his mother's appearance, and also afraid of the sound that would come from his stomach when he saw his mother.

Not only was he hungry, the dog was hungry too.

The dog that had wagged its tail and grinned at him before, now ate up its own shit, licked up the water stains on the ground, and chewed up the remaining hay on the stove... and finally began to look at him.

That night, the dog jumped on him.

A piece of flesh was bitten off Wu Yan's calf. He burst into tears in pain and picked up something nearby and threw it at the dog. The dog whimpered and ran away.

But at this time, he had already become ruthless.

If you want to eat me, I will eat you too!

In the closed hut, a man was chasing and a dog was running. They were both out of strength and rolled to the ground while fighting. Wu Yan didn't know when the pain on his leg had become so severe that he could no longer feel it. His head was also smashed and bleeding, but he still didn't feel any pain. The only thing in his eyes was the dog... He was so hungry, he wanted to eat, he wanted to eat!

The dog was beaten so hard that it limped and whimpered with its tail between its legs, struggling to crawl into corners and cracks.

With a bang, Wu Yan lost his strength while chasing and fell heavily into a cabinet. The things on the cabinet fell to the ground and he fell to the ground with a thud.

The loud bang of the cabinet falling over was endless, but he didn't even have the strength to raise his head.

After an unknown amount of time, he finally regained some strength and slowly raised his head.

He would never forget this look.

The overturned cabinet smashed open a door...it was my mother's room.

"clatter."

Wu Yan put down the wooden bowl in his hand, looking somewhat satisfied.

The venison was gone, the bread was gone, and the jam was gone.

The hunger in my stomach was slightly relieved.

But he knew very well that it would not be long before this hunger would come back again.

Until then, get on with what you have to do and find your next meal.

Thinking this, he quickly cleaned up the traces he had left behind, left the hunter's cabin, and disappeared into the night.

PS: Wu Yan’s plot is related to the next major main plot, so the beginning of this volume will write about Wu Yan’s story.

(End of this chapter)