The End of the Extreme Dao: I Planted a Sacred Tree and Gained Immortality

Chapter 5 Familiarity
Zhang Yuqi was silent, she was thinking.

"Sister Bai said that you have severe amnesia and have forgotten your survival instinct."

"If you live on your own, you can easily die."

Zhang Yuqi handed Huo Ying a Yang stone: "Come back with me first, let Sister Bai take a look at your body."

Without giving Huo Ying a chance to refuse, Zhang Yuqi walked in front and led Huo Ying back along the loess road.

Arriving at the previous house, Zhang Yuqi roasted the red sun stone and knocked hard on the window a few times.

Inside the room, a red yang stone was also roasted, and it responded with a sound on the window.

"So this is how humans distinguish between zombies."

Yang stone can restrain corpse ghosts, and only living people will hold the roasted Yang stone. Huo Ying secretly memorized this method.

The door opened quickly. Sister Bai saw Huo Ying, hesitated for a moment, then stepped aside to let the two enter the room.

"Sister Bai..." Zhang Yuqi's voice sounded a little weak.

Sister Bai ignored Zhang Yuqi and leaned against the cabinet, her eyes sweeping across Huo Ying like a sharp sword.

Seeing that Huo Ying's lips were dry from thirst, Sister Bai sighed, opened the cupboard door, found an aluminum can, and poured some saliva from a large glass bottle into the can.

"Sip it." Sister Bai said, "Let your body learn to tolerate hunger and thirst. You ate all the potatoes yesterday, didn't you?"

Huo Ying took the water and nodded.

"From now on, you have to eat one potato for two days." Sister Bai's tone was unfriendly, but Huo Ying was very surprised. He could hear that Sister Bai's subtext was that she agreed to accept him.

Zhang Yuqi deliberately remained silent and let Bai Jie and Huo Ying communicate.

Only after Sister Bai accepted Huo Ying did Zhang Yuqi give Huo Ying a look, which meant, see, Sister Bai is a good person.

Noticing that Zhang Yuqi and Huo Ying were flirting with each other, Sister Bai said to Zhang Yuqi unhappily, "You've caused so much trouble because someone is in love."

"Sister Bai, you are right, but Huo Ying means that he needs to adapt alone for a while."

Zhang Yuqi recounted what happened to Huo Ying last night, and emphasized that Huo Ying decided to live alone for the sake of both of them.

"What are you showing off for?" Sister Bai rolled her eyes at Zhang Yuqi, but her expression towards Huo Ying became much softer. Having seen corpse ghosts and been attacked by them, she still cares about others and has the courage to live alone. This is rare.

"Yangshi restrains corpses, especially when the poplar wood flame and Yangshi are both there. For corpses, it's like humans seeing a cesspool. They will just avoid it and won't risk their lives to jump in." Sister Bai said seriously: "Perhaps, you have survived the infection and have changed. Either you have become more attractive to corpses, which is stronger than the Yangshi's restraint on corpses, or the corpses have a reason to kill you."

"If it's the former, you're a disaster now. If it's the latter..." Sister Bai used actions instead of words. She picked up another syringe and took a tube of blood from Huo Ying.

Huo Ying closed his eyes. It was not because he was afraid of needles, but because he really didn't want to see Sister Bai's dirty nails.

Zhang Yuqi said: "Sister Bai, I want to give Huo Ying some food and water, and then take Huo Ying to familiarize herself with the surrounding environment."

Sister Bai's hand holding the syringe trembled a little: "Okay, you deliberately waited until I finished drawing blood before telling me. With such a small amount of blood, you want to exchange the food and water." But Sister Bai was joking. She had just decided to accept Huo Ying, so naturally she had to give Huo Ying food. However, it was also true that she felt sorry for the food. Sister Bai hid in another room with the syringe, out of sight, out of mind.

Zhang Yuqi took out a bag, opened the cellar, took out five yang stones, five potatoes, five poplar trees and a mineral water bottle, but there was only half a bottle of water in the bottle.

"Here, I'll show you around."

This time, Zhang Yuqi walked very slowly to teach Huo Ying how to identify the road. The two houses were not far apart, and if they jogged, they could reach the destination in seven or eight minutes.

"If you want to survive, Yangshi and Poplar wood are essential."

"We are not the only ones living in this town. There are other people as well. Poplar trees do not grow that fast. The more we use them, the less they are. They are the most precious resource."

"You can pick up Yangshi in the mining area, but only in the areas exposed to the sun. Don't go to places in the mining area where the sun doesn't shine."

Starting from Huo Ying’s house, walk for about half an hour and you will see a stretch of rolling low hills. This is the mining area. Walk for another half an hour and you will reach the foot of the mountain.

As they were walking, Huo Ying suddenly stopped. He signaled Zhang Yuqi to keep quiet, then tilted his ear to listen.

Huo Ying heard the sound of water.

Huo Ying looked at Zhang Yuqi with surprise and gestured to her, but Zhang Yuqi had a blank expression on her face.

Huo Ying tentatively walked towards the place where the sound of water came from. Zhang Yuqi did not refuse, but followed behind him.

As we passed the foot of the mountain, the sound of water became clearer and clearer. As we got closer, we found a small stream. The water was only a finger deep and clear in the sun. The pebbles on the bottom of the water were clean and shining.

"Can't you drink this water?"

Seeing that Zhang Yuqi's face was very calm, Huo Ying did not dare to act rashly and pointed to the stream.

"Look." Zhang Yuqi pulled a thread off her clothes and threw it into the stream.

The next moment, the thread end seemed to have come to life and began to twist in the stream. A large number of bubbles emerged. Huo Ying discovered that the thread end was actually decomposing. Within a few breaths, the thread end broke into pieces. In the blink of an eye, the thread end disappeared and the stream slowly calmed down.

"Are there bugs in this water?" Huo Ying thought of the sharp-fanged flying insects in the black fog, with a look of fear on his face. If Zhang Yuqi had not been by his side, he would probably have died in the stream when he saw it.

Zhang Yuqi pulled Huo Ying back a few steps: "I don't know, it could be a fungus. The world has become increasingly weird. If you see a large amount of supplies, you must be suspicious at the first time. Only in this way can you survive."

"The water here is drinkable, but it's very troublesome." Zhang Yuqi introduced: "Use poplar wood to make a container. After taking the water, filter it with charcoal from the burnt poplar wood. Then use the poplar wood as fuel, throw in yang stones into the water, and boil them together. Only in this way can the stream water be drunk."

"People used to get water here, but now poplar trees are rare, and this stream has been abandoned." Zhang Yuqi continued: "Now we can get water from the dew condensed when the sun disperses the black fog, or filter water from some water-storing plants."

Huo Ying looked around. He had always felt something was strange, and now he finally knew what was wrong. He and Zhang Yuqi had been walking for so long, but they didn't see a single plant.

"There were many people in this town before, but as the poplar trees were cut down and all the plants were eaten up, everyone died or fled. Now, I don't know who is left here."

The two left the stream and climbed up the hill. Zhang Yuqi pulled Huo Ying away from the shadows where the sun didn't reach, and searched through the piles of rocks one by one with a lighter.

(End of this chapter)