After Wang Hu was slapped, his unfocused eyes finally converged, then slowly turned ferocious, like an injured lone wolf.
He first looked at Lu Ye, then turned his line of sight toward the soldiers not far away who were hacking at the scattered refugees.
Wang Hu wiped the snot and tears from his face violently and climbed up, gripping the simple spear in his hand. His face was flushed red, and the five-finger print from the slap still hung on half of his face, swollen high.
A muffled sound squeezed out from his throat, desperate and shrill.
"Eldest brother, I'll listen to you, let's screw them!"
Wang Hu took a big step, ready to rush out and fight to the death with the soldiers chasing the refugees by the river.
Lu Ye was anxious; he tried to pull him back several times but couldn't.
Slap!
He had no choice but to slap Wang Hu again. Now, Wang Hu's ferocious face had palm prints hanging on both sides, finally making it symmetrical.
Wang Hu was dumbfounded. The ferocious aura on his body plummeted, and he looked at Lu Ye with a wronged expression.
"Eldest brother, why did you hit me again?"
Lu Ye, feeling that he was failing to meet expectations, pointed to the mountain and said.
"Hu Zi, you're running the wrong way! We need to run toward the mountain!"
"The government soldiers are numerous, and they have servants of powerful families as lackeys. There are only two of us, and we haven't even eaten our fill."
"Do you think you're a Grandmaster, rushing into an army of thousands all by yourself?"
"We brothers need to survive, not seek death! No one has discovered us yet, so it's not the time for you and me to fight for our lives!"
Wang Hu instantly sobered up. He might not listen to anything else, but when a Grandmaster was mentioned, he finally knew his own worth.
"Eldest brother is right," he said, rubbing the palm marks on his face. "Hiss... don't hit my face so hard next time, it hurts too much... let's run toward the mountain..."
The two immediately helped each other up and ran toward the mountain.
Because they were afraid of exposing their figures on the official road and attracting pursuers, they dared not run openly along the Great Dao and could only hunch over and hurry along the side of the official road.
Wang Hu grabbed Lu Ye's two arms and took long strides, almost starting to run. Lu Ye hurriedly pulled his arm, intentionally controlling their speed.
"Hu Zi, don't run too fast. If we run too fast, we have no food in our bellies and won't be able to hold up. If we run too fast and exhaust ourselves, we'll only fall on the spot and be at the mercy of others."
"We only need to run faster than the others."
Wang Hu originally wanted to say that there were pursuers behind them and the faster they ran the better, but as soon as he opened his mouth, he felt his cheeks aching, so he instantly changed his words.
"Understood, eldest brother. I'll listen to you from now on."
Thus, the two adjusted their speed, supporting themselves with wooden sticks, helping each other, and moving forward while hunched over, not forgetting to turn their heads to look back as they ran.
They saw that behind them had already turned into a human hell.
At this moment, more than half of the sun had fallen below the mountaintop, with only a little afterglow struggling to illuminate the world, like the remaining light of a dying candle, ready to be extinguished at any time.
Outside the city.
Armed soldiers, runners, and servants of powerful families rushed out, holding knives and spears, dividing into dozens of small teams, crashing into the refugee shacks, and wantonly hacking at the old and weak.
On the other side, the government soldiers who had gone out to suppress bandits today crossed the river, launched an attack from the rear of the refugees, and split into several small teams to patrol along the river, preventing the refugees from crossing the river to escape.
The old, weak, women, and children among the refugees, facing the soldiers from both sides, were like fragile tofu, caught between two iron hammers, shattering into pieces.
The setting sun watched in silence, dyeing the earth red.
However, the refugee shacks occupied too much land, and the soldiers scattered everywhere, attacking from front and back, forming a not-so-tight large net, and many refugees on the outer perimeter escaped through the "mesh" of the net.
Many of them waded across the river from afar and ran toward the foot of the mountain, while many other refugees ran toward the wilderness on both sides of the city, just thinking about staying away from this hell of slaughter.
When scattered refugees crossed the river, the patrolling cavalry teams would fiercely chase them down with infantry.
In just a short time, from the river to the foot of the mountain, many corpses had fallen. Following the fleeing refugees, dozens of soldiers also rushed past the foot of the mountain, chasing toward the mountain.
Lu Ye and Wang Hu dared not look too much and hurried away while helping each other.
The two thought about controlling their speed, but behind them were the cries of many refugees rushing straight to the heavens and the shouts of soldiers who had gone bloodthirsty from killing, causing the two to involuntarily quicken their pace a bit more.
They stumbled along all the way, and only when the sky turned dark enough to conceal their figures did Lu Ye dare to pull Wang Hu onto the official road to escape.
They didn't know how long they had been running, but the sounds of crying and fighting in their ears gradually faded.
The two were panting heavily. At this time, they had already reached the mountainside. Their legs were trembling, their breathing was rapid, and they ran slower and slower, finally turning into a crawl.
Lu Ye and Wang Hu turned their heads to look back.
At this moment, the sun had completely set, and the black night enveloped the sky.
Outside the city, many refugee shacks were tilted, and many had been set on fire, illuminating the surroundings, where one could see many refugees lying dead on the ground.
Perhaps the government soldiers who "went on an expedition" today had been running around all day, first killing the young and strong, then returning to the city for one final strike, which had exhausted much of their physical strength.
A horn blew mournfully. The many soldiers who had been chasing on the mountain earlier held torches, crossed the river one after another to regroup, and followed the main force of soldiers toward the city.
Wang Hu sat on the ground on his buttocks, panting and saying.
"Eldest brother, have we escaped?"
Lu Ye frowned.
The government authorities first picked out the young and strong refugees in the name of conscription, then used the excuse of an expedition to suppress bandits to slay them, and then attacked from front and back to destroy the refugee shacks occupied by the old, weak, women, and children.
The large group of young and strong refugees had been wiped out, and those old, weak, and few young people who escaped would never pose a threat to the city again.
It was now night, and he feared the government authorities had no energy left to continue chasing everyone.
"Perhaps," Lu Ye gasped for air. "Take out the steamed bun, eat a little to replenish your strength first, then see whether to hide or flee."
Wang Hu took the only remaining hard bun from his embrace, broke it into two, and handed the larger half to Lu Ye.
Lu Ye blocked it and took the smaller half.
"Hu Zi, you eat more. If a battle really breaks out, you cannot be without strength."
Wang Hu did not push back again. They sat on the mountain path, chewing the hard bun in big mouthfuls to replenish their strength, their eyes fixed on the foot of the mountain.
At this moment.
The city gates opened.
First, the government soldiers who "went on an expedition" today returned to the city.
The soldiers and runners who had rushed out of the city to battle earlier also followed back into the city.
Those servants of powerful families who had also participated in the encirclement and annihilation of the refugees today gathered together, numbering about several hundred, and lit torches.
A civil official in a red robe, accompanied by many wealthy family heads, rode a large horse and said something to the servants.
The servants scattered like stars in the sky, dispersing into the surrounding wilderness.
Among them were dozens of men and horses who crossed the river and headed straight for the foot of the mountain.
Wang Hu spat fiercely.
"Eldest brother, look, the government soldiers have withdrawn, but those lackeys have chased after us!"
His ideals were destroyed; he had previously wanted to be a servant of a powerful family, but now he called these people lackeys.
Lu Ye stood up with the hard bun in his hand and turned his head to look at the mountaintop. Now, the two had only climbed half the mountain road.
"Go! Eat while walking! It's dark, I don't believe these lackeys will search the mountain carefully."
"Let's try our best to run up the mountain and hide again."
"If we are unlucky and run into them, then we can only fight for our lives!"
Wang Hu nodded in agreement. He glanced down and suddenly let out an "eh."
"Eldest brother, look, this government is shedding crocodile tears."
"They were just killing people with knives, and now they're finding people to perform transcendence!"
Beside the red-robed official, a middle-aged, long-bearded Daoist priest in a black robe dismounted from his horse, and several Taoist acolytes immediately surrounded him like stars surrounding the moon.
The black-robed Daoist had an immortal-like bearing and a very good skin bag. He held a small banner in his hand, and the banner surface was flashing with silver light, painted with many runes that could not be understood. He walked in the bloody field with a calm gait.
There were also attendant Taoist acolytes, some holding bells, some striking chimes, some playing flutes, and several others carrying bamboo baskets, taking out large handfuls of paper money from them and scattering them.
It was just that as this Daoist led the acolytes to roam this tragic land, his gaze swept over the corpses left and right without a trace of sorrow, giving the impression that he was not performing transcendence for the Undead, but rather like he was on an outing to pick flowers.
A thought stirred in Lu Ye's heart, and he inexplicably brought up the Fish Dragon Diagram in his mind, shining it toward the Daoist.
Immediately, the diagram displayed a ferocious cannibal giant crocodile with a mouth full of sharp teeth.
The cannibal giant crocodile soon faded from the scroll, and the scroll displayed another scene.
Refugee corpses were everywhere, and the Daoist was walking among them, constantly shaking the rune banner in his hand. From the corpses of the fallen refugees, pale white phantom images drifted out one by one.
These shadows looked a bit like people, barely able to distinguish the head and torso, but could not distinguish the limbs, and their facial features were all black holes, with their "mouths" opened very wide, as if they were wailing in pain.
As these phantom images were put into the banner, the runes on the banner became even more dazzling and condensed.
A few more lines of text appeared.
"Name—Unknown.
Root Bone—Spirit-linked Jade Bone.
Condition—Old and weak.
Lifespan: 93/120.
Vitality—3000/10000."
Plop.
Lu Ye opened his mouth wide, and the hard bun in his hand fell to the ground, bouncing and rolling down the hillside.
Wang Hu pounced on it like a tiger, pinning the hard bun firmly under his body.
He looked up and asked in confusion.
"Eldest brother, what's wrong with you?"
The corner of Lu Ye's mouth twitched.
"Hu Zi, pinch my thigh, my hand is numb, eldest brother."
Wang Hu: "..."
If your hand is numb, why pinch your leg?
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