After one night, Jing Yin truly experienced what it meant to have divine assistance. The meridians throughout her body seemed to have been opened up.
When she woke up in the morning and practiced a set of techniques, it felt as though she had practiced them dozens of times.
One day of cultivation was equivalent to a hundred days of ordinary cultivation. It was truly terrifying.
【Ding! The daily check-in function is now online. Host, would you like to check in today?】
Jing Yin silently checked in.
【Ding! Congratulations, Host, you have successfully checked in. You have been checking in continuously for one day. Rewards: 1 point and 2 pounds of rice.】
Jing Yin: (…One day?)
【Yes. The system’s check-in streak is recalculated every seven days~】
(Oh.)
“Little Sister, this body-tempering technique is really good.”
Jing Zhao had also practiced it several times, and he was now full of energy, his eyes seemingly glowing.
“This is only the beginning. It’ll get better and better later.”
Jing Yin didn’t mention that there would also be medicinal baths later. They would have to wait until they had settled down before dealing with that.
The temperature these past two days wasn’t as high as before, but the refugees around them still got up early to continue traveling.
The Jing family wasn’t in such a hurry to leave.
After most of the people had left, Jing Yin pulled seven steaming-hot meat buns out of one of the bamboo baskets.
“Hurry up and eat. We’ll continue traveling after we finish.”
The steaming-hot meat buns had somehow appeared inside their bamboo basket.
Grandma Jing’s eyes widened as she cautiously looked around.
Only after making sure no one had noticed did she tremblingly accept a meat bun with almost reverent devotion.
The meat bun was large and white.
Even before biting into it, the aroma of meat was already faintly wafting through the air.
The moment she took a bite, hot oil dripped from it.
A few drops of meat juice splashed onto Grandma Jing’s lips, and she licked them completely clean.
Everyone wanted to savor the buns slowly, but they weren’t at home.
They could only wolf them down.
Even after finishing, they couldn’t help licking their lips, still wanting more.
They had occasionally eaten meat buns sold in town before, but the flavor had been nowhere near as good as these.
“Mom, you eat.”
Erdan timidly handed the half-eaten meat bun to Grandma Jing.
His bright eyes were filled with hope and a desire to please her.
When Grandma Jing saw his expression, the words “little jinx” were just about to leave her mouth.
But she suddenly came to her senses and forcibly shut her mouth.
After hesitating for a moment, Grandma Jing stiffly forced a smile onto her face.
What she said was, “Erdan, Mom is full. You eat.”
But what she was thinking was:
(Eat, eat, eat! Just eat it already! Why are you giving it to me? Hurry up and stuff it into your stomach! What a troublesome little brat!)
For the first time, Erdan felt maternal love from Grandma Jing.
He was so excited that he obediently finished the meat bun in just a few bites.
At the end, he even wanted to snuggle up to Grandma Jing, but she immediately pushed him toward Grandpa Jing.
What a troublesome little brat~
Jing Yin pretended not to notice the interaction between the mother and son.
Instead, she quietly took out another meat bun and placed it in front of Tangyuan.
Tangyuan only liked the meat filling inside and didn’t like the outer bun.
Jing Yin grabbed a handful of animal feed and let Tangyuan smell it.
Then she placed the bun skin Tangyuan had discarded in front of it.
Tangyuan: “……”
…
The family once again embarked on their journey to escape the famine.
As the number of refugees along the road increased, they gradually began seeing bodies lying by the roadside.
Some of the corpses had been torn apart by wild dogs.
Others had been stripped completely naked.
Without exception, all of them were nothing but skin and bones.
Some had swollen bellies, but what filled them was nothing but mud…
Looking at the corpses, the members of the Jing family felt terrible.
These had all been living, breathing people.
Jing Yin pressed her lips together without saying a word.
She knew what the members of the Jing family were thinking.
They simply wanted to dig a pit and bury them.
There were only a few corpses right now.
They could bury them if they wanted to. It would only take some effort.
Besides, she had been adding some Spirit Spring Water to the water they had been drinking these past few days, which could relieve quite a bit of their fatigue.
But after traveling for another day, the number of corpses they would encounter would be far beyond what they could possibly bury.
According to the plot she knew, this drought had swept across the entire Ningtian Prefecture.
A rough estimate later put the death toll at more than two hundred thousand.
Ningtian Prefecture had a considerable population.
At its peak, it had a population of one million, and even at its lowest, there were still seven or eight hundred thousand people.
Yet a single drought had claimed the lives of more than two hundred thousand people.
It was enough to imagine just how devastating this drought would be.
“Grandma, since we encountered them, let’s bury them.
“We still have enough strength to dig a pit. We can consider it accumulating good karma.”
After hesitating for a few seconds, Jing Yin finally spoke.
No one in the Jing family objected.
The family members worked together, and before long, they had dug a large pit.
They carried the five corpses into it one by one and buried them.
Before leaving, they bowed to the deceased before continuing on their way.
After traveling for more than half a day, they encountered a large refugee group and saw even more corpses.
This time, the Jing family didn’t meddle anymore.
They silently followed at the very back of the refugee group and continued forward.
When the sun was at its strongest, the huge group of refugees stopped.
Everyone scattered in groups of two or three, searching for shady places to rest.
But with so many people, there were only a few shady spots.
Most people could only sit on the ground in a daze, wearing tattered clothes and looking numb, as if falling asleep would somehow make their hunger disappear.
Jing Da had sharp eyes and spotted an empty shaded slope.
He quickly led the family over and claimed the spot.
Several other groups also noticed the place.
They initially wanted to force them out, but after seeing how many people the Jing family had, they all abandoned the idea.
“Whew, it’s still so hot.”
Jing Da plopped down on the ground and fanned himself with the hem of his clothes.
Soon afterward, he stood up again and worked with Jing Zhao and Grandpa Jing to put together a temporary shelter using their tattered clothes.
“Drink some water.”
Jing Yin added some Spirit Spring Water to the water and poured a bowl for each person.
Everyone quickly gulped down their bowl of water.
Some even licked the water from the sides of the bowl before reluctantly putting it down.
“The water Silver pours really does taste good.”
Jing Da chuckled.
Grandma Jing spat at him.
After hesitating for a moment, she took out a handful of pearl rice from the bamboo basket.
She also brought out the remaining half of the dried wild chicken.
“Little Silver, come here.”
Grandma Jing waved Jing Yin over.
Once Jing Yin came over, Grandma Jing looked around before secretly revealing the handful of rice and the half dried wild chicken in the bowl.
“Little Silver, do you think something will happen if we cook some food now?”
Grandma Jing now listened only to Jing Yin.
Little Silver had said that if they didn’t eat enough, they wouldn’t have the strength to fight others, and that could be dangerous.
They still had a long journey ahead of them that afternoon.
They had to eat something now.
“Go ahead and cook, Grandma. Big Brother, Dad, and I will keep watch.”
Although there were many people in the refugee group, quite a few of them still had some food.
Now that they had stopped, many people were secretly eating their dry rations.
There were also some people who clearly looked untouchable and had already openly started cooking.
These people weren’t afraid of anyone coming to rob them.
In fact, they were afraid that no one would come.
If someone tried to rob them, they would have a reason to beat them up and rob them in return.
That way, they wouldn’t anger the entire refugee group while still being able to openly plunder others.
And after cultivating for an entire night, Jing Yin could now knock down more than a dozen people by herself if they came looking for trouble.