Chapter 574
The Way Out
There was seemingly nowhere that was peaceful in the mainland.
Shao Xuan wasn’t able to know how people in other places fared but in this state, he knew it was useless to hope for someone to come save them.
The shaking continued but the darkness hadn’t passed. It had already been two days since they last saw any sunlight.
The ash accumulated into a thick layer on the ground. If anyone laid down on the first day without moving, they would be completely buried by the second day.
In the darkness, the tribe had set up a large tent. This was prepared by Shao Xuan before they left. The tent was made with animal skin, it was much sturdier than burlap and supported with metal poles. Three warriors stood guard outside to move any stones holding the tent down and were shaken out of place by the ground movement.
In the tent were the women and children that didn’t have totemic powers, the elderly and some injured warriors.
During this period, many people sustained major injuries that would require them to amputate their limbs but with the Veins of the Sky, they were able to keep their limbs and recover.
Shao Xuan walked around the campsite without a Water Moon stone. He was able to see clearly without it although the other warriors required it. He could easily spot any injured warriors like this.
When they spot an injured person, Shao Xuan would gather some people and move the patient into the tent where Gui Ze would bring a tray of medicine to treat them.
“How’s the situation?” asked Shao Xuan.
“It is fine for now. There aren’t that many severely injured,” Gui He passed a small animal skin sack to Shao Xuan. “There’s some new medicine in it, pass it to the other warriors, they’ll feel better.”
Shao Xuan opened up the sack to find pills in it. The pills are smaller in size than they usually were but they had to be smart with their supplies now. Who knew when they could get more again. If it wasn’t a serious injury, they had to use less medicine.
Back when Shao Xuan was learning medicine in the tribe, he experimented forming pills. Later on, everyone found the pills to be much more convenient to use so that slowly became the norm.
These few days, many started to feel unwell because of the particles in the air, especially those without totemic powers. The warriors didn’t show any signs of discomfort but the others would feel short of breath or even sustain lung damage.
The pills Gui He passed out were specifically for the warriors. They didn’t rest in the camp like the others. They had to go out and protect the area and search for injured people. Although they did not show any symptoms, they were still at risk. The pills were more of a preventative measure than anything.
When Shao Xuan was passing out the pills, he met Duo Kang, who was violently coughing. Duo Kang had removed his burlap mask earlier because he thought they were inconvenient. He breathed in some ash and was now on the floor coughing his lungs out.
“Eat this,” Shao Xuan passed a pill, “The mask might be uncomfortable but it is better than what you’re facing now.”
Shao Xuan didn’t need to say much, Duo Kang already regretted his actions. He stuffed the tablet into his mouth and washed it down with some water. He immediately felt relieved. His breathing was back to normal too.
When he settled down, Duo Kang sat down on the floor and asked Shao Xuan, “What are we going to do after this?”
Shao Xuan knew they were starting to get nervous. Not just Duo Kang- the others, the chiefs, the shamans, the hunt leaders and other warriors. They hadn’t voiced it out but their eyes carried worry in them. Shao Xuan couldn’t blame them, no one had experienced something like the past two days before.
Shao Xuan thought for a while then called Tuo over and passed the pouch containing the pills to him. He asked him to pass out the rest of the pills to the warriors who haven’t had them. Then, Shao Xuan sat down on the ground, dusted off his hat and took out some rope from his pocket.
Duo Kang immediately recognised what he was doing and brought a water moon stone to light up the area for a better look.
These past two days, he tried the divination and knew that it was temporarily safe here. The three areas that were hit the hardest were the Fearsome Beast Forest, somewhere in the desert and beside the river on ancestor’s path. Although the last one wasn’t as bad as the former two.
They are currently far away from the three areas so they are safe for now.
Shao Xuan immersed himself in the divination once again. Maybe because he had done it enough times and was better at it, Shao Xuan was able to see more things through the divinations. Therefore, he was doing divination every two days to try to see more. The more he knew, the higher the chances of them surviving.
Shao Xuan did the knot divination twice every day to see where they should head next.
He could use the fire seed to help with his guesses but they had no fire seed now. Even the shamans were helpless in this factor. They could only act on instinct now.
Shao Xuan’s mind was telling him to use the path their ancestors used but he couldn’t confirm the safety of the whole tribe like that so he was hesitant in doing so.
When the divination ended, Shao Xuan looked at the results and felt relieved.
“Of course.”
“What is it?” Ao, who was standing not too far behind, immediately ran up. He went away for a moment to check up on the injured, he knew better than to disturb Shao Xuan when he was doing a reading. Now that Shao Xuan had succeeded, he was excited to hear the results.
“When the ground stops shaking and the skies clear up, we head that way.” Shao Xuan pointed in a direction.
“That way? The path our ancestors used?” asked Ao.
“Yes.”