Chapter 134 - Crimson Asura Realm (III)
Editor: Kitty
Luo Jian managed to kill the wolf again. Although he had harvested the wolf’s flesh and blood, he had another wound on his body. There was a slash on his chest from being scratched by the wolf’s claws. The wound looked terrifying, but in fact, it was relatively shallow.
Luo Jian was very hungry and thirsty. As soon as he stabbed the wolf to death, he could not wait to climb up on the carca.s.s and suck the blood of the wolf. He was totally uncaring about the fishy taste and smell of it because he knew he had to quickly drink some water or else he would die of thirst before he died of hunger.
Luo Jian filled most of his stomach with fresh blood, but in the end, he vomited a lot of it out as well because raw wolf blood was hard for him to drink. The fishy smell was too strong and too disgusting. However, in order to survive, Luo Jian still ingested a lot of blood.
Thereafter, he cut several pieces of meat from the wolf with his knife. He could not drag the wolf away so he had to cut some pieces of raw meat that appeared relatively better. Luo Jian did not want to continue to stay in this strange forest to rot away, so he must find a way out. Even if he circled around the woods again and again, Luo Jian did not want to stop moving.
So, after disposing of the wolf, Luo Jian took the meat, wrapped it in a piece of wolf skin, and moved forward. Previously, he had tried to walk around in many different directions. He tried walking towards the sun, with his back to the sun, walking to the left or to his right, but no matter where he walked, he would return to the tree with the cross mark.
But this time, Luo Jian decided to try something else. He walked towards the sun again. Almost every step he took and every tree he saw, he would carve a cross on that tree. He wanted to see how he circled back to the side of the big tree again.
But almost an hour later, after walking around while carving the cross marks, at last, he found that there was a series of big trees which had been engraved with cross marks. Luo Jian suddenly realized that he returned back to the same place again. He saw the familiar tree again, and because he had seen this tree countless times, and the appearance of the tree was almost deeply imprinted in his mind.
Luo Jian was a little discouraged and felt it was hopeless. He did not know how long he had spent in this forest. However, the red sun in the sky had hardly changed. It was still hanging there, and even its position had not changed.
After looking at the sky for a long time, Luo Jian once again sat down, leaning against this familiar tree. But this time, he suddenly realized that something was wrong.
Oh right, what happened to the wolf’s corpse?
Luo Jian clearly remembered that he had killed the wolf and left the corpse at the side of the tree, but when he returned back here, the wolf was gone! He noticed that there was no blood on the gra.s.s where the wolf’s corpse had been lying previously, and even the twigs and trunks damaged in the fight had reverted to how it appeared to be previously.
What the h.e.l.l was going on?!
Luo Jian did not understand what happened at all. He looked at the location where he fought the wolf and, thereafter, looked at the wolf skin and wolf meat he was carrying. The wolf meat was still in good condition and was even dripping blood.
Luo Jian stared at the meat for a long time. He felt a little hungry. He did not care where the wolf’s body had gone. He decided to make a fire to roast the meat. Despite not having the tools to make a fire and there being nothing else on his body except his grey prison uniform, couldn’t human beings create fire just using their two hands?
So Luo Jian went around to pick up some wood, branches, dead leaves, and other miscellaneous things and piled them together. He sharpened the top of a wooden stick with a knife and tried to create a fire by drilling into a piece of wood. Because the wood looked dry, he felt that due to the heat, it should be easy to create a spark and ignite into flames.
After grinding for a long time, Luo Jian finally created some sparks. The sparks flashed among a pile of dead leaves and soon started to burn. Luo Jian put it in the middle of a pile of wood and branches and piled it all together. Soon, the fire burned and gave rise to bursts of green smoke.
However, Luo Jian did not take the meat out to roast. Instead, he stared at the tiny flame, and unknowingly, a lunatic idea rose in his mind.
You see, Luo Jian had been trapped in this accursed forest for so long, and no matter what he did, he was not able to leave. If not because of these crazy trees, because there were too many trees that were densely packed together, just like a…… what was that, something akin to an eight-trigrams array? Luo Jian thought that if he was able to burn these trees, he might be able to go out, right?
Although this idea was somewhat dangerous, Luo Jian could not help but want to try it. But now, he felt that it was not the right time to do so. He must first fill his stomach, so he took out the wolf meat, used some branches to skewer the meat, and barbecued it on the fire.
The wolf’s flesh was still dripping blood, but Luo Jian was so hungry that after roasting for quite some time, he felt that the meat had become tender and crispy. Luo Jian hastily sent the meat to his mouth and bit down on it, but he was immediately scalded and had to spit out the meat he had eaten. He spit the meat into his palm, and after blowing at it for a while, he brought it back to his mouth to gnaw on it.
Wolf meat was not delicious. An apt description would be perhaps, it was similar to dog meat. However, perhaps because it was also not fully cooked, Luo Jian felt the meat had a lingering smell of blood, and that made him feel like vomiting after taking a few mouthfuls of it. But Luo Jian insisted on finishing it. If he did not eat now, what would he do when he did not have anything to eat later?
To survive in the wilderness was not an easy thing to do.
Luo Jian felt that it was necessary to stick to doing certain things. Even though the meat tasted so bad, he still forced himself to swallow the whole piece of wolf meat. The wolf meat was half raw, and when he bit down on it, blood would still spurt out, staining Luo Jian’s face and hands with blood. After eating, because he wiped his mouth so much, his entire clothes became b.l.o.o.d.y.
But somehow, his stomach was filled.
Luo Jian sat on the ground and touched his stomach contentedly. He looked at the sky. Oh, how terrible! This place had always been at dusk. Nothing much other than what he had already seen could be seen here. However, because Luo Jian was used to regular hours of work and rest, Luo Jian felt very tired now. He thought that he needed a long sleep to properly rest.
He found a clean spot on the ground, spread some hay and leaves, laid down, curled up, and fell asleep. His bed was not soft, and it should be said that he slept very uncomfortably, but because he was so tired, Luo Jian fell asleep very quickly. Probably because there was a fire nearby, Luo Jian did not worry about anything else. He piled a lot of firewood before he went to bed. Wild animals were afraid of fire, so he should not be attacked.
Although the incident where the wolf came back alive and attacked Luo Jian moments ago caused him to remain fearful, he was very tired. He tried to keep his guard up even when he was asleep, although it was not an easy thing to do.
After sleeping, he did not know how much time had elapsed.
Luo Jian probably made the right choice when he made a fire because when the fire was still there, nothing really attacked him. But when the fire went out, his surroundings became strangely silent. Luo Jian became restless as he slept on the ground. He began to feel a little cold, so he opened his eyes and found that the fire had been extinguished.
Luo Jian looked around for quite a while, but he didn’t see any strange creatures. He lowered his head and added some wood to the fire because after the wood burned, the remnants of it became charcoal. These charcoals were still hot, so Luo Jian merely fanned some wind with his hand and felt that the fire would be reignited.
Luo Jian did not want to continue fighting. Regardless of whether it was the dead wolf that came back to life or other things, if the fire could scare those things away, he didn’t mind making a fire.
But before the fire was reignited, the monster had approached. The monster looked familiar. After taking a glance at it, Luo Jian almost cried out. It was the huge wolf again! The monster looked exactly the same, and its neck was still tufted with the same white fur. And this time, the wolf seemed to have become wiser. It did not rush to attack but waited for Luo Jian to bend down and caught him off guard when he was making a fire.
Luo Jian was almost bitten by it. Although he killed the wolf after jabbing it several times with his knife, he had comparatively more wounds on his body now, and the wounds were much more serious this time! Although the wolf did not bite Luo Jian’s neck, a piece of flesh on his neck was still sc.r.a.ped away by its teeth, and blood immediately flowed out all over his body. Luo Jian covered his neck in a trance. He squatted down and leaned against the wolf who had died again.
What was going on here?
Luo Jian did not understand. He did not know how the wolf did it, but it was able to come back from the dead again and again and attack him again and again. Now, Luo Jian felt the wolf had become more and more intelligent, and it seemed to be completely unafraid of death. No matter how many times Luo Jian stabbed it, it would also come back to find Luo Jian and get even with him.
Other than the problem with the wolf, he also faced another problem—he was unable to get out of the forest. Also, he noticed that the red sun would never move. Luo Jian was staring at the sky in a daze again. He felt even more tired now, and that may have been due to excessive blood loss. He also felt dizzy.
The wound on his neck was still bleeding, but Luo Jian had no strength to bandage himself.
He should just die—
Luo Jian thought that to himself. He really wanted to give up and stop bothering with it; he felt a little desperate, and this entire place made him despair. These withered trees, that red sun, and the wolf that repeatedly died and came back alive: all of these made him experience a deep sense of despair.
So, Luo Jian closed his eyes, he decided not to move and sat down as he waited for his death.
But after a while, he opened his eyes again, gritted his teeth, tore a piece of cloth from his sleeve, and tied the wound on his neck. Luo Jian stood up again. Although he was dizzy and tired, he suddenly felt that he could not die.
I definitely must not die here.
Regardless of what circ.u.mstances I face, I have to survive because there are people still waiting for me.
T/N: …This chapter reminds me of the movie, The Revenant, except that everything is covered in a red veil.