The trial was once again reset and the young G.o.ds began to travel towards west. Yin believed that Yang must have done what was necessary and didn"t ask any questions. Yang himself wasn"t too eager to share his suicide and kept quiet. Thus the Ice G.o.d remained unknowing of the Fire G.o.d"s self-sacrificing act.Before long, they died again. And then again. And again.
Just like that, weeks, months and even years pa.s.sed by. More times than Yang could count, he had died of thirst, heatstroke, different poisonous insects and scorpions, sandstorms and freezing nights. The same applied for Yin.
However, whenever Yin would fall sick, Yang would resort to suicides when he was to pained to see her suffering. The reversed situation wasn"t the same as Yin appeared to feel no restrictions against slitting his throat.
During several times, Yang was so tired of the constant landscape and the resp.a.w.ning process that he just lied down beside the large, dried up tree and awaited death. Of course not before having drunk every water bag and eaten everything single nut they were provided with.
More than once had Yin"s weird behaviour made its appearance, even though Yang attempted his best to prevent it. He had confronted Yin a few times, but was always brushed aside by her. Eventually, he realized that she wouldn"t ever tell him and stopped doing so.
As they learned from their mistakes and acquired empirical knowledge, they became better and better at protecting themselves from the different dangers. They also discovered treatments for certain conditions.
The G.o.ds basically learned the entire landscape, which they pa.s.sed through, by heart and learned where water could be found or maybe dug out. To fill their stomachs, they ate whatever was available and soon learned to differ edible from inedible food.
They went from traveling during the days to traveling during the nights. Eventually they realized that the best solution was to move while the sun was ascending or descending.
The result was that they managed to survive longer and longer and travel farther and farther away from their start point. Towards the end, they had established an own sign and body language to communicate more efficient during the hotter periods.
Finally, they managed to reach the border of the Forgotten Desert on their 201th year.