Chapter 99: A Tribe of Cannibals?

It was terrifying. Hua Yaofei was stunned senseless, yet she still could not dodge that arrow.

Thud.

The shaft punched through her shoulder.

“Boss!”

Cries erupted from the crowd.

Seeing this, Gong Jiu, who had followed beside Sui Yi, instantly lost any thought of resistance. Damn it, this was too horrifying. A bullet had actually been split apart?

Was this a god?

Just as the two of them were struggling to evade those arrows with their dreadful speed and frantically searching for a chance to flee, they discovered that they had already been surrounded.

Out of the sand dunes that had seemed empty a moment ago, one rugged, primitive-looking man after another had emerged, each with a bow in hand.

But after witnessing that terrifying marksmanship, who would dare look down on them? The pistols in their own hands gave them no sense of safety at all.

“Put down those strange weapons in your hands, or there will be no mercy!”

The speaker was the young man who had split the bullet.

A black bone ornament hung around his neck, as though it were some kind of badge, probably marking him as a minor leader.

Oddly enough, although the way he spoke had an accent different from Sui Yi’s group, it was not some crude local dialect.

That made the three of them deeply suspicious.

But now they had only two choices.

One: resist to the death and let fate take however many survived.

Two: surrender obediently.

As for the first option, given the other side’s terrifying long-range weapons, the chance of even one person escaping was zero, while the chance of being wiped out completely was one hundred percent.

Hua Yaofei made her decision at once. With the intact hand she still had, she brushed languidly through her hair and said to the young leader in a soft, fragile voice, “Don’t shoot, don’t shoot... We surrender... You mustn’t make a move, all right?”

Behind her, Gong Jiu let out a disgusted retch.

Was that background music?

The young man: “...”

Were these outsiders lunatics?

Hua Yaofei cursed inwardly. Damn Gong Jiu, I’ll deal with you sooner or later.

----

After their hands were tied again and their weapons confiscated, Sui Yi and Gong Jiu were once more watched closely as they were taken away.

Walking through the desert, their destination seemed to be the oasis. Though they were heading in the same direction, their situations were very different.

“This Hua Yaofei still cares about the bigger picture... At least she didn’t run off alone.”

She should have some lethal things on her, like grenades. It wouldn’t have been hard for her to escape on her own.

“Bullshit! That woman only stayed because her shoulder was injured and running alone would have been too much pressure. Just watch. Once we reach their village, she’ll sway her hips and charm their leader into stupidity. She did this before too—she charmed a leader who was against her, knocked him out, and then swallowed up his whole clan. That boss was probably thrown into some sea to feed the fish and nobody ever knew which one. The funniest part is, last year when I asked her about it, she couldn’t even remember the man’s name. Sui Yi, I’m telling you seriously: she’s a complete freak!”

Sui Yi: “...”

Actually, Gong Jiu, you really have no right to call other people freaks.

The oasis was about half a day’s journey from the desert of yellow sand. Once they entered it, the people there suddenly became talkative and cheerful, naturally using Sui Yi’s group’s language.

Of course, if Sui Yi and the others tried to speak, the others would immediately jab them in the head with the tips of their bow shafts, looking fierce and menacing.

Gong Jiu was jabbed once.

It happened because she kept leaning over to whisper to Sui Yi. Afterward, Sui Yi took the initiative to remind her eleven times.

The result was that Gong Jiu was jabbed a total of twelve times, while Sui Yi was not jabbed even once.

Sui Yi absolutely suspected that Gong Jiu thought it was amusing and was doing it on purpose.

----

The oasis really was like those shown on television: a vivid splash of green amid the yellow sands. Even a single tree or patch of grass was enough to make one feel delighted and dazzled, let alone the many trees and wide stretches of grass here.

Of course, there were also many cacti.

Only these cacti were rather large.

They stood there like great trees.

“I’m saying, this land must be rich indeed. Even the cacti are this fat. No wonder these people are all so strong, shooting arrows so far and so accurately...”

Gong Jiu had turned to mutter to Sui Yi again, but her head was suddenly struck with pain. A boy-like youth had used the end of his bow to poke her on the head.

“Don’t think I can’t understand what you’re saying. Say fewer bad things about us!”

Damn it.

I was praising you!

“Fine, Gong Jiu, say a few less words.”

“Why do you never poke her? She kept talking to me before...” Gong Jiu shot back, leaning toward Sui Yi.

The boy grinned and snorted with laughter. “You look more like a bad person. Also, you’re older.”

“...”

This tribe absolutely had no culture or education. They didn’t even understand respecting the old and cherishing the young.

----

The tribe was indeed ancient, but it was far better than Sui Yi and the others had imagined. The people did not live in crude thatched huts like some primitive cannibal clan; instead, they lived in simple wooden houses, with a style that felt somewhat Chinese.

There were also masks hanging on the walls, and strange ornaments.

Simple, weathered, and filled with a mysterious sense of age.

Sui Yi’s steps faltered. For some reason, she felt a strange stir in her heart... She did not know what image had surfaced in her mind, only that everything before her seemed to her...

Strangely familiar.

But Gong Jiu and the others felt deeply alarmed.

Before dozens or even hundreds of wooden houses, there was a broad open space. In one corner lay heaps of bones; in another stood more than a dozen huge cauldrons. Besides that, there were many thick wooden posts driven into the ground. The posts were covered with knife marks and dried blood, and beneath them was also a field of white bones...

The scene was horrifying. Gong Jiu’s face twisted instantly as she glared at Hua Yaofei.

Hua Yaofei was troubled too. Damn it, had she really run into cannibals?

How the hell was she supposed to seduce cannibals with beauty alone?

In their eyes, we’d just be vegetables!

“Take them over there!”

“Yes!”

After a few instructions from the tribe’s minor leader, he left. The men behind him then tied Sui Yi and the others one by one to the posts.

They had not been able to resist successfully before, and now there was even less chance.

The one in the worst state was Hua Yaofei, whose shoulder had been bleeding the entire time.

Not a soul here showed any intention of treating her wound.

Of course not.

Sui Yi’s gaze swept across the surrounding area, observing the village women and children moving about.

These people were not nearly as fierce as the young men and strong adults. On the contrary, they all looked rather plain and simple.

As for the children, they were curious and eager to come closer, but the women and elders held them back.

The women did not seem very willing to look at them. And if they did look, it was with the expression of someone sizing up a chicken before making soup.

As for the elders...

They seemed accustomed to people like them.

As though they had captured people like this before.

Sui Yi even noticed a child with a backpack on his back...

This village was strange.

Unlike Sui Yi, Gong Jiu and the others had fallen into deep panic and unease, fearing that these people would roast them by mealtime.

Even the sight of the women taking out wild vegetables and the like made Gong Jiu and the others look as though they had already been sentenced to death.

Yet Sui Yi felt somewhat reassured. If these were truly cannibals, then after capturing them all, their gaze should have been hungry and lustful. But although these people were fierce in action and formidable in strength, their eyes were clear. The minor leader in particular was wise and calm, not at all wild or insane.

Although Gong Jiu’s face remained dark, she soon quieted down as well. It seemed she had also figured something out through observation, though her expression was worried, and she kept glancing toward one place.

However, Hua Yaofei’s subordinates did not think that way, and Shen Di, the only dependable one among them, was anxious about Hua Yaofei’s condition.

By now, Hua Yaofei had already fainted.

It was not from pain, but from excessive blood loss. If it went on any longer, things would become very bad.

“Look carefully at what kind of bones are on the ground.”

Sui Yi’s cool remark snapped the others back to their senses. They lowered their heads and looked down.

Bones, all bones, but...

“They’re animal bones, not human bones. Why are you all panicking like this...” Gong Jiu paused, then glanced at Hua Yaofei and clenched her teeth. She shouted to the nearest elder on the other side, “Old man, even if you caught us, if you want to kill us or butcher us, there should still be a proper process. But can you at least stop this woman’s bleeding first?”

In this tribe, women seemed to have little status, while elders held a higher position. Gong Jiu had some experience with this and directly addressed an old man.

The old man merely lifted his eyes lazily to glance at them, then lowered his head again and continued carving a piece of wood with a knife.

Gong Jiu gritted her teeth and called out several more times, but the other party no longer even looked up. She could not help cursing under her breath.

If this dragged on, that woman would not only be ruined, she might lose half her life.

Who knew whether there was poison on that arrow?

She had fainted so quickly; there probably was poison...

Gong Jiu’s mind raced with countless possibilities. Sui Yi estimated the distance from herself to Hua Yaofei and could not help sighing. Too far.

Her magnetic force could not reach there.

There was simply no way to save her.

After a while, the old man finished the carving, brushed the wood shavings from his body, and was just about to go inside.

“Chief, the hero on your carving might look better with an eagle added.”

The old man slowly turned around and looked at Sui Yi. His hair was white, his eyes slightly cloudy. Staring at Sui Yi, he said slowly, “Chief?”

“The eight trigrams of heaven and earth: heaven, water, mountain, thunder, wind, fire, earth, and lake. Heaven is the leading position, in the northwest. Since you can sit in the main seat, old sir, you must be the chief, or else the former chief.”

Gong Jiu looked at Sui Yi.

Damn, this girl even knew such things.

The old man tilted his head and walked over. “Your eyes are rather sharp. No wonder you could come here with these people. But everyone who has come here has always been formidable.”

He paused, then smiled. “And in the end, they all turned into a pile of ashes.”

He pointed at the white bones on the ground. “Of course, too much ash is rather untidy, so we swept it all away. That’s why you didn’t see any.”

“...”

Gong Jiu’s eyes widened.

Damn it, what did this old man mean? Was he about to eat people?

Sui Yi was also surprised. She frowned slightly, then concealed the glimmer in her eyes and said lightly, “This place has simple customs and an ancient charm. It cannot possibly be some savage cannibal tribe. Elder, teasing us with such words is pointless. You must have another purpose, mustn’t you?”

“Ha!”

The old man laughed.

The sound came from deep in his chest.

Sui Yi and Gong Jiu were both startled.

Such profound inner strength.

What kind of place was this, exactly?