Hunting Lodge Post

After more than 4 hours of unpleasant weather, the rain slowly stopped without dropping any more water.

Frogs and toads began singing on the banks of the river, thankful for the best gift of nature given by the sky.

From the side of the first layer border forest, the river bank at the boundary of the first and second layer border forests, visible on the larger path, Uncle Bei Shen's group was running small.

Their breathing was all heavy and panting, even more so uncle Bei Shen, their bodies were all shivering from the extreme cold, without wearing tops, their top clothes were used to keep uncle Cang Yan warm even though the layers of clothes were wet.

The wounds on his body might be wet and potentially infected again, but at least it was better than not being covered at all.

Finally the six of them arrived at this river, a river where they used to fish using a large fish trap bowl, by studying the swimming habits of the fish, one would know where the right place to trap the fish was.

One by one, the six of them walked together, preceded by uncles Bei Shen and Cang Yan, Feng Ge, Hei Xing, Yong Chun, and Hong Ling.

Shortly after crossing the wooden bridge that was submerged by the rising waters, they finally arrived at the hunting lodge post in the first layer of the forest, where Wu Liang and Ao Nan usually relaxed together while enjoying the surrounding natural works.

"Feng Ge, Yong Chun, Hei Xing, I need you to wait for Ao Qi's group here." Uncle Bei Shen said while shivering slightly from the cold, while he brought Cang Yan back together accompanied by Hong Ling.

At the same time as Bei Shen left accompanied by Hong Ling, Uncle Feng Ge went into the post, where firewood, dry grass, and a stone lighter were stored, and then Uncle Feng Ge started the fireplace after a few taps on the stone lighter.

While blowing on the dry grass to make it burn quickly and potentially produce fire, Yong Chun uncle and Hei Xing went inside to warm up their wet and cold selves, Yong Chun uncle stood near the entrance while watching the road along the road in front of this post.

Yong Chun glanced at the road to his right and left, if he looked to his right, he would see the road leading to the river at the boundary of the forest bordering the first and second layers, then if he looked to his left, he would see the road leading to the meadow along with a thin view of the place.

Hei Xing who was closest to, his younger body, was more susceptible to disease and less resistant to cold than the other two uncles.

Uncle Feng Ge and Uncle Yong Chun both had more leg, hand, and chest hair than Hei Xing, this made them fortunate when the temperature was cold, but unfortunately their bodies were wet, so it was not very useful for now.

"Hei Xing, please tell me how you came across that large group of bears?" asked uncle Feng Ge as he rubbed his palms together, as well as expelling cloudy air from his mouth.

Hei Xing turned his head towards his uncle, immediately answering him while shivering, his smaller and thinner body was obviously weak under the pressure of this condition, although dozens of full moons work in hunting lodge, his physique was still not a reliable thing.

"So uncle, when I went south and almost entered the darker and messier part of the fourth layer border forest, I saw a group of male bears accompanied by less than ten smaller female bears they were leaving to return to their caves to sleep through the snowy cold period, I wanted to avoid it but not far to my right, I saw another bear with a male as well as a larger group of females, and so they fought and so on until we managed to escape from it" Hei Xing said frankly with a sad face.

"Hey, Hei Xing, don't be so sad, we are also safe thanks to you telling us about it" said uncle Feng Ge soothingly to Hei Xing next to him, as he put his arm around Hei Xing's shoulders and patted him.

"Good job Hei Xing, the important thing is that we are all alive and long-lived" Uncle Yong Chun added in a flat tone, he was still guarding the entrance, glancing to the right of the road, checking whether uncle Ao Qi's group had been seen or not.

"Thank you uncle" Hei Xing replied quietly and smiled slightly with relief.

The fireplace crackled as each piece of wood burned, filling the room with warmth, while outside it was freezing cold. Uncle Yong Chun was the same way, standing with his arms crossed, his wet pants making it hard for him to stay calm.

After a while, Uncle Feng Ge told Yong Chun to warm himself up, while he himself took the place of guarding the road.

"Yong Chun, let's rolling, I will be the one guarding now" Feng Ge uncle politely asked, as he got up to his feet, now his body was quite dry and his chest hair was also back to normal, although his pants were dirty because he and Hei Xing were sitting on the dirt floor without any padding.

"Alright, I'm also waiting for you to say it" Uncle Yong Chun replied in a flat tone, his slightly wide face, not too narrow eyes, proportional nose, thin mustache and beard and not too long sideburns, really an average level side character.

"You should have said that earlier, I can accept that" Feng Ge's uncle said in response, he had a sarcastic smile on his face, his heart was happy when he saw the rare moment where Yong Chun's uncle openly cared about other families, he did care but usually the way was different.

"Feeling better?" uncle Yong Chun said with a flat expression, but his tone slightly changed to a softer one.

Uncle Feng Ge who had just heard it only smiled slightly again, almost about to laugh, then returned to guard again, while rubbing his palms together.

"Already uncle, uncle, did uncle Cang Yan survive? Uncle cares about uncle Cang Yan right?" asked Hei Xing while shivering and trembling all over.

"Of course uncle cares, it's just that uncle was panicking and thinking too much to focus, it was the first time uncle faced such a complicated situation, if it wasn't for the guided of your uncles Ao Qi and Bei Shen, uncle would have been confused, however uncle still cares about Cang Yan, because we are one family" replied uncle Yong Chun, his face remained flat, his tone remained unchanged, but the impression given was much different from his previous appearance.

The second thing that was rare about Yong Chun was that he had a lot to say about things, and the third thing that was rare was that he was a spiritualist, but who wouldn't be surprised to see someone suddenly ask for the help of a god or gods or whatever in a time of emergency when that person had never even been seen praying or seriously praising them.

But uncle Yong Chun was a clear exception.

He was the slowest person to enter the sacred cave where the ritual of praying to honor ancestors was held, and the fastest to leave the cave as soon as the ritual was over.

Even though he had been reprimanded by the four hall elders many times in his life, he was still firm in his stance. As a child, he had not been given enough knowledge about that, and many other things, his parents had also died during the icy night flu epidemic.

The flu that killed nearly half the family members of the Wu tribe village.

"There they are, the silhouettes are seen" Feng Ge's uncle said as he turned his head towards the outer right of this post.

The three of them felt both joy and relief in their hearts, the worries instantly dissipated, the burden of thoughts had now vanished, and they were finally all fully assembled, with each other.

A while later, when uncle Ao Qi's group had reached the post.

"Thank goodness you're all safe, where are the rest?" Uncle Ao Qi said, he immediately understood what happened.

The small post could barely accommodate everyone at once, so Hei Xing and Yong Chun moved to stand at the corner of one wall with Feng Ge uncle, while Su Meng and Hei Tai went inside and sat down to warm themselves by the fire.

"Brother, what about the bear? How did you guys survive?" asked Hei Xing to his younger brother Hei Tai.

"The three of us were lucky, there was a big centipede coming towards us, at first we thought he would come to kill the three of us, but it turned out that he went to fight the bears" Hei Tai replied in a low tone of voice and trembled slightly, although he was not shivering too much because his body was bigger and fuller than Hei Xing.

"That's the centipede I met, I thought he was going to eat us, but he didn't" Hei Xing replied steadily while wondering what the intention behind it all was, the actions of the golden saw centipede put a question mark in the minds of all those in this post.

"That centipede, he has become a half-king level, I don't know the details, but I personally met one of them, it was bigger than the one we met, maybe three times bigger, but that was a long time ago, and I also found it when I got lost in the fourth layer border forest, when I was looking for Zhou Rui, you must remember that incident?"Uncle Ao Qi said, he himself was outside the post, while the remaining five were inside, he deliberately did not enter and refused Uncle Feng Ge's invitation to enter, for him these five people are his responsibility and their interests must come first.

The five were silent, falling into silence for a while.

The rain finally stopped, but drops of water still fell to the ground from the leaves and roof of their post, the sound of frogs could be heard filling the surrounding area of their place breaking the silence that occurred, although the rain stopped but the cold wind still blew without changing at all, bringing a piercing cold, penetrating their clothes caressing every part of their bodies without exception.

But with this post, most of them were able to fight off the cold wind, warm themselves up, and recover to their normal energy.