Hong Jiu’s verbal attack ended Song Ou’s outrage.
Hong Jiu used their free time to educate Song Ou on various ways of stealthily reserving energy when escape was impossible since Luo Ming wasn’t going to let Hong Jiu recover. The only sustenance provided daily was a small amount of dry rations and a small cup of water each. The first reason Luo Ming didn’t torture them was because he didn’t trust Evil Spirits. The second reason was that the duo wasn’t too important in the grand scheme of things.
Feeding them minimally was Luo Ming’s approach to ensuring they didn’t have the energy to escape. The blunder he made was formulating his strategy in the context that he had grievously injured Hong Jiu – an erroneous assumption. Though wounded, Hong Jiu managed to use Daluo Empty Palms to redirect a chunk of Luo Ming’s attack before impact and then leveraged the moisture from the soil to expedite his recovery.
Owing to Hong Jiu making use of the moisture from soil around them, he drew out insects, rodents, snakes and what have you, species that Hong Jiu used to supplement his recovery. Song Ou refused to consume any of them until his starvation beat him, and he gradually learnt how to enjoy them from Hong Jiu once he realised they didn’t taste as repulsive as he imagined. That being said, Song Ou did concede to a lizard unlike Hong Jiu. The good news was that Song Ou was back to fifty percent of his full power and was grateful to Hong Jiu for the latter’s guidance.
“Brother Shiba. How… are the rodents you raised even chubbier than us?”
“It’s a raising method I invented. I combine massage that stimulants their accupoints on top of transfusing them with internal energy at fixed intervals. Supplement their diet with some ginseng, and you’ll have big rodents in less than a month.”
“There’s ginseng here? Why didn’t you say so sooner? Share some with me.”
“You’ve been consuming it this whole time. What did you think the powder I mixed into the water you drank daily was?”
“That bitter powder is ginseng? How did you sneak it in? They confiscated everything from me.”
“Easy.” Hong Jiu wagged his hand: “The pills I gave you are old mud pills I keep in me. With too much time on his hands, my dad used to feed me ginseng balls, so I’m a walking ginseng. “
Song Ou started barfing.
“How painfully ignorant. These rats I raised can now bite a cat to death. Give them some more time, and they’ll decimate even dogs.”
“I’ll bite you to death!” With a pallor countenance, Song Ou raged, “Who cares if they can bite a dog to death?! I can, yet I’m still trapped here!”
“Duh. It’s useless even if your family is a dog-eat-dog family. If my rats are strong enough to travel far to call for help, though, would you still argue that?”
“Th-the rodents you’re raising can call for help from outside.”
“That’s a foregone conclusion. This is Mount Daluo’s exclusive, secret rodent raising method. If any of my Mount Daluo siblings see my plump rats, they’ll recognise them right away. My precious rats will lead our saviour here.”
“B-but the enemy is a force to be reckoned with.”
“Don’t worry about that. You know what the spring festival couplet hung outside my door says? It reads, ‘As long as one has the universe in their heart, they cannot be mentally demented.’ Trust me and my plan. I’ve planted a secret signage on the rats, so my first brother will instantly understand once he sees them. If one of my other siblings finds them, they’ll pass the rat onto my first brother. Once First Brother is here, impossible is just a word.”
“Your first brother? I can’t believe you’d call that waste of oxygen, Ming Feizhen, your brother. What can he do?”
Hong Jiu came close to rearranging Song Ou’s face. “You know my grandmaster?”
“Yeah, Hero Shenzhou.”
“Good. You know his divinations are accurate enough for people to consider him a deity? When he read my fortune, he told me, ‘Nine lifetimes of misery. You have eight more to lives to go.’ What do you think?”
Song Ou gave a thumbs up: “Godly. I respect him with every fibre of my being.”
“Too kind, too kind. He also read my first brother’s destiny. First Brother ran off before he heard the whole story when the last half was the most important part. My grandmaster said, ‘He is fated to be invincible in every ring he ever sets foot into’! My first brother is born to be invincible in the ring!”
“Damn, that’s crazy! When can we escape, then?!”
“Let’s see… I don’t know where we are. To pinpoint our location, identify each other and then commute, if I’m being conservative… probably three years, hahaha. It’s no big deal. Treat it as a tour. Be open-minded. There’s always hope.”
Song Ou silently sat back in his spot and chewed on a lizard, musing, what is life?
***
“Those are the three weapons the three great sects are bringing to participate in the convention,” Luo Ming stated.
Colour me surprised. If I was him, I’d already be getting friendly with a hole that not even air could reach. You have to give the man credit where it’s due.
Someone hollered, “While a number of groups brought their own weapons, a number brought weapons you sent them. Please expound why you asked us to bring weapons.”
“Yes, this one was getting to that. In a nutshell, this one wishes to invite you all to partake in a martial arts tournament. This one shall clarify why it is necessary now. Siming, bring the sword core and sword nerve.”
“Yes, Father.”
Once the attention had been diverted to Luo Ming and Luo Siming, Ming Feizhen sneaked off to the side to scrutinise the portly rat.
This fellow bears a striking resemblance to Second’s Wangcai, but why would he be here?
I carefully studied the rat’s fur for clues and eventually found written in blood “Wugufengdeng.”
… The hell is this? A curse phrase?!