Chapter 167: The Good and the Bad
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Without knowing whether it was because of the explosion that ti, Chen Mu’s reputation among the crowd of children had beco unassailable. Guiding the crowd of kids in the exercise gymnastics went extrely smoothly. Compared to himself before, the physical constitutions of the youth from the Moqi line were a lot better. They took to the set of exercise gymnastics very readily with a speed that surprised Chen Mu. Wei-ah kept his calm expression all along.
Wei-ah had actually started to teach the children his skills, which delighted Chen Mu. From his point of view, those basic skills truly had stunning power. Chen Mu had always felt Wei-ah’s techniques were quite suited to those village youth. They were clever, and they had outstanding physical constitutions with the temperant to persevere. They were afraid of neither pain nor bitterness. They were simply perfect disciples! But, Wei-ah had never considered imparting his skills to those youth, always concentrating on Chen Mu, who had co from outside.
Wei-ah’s disharmony wasn’t only based on that. Chen Mu had long since discovered that Wei-ah had never gotten along so well with the villagers, apart from being with the clan elder and Li Duhong when his expression would moderate sowhat. More of the villagers dreaded Wei-ah more than they respected him. A few of them would even betray so enmity in their eyes, which Chen Mu didn’t quite understand.
Wei-ah had never given a straight answer as to why, so Chen Mu figured he couldn’t answer it. But, Chen Mu relaxed a little since those adult villagers’ moods hadn’t developed into much of an influence on the children. Those children had experienced the trials of life and death, which had engendered their worship of power to an extre. And, the classic representative of great power, Wei-ah, had enough capital to beco one of the idols of the new generation. Naturally, the other one was Chen Mu.
The bug had been a pleasant surprise for Chen Mu. The black-steel, sickle-bladed bug was one of a few types of creatures in the entire jungle that made people’s color change upon hearing of it. Its carapace was extrely hard, and its movents were quick. It was a natural knife master with its two powerful sickle-blade front claws. When you added to that its excellent hunting skills, it could run amok in the jungle.
Alfonso wasn’t the one who knew of the black-steel, sickle-blade bug. Li Duhong also knew of it, which astonished Chen Mu sowhat. After the bug had been dismbered, they found that those shells that had even been able to block the tailless shuttle were no doubt of so fine material. The children at that ti were all barehanded and empty fisted, and they had used anything that could be made into a weapon to arm themselves.
Looking at the shells, Alfonso endlessly coveted them. Unfortunately, he didn’t have any tools with him and had no way to carry out any processing on them. He had only brought along a set of miniature tools, which had limited capabilities. So of them could only complete the extraction of less than five kilos of tal, and so could only produce tal parts to a diater of under ten centiters. But, that set of miniature tools could still help Alfonso set up a simple and crude tallurgical lab in short order. That installation, which included so probing equipnt, could help them find so mineral resources if they weren’t buried very deeply.
The biggest after-effect of the breath control for Chen Mu that ti was that his whole body was powerless and limp, and he was in pain across three days.
But, they still didn’t have ti to rest since ti was life for them! They didn’t have many supplies left, and if they weren’t able to leave the area of the gummy cloud layer within half a month, their future would be bleak. Depending on hunting or raising food was impossible with over 2,000 people, and there weren’t even enough hunters in their division.
All the division’s forward progress was exceptionally arduous, though, the crowd of children actually displayed trendous orderliness and perseverance, which moved Chen Mu.
By their twenty-second day of advancing, they had already succeeded in distancing themselves from the area of the gummy cloud layer’s instability. The division was too awful to watch with everyone having nearly turned into mud-n; their bodies were covered in mud and rotten leaves, and their clothes were beyond repair.
The black-steel, sickle-blade bug was the last obstacle they had encountered, and they hadn’t run into any other fierce wild beasts along the rest of the way. According to what Li Duhong had explained, the sll of the black-steel, sickle-blade bug had kept many of the ferocious wild beasts at a distance. Chen Mu then understood how fierce that bug he and Wei-ah had faced last ti truly was.
“How much longer will we have to walk, do you think?” Li Duhong asked Alfonso.
Alfonso’s skin had been darkened by the sun, which changed his forrly frail appearance. The division had already departed from the strange realm of the gummy cloud layer, which allowed everyone to breathe a sigh of relief. But, they were facing another issue—they had to choose a temporary place to live. Alfonso shook his head. “I don’t know, either.” He rubbed Li Duhong’s skull and sighed from so unknown thought.
It wasn’t sothing simple to choose a temporary living place. It had to be near a source of water, easily guarded, and hard to attack. They had to block attacks from the wild beasts, which was especially important for them at that ti. Chen Mu gave Alfonso the responsibility to choose a place to camp, even though he was also at a half-baked level. Still, among the entire division, he was doubtlessly the one with the most right to speak. There were three others to help him; Mogu, Dong Shen, and Li Zexi were all 16 and were the three oldest among the youth. They were also the three who had received the most complete military training.
Within the village, the three of them had focused the most on cultivating each other and were considered youthful geniuses. As they faced helping Alfonso choose a camp, their most important responsibility was the issue of safety.
Since they hadn’t yet found any suitable temporary living place, the crowd of people could only continue walking ahead.
They finally found a suitable temporary camp by the twenty-fourth day. Three sides of the camp were surrounded by 1,000-ter cliffs, which made a natural barrier. There was so deep water at the base of the cliffs. There was also flowing water where an underground stream ca together with the pool. Such a camp was doubtlessly quite suited for the youth, who wouldn’t have any battle strength for a while.
They all couldn’t help cheering when the place for a temporary camp had been decided. The youth could finally see so hope!
By the ti Chen Mu led everyone into the valley, Wei-ah had cleared out any large wild beasts he could see. Only when he had determined the valley was completely safe did the youths enter and station there.
A new camp felt like a new start. The children’s faces showed brilliant smiles. No matter how old or young they were, they all started to clear away the weeds in the valley on their own initiative.
A fence was quickly built to seal off the mouth of the valley, with the tips of the fresh tree trunks sharpened and set up in a row. Wei-ah had completed the entire project by himself; in the eyes of the children, Wei-ah was a human machine.
Chen Mu couldn’t help but think maybe that guy really was a human-shaped machine.
Alfonso had also beco very busy, as he was just then directing a group of children to mine so stones. The mine there was very shallow beneath the surface, and it could be easily dug. But, it still made a very difficult life for those children, who only had a few rudintary tools. Li Duhong was engrossed in the strenuous digging among them, not uttering a sound and his little face all covered in sweat.
Li Duhong had an honored identity as the clan elder’s grandson. If nothing happened to him, there was a good possibility he would be the clan elder later on. That identity had made the rest of the children fear him to their bones. Though by that ti, his calm and capable display had quickly established his trust among the youths.
Wei-ah suddenly stopped what he was doing at the mouth of the valley, showing an alert expression. Chen Mu had noticed sothing strange about Wei-ah right away, and he stopped the work he was doing and turned his head, making an urgent signal to the youths behind him.
The expressions on the youths behind him changed, as they ran off shouting, “Be on guard! Everyone on guard! Prepare the artillery troops!”
The artillery troops referred to those few small-scale cluster cannons. Everyone was imdiately running deep into the valley, and the youths who wielded the small-scale cluster cannons had already gathered them up and made the preparations to fire.
By the ti Chen Mu turned back around, there was already no sign of Wei-ah at the mouth of the valley.
By the ti Wei-ah reappeared, he was leading a large group of people. There were probably 200 of them, and Chen Mu was quite familiar with the one at their head. It was Bo Wen! They were people from the village, among whom was Cheng Ying, and they all looked miserable. Once the children in the valley saw those familiar people outside, they imdiately rushed out.
It was a joyous reunion with relatives that caused crying to sound up in the valley; whether they were male or female, old or young, they were all crying. Even Cheng Ying couldn’t stop wiping her tears.
“Everyone into the valley, and then we can catch up,” Bo Wen said in a clear, loud voice.
From the compliance of the villagers, Chen Mu could see Bo Wen had already beco the leader of those 200 people. Bo Wen regarded Chen Mu with a smile that wasn’t a smile, which made Chen Mu very uncomfortable. Given Bo Wen’s ability, it wasn’t anything out of the ordinary to Chen Mu that he would beco the leader of that crowd. Chen Mu wasn’t really interested in the duties of leadership, but he was still very clear that if he were to allow Bo Wen to beco the leader of the camp, then his own situation would beco miserable.
Chen Mu found that the 200 people were all soldiers. Given Bo Wen’s temperant, he wouldn’t be at all likely to be leading any of those who might hold him back. But, it was undoubtedly a good thing for the camp for those 200 soldiers to join them.
Still, it wasn’t very good news for Chen Mu.
Comparing the strength of the two sides, Chen Mu could derive the verdict that his side was at an utter disadvantage. His side was composed entirely of children who didn’t understand affairs, and their battle power was of no account.
Chen Mu imdiately felt a headache.
But, just then, Li Duhong ca drilling out of the crowd.
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