Daomu Biji

It was the cold stream that woke me up. When I opened my eyes, I was already lying between two mossy stones, behind which was a small cliff. The stream formed by rainwater flowed down from the cliff and rushed directly to my face.

It was very cold and my hands and feet were almost numb, but it wasn't the first time for me to wake up in such a state. I knew everything would be better in a few minutes, but I also couldn't do nothing. I tried hard to move my hands and feet and found my body slowly responded. Then I tried to move several times, and finally stood up.

It was already bright, and fog was everywhere.

Where was this?

I got up and tried to rub my body to speed up the blood circulation. As I slowly warmed up and my mind became clear, I immediately noticed that something was off—the vegetation here wasn't the same as the vegetation before I was knocked unconscious.

s.h.i.+t, that b.a.s.t.a.r.d. My heart was alight with abuse, but I didn't have the strength to shout out my grievances.

"Unfortunately, you're not as important as you think. On the way to the underworld, guess who I am!" I almost immediately remembered his last words, and wondered, what does this mean?

If he were a person I didn't know at all, he wouldn't have said such a thing. Did I really know him?

My mind was in turmoil and I suddenly realized that I should have cut his mask off with a knife the first time instead of trying to rip it off.

I don't remember who told me that it wasn't foolproof to use a human skin mask to change into another person. First of all, the person you want to change your face to must be somewhat similar to you. I was related by blood to Uncle Three, or Jie Lianhuan, and my face shape was basically similar, so it was possible to do. If it wasn't similar, it would be impossible to change your face shape to match the person you wanted to copy.

I couldn't figure out who he really was, and the pain and cold all over me also made it hard to think deeply. Judging from the man's skill, he wasn't particularly strong, but he was at least better than me.

I looked around. I must be in a mountain stream that had been dry for a long time since the ground was full of fist-sized pebbles and weeds grew among them. Because the mountain climate was humid, all the stones were covered with a thick layer of moss and the small streams of water flowing down the cliff seeped under them. I could hear the sound of the water but couldn't see it.

I looked around at the trees—the trunks were thick and covered with moss. The humidity in this place was completely different from the place where I

Was I taken far away?

I still had a headache and dizziness for a while, but my body was much better than before thanks to all kinds of blows I've received during this period. It was always helpful to fight as long as it didn't destroy and kill people. I found a relatively large stone and sat down, feeling a little worried to touch my face.

In fact, it wasn't my face I wanted to touch, but my mask. I knew the man meant to kill me, but because Fatty was nearby, the guy couldn't make much noise; otherwise I wouldn't have woken up. But even if I didn't die, the injuries on my face must be beyond my control.

My mood was very strange and I didn't know whether I wanted this mask to be broken or not. In short, there were conflicting ideas. The only advantage of this mask was that it brought a lot of people here, but after that, it seemed to bring me all kinds of trouble.

When I touched my forehead with my hand, I knew it was severe—when I touched the part where I was struck, I felt extreme pain. My face inside the mask must have been completely bruised, but the surface of the mask wasn't damaged at all.

It doesn't seem so easy to escape from such a life. The mask should fully consider any possible factors.

The mask covered my face and I couldn't check the wound, but it didn't seem too serious to me. There was no stream and I couldn't look in a mirror. I had to forget about it and think about where this place was.

I walked all the way along the cliff to where it gradually dropped in height. I found a place where I could use my strength to climb up, and found it was a very steep slope. Strangely, there were a few trees on the slope and only some small shrubs. This was a debris flow slope, which could have been caused by a landslide in recent years.

I must have rolled down this slope, and I moved my hands and feet, surprised that my body didn't fall apart after rolling down like this. However, after some movement, I found that I felt a very uncomfortable pain all over my body.

Different from ordinary bruises, I knew this was the pain of bone injuries. It's just that my body hadn't completely recovered and I was still cold. After a while, all kinds of injuries would surface and maybe I wouldn't even be able to walk.

I leaned against a tree and looked at the surrounding environment. I could imagine what kind of scene it was last night. The place where I stayed yesterday must be above this slope. After I was knocked unconscious by that b.a.s.t.a.r.d, he must have pushed me directly down and rolled me over the small cliff. I don't know whether he wanted to kill me, but obviously he didn't want Fatty to find me again.

There wasn't such a steep slope in the area where Fatty and I questioned him yesterday, so it seems he dragged me along for some time. The probability of finding Fatty when I go back may be very low.

I lifted my leg and started to walk towards the slope, stopping and resting often. It took me more than an hour to find that the plants began to look familiar, but it was still a long way from the top. I couldn't walk anymore, and after looking down, I saw that I hadn't walked very far. The slope was too steep and really hard to walk.

The last section was close to 90 degrees, and I almost climbed it on my hands and knees, but fortunately this section was only a few meters. After I reached the top, I found that there was a gentle slope where the trees grew tall and the vines coiled and tangled with shrubs, leaving little room to walk.

The sun was getting stronger and stronger as I leaned against a tree and was illuminated by its light. I felt that all the pain was magnified infinitely, and was unbearable in some places. And after walking for such a long time, my whole body had lost most of its strength.

Never break a bone, I chanted to myself. A fracture was death in this kind of place, even if only a few ribs were broken.

Thinking about it, I suddenly wanted to laugh. Recalling my various experiences over the past few years, this wasn't the first time I had encountered such a mess. Now, that I was in such a situation again, my calm was far greater than my panic. I felt like a fly, beaten by the flyswatter countless times but not dying. In the end, I suddenly realized that my question wasn't "why didn't I die", but why was I beaten like this and stayed trapped under the flyswatter.

But I at least don't want to be killed here, and I thought to myself, "G.o.d beat me to death so many times, he certainly wouldn't let me end it here."

After a light nap, I clenched my teeth and stood up again. I knelt on the ground to look for the tiny marks left by our pa.s.sage through the bushes, and I searched bit by bit until the evening sun set. Then I seemed to return to the place where Fatty had interrogated the boy before.

We came here at night so there wasn't any special geographical feature that I could remember, and now I had no impression at all. Of course, I didn't see Fatty.

I didn't stop, continuing to try to recall the way in hopes of finding the place where the foreigners camped. There would be bonfire remnants and garbage there, so if I find those things, I could determine the location of other places.

I didn't know where it went wrong, but this time I found nothing. No matter how carefully I looked for signs of broken shrubs, or how hard I tried to remember the location, there was nothing.