The First Order

The escapees who had gone hungry for two days acted as though they were under a spell. When they heard the word “food,” everyone made a mad dash to Jiang Wu’s group.

They had long since noticed this group of people. Although Jiang Wu and her students were on good terms with Ren Xiaosu’s group, there was still a separation between them. Didn’t the two groups also sit separately while eating?

But they did not understand that Jiang Wu was only trying to be independent so they would not become a burden to Ren Xiaosu’s group.

Just as the crowd was about to make a rush for Jiang Wu and her students, Chen Wudi stepped forward to get between them. Since he had been instructed by his master to protect the campsite, he would have to do it even if a million troops descended down on them!

To Chen Wudi, the people in front of him were no longer escapees but heinous demons. From his point of view, their faces had turned to dark, smokey appearances, and their hands and feet had become animalistic claws.

But… before Chen Wudi could get in front of Jiang Wu, he saw her resolutely raise her pistol and shoot it into the crowd.

The people who bounded at her had shocked expressions on their faces. Someone fell to the ground after unexpectedly getting shot, and there was even an incredulous look on his face as he dropped to the ground. After the victim’s heart got shot, his blood splattered out from the gunshot wound and stained Jiang Wu’s fair cheeks blood red.

However, the students did not feel scared at the sight of this. Rather, they thought the bloodstains resembled plum blossoms in the snow.

The crowd got frightened off after hearing the second gunshot and retreated. Jiang Wu did not lower her pistol and panted heavily, as though dazed.

From the side, Ren Xiaosu watched the scene unfold. This world had even forced someone as nice as Jiang Wu into shooting and killing others?

Xiaoyu walked over and slowly removed the pistol from Jiang Wu’s hand. Only then did Jiang Wu come back to her senses. Xiaoyu comforted, “Everything’s going to be fine. Don’t worry.”

Ren Xiaosu looked at Jiang Wu and asked, “Are you scared?”

In the frozen, snowy lands, the flickering, red-orange campfire illuminated Jiang Wu’s face very gently. Jiang Wu turned to Ren Xiaosu and said tearfully, “If I don’t descend into the Underworld, who will?”

Ren Xiaosu was surprised to see the bloodstains that had been splattered on Jiang Wu starting to move involuntarily towards her hand. When they finally finished gathering in her hand, a crimson plum blossom was produced. It had formed into a single stalk of a single plum blossom in her hand, the petals of the flower all sharp as knives.

Following, all five plum blossom petals detached from the stalk and started hovering around Jiang Wu as though they were protecting her.

A faint breeze circulated around Jiang Wu as it made her soft hair flutter and come alive.

Ren Xiaosu threw a dry log at Jiang Wu as he had thought of something. The plum blossom petals apparently perceived it and crushed the log into pieces.

This time, it was Ren Xiaosu’s turn to be stunned. He had never expected that Jiang Wu would become a superhuman with one shot from a gun.

Her students went over and looked at Jiang Wu happily. When they approached her, the plum blossom petals reattached themselves to the stalk in a way that resembled a bud waiting to bloom.

“Teacher, you’ve also become a supernatural being,” the students said in elation.

Wang Fugui took out the pistol Ren Xiaosu gave him a long time ago. He looked at the pistol, then at the crowd who was fleeing. He was caught in a dilemma.

Ren Xiaosu snapped at him, “It has nothing to do with guns or killing others. It happened purely because her willpower has reached a transition point.”

“Then can I reach my transition point as well?” Wang Fugui said with anticipation. Seeing how Wang Dalong kept doubting his family bloodline, Wang Fugui was really eager to prove himself.

Ren Xiaosu was tickled pink by Wang Fugui. “Don’t think about all that irrelevant stuff. It’s not like everyone can become a supernatural being. Even if you’re not one, you can still live a good life.”

At this moment, the escapees’ group was keeping their distance in fear that Ren Xiaosu would seek them out to settle the score. It wasn’t until this moment that they understood that the moral coercion and societal pressure that were effective in the stronghold were no longer effective here.

These were the wastelands, not the stronghold.

In the past, they believed that as long as they had more people on their side, and as long as they dared to kick up a fuss, they could definitely get things their way. They believed that as long as they had the moral high ground, others would have to yield to them. But that was not the case out here in the wilderness, and Ren Xiaosu had fired a shot to make them learn.

Now that everyone was awake, Ren Xiaosu decided to gut the rabbit and roast it for everybody to have a taste of meat.

Some time ago, Xiaoyu discovered that meat sold in the stronghold was extremely expensive after first arriving there. Even imitation meat[1] was extremely expensive too. So they ended up having less meat to eat than before while living in the stronghold.

Since Ren Xiaosu knew how to hunt, he caught more wild animals in the wilderness to make up for the lack of meat in their diet.

In the earlier years, Ren Xiaosu’s hunting targets were limited by his physical fitness and skills even if he knew how to hunt. But now, he was no longer constrained to just hunting for sparrows.

As the fatty meat of the plump rabbit roasted over the fire, Ren Xiaosu brought out some honey from his storage space. He made some cuts on the rabbit and applied honey to it. Very quickly, fats from the meat started dripping down bit by bit into the campfire.

The sight of this made the students on the other side salivate. But since Ren Xiaosu did not say they could eat it, they could only watch quietly as the rabbit cooked.

During their escape, Jiang Wu had been constantly reminding them that they would have to depend on themselves for everything and not rely on others for help.

Suddenly, Ren Xiaosu said with a smile, “Y’all can come over and have some too.”

The students looked towards Jiang Wu with anticipation. “Teacher, can we?”

Jiang Wu smiled and nodded. “Go ahead, but remember to give thanks.”

With just some barbecued meat, Ren Xiaosu managed to gain more than 40 gratitude tokens without much effort. Some students even thanked him several times in a single breath and were always sincere each time they said it.

Ren Xiaosu thought these well-educated students were way too well-mannered. “Hahaha, eat up, eat up!”

The group of students surrounded the campfire in great anticipation. Ren Xiaosu saw them holding their knees together as they sat by the side and swallowed hard.

When he saw the meat on the surface browning, he cut out a small piece of it for everyone to share. However, the students were all showing humility to each other and only cut a small piece from the shared portion for themselves before handing it to the next person.

Ren Xiaosu felt Jiang Wu had really taught them well.

The aroma of the meat drifted towards the escapees when the wind blew. The escapees could only sit there in a daze in the snow and smell the aroma but not eat the meat.

Not once had they thought about how if all of them worked together, they could easily catch some wild goats, wild pheasants, or wild ducks with the number of people they had. These creatures in the wilderness had multiplied to great numbers without any human interference. But the thought of gaining something for themselves through their own efforts had never crossed their minds.

One of Jiang Wu’s students suddenly asked Ren Xiaosu while eating, “Can you please teach us how to hunt? Or how to use a gun? We would also like to rely on ourselves to find food so we can protect our teacher in the future.”

[1] Restructured steak is a catch-all term to describe a class of imitation beef steaks made from smaller pieces of beef fused together by a binding agent.