Master of Strange Dao

Yu Ziqing stood in the same spot for a long time, not sure whether he was mocking himself or just sneering.

The more he thought about it, the more he realized that the reason people were fighting outside didn't matter to them at all.

After a while, he stepped forward and shouted loudly.

"Er Han, where the heck have you gone? Go check on the people buried underground—they've all started Body Refinement by now, they can't just die under there that easily. If they've been slacking off, then they deserve to die now."

After speaking, he glanced again at the butcher next to him, whose eyes had already grown dim and who was at a loss.

"What are you looking at? Go help them and see if anyone is injured!"

He turned his head and looked at another confused kitchen aunt.

"And you, what are you standing there for? Hurry and check if our stock of food is intact, whether the Mushroom Forest underground has been buried, and the water source as well..."

"What are you all dazed for, scared silly? The earthquake is over; everyone get moving, quickly, stop standing around stupidly."

People who had no idea what to do, upon hearing this, immediately sprang into action. They didn't need to think about anything else; now that someone was directing them, they just followed instructions, which eased their panic and calmed their nerves.

Yu Ziqing helped the village chief sit down to one side and then brought over the severely shocked Old Yang.

Old Yang's expression was somewhat dim as he spoke in a low voice.

"Ziqing, I know the way to find our way back, but it requires at least reaching the Cave Void Realm in Qi-Refinement or reaching the Yang God in Refining God. Moreover, the longer the time passes, the farther and deeper we get lost, the more elusive the hope becomes. Moreover, we can't Refine Qi here, and the resources here probably won't last too long..."

Yu Ziqing squatted down, looked straight at the elders, and gently waved his hand to cut off Old Yang's words. His eyes became even calmer as he spoke softly.

"Don't worry, the sky won't fall. Especially now, you two must not fall, must not panic. If you both panic, everything here will be in chaos, and chaos will only lead to our destruction."

"Indeed, I hadn't thought about it before, and none of us had, that it would affect us in this way in the end."

"Let's stabilize the morale of the villagers first before anything else."

Seeing Yu Ziqing so composed, Old Yang came back to his senses, shook his head self-mockingly, and the village chief also came back to his senses and nodded to Yu Ziqing.

"You're right, we can't give up first."

The village chief stood up, his eyes becoming sharp again. He walked towards the village and began to direct the villagers.

Yu Ziqing sat with Old Yang, talking to himself.

"You once told me that whether it's Daqian or Dali, the bigger the force, the more they cherish their feathers. Even if there is a battle, they avoid involving commoners and fight in the wilderness.

Back then, I thought, how could the world, where power reverts to oneself, become more peaceful and abide by more rules?

Now it seems that no matter where, it's actually the same. When weak, sometimes one can die in incomprehensible ways.

Today, I truly understood what it means to die without knowing who killed you, perhaps even the killer doesn't know who they killed."

Old Yang opened his mouth but said nothing, completely at a loss for words to refute.

After a while, he could only sigh helplessly—he knew that what Yu Ziqing said was right, there were certainly many similar incidents; only the dead forever kept silent, those who can voice their experience are always the living, and those with significant influence.

Yu Ziqing stood up and walked back into the village, starting to help others.

More and more people in the village had started Body Refinement, and the manual digging work progressed quickly. They dug along the collapsed mine shaft according to memory.

Soon, they had dug out some miners who had been buried inside, just as Yu Ziqing had anticipated. Given such a short time and considering that those who could mine deep underground all had relatively high levels of Body Refinement in the village, the first ones dug out were still alive.

While strengthening the mine shaft, people continued to dig deeper, and more people were rescued.

Watching everyone work orderly in the rescue, Yu Ziqing stopped paying attention and went to check on the Mushroom Forest.

The cavern where the Mushroom Forest was located had also collapsed, but fortunately, it wasn't too deep, and they could quickly dig through it.

There were not many injured in the village, primarily those affected while leaving the village. Given everyone's physique, the injuries were not fatal—this was a rare piece of good news.

Everything was proceeding in an orderly manner, and by mealtime, Yu Ziqing also organized the kitchen aunt to prepare a steaming hot meal.

In the village, nothing could soothe panicked and confused hearts more than food.

The village's water source area did not collapse; the area was all made of solid stone. Although the water had stopped flowing, there was still a large stock, so there was no need to worry for the time being.

Everything seemed to have temporarily returned to normal, but on the third day, the village chief took Yu Ziqing, following a kitchen aunt, to the newly excavated Mushroom Forest.

Everywhere inside were crushed Jinlan Mushrooms, and people were already salvaging those that had broken off. If dug up quickly and processed immediately, they could still be used as reserve food. If delayed, they would no longer be edible.

But the kitchen aunt secretly called over the village chief and Yu Ziqing, asking them to look at something other than these damaged Jinlan Mushrooms.

They went deeper into the Mushroom Forest, where some areas had not collapsed, and there stood several Jinlan Mushrooms that appeared intact.

However, at first glance at these Jinlan Mushrooms, Yu Ziqing knew there was a problem with them; they were completely different from those chopped down daily.

The spread-out caps were slightly wilted, and the thick mushroom stems had also shrunk. If not for chopping them daily, Yu Ziqing might not have noticed such subtle changes.

He squatted down, dug up the ground, and immediately saw that the underground parts of these Jinlan Mushrooms had started to wither.

He dug up several more, including those that looked unchanged at first glance, and found their underground parts had begun to wither as well.

Yu Ziqing's expression grew grave. If these Jinlan Mushrooms were similar to other fungi he knew, the underground parts were actually the most important; the parts above ground were just fruiting bodies grown for reproduction.

This meant that the village was about to run out of food.

"How long can the village's stored food last?"

"At least enough for everyone for three months, longer if we conserve," replied the village chief.

Ever since Yu Ziqing had developed a method for long-term food storage, the kitchen aunt had never had a day of rest. After finishing her daily tasks, she would start preparing food reserves, and she hadn't stopped even for a day.

Until today, they had stored enough food for several hundred people to last several months.

But even so, after several months, they would inevitably run out of food completely. At that point, either everyone would starve to death together, or a human tragedy would replay itself, with the certain outcome being everyone's death.

Yu Ziqing's expression was somewhat absent-minded. He stood where he was for a long time, and then spoke softly.

"Keep the villagers steady, do not panic."

"I'm going to do something. You don't need to look for me. Trust me."

"Remember, no matter what happens, keep steady first, do not panic."

"Even if we die, I don't want us to die like this."

Without waiting for the village chief's response, Yu Ziqing dropped these words and immediately moved deeper into the cave. He walked a distance and collapsed a section behind him, disappearing from everyone's sight in an instant.

His expression was somewhat absent-minded as he blindly moved deeper into the cave, continuously walking to the end. Seeing the collapsed passage, he dug through it with his hands and continued moving deeper.

Time passed, and the ground became only hard stone. Yu Ziqing looked back, collapsed the path behind him, and then sat down against a rock.

His increasingly calm eyes revealed a hint of madness and determination.

"If I were fighting with someone and couldn't beat them, dying in that fight, I would accept it."

"But I can't accept dying like an ant, being killed off without the killers even knowing whom they've killed, nor even knowing who is killing us."

"Everyone will have to die here, ultimately, starved to death here."

Starved to death.

The least desired way to die for Yu Ziqing.

"Since that's the case, then nobody should think about getting off easily."

"They've pushed me into a corner now."

"Pushed me into a corner, I'm capable of doing anything!"

Yu Ziqing leaned against the rock wall, murmuring to himself.

Days and nights indistinguishable, he couldn't feel the passage of time as he sat there.

After a while, he felt hungry, it was time to eat.

But he made no reaction, merely changing his position and lying down.

...

In the village, the village chief looked across at Old Yang.

"He dropped that line and vanished into the cave. I don't know what he plans to do."

No one thought Yu Ziqing had fled. The mine had become an island in the Void. There was nowhere left to go.

Old Yang looked towards the direction of the cave.

"Did he say anything else?"

"He said to believe in him, and no matter what happens, we mustn't panic, but stay steady."

Old Yang guessed Yu Ziqing was trying to find a way out, but he could hardly conceive how they would escape given the current circumstances.

It was already too late...

But hearing the village chief's words, the hesitation in his heart gradually turned into determination.

Lately, the things that had proven him wrong were numerous, exceeding his expectations and knowledge.

At least, he believed Yu Ziqing wasn't the type to just give up on himself.

Similarly, he also believed that Yu Ziqing was a person worth trusting.

"Let's trust him then, let's stabilize the village."

The village chief nodded and then shook his head.

"You're right, but whatever happens, we face it together. He's one of us. I need to find him, and even if it's death, I won't let him die before me, an old man."

As days passed, even under the prevailing circumstances, the village remained well-managed by the village chief, with everyone internally panicking but outwardly maintaining normalcy.

The village chief hadn't given up. However, no matter how they dug, they never found him again.

Deep underground.

Yu Ziqing already felt his stomach burning as if it was on fire; he couldn't tell if it was hunger or something else.

The restless Qi-Blood surging through his body had become listless, and the orifices he had opened were now empty.

He had forgotten the time, unable to feel its passage, only feeling that time passed very slowly; his body was growing weaker, but the feeling of hunger had disappeared.

Lying there, he didn't even want to talk to himself anymore; his mouth was dry, and he didn't have the desire to move his tongue to lick his lips.

His consciousness started to blur and even hallucinations appeared.

He didn't know how much time had passed, but he felt a taste in his mouth. Reaching into his chest, he touched the small cloth bag that had been wrapped around a few strips of jerky which had been opened before.

The jerky inside, unknown when, had been eaten down to the last strip.

Yu Ziqing slightly curled his lips; he had forgotten that he still had food with him, but his body hadn't forgotten.

At that moment, he looked down at his arm, which had shrunk in size, the once bulging biceps had returned to its skin-and-bones state.