The First Order

Compared to Yang Xiaojin, the others in the team were far less cautious based on Ren Xiaosu’s observations. With 12 soldiers here, not even one of them were willing to be the night watchman.

It was obvious that everyone was in deep sleep as there was loud snoring coming from the tents. Although the larger beasts had been kept outside the stronghold perimeter, these people were still too careless.

However, Yang Xiaojin’s breathing was even and light. It was obvious that she had not entered deep sleep.

Ren Xiaosu felt that it was normal for him to be cautious because he had seen a lot of people getting stabbed to death in their sleep at night. But what kind of environment did Yang Xiaojin live in for her to develop a similar habit?

He felt that a person’s past experiences would determine their current thoughts and habits. Yang Xiaojin must have gone through some very dangerous situations in the past.

At dawn, Ren Xiaosu went to check on the place where he had dumped the fish bones before everyone else woke up. He had specially set aside some scraps last night to see if any wild animals would get attracted by it.

A lot of people feared wild animals because they felt that they were not afraid of humans due to their ferocity. However, wild animals were not that reckless. In fact, most of them were exceedingly cautious. Usually, a solitary animal would leave when they spotted so many tents set up in an area. But as the fish scraps and bones were dumped far away from the campsite, it should attract some wild animals and make them leave behind some tracks.

Ren Xiaosu carefully approached the area where he dumped the fish scraps and bones. He kept an eye on his surroundings for any signs of beasts that could have been there before him but saw nothing suspicious.

But upon reaching the spot, he realized that all of the fish scraps and bones on the ground had disappeared and that there were no signs of any animal tracks around it!

Ren Xiaosu immediately took his bone knife out of his sleeves and kept a watchful eye on the surroundings. He kept his guard up as he stepped back cautiously. Was it ants that carried away the fish scraps and bones? This was quite a possibility since ants nowadays had grown to become as large as a human’s finger pads. If an ant nest were nearby, it would be quite normal for them to carry it away in just one night.

But Ren Xiaosu still held some doubt. When he returned to the campsite, everyone was already packing up and getting ready to set off. They were all folding their tents and stuffing them back into the trunks of the off-road vehicles.

by the vehicles, Liu Bu was still complaining to Luo Xinyu, “Xinyu, you shouldn’t have traded the chocolate with him. Does a refugee deserve to eat something like that?”

Luo Xinyu ignored him. She also had not expected that she would end up giving two bars of chocolate away!

The convoy set off. They finally started venturing deep into the woods with the directions that Ren Xiaosu had plotted for them. Sunrays shone through the canopy of the trees, beautifying the entire woods.

By this point, everyone had long forgotten about the fear from yesterday night that was brought on by the discovery of the large hoofprints of a deer. Ren Xiaosu could even hear singing coming from the vehicles behind him. A group of soldiers were laughing loudly as they cracked dirty jokes.

It felt as though everyone were here on a picnic.

There was a short stretch where they had to travel quite close to the riverbank. Ren Xiaosu said to the driver, “Keep as far away from the river as possible.”

He did not exactly know what dangers lurked in the river, but last night’s events had left an intense impression on him.

However, the driver thought otherwise. “There’s quite a distance between us and the riverbank. Besides, aren’t there only some fish in the river? Don’t tell me that they can leap ashore and bite you on the face? You’ll be fine as long as you don’t go swimming.”

Ren Xiaosu did not say anything else. He made the decision that if there were any danger, he would shake off these fools and make a quick escape by himself.

At this moment, the point vehicle that Ren Xiaosu was in braked hard. The driver from the private army said in apprehension, “Look!”

Ren Xiaosu turned to look and was surprised to see a large red deer.

Red deer were huge in size and were the second largest in the family of deer after the moose. They liked living in groups and mainly ruminated on grass, leaves, twigs, tree bark, and fruit for their diet while also enjoying licking mineral salts.

The red deer in front of him was probably over two meters tall. It was standing quietly on the road and looking at the convoy.

The convoy was on edge. These soldiers picked up their automatic rifles and pulled back the charging handles. Suddenly, the woods rustled as two smaller deer came out. From the looks of it, they were probably the first deer’s fawns.

Xu Xianchu’s voice crackled from the mobile transceiver. “Don’t shoot it!”

The red deer did not look aggressive. It was just looking at the convoy and was probably wondering, “What the hell is this?” in its mind before getting ready to leave again. Everyone in the team heaved a sigh of relief and calmed down.

A soldier laughed and said, “It’s just a herbivore. Look at how scared you guys are. There aren’t any large carnivores around here.”

Everyone started teasing each other again. It was as though they had not gotten nervous just now.

Right at this moment, however, the red deer charged at the convoy. It dropped its head low, its huge antlers coming straight for the point vehicle!

The driver of the point vehicle swore as he stomped on the gas and turned into the woods to avoid the deer. He no longer cared if he would hit a tree or roll the vehicle.

Fortunately, the point vehicle managed to turn away in time and narrowly avoided the antlers of the huge deer as it went for them. However, the trailing vehicle was not so lucky. The antlers were so tough that they stabbed into the hood of the vehicle like the forks of a forklift truck. Then it tossed its head and flung the entire vehicle away!

Right after, the huge deer ran into the woods with its two fawns before the soldiers could get out of the other vehicles. It felt like they had escaped after pulling off a big one against the convoy!

Some of the soldiers fired frantically at the huge deer that was fleeing, but they didn’t hit it. Their marksmanship was surprisingly bad.

The point vehicle that Ren Xiaosu and the others were in crashed into a tree next to the dirt road at high speed, deforming the hood. A great amount of white smoke started fuming beneath it!

Then someone shouted from the direction of the convoy, “Hurry, someone come and save him!”

Liu Bu’s voice rang out. “Isn’t that refugee a doctor in town? Quick, get him to come over and save him!”

Ren Xiaosu got out of the vehicle and walked towards the convoy. But when he got there, he realized that the driver of the second vehicle only had a scrape on his arm. What was the big deal?

Death had always lingered around the refugees since childhood. They treated it like it was a trifling part of life. Suffering a scrape like this was nothing at all.

Ren Xiaosu frowned because he had absolutely no intention of treating the soldier. He did not want to waste his black medicine on someone like that. He was more surprised by the huge deer displaying such aggressiveness at them and wondered why.

Liu Bu shoved Ren Xiaosu and shouted, “Aren’t you a doctor? Hurry up and save him!”

“Uh-huh.” Ren Xiaosu acknowledged him before he began chanting at the driver’s wound, “Get well soon, get well soon, get well soon…”

Liu Bu was dumbfounded. “Who treats a wound like that? What kind of doctor are you?!”

Ren Xiaosu gave it some thought before venturing, “A witch doctor?”