The Monk That Wanted To Renounce Asceticism

After the seven of them crossed the mountain ridge, they discovered that the situation had turned for the worse. The path they were taking wasn’t easy to begin with, but there had at least been protruded rocks that led the way until then, and the solid ground made it at least somewhat reassuring.

But after they reached the back of the mountain, there were no more rocks. With the blizzard getting heavier, the ground was completely covered in snow. All they could do was rely on their mountain sticks to probe their way forward. What worried them even more was that the trees were dense, making it impossible for them to identify the landmarks on the map! They were a bit lost walking in the mountains and had to rely solely on a compass to trudge their way forward.

Meanwhile, although the wind had abated, the temperature kept falling. The air they breathed out felt like it would freeze in the air.

The more they walked, the more worried Wei Yaqin became.

However, Xunzi and company continued proceeding forward without any intentions of backtracking. In Xunzi’s words, “The harder it is, the more worthy of a challenge it is. If it’s hard for us, it’s even harder for Panzi and the rest!”

With regards to this, Wei Yaqin could only shake her head. She even began to seriously doubt if Panzi and the rest had even entered the mountains. Looking at her phone, there was no signal. It was already impossible to back out at this stage, so all she could do was follow the college students who remained excited. However, Wei Yaqin also threw some things or broke some tree branches here and there as she walked as a precautionary measure. It was one of the techniques she had read about on the Internet before coming. Firstly, it could guide them back, and secondly, if anything were to happen to them, it would aid the rescue personnel in finding them.

Meanwhile, a dark cloud appeared in the sky, but it was quite inconspicuous, so no one noticed it.

On the cloud sat a monk, another young monk, as well as a wolf, monk, and squirrel.

“Master, these people are likely the ones we are looking for, right?” Red Boy pointed down.

Fangzheng nodded slightly. “Probably. It’s a bit different from how Patron Wang said it would be, though. They have seven people and from the looks of it, they haven’t encountered any huge problems.”

“Master, should we call for people to help them?” Red Boy asked.

Fangzheng thought for a moment and shook his head. “Temporarily no. Some people have to suffer to learn a lesson. If we get people over here immediately to bring them back now, they probably won’t realize the danger they exposed themselves to. They might not even feel any gratitude and blame the rescue personnel. And they could very well do more of such dumb acts in the future. Since they wish to adventure, let them continue and experience the threat of death. Besides, the rescue personnel might not believe us if we tell them that they are here. Even if they believe us, it will be difficult to explain how we know.”

Red Boy grinned when he heard that. “Then… What do we do?”

Fangzheng shook his head. “Nothing. The heavens will automatically teach them a lesson they will never forget.”

In the evening, Xunzi and company had lost track of how much they had walked. Seeing that the sky was darkening, they didn’t dare proceed without thought. Most importantly, the winds had begun howling, and it wasn’t a typical breeze, but a squall! The squall howled as though it was about to rip through trees. It stirred up the snowflakes which seemed to slice across their faces, paining them greatly.

The few of them couldn’t take it as they stopped moving in fright. They originally wanted to find a place to hide from the wind, but they failed to find a suitable place. As the sky darkened, they had no choice but to set up camp beside a few huge trees instead.

Monk looked like he had experience living in the wild. He helped set up the tent, but it was impossible to keep it in place. The wind was too strong, and the tent began flailing about. The few college students originally imagined their outdoor survival skills were good enough, but only now did they realize that in a terrible natural environment, their strength was inadequate! It took the group a lot of strength to barely set up one tent. No one wished to set up another one.

However, just having one tent was useless. The wind had taken away all warmth with it, leaving the seven trembling in the cold.

Monk wanted to light a fire, but was furious to realize that the couple, He Haijiang and Cheng Mujie, didn’t bring back a single dry tree branch after going to look for some! What use were they? Exasperated, he could only use the branches he had sparingly. He lit a portion since it was imperative they warmed themselves. Unfortunately, once the fire was lit, the wind together with snow would blow, causing the fire to flicker. Monk hurriedly got people to block the wind. But apart from Xunzi, Glasses, and Wei Yaqin, the rest hid inside the tent, refusing to come out!

Monk finally couldn’t hold in his anger any longer. He cursed. “F**k! Are you f**king not coming to help? This isn’t the city. It will only get colder once it gets dark. Without fire, all of us will f**king freeze to death!”

Cheng Mujie exclaimed. “There’s so many of you. You guys do it. We women don’t know anything anyway.”

“Don’t know anything? Do you f**king not know how to stand too?” Glasses turned anxious.

He Haijiang immediately flared up when he heard Glasses scold his girlfriend. He shouted angrily, “Glasses, who do you think you are scolding?”

Seeing the internal strife, Xunzi hurriedly stopped them. “Stop arguing. Quickly help. If the fire is extinguished, we will all die!”

The moment he shouted, they felt something falling from above them. Xunzi and company subconsciously looked up to see that the tree’s crown had accumulated a thick layer of snow. With Xunzi and company shouting, the snow had been perturbed and was about to fall off!

“Protect the fire!” Monk shouted. However, the rest didn’t react in time, nor did they realize what was about to happen.

The next moment, they saw large amounts of snow fall. With a poof, the flame that they had just ignited was instantly extinguished!

Upon seeing the fire be extinguished, Monk didn’t even have the strength to curse. He hurriedly dug the snow away and pulled out the dry timber in a bid to reignite it. However, he realized that the fire had melted the snow into water, wetting the timber. There was no way he could lit it again.

“F**k! F**k! F**k! F**k!” Monk threw out a piece of timber and turned back to glare angrily at Cheng Mujie. “Keep shouting! Go on, keep f**king shouting! We don’t have any fire. Let’s all just f**king wait for death!”

With that said, Monk gave up.

Upon seeing the older Monk give up, the rest turned flustered. Xunzi hurriedly said, “Monk, don’t be angry. We must not have disagreements at this point in time. What we need is unity.”

“Unity? F**k. All of them are hiding in the tent. What unity?” Glasses cursed as well.

At that moment, He Haijiang came out and frowned. “I’m out, okay? Let’s think of a way to fix this or to seek help…”

Seeing He Haijiang looking indifferent and speaking casually, Wei Yaqin, who had felt uneasy the whole way, finally let out a sigh involuntarily. “Seek help? How?”