Chapter 971
The sharp pain lasted for more than ten seconds.
Once Chen Dong had somewhat adjusted to the sharp pain in his right palm, he struggled to his feet and dragged his war knife with his left hand towards the outside of the mountain.
His right hand was sealed with horse flesh, leaving him with only one hand to use.
In such a desperate situation, a crisis could arise at any moment.
Chen Dong knew to himself that even if he had to pay some price, he had to leave his right hand free so that when he faced a crisis, he could meet it with both hands.
Amidst the wind and snow.
Chen Dong’s footsteps stumbled and stumbled.
Although the wolf’s blood had made him in a much better state, the frozen battle knife prevented him from cutting into the pale wolf, and he was unable to fruitfully eat.
The wolf’s blood, only eased the status quo.
But it was not a solution to the status quo.
Time and again he fell into the snow, and time and again Chen Dong stubbornly got up again and continued on, woefully out of shape.
But his eyes, however, were unusually determined, staring dead ahead at the road ahead where no one could be seen.
“Live …… must live …… even if it’s like a dog. ……”
He kept murmuring under his breath, as if he was cheering himself on, as if there was a voice in his head that kept repeating this phrase to him over and over again, and then he said it straight out in a murmur.
The cold wind and cool snow raged against Chen Dong’s body.
In a slow, yet determined gesture, it swept away the warmth from Chen Dong’s body.
The cold, the hunger, decayed Chen Dong’s state rapidly.
He kept walking moment by moment, even if he was tired, even if he wanted to rest, but he dared not!
Because he knew very well that if he sat down on his buttocks, it would be difficult to get up again!
Even if he stumbled and fell in the snow, he gritted his teeth and got up again immediately.
Step by step, he walked slowly and firmly.
Chen Dong, however, felt that his strength was rapidly receding, and even his consciousness was blurring.
The sunlight overhead was becoming extremely blinding.
Even the wind and snow became as harsh as knives, cutting into his body with great pain.
Trance, weakness, cold ……
At this moment, Chen Dong was like a walking corpse, simply relying on his desire to live, struggling to move forward without purpose.
“Live, you must live, even if it’s like a dog ……”
Frozen lips opened and closed gently, emitting a heavy, weak murmur.
BOOM!
His feet stumbled and he fell to the ground again.
The pain made Chen Dong wake up for a few moments.
He clenched his teeth and hurriedly stood up again.
But this time, just as he stood up and took a step forward, his right foot felt a void underneath him and he stumbled and fell to the ground again.
His body was at its limit.
But Chen Dong’s desire to live had not yet given up.
Unable to stand up, he plunged his battle knife into the ground and crawled a little towards the front.
Behind him, a trail of crushed snow was left behind.
The sun was shining.
The wind and snow raged.
Chen Dong was exhausted, using turtle speed, crawling towards the front little by little.
Consciousness was getting blurred, and gradually, he felt that the sunlight was no longer blinding, and the wind and snow no longer cut his body like a knife.
“Live ……”
When three words were murmured out of Chen Dong’s mouth again, he originally held the battle knife that was already stuck in front of him with both hands, but this time he did not crawl with the strength.
Instead, his hands …… loosened the battle knife.
Boom!
The war knife fell on the snow.
And Chen Dong also closed his eyes.
His body, which had run out of oil, made him unable to hold on at this time even if he had a strong desire to survive, and he directly fainted.
The wind and snow poured down, piling up snow on Chen Dong’s body little by little, and it would not be long before he was buried under the snow.
Around him, the wind howled.
The snow was pouring down.
Chen Dong struggled to survive, but he only managed to get out of the Qilian Mountain.
Dangling …… Dangling ……
In the distance, there was suddenly the sound of bells.
A line of caravans came towards this way in the distance.
“Chief! Look, there seems to be a man there!”
As the distance drew closer, someone in the caravan noticed Chen Dong who was almost buried by the snow.
The caravan quickly drew closer.
But it was a caravan of rabbit tribes.
Dozens of hors*men of the rabbit tribe sat on horses, escorting three cages pulled by horses in the middle.
In the three cages, however, were poor children dressed in thin animal robes.
There were boys and girls, big and small.
All the children were clustered together to keep each other warm because of the cold, but even so, one was shivering from the cold.
“Chief, leave it alone, we’re still in a hurry to sell slaves to the Huns’ court.”
One of the rabbit natives in the caravan said, “I guess people are already dead.”
Yes, this was a caravan carrying slaves.
Slaves were also a long-standing custom in the extra-territory, and even today it has not been broken.
In addition to resources, slaves were one of the reasons why the hundred tribes outside the realm attacked each other.
In the snowy plains outside the realm, the children of the defeated side are no different from livestock.
In the snowy plains of the Hundred Kingdoms, there are even caravans of slaves that are sold for distribution, which is a barbaric thing to say.
“Go and have a look, maybe there is still a breath left, save it and sell it as a slave to the Hun king’s court, we can still earn an extra head fee.”
The leader of the slave caravan, glanced at a hanyou beside him.
The man nodded helplessly and ran to Chen Dong’s side, dismounted, turned him out of the snow, checked his nose and shouted in joy, “Chief, he’s still breathing!
“Bring it back, we’ve picked up a slave for nothing, hahahaha ……”
The leader of the slave caravan burst into laughter.
When the hans brought Chen Dong to the leader, the leader instead took off the water bladder hanging around the horse’s neck and threw it to the hans, “Fill him with water and stuff some buns in, remember not to give him too much to eat or drink, just hang on to his breath, after we get him out of the way, his death or survival will have nothing to do with us.”
“Chief, are you sure you want to sell him as a slave?”
The hanyou was a bit hesitant, “This guy is dressed in the clothes of a domainer, and he has a sword by his side, so if something goes wrong on the way, or if something happens in the Hun king’s court, we’ll be in trouble.”
“That’s why the old man only told you to hang on to him!”
The leader glared at the man, “What do you care? It’s not like there aren’t any slaves in the Huns’ court, we’re just going to sell the animals. You don’t even think about it, how much does it cost to sell a grown-up slave to the Huns’ court?”
At the end of his sentence, the leader reappeared with a smile.
The last words also made the Han no longer hesitate.
In the snowy plains outside the domain, slaves were expensive!
“All right.”
The hanyou nodded, then gave Chen Dong a mouthful of water, and stiffly stuffed a small piece of bun into Chen Dong’s mouth and washed it down with water, then it was time to throw Chen Dong into one of the slave cages.
After closing the door, the man prayed in a low voice, “Heavenly Wolf, may you survive so that we can sell you for more money, but if you die, we will have to throw you on the road and feed you to the wolves.”
With a command from the leader of the slave caravan, the caravan once again marched on in the wind and snow, each horse with bells around its neck, jingling as it advanced.
All was calm and quiet.
It was as if Chen Dong, whom they had picked up halfway through the journey, was nothing more than a minor hiccup in picking up money halfway through the journey for them.
Chapter 972
The wind is as cold as a knife.
Goose feathers of snow rolled across the sky.
The slave caravan moved slowly, intending to bypa*s the Qilian Mountains and head for the Huns’ court behind them.
The caravan, which has travelled these snowy plains for years, is already familiar with its surroundings and would rather walk the extra distance around the Qilian Mountains than venture into them at this time.
The caravan moves on.
Bells are ringing.
The children inside the cages, however, were clustered together, shivering, their eyes terrified, helpless, even completely dumbfounded ……
As Ebony natives, even as young as they were, they knew what would happen to them.
But the rabble-rousers around them were such that they dared not resist and could only wait for their fate to befall them.
Inside one of the cages, because Chen Dong, the adult, had been thrown in, it made all the children curl up in a corner, with their eyes looking at Chen Dong, who was lying unconscious across the cage, in different ways.
Suddenly.
A girl took a brave step forward from her peers.
The girl was about six or seven years old, with a ponytail, a black cloth covering her head to protect her from the wind and snow, her face dirty and her cheeks red and even cracked from the cold, except for her eyes, which were clear and dark, like precious stones.
At this moment, it was with a little bit of worry, looking at the unconscious Chen Dong.
“Ah Man, come back!”
In the group of children, an older boy in his teens shouted out.
He was a head taller than the other children, somewhat stronger, and was also huddled in the middle of the children, obviously the eldest of the group.
“Brother, is he going to freeze to death?”
The girl called Barbara blinked back, sniffling at the same time.
She and the boy were blood siblings.
It was because of the boy’s shelter that she, as delicate as she was, was able to follow her brother unharmed and hide among the children.
“It must be freezing to death, it’s so cold.”
The boy responded indifferently, “Come back, leave him alone, it’s your life to freeze to death, I don’t want anything to happen to you.”
“But ……”
Barbara glanced hesitantly at Chen Dong and turned back to her brother, “Brother, can we …… save him?”
“Save?”
The boy frowned, looking at the unconscious Chen Dong with some disgust.
Both he and his sister had become slaves, and all he could do was simply protect his sister from freezing to death on the road unharmed.
The laws of survival on the snowy plains were so cruel.
If he tried to shelter one more person, still an adult, the boy had no heart.
Just as the boy was silent.
The girl raised her hand and wiped the snot from the tip of her nose, her clear eyes flooded with tears as she said pitifully, “Brother, please, Auntie taught us to be kind, and now that Auntie and Auntie are gone and we’re like this, he’s just like us, and he’s going to die if we don’t help him.”
“Kindness?”
The boy’s heart ached fiercely, a look of disgust abruptly appeared on his face as he scolded the girl, “Barbara, it is because of kindness that we are in this situation now, there has never been kindness in the Great Snowy Plains, you come back to me now!”
“Brother ……”
Barbara still tried to plead.
But the boy’s face was full of anger: “Now, come here at once!”
Faced with a stern and irrefutable brother, tears leaked from the corners of Barbara’s eyes, but she did not dare to say anything else, but slowly moved towards the group of children.
The moment he got close, the boy reached out and pulled Barbara into the middle, then hugged her, pa*sing some warmth to his sister, while saying in a deep voice: “Barbara, remember, don’t be too kind, there is no good reward for kindness, it was because A-Ma and A-Pa were too kind that our village was defeated.”
The words were resounding, dripping with a strong sense of resentment and resentment.
As he spoke, the boy’s eyes were red, and he gritted his teeth, “Barbara, when you get to the Hun king’s court, you must live well, no matter what happens, you must live well, brother will come to you, brother will come to save you, and will let you get rid of your slavery status with me.”
“Brother, I promise you.”
Barbara’s head was buried in the boy’s arms, “Barbara will wait for brother to come and take Barbara home to the place where Abba and Abba are buried.”
“Mmm.”
The boy answered, only the red eyes were now declaring tears, and his lips were trembling violently.
He was the older brother, and when Abba and Ma died, he was supposed to protect his sister.
That was why he had pushed down all his fears, hard, in order to give his sister something to fall back on.
But he was also aware that when he did reach the Hun king’s court, he and his sister might have to be separated, and from then on they would be on separate sides.
At that point, at least until he found his sister again, he would no longer be able to give her something to fall back on.
“Brother, he’s really going to die.”
Suddenly, Barbara in his arms said, “Save him, will you? We have a car full of children, and everyone is fine, isn’t it good?”
“There’s no such thing as nice, let him die, I just want you to live!”
The boy’s voice was still incredibly resolute.
Barbara fell silent.
The boy glanced at the children around him, “All lean over a little, huddle together and still live, or else wait to die.”
The group of children squeezed towards the middle.
Barbara was the only one, but her gaze was always fixed on the unconscious Chen Dong through the tiny gap.
She knew that the probability of freezing to death was very small when they were a group of children gathered together, it was common sense living in the snowy plains, even if the outermost children were in danger, the chances of death were still very small.
The only thing was that the uncle on the ground at this moment, injured himself and alone, unable to get warm, could really easily freeze to death.
“Brother, why don’t I go over and stay with the uncle?”
Barbara suddenly said, “I don’t want him to die, Barbara doesn’t want to see a corpse anymore, Barbara has seen so many, many corpses, Abba’s and Auntie’s …… ooooooooo …… ”
At the end of the sentence, Barbara suddenly burst into tears.
“You can’t go, listen to your brother, you’re not allowed to go there!”
The boy’s red eyes, holding back his tears, remained resolute.
And the children around him, along with Barbara’s cries, cried out together.
After all, they were only children, and the shadow left by the ma*sacre of their village had always been repressed in their hearts.
At this moment, Barbara’s cries were as if she had found an outlet for their emotions.
The cries were so loud that the people in the slave caravan were overwhelmed.
The leader of the caravan, who was walking at the front, was full of annoyance and turned around angrily, “Why are you crying? I’ll kill you all if you cry again!”
“Chief, it’s the little girl in the cage who wants the group of children to gather around the men and keep them warm, but her brother won’t let her.”
A companion quickly stepped forward and reported.
“Keeping warm?”
The leader of the caravan hesitated for a moment and nodded, “That’s right, it’s really easy to freeze to death on this windy and snowy day, and if you die, you won’t be able to sell them for money, so go and drive these children over there, saving one life is a pile of money.”
“Good.”
As the people in the caravan began to wave their whips to drive the herd of children.
At this moment, even Barbara’s brother could do nothing about it.
And as the people of the caravan chided.
Barbara was the first to squeeze out of the group of children and pounced on Chen Dong’s side.
The rest of the children did not dare to disobey, forcing themselves to hold back their cries and flock together.
In the end, the boy also let out a helpless sigh and leaned over, pulling the group of children apart and dragging Barbara into the very middle, while also allowing Chen Dong to stay in the very middle.
