Chapter 42: Camp

“Obtained the Formless Ghost’s memories. Query them or not?” A stream of information entered his mind.

Li Si ignored it. After kneeling for a while, he stood up, walked to the large blue stone beside the pool, and sat down quietly. Without saying a word, he stared blankly ahead, his back hunched over.

After coming to this world, he had suddenly discovered that too many people died. Many people left just like that, vanished just like that.

Cao Qing had been like this. The original owner had been like this. Even the people of the Zhang Residence had been like this.

There was a fire in Li Si’s heart, yet he was powerless to release it. Right now, in this world, he was nothing more than someone at the very bottom. How much could he change? He could not change anything at all.

“Obtained the Formless Ghost’s memories. Query them or not?” The information entered Li Si’s mind again.

“Do not query.” Li Si responded to the information in his mind with his thoughts. Right now, he did not want to review the original owner’s life. After all, he had already obtained many of the original owner’s memories long ago.

At the same time, when speaking with the original owner, he had also learned what the original owner had done after death, so there was no need to query them.

Actually, the main reason was that Li Si only wanted some quiet right now.

But he did not notice that just as he was staring blankly beside the pool, in the forest a few dozen steps away from him, a pair of yellow eyes tinged with green were watching him. Then the owner of those eyes turned around and left soundlessly.

In the quiet dusk of the forest, mottled fur could occasionally be seen through the gaps between the trees.

Li Si did not remain sad for too long. He was someone who was very capable of regulating his own emotions.

Because he had had no father or mother since childhood and no one to rely on. Crying would only irritate the orphanage staff, and would not bring comfort.

So since childhood, he had never cried, never made a fuss, and had learned to control his emotions.

Li Si washed his face in the pool. Afterward, he started cooking rice again, only this time, he was in no mood to catch rice shrimp to add to it.

After finishing his meal, Li Si found a slightly higher dirt slope not far from the stream and began clearing it.

Mainly, he cleared some fallen leaves to one side, pulled out the weeds, and cleared out a large open space.

Afterward, he sprinkled some realgar wine over the open space. This could prevent some snakes and insects from invading.

After sprinkling the realgar wine, he searched nearby for some dry branches. During the process of searching for dry branches, he discovered a dried-up tree. This tree was found on a small slope. Because of a landslide, its roots could no longer reach the soil, so it had withered and died from drought.

When Li Si saw this tree, he turned back and fetched the Black Sword, preparing to use it to chop down the tree.

Actually, when he went to fetch the Black Sword, he already felt somewhat regretful. Back then, he should have gotten a Nepalese military knife instead. After all, compared with the Black Sword, a Nepalese military knife was more suitable for chopping.

Li Si walked up to the withered tree and slowly drew the Black Sword from its sheath. At this moment, when he saw the cold gleam on the blade, although he felt somewhat uncomfortable, he could still accept it.

He set the scabbard aside, raised the Black Sword with both hands, and chopped down at a thinner part of the withered tree.

Li Si used a great deal of strength in this strike, because he knew he did not have much strength, so he used all of it.

When the sword touched the withered branch, his expression changed. This chopping felt like cutting tofu, with only the slightest bit of resistance.

But at this moment, Li Si could no longer withdraw his strength. He could only use the force-exertion trick from The Black Tortoise Record to slightly shift the direction of the sword’s force. The sword immediately scraped past the edge of Li Si’s left leg. The Black Sword slipped from his hand and plunged straight into the trunk of another tree, emitting a sword hum from time to time.

Hum, hum.

As the sword trembled, it continued cutting into the tree trunk, moving straight downward a little.

Bang. A sound rang out. It turned out that because Li Si had used too much force, and had also forcibly shifted the direction of the sword’s force, his footing immediately became unstable and he fell straight to the ground.

At this moment, his expression was somewhat ugly as he lay on the ground, and sweat began to bead on his forehead. He had never imagined that this sword would actually be so sharp. This attempt to chop down a tree had nearly amputated his own leg.

This was also because the original owner’s death had affected him somewhat just now. Otherwise, he would not have been so careless.

Li Si secretly warned himself that in the future, when the mall produced something like the Black Sword, something vague and summarized in a single sentence, he had to test it first before using it. Otherwise, sooner or later, he would get himself killed.

Afterward, he stood up, pulled the Black Sword out from that tree trunk, and turned back to chop down the withered tree.

Because the Black Sword was extremely sharp, the process of chopping it down was as simple as a chef cutting tofu.

Before long, a neat pile of wood had been cut out.

Afterward, Li Si brought the wood back to the previous camp. Only, there was somewhat too much wood, so he made several trips.

By the time the wood had been neatly placed to one side, Li Si was already somewhat exhausted.

Even so, he still forced himself to light the campfire.

Li Si placed the neatly cut small wooden planks under the tree, then sat down, leaned against the tree, and looked at the blazing campfire while listening to the crackle of the burning firewood. He could not help thinking of the original owner. There had also been flames on his body, and Li Si’s gaze could not help dimming.

By now, the sun had already set. The entire forest was gradually being swallowed by darkness. From time to time, bird calls and the bleating of deer came from within the darkness.

For a while, Li Si could not sleep either. He quietly stared blankly at the campfire before him.

He planned to search for Cao Qing’s corpse tomorrow. Today, his condition really was not good, and it was too late now. It would not be good to go over in this dark night.

After staring blankly for a while, Li Si released Xiaoduan and had him keep watch nearby.

Afterward, he took clothes out of the book chest and wrapped another layer around himself to resist the cold of the chilly night.

At this time, he was not sleepy, but he still closed his eyes slightly and began to rest with his eyes shut. After all, a person still had to rest.

He did not plan to sleep tonight. After all, in the mountains, he could be attacked by wild beasts at any time, and there could also be unpredictable dangers.

Fortunately, there was not much wind where Li Si was right now, because the slope where the withered tree had been earlier blocked the wind, so this place could be considered a decent camping spot.

After resting with his eyes shut for a while, about two hours or so, Li Si felt his body had become somewhat stiff. He got up, added firewood to the campfire, and began stretching his body.

Suddenly, faint human voices came from the mountain, followed closely by the sound of leaves rubbing against clothing.

Li Si looked over and saw several black shadows moving through the night. From time to time, there came the sound of leaves and branches being stepped on.

“There’s someone there!” An excited voice pierced the night sky. Judging by the voice, it should have been a young man in his twenties.

“Shut up!” A low shout came over. This sounded like the voice of a middle-aged man.

Li Si narrowed his eyes slightly and had Xiaoduan hide behind a large tree, while he walked to the tree where he had been resting earlier and picked up the Black Sword.