Chapter 43: Herb Gatherers

Afterward, three human figures walked out from the dark night. Under the light of the campfire, their appearances were revealed.

The leader was a middle-aged man dressed in hemp clothing. His skin looked somewhat red in the firelight, but Li Si could still tell that his skin should have been exposed to the sun for a long time, making it somewhat dark.

The other two young men were the same.

“Young hero, sorry to disturb you. We are herb gatherers from nearby. When we saw you had a campfire here, we headed this way.” The older middle-aged man cupped his hands and apologized to Li Si.

At this moment, Li Si was wearing a fitted martial outfit, so it was understandable that this middle-aged man took him for a young hero.

“Gathering herbs deep in the mountains this late?” When Li Si heard the middle-aged man say this, he did believe it somewhat. That matched their skin colour. But he still had some doubts in his heart. After all, these people were gathering herbs in the middle of the night, which always felt rather unlikely.

After all, there were so many demons, monsters, and ghosts in this world. Were they not afraid of encountering ghosts while gathering herbs in the middle of the night?

“Oh, it is like this. The herbs near our county town have already been almost completely gathered, so we often go deep into the mountains to gather herbs, and we often spend the night in the mountains,” the middle-aged man explained.

“Then are you not afraid of encountering ghosts?” Li Si frowned and asked.

“Haha, we believe in the Mountain God Naturally, we are not afraid. With the Mountain God protecting us, ghost creatures cannot harm us.” The young man beside him could not help letting out a pfft of laughter. At the same time, he rather proudly revealed the tattoo on his wrist.

When Li Si saw the tattoo on his wrist, his gaze froze. That tattoo was actually a tiger sketched out in just a few strokes.

“Dayuan.” The middle-aged man turned back and glared at him. Then he said to Li Si, “We have the Mountain God’s protection, so no ghost creatures will harm us in the mountains and forests.”

“Young hero, I wonder if you could let us rest here for the night. In the middle of the night like this, we can no longer find a suitable campsite,” the middle-aged man continued.

Li Si pondered for a moment, then nodded and said, “When travelling away from home, it is only right to make things convenient for others. You may spend the night here.”

After saying this, he walked to the tree from earlier, sat down, and slightly closed his eyes to rest.

But in truth, he had not completely closed his eyes. His eyelids only left a faint slit. Then he took out the Eight Trigrams Mirror and secretly shone it toward these people. In the end, he discovered that their expressions were normal. They were not demons, monsters, or ghosts.

Of course, Li Si did not trust the Eight Trigrams Mirror very much right now. After all, it had missed something once at the Zhang Residence.

But at the very least, the possibility that these people were demons, monsters, or ghosts had been greatly reduced for now, and he felt much more at ease.

“Young hero, we are herb gatherers from Mengting County. My name is Tu Feng, he is Xu Dayuan, and he is Miao Qing’an.” The three herb gatherers found a clean place and sat down. Then the middle-aged man smiled and began introducing himself, while also introducing the two young men.

The young man who had laughed earlier was Xu Dayuan. As for the young man who had stayed silent the whole time like a sealed gourd, he was Miao Qing’an.

Li Si had some impression of Mengting County from the original owner’s memories. It was a county town near Fengmen County, so it was not strange to run into these three people here.

“My name is Li Si. I am from Fengmen County.” Li Si opened his eyes, glanced at the three of them, and then spoke.

“Brother Li, could we borrow your campfire? We haven’t eaten tonight and want to cook some food.” The middle-aged man said this somewhat embarrassedly.

“Go ahead. Do as you please. The firewood is over there.” Hearing the middle-aged man say this, Li Si nodded in agreement, then pointed at the neatly stacked pile of firewood nearby.

“All right, then thank you, brother.” Tu Feng chuckled, cupped his hands, then got up and walked toward the pile of firewood.

When he reached the pile of wood and saw the smooth cut surfaces on the firewood, his expression changed, and his pupils shrank.

But Tu Feng reacted very quickly. He immediately pretended he had discovered nothing and calmly carried a pile of firewood back to the campfire.

He picked out two longer pieces of wood from the firewood, then took out a small knife from his medicine basket.

First, he used the small knife to carve a groove at the top of each of the two pieces of wood. Then he picked up a small hoe and dug two holes on either side of the campfire. He inserted the two pieces of wood into the holes, covered them with soil, and used his feet to press the ground firm.

After burying the wooden poles, he shook each of them with his hand to make sure they were sturdy.

At this time, while Tu Feng was working, Miao Qing’an had already gone to the poolside to wash vegetables.

Only Xu Dayuan remained there, yawning out of boredom.

“Anzi, are you done washing them?” Tu Feng walked over to Miao Qing’an and spoke to him as he was still washing the vegetables.

“It’ll be done in a moment.” Miao Qing’an spoke while washing the vegetables. His voice was rather hoarse, as though his throat was not very good.

After Miao Qing’an finished washing the vegetables, he carried the pot and walked side by side with Tu Feng.

On the way, he looked at Tu Feng and signalled with his eyes toward Li Si.

Tu Feng patted his shoulder and shook his head slightly.

Afterward, they walked to the campfire, picked up the wooden pole prepared earlier, passed it through the iron pot, and began cooking.

“Brother Li, why have you come into these mountains?” Tu Feng added firewood to the campfire and asked Li Si.

Li Si frowned slightly. After thinking for a moment, he said, “An old friend of mine lost his life here. I came to collect his corpse.”

Hearing Li Si say this, the three of them paused and exchanged glances.

“How did your friend die here?” Xu Dayuan asked somewhat curiously.

“He was a herb gatherer like all of you, but his luck was poor. While gathering herbs, he fell from a cliff and died. Even now, his remains have not been found.” Li Si casually made something up. Ever since he had seen the tattoo on Xu Dayuan’s wrist earlier, he had felt that something was suspicious.

In addition, Xu Dayuan and the other two had said this place was protected by the Mountain God, so other ghost creatures did not dare harm them.

Li Si felt that the tiger that had killed Cao Qing was very likely connected to this Mountain God. It might even be the Mountain God.

So it would not be convenient for him to directly state the true cause of Cao Qing’s death.

Hearing Li Si say this, the three herb gatherers were immediately stunned. Then their expressions became somewhat unpleasant.

“Gathering herbs really is dangerous. My father and my grandfather both fell from cliffs and died while gathering herbs.” When Xu Dayuan heard Li Si say this, he suddenly remembered past events, and immediately became somewhat sorrowful.

“Mm.” Miao Qing’an rarely spoke, but a complicated look also appeared on his face.

“Sigh.” Tu Feng sighed and said helplessly, “In this current world, being able to eat your fill is already good enough. This is fate!”

“Brother Tu is right. Being able to eat a full bowl of rice is already good enough.” Xu Dayuan shook his head and sighed. “At least ever since my family became herb gatherers, we have never gone hungry.”

“If one day I fall to my death, I’ll be satisfied too,” Xu Dayuan said with a smile.

Listening to their words, Li Si also felt rather uncomfortable. He had already been here for almost half a month and had some understanding of this place. He knew that many people’s goals were only to eat their fill and dress warmly.

But many people could not get even that.