Chapter 1 Yang Che

Jiang State, in Mozhou.

At the foot of Wanglong Mountain, Yangzhuang Village.

In a small mud house with yellow mud walls and thatched roof.

Yang Che, who was in ragged clothes, had worked hard for most of the day with an empty stomach. He was now exhausted and lying on the dry hard wood board, not wanting to move even a little bit.

With a "bang".

The thin wooden door, which was only half left, was suddenly kicked open roughly.

A sloppy fat man with a strong smell of alcohol came in with a cane in his hand.

Without saying a word, he beat Yang Che on the bed fiercely.

Yang Che gritted his teeth and didn't say a word as the burning pain came.

He got up with difficulty, dragged his tired and thin body off the wooden bed, and stared blankly at the drunk in front of him.

"Little bastard, you have learned to be lazy?"

The drunk cursed and swung the cane to continue beating.

Yang Che turned around and walked out the door expressionlessly.

He knew that if he didn't go into the mountains to find some valuable things, the drunkard Yang Hu would beat him to death.

When he walked out of the mud house, Yang Che suddenly smelled the aroma of food, which made his gastric juice surge rapidly and even more uncomfortable.

Not far from the mud house, there were several blue brick houses, and a boy's impatient shouting came faintly from inside: "Mom, give me another chicken leg."

Yang Che knew that they were the wife and children of the drunkard Yang Hu, who had white steamed buns and meat every day.

Even the dog in Yang Hu's family ate better than him.

His Adam's apple rolled fiercely several times, Yang Che licked his dry lips, raised his dark and thin face to look at the dark clouds in the sky, hesitated for a moment, and still walked towards Wanglong Mountain with difficulty.

He was twelve years old this year, but he had been beaten by the drunkard Yang Hu for six years.

When he was almost six years old, his grandfather, who depended on him for life, suddenly passed away.

This Yang Hu relied on his status as Yang Che's uncle, and secretly occupied several acres of thin land in his family under the guise of raising Yang Che.

Yang Hu was lazy and addicted to alcohol. Not only did he only give Yang Che one meal a day, but he also forced Yang Che to do heavy farm work.

Moreover, Yang Che often had to go into the mountains to get some valuable mountain products, otherwise one meal a day would become one meal every two days, and he would be beaten with a cane.

If it weren't for Yang Che's cleverness, he could always find some food to barely fill his stomach when he went into the mountains, and he would have starved to death long ago.

Yang Che stepped into the barren mountain and climbed to the middle of a peak with great effort.

Suddenly, a thunderclap sounded in the sky, and a flash of lightning fell straight into the forest. Yang Che smelled a pungent smell of burning.

Then, heavy rain poured down, and Yang Che was soon soaked. He had to shuttle through the forest, trying to find a place to shelter from the rain.

However, the heavy rain blocked his vision, and Yang Che was too hungry, so he soon ran out of strength.

He took one deep step and one shallow step, and his steps were completely empty. In a panic, he stepped on empty air and rolled forward.

Then there was a "bang", as if he hit a stone. Yang Che felt stars in his eyes and the world was spinning.

The severe pain from his waist made him sober up a little. In a daze, he found a dark pit about 30 to 50 meters to the right, so he struggled to crawl in.

As soon as he crawled in, another lightning suddenly fell, and it hit the pit mouth.

With a bang, the pit mouth collapsed, and Yang Che fell straight down, and then hit the hard stone surface heavily, and fainted.

...

Yang Che woke up faintly, tried to lift his heavy eyelids, turned his head and looked, and found himself lying in a dark and gloomy tunnel.

He struggled to sit up, and he couldn't help but grin and hiss in pain. He touched his waist and found that it was covered with blood and had long been blurred.

The wound on his waist was not terrible. After six years of beatings, Yang Che had long been accustomed to it.

What was terrible was hunger.

The long-term hunger made his consciousness begin to be a little dazed.

Yang Che knew that if he couldn't find something to eat, he would really starve to death.

He looked up and found that due to the collapse, smooth rock walls were exposed all around, and it was unlikely to go up.

Then he looked into the depths of the tunnel. It was pitch black there, and it looked gloomy and terrifying. He couldn't see the end and didn't know where it led to.

Not knowing whether it was because of hunger or fear, Yang Che felt weak all over and wanted to get up, but after struggling for a long time, he still couldn't stand up.

He couldn't help but think of his miserable fate, and his nose was sore. He felt that it would be better to die instead of being relieved.

Thinking of this, since he was not afraid of death, what else was there to be afraid of? The fear in his heart suddenly weakened greatly.

Gritting his teeth and holding on, Yang Che managed to stand up. He held onto the stone wall, moved his still trembling legs, and limped slowly into the depths of the tunnel.

There were several times when he almost fell to the ground due to hunger and wanted to give up, but his instinct for survival gave him some strength.

After passing through the long darkness, the front suddenly became bright. Yang Che subconsciously blocked his eyes with his hands, and then when he took his hands away and saw the scene clearly, he was stunned.

This turned out to be a spacious natural cave. Deep inside the cave, you can still hear the sound of gurgling water.

This place seemed to have been repaired by someone. There was a glowing bead embedded on the top of the cave, which illuminated the place very brightly.

Most of the cave was a nursery surrounded by rubble, but it seemed to be abandoned. Many flowers and plants had withered, leaving only a strange flower and plant about a foot tall, which was still growing tenaciously alone.

The other half of the cave had a stone table, stone bench, and a stone bed.

When Yang Che saw that there was a horrifying skeleton sitting cross-legged on the stone bed, he suddenly became afraid again.

But after waiting for a long time, seeing that the skeleton did not move, he bravely moved into the cave and began to look carefully.

On the wall next to the stone bed, two layers of stone grids were chiseled out, on which were placed three yellowed ancient books, a black scroll of unknown material, and a few bottles and jars.

Yang Che moved to the stone grid, picked up an ancient book at random, blew off the dust on it, and saw a few big characters on the cover, but unfortunately he was illiterate and could not understand it at all.

Putting the ancient book back, Yang Che began to look for something to eat anxiously.

Unfortunately, after searching around, he found nothing to eat.

"Is it really going to starve to death here?"

Yang Che was filled with grief, and the relaxation of his will made him feel dizzy and wanted to lie down on the ground and fall asleep.

At this moment, he suddenly smelled a strange fragrance, which shocked him, and then he bit the tip of his tongue hard, and suddenly he was a little more awake.

After sniffing carefully, Yang Che gradually shifted his gaze to the solitary strange flower in the nursery.

As a person who has been looking for mountain products in the mountains for many years, he naturally knew that some flowers and plants were rare medicinal herbs. He found one in the early spring of last year and wanted to secretly take it to the town to sell it. However, he was discovered by Yang Hu halfway. Not only did Yang Hu snatch the herb away, but he also beat him up and starved him for three days and three nights.

This strange flower is about one foot tall, with seven dark green thorny leaves on the stem, and a thumb-sized black fruit at the root of each leaf.

The strange fragrance just now came from this flower, but Yang Che looked at these dark fruits and didn't dare to pick them and eat them.

He had suffered in the mountains before. That time, he ate unknown wild fruits carelessly. It seemed that he was poisoned and had a stomachache for several days. He was tortured to death, but fortunately he survived in the end and luckily saved his life.

However, Yang Che was so hungry that he thought there was no difference between starving to death and being poisoned to death. He simply made up his mind and reached out to pick the black fruit.

"Don't eat me, don't eat me..."

A faint voice suddenly rang in Yang Che's ears.

Yang Che shuddered and stepped back subconsciously, shouting with trembling lips: "Who?"

There was no response for a long time.

Yang Che forced himself to calm down, looked at the flowers and plants in front of him thoughtfully, and reached out again to pick the black fruit.

"Don't eat me..."

The faint voice rang again.

Yang Che was shocked. A plant could actually speak?

This... Is this the scary flower demon in the rumors?