Chapter 2 - Chapter 2: Cruel Reality Shows Him What This Tribe Is Really Like

His neck hurt. His right leg hurt even more.He was starving and desperately thirsty, but he did not dare move, nor did he dare try to crawl out in search of food. Even if he wanted to, it would have been impossible. Both of his wrists were tied to a wooden pole, leaving him sprawled on the ground like some long-armed animal.This was an extremely crude grass hut. The roof was roughly covered with hay, and the walls were so sparse that sunlight could easily be seen filtering through from outside.The hut was not very large. By Yan Mo's estimate, it was only about forty square meters. It was divided into two rows, with a passage in the middle.Not all the space was occupied by humans. Some of it was taken up by live animals. Yan Mo did not know whether that was the reason the straw hut smelled so foul, but the stench was enough to make anyone want to vomit.At first, Yan Mo had thought he had been saved.But after waking up and seeing this scene, he no longer believed that. Coming here was no different from dying.About half an hour earlier, there had been another dark-skinned man tied to a wooden pole not far from him. That man had also been injured and looked bigger and stronger than Yan Mo. His head was bleeding, and he remained unconscious the whole time.Soon after, a burly man with a slightly protruding belly entered the hut. He walked around for a bit before stopping in front of the unconscious prisoner. He slapped the man's face, and when there was no reaction, he untied the ropes binding him and dragged him outside with one arm.Yan Mo, half-awake inside the hut, forced himself to stay alert and watched what happened outside.There was a small square outside the grass hut. In the middle stood a large wooden chopping block, and an axe was embedded in it.People were working all around the square. Some were weaving grass, some were cooking, and some seemed to be preserving food.When Yan Mo saw the burly man enter the hut, he had briefly wanted to ask for some water. A bowl of food would have been even better. But after seeing the man's expression, he wisely kept his mouth shut. The man's eyes had swept over him without the slightest bit of pity.The strong man dragged the unconscious prisoner to the center of the square, pressed the man's head against the chopping block, and pulled the axe from the wood.Yan Mo's heartbeat instantly quickened.The burly man raised the axe and brought it down without the slightest hesitation, as though this were the most ordinary thing in the world.One blow severed the man's head.Blood spurted everywhere.The men and women around the square only glanced casually at the scene. No one reacted strongly. It was as if this was completely normal.Yan Mo was a doctor. He was no stranger to blood.But seeing this, he had nearly cried out.What happened next made him clamp his mouth shut and even hold his breath.After the burly man chopped off the prisoner's head, the corpse collapsed beside the wooden block. The man then used the axe to dismember the body, cut it open, and remove the unwanted internal organs.In the end, the body was chopped into pieces of meat and divided among three wooden basins, which were carried away by different men and women. The intestines and other unwanted organs were thrown into a woven basket and fed to the carnivorous animals that were still kept alive nearby.Yan Mo forced himself not to vomit.His neck hurt terribly, and his head was pounding so hard that he could barely stand it.Apparently, the expression in Yan Mo's eyes had displeased the burly man. As he passed by, the man deliberately kicked Yan Mo's injured right leg."Ah!"Yan Mo cried out in pain. The flies and mosquitoes that had landed on him flew up from the sudden movement, but only for a moment before they settled again.The burly man showed no sympathy at all and walked straight out of the hut.Outside, there were loud shouts. It sounded as though they were drinking and talking.Gradually, Yan Mo's awareness of the outside world faded, and he fainted once more.Yan Mo dreamed.In the dream, he was standing beside a fire. The dream was long and vivid, so vivid that Yan Mo could not tell whether it was truly a dream or a memory.But he knew it definitely did not belong to his previous life.It should be the memories of this young body he had transmigrated into.Perhaps he had already accepted this bizarre reality. Those memories belonged to the original owner of the body, and now they were merging into his mind, making it feel as though he had died and lived through death twice.It was not comfortable to absorb another person's memories. Yan Mo could only be grateful that this body belonged to a young teenager. There were only fourteen years of memories to inherit. If this had been an old man's body, with decades of memories flooding into his mind, he did not know whether his brain would have collapsed under the burden. Even if it had not, it would surely have affected his own mature personality and way of thinking.Still, the memories were useful.At the very least, they gave him a basic understanding of his current surroundings. Most importantly, he could now understand the language of the nearby tribes. As long as he could understand them, finding a way to survive was only a matter of time.Unfortunately, the boy had not known much.According to those memories, the boy's name was Blackbird. Here, that was not a slur, but the name of an auspicious beast said to bring a bountiful harvest wherever it appeared.Blackbird had been born in a tribe called the Salt Mountain Tribe. Just from the name, Yan Mo guessed the tribe must have lived somewhere with access to salt.Because the tribe possessed a salt cave, its trade with other tribes had been relatively good. Compared with many other tribes, the Salt Mountain Tribe rarely went hungry. But because of that same salt cave, they had also been targeted by many enemies. They had defended it several times, but five days earlier they had finally lost it to a more powerful tribe and had been forced to flee.Blackbird had been bitten by a wild beast on the way while the tribe was moving to find a new place to settle. Once his wound became infected and he developed a fever, he was abandoned.His parents and older brothers had been among those who left him behind.Yet in this society, such abandonment was not considered shameful. It was simply reality. Once someone was no longer useful to the tribe, they could be discarded.This place was poor, and its customs were savage.From Blackbird's memories, Yan Mo learned that several large tribes in the area practiced cannibalism. Some stronger tribes would even attack weaker tribes during winter, when food was scarce. Most of the captives they caught were turned into preserved meat, while only a few were kept alive as slaves.Beyond the tribes, there were also cities formed by several super-large tribes merging together. These cities were said to have upper, middle, and lower districts. But Blackbird had only heard of them—he had never seen one himself. In fact, the boy had barely ever left the territory of his own tribe.After absorbing these memories, Yan Mo stared silently at the inside of the hut for a long time.Then a large hand swatted away the flies around him and grabbed him by the hair.Yan Mo's expression changed immediately. The stiffness on his face vanished, replaced by a flattering smile, even though his scalp was being painfully yanked."So you're still not dead?" The fierce-looking man sounded surprised.He glanced at the teenager's right leg. The wound looked even more horrifying than before. Worms covered nearly half the leg. Pus and blood were mixed together, and the exposed skin had been bitten by mosquitoes. Rot and the smell of urine surrounded him. No one in this place would waste treatment on near-dead reserve meat, and naturally no one had bothered to clean him.Yes, this life was terrible.Even Yan Mo himself was surprised he was still alive.He had roughly worked it out. It had been about two days since the injury. For an ordinary person, such a severe injury, combined with infection and no medical treatment, would mean certain death. Even if he were somehow saved, the leg would most likely have to be amputated.And yet, when Yan Mo examined the wound again, he noticed something strange. The surface was badly suppurating, but beneath the layer of pus, the flesh was still relatively fresh and had not fully rotted. Blood circulation in the leg also seemed to remain. Although the edges of the wound had darkened, the injury was not yet hopeless. If treated properly, there was still a chance it could heal.Unfortunately, because the flesh remained "fresh," he had to experience the pain continuously, even when half-conscious.Of course, he could not explain any of that to the fierce man. He could only put on a sincere face and say, "Thank you for saving—"Before he could finish speaking, the man yanked him by the hair and dragged him out of the hut.The pain was unbearable, but Yan Mo neither could nor dared resist."No… don't… kill me… I beg you!"He shouted in a stammering voice. Although he could understand the tribe's language, speaking it fluently still required practice.The man stopped, threw him to the ground, and stepped on his chest with one foot. Resting one hand on his thigh, he bent down and said, "I didn't see you yesterday. Fat Dog said you'd be slaughtered this afternoon. I planned to save your heart before he started chopping, so it wouldn't go to waste. I didn't expect you to still be breathing.""I… I can… do many things. Please… don't kill me…""What can you do?" The man stretched out his foot and looked at the child's exposed groin. In the dragging, the straw rope and grass covering had already fallen aside."Your right leg is already rotten. If you want to live, it has to be cut off. A slave with a broken leg? I'd rather take a forty-year-old wife. At least she can still work, unlike you."Yan Mo hated every second of this humiliation, but he still pleaded, "Don't… cut it off. I know… herbal medicine. I can treat myself. I will… get better. I beg you…""You know herbal medicine?" The man's tone was full of disbelief."Really, I do!""Which tribe are you from?""Salt Mountain."The man sneered. "I know the Salt Mountain priest and his disciples. You are not one of them.""I really do know!" Yan Mo pushed himself forward and hugged the man's leg, pleading desperately. "Give me… seven days. I can make the wound… improve. If not, you can cut it off. All right?""You want me to waste seven days of food on you?" The man was clearly unwilling. "Winter is coming. If you're lying, then I'll have wasted food on you for nothing. And if you need herbs, I'll have to spend time taking you out to look for them too.""I will… repay you! I swear! When I recover… I can do many things…"The man grabbed his hair again.The child's face was dirty, but unlike before, it no longer looked like a dead face. Maybe after a few more days of care, the kid could really survive.The man hesitated.He was only allowed one slave quota. If he used it on this child, then before he advanced to a third-rank fighter, he would not be able to claim another slave. If a stronger, healthier, and more beautiful slave came along later, he would lose out badly. This child cost no money, true, but caring for him would require food and effort, and with such an injury, he would be unable to do even basic work for quite some time.But what if no other slaves appeared nearby soon? The tribe did not seem likely to go to war in the near future, and without war there would be no fresh captives. He had wanted a slave of his own for a long time. And although the child was all skin and bones now, his face was quite pleasing.Yan Mo was also desperately searching for any chance to survive.While the man was hesitating, Yan Mo's eyes darted frantically around the back of the straw hut.There were some wild plants growing there, but most of them he did not recognize.Was this really not Earth?From the first day he arrived, Yan Mo had been suspicious. At first, he had tried to think positively, because he had still seen familiar things such as flies and mosquitoes. But now he could not find a single herb he knew among the nearby plants, which was deeply strange.Herbal medicine—almost every plant growing from the ground had some medicinal value. Yan Mo had studied herbs for many years. He did not dare claim to know every herb in existence, but at the very least he knew the commonly used ones and many rare ones as well.Then suddenly—There!A familiar plant finally caught his eye.The more Yan Mo looked at it, the more certain he became.The man looked down at him, ready to make his decision.Yan Mo shouted, "That one! That big plant there!""What?" The man followed the direction of Yan Mo's finger."Yes, that one! It's an herb that can reduce inflammation, stop bleeding, and lower fever. Can you take me there? If it's really that plant, I can use it now."Yan Mo said the sentence while stammering, but from the man's expression, it seemed he understood enough.When Yan Mo pointed to the plant and claimed it could stop bleeding, many of the men and women working nearby also turned to look.The man lifted Yan Mo and dragged him behind the hut."You mean this?" he asked, then threw Yan Mo down again.The pain from his broken bones was so sharp that Yan Mo nearly blacked out. He bit down hard to stop himself from fainting.Propping himself up, he dragged his body closer to the plant.The leaves had toothed edges, their tips sharp like needles. They were covered in fine white hairs, and the stems and leaves alternated.Yes.This was cirsium.There was more than one stalk. Several plants were scattered around the area.Yan Mo reached out and touched the leaves, letting out a long breath. He had been worried this truly was some completely alien desert land. But if this plant could grow here, then perhaps the soil and water were not hopelessly bad."Knife. Fire. Pot. Clean water," Yan Mo said, staring at his right palm as his eyes suddenly froze. "I need to… treat the wound."A book-shaped light appeared in the center of his palm.It recorded a single line of text:—Identified one type of herb. Scum value -1. Total scum value: 99,999,999.The book-shaped light remained for five seconds before closing into a cover that displayed a line of cursive script:The Guide to BanishmentThe man did not truly believe the boy.Their tribe had priests too, but no one had ever told them that this kind of weed had medicinal use. On the contrary, because its leaves were sharp and thorny, most people considered it nothing more than a nuisance and ordered slaves to pull it out.Still, the boy's expression did not look fake.Perhaps he could let him try.If the weed truly worked, it would benefit the tribe. If it didn't, then the boy would only be proving his own lie."I'll give you this chance," the man said slowly. "But only this once. If you dare lie to me, I'll keep you alive as meat stock and cut a piece off your body every day until you stop breathing."Yan Mo quickly looked away from his palm.He did not think this was an empty threat.This man would absolutely do it.Clenching his right hand unconsciously, the boy raised his head and quickly piled on a grateful, flattering smile."I swear, I'm telling the truth. Can Master give me some water first?"