Chapter 63: The Watcher in the Jungle
Chapter 63: Chapter 63: The Watcher in the Jungle
The leather-bound book contained a historical record.
Fifty-three, fifty-two, and fifty-one years ago, there were three years of favorable weather.
The camp had bumper harvests, and the faces of the people in the Outer City were no longer ghastly white or sallow. They regained some color.
Just when everyone thought the good days would last forever...
Fifty years ago, in May, a torrential downpour began and didn’t stop for a month.
The seedlings in the fields all died. Stored grain sprouted or molded. Many who ate the spoiled food died from diarrhea.
Then, a plague spread.
In the camp’s Outer City, nine out of ten homes were empty.
In the camp’s Inner City, the population was halved.
The situation improved forty-nine years ago. Over the next five years, the camp took in many Scavengers fleeing from disasters.
The population gradually recovered.
Then, forty-four years ago, a great drought struck.
The fields cracked, and not a drop of rain fell for half a year, until winter arrived.
People survived for a year on their stored grain.
The following year, in the first season of forty-three years ago, the fields still yielded nothing, as nothing had been planted the year before.
In early summer, the rains returned to normal.
But just as the Maize seedlings grew knee-high, hail fell from the sky.
Another total crop failure. The simple houses of the Outer City were smashed and collapsed, and even the Inner City suffered heavy damage.
Many died from the combined effects of starvation and disease.
The next three years were slightly better. Though not every year went smoothly, there was always some harvest each season.
People could barely manage to fill their stomachs by Farming.
After all, without selective breeding, chemical fertilizers, or pesticides, the fields couldn’t produce much grain.
Thirty-nine years ago, there was a flood.
Countless died. After the flood, the bodies in the Outer City were not cleared in time, and epidemics broke out everywhere.
...
’This isn’t history, this is a goddamn tale of blood and tears, a history of famine!’
Tang Wen’s brow furrowed deeply.
The natural disasters in this world were too frequent.
It wasn’t just here, but other places as well.
According to the leather-bound book, a major disaster cycle occurred every seven or eight years, with plenty of smaller, short-lived calamities in between.
Survive, and you live. Fail, and you die!
Tang Wen recalled that the parents of this body had also fled to the camp with him and his sister to escape a disaster.
By his count, that was less than ten years ago.
Now, the signs of another great drought were appearing.
No wonder everyone in the camp was so tense, already starting to control food consumption so early.
A bitter feeling welled up in Tang Wen’s heart as he looked outside the city. ’No wonder so many people would rather become Scavengers, would rather wander, than settle down somewhere to farm peacefully.’
Trying to make a living by Farming with such unpredictable weather...
It was no different from gambling with their lives.
Furthermore, for an ordinary person, Farming in the wild meant they could be killed by a sudden attack from a Mutated Beast at any moment.
’But how could the weather be so strange?’
’Was the natural ecosystem severely damaged, or is there some other reason?’
’How long will this last?’
Question after question popped into his head.
Tang Wen was filled with doubt.
Humanity was truly too fragile in the face of nature.
His chest felt tight, but Tang Wen forced himself to keep reading.
In the record book, the natural disasters continued unabated.
But there was also good news.
About ten years ago, Farming efficiency improved, and the yield per acre increased.
At that time, many refugees fled from various places and became farmers in the Outer City.
They brought with them some advanced techniques—namely, composting and fertilizing. The soil fertility increased, and crop yields rose to a new level.
CLICK.
Tang Wen closed the book, looked at the crowd, and sighed silently. ’So, the Flame Camp has only been able to eat its fill for the past few years.’
’A drought is coming. I need to hoard grain and meat, too!’
After becoming a Commander, Tang Wen was assigned a residence in the Inner City.
The house didn’t have many rooms, but the courtyard was huge.
It was separated from Zhou Bing’s residence by only a single wall.
Someone had been living there originally, but the person in charge of assigning courtyards quietly inquired about Tang Wen’s situation.
He decisively went to their door and offered to waive half a year’s rent if they moved.
Thus, the tenant happily moved out.
The courtyard was naturally assigned to Tang Wen.
He was comfortable living at Zhou Bing’s place and had no intention of moving.
But now, he planned to make use of the courtyard.
’Might as well dig a cellar first!’
Tang Wen arrived at a row of stone houses in the Guard Battalion’s camp.
"Commander Tang," a familiar figure came jogging over.
"Oh, Brother Li." He recognized the person.
"Whoa, I don’t dare, I don’t dare. I’m not worthy of that. Commander, if you need anything, just give the order and I’ll get it done." Wang Li bowed slightly, standing respectfully beside Tang Wen.
Tang Wen thought for a moment, then gestured as he spoke. "I’m looking for some people to dig a very large cellar."
Wang Li readily agreed, "No problem, Commander. The construction team is idle right now!"
"Good, then please go find them for me."
"Of course, of course!"
A short while later, Wang Li returned with a dark-skinned, honest-looking, middle-aged man.
The man looked nervous and only relaxed after hearing Tang Wen’s request to dig a cellar.
"A three-story cellar for storage? No problem, you can count on us!"
"How long will it take to build?"
"A month."
Tang Wen frowned.
The middle-aged man immediately changed his tune. "With some overtime, twenty days is possible. But, my lord, you’ll have to provide meals, and a bit of extra Maize would be nice."
Wang Li shot him a fierce glare.
Tang Wen held up a hand to stop him. "Easy. I’ll give you Copper Coins. Besides meals, it’s three Copper Coins per person, per day. You get me triple the manpower, and get it done in seven days!"
"Yes, yes! No problem, no problem at all!" The middle-aged man bowed repeatedly, his voice filled with excitement.
Right away, Tang Wen led the two men into the Inner City and to his courtyard.
He stuffed a silver ingot into Wang Li’s hand, putting him in charge of purchasing the building materials.
Wang Li tried to refuse a few times but finally accepted it with a wry smile. "I don’t know why, but the camp has been scrutinizing the accounts so strictly lately. Otherwise, there’d be no need for the Commander to pay out of his own pocket."
Having received their Copper Coins and eaten a full meal, the construction team rolled up their sleeves and got to work that very day.
With so many workers, the courtyard was too small for everyone to work at once.
So they worked in three shifts, around the clock.
The scene was like a construction site during a real estate boom.
The construction in the courtyard was just one wall away from Tangtang’s bedroom.
His sister couldn’t stand the noise and temporarily moved into Zhou Bing’s room.
「Five days later.」
Tang Wen was in the Commander’s lounge in the Guard Battalion, practicing the Mixed Element Stance.
He went through it over and over, not even leaving the room by noon.
Curious, Zhou Bing peeked in through the doorway. At first, she was confused, thinking it looked like a Health Cultivation Technique.
But as Tang Wen started practicing the movements on the bed, she finally understood. "Xiaowen, what kind of Cultivation Technique are you practicing? Why does it look so... so indecent?"
Without looking at her, Tang Wen grunted, "Aren’t you the one who’ll be enjoying the benefits later?"
"Hmph!"
The Ice Beauty’s cheeks flushed crimson, but her gaze didn’t waver in the slightest.
After a moment, she quickly went out and returned from the canteen with several basins of food.
[Mixed Element Stance, Beginner → Master (1/3000)]
The Mixed Element Stance had broken through.
One could only say that Tang Wen truly was the genius that several middle-aged and elderly physicians had unanimously proclaimed him to be.
When he practiced the Mixed Element Stance, he always felt exceptionally proficient, and his experience points increased quickly.
’At this rate, isn’t having one wife and thirty concubines just around the corner?’
"The food’s here! Come and eat."
Tang Wen didn’t move. He looked at his Attribute Panel instead.
[Body: 8.05 → 8.65]
[Essence: 8.6 → 9.2]
"Huh?"
’Why only a 0.6 increase?’
’Is it because the cultivation technique is weak in the later stages, or some other reason?’
’The Mixed Element Stance should be about the same as the Vajra Technique, right?’
’The second upgrade should have increased my attributes by around 1.0.’
’Could it be that my attributes are too high, weakening the effect of the cultivation technique?’
RUMBLE RUMBLE RUMBLE.
His stomach was growling. Tang Wen stopped thinking about it and decided to eat first.
He walked over to the table where a plate and chopsticks were already laid out.
Next to them was a large mug of tea.
Tang Wen picked it up, blew on it, and took a sip. Hmm, the temperature was just right.
He downed half the mug in one go.
After wolfing down his food, Tang Wen stretched and let out a satisfied burp.
Zhou Bing, who had finished eating long ago, bent over and expertly began clearing the messy table of plates and cups.
Admiring the beautiful curves she unintentionally revealed, Tang Wen’s face filled with contentment.
’In my past life, if my family didn’t have the power of four companies, three nannies, and two housekeepers, I could only dream of marrying a beauty of this caliber!’
Conservatively, Zhou Bing could have been an international supermodel on her figure alone.
And if you added her fighting skills, she was simply incredible.
Full and warm, Tang Wen couldn’t resist standing behind the Ice Beauty and helping her clean up.
They were pressed close together. Zhou Bing shot him a fond, exasperated look. "Go back to the room and sleep. Stop messing around."
"How could this be messing around?" Tang Wen refused to let go, a blissful expression on his face.
"Go, go!" Zhou Bing pushed him into the bedroom to rest.
She had observed that whenever Tang Wen’s strength surged, he not only needed to eat a big meal but also had to get a good sleep.
「That evening.」
Tang Wen woke up.
He couldn’t see a trace of Zhou Bing inside or outside the courtyard.
He grabbed a gate guard and asked, only to find out something had happened.
Recently, the Guards had repeatedly received reports from Scavengers.
They said people were disappearing from their Scavenger Camp.
At first, the Guards didn’t take it seriously. It was all too normal for Scavengers to go missing.
It was as normal as cats eating fish or dogs eating meat.
But as the Scavengers reported it more and more, a Guard went over to take a look.
He immediately noticed something strange. The missing people were disappearing one family at a time, and all of them lived on the far west side of the Scavenger Camp.
Now, over a hundred mud huts and shanties there were empty.
There were no particular tracks on the ground either.
The Guards felt something was wrong and reported the news to their Hunting Battalion that afternoon.
Zhou Bing had just led a team out to investigate.
’Disappeared?’
Tang Wen was surprised. ’This doesn’t seem like something a Mutated Beast would do.’
"Get my horse. Lead the way."
He was going to take a look, too.