245: Chapter 245 Gravel

Dawn. No birdsong, no gentle morning light. Only a colder, more bone-chilling, pale light belonging to the barren land, struggling to pierce through the thick clouds, stingily scattered across these nameless hills. The wind seemed to be stained with the color of this light, scraping against the face like cold sandpaper.

Inside the rock crevice, Ling Ye slowly opened his eyes. The pain coming from all over his body, like countless fine needles, instantly woke his drowsy consciousness. But compared to the near-death agony and exhaustion of last night, it was much better. The effects of the special medicine and the "Star Visualization" were significant; the tremors in his internal organs were basically stabilized, the sharp pain in his ribs had turned into a deep, dull ache, and his hearing had mostly recovered, though there was still some noise.

He moved his stiff, cold limbs, and his joints made a slight cracking sound. Fortunately, his bones did not seem broken, only severely bruised with possible hairline fractures. Movement was still difficult, and every step might pull at his injuries, but at least he could move.

He struggled to crawl out of the rock crevice. The scene under the morning light was even more desolate than he had vaguely perceived last night. Rolling grey-yellow dirt slopes, like the weathered and decaying ribs of a giant beast, were exposed under the leaden sky. The vegetation was pitifully sparse, with only the most drought-resistant, thorny, low-lying shrubs and moss clinging to the ground struggling to survive among the gravel. The air was filled with the dry scent of dust and some kind of weathered mineral.

Water. Food. Shelter.

The three elements of survival; he had almost nothing. The rock crevice he stayed in last night could only block the wind, not provide long-term shelter, and it wasn't hidden enough. He had to act immediately.

He first checked the supplies in the woven bag. There were only a few sips of water left in the canteen. Three strips of rat meat remained. Salt, medicine, gun, fire starter, and tools were all still there. Among the weapons, the rebar spear was inconvenient to carry and was a burden in his current state, so he hesitated, then dismantled it, keeping only the sharpest spearhead, wrapping it in cloth and tucking it into his waistband, discarding the shaft. The pipe cutter and fruit knife were kept on his person. The slingshot and stones were also carried.

He kept the most important items (medicine, gun, salt, fire starter, canteen, spearhead) close to his body, and put the other tools and remaining food into the woven bag, carrying it on his back.

Then, he began his first, and decisive, reconnaissance, centered on last night's rock crevice. Goal: Find a Water Source, find a more suitable shelter, and incidentally, look out for any possible clues for food.

He walked very slowly, every step cautious, avoiding pulling at the injury in his ribs. His gaze, like the most precise scanner, swept over every depression, every patch of soil with a slightly darker color, every cluster of relatively dense plants.

The terrain was more fragmented than the area he had been in before. A large number of weathered rock pillars, collapsed piles of dirt and stone, and narrow, dried-up gullies formed a complex landscape. This increased concealment, but also made finding a Water Source and a path more difficult.

One morning, he found nothing. Except for a few more withered, possibly edible but uncertain succulent plants, he found no signs of any Water Source. The sky was overcast, with no sign of rain. The thirst in his throat became even clearer and more scorching in the cold air.

He dared not expend too much energy, so he found the shadow of a wind-shielded rock pillar and sat down to rest. He drank a small sip of the last water in the canteen, moistening his burning throat. Then, he took out the hardest strip of rat meat, used the fruit knife to scrape off powder bit by bit, mixed it with saliva, and swallowed it with difficulty. The rough meat crumbs scraped against his esophagus, bringing a faint sense of fullness, but also intensifying his thirst.

In the afternoon, he adjusted his direction and walked downstream along a dried-up gully that looked deeper and more winding. Usually, the downstream of a gully was more likely to collect water (even if seasonal).

This gully was very long, with towering, cracked dirt walls on both sides. He walked along the bottom of the gully, struggling forward among pebbles and sand of various sizes. After walking for about an hour, just as he was about to give up and prepare to climb the gully wall to change direction—

He smelled an extremely faint, moist scent of soil, mixed in with the smell of dry dust.

His spirits lifted! He quickened his pace (pulling at a sharp pain in his ribs) and walked toward the source of the scent. Turning a corner, the gully suddenly widened here, forming a small depression. In the center of the depression, there was a patch of noticeably darker, moist sandy soil, about the size of a table. And at the edge of the depression, clinging to the base of the dirt wall, there was an extremely narrow rock crevice, less than a finger wide. At the bottom of the crevice, extremely slow but continuous water droplets were seeping out, gathering in a small, fist-sized but seemingly deep puddle below!

A Water Source! Extremely tiny, but it was indeed living water! And it looked relatively clean, with no strange smell!

Ling Ye's heart beat violently because of this discovery. He suppressed the urge to rush over and drink greedily, first vigilantly observing the surroundings. No animal tracks, no abnormal energy fluctuations. He approached cautiously, squatted down, and carefully examined the puddle and water quality.

The water was very clear, with clean gravel at the bottom. He dipped his finger in it, put it under his nose to smell, and there was only a faint smell of soil and minerals. He licked the water off his fingertips; it was cold, slightly astringent, but had no strange taste.

It was drinkable water! Although the flow was extremely small, it was continuous! As long as he collected it patiently, it could fully meet his basic needs as an individual!

He immediately took out the canteen, drank the last bit of water inside, and then carefully aimed the mouth of the canteen at the water seepage in the rock crevice, letting the trickle slowly inject into it. The water flow was very slow, and it might take several hours to fill a canteen, but this was enough! This meant he had a relatively stable Water Source!

With the water problem solved, the hope of survival greatly increased. He decided to find a suitable shelter nearby. This depression had a Water Source, but it was too open and not hidden enough. He needed to find a place that was both convenient for fetching water and sufficiently hidden and safe.

He searched along the dirt walls around the depression. On a steep dirt slope about twenty meters behind the depression, he found a cave entrance, half a person tall, almost completely covered by dense, thorny vines. The entrance sloped downward, and it was pitch black inside, depth unknown.

He used the rebar spearhead (temporarily acting as a probe) to carefully push aside the vines and investigate inside. The entrance was very narrow and required crawling to enter, but once inside, the interior space was larger than expected. It was an irregular cave of about four or five square meters, with a high ceiling, dry sandy ground, and good ventilation (he could feel a faint airflow), with no traces of animal feces or nests. The best part was that the rock wall on one side deep in the cave seemed to be in the same rock layer as the rock crevice where the Water Source was located; he could faintly feel an extremely weak moisture, and perhaps through some tiny cracks, he could hear the extremely faint, dripping sound of water seeping (perhaps psychological).

A perfect shelter! The entrance was hidden and narrow, easy to defend and hard to attack, the interior was dry and spacious, close to the Water Source, and had a potential geological connection to the Water Source (meaning the humidity might be slightly better, and the direct connection between the Water Source and the cave was not easily discovered from the outside)!

He immediately decided, this was it.

He spent a lot of time and energy (pulling at his wounds, making him break out in cold sweat) cleaning up the rubble in the entrance passage without destroying the external vines, and made a simple arrangement inside the cave. He used the relatively flat stones he found to build a "bed" base, and covered it with all the dry withered grass and moss he could find. He set up a tripwire alarm inside the entrance. He hid the most important supplies in the rock crevices under the "bed".

Then, he left the canteen under the rock crevice to collect water, returned to the cave himself, and began "Star Visualization" to accelerate recovery while waiting.

In the evening, he retrieved the half-full canteen of clear water. Although slow, it was indeed accumulating. He drank a few large gulps of sweet, cold water, and his thirsty throat was finally thoroughly moistened. He put the canteen back to continue collecting.

With water and a relatively safe shelter, the greatest pressure of survival was temporarily relieved. Next was food and the complete recovery of his injuries.

He reset the slingshot trap; this time, he chose to set it near the Water Source depression, beside a few relatively dense bushes, where animals might come to drink. The trap was set more covertly and ingeniously.

The recovery of his injuries required time and nutrition. He planned to finish the last two strips of rat meat in four days, eating only half a strip a day. At the same time, he ventured to collect more of those succulent plant leaves suspected to be edible, washed them, and ate them raw; the taste was bitter, but it was better than nothing. He also discovered a dark red moss growing in the shaded rock crevices, tried a little bit; the taste was strange, but there was no adverse reaction, so it was added to his "recipe".

Every day, apart from necessary water collection, trap checking, and extremely limited foraging activities, he spent most of his time in the cave, conducting deep "Star Visualization", guiding that faint warm current, combined with the special medicine (one-quarter of a pill per day), slowly and firmly repairing his damaged body.

"Star Visualization" also seemed to have new changes in this process. Perhaps it was the stimulation of experiencing the edge of life and death, or perhaps his potential was forced out under extreme weakness, his perception of the "Ancient Ring" mark seemed to have become a bit clearer. That vast rhythm was no longer just a distant mental support; occasionally, when he focused entirely on guiding the warm current to flow through the most severely injured areas, he could feel that the rhythm would resonate extremely weakly with it, bringing a trace of additional, cool, and gentle restorative power. Although it was so weak that it could almost be ignored, this was undoubtedly a positive signal.

He also began to use the darkness and quiet in the cave to practice his perception and control of the xuanyuan ring. After experiencing that eruption, the ring seemed to have fallen into "silence", with only the most basic cold feeling and passive sensing of the "abyssal eye" pollution. He tried to use Mental Energy to "communicate" or "guide" the cold and obscure power within it, but there was no reaction, as if it were a pool of stagnant water. But he was not discouraged, just treating it as a training for mental focus.

He would take out the revolver every day, wipe it carefully (though there was nothing to wipe), familiarize himself with every part of it, practice aiming (without loading), and feel the force of the trigger and the critical point of firing. In this wilderness, this gun was his last and most lethal reliance, and he must be absolutely familiar with it.

The practice of the slingshot did not stop either. In the cave, he repeatedly practiced exerting force and aiming at some tiny bumps or color spots on the rock wall. His accuracy was slowly improving.

Time, in the depths of these barren hills, seemed to have lost its meaning. Only the degree of healing of his wounds, the fullness of the canteen, and whether the traps were empty or not marked the passing of a day.

Five days later, the sharp pain in his ribs basically disappeared, leaving only a deep soreness. Movement was no longer too restricted. Ten days later, except for slight discomfort in his ribs when exerting force, other injuries were basically fine. His physical strength, under extremely frugal but regular food intake and continuous "Visualization" recovery, was slowly and solidly recovering, reaching about 60% of his healthy state.

The traps had been empty all along. The barrenness of this land exceeded his expectations. The rat meat was long gone, and the heat provided by the plant leaves was minimal. Hunger, once again, became the sword hanging over his head, and it was sharper than before—because he had water, had a relatively safe stronghold, and had recovered some strength, so his desire and need for food were actually stronger.

He must expand his hunting range, or find a more reliable source of food. Otherwise, the strength he had just recovered would flow away again due to hunger.

On the morning of the fifteenth day, when he was preparing to go to the Water Source to fetch water and check the traps as usual, just as he pushed aside the vines at the entrance, his movements stopped abruptly.

Over by the Water Source depression, near the bushes where he had set the trap, he saw a strange figure.

It was a person.