The fatty was driving, humming a tune. Perhaps he had slept well yesterday under Ye Tiancheng's protective shield, but Ye Tiancheng's true qi was somewhat depleted, causing his hands to tremble uncontrollably.
He even sneezed a few times. The fatty thought Ye Tiancheng had caught a cold and proactively offered him cold medicine.
"Brother Ye, you worked hard for me yesterday. Just lie down in the car. I'll drive. Fatty drives steadily. You just focus on resting and take your medicine first, then sleep."
Even facing a problem as immense as the sky, Ye Tiancheng couldn't say much, mainly out of fear of making Fatty worry. The wind and snow hadn't stopped along the way. Ye Tiancheng slept for a while, and when he woke up, the car was still moving through a vast expanse of white.
The sky was about to darken again. Ye Tiancheng was truly surprised that he had slept for another day.
"Fatty, you should rest a bit too. No matter what, don't wear yourself out. If you wear yourself out, you'll have nothing left."
"I stopped on the road and took a nap. Brother Ye, I didn't dare to stop for too long, otherwise, we might have to sleep in the car again tonight. I know you were weak yesterday so I could be warm, and I don't want you to be like that again."
So Fatty knew everything. Ye Tiancheng had thought he was just a simpleton. It seemed he was the foolish one. For some reason, Ye Tiancheng's nose felt a little sore. Fatty was actually thinking of him so much. It seemed Fatty wasn't in good shape either. Given his deep thoughts, he might have been putting on a brave face. Ye Tiancheng felt a pang of sadness.
"Fatty, we really should find a place to stay. It's not dark yet. I'll help you look, and we'll work together. If we are united, we can break through anything."
For them, the most important thing right now was to find shelter. Even if tonight was the coldest night and it might snow all night, if they couldn't find shelter, they might freeze.
The atmosphere was tense, and the wind and snow outside grew stronger, creating a suffocating feeling.
Perhaps the more anxious they were, the faster the sky darkened. Before it became completely dark, the two finally spotted a dilapidated house.
The appearance of this dilapidated house was timely, like a drowning person grabbing a life-saving straw. They were both very happy.
However, Ye Tiancheng then thought, was their happiness too soon? Was he too anxious? Sometimes, when people are too anxious, they hallucinate. In this weather, being able to see such a dilapidated house clearly made one's mind wander.
"Fatty, I think my eyes are playing tricks on me. Your eyesight is a little better than mine. Help me see if that's a house ahead."
"Brother Ye, that is indeed a house. That's great! It seems our good deeds from the past are paying off. We finally don't have to freeze to death."
After speaking, Fatty parked the car, got out, and went to check. Both of them were weak, so every step was difficult. After walking to the house and looking, he rubbed his eyes before nodding in confirmation.
"It is indeed a house, but there's no one inside. Brother Ye, let's hurry inside. The snow is getting heavier outside."
If they didn't have shelter during this blizzard, Ye Tiancheng and Fatty would either die or be seriously injured. Therefore, the dilapidated house that appeared now was extremely important to them.
"Alright, let's hurry inside."
The two ran into the small house. There were no partitions inside, just a crooked little mud house that looked like it could collapse at any moment. It didn't feel very good, but having a house to block the wind was a great blessing to them.
"Brother Ye, there's a smell in here, a kind of rotten smell!"
"It's fine, it's good. Let's go get the mats and things from the car and spread them out a bit so we can rest. Don't worry too much, we'll just rest here casually."
The two busied themselves moving things into the house. Fatty kept muttering about how much he missed their little cabin, but their current route couldn't pass by it, and it was quite a distance away. They had poor directional sense, no navigation, and no landmarks. They couldn't find it at all, and might even get lost.
Despite how wonderful their imagination was, the reality before them was that they could only spend the night in this small, broken house.
There were still two windows in the house, but they were broken beyond repair. As the strong wind outside blew, they made crackling noises, which gave a very bad impression.
The two ate a simple meal and then went to sleep. In the middle of the night, they were woken by the rain. The window had been blown open, and Fatty quickly went to close it. There was only one dry spot on the ground, so they had to move their mats and blankets.
"Brother Ye, this seems like the hardest time we've ever had. What a terrible place. I bet even homeless people wouldn't live here, they'd find it too dilapidated."
"It's normal for you to say that. This place has probably been abandoned for many years. It was originally a village, but later many houses collapsed. I see another collapsed house over there. Nowadays, people in rural areas like to move to towns and cities. No one wants to live in these desolate wildernesses anymore."
The temperature inside the house was also not optimistic, and it gradually became colder. The damp spot was convenient for starting a fire. Otherwise, a dry place would make it difficult to extinguish the fire.
"Let's start a fire here. Don't be afraid of it spreading. I'll use a layer of true qi protective shield to cover it."
After they decided, Ye Tiancheng quickly started the fire.
As the bonfire burned, Ye Tiancheng had to admit that the power of nature was truly magical. The bonfire burned continuously, accompanied by crackling sounds, and the room became warm. The rotten smell also gradually disappeared.
The environment inside the house improved slightly, and they could finally rest properly. Both of them slept soundly, perhaps due to the accumulated fatigue from the journey. If they didn't get a good night's sleep, they felt like they could be drained at any moment.
When they woke up, it was like a new dawn had arrived. The sky outside was bright, and the sun was particularly abundant.
"Brother Ye, I'm going to prepare some food. How is your cold? Are you better?"
Ye Tiancheng didn't have a cold to begin with, but the symptoms had largely subsided, so he was considered better.
"I'm better. I slept quite well last night. When we go to the Jiang family and resolve the issue, I can sleep well again, and I should be completely recovered."
Ye Tiancheng himself knew that this was a rather optimistic thought, because everyone knew that black qi had infiltrated Ye Tiancheng's body. This situation was not easy to resolve. Therefore, to truly recover his former self, he had to expel the black qi from his body completely. However, Ye Tiancheng couldn't do it at the moment; in simple terms, his strength was insufficient.
Suddenly, he felt an urge to cough in his chest, but Ye Tiancheng suppressed it. If he coughed in front of Fatty, he knew Fatty would definitely worry.
"Brother Ye, I'll cook some noodles for you and bake some steamed bread slices. I brought everything. After we eat, we'll set off. Based on the distance to the Jiang family, we should arrive before nightfall. We won't need to find accommodation. We've finally made it through."
Fatty was very happy. He happily baked the steamed bread slices and cooked the noodles, feeling that today's meal would be very hearty.
Ye Tiancheng stopped talking because the urge to cough in his chest was becoming stronger. He could only close his eyes and rest, trying not to think too much. This way, he could sink his true qi into his dantian and prevent the black qi from playing a dominant role.
After eating the boiled noodles and baked honey-glazed steamed bread slices, Ye Tiancheng felt a warmth in his stomach. Then, they tidied up and set off together. Around 3 PM, Ye Tiancheng and Fatty arrived at the Jiang family's residence.
From its appearance, the Jiang family's residence...
It looked like it had been vandalized and looted. It seemed abnormal, and there were traces of fire. Ye Tiancheng strongly suspected that the Jiang family had been targeted by those people.
He rushed in and found that the courtyard was even more terrifying. Everything was in disarray. He tried to find some of the Jiang family members, but after calling out for a long time, he received no response.
Ye Tiancheng became increasingly worried.
He anxiously searched everywhere. Finally, he had to use his tracking ability to search. As a result, he found that the people were nearby, even within a hundred meters. The search immediately gave him a prompt.
Finally, Ye Tiancheng discovered a secluded spot in the backyard of the Jiang family's residence. There was a pile of messy debris. After removing the messy debris, he found some broken wooden chips. Upon opening it, he realized it was a ground hole.
"Jiang Yunsheng! Are you in there? It's me."
Ye Tiancheng called out for a long time but heard no response. He had no choice but to enter the ground hole. Inside, it suddenly opened up, revealing a rather large area.
As he walked further in, he found a child lying there, curled up into a small ball. On the surface, nothing could be seen.
"This child is starved unconscious. Quickly give him something to drink. Fatty, don't you have nutrient solution? Hurry and give it to the child."
Fatty was also a little flustered. The two fumbled around and finally managed to handle the child. Jiang Yunsheng finally woke up. Both of them were on edge, and they were happy that his child had woken up.
"Child Jiang, where is your grandmother?"
"My grandmother was taken away by those people. My grandmother seems to have died protecting me."
The child was too scared and sat there blankly, with no expression. He couldn't even cry.
"Don't worry, I'll go find your grandmother now."
Ye Tiancheng activated his tracking ability again.
This time, it consumed a lot of his energy, making him feel dizzy. Following the direction indicated by the tracking ability, Ye Tiancheng told Fatty to watch the child here while Ye Tiancheng set off to find Grandma Jiang.
Following the guidance along the way, he finally found her. It was about an hour's drive from the Jiang family's residence. The old lady was tied to a pile of wood, as if she was about to be burned.