Chapter 76: Lost

  Su Tang sat by the bonfire, constantly stirring the branches in his hand, on which a mountain chicken was skewered, its body covered with colorful feathers that had been plucked from it. Xiao Bu Dian sat on his shoulder, seriously staring at the mountain chicken emitting waves of savory aroma.

  Su Tang cut off a small piece of meat with a small knife, blew it, and put it in his mouth to chew for a while, almost cooked.

  "Can we eat now?" Little Notch's emotions immediately became excited.

  "Hmm." Su Tang replied, pinching the pheasant's hind leg and cutting off a piece of meat from it. He placed it on his shoulder, which was enough for Xiao Bu Dong to eat its fill.

  Xiao Bu Dian half lay on the chicken meat, took a big bite, and then froze. After a moment, he spat out the meat in his mouth and exclaimed: "Ptooey... ptooey... Mom, it doesn't taste good at all!"

  "You little guy still knows how to be picky?" Su Tang said with a mix of anger and laughter. After finishing speaking, he couldn't be bothered to pay attention to Xiao Bu Deng anymore and started eating by himself. This damned forest was too big, and the surroundings were almost identical everywhere. No matter where he walked, he had a feeling of déjà vu. Thick fog lingered in mid-air, blocking his view of the sky and sunlight.

  To put it bluntly, he seems to have lost his way...

  Su Tang was clear that at this time he must fully guarantee his physical strength.

  Little Notch looked at the chicken with a worried and unhappy face, he really didn't want to eat this thing. He raised his head and looked around, his gaze suddenly fell on a bush, then flew off Su Tang's shoulder and floated in front of the bush, dancing and shouting: "I want to eat, I want to eat..."

  A golden wave flashed by, and the shrub shook violently, then opened a few blue-purple flowers, and soon bore clusters of small black fruit, about the size of grapes.

  Su Tang suddenly turned his head, the little guy's vitality was draining at an extremely fast speed, and in the blink of an eye, it had dropped by a huge margin, a shocking drop. He had a feeling that if this happened seven or eight more times, it would likely cause irreparable damage.

  Xiao Bu Dian was delighted, pounced on a strawberry, bit open the skin and sucked it up happily.

  "What are you doing?!" Su Tang suddenly bellowed, flinging the chicken in his hand to one side, and stormed over to Xiao Bu Dong with a furious expression.

  Xiao Buzhi was startled and turned around, looking at Su Tang in a daze. The juice from the fruit burst out and splashed all over his face, but he didn't even notice.

  "What were you just doing?!" Su Tang shouted.

  "I... I lent them my spiritual energy..."

  "Is it just for food?!" Su Tang got even angrier.

  "Waa... waaa..." Xiaobudian suddenly burst into loud sobs, it was really scared out of its wits, after all, it had never seen Su Tang so angry before.

  "What are you crying about? Shut up!" Su Tang shouted again, although Xiao Bu Dong was crying pitifully and it tugged at his heartstrings, he knew that if he didn't thoroughly scare him this time, there would be a possibility of future offenses.

  The little dot didn't dare to cry anymore, but its body was trembling, especially the wings that were tightly stuck together due to excessive tension, shaking violently.

  Seeing Xiao Budian's fear, Su Tang's heart couldn't harden anymore. His expression turned gentle: "Remember, from now on, no matter what, you can't lend your spiritual power to anyone else. No one is allowed. Do you understand? If you dare do something like this again, I..." The warning should have ended with a sentence that would be difficult for him to forget, but Su Tang couldn't think of the right threatening words, so he just stopped there. Xiao Budian had already been scared silly and probably wouldn't forget today's lesson.

  Su Tang turned around and walked back to the bonfire, eating with his head down. Xiao Bu Dian had lost his appetite, sitting on a branch in a daze. Until Su Tang finished eating and leaned against a rock to rest, he flew back holding a fruit, with a flattering smile on his face, calling out: "Mom, eat, it's delicious..."

  Su Tang opened his eyes, used his palm to catch the fruit, and said softly: "You eat it, I'm already full." If it were before, he would be very happy to eat the fruit, but now that he knew this was something Xiao Wu had cultivated with his own life force, how could he bear to touch it?

  Su Tang regretted it very much. He had eaten all the wild fruits he was carrying early on and should have left some for Xiao Bu Dong, but also, it wasn't entirely his fault because he didn't know.

  Hearing Su Tang's gentle voice, Xiao Bu Dian finally relaxed and sat in the palm of Su Tang's hand, hugging the fruit and biting open its skin.

  Soon, all the juice was sucked out, leaving only a shriveled fruit skin. Su Tang asked, "Are you full?"

  "Mm." Xiaobudian nodded vigorously, but she wasn't full yet.

  Su Tang put Xiao Buzhi on his shoulder, stood up and opened the package, took out a wine pouch from inside, tilted his head back and drank all the wine in it. Then he walked to the bush, picked off the berries one by one and put them into the wine pouch.

  One wine pouch was filled, and Su Tang found another one. He picked very carefully, not a single grape would fall off. However, there is always an exception to the rule, some wine remained in the second pouch, which Su Tang did not notice.

  With a blink of an eye, Su Tang picked all the mulberries from the bush, and walked back to carefully place two wine pouches on top. The mulberries were fully ripe, and with just a slight touch, they might burst open.

  After doing all this, Su Tang paused for a moment and couldn't help but laugh dryly. Even when serving herself in the past, she had never been so meticulous. It was really strange.

  When packing up, Su Tang's line of sight suddenly fell on something, and he was stunned for a moment before revealing a joyful expression. He grabbed the box, quickly opened it, took out a Pei Ling Dan, then plucked a palm-sized leaf from a tree, walked to the edge of the stream, pinched the leaf into a concave shape, filled it with some water, crushed the Pei Ling Dan and sprinkled it into the water, broke off a thin branch, and carefully stirred it.

  "Mom, what are you doing?" Xiaobudian curiously asked.

  "Good stuff, can you smell the aroma?" Su Tang said, anyway, he had to try it out. If Xiao Buzhi didn't like it, he would drink it himself, and it wouldn't be a waste.

  "Mmm... smells so good!" Xiaobudian replied.

  Soon, Pei Ling Dan completely dissolved in water, Su Tang said: "Xiao Bu Dian, you try a little, see if you like to drink?"

  Xiao Buzhi crouched on the edge of a leaf, stretched his head out, and carefully took a sip. Feeling that the taste was not bad, he then started drinking in big gulps.

  Gulp gulp...... In an instant, Xiaobu had drunk the medicinal water clean, flew back to Su Tang's shoulder and sat down contentedly: "So full..."

  Su Tang let out a sigh of relief, earlier Xiao Bu Dong's mental state was somewhat depressed, now it has improved significantly. Moreover, if there is only loss without replenishment, even if he takes good care of him, Xiao Bu Dong's life will still be very limited. If Xiao Bu Dong can absorb the effect of the elixir, then there is hope.

  Then Su Tang had a headache again, and he only had more than 80 Pellet of Spirit in his hand, which was not enough for himself, and there was another small soy sauce bottle.

  However, let's take care of Xiaobudian first. After all, he won't be affected much if he eats a little less, it's just that the speed of his cultivation will be slightly different. But if Xiaobudian doesn't eat enough, he might lose his life.

  "It's time to go." Su Tang shouldered his pack and grabbed a few flying swords: "Little Not-Point, can you find the way back or not?"

  "I don't know either......" Xiaobudian muttered, this sentence Su Tang had asked many times before.

  "Alas..." Su Tang sighed helplessly, walked to a tree with a trunk as thick as a bowl, drew out the Taizhong sword, and with a light sweep of the sword's glow, cut the tree into two segments.

  Su Tang walked forward for over a dozen steps, drew his sword again and felled another tree of similar thickness. The cut on the previous tree was flat, while this one was slanted, with its tip pointing high into the air.

  Time is fleeting, and before you know it, autumn has gone and winter has arrived. Then, in the blink of an eye, spring warmth returns, and half a year's time has passed. The trees that were cut down by Su Tang have not died, and when the weather warms up, new branches have grown out from the stumps.

  Suddenly, a rustling sound came from the woods, and Su Tang emerged from behind the parted branches and leaves. Seeing Duan Ya, he involuntarily blurted out a word: "Bastard..."

  "Grass......" Xiaobudian imitated and called out on Su Tang's shoulder.

  Su Tang gave Xiao Buzhi a sideways glance, and Xiao Buzhi hurriedly covered his mouth with his hand, knowing he was wrong.

  "This direction is also wrong...... I've walked here before...... It should have been more than half a year ago......" Su Tang muttered to himself, in the past six months, he had undergone tremendous changes. First of all, possibly due to regular exercise, his height was now half a head taller than before, but his skin tone had a sickly pale color because this place rarely saw sunlight.

  His hair looked a bit strange, there was no barber shop in the forest, when his hair grew long, he could only cut it randomly with the Taizhong sword, and naturally couldn't talk about any hairstyle.

  Su Tang's clothes had long been tattered, with animal hides wrapped around his chest and waist. It wasn't that Su Tang liked this outfit, but having the animal hide protection allowed his clothes to last a bit longer.

  Su Tang's eyes were extremely bright, and whenever any wild animal ran past nearby, his rotating gaze would always be filled with aggression. In the past six months, all the creatures he had encountered only made him think of two things: whether they could be killed or eaten. Over time, he naturally positioned himself from the perspective of the forest's overlord.

  When aggression reaches a certain height, it will definitely try to eliminate all perceived threats in every way possible. This is the instinct of life, and Su Tang did the same. At first, as long as he received a small warning from Xiao Dian, he would try his best to avoid those terrifying creatures. Gradually, he tried to observe and judge them. For those that were particularly powerful, he still chose to temporarily avoid them, while for those he felt had defects or fatal weaknesses, he would design an ambush to kill them.

  The bloodstains on his cheeks were left by a giant bear last night, and the wound was so deep that it could be seen to the bone. A lot of blood had flowed out, but Su Tang's physique had an extremely strong regenerative ability, and after just one night, the wound had already healed.