Tang Dynasty Bandits

Chapter 211 Blood Bat

Once inside the deep cave, Zhu Wen realized that having an exit and being able to get out of the exit were two different things.

Above, there are many sinkholes of varying sizes, which cast sunlight down and refract it onto the stalactites, creating a faint glow.

However, they were all suspended high above the cave ceiling, with no way to ascend.

To get out of it, one must have wings and be able to fly.

Zhu Wen also saw broken, pale white bones directly below several sinkholes, probably belonging to some unlucky souls who had fallen from above.

After circling the cave with Duan Hongyan in tow, Zhu Wen found himself back where he started.

Outside was a raging river, and Duan Hongyan wasn't a very good swimmer. If she tried to drift downstream, it would be no different from suicide.

Zhu Wen knew that these caves were like mazes and it was easy to get lost, so every now and then he would tear off a small piece from his clothes as a marker.

After walking for a long time, it's inevitable to feel tired and hungry.

Neither of them had any food on them, so they could only drink water from the pool inside the cave to slightly alleviate their hunger.

"This hole is way too big..." Duan Hongyan sighed, clutching her stomach.

"There are no fish in the water." Zhu Wen tested the water temperature with his hand. It wasn't particularly cold, so he plunged into the pool and swam for a while before getting up and saying this.

Zhu Wen broke off a piece of stalactite and rubbed it vigorously against the cave wall until the tip of the stalactite became sharp.

Not only Zhu Wen's Dragon Sparrow Sword, but Duan Hongyan's Jade Phoenix Sword and bow and arrows were also lost in the rapids.

"If we really can't find an exit, we can only go back to the entrance, use sharpened stalactites to poke into the crevices in the rocks, and climb up by moving our hands back and forth."

"It's too dangerous, let's look again," Duan Hongyan said. "Anyway, we've marked it, so we shouldn't be unable to find it."

Zhu Wen nodded and walked forward side by side with her.

Some parts of the cave were completely dark, devoid of sunlight.

Fortunately, Zhu Wen's flint and tinder, along with a piece of candle wrapped in oilcloth, remained dry. In such situations, he would light a small candle. When daylight came, he would extinguish the candle to conserve fuel.

Deep within the cave, the candlelight flickered dimly, while the surrounding darkness stretched endlessly. This stone cave, untouched for millennia, was only made more desolate by the soft footsteps of Zhu Wen and Duan Hongyan.

Zhu Wen's nostrils twitched slightly.

"I smell something," Zhu Wen said, frowning. "It smells a bit bad."

"It'll just smell like bird and animal droppings." Duan Hongyan seemed optimistic: "It's not a bad thing. Where there are birds and animals, there's bound to be an exit. Besides, we can find some food."

There might not be any firewood in the cave, but Zhu Wen and Duan Hongyan were both seasoned veterans of life-and-death battles and had long been prepared to eat raw meat.

Before the words were even finished, there was a whooshing sound of wind, and a group of red shadows pounced on the two of them!

“Blood bats…” Duan Hongyan murmured.

Before he could finish speaking, Zhu Wen heard her let out a soft cry of pain.

The swarm of blood-red bats arrived extremely quickly, and Duan Hongyan, being unarmed, was bitten by one of them before she could react.

Zhu Wen hurriedly took off his already dried shirt and waved it vigorously at the group of bats.

Several bats were hit and fell to the ground, while the rest flew away in a commotion.

But one reckless creature still charged forward, biting Zhu Wen's neck, only to be killed by Zhu Wen's palm strike.

The bats, who had never seen humans before, realized that the creatures opposite them were deadly and scattered in all directions.

The two of them continued on their way.

Not long after, Duan Hongyan suddenly staggered and collapsed.

She hadn't eaten for a day or two; she shouldn't have fainted from hunger.

Zhu Wen was shocked and quickly helped her up. He saw that Duan Hongyan's eyes were closed, her face was flushed, and sweat was dripping from her forehead.

He reached out and touched Duan Hongyan's forehead, finding it burning hot.

It seems that, just like mosquito bites, blood bat bites can also cause fever.

But Zhu Wen was also bitten, yet he was completely unharmed.

"Junior sister, how are you feeling now?"

"So sleepy, I want to sleep..." Duan Hongyan mumbled, her eyes half-closed.

She clearly couldn't walk on her own.

Zhu Wen felt a pang of confusion, then steeled himself and scooped Duan Hongyan up in his arms. Having not eaten for a day or two, carrying someone was undeniably heavy. But Zhu Wen ignored it and gritted his teeth, pressing onward.

Duan Hongyan became increasingly delirious, and sometimes she would mumble incoherently.

There was no medicine in the cave, and Zhu Wen didn't know what to do.

In this situation, the first thing to do is to provide the patient with nutrients.

Zhu Wen used the sharp point of a stalactite to cut open Duan Hongyan's forearm and brought it close to her mouth: "Drink my blood."

Duan Hongyan paused, then suddenly came to her senses and said with difficulty, "This...this won't do! You haven't eaten anything. If you give me more blood, you won't be able to hold on..."

"Who said I don't have any food?"

After saying that, Zhu Wen threw the bat he had killed into his mouth, bit off its head, spat it on the ground, and began to eat it heartily. Bat blood dripped onto Duan Hongyan's body, and in the end, all that remained were a pile of fur and small bat bones.

"I think my constitution is probably resistant to bat venom, which is why I didn't get a fever like you when I was bitten."

Zhu Wen spoke calmly and casually, but in reality, his stomach was churning, and he barely managed to hold back his vomiting.

Some uncivilized people in Lingnan eat bats, but they peel and roast them before eating.

Who would swallow someone whole like that?

Besides, bats look like rats, and normal people feel disgusted just looking at them.

But what other options did Zhu Wen have?

Moreover, he had personally witnessed how even pampered young men in those famine-stricken areas had to catch rats and bats to eat. If they didn't eat enough and lacked strength, they might be caught and killed the next day to be cooked because of their weakness.

"This..." Duan Hongyan wanted to speak, but Zhu Wen, who had finished eating the bat, directly used his wound to seal her lips.

Hunger finally overwhelmed Duan Hongyan, and she began to suckle like a baby.

The blood loss left Zhu Wen somewhat weak, but fortunately he discovered a swarm of bats ahead, killed a few, and ate them.

Zhu Wen had never eaten raw food before, and the pungent smell of these bats was extremely disgusting and unpalatable to him. However, in order to fill his stomach and to help Duan Hongyan persevere, he had no choice but to grit his teeth and swallow the bats.

After the bat entered my stomach, a strange heat seemed to gather in my lower abdomen.

Zhu Wen didn't pay much attention to this, thinking it was just a feeling of fullness.

But once their stomachs are full, they can feed Duan Hongyan more blood.

Duan Hongyan's mind became increasingly confused. When Zhu Wen fed her blood, she would sometimes go crazy and kiss and bite Zhu Wen's arm, forcing Zhu Wen to restrain her.

Fortunately, she was extremely weak, so it didn't take much effort to control her.

After a while of sucking, Duan Hongyan nestled in Zhu Wen's arms and quietly fell asleep.

Zhu Wen sighed, sat down on the stone ground, and placed Duan Hongyan's body on his lap.

The junior sister's figure was also exceptional, almost on par with Tian Jun's. However, Zhu Wen's mind was entirely focused on her illness, leaving him no room for further thoughts.

Seeing Duan Hongyan, who was always so lively and carefree, become so weak, he felt a pang of pity.

Just as Zhu Wen was about to drift off to sleep from exhaustion, Duan Hongyan suddenly moved again, wrapping her jade-like arms tightly around him.

Her eyes remained tightly closed, and she uttered desperate cries.

"Grandpa...please don't kill Mother, I beg you..."

Zhu Wen was suddenly shocked.

Duan Hongyan's version of events is that her parents were killed by human traffickers, but she killed the traffickers in return and was taken in by Huang Chao.

But what she's saying now sounds as if her father murdered her mother.

Duan Hongyan was still unconscious; these words were merely her instinctive babbling.

As she spoke, two tears streamed from her tightly closed eyes, trembling like dewdrops on her long eyelashes.

Her grief likely stemmed from real memories, rather than just from nightmares she had while in a state of mental confusion.

Zhu Wen knew that Duan Hongyan was a girl with a secret.

But why would she lie about her background? What is her origin?
Zhu Wen was unaware of this, but Duan Hongyan was his fellow disciple and had a close relationship with him.

Regardless of who she is, Zhu Wen's first priority is to get her out of this vast underground cave alive.

(End of this chapter)