Ah Huang had already gone back and forth several times, his dusty fur matted as he trotted across the jagged terrain, sniffing at the cracks in the stone with a heavy rock held firmly in his mouth to scout the path.
Monkey's brow furrowed and he shook his head, his face tight with frustration. "No way. How big is this mountain supposed to be? How can there not be a single living thing here?" The silence was absolute, lacking even the hum of a cricket or the rustle of wind through dry grass.
Jing Shu's frown deepened as she stared into the shadows. The real problem was the spiritual connection she shared with her poison bees. Several of the scouts she had sent out hadn't flown far before their signals vanished abruptly, like a candle being snuffed out in a sudden draft.
She could feel that they had been flying normally through the thin, cold air when something suddenly ate them, a predatory snap she felt in the back of her mind. The road they were walking on might look quiet enough to be eerie, but there were unknown creatures lurking in the deep crevices of the rock.
"If we don't eat something soon, we're seriously going to starve to death!" Xiao Hei groaned. He sprawled flat on the jagged ground, his chest heaving as he refused to move another inch, his face pale against the dark stone.
"Let's rest for a bit," Tank said, his voice grim as he looked at his darkened screen. "Bad news, everyone. Our phones are out of battery and there's no signal in this range. If we can't get out of this mountain within two days, we won't be able to contact Old Goat. That means we might not complete the next mission." He pulled a brass compass from his pocket and watched the needle wobble. "I don't know if we can rely on this alone."
Ling Ling adjusted the night vision goggles on her face, the green lenses glowing faintly in the dark. Snake Spirit leaned his back against a cold rock and hissed, "Let's tally what we have got left. My little Thai python circled the area and found nothing edible. There isn't even bark or wild grass on these slopes. Worst case, we will have to eat algae."
"Don't look at me," Xiao Hei said miserably from the ground. "I ran too fast earlier. I lost all my supplies and food when the boat went down."
"I have only got a blanket, a few guns, and some high-energy chocolate," Ling Ling said quietly, her eyes fixed on the darkness. "It will keep me going for maybe three days."
Snake Spirit flicked his tongue and said, "I usually stash some emergency rations inside my little snake's body. That will let me hang on for three to five days. Besides that, I only have poisons and weapons."
Monkey kept digging at a rock with the tip of his knife, the metal scraping harshly. "I never carry food. My pack is full of weapons and survival tools. Me and Ah Huang have made it through worse places. We will find something to eat here too."
Tank rummaged through his pile of heavy weapons and finally pulled out a few dry patties and some vacuum-sealed food he had bought off the black market. "I have a big appetite, so I didn't bother exchanging all my black market credits for food before we left. I kept a bit for myself, but it will only last three or four days. Let's just pray we find supplies soon."
Jing Shu patted the side of her bulging pack. "I have food and water, but I eat a lot, and you all know it. I don't know how long my stash will last, so unless it's life or death, I'm not sharing. And the old rule still stands: one meal costs 100 contribution points."
"Should have listened when I told you not to take this route. Now you're going to learn the hard way."
"100 contribution points for a meal that saves your life isn't even that expensive," someone muttered. Honestly, it was generous of Jing Shu to even offer a price at all.
After all, these so-called elites were all too proud to be seen as freeloaders. Still, when they looked at her mountain-sized pack filled with the weight of hidden supplies, no one could think of anything to say.
At least water wasn't a problem yet. The flood from last year had only recently receded from the lower slopes, leaving plenty of slimy algae trapped between the wet rocks. Monkey and Snake Spirit got to work quickly, digging a shallow pit in the dirt to collect the seepage.
The liquid was a murky green-black color, with tiny, translucent bugs floating on the surface. They lit a small fire by rubbing dry sticks together until a spark caught, then used a metal helmet as a pot to boil the liquid after filtering it several times through a cloth.
Xiao Hei took a cautious sip and immediately spat it out, coughing as the liquid hit the ground. "Ugh, this water tastes like a damn sewer!"
Snake Spirit grinned, his tongue flicking near the steam. "The bitterer it's, the more it means there's creature waste in it. That proves there's life in this mountain. We will find something to eat soon."
Jing Shu shook her head at the thought. "Or it's zombie excrement."
Xiao Dou the hen was excited at first, scratching the hard ground with her sharp claws and pecking up a few twitching bugs. She wasn't picky, not after eating those red nematodes before. But after a few bites, she started squawking in disgust and refused to eat any more, shaking her head.
Apparently, the bugs here tasted just like the corpse worms from the sewers, the same flavor as those zombie hippos. Xiao Dou had had enough of that flavor to last a lifetime. The hen had grown even bigger lately, her customized armor looking tight around her thick chest.
"I found them! Bugs we can eat!" Monkey suddenly shouted, his hands busy. He pried open a deep rock crevice and pulled out several flat black insects. Each was about the size of a fingernail but barely a millimeter thick, with pale white flesh visible when squeezed.
Snake Spirit nodded, inspecting the catch. "A bit of protein. Cut off the heads and they're edible."
Monkey found two or three types of bugs they could harvest from the cracks. Xiao Hei gathered pieces of dry wood for the fire, Tank contributed some of his dry patties, and Snake Spirit collected handfuls of edible algae. After a while, they had managed to make a pot of thick, protein-rich soup that smelled of mud and wet earth.
Ling Ling sat on a high rock, nibbling on a small square of chocolate and refusing to touch the strange, bubbling stew.
Jing Shu, though, lit up a small block of disposable solid alcohol, the blue flame flickering steadily. She had boxes of the stuff, scavenged back in the second year of the apocalypse. It's perfect for times like this when a real fire is too much work.
She dropped a chunk of white beef tallow from an earlier batch into her small pot, watching it melt into a sizzling, fragrant pool. She added bone broth for a base, then chicken sausages, slices of ham, and preserved meats to build the flavor. The savory scent of rendered fat began to drift through the camp. She tore off chunks of beef rib and thin slices of pork leg, then tossed in dried scallops, shrimp, crab, mushrooms, kelp, and daylilies.
She even picked a few fresh, vibrant lettuce leaves from her stash to blanch in the boiling broth. Finally, she had cracked four or five fresh eggs from Xiao Dou into the center, dropped in a block of instant noodles, and sprinkled a generous handful of shredded cheese on top until it melted into a gooey layer.
The rich, complex aroma of the hotpot spread far and wide in the still air. The savory scent wrapped around everyone, and the rhythmic sound of her knife chopping fresh garlic echoed against the rock faces. Jing Shu mixed the minced garlic with cilantro and chopped green onions, poured in golden sesame oil and a bit of dark vinegar, and stirred up a perfect dipping sauce.
Only then did the others realize that all those vegetables she had been growing in her pack were meant for hotpot sides.
That woman was downright cruel.
Ah Huang wagged his tail, inching closer to the pot with his nose twitching, but he was too scared of the hen to get near. He finally got hold of a discarded bone, only for Xiao Dou to swoop in with a blur of feathers and swallow it whole before he could even bite down.
The sound of Jing Shu slurping the springy noodles had never been so pleasant to the ear. A few minutes later, she had even lifted the pot with both hands and finished every last drop of the spicy broth.
"Burp~." She let out a satisfied hiccup, cleaned up her utensils quickly, and got ready to move again.
"Once we cross this mountain, we will finally get a real meal," Xiao Hei said, trying to cheer himself up, though a streak of drool was already soaking into his shirt.
Once everyone was fed, their pace picked up noticeably as they climbed higher.
Ling Ling's bird scouted from above, its wings silent, while Ah Huang and the little python guarded the flanks of the group. The area stayed eerily silent, like a dead mountain frozen in time.
"Wait. Don't go forward," Jing Shu suddenly said, her hand reaching out to stop the person nearest her.
Everyone turned to her, their movements frozen.
"There's danger ahead. That path could collapse at any moment, and there's unknown creatures nearby." She pointed toward the narrow, shadowed gap between two high cliffs. "We should climb over instead."
"This mountain is practically a cliff! You want us to climb that when we could just walk through the gap? Ah Huang already scouted it! Tell me, who is the scout here, you or me? You're so great, don't you? Always have to go against me!" Monkey snapped. He stood up, his boots scuffing the rock, his voice thick with irritation as he glared at her.