The girl turned to see another girl a bit bigger than she was. She was holding two larvae in her hands.

“Big sister, you…” The little girl didn’t know what to do.

“Oh, shh.” The other girl hastily indicated for her to be quiet. Looking around, she pulled her behind a boulder.

“Eat it quickly. This kind of larva can be eaten. If you’re afraid, you can first kill them…” The girl gave the two larvae to Little Yan.

Little Yan was truly hungry. Looking at these larvae, she directly swallowed them. Randomly chewing them a few times, she swallowed.

“I didn’t trick you, right? Although their flavor is a bit strange,” the other girl said with a smile.

“Big sister, I ate your food. What about you?” asked Little Yan.

“I’ve already eaten three. This way we won’t starve to death for now. How about we search for food together? I’m Gu Nianrou. What’s your name?” she asked.

“Leng Yueyan.”

“I’m bigger than you, so you can call me big sister Nianrou. And how about I call you Little Yan?”

“That’s good. My mom and dad called me that…” Leng Yueyan suddenly thought of her parents and her eyes immediately reddened.

“Good sister, all of us that were brought here had all our family killed. We’re all the same. Right now, if we want to live, we have to rely entirely on ourselves. Don’t think about anything else. Just focus on finding food.” Gu Nianrou pulled on Leng Yueyan, going deeper in search of food.

Gu Nianrou was only a year older than Leng Yueyan, but she possessed a maturity and steadiness that didn’t match her age.

“Try to stay a bit further away from those bigger ones. Otherwise, your things will be snatched by them. In fact, they might even kill you to eat your flesh,” said Gu Nianrou.

Leng Yueyan quivered in fear. Eating people? Wasn’t that something only fiends would do? That was what all the villagers had said.

Going into a small mound, the two of them dug up some earthworms. But Gu Nianrou didn’t eat them, and she also didn’t let Leng Yueyan eat them. They wanted to first find water to drink.

However, they were surrounded by wild mountains, and there were no rivers. But Gu Nianrou was very amazing. She managed to squeeze out a bit of water from some plants’ stalks, bringing relief to their completely parched throats.

“Sister, how are you so amazing?” asked Leng Yueyan a bit worshipfully.

“My family was hunters. We relied on hunting to survive, and when I was just three years old, I learned how to set traps and capture prey with my dad. When we’re severely dehydrated, we can’t eat too much. Otherwise, we’ll quickly die. So while we should continue looking for earthworms, we shouldn’t eat them for now. We have to get some water first,” said Gu Nianrou. She brought Leng Yueyan in search of more vegetation, and she quickly squeezed out several more drops for them.

The two of them only ate a few earthworms. Their situation was still terrible. When the sky darkened, they returned to their camp and entered their cages.

Those cages were like their homes. They stayed in them to prevent wild beasts from eating them during the night.

This night was extremely bitter. They were all starving and feeling cold. Leng Yueyan even woke up several times because she heard strange sounds in the night, as well as a few chilling screams. Some children were constantly crying.

When the sun finally lit up the sky again, the children began to crawl out of their cages. But there were several that didn’t get up.

One of them was that rather large boy that had snatched the potato Leng Yueyan had dug up. He was already dead.

“He didn’t find any water and ate too much. That’s why he died,” said Gu Nianrou. She pulled Leng Yueyan away to continue searching for water.

That little bit of water they had obtained yesterday wasn’t even close to enough. Today, they had to find a greater source of water.

Food was actually secondary. In the morning, the cold had condensed some dew. Gu Nianrou dragged her clothes across the ground, and they quickly became wet.

“Little Yan, open your mouth.” Gu Nianrou wrung her clothes, squeezing out the water. Leng Yueyan hastily opened her mouth. Seeing Gu Nianrou’s actions, the other children quickly imitated her.

But there wasn’t much dew, so the water was very limited. Despite doing their best, Leng Yueyan and Gu Nianrou had only drunk less than half a cup of water.

As the sun rose higher in the sky, the dew quickly disappeared. But Leng Yueyan and Gu Nianrou were reinvigorated. They went far afield, intentionally avoiding others so they could secretly eat a few more earthworms they had caught yesterday. At some point, Gu Nianrou saw a small, withered tree not far from them.

She went over and snapped a branch, obtaining two sticks that were half a foot long. She then found a stone and smashed it a few times, making one side the stick more pointy. She then began grinding it against the stone.

“Big sister, what are you doing?” Leng Yueyan’s eyes were wide open. She didn’t understand.

Gu Nianrou smiled slightly and didn’t say anything. She continued grinding. Very quickly, she finished two wooden daggers. She held them in her hands and waved them around a few times. A pleased smile appeared on her face.

“Here. These will be our secret weapons. If someone bullies us and wants to take our food, we’ll kill them,” said Gu Nianrou.

“I… I can’t…” Leng Yueyan said fearfully.

“That’s okay. I’ll protect you. I have a little sister just as old as you, but I couldn’t save her. This time, I’ll definitely protect my sister.” Gu Nianrou looked at Leng Yueyan, her eyes a bit red as if she was reminiscing.

The two of them climbed over a steep mountain. They were already several miles from their camp, and it was already an immense distance to travel for two children.

This was also very dangerous. Having gone this far, they were exhausting their precious physical energy and water.

But once they climbed this mountain, they began shouting in excitement. That was because they saw gourds growing out of a vine.

Even Leng Yueyan recognized this kind of vegetation. This kind of gourd was filled with water. The villagers would often use its shell to store things.

There were over ten of these gourds. The two of them immediately cut one off for each of them. Using their wooden daggers, they cut a small hole. Water immediately began spurting out, along with a faint sweet taste. The two of them didn’t waste a single drop. All the liquid in the two gourds was sucked clean.

They drank another one before stopping, completely satisfied. Leng Yueyan suggested bringing one back, but Gu Nianrou told her not to.

Although they had managed to drink their fill, their bodies were still too weak. Just drinking their fill once wasn’t enough to recover. If they were noticed by others, these gourds wouldn’t be theirs anymore. In fact, they might even be killed. The two of them decided to be safe and return according to their original path.

This one trip took them the whole day. On the way, they ate the gourds’ flesh to allay their hunger.

Once they returned, they saw that a few people had disappeared. Furthermore, those that had died had also disappeared.

The next day, Leng Yueyan and Gu Nianrou once more went out. But Gu Nianrou chose to go along another path and then detour to the gourds. 

They had just finished one gourd when they heard footsteps. A group of large boys appeared. Seeing those gourds, their expressions immediately changed.

They practically became fanatic. They charged up, and Gu Nianrou pulled Leng Yueyan away. Leng Yueyan shouted, “But those are ours!”

Those children were like hungry wolves. They consumed all the gourds in practically an instant. Then they suddenly charged at Gu Nianrou and Leng Yueyan.

Leng Yueyan was too young, and she couldn’t run quickly. She was quickly caught up to. One of the boys with many scars on his face seemed to be the leader, and he shouted, “Kill them!”

The other boys immediately charged forward, a vicious light shining in their eyes.

“You already snatched our water! Now what do you want?!” shouted Leng Yueyan.

“We want to eat your flesh!” roared one of them. He was the first one to charge and directly went after Leng Yueyan, causing her to scream.

However, he was just about to reach her when Gu Nianrou’s wooden dagger stabbed through his heart.

His body stiffened and then slowly collapsed. That one attack was extremely vicious and sharp, stopping the boys immediately and turning them pale.

Gu Nianrou waved her dagger at them. There was still blood on it. She icily said, “That should have been enough for you. If you come at us again, we’ll go all-out. At the very least, we’ll drag a few of you down with us.

Those boys were scared stiff for a moment. Originally, they had thought that these two little girls were just two sheep. They hadn’t expected them to have such vicious fangs.

“Before coming here, I already went through a round of elimination. There are dozens of people that died at my hands. If you don’t believe me, you can try it.” Gu Nianrou stared closely at the scarred boy.

For a moment, everyone was stunned by Gu Nianrou’s vicious change. She slowly retreated with Leng Yueyan. Once they were far enough, they ran off.

The boys stared as they went away. In the end, they also left, bringing along their fallen brethren’s corpse.

On the third day’s morning, more people failed to wake up. Looking at those corpses, it was like they had already become numb to that scene. Everyone went out in search of food and water.

Furthermore, the struggle between people only grew more intense. That was especially true when it came to Leng Yueyan and Gu Nianrou. Their group only contained two people, and Leng Yueyan was too small. It was all too easy for others to treat them as prey.

However, Gu Nianrou displayed an extremely vicious side. That wooden daggers of hers touched blood several times, and that intimidated everyone.

Later, no one dared to place their sights on them. Instead, they went to fight over food and water with the others. Because everyone’s search range had increased so much, they had begun to find sources of food and water. It wasn’t as scarce as before.

But they needed as much food and water as possible so that they could get stronger. Otherwise, their things would be snatched away, and one of those things might be their lives.

Here, there was nothing they could rely on except themselves. They couldn’t trust in anything except power.

Seven days passed. There had originally been hundreds of people, but now they were down to a few dozen. Only a tenth of them had survived.

Of those people, Leng Yueyan was the weakest. If it hadn’t been for Gu Nianrou’s protection, she would have long since died.

Once the seven days were up, the one-eyed man returned. He brought them away, and three days later, they arrived in a sect. There were tens of thousands of children standing in the plaza currently.

At the center of the plaza was a statue that soared into the clouds.

“From today onwards, you’re all followers of the Corrupt God. Everything you have is the Corrupt God’s, and that includes your bodies and souls.”