Starting from helping someone rob a wedding, he was forced to hide in the Sunset Sect

The land is barren and no grass or trees grow.

When the wind blew, it rolled up the yellow sand and made it roll in the empty sky.

The houses in this village are very simple, built of rough mud and stones, with roofs covered with straw.

In the center of the village, there is a well surrounded by weeds.

Zhong Zhuanghai walked in this village. The bark on the trees had disappeared, leaving only the smooth trunks exposed in the sun.

The houses on the roadside have collapsed, leaving only ruins.

Zhong Zhuanghai has seen many villages like this. In this day and age, villagers in many places cannot survive.

Many villagers have no choice but to leave the village and try to find hope for survival outside.

In this era of great battle between good and evil, droughts are frequent, making many places barren.

Even decent monks cannot take care of every place, and it is already difficult for mortals to survive.

Zhong Zhuanghai's eyes fell on a little girl in a room. She was lying on the ground, and it was unknown whether she was dead or alive.

He walked forward, touching her wrist to feel for a faint pulse, then placed his hand on her nose to feel for a faint breath.

The little girl is not dead yet.

She was the only one in this village. Did the others escape? Her parents were gone too?

Zhong Zhuanghai shook his head. He was just a warrior.

In such a chaotic world, I might not even be able to survive, let alone take care of a child who is only about ten years old.

Zhong Zhuanghai sighed, his heart filled with helplessness. Following him would only mean suffering for a while longer.

Every few steps he took, he couldn't help but look back at the little girl lying on the ground, until he could no longer see her.

After a while, Zhong Zhuanghai returned to the little girl and picked her up.

The little girl’s thin body was as light as a feather, with just a fragile skeleton beneath her clothes, as if she were a dandelion seed that could be blown away by the wind at any time.

The torn clothes stuck to her body, looking extremely loose and unable to hide her thin figure.

......

......

When Tian Jingyun opened his eyes, it was already night.

In the dense woods, night falls and the stars dot the night sky.

She looked around nervously. This was not her house, nor was it in the village.

Zhong Zhuanghai sat by the fire, holding a small knife in his hand and skillfully cutting the fish he had just caught.

The fire burned brightly, licking the edges of the darkness and pushing away the shadows around it.

The fire crackled, casting a warm glow on his face.

Zhong Zhuanghai heard the noise behind him, he turned around and said, "Wake up, this is not your village."

Tian Jingyun subconsciously took a few steps back and asked nervously: "Who are you? Where is this place?"

She remembered that she was at home and she was so hungry that she fainted.

"I'm a human trafficker. I think you look pretty good. If you gain some weight, you will definitely be a beauty in the future."

Zhong Zhuanghai came to her with a skewer of grilled fish and continued, "So you have to eat well. When you are almost done, I will sell you."

When Tian Jingyun met Zhong Zhuanghai's gaze, she was a little scared. She didn't expect to be picked up by human traffickers.

Her parents had told her before that human traffickers were bad people, and she wanted to escape now, but she was too hungry and didn't have the strength to run away.

Zhong Zhuanghai placed a skewer of grilled fish in front of her and said, "What's your name?"

"You are a bad guy, I can't tell you my name." Tian Jingyun said.

"I saved your life, so you have to listen to me. You have to answer whatever I ask you and do whatever I tell you to do."

Zhong Zhuanghai grabbed Tian Jingyun's hand. She struggled hard but couldn't get rid of his hand. There was a faint mist in her eyes.

"Bad guy, let me go!" Tian Jingyun shouted.

Zhong Zhuanghai put the grilled fish in her hand and then let go of her hand.

"I'm not selling you now. Your task now is to eat well so that you can grow up quickly."

Zhong Zhuanghai returned to the fire and continued to grill the fish. He asked again, "My name is Zhong Zhuanghai. What's your name?"

Tian Jingyun wiped her eyes and looked at the fish in her hand with light in her eyes.

She took a big bite and devoured the tree trunks and weeds she had only eaten in the past few days.

"Be careful when eating, fish has bones." Zhong Zhuanghai looked at her and continued, "There are also fish and dried meat here, come and take them after you finish eating."

It is impossible to be a good person in such a chaotic world. He has felt this deeply for more than 20 years. It is a cruel thing to give others hope and then abandon them.

The identity of a human trafficker suits him quite well. He will wait for a while and see who wants to take in the child.

People are really contradictory. Saving her is obviously giving her hope, but I still choose to save her because I feel guilty.

Zhong Zhuanghai sighed. In this era, not many people are willing to adopt children. Most people are busy making a living, and many of them can't even feed themselves.

He saw that the little girl was afraid to come to the fire, so he walked over and held her hand. This time she did not resist too much.

She followed Zhong Zhuanghai to sit by the fire, and he put the roasted dried meat in the little girl's hands.

"Fish has no taste. I don't have any seasoning now. This meat jerky is pickled and tastes better than fish."

"My name is Tian Jingyun."

She eats very quickly, like a reincarnated evil spirit. Zhong Zhuanghai shook his head and wondered how long it had been since this child had eaten.

It must have been several days, after all, she fainted at home.

Zhong Zhuanghai handed over the kettle, Tian Jingyun reached out to take the kettle and drank up the water in it.

Zhong Zhuanghai looked at the kettle without water and fell into deep thought. He originally wanted to drink a few sips, but now there was nothing to drink.

He ate the dried meat and said, "Although I am a human trafficker, as long as you are obedient, I will give you food."

"It's okay if you want to run away. There are more bad guys out there. If you are caught by them, you won't even have food to eat. You can only watch them eat."

"Also, tigers love to eat kids like you who run around."

Tian Jingyun shuddered. She had heard of tigers before. They were very scary animals that would eat people.

She was very afraid of the bad guys next to her, but she was more afraid of the tiger, so she gave up the idea of ​​running away.

At least she had food to eat by following this person. She didn't want to be hungry anymore. It was really uncomfortable.

"It's okay for you to call me a bad guy when you're with me, but don't call me a bad guy or a human trafficker in front of others, or I'll spank you and not give you food."

Zhong Zhuanghai looked at Tian Jingyun and asked, "Do you understand?"

The little girl nodded timidly, and the two of them continued to eat while sitting by the fire.

Tian Jingyun did not eat as voraciously as she had before. She knew that the human trafficker in front of her would give her food, and she was not worried that he would take the food back.

"Where are your family members?" Zhong Zhuanghai asked.

In fact, there is no need to ask this kind of question again and the answer is obvious.

The fact that she was the only one in the village proved a lot of things, either she was abandoned by her parents, or her parents were dead.

Of course, it is also possible that they leave home, go somewhere else to look for food, and then return home after finding food, but this possibility is very small.

Tian Jingyunlu lowered her head, the corners of her mouth drooped slightly, revealing a sad expression. Her body trembled slightly, as if she was trying to control her emotions.

But the sadness and loss were already revealed uncontrollably on her face, making people feel heartbroken.

"My father and mother died. My father went out hunting with the villagers and never came back. My mother gave me her food and eventually starved to death."

This is a very common thing. In such a village, the lucky villagers can get help from a monk.

More people in the village will slowly die due to food problems.

Food scarcity is the norm in most villages. Many villagers try to go out hunting or looking for food, but end up dying somewhere unknown.

Zhong Zhuanghai has seen too many such things, where parents give their last food to their children so that they can live a little longer.

He has also seen parents sell their children in order to survive and use the money to buy the necessities of life.

He had seen some even more brutal ones.

Zhong Zhuanghai and Tian Jingyun didn't say anything else and just ate the fish and dried meat quietly.

After the two finished eating, Zhong Zhuanghai added some more wood to the fire.

In the past, he would sleep in a tree when he spent the night in the woods.

Now there is a little girl, and she has to sleep down there. I can’t carry her and sleep with her up in the tree, right?

Zhong Zhuanghai thought about holding her and sleeping on a tree while he slept on another tree, but he was worried that she would move around while sleeping and fall from the tree.

So he added some wood to the fire and planned to sleep next to it.