Armed with a machete and a gun, armed with a system, they fled the famine.

When they saw Yang Erlang's unseeing face and the haphazardly scattered limbs on the ground, everyone's expressions changed.

"Don't make a sound, let's continue."

Chen Chong quickly covered the mouth of the person next to him and put his arm around his shoulder as they walked downstairs.

Chen Chong only let go of her hand after they had walked quite a distance.

The young man whose mouth was covered was named Chen Tiedan. He said with lingering fear, "My god! Yang Erlang's death was terrifying. Those refugees were bastards!"

The person was already dead, yet they still dismembered him into eight pieces. This is simply the behavior of bandits!

The other two felt the same way.

His older brother, Chen Tietou, sighed, "Yes, Yang Erlang wasn't a good person, but he never committed murder or robbery. He's dead, so he shouldn't be treated like this."

If a body is not intact after death, the ghost cannot be reincarnated.

Yang Erlang, how pitiful.

Chen Chong frowned, unable to help but wonder, "Their behavior doesn't seem like that of refugees; it's more like something only bandits would do."

"S-bandits?"

Upon hearing the words "mountain bandits," the other man shrank back, looking around in fear.

"Where are the bandits? Could they not have gone far?"

Chen Tiedan, taking him by surprise, patted him on the shoulder.

"Ah—who?"

Chen Jiabao was so frightened that he jumped three feet away, cold sweat pouring from his forehead.

"Pfft-"

Chen Tiedan chuckled unkindly, glancing at Chen Jiabao with a mocking look.

"No, Jiabao, just now on the mountain you were so arrogant, saying you weren't afraid of those refugees. Why did you cower as soon as you heard about the bandits?"

He raised his hand and deliberately patted Chen Jiabao's shoulder twice.

"Relax, relax, there are no bandits here. Let's be quiet and not make a sound. Even if the bandits haven't left yet, they..."

Before he could finish speaking, he was already stunned by the mountain of severed limbs piled up before him.

Oh my God!

What a living hell this is!

In the woods in front of me, corpses and remains were scattered everywhere.

Some had their heads cut off, staring at them with wide, unseeing eyes.

Some had their bellies ripped open, their intestines and internal organs exposed to the sun, becoming a feast for flies and mosquitoes.

And then there were the young women who hadn't escaped, their clothes wide open, revealing their pale bodies and the bruises and welts on them.

"Demons! Devils! They are all demons!"

Of the four, Chen Jiabao, the least timid, was already trembling with fear. Ignoring the other three's attempts to stop him, he staggered and turned to run back.

"Eh? Jiabao?"

Chen Tiedan snapped out of his daze, swallowed hard, and forced himself to remain calm as he asked, "Brother Chong, what do we do now?"

“You go after him and keep an eye on him, don’t let him do anything stupid. Your brother and I will go ahead and check again.”

"Don't worry, we'll be careful. We'll go back after we've finished watching."

Chen Chong suppressed Chen Tiedan's impending rebuttal and said quickly, "Go quickly, don't waste any more time. The longer it drags on, the worse it will be for us."

Chen Tiedan understood that what he said was true. He took one last look at Chen Tietou, then turned and chased after Chen Jiabao in the direction he had run off to.

"Iron Head, let's go."

Chen Chong tugged at Chen Tietou and took the lead in bypassing the woods and approaching the official road.

"Hey."

Chen Tietou sighed softly, glanced pityingly at the Chenjiagou people in the woods, and followed them.

This is life!

Using the trees for cover, the two probed their way forward. Besides wild grass and trees, the road was littered with the corpses of Chenjiagou villagers.

There was no trace of the bandits on the official road; they must have gone somewhere else.

Chen Chong pulled Chen Tietou into hiding in the shadows and said with a serious expression, "Tietou, we have to leave quickly."

A hint of confusion appeared on Chen Tietou's square face.

"Why? What if we run into those bandits again?"

"Haven't you noticed? Everyone in our village has lost their thighs."

Chen Chong recalled a certain possibility, and his expression suddenly tightened.

"If I'm not mistaken, those bandits are so hungry they'll eat human flesh. Their thighs are probably already in their stomachs."

"vomit--"

Chen Tietou desperately covered his mouth and took several breaths of fresh air before he felt less nauseous in his stomach.

"No, really? Are they wild beasts? How could they bring themselves to eat human flesh?"

Just thinking about it sent a chill down his spine.

Chen Chong was two years older than Chen Tietou and had seen more of the world.

"Didn't Uncle Jin say before he left that a plague broke out in the south, and the people were having a hard time and had to flee? Our Chenjiagou is right next to the south, and we still suffered because of it."

"When people are starving, what won't they eat to survive?"

"It's just that some people still have humanity, and there are certain things they would never do. But some people..."

He didn't continue speaking, but Chen Tietou understood.

"Then we'll go back now and inform everyone to travel through the night."

"Yes, we need to go back quickly."

After ending their conversation, the two kept a close watch on their surroundings and quietly returned to the mountain.

When Chen Jiabao returned to the mountain, he hid behind his mother, trembling uncontrollably.

This terrified Aunt Huang, who kept crying out in pain as she grabbed her son.

"Jiabao, don't scare your mother. Tell me quickly, what's wrong with you? Why are you shaking like this?"

Chen Jiabao was still in a daze and couldn't possibly answer his mother's question.

Seeing her only son standing there blankly without saying a word, Aunt Huang grabbed Chen Tiedan behind her and asked, "Tiedan, what's wrong with Jiabao? Why did you come up so quickly? Did something happen?"

Chen Tiedan still felt lingering fear when he recalled the pile of corpses he had seen.

However, he and Chen Tietou lost their parents at a young age and had no parents to rely on, so they were naturally bolder than Chen Jiabao.

Under the expectant gazes of the crowd, he stammered out the situation down the mountain.

"...That's how it is. Aunt Huang, Jiabao must be frightened. Talk to him nicely and don't let him think too much."

"My goodness! Heaven is not giving us a way to survive!"

"Damn beasts! Those were over fifty people from Chenjiagou, and they just killed them like that?"

"It's a good thing we went up the mountain, otherwise we wouldn't have escaped being killed either."

The remaining fifty or so people in Chenjiagou were all talking about it.

Yang Zhangshi frowned and approached Chen Tiedan.

"Tiedan, have you seen my Erlang? Is he alright? Is his arm still there? Are his legs still okay?"

“Aunt Yang…Yang Erlang, he…he…”

Chen Tiedan dared not face Yang Zhangshi's expectant face and silently lowered his eyes.

With his reaction, what else could Yang Zhangshi not guess?

Her second son... was also torn to pieces by those beasts!

"My Erlang! You died such a tragic death!"

As if all her strength had been drained away, Yang Zhangshi collapsed to the ground, pounding the ground and wailing.

Her voice was mournful, and her crying was incredibly pitiful.

Seeing his mother like this, Yang Dalang quickly went forward to support her arm.

"Mother, we don't know what's going on down the mountain yet, so we can't speak loudly."