Starting from Robinson Crusoe

After the battle with the Mammoth, although Bi Kai and Gao Yao escaped with their lives, they still could not avoid getting injured.

The Great Horned Deer that Gao Yao had tamed had long since been scared off by the Mammoth and no one knew where it had run to, and Bi Kai had also broken his Treasure Sword.

Though they had survived a great calamity, they saw no blessings waiting ahead.

Still, no matter how you put it, they had at least kept their lives. The two young men were fairly optimistic, and discussed nursing their injuries while preparing to tame reindeer to repay their debt of gratitude.

At that time the weather had yet to turn cold, and the grassland still teemed with vitality.

Herds of Mammoths, deer, cattle, and horses could be seen everywhere.

Once they decided to stay put and wait, they picked a nearby spot, set up a temporary Shelter, and laid traps to capture Great Horned Deer.

After all, they were people of the Martial World and all had some degree of knowledge of pharmacology.

Gao Yao was well-versed in certain northern folk remedies for bruises and injuries, while Bi Kai had systematically studied medicine under a famous doctor.

The two of them gathered medicinal herbs in the mountains and forests, tested their properties bit by bit, nursed their health, and gradually their injuries healed.

At that time the beacon hung high in the sky, like a second sun. Such a sight naturally made people click their tongues in wonder, especially Bi Kai and the others, who came from ancient times; watching it every day, they always felt as though they were witnessing an immortal miracle.

By the time Bi Kai had recovered from his injuries and Gao Yao had finished taming the deer, Gao Yao was thinking of his ancestral Treasure Bow, always wanting to use the deer to trade and get the bow back. He kept egging Bi Kai on to set off north with him.

Of course, Gao Yao still cared about saving face, so he didn’t put it so bluntly, only using the excuse that if they went north they might be able to help their benefactor.

Bi Kai had a keen and perceptive mind; how could he not see through Gao Yao’s thoughts?

He knew Gao Yao’s heart was tied to that ancestral Treasure Bow, that he practically dreamed every night of retrieving it. As it happened, he too was curious about that second "sun" hanging in the sky, so he went along with the current and agreed to Gao Yao’s proposal.

Thus the two of them set off belatedly, heading straight for the Northern Territory.

Compared to Chen Zhou, who had gone north ahead of them, the two of them set off almost a month later.

However, they were not seeking to win any reward, so they felt no real pressure. Along the way they joked and chatted, feeling very much like they were roaming the rivers and lakes.

When they departed, neither of them had thought they would run into enemies along the way.

Setting out so late, those with no desire to compete should logically never have set off at all. As the last wave, they ought not to have encountered anyone.

But the challenge zone was so vast, and so many people were converging on the beacon from all directions. Naturally, many wanted to seize first place, yet there was no lack of those who intended to sit back and reap the spoils, or those who lay in wait to intercept others halfway.

By the time they were close to the tundra, the beacon had already dimmed.

The two of them had not been hurrying on their way, and by this point they were having trouble finding the right direction.

Moreover, the closer they drew to the beacon’s location, the more challengers they encountered.

The Northern Territory might be vast, but it could not withstand everyone crowding toward the same place.

Bi Kai and Gao Yao no longer had weapons at hand, their combat strength had plummeted, and their injuries had only just healed; they had yet to return to their peak. Thus they were unwilling to get into conflicts with others. Whenever they saw people from afar, they would ride their deer to avoid them.

...

Yet though man bears no intent to harm the tiger, the tiger harbors the heart to harm man.

Shortly after the two of them entered the tundra, that increasingly dim "sun" in the sky went out altogether, and they completely lost any way to determine the true direction.

On top of that, the weather turned cold, and hunting on the tundra was difficult. They had to spend their days scrambling for food, which left them physically and mentally exhausted.

Unable to find any trace of Chen Zhou, with no way forward, both of them began to feel the urge to turn back.

...

They added fresh firewood to the campfire, and who knew what kind of wood had been mixed in, for once it burned it released a fragrant scent.

The little deer lying by the fire was unusually quiet; it was impossible to tell whether it was asleep or dead.

As he spoke to this point, the faint flush of life that had just risen in Bi Kai’s face drained away, leaving him pale, his expression bleak.

Just as Chen Zhou had guessed, at this point the situation suddenly took a sharp turn for the worse—

On their journey back, the two of them were in no particular hurry. They had not encountered any other humans for a long time, so their guard was down.

When they looked for a place to rest at night, they would casually pick any spot that sheltered them from the wind. If they couldn’t find one, they would sometimes even light a fire out on the open plain, never worrying that someone might follow the firelight to their doorstep, and even less imagining that this careless act would bring disaster down on their heads.

...

Bi Kai came from the Central Plains, whose nurturing land and water knew no sandstorms all year round, so his face was fair and clean. If not for his excellent martial skills, no one would have doubted him if he claimed to be a scholar.

Gao Yao looked older than Bi Kai, but was in fact two years younger. The two usually addressed each other as brothers, and once they had grown familiar, Gao Yao called Bi Kai "Brother Bi."

Though they had never sworn an oath in blood, after living together for so long, their temperaments and dispositions matched so well that they were no different from real brothers.

When resting at night, if the weather was cold and windy, one of them would stay up to stand watch.

On the grasslands there were many fierce beasts, and they feared being attacked in the dead of night. Even if keeping watch left them exhausted, neither of them dared steal that bit of laziness.

The tundra, however, was not like the grasslands. On ordinary days it was hard enough to find a larger beast, and come nightfall they naturally had no need to fear being attacked.

Comfort is a gentle poison; without a sound, it eroded their vigilance.

On the night they were about to leave the tundra, neither of them kept watch.

Whether it was Brother Bi or Brother Gao, both were mindful of their brotherly bond: the elder afraid the younger would be tired, the younger afraid the elder would be worn out. In tacit understanding, they stole a moment of laziness.

It was this very lapse that drew down an unexpected night raid.

...

To revisit and recount painful memories is always an excruciating ordeal.

By this point in his story, Bi Kai’s scraggly beard had begun to quiver up and down. He had curled himself up on the bench, his whole body trembling like chaff in the wind, the flames reflected in his eyes—

Chen Zhou could see that this top Swordsman of the Martial World had fallen into terror, yet within that terror there was also a deep-seated unwillingness, a simmering rage.